the sacred Scripture If an Angell from heauen teach you otherwise let him be anathema This was the Apostles speech to the Galathians rightly applyed The Pope vsurpes the same words but to his most wicked purpose Herein also hee shewes himselfe that great Antichrist who was of old noted to be an egregious falsifier and peruerter of the Scriptures Take one example Origen saith Omnis sermo qui profitetur c. Euery speech that professeth the expositions of the Scriptures and the faith of them and hath not the truth is iustly to be vnderstood to be Antichrist comming in Christs name and saying I am Christ lying and not able to shew the forme of truth in himselfe How truly this is verified of the Pope among infinite other instances of his audacious peruerting of Scripture this one here taken from the Apostle may sufficiently euince But the Oath is preiudiciall to the Catholike faith to what Catholike faith you must vnderstand there is a twofold Catholike faith the one that of the Scriptures of the Old Testament and the New of Christ and the Apostles and Prophets of the whole Church of God in all ages in all places of the world which is therefore called the Catholike faith because it is vniuersall and this is the onely true and proper Catholike faith There is another faith that hath the name of Catholike but with an addition either expressed or implied to wit the Romane Catholike faith and because Romane Catholike therefore indeede not Catholike no true but a bastard Catholike faith The obiect of this Romane Catholike faith is together with the History of the Scriptures for the mysterie of the Gospell contained therein to euery true beleeuers saluation they exclude from being so much as a partiall obiect of this their faith but in generall onely as an History the Apocryphall Bookes Which Saint Ierome saith are for instruction of manners not for instruction of faith all their Traditions which they call Apostolicall all their Decretales and Extrauagants and aboue all that which is the summe of all the rest the Oracle of the Popes owne breast inerrable and so whatsoeuer his Holinesse either hath taught or shall hereafter teach as he seeth to be most commodious for the present state of the Church all these are the adequate obiect of this Roman-Catholike faith Among which Doctrines Apostolike this is one to denie fidelitie to Kings and Princes when the Pope commandeth This is an Article of the Romane Catholike faith not to be violated vpon paine of damnation So that to take the oath of Allegiance and keepe it as it cannot stand with the safetie of Romane Catholike faith so neither of their owne saluation Why so By the irrefragible decree of Pope Boniface 8. Porrò subesse Romano Pontifici c. Finally to be subiect to the Pontifie or Pope of Rome we declare determine define and pronounce that euery humane creature is bound vpon necessitie of saluation But by what authoritie The glosse giues the reason from the very first word Porrò Porrò id est Certè quia sic est Truely because it is so A most Papall reason for as the Glosse saith sententiam c. that which is no sentence he maketh a sentence iniustice he can make to be iustice yea of nothing something quia in his qua vult et est pro ratione voluntas In those things which he will his will is for a reason Nor ought any to aske him a reason of his doings sic volo sic iubeo is sufficient quia plenitudinem obtinet potestatis because he possesseth plenitude of power nor is he pure homo and if hee shall carrie with himselfe millions of soules into hell there to be punished cum prime Mancipio with the great Diuell of bell yet let none presume to blame or iudge him for it So that though he should deceiue many here in England perswading them that disloyaltie to their Prince that rebellion and treason are Apostolike doctrines and so leade them with himselfe into hell they haue their amends in their owne hands as the Pope hath the Law in his It followeth We in the meane time will entreat the father of lights that hee suffer not the heart of the English King to bee blinded who shall certainly learne how great credit is to be giuen to Catholike subiects in those things which you may promise who lest they should make themselues lyable to periurie they had rather breath out their spirit then their voice Answer How after all these blasphemies against God and his word dare the Pope intreat the Father of lights vpon what confidence vpon what hope to be heard Will the Father of lights heare the prayer of the man of Sinne of the Sonne of Perdition of the great Antichrist the Beast full of blasphemies yea rather as Christ forbad the diuell to confesse him to vsurpe his name to preach of Iesus so we intreat the Pope not to intreat for our King the Lords Annointed hee needeth none of such prayers Hee hath daily thousands of good Christians of his louing and faithfull subiects to entreat the Father of lights for him for his life Crowne Kingdome happinesse which prayers no doubt will preuaile with God to defeat all Romes prayers and plots and practises against our noble King Church and State We know the Popes prayers to be meerely pharisaicall in stead of praying to prey vpon vs vnder the colour of many Pater nosters to deuoure our habitations Against the Popes prayers here our most humble and harty prayers and shall be to the Father of lights in the name of his Sonne Iesus Christ that hee will not suffer the heart of our dread Soueraigne to be blinded with Popish bandishments and faire promses that so he may not too dearely buy the certaine knowledge how great credit is to be giuen to Romane-Catholikes in those things which they may promise For note how his holinesse in the very next words bewrayeth how little confidence is to bee giuen to such promises as his Catholike Sonnes may make for saith he least they should make themseles liable to periurie But it is something that the Pope had rather his Catholike Sonnes should by making faire promises hazzard their fidelitie therein then by taking the Oath incurre the danger of periurie Although a good Christian makes conscience as much of his solemne promise as of an oath But it seemeth if his Catholike Sonnes should take the oath the Pope puts them in minde they should thereby expose themselues to periurie so that if they doe but promise fidelitie he teacheth them the very ready way to perfidiousnesse and breach of promise for if an oath cannot preserue them from periurie how shall a promise from breach thereof seeing both periurie and perfidiousnesse grow from the same root of Iesuiticall doctrine Nulla fides seruanda cum hereticis no faith to be kept with heretickes Herein therefore the Pope is to be commended that seeing he
forcible argument if it were rightly applyed your sonnes are threatned You are sore hurt you know full well that threatned folkes liue long But here wee cannot but put your father-hood in minde of your forgetfulnesse A little before you contemplate your sonnes miseries and now is all come but to a bare threatning wee looked for a storme and behold but a cloud for fire and loe but a little smoake onely wee may hence obserue what punctuall intelligence your vigilant sonnes giue your father-hood out of England There stirres not a Mouse but you heare of it vnlesse you haue it by some speciall reuelation reflected in the glasse of your contemplation as your Saints know all is done here below by the perspectiue Glasse of beatificall vision Or else happely you haue it by the spirit of Prophecie as conjecturing what afterclaps or prognosticating what stormes this Meteor of your Papall Breeue might ingender in this our Northerne Clymate against your Sonnes when once they should bee so possessed with the malignant influence thereof as refusing to take the oath of Allegiance they should not onely incurre a threatning but of congruitie yea condignitie merit both imprisonment and punishments But our hope is that Non obstante your peremptory Bull they will shew themselues such true hearted English-men that they will not deserue in that case so much as a threatning But you adde Wee belieue there are among you those who desire to carry about in your owne body the mortification of Iesu Christ and would contemne the blandishments of pleasures and titles of ambition in comparison of the butcherie of hang-men and ignominie of bonds Yet if any bee there who are possessed with a desire of the prosperitie of the present Church wee desire they would take notice that the Pontifician charitie is wondrously sollicitous of their safetie Answer PAuse a while Here is some deepe matter sure here is some deepenesse of Sathan for some Lyncean eyes to discouer No doubt his Holinesse is great with child ready to be deliuered of some Monstrous birth onely hee wanteth some masculine Mid-wife to helpe at a pinch To which purpose behold here a most pernicious clause closly inciting such as are of a more Iesuited spirit to the attempting of some facinorous and audacious fact worthy the butcherie of the Hangman or the ignominy of bonds As the Poet spake but in a farre better sense then the Pope Aude aliquid breuibus Gyaris carcere dignum he ment it by daring to write of the touchy vices of the lawlesse times wherein hee liued Would to God Pontifician attempts were no worse then so But whatsoeuer shame or sorrow their attempts shall make them worthy to suffer they are to haue a speciall respect vnto the reward to wit the Pontifician charitie which will make a full amends for all his father-hood being so wonderously sollicitous of their safetie What is the matter some difficult enterprise full of danger it seemeth to the Actour In regard whereof the Pope is no lesse sollicitious I wis then a naturall father whose sonne being about to encounter some hideous monster or to attempt some Herculian labour is very sollicitous and anxious of the euent so full of danger to his beloued sonne Onely here is the difference a naturall father in that case would vse all his power to disswade his sonne yea vpon his blessing to enioyne him not to hazzard his life in such a desperate aduenture but the Pope on the contrary animateth and inciteth his sonnes by all perswasiue arguments not onely of profound insinuation but of professed approbation to vndertake some desperate enterprise And enterprises of that nature bee they at all aduenture what they will bee we may boldly abide by it that howsoeuer they may endanger the life of the attempter certainly they doe actually destroy the soule of the atchieuer But the Pope is so wondrously sollicitous of their safety that perhaps in case of extremity if they should chance to dye in hotte blood vnconfessed hee will as Pope Clement in his Bull at his Iubilee command the Angells to take their soules out of their bodies absolued and carry them straight into the glory of Paradice and not so much as one touch at Purgatorie by the way Onely here is one item more by the way what they doe it must be as that of Iudas speedily done intimated here by desire of the prosperity of the present Church Present it must bee and rather then the Pope will want matter to animate some desperate sonne or sonnes hereunto besides earnest desire that they should take speciall notice of the pontifician charity so wondrously sollicitous of their safety he prefixeth a most horrible Pontifician blasphemy comparing such his Martyrs to the blessed Apostle whose saying the Pope heere vsurpeth and shamelesly peruerteth and their just sufferings whether for treason murder or rebellion to the mortification of Iesus Christ Now the Lord Iesus destroy thy blasphemous mouth ô Antichrist But hee proceedeth No one dutie is of vs omitted which may conuert the menacing cloud of the growing tempest into a wished calme of consolation yet if hell enlarge her mouth and mortall cruelty thirst after the blood of Martyrs ye ought to be armed with the inuincible buckler of a good resolution and meditate of heauen in the prison of a crowne in the Racke of immortalitiain death Answere NO one dutie is of vs ommitted The Pope here giues vs to vnderstand for an vndoubted truth but implicity that his sonnes heere in England at this present his Iesuites and Priests are wondrous busie and industrious labouring tooth and naile with heaue and shooue to aduance forward their mischeifeous plot in hand For By Vs implyeth the Pope the Arch-Agent and with him all his actiue Instruments both at Rome and in England which haue their motion from his hand and are actuated by that their Head So that this testimony from Rome seemes to confirme the common rumor heere that his most white Sonnes sit in Counsell euery day that what they conclude is forthwith put in execution that all the exorbitant motions wee see in the world proceed from the wheele which these Engineers secretly and imsensibly turne about So that what Archimedes did by the cleane strength of his ingenious Art no lesse admirable then commendable for the defence of his Citty and Countrey against the Romanes that doe this viperous brood by their Arte infernall no lesse detestable then damnable infused into them by that Romaine Architect or cheife machinator of all mischiefe to betray their owne deare Mother Countrey into the hands of Rome into the pawes of the Beast and into the clawes of the Eagle euen into the mercilesse crueltie and tyranny of the Pope and his most Catholique Sonne so that in very truth themselues are the men that worke themselues daily into the fruition of the calme of their wished consolation and poore wee on the other side abide expecting till the menacing
superstitious trumperies yee can deuise against vs. Did yee not heare did not the fame thereof eccho vpon Romes gates what a wonderfull mercy the Lord shewed to this Land the last yeare when vpon the very day of our publike fast throughout the Land being the second of August a day worthy to be put in the Rubrick of our perpetuall thankesgiuing vpon that very day I say God began euen miraculously to stoppe that sad and vnseasonable influence of heauen wherewith our fields now waxing white to the haruest were so pittifully drenched that almost all hope of harvest was drowned in our feare of a deluge in stead thereof yet even then began the heauens to cleare and cheare vp their clowdy and angry countenance when wee began to weepe they began to smile and from that day forward continued so extraordinarily and constantly faire without one dayes intermission vntill by Gods fauour they brought vs in not onely an harvest in season but in an extraordinary aboundance hath the Lord done thus to vs for temporall things vpon such our humiliation and will not be also for spirituall much more when wee truly sett our selues to seeke his face and fauour in the pardon of our sinnes Assuredly he will And as you may remember our deliverance from your Gunpowder plott vpon the fifth of Nouember so yee may bee pleased to recognize how the same God sent a fearefull vengance in bringing the same House downe vpon your heads when there yee being solemnely assembled began to erect your Dagon cheeke by joule by Gods Arke and to aduance the Throne of your Antichrist euen in the face of Christs Tribunall and all this remember and marke it well vpon your very fifth of Nouember Remember I say and forget it not that it may teach you to tremble before that God of Ours and euer may we also remember it for thankefullnesse to our God for vindicating his owne cause and glory against such proud and insolent affronts Well consult I say lay your heads ioyne you forces together arme your selues with as much might as yee haue malice against vs we feare you not so long as we shall oppose our religious to your anxious prayers Wee praying and humbling our selues as behoues vs yee shall no more prevaile against vs then Amaleck did against Israell while Moses bands were held vp The Lord giue all his people grace to put on the true Armour of Light euen the whole Armour of God whereby wee may stand fast in the euill day Then shall wee be sure that not all your spirit of charitie which is nothing else but the spirit of malignitie and confederacie against Christ now your spirit of fortitude which is the spirit of all lawlesse daring against God and his Gospell shall any whit auaile you In the meane time yee mightily triumph in your hopes as if already yee had the victorie So yee did in 88 so at the Gunpowder plot Yee may now as well as then reckon before your Host Yet it is good for vs to take notice of this your confidence of triumph It may teach vs though not to feare your brags yet not to bee secure but to prouide betimes to preuent your triumphs and to turne the examples of your fortitude into the examples and spectacles of confusion iustly falling vpon such Giant-like fighters against God and his Word But beside your anxious prayers you haue your councels yea councels of your onely Apostolicke inerrabilitie of your Apostolicke Senate your Conclaue of Cardinals drawing all their councells from your Holinesse breast For that is the proper seate of all your Senatorian power and councells Your predecessor Pope Nicholas the third assumed to himselfe the whole Senatorian power he by decree shut out all other temporall regiment in Rome and about and subiected it all to his Apostolick Soueraintie This now is your Apostolicke Senate Thus you proue your selfe that Beast bearing the Image of the former to wit of the ancient secular Roman power Reuel 13. Thus you exercise the whole power thereof being perpetuall Dictator hauing Consular and Senatorian power which ioyn'd with Apostolicke showeth you to bee both the seauenth and the eighth Head of that great Beast and so insumme that Antichrist Your Apostolicke Senate is of no lesse power then that ancienter Roman Senate to whom it belonged to admit into or to reiect from the number of their Gods whom they pleased So that Tiberius the Emperour could not preuaile to haue Christ sainted for a God because the Senate forsooth had not first allowed of it And doth not your Apostolicke Senate the same You saint and defie whom you please And Christ himselfe is no farther God with you but as you limit him by diuiding his Prerogatiues among your other pettie Gods Saints yea his mother you set aboue him your own Apostolicke Senats aboue all in Heauen earth You told vs before you feared our Counsels What need you You haue all counsell in your Apostolike Conclaue You can say to vs as once your predecessor Innocent the fourth to Henry the third King of England when hee went about to restraine Papall vsurpation in this Kingdome Rex Anglorum in quis qui jam recalcitrat Frederiz at suum habet consilium ego vero meum habeo quod sequur The English King saith he who now kicketh with the heele and playeth the Fredericke hath his Counsell and I also haue my Counsell which I will follow Of the two we feare more your counsels then your prayers But forasmuch as you spare not here to blaspheme also the Holy Ghost our trust is he will befoole all your Counsels Dare your father your impious Counsels and confederacies vpon the Holy Ghost that his Lights should be your Oracles Dare you ascribe your Counsels of darknesse to the illuminations of the Holy Ghost Surely your Holinesse is deceiued Is it not that spirit which as some of the Cardinals with their Pope Iohn the twentie two sitting in a Counsell at Rome praying for the presence of the Holy Ghost said appeared in the likenesse of an oughly Owle out staring the Pope in his face This indeed is a liuely embleme of that Spirit by whose Oracle your Apostolicke counsels are directed But neuer for shame goe about to perswade the world that your counsels for treasons and rebellions for absoluing subiects from their fidelitie and allegiance are the illuminations of the Holy Ghost So was Mahomets Doue his Holy Ghost So his epilepsian or comitiall fit but a trance wherein he talked with his Angell Gabriell So might Eugenius the third your predecessor haue two holy Ghosts at once attending vpon him while as he was saying Masse two Doues miraculously ascended and descended vpon him So Zedechiah the false Prophet might perswade he had the Spirit intail'd to him as you to Peters chaire when he said to Michaiah When went the spirit from me to speake vnto thee So did Numa Pompilius
betweene the Byshops of Rome and the Popes of Rome yea the Pope of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Byshops of Rome till Constantine the Great were all or most of them Martyrs all of them were of equall jurisdiction with other Patriarches onely preceding them in order of place not of power till Boniface the 3. vsurped his Supremacie over all Byshops with his Papall Motto Volumus Jubemus we will and command after this also all were subiect to the Emperour till Gregory the 7. None of them wore any such thing as a single Diadem till Syluester none the triple crowne till Boniface the 8. Yet now forsooth all Papall power and Pompe must be deriued from blessed Peter which alas good man he never had But to incist in the present purpose where or when or whence had blessed Peter any such Souerainety and authority over Kinges and their Kingdomes you haue pregnant proofes for it as Christ said to Peter Feede my sheepe that is saith your Bellarmine Regiâ— more Impera Raigne as Kings But Peter was of another minde as where he teacheth Byshops not to be as Lords ouer Gods heritage but as examples to the flocks And submit your selues to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme What saith your Holinesse to this we know you want not shiftes as here to accept and exempt Peter himselfe What can yee not say while yee can abuse the Scriptures themselues as you list Peters feeding of Christs flocks you can turne to Kingly raigne and convert Peters sheepehooke into a papall Scepter Christ bid Peter launch out into the deepe here say you the Pope hath power giuen him to fish all the world Thus yee neede never want Scripture to proue your Papall Paradoxes But what say you to Peters paying of Tribute to the Emperor for Christ and himselfe at Christs appointment Is not Tribute a token of subiection But from this very place your Bellarmine can learnedly proue Peters Supremacie over all But over Princes too Yes by the bye in directly at least in ordine ad spirituali yea the Pope Vrban himselfe no lesse learnedly then Papally interprets that place of the Tribute in the fishes mouth saying that by the piece of money in the fishes mouth is meant onely the exteriour things of the Church which she giueth to Kings to defend Her in peace but not the Pontificall Apex or Supremacie which is supereminent in the mouth of the head of the Church So the Pope Though Christ said Pay that for Me and Thee speaking expressely of their persons implying the subiection of Ecclesiasticall persons to Emperours and Kings And as the Glosse confesseth Tributum est signum subiectionis Tribute as a signe of subiection And yet more rather then faile Cardinall Baronius hath taken in hand to proue the Popâ—s Supremacie as well Papall as Sacerdocall from the very shadow of Peter Act. 5. 15. which shadow the Pope retaining in himselfe makes him a complete Lord Paramount Thus by hooke or by crooke you will haue it though all proue to bee but a shadow But will you nill you both Peters practise and Peters doctrine are flatte contrary to yours and crosseth all your Glosses nor haue you so much as a shadow for it Yet if your plea from Peter as his Successor will not hold water yee adde ad corroborandum titulum your plea from Christs Vicarship You say that is not all that fidelitie be kept vnto the King but that the sacred Scepter of the Catholike Church bee wrung from the Vicars of God Almightie That you here againe sleight our gracious King not vouchsafing him the title of King of England or your sonnes King wee maruell not we smell your secret reseruation either that he is no King that holds not his crowne of your holinesse or that the Kingdome of England in speciall is none otherwise to bee holden but as in King Iohns time in see of the Pope But great reason you should haue regard to your Catholike or rather your Romane Catholike Church For sure the Catholike Church of Christ neuer had any such sacred Septer as you speake of to which the disposall of Kings and Kingdomes is subiect But your Romane hath and therefore not Catholike Whence then haue you this sacred Septer by vertue of your Vicarship of God Almightie Doe not now equiuocate with vs or goe not about to found a new Vicarship yet this is not the first time you and your Predecessours of late dayes haue entituled your selues Gods Vicars As in that inscription or Dedication to Paul 5. whom by and by yee name Paulo V. Vice Deo to Paul V. vice God whereof the numerall letters as well in the Latine as in the English make vp the number of the beast 666. you were wont formerly to content your selues with the title of Christs Vicar but now must yee be the Vicars of God of God Almightie that from thence you may deriue an omnipotencie to your selues as it was added to that former inscription Paulo V. vice Deo totius orbis Christiani Monarchae Pontificiae omnipotentiae defensori acerrimo To Paul 5. vice God the Monarch of the whole Christian world and the most stout defender of the Papall omnipotencie No maruell then if you entitle your selues the Vicars of God Almightie rather then of Christ But you will say all comes to one reckoning sith Christ is God Almightie and therefore it is all one to be the Vicar of Christ of God almightie By your fauour no for although Christ be God almightie yet in this case of your pretended Vicarship it is one thing to say Christs Vicar another God Almighties Vicar Christs Vicar here on earth wee acknowledge none but his owne and the Fathers holy Spirit him Christ sent to supply his stead at his ascension This Spirit gouernes and directs his Church into all truth This is that other Comforter the spirit of truth By this spirit Christ is present with his Church to the end of the world But for any one visible and singular Vicar Christ hath appointed none the Church acknowledgeth none As for any Vicar generall visible of God almightie simply considered as God and gouernour and iudge of all here on earth wee acknowledge not any Onely all lawfull Magistrates as Kings and Princes are as so many Vicegerents of God almightie to gouerne and moderate their peculiar Dominions in for and according to God and his word these be Gods Lieutenants here on earth and therefore called Gods Now giue me leaue to tell you that the iurisdiction of God almighty here on earth is distinct from that of Christ Gods iurisdiction is also in things temporall Christs iurisdiction as Mediator is in things spirituall These two iurisdictions are not compatible not coincident or concurrent in their totall extent in any one man Onely the outward politie of the Church both as touching persons and causes