but divers Popes I might prove have made distinct articles and divers Councils and Bishops so that I might clearly prove and can and shall if God permit me with life if I hear any more of the church of Rome or the Author of this Book that I shall prove that the church of Rome in the articles of her Faith is not the same that the church of Christ was in before Rome was planted a church 2. I shall prove if need require her universal Councils as she calls them to vary and her Bishops to be different in their Decrees and that her faith in points of Religion is not the same from the Apostles day to this time as the author of this Book would make people believe but what I have said to this unanswerable Proposition as he calls it may be sufficient to convince both the Author and them that are doubtful in their minds about this particular 3. Proposition is That neither the Sacraments nor Ceremonies or any Doctrine of the Church of Rome contain any thing that is contrary to the Scriptures but learned Doctors maintain the same and that there is no alteration in any article of faith And then the Author makes a conclusion though full too hastily That they which dissent from the Church of Rome which he is pleased to stile Sectaries and Hereticks have no reason to withdraw from the Catholick Church Ans. As for that which you call the Catholick church of Rome we find such diversity of Orders and constitutions one distinct from another that to begin to enumerate them all would take up much time before one ended and would prove tedious to the Reader to view over the variety of Constitutions and Decrees that have been made concerning the ceremonies Sacraments as they call them and other Doctrines of the church of Rome which at this time is not my intention but Pope Alexander commanded that unleavened Bread should be used in the Supper in the year 1119. Lib Concil grat Sabil Before that time the outward Bread was indifferent whether it was leavened or unleavened notwithstanding the Greeks do use leavened bread unto this day in that which is called a Supper and they use Wine onely in the Cup but the Church of Rome mingle Water with their Wine according to Pope Alexander's Decree And the Doctrine of Transubstantiation of turning the bread into the body of Christ and wine into the blood as they say was an unknown Doctrine in the Apostles dayes and also among the Greeks until Pope Innocent the third 1215. Likewise Honorus the third he made a new Ordinance That the Sacrament of the Altar as the Church of Rome terms it should be worshipped and kneeled unto of the people and also it should be born unto the sick yea and that with Candle-light though it be at noon-day in the year 1214. D. 3. Tit. Cap. 10. Lib. Council Pant. And Innocent the third ordained that the Sacrament of the Altar should be kept under lock and key that such as were like to dye might not want spiritual comfort at the time of their death Lib. Council Cron. Pant. Pope Innocent the 8th permitted that the Priests of Norduegia might fing Masse with Water for lack of Wine in the year 1484. Math. Palm Pant. And as about the ceremonies about the Sacrament or Masse in a Council held at Rottomage it was decreed that the Sacrament should not thenceforth be given to Lay-men nor Lay-women in their hands any more but the Priests should put it in their mouths contrary to the use and practice of the primitive church yea and of the church of Rome it self many years after Lib. Council c. And so here the church of Rome is contrary to the former churches and to their own church of Rome in former times though C. M. would elevate the Propositions of Francis Costorus a Jesuit unanswerable 4. Proposition The Author saith It cannot be proved that any have been admitted Priests but were duly consecrated by Bishops Whence we infer That Lutherans Calvinists and other Hereticks are no true Ministers neither are of Divine Priesthood because they give to people a meer piece of bread and nothing else and they have no power to absolve people from their sins but send them away entangled with sin as when they came to them Ans. As for the consecration of the Priests of Rome you have consecrated many who are out of the Doctrine of Christ who are traytors to Kings and Governments and it 's a Maxime and a thing meritorious in your church to slay a Heretick that is one dissenting or not consenting to your corrupt principles and as one deceiver hath ordained and admitted another so hath your Bishops and Popes ordained the rest to execute their drudgery and corrupt traffick and as I have offered unto thee before if it be not a piece of bread and wine except mingled with water according to your changeable Ordinances before-mentioned put it to trial upon the terms I before mentioned that you may be made manifest to be deceivers or else we to all people And as for your Absolutions Pardons it hath been that which you have sold for money which made Luther and divers of your own church to deny you because it hath been contrary to Christ and the Apostles Doctrine And as for forgiveness of sins it properly belongs to Christ and to them that are in the same Power to them that confess forsake and turn from sin to pronounce forgiveness and mercy but the members of your Church confess from day to day unto your Priests that are as much entangled in sin as they who do confess and neither do repent nor find mercy at the hand of the Lord and your confessors and they that do confess they are defiled as much with sin when they end their work as when they began 5. Proposition It cannot be found in the holy Scripture that nothing is to be believed but what is clearly and expresly contained in the same Hence follows the overthrow of the ground work of the Sectaries who say that nothing is to be believed but what is expresly set down in the Scripture Ans. What others have said as to this particular I shall not now stand to vindicate because it is not my work to vindicate every particular judgement and person who believe contrary to your church but I say many are of that mind that are not of your church that things may be believed to be true according to the manifestation of God's Spirit though the Scripture in express words doth not declare the same yet you to bring in fabulous stories which you call unwritten verity that are to be believed though never so repugnant unto the Scripture and to the truth contained in it this we cannot receive neither believe and this will never be attributed by the Lord unto any for unbelief although you say it 6. Proposition The Author saith He would fain have Luther and Calvin and the
very fulness that filleth all things Oh gross darkness and palpable ignorance which you have led people to believe and call this Idol that Rats and Mice may eat whole Christ God and Redeemer And you have destroyed and burnt to ashes many for Hereticks who could not believe this Doctrine Therefore all people it 's time to look about you and see where you stand and what you join unto If you cannot receive this Doctrine for holy and Apostolick by the Church of Rome not worthy to live and without doubt might not if this Church had but that Authority which sometimes it hath had in England but I hope the eyes of many are open to see and detect this damnable Doctrine So what I have said in this particular may be enough to confirm them who are in any measure in the truth and to keep them back who have desires after this fornication which the Nations hath drunk too much of But I proceed to another particular but before take a word or two about the ceremonies The Author sayes That ceremonies were used by Christ at his last Supper and they excite people to their devotion during the Sacrifice but for proof you must expect none from this Author and the Scripture is silent in the thing and Ceremonies and Formalities are so far from stirring up the mind to God that they indeed draw the mind to be busied in the exercise of them from waiting upon God from worshipping him in the Spirit such Worshippers are onely accepted of him The Masse is said in Latine and the rest of Divine Service for if it were not ignorant people might easily be mistaken if these Mysteries were done in the vulgar Language and because the Scripture hath been written in Latine Greek and Hebrew and these three Languages were written upon Christ's Cross and therefore these three Nations ought to use them at their Masse and Divine Service but the Priestly Garments and Ceremonies gives enough to understand what is done at the Masse and Divine Service Ans. This looks with a blâ—ck visage to be Apostolick Doctrine but however I shall search into it and examine it by the Apostles Doctrine before it be condemned It 's a good shift indeed to keep people from mistakes not to let them know what they say or do but this is contrary to the Apostles Doctrine 1 Cor. 14. 7 8 9 10 11 14 15. If a Trumpet give an uncertain sound who can prepare to Battel And except words utter'd be understood how shall it be known what is spoken If the meaning of the voice be not known unto him to whom it is spoken the speaker and the hearer are Barbarians one to the other And when one understands not what is spoken how can he be edified And all services ought to be done to edification So your Church is erred from the Apostolick Doctrine and your Masse and your Service doth not edifie at all but you are as Barbarians one to another for your Worship goes on in such a pack Road that the vulgar people would soon learn it and know it and it may be slight it if they should know the worthlesness of it and therefore the onely way you judge is to keep them in ignorance And what mysterie is there in the Masse and your Service seeing that it stands in crossings cringings and abundance of endless ceremonies and reiteration of words which are patcht up by many Authors contrary to Christ and the Apostles Doctrine But it seems the Priests garments and ceremonies gives understanding enough to the Auditors a dumb shew is enough for them like a Poppet Play to make them understand the Mysteries of your Mass an unbloody Sacrifice indeed in which there is no remission nor acceptation And here thou hast acquainted us with a Mysterie indeed Because Latine Greek and Hebrew was written by Pilate upon the cross of Christ therefore they are called Sacred Languages Sure the church of Rome hath lost both Faith and Reason Will any that hath a friend that should be crucified upon a cross and an enemy who condemn'd him should set over him words in Latine Greek and Hebrew in contempt that therefore a man should count the Crosse holy and the Language sacred as the Church of Rome doth is great ignorance and idolatry of which she is full therefore is not Apostolick nor the one true Church in which salvation is to be looked for as the Author would make people believe The next false and superstitious Doctrine which this Merchant of the Church of Rome holds forth for Apostolical is The Reliques and Images of Saints and also Prayer by the Beads by number and tale as Brick-makers sells their Brick And this the Church of Rome would put off unto us as Apostolical Doctrine The Reliques and Images of Saints are honorable in regard of the Saints which they have relation unto and God himself makes use of them for his Miracles Moses was enforced to honor the holy ground where the Angel appeared Exodus 3. and David commanded the Ark to be adored because it was God's foot-stool Psal. 99. 5. And to honor the Reliques and Images of Saints is no Idolatry for that is Idolatry to worship false gods and Christ doth not take it ill that we honor his Saints and Friends And to number our Prayers if Hail Mary be said upon Beads threescore and three times it 's because Mary lived so many years and the Prophet prayed seven times a day and Christ three times in the Garden And it 's not evil to say our Prayers by number and if five Pater Nosters be said it is in honour of the five wounds and what would there be amiss in this And it 's not Idiots that prays by Beads but Catholick Kings the Pope Cardinals and Bishops makes use of them and variety delighteth the mind and there is no better prayers then the Pater Noster Ave and the Creed Answ. The Reliques or that which remains for all the Saints and Members of the true Church of Christ to follow and to honor is To live in the same life that they lived in and to honor him who was their life by whose power they fulfilled the will of God and to walk in the same foot-steps is to honor him that was their life and them also who walked as examples of righteousness and that power by which they became examples of holiness and righteousness but for the Church of Rome to worship pieces of Cloth Dead Bones Painted Images which may as well be called the Images of Cain Ishmael Judas and all the seed of Evil-doers as well as the image of Christ or Peter Paul or Mary for any thing that they know which they have but receiv'd by story and is but as old Wives fables which Paul to Timothy reproved And hath the Church of Rome no better thing to put them in mind of the Saints life then a dead Picture or Image made by the hand of the
other Sectaries to shew where Matthew's Writing is called holy Scripture more than Nichodemus his Gospel and seeing they cannot prove the one no more than the other they must needs believe something that is not written in the holy Scripture Ans. I shall let Luther and Calvin alone they were men that God did honor and I do honor and many more as in their day they are at rest in the Sepulchers of their fathers where your reviling cannot touch them they prevailed in their Doctrine and Faith so much against you as you have not recovered in a hundred and thirty years neither I believe ever will so long as the Church of Rome will have any cause to call her self Christ's onely visible Church upon Earth And I do not believe Matthew's Writing onely because it is reckoned by you and us for holy Scripture but because we feel by the Spirit of God that gave forth all words that it is a declaration of those things which were brought to pass in his day and likewise Mark John and Luke testifie unto the same matter but for Nichodemus his Gospel as you are pleased to call it the Spirit of God doth not testifie in us unto the same but that it is repugnant unto the mind of the Spirit and is a meer patcht up thing in the corruption of time wherein many things are contained that are in opposition and contrary to Matthew Mark Luke and John their Declaration And so thy feeble Argument is answered which thou concludâ—st hath not been alterable these fifteen hundred years and let not him that puts on his Armour boast but him that hath overcome and puts it off 7. Proposition is That it cannot bee shewen for this fifteen hundred years that there hath been any Catholick that held that the Pope of Rome was Antichrist or that did rail at the most holy Sacrifice of the Mass or Invocation of Saints and Angels and usual Praying for the Dead and such like works of Piety belonging to our Faith and Religion which the whole world hath laudably practised and reverenced for fifteen hundred years It is a wonder that this Author belonging to the the Church of Rome is not ashamed of his Arguments the silly Propositions that he hath propounded from another hand It seems neither this Author nor Francis Costherus whose Propositions the Author hath vaunted in and boasted of knows the Apostles Doctrine who said The whole world lay in wickedness and If any man loved the World the love of the Father dwells not in him and Christ said to his true Church Ye are not of the World therefore the World hates you and again I have chosen you out of the World and John in his day saw through the Spirit all the World wandering after the Beast and worshipping his Image and not the Image of God and saw all Nations Kindreds Tongues and People to be Waters and the Nations Kindreds Tongues and People to drink the Whores Cup and these the two Authors brings in for a great proof and for an unanswerable Proposition as that the whole World lies in wickedness in whom the love of God dwells not in and they that have drunk of the Whores Cup of Fornication and they that have wondred after the Beast to wit the whole World these are his dark cloud of Witnesses to prove that the Pope was never called Antichrist Will they that have received the Roman Faith and accounteth the Pope Christ's Vicar and the Visible Head call him Antichrist which hath exalted himself and the Church of Romes Faith over the whole world as the Author boasts That the whole world hath laudably practised and reverenced Invocation of Saints and Praying for the Dead for the Piety Faith and Religion of the Church of Rome for this 1500 years This proves the Church of Rome to lye in wickedness and to be contrary to the Doctrine and Practice of Christ and his Apostles And this doth not clear the Pope at all but rather makes him to be an Antichrist and your Church to be the ill-favored Harlot and not the true Church of Christ. Hast thou forgotten how John Bishop of Constantinople would needs be chief Bishop over all the rest of the Churches about the year two hundred fifty and upwards and how the other Bishops cried out against him for to be Antichrist But your Bishop he got to be called Chief-Bishop over all Christian Churches not by consent of the Elders nor Churches but by the means of Phocus a Heathen Emperor as before I have said and is not he much more an Antichrist And as for the Sacrifice in the Mass Invocation of Saints and Praying for the Dead which thou saist is a laudable practice I say none hath or doth reckon it worthy of praise but they that worship the Beast and his Image and have drunk of the Whores Cup and are erred from the Faith and Religion that the Apostles and true Church of Christ were in which all the world did that wondred after the Beast Lastly this I say He that teaches a Faith a Religion a Doctrine contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and the Apostles is an Antichrist But the Pope this 1500 years hath taught a contrary Doctrine therefore he is an Antichrist The first Proposition is evident from diverse testimonies of Scriptures who teaches onely to pray unto the Lord in the name of Christ and for them that are alive in the body and not for them that are dead The Second is proved by the Authors own testimony That the Pope and Church of Rome hath prayed unto the Saints and prayed for the Dead this 1500 years to his shame be it spoken therefore the consequence must necessary follow The Pope is an Antichrist 8. And last Proposition is this That the first Authors of the Christian Faith in Germany Italy Spain France England and Low Countries have acknowledged no other Faith nor brought any other to them then the Catholick Roman Faith which the whole Universe hath acknowledged which we have learned of our Forefathes therefore they that have brought in another are accursed That which the Whole Universe hath acknowledged in the Apostacy which lieth in wickedness seeing all hath wondered after the Beast and drunk of the Whore's cup since the Apostles dayes is but a lame and pitiful argument as to prove the Church of Rome the true Church and as for the Faith delivering such as it was to the Nations before-mentioned onely excepting Spain because it 's probable that the Apostle Paul spread the Faith there seeing that he said he had a purpose to come there into Spain which if he did thy boast may cease as for the planting of Religion there and we know he was no hypocrite but the same Faith and gospel which he had preached over the Regions he would preach there and his Gospel and Doctrine we find contrary to the Church of Rome he condemned diverse Doctrines which the Church of Rome holds as forbidding Meats