seeing Pope Julius the second in his expedition against the French some ages since threw them into the River Tyber saying because St. Peters Keys would not do his work he would betake him to St. Pauls Sword how doth it appear that he and his Successors did not thereby loose them forever When did Christ make any new ones and give to him or those that suceeded him But herein also her excessive pride appears in that her Bishops challenge both St. Peters Keys and St. Pauls Sword nay both Swords both the Civil and Sacred or Ecclesiastical for I think the truly Spiritual they care not much for at least as to any true right use thereof that is they challenge Dominion in Temporal matters usurp upon the rights of Kings Princes and to exercise a power in disposing of Thrones and Scepters and making Civil Wars as well as to rule over all Nations in Church matters Never was there any Chuch or company of People in the World ranting it so highly and carrying it so aloft as this Church and her Bishops have done ever since they obtained of Phocas the high Honour he conferred upon them to make them an amends for approving him in the Murther of his Master in setling the dignity of Emperor upon him and this suits well with the description of my story of Babilon too in the Revelations where she is represented as mounted upon a Stately Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns as being both exalted and supported therein by and yet ruling and ordering the Imperial Power Sitting upon many Waters that is ruling over many Nations People and Languages gallantly deckt and making all Nations drunk of the Cup of her Fornications glorifying her self in stead of God and Christ and saying I sit as a Queen as the Lambs wife the Catholique Church to whom all in all estates owe honour and subjection and am no Widdow Infallible not forsaken of Christ and so shall see no sorrow the City that ruleth over the Kings of the Earth Revel 17.1 2 3 4 18. and 18.7 Surely if pride go before destruction and a haughty mind before a fall then it cannot be but so proud and Luciferian a Church must needs fall too If the Angel of the Church of Laodicea because of his high boastings that he was rich and increased with goods growing thereby lukewarm was threatned to be spewed out of Christs mouth and what was said to him was said to the Churches by the spirit as implying that any of them falling into the like temper must be so dealt with except they repented how can it be but that this Church hath long since met with that doome seeing shee for a long time hath been far more Proud and Highminded than that Angel was and no less lukewarm or indifferent for the honour of Christ so she may be but the Queen and Empress especially also seeing she obstructs the way against her repentance by pleading she is Infallible and so needs no repentance justifying by her Priests and Jesuits her self and her practices in all these vile and filthy miscarriages doing therein as was noted before like Jerusalem of old that would not acknowledge that she had transgressed and scattered her ways to strangers and had not obeyed Gods voice but would against the most notorious and palpable evidences of her guilt yet say she was not polluted she had not gone after Baalim or other Lords and Masters besides her own proper God Even so it is with this proud imperious Chuch she will lift up her self against all charges and will not own her self guilty of Idolatry or corrupt in her faith worship but will boast of her being the Church the Catholique Church the Infallible Church talk of her Antiquity Universality Unity challenge all the Apostles Prophets Martyrs Confessors Ancient Doctors Councels to be hers when indeed in truth in their true and genuine Doctrines the Apostles Prophets Primitive Doctors and Councels all condemn her It is true she may in many things boast of her Antiquity and so may the Devil and his Followers who also can shew as great an Universality and Unity for should he be divided against himself as our Saviour saith his kingdom could not stand Luk. 11.18 but non omne quod antiquum est verum est sed quod primum not all that is ancient though of great latitude and extent and at unity with itself but that that is the first that is true and right So God was the first and before the Devil and his truth was before error and falshood and the Articles of the Christian faith were long before any noyse was heard of the Popes Supremacy or being Christs Vicar or of his having derived the Keys or the Power over the whole Church from St. Peter or of the Doctrine of Purgatory or Transubstantiation or their Merit of our works or of Works of Super-errogation or of the Cup being denyed to the People or of the Latine Service or Prayers injoyned in an unknown Tongue or of the Worship of Images or Invocation of the Saints or of whatever else is properly Roman as distinguished from all other Professors of the Christian Religion Which are so many gross and horrid Errors into which she is fallen and from the charge of guilt wherein she cannot clear her self But though she wash her with Nitre and take much Sopâ— yet they are and will be marked before the Lord as He said sometime to Jerusalem Jer. 2.22 and therefore also being so fowly fallen into Error and Iniquity and not confessing and repenting but justifying her self and saying in despite of all the most evident convictions that she is innocent it cannot be but that what God threatned to Israel will also be her portion and that in a far more dreadful and severe manner that is that he will plead with her and execute upon her all the terrible Judgment written in Revel 18. So as she shall be thrown down into the Pit of destruction with great violence even by the mighty hand of God so as she shall be found no more at all because she instead of owning her guilt and repenting of her Idolatries Blood-shed Pride and all her other Enormities saith she is innocent and her lying false Prophets dawb her up with their untempered Mortar and see for her vain and foolish things instead of discovering her iniquity to turn away her misery Yea they see for her as Jerusalems false Prophets did for her false buthens and causes of banishment of her and all that cleave to her for ever from Gods presence Jer. 2.32 Lam. 2.14 Rev. 18.2 and she loves to have it so For if any be convinced of her Errors and protest against them being converted from them they seek if possible to murther and destroy them As many have proved and as Mr. Anthony Aegan tells us they have endeavoured diverse ways to do to him since his conversion from them and protests against them and endeavours
rather argues them guilty of being a lying Church 4. There is a brief character of the true Church and her Children in the book of the Revelations by which we may better judg of the truth and rightness of any Church than by any or all those fair Pleas that Rome makes for her self namely that the true Church and its Children are that society and company of men that keep the commandments of God and the faith or Testemony of Jesus Rev. 12.17 and 14.12 But now if we bring the Church of Rome to this test I am sure she will be cast only let us mind that by keeping the Commandments of God is meant both the careful observation of them to walk after them and also the holding them forth sincerely and purely without corrupting them that others may know and walk after them also and by keeping the faith and testimony of Jesus is meant the keeping it without spot or mixture of corruption with it either by adding to or taking from it And surely if we take a little view of their carriage in either of them we shall find them not a little faulty in both 1. First as to the keeping of Gods commandments which of them do they keep in the sences above mentioned not the first for they have other Gods in the Scripture Language beside the only true God the maker of all things in Scripture Language they are called other Gods to whom men give that adoration that belongs to God and unto whom they perform religious worship or service asking of and expecting from them what is proper to God to give so the Calves made by Jeroboam to be sacrificed to though intended as mediums to worship the true God by yet they are called Gods that he made to himself 2. King 14.9 and so the golden Calf in the wilderness though it was to Jehovah they pretended to Sacrifice keep a feast by it yet they were charged with changing their glory that is their God therein into the similitude of an Ox that eateth grass and so intimately of making a new God to themselves Exod. 32,4.5 Psal 106.19.20 now how many there are in the Roman Church that according to those Notions they make Gods to themselves it is not easy to determin The host in the Sacrament they stick not to own as God God-man to give divine adoration unto insomuch as one of their own Doctors acknowledges that the errors of those that worship some Golden or Silver Statues or some Images of any other materialls for their God as the Heathen worshiped their Gods or a Red Cloth hung upon the Top of Spear as is reported of the Laplanders or some live Animal as of old the Egyptians did Fran. Coster Enchir. contro vers Cap 12. were more tollerable than of those who worshiped a piece of Bread as hitherto the Christians have done all over the World for so many hundred years if the Doctrine of Transubstantiation be not true And that that Doctrine is not true we have as good evidence as Christ gave to his Disciples that he was not a Spirit that is we may handle and see it yea and tast and smell it too as was said above yea we have the same that we have that the Cup is not transubstantiated into the New Testament and we have no more authority from the Scripture that the Bread is Transubstantiated than that the Cup is so Transubstantiated nay rather we have more ground to believe that the Cup is changed into a divine writing than that the Bread is changed into the Body the very real and substantial Body of Christ For it is expresly said this Cup is the New Testament but it is not said this Bread is my Body nor this that was Bread is become my Body and for ought that appears to the contrary in the Text his Body being visibly present he might point to or speak of it in saying this is my Body as he speak of the Temple of his body when walk-in the Temple he said to the Jews Destroy ye this Temple and in three days I will raise it up again as our sences tell us the Cup is not the New Testament but a Silver or Golden Cup or Challice so the very same sences tell us as plainly that the Bread still remains in the nature of Bread non substantiâ aut naturâ mutatus not changed in substance or nature into God or into the person of God-man the Lord Jesus besides it is their own Doctrine that the change of the Elements depend upon the Intention of the Priest so that if the Priest intend not in saying the words to make the body of Christ it is not the Body of Christ but Bread still and then they are Idolaters that worship it as God and who can be certain of the Priests Intentions not to mention again the many Saints both Hees and Shee s that they give such adorations to as belongs only to God and ask such things of as God only can give so that they are notorious transgressors of the first commandment of God and keep it not and as to the second they are so far from keeping it and act so grosly contrary to it that they expung it out of their Catechisms The third also they grosly violate in their Doctrine and practice about sacred oaths dispenceing with them and loosing men from the obligation of them enacting them by mental reservations and breaking solemn Oaths and promises as in their breaking their promises with John Hus and in the Popes dispensing with the Oath given by Ladislaus King of Poland to Amurath the Turkish Emperour or grand Sultan and causing him to break his Truce with him to the great scandal of Christian Religion and slaughter of the Christians The Turk himself appealing to Christ if he were indeed God to revenge the perfidious Perjury of the Christians towards him which he also did in the ensuing slaughter and destruction of them but such abuse of Gods name in dissolving and dispensing with religious and solemn Oaths yea and with mens rash swearing they give allowance of in their Doctrines and treatises as well as in their practices yea it was a thing that the above cited Fryer Aegan tells us gave him one of his first disgusts at their Religion that when at his first being made a Fryer he took one and twenty Oaths and among them that he would never come on Horseback that he would never ware shoes that he would obey his superiours in what ever he commanded never examining the lawfulness of his commands not to be ashamed to beg never to be out of his Fryers habit c. yet after all these oaths taken his superiour told him that he must take his former garments and return in the same Posture that he came in which was on Horseback with Sword and Pistols and gay Apparrel and go see his friends though quite contrary to his oaths from which he would absolve him If
very Antichrists Oh that none of your Souls may come into their secret or have fellowship with them but yet this is not all in which they declare plainly that they erre grosly from the Faith and Truth of Christ and the true way of his Worship Behold it still in other particulars For 4. Whereas the Lord Jesus in the Night in which he was betrayed instituted his Holy Supper to be Celebrated in commemoration and remembrance of him In which He gave to his Disciples and ordered his Apostles to do the like to the Churches afterwards a Commemoration of his death and passion in two distinct Elements of bread and wine the one before and the other after and bad them all expresly drink of the cup and the Apostles plainly tell us that they delivered to the Churches that which they also received of Christ Jesus and so that they both gave the bread to be eaten and the cup to be drunk by them Witness the writings of the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 10.15 16. Where not directing them to some eternal infallible Judge Determiner of their understanddings he bids them as wise men to judge of his sayings and mentions both the cup of blessing which they blessed calling it the communion or fellowship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the blood of Christ and the bread that they brake calling it the communion of the body of Christ and in chap. 11.23 24 25 26. Where repeating the words and order of Christs instituting his Supper in both branches or parts of it he saith for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye shew forth the Lords death till he come and let a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any man of the Church indefinitely Lay or Clergy as they are now a days distinguished examine himself and so let him eat of this bread and drink of this Cup. He saith not only let him eat of this bread but also let him drink of this cup. And whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself And the Apostle saith also in chap. 14.37 as we noted before that the things He wrote were the Commandments of the Lord yet this Church of Rome most audaciously and with a non obsunt or notwithstanding all this presume to deny the cup to the Laity yea and to the Clergy too say some if any of them be present beside the Priest that celebrates or saieth Mass making nothing of Gods or Christs authority to the contrary Surely therefore to them may most truly and fully be applyed those words of our Saviour spoken by him against the Scribes and Pharisees in whose steps they walk viz. well hath Isaiah prophesied of you Hypocrites as it is written this People honoureth me with their lips but their hearts are far from me Howbeit in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the Commandments of men For laying aside the Commandments of God ye hold the Tradition of men c. And full well ye reject the Commandments of God that you may keep your own Tradition making the word of God of none effect through your Tradition which ye have delivered Mar. 7.6 7 8 9 13. For what is their doctrine of Concomitancy but their own Tradition wherein they teach their Followers to believe that the Cup is in the bread as it were the blood of Christ is in his body and they as well taken together For were they not so when Christ being yet alive instituted the Supper And after his Resurrection when the Apostle and the Primitive Christians observed it in both kinds And can the supposal of both together in one be so lively a resemblance representation and commemoration of his death as when they are given seperately The end of our Saviours instituting and of the Churches observing this Ordinance is to shew forth the Lords death till he come 1 Cor. 11.26 And is not his death more lively set forth and represented when the Elements are given apart and so the body represented as without it's blood and the blood as separated from the body than when both are supposed to be given together in one In Christs state of death his blood was shed forth from his body and in the supper as instituted of Christ the cup was given by it self as a representation of his blood shed for the remission of our sins So that here is in this bold contradiction to our Saviours precept and practice both a rejecting of his commandment and a making null the end of his institution the shewing forth of his death Though yet neither is this all nor the half of that in which this bad Church dares to confront the authority of God For 5. They also leave out in their Catechismes the second Commandment Thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image c. And to make up the number of ten they divide the last into two both contrary to the express voice and command of God who gave the second as audibly as any of the rest and with more express sanction by way both of threatning added as a jealous God punishing the Offenders and promise of blessing to them that love him and keep his Commandments and to the practise and manner of the Christian Church in all it 's Primitive times Because they confront Gods Commandment in their practise setting up and injoyning Images and the Likenesses and the Representations of things and Persons to be erected and worshipped though God hath expresly commanded the contrary Oh audacious Church and Congregation of evil doers And can any be so blind as not to see palpably in this and the other particulars that they both can and do err And how then can it be possibly imagined that they are Infallible Nay rather verily it is far righter to say that they are incorrigible impenitent and impudent in their notoriously evil Principles and Practises God saith thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven thing nor the likeness or similitude of any thing either in Heaven above or in the Earth beneath thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them And these men do make the similitude of many things in Heaven and Earth as of the Virgin Mary the Saints deceased the Cross of Christ yea as they pretend of God himself c. bow down to them worship them yet they say they are innocent so did the adulterous Church of Judah when they upon every high Hill under every green tree wandred play'd the Harlot yet they said they were not polluted they had not gone after Baalim they were innocent and therefore surely Gods anger would turn away from them Jer. 2.23,35 Even so doth this corrupt and erroneous Church plead not only that she is innocent but also that she cannot err But we shall have occasion to say more to this anon Besides all this 6. What is their Doctrine of Transubstantiation but a
surely no private Brother nor any one or two with him is to be heard in whatever he or they may give out for truth or matter of faith whether it agree with the Scriptures and the commands of God and Christ or not or put absurd expositions upon the Scriptures that may be confuted by common sence And therefore neither speaks it there of any such authority given to the Church to give such interpretation or imposition laid upon any to receive such an interpretation given by any under that name Nor indeed by the Church can be meant there the Catholique Church all over the World much less is it tyed up to the Church of Rome except in it's proper Jurisdiction but it 's meant evidently of the particular society or congregation or Church to which such an offending Brother belongs For it is such a Church as any offended Brother his private admonition being rejected may inform of the offence and that upon the information given may also admonish the offender which can neither be done to or by the Catholique Church in it's Catholique and extensive capacity no nor yet to or by the Church of Rome as to the case of every or any offender to whom this rule appertains as to what is observable in case of scandal and offence that live in places remote from Rome and her Jurisdiction Surely our Saviour no where signifies that persons living in Judaea or Galilee should go or send up information against an offending Brother as far as Rome Nor find we that in any dissentions in the Churches any of the Apostles left any such orders in any of their Epistles however Rome may have challenged or desired such homage and honour to be done to her and hath put men upon such unreasonable and chargeable burthens since the times of her usurpations upon the World Her challenging that authority and homage to be done to her is but what the false Prophets of the Church of Israel calling themselves the Church or holy City were wont to do And therefore being forewarned by the Apostles even by St. Peter from whom the Pope pretends to derive his power that there should be false Teachers in the Christian Church or Churches now that would imitate and do like those false Prophets we are concerned to stand upon our watch and when we discern any party taking that course and walking in their steps not to give heed to them The Apostle Peter tells us that as there were false Prophets formerly among the people so there would be false Teachers among the Christian People that would bring in damnable Heresies going beside the Scriptures for that properly the word translated privily with reference to what was said before imports He had commended them before for taking heed to the sure word of Prophesie as to a Light shining in a dark place even the Prophets that came in old time by the will of God wherein the holy Men of God spake as they were moved or carried by the Holy Ghost the Scriptures of the Prophets Now these false Teachers going besides or contrary to them would bring in Heresies of damnation denying the Lord that bought them For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is introducent they shall bring in and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often either contrà or praeter against or besides as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i◠contrary to the Law Act. 18.13 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is either contray to or besides what we have preached and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is contray to or besides what ye received or rather to what ye have otherwise received namely than as the false Apostles taught them Gal. 1.8 9. And so the sense is that these false Teachers should or would bring in damnable Doctrines or Heresies contrary to or besides that is differing from the forementioned Scriptures swarving from or opposing their sayings And such we find and have mentioned some of them and we may instance in more brought in and maintained by the Papists Now the false Prophets of old among the people to whom these false Teachers are compared and made to answer as the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even as there shall also be among you false Teachers imply were oftentimes the greatest and Prevailing party of the Prophets among the people such as the generality even the Kings Princes and multitude of the people usually followed as appears in Isa 9.15 16. and 29.9 10 11. Jer. 5.31 and 14.13 and 23.9 30 31 32. and 26.8 11. Lam. 2.14 and 4.13 Ezek. 13. and 22.25 28. Zeph. 3.4 And thence it was that the true Prophets were evil spoken of and traduced yea Persecuted and slain by them as if they had been false Prophets and seducers as is to be seen in Jer. 2.30 and 20.2 and 29.26 27. and 37.13 14 15 19 38.4 6. Mat. 23.29 30 31 37. Act. 7.52 Even as here the false Teachers are such and so received as that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the multitude or many it 's said shall follow their pernicious ways so as the way of truth which is agreeable to the Scriptures of the Prophets and the commandments of the Apostles shall be evil spoken of reproached and cast out as Heresie as the Church of Rome and it's Teachers cast out the commands and sayings of Christ and the Scriptures in many things and the way that is agreeable thereto accounting it Heresie and them that stick thereto Hereticks Now it was the way of the false Prophets whom these false Teachers which in these last days men have heaped up or multiplied by heaps to themselves that is in abundance as the Apostle Paul prophesied they would do 2 Tim. 4.3 do imitate that they used to say that they were the persons that had the Law with them and that therefore were to be listened to and followed as those to whom the Interpretation of it were committed and from whom it was to be received and that the true Prophets who clave to God and his word indeed were not to be hearkned to but persecuted and punished for contradicting them That this was the way of those false Prophets is evident in that they said we are wise and the Law of the Lord is with us Jer. 8.8 Just thus say the Church of Rome and it's Teachers we are the wise men we have the Law and Scriptures with us we are the true Interpreters of it and ye must take it from our mouths But the Prophets of God reproved those false Prophets and the people as joined with and led by them saying how say ye we are wise and the Law of the Lord is with us the wise men are ashamed for lo they have rejected the word of the Lord and what wisdom is there in them Even they that said they were wise and that the Law of the Lord was with them had in truth rejected the word of the Lord and therefore were destitute of true wisdom and dealt falsly from the Prophet to the Priest
our works for and in us in our listning to him and following his Word and Spirit we are too prone to slight and think much to put our selves to cost and pains and to stoop down to bear any burthens put upon us by him in and for his service Israel in the wilderness could readily pluck off their Jewels and Ear-rings to make themselves a Molten Calf of Exod. 32.2 3. when as afterward they could find in their hearts to put off God with the refuse or worst of what he gave them yea and to rob Him of his Tithes and Offerings Mal. 1.8.13 3.8 and so the false Worshippers of Rome are forwarder to put themselves to fastings and abstinence after their fashion with Devotions Alms-deeds and the like to make to themselves a confidence of or establish to themselves a righteousness in as the Apostles Phrase is in Rom. 10.3 and to purchase to themselves thereby forgiveness of that I say not with reference to some of them also a license to practise their Sins and to merit and deserve Gods favour and eternal Life when we that have the purity and simplicity of the truth of God more clearly among us and are Instructed into the alone sufficiency in the grace in Christ Jesus and have all freely promised to us upon his account only in a way of obedience to him and his instructions are yet too backward to yield up our selves to him and to be at such cost and charge and exercise such pains and patience as his instructions direct us to and his grace and love ingage us to that we might enjoy the pourings out of his spirit upon us glorify him worthily in our generations and do good to others to our capacities 6. Now upon all these premises I cannot but desire for all men especially for my friends and acquaintance that the Lord would grant to them that by all that is said or by what is otherwhere more fully and clearly said by more learned Persons they may so discern and see the Abominations of that Harlot as to avoid them and keep themselves far from them not listening to any of their fair and specious flatteries that would entice thereto of whom I may say in Solomons words None that go into her that is very few or none of those that willingly go into fellowship with her return again neither do they take hold of the paths of life so as to walk in the way of good men and keep the path of the righteous but with the simple ones and the young man void of understanding that declining towards the corner of the strange woman go in the path to her house who with her fair speech are made to yeild and with the flattering of her lips are inticed they go after her as the Ox to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks till a dart strike through their liver as a Bird that hasteth to the snare knows not that it is for their life even for the life of their precious Souls Oh! might what follows with reference to this scarlet Whore be considered and received wherein wisdom adds Hearken now therefore unto me O ye Children and attend to the words of my mouth Let not thine heart decline or bend towards her way go not astray in her paths for she hath cast down many wounded yea many strong men men of strong parts have been slain by her as to spiritual life Her house is the way to Hell whether men think and believe so or not going down to the chambers of death Prov. 2.19 20. and 7.7 8 9.21.22.23 c. For if the Scriptures be true as undoubtedly they are both they and we confess that though they love to puzzle men with questions needlesly how they know them to be the Scriptures or word of God as if we must be beholding to them for that which is false then seeing the Scriptures affirm that no Idolaters shall inherit the kingdom of God nor any that love or make a lye they then that are of and hold communion with that Church are in a sad and piteous case they being clearly guilty of Idolatry and gross falshoods as may from what is said many other things that I have omitted be easily discerned And though some men they think charitably suppose that some who through their invincible Ignorance are necessitated to live in their communion may find mercy with God they believing and holding the fundamental Articles of the Christian faith though joyned with such corruptions as they joyn therewith whose charitable concessions to that purpose have I fear laid a snare for the feet of many I am confident have been and are abused to that purpose by her Priests and Jesuits to draw many in to joyn with them though no ground be given in them for that and to hold in them that were before of it Yet seeing as I question not the false Apostles and the Gallathians seduced by them did hold the main Articles of the Christian faith too only joyned with them a necessity of Circumcision as these joyn a necessity of communion with their Church in all that she injoynes and imposeth unto their salvation and the Apostle for all that pronounced that in case they were circumcised Christ would profit them nothing Gall. 5.2 I know little ground we have for that charity or what more than we may have for those of the Turks or Jews or Pagans who are invincibly kept from the knowledge of the truth of God and the true way of worshipping him received among us Christians by the prevalency of their false Teachers or the severities of their Rulers under whose power they live that they also may be winked at of God and saved Which if it may be supposed yet affords no good ground for any of us Christians to turn to any of their Religions and as little have we from the forementioned charitable concessions or suppositions of some to turn to Romes communion Nay it s most dreadfully dangerous for any that have known better or been brought up under the Protestant profession where they have had or might have had clear convictions of the falshoods and evils of that Church to depart from righter ways to her deceits and corruptions For to such doubtless belongs that dreadful sentence which we read of in Rev. 14.9 10. among others unto whom its possible it may hereafter also be applicable upon a farther account Where after the Angels preaching the everlasting Gospel openly as in the Mid-Heaven and warning all Nations to fear God and worship him in opposition to the false worship before in chap. 13. related and another Angels proclaiming Babilon that is Rome to be fallen both from the true Faith and worship and from her former lustre as before we explicated it there follows a third Angel proclaiming with a loud voice that any man namely if now especially after the two former proclamations either yet or having not done so before
vers 9 10. Even so the Church of Rome and it's Teachers reject the word of the Lord as is evident in the instances we have given and yet they say the Law the Scriptures and it's Exposition are with that is belong unto them They are they from whom men must receive it and upon whom they must depend for it Yea they do as the false Church in Isa 48.1 2. is said to have done who make mention of the name of the Lord but not in truth nor in righteousness though they called themselves of the holy City that is in effect the holy Catholick Church The like is timated of them in Jer. 18.18 where the persecutors of the Lord's Prophets that were such in truth yet said of themselves come let us devise devices against Jeremiah and add as if they had thence authority to do so for the Law shall not perish from the Priest nor counsel from the wise nor the word from the Prophet Now when we see or may see by the Scriptures of truth and the testimony of the Holy Spirit in them that there should be false Teachers among the Christians answerable to the false Prophets among the Jews that would bring in Doctrines swarving from the Scriptures and find that the Papists and their Teachers evidently do so their challenge of authority to be the sole Expounders of the Scriptures should nothing move us while we see that they therein walk in the steps of the false Prophets especially seeing also that they challenge an authority which the Holy Ghost hath not given them nor directed his followers any where unto For the Holy Ghost himself who led the Apostles into all truth Joh. 16.13 doth not in any Scripture testifie to us of Rome or the Roman Church that we should derive our Faith from her or resolve it into her or her Doctors more than into any other Church The Apostle Peter whose authority they pretend to have committed to them but without any evidence of the holy Scriptures and whose Successors they tell us their Popes or Bishops are could not leave more authority to them than he had exercised himself Now we find him expresly preferring the authority of the Scriptures before his own saying or testimony as to the resolution of other mens Faith Yea he as well as other Apostles proved his sayings by the holy Scriptures as is evident in his Epistles 1 Pet. 2.6 7. and 3.10 11 12. and obtruded nothing upon men on his own authority barely as the Popes presume to do He calls the word of Prophesy a more sure word than what he related of his own knowledge 2 Pet. 1.16 17 18 19. and instead of directing the Believers after his death to the Church of Rome and her Bishops which surely he would and ought to have done had he known of any power given of Christ to her or to them for resolving mens doubts and determining their Faith and exercising a dominion over mens consciences more than to other Churches or their Bishops yea or directing them to himself more than to the rest of the Apostles when he forewarned them of false Teachers Scoffers that would come in the last days He stirs up the Believers minds to remember the words of the Prophets and the Commandments of the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour He saith not his own Commands or his rather than of the other Apostles but indefinitely of the Apostles puting in himself with them as one of the same rank and of no superior rank or authority among or over them much less doth he say that we should after his death be take our selves to the Church or Bishop of Rome for our direction guidance and preservation from the Error of the wicked but directs us to the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles the things spoken and commanded in and by them He thought not of the Lord Peter or the Lord Pope nor signified that the rest of the Apostles stood in relation more than himself to any man as their Lord but only to him who is the Saviour Yea and the Lord Jesus himself when afterward he appeared to John in the Isle of Patmos and gave him visions and revelations of the things that should come to pass in the world and unto the Churches directed him not to bid us go to Rome for resolution of our hearts in the matters of God and in what concerns our preservation in his truth but he in his several Epistles to the Churches bids Let him that hath an ear hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches He bids not That he that hath an ear should hear the Churches simply no nor yet what the Spirit saith in the Churches much less saith he Let him that hath an ear hear what the Church of Rome saith or what her Bishop as an heavenly Oracle or the Spirit as either in it or him as Infallibly tied to his Chair should dictate to us And yet which is very considerable this Book of the Revelations according to the most authentick testimonies of Antiquity was written after the Deaths of all the other Apostles and its probable at least that he lived not long after it himself who was the Penman thereof and therefore if there were any judge or orderer of mens faith infallible to be looked to by all Churches besides the holy Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles or any Infallible Interpreter of them above the rest to be taken heed to it had been the proper place and time surely for Christ the faithful and true witness of God the Amen the firm and sure friend and Pastour of his Church to have signified who it is and directed the Church and every one that hath an ear to hear and hearken to him but neither when he was asked or there was a strife among the Apostles who of them should be the greatest did he tell them Peter should be their Prince and chief among them nor did he direct them here to any Successor of his at Rome or elsewhere as an infallible Guide and Head to them no there is no other Director as to matters of Faith and Worship directed to of God by his Holy Spirit in any Scripture as our absolute and infallible Guide but only the Spirit himself as speaking in and by the Scriptures to the Churches what the Scripture saith being called the saying of the Holy Ghost or Spirit as is to be seen Heb. 3.7 and 10.15 Act. 28.25 And surely they are guilty of horrible Idolatry that prefer the Testimony Word or Determination of any person or persons Church or Bishop before or above yea or but as equal with the testimony of the Holy Ghost to cast by his sayings or commands to listen to and be ruled by men is indeed to have the fear of God taught us by mens precepts and in vain to honour God or worship him which was the fault of the Jewish Church reproved by the Holy Ghost in the Prophet Isaiah for which also he