may be sayd of the secular tyrannicall power as of Tyberius and Nero which may be said of the Popish tyrannicall power as of Gregorie the 7. or Paul the 5. true in respect of the abuse But the ordination of the secular power is of God the abuse of the Diuell Therefore Pilates power which condemned Christ is not sayd to bee tolerated from aboue but giuen from aboue It was therefore a wicked power not a vsurped power as Austin thought wicked in respect of tyranny not vsurped in respect of the ordination but the power of this Prelate I may say this Pilate as Bernard spake it is not onely wicked but vsurped I conclude therfore out of the Apostles principle for the secular power against Bellarmine All power ordained is immediately from God by the witnesse of Paul All secular power whether it bee by the people by the Princes or by the King is a power ordained For reason which is a glimmering of the diuine light doth suggest that all societies must be subiect to one of these whether it bee simple or mixt for the good of common safety Therefore all secular power is immediatly from God § 171 But the title of the power is not diuine but humane therefore the secular Prince hath mediately power and gouernment to rule ouer these or those subiects Bellarmine in his answer to a booke entituled an answer of a Doctor of Diuity to an Epistle written to him by a reuerend freind of the monition of the censures from the Pope denounced against the Venetians either election comming betweene as the Emperour or succession as the Kings of France Spaine and England or grant as the free Princes as the Popes in their own Dominion for so he might haue sayd or by iust war as Godfrey heretofore c. Very ignorantly He doth not distinguish between the title of the power and the power it selfe The title is the condition without the which the power is not obtained to this or that King ouer those or these subiects The power is that authority and iurisdiction which God doth giue immediately to a Prince as Paul teacheth The Cardinall therfore vniesuited as I may so say did abuse that most renowned French King If any man said he should demand of the most Christian King by what right hee holdeth France or maketh Lawes hee shall not answer by the Law of God but by the title of hereditarie succession Yea truely the noble King might haue answered otherwise according to that wit wherewith hee was endued being demanded why he bare rule ouer his subiects or made lawes That hee did it not by the right of hereditarie succession but by the ordinance of that power which hee receiued immediately from God Inheritance doth not giue that power but it is a property necessarie in that man to whom God doth immediately giue that power That subiects may giue reuerence to their Kings not for blouds sake but for Gods sake Goe to and what if one should demand of Paul the fift by what right hee holdeth his Popedome he will answer as he is taught not by the title of mans election but by the Law forsooth of God Therfore the Popes power is by Gods Law as it seemeth although his election bee by the Cardinals Why then may not the Kings power be by the Law of God thogh his succession be from his ancestours for whose condition seemes to be like why should their iurisdiction be dislike The Cardinall therefore deales very vniustly who denieth that to the King which he granteth to the Pope § 172 But the malapert Cardinall did trie the patience of the most Christian King The cruell dealing of the Iesuites with the French King as another of his order a bloody nouist strucke out his tooth when he meant to cut his throat But now the Iesuites doe blesse the King but the King as oft as he cheweth his meate its maruell he doe not curse the Iesuites who while the controuersie depended about the expulsion of the Iesuites receiued a wound from Iohn Chastile and the bloud issued out of his mouth spake pleasantly as his vse was Now at the last the Iesuites being conuicted by my mouth must bee cast out That his friends may greeue that they were brought backe againe by that mouth as innocent and cleered who were the authours of so cruell a murther whose scholler did thrust that valiant King to the heart After the same manner Tom. 11. Baronius that testie olde man did entertaine the Catholike King Philip the second the Champion of their Church for with-holding Sicilie and Naples from the Church Whom will they spare if they spare not the Spaniard What may the Defender of the Faith expect of these fellowes who doe thus entertaine the Christian and Catholike Kings But although there be no truth yet there is some equitie in Bellarmine Bellarmines lewde dealing with all Princes Hee spareth no Princes not those of his owne side Hee holdeth that those who bee Catholike in faith if they beginne to be wicked are to be driuen by the cheife Pastour from the flocke and depriued of their kingdome as well as heretickes Those as giddie headed rammes that they hurt not with their hornes these as rauenous wolues that they deuoure not the flocke So scornfully doth this Braggadochian Cardinall terme the Excellencies and Maiesties of the Christian world The world doth not maruel that Preists be so sawcy but it wonders that Kings bee so patient that they will suffer Princely crownes to be tumbled vp and down by them as foot-bals and the prerogatiues of kingdomes to be so weakned diminished by schoole distinctions For this Cardinall like a bad archer doth strike his confederate next neighbour-kings while he doth directly leuell and aime but in vaine against Iames the King of Great Britaine whom God still defend from his treacherie But to the argument Hee denieth all secular Princes to haue any power immediately giuen from God to rule ouer subiects But it is well that hee doth affirme euen in the same § 173 chapter in as manie words that secular Princes haue power immediately from God to rule their subiects as they are superiors and he alleageth a good reason because the commandement of obedience is immediately from God and this is true For he cannot bee superiour and aboue other if he doe not rule neither can he be a subiect that is not bound to obey And yet againe in the end If secular Princes saith he haue no power immediately from God ouer the Laity much lesse ouer the Cleargie therefore ouer none Which hee granted before Is it so indeede will some say yea truely looke vpon the place Hee is both vnconstant vnlearned you shall see Bellarmine affirming and denying the same predicate of the same subiect and that in respect of the same and that in one and the same chapter Let this great Logician be packing who sends his aduersaries to turne ouer Aristotles
and tell you must bee necessarily made against my Church for you are like to haue Christ himselfe against you in the field I know full well that lately at Rome as often before a cōuenticle of Priests haue bin gathered together by the Pope of Rome and Sathans command to deface and diminish my glory That they tooke counsell wherein the Popish Kings and Princes were in a league confederated among themselues against the Protestant Kings and Princes chiefely against IAMES the King of Great Britanny who concluded the Pope to be Antichrist and as hee rightly inferred Popish Kings and Princes were the members of Antichrist that the common cause were to be maintained by common forces that he sent in his Priests who might prouoke his sons as hee calles them to wage warre against my seruants The Kings therefore of the Reformed Religion haue more neede imposed by Antichrist to fulfill the prophesie and to fight Gods warre and vnite their forces and powers against that double horned Beast the Pope For I thinke that popish Kings haue learnt more wit at the last then to put in execution the bloody and cruell counsell of the Beast They know that the first Beast bore it not scot free whose ten hornes were sayd to bee crowned because it spilt the innocent blood of my seruants For the very same power of the Empire which did condemne mee being borne into the world the Prince of your saluation and fasten mee vpon the crosse the same did endeauour to ouerthrow the Primitiue Church with ten persecutions How I did reuenge the death of my Saints vpon the authors thereof how I did cut off some of the Emperors by mutuall fights how did I comsume the people with continuall plagues how I did deuoure the cities with floodes and earth-quakes how I strucke and dispersed whole armies with thundrings and lightnings cast from heauen their stories doe well declare As many creatures as I had so manie viols I had of my raging wrath which I powred out vpon mine and my seruants enemies But some of you will saie Those were Pagans that did kill and Christians that were killed wee are Catholikes which doe punish they are heretickes which are punished They are as certainly hereticks as you are Catholiks You Catholiks I wold you were Christians they be not words but deeds must make this good You carrie the name of Christ I confesse but you plaie the Pagans vnder the name of Christ Are they heretickes True as I am an hereticke that call all things to the rule of the Word But Antichrist doth alleadge Scripture also true as the Diuell did alleadge them misvnderstood Who as he enticed the Iewes to kill me shadowed out and promised in the Propheticall Scriptures to bee the Messias so he hath moued manie Catholikes in name in truth most hereticall heretickes the bond slaues of Antichrist to burne both my seruants and their books and they blot out as much as lay in them by their cunning and their power the faith and the Church whose quarrell I often reuenged with a high hand stretched from heauen I will giue you one notable example After that the Counsell of Constance had condemned to the fire those two my seruants Hu◠and Hierome the Pope sent two Erinnes into Germanie the Cardinall of Winchester and the Cardinall of Saint Angelo who when they had called backe Sigismund the Emperour from making warre against the Turkes they incited him to beare armes against the Bohemians the new professours of my Gospell and brought into the field three other great Germane Princes with all their forces will you heare the issue of their whole fight passage The Bohemians leuy an armie come into the fielde strike vp the alarum they had scarce come to handy gripes but the King and the Princes being stroke with a causlesse suddaine feare in their rage crying out to their souldiers to stand to it and fight did cowardly and beastly flie away fiue times they made inrodes into Bohemia and fiue times they were discomfited And so not long after three seuerall Popes the Authors of this tragedy and those two diuilish Cardinalls not without great shame and sorrow came to a fearefull end In all which occurrences hee that doth not behold the hand of God is blinde he that doth not feare it is wicked I passe ouer that inuincible Spanish Armado which being gathered together by the instigation of Priests was dispersed by the windes swallowed vp by the seas and brought to confusion by the hand of God What do you thinke that Gods hand is shortened or doe you thinke that God hath left off to defend his seruants Infinite be the examples of Gods power which God hath shewed both in former ages and often in this present age in the defence of the Church against her mightiest enemies Let thinges to come be taught by things past And if those former tyrants or those that followed had gone vnpunished for their wickednesse there had beene cause for Antichrist with all his faction to haue reioyced in their sinne there had beene some reason that the Kings of the earth had promised to themselues impunitie who had bestowed all their might in building vp and enlarging the Kingdome of the two horned beast Now that I haue first crackt and broken to peeces the ten crowned and bloody hornes and after haue scattered both by land and sea the smokie slaues of the second beast what at last shall become of Antichrist is declared in the sixt seale But what in the mean time may Antichrists souldiers hope for who being set on fire by these fire brandes did turne all their forces to do mischiefe I doe aduise you therefore yee popish Kings and Princes that ye depart out of Babylon as fast as you can then that being conuerted to me you make warre with vnited forces in the quarrell of the Church against Antichrist at least that you giue no eare to these Syrenes or Erinnes which will bring destruction both to your soules and bodies On my word the Byshoppe of Rome and the great Antichrist are termes conuertible The decree of God standes fast for euer that the Byshoppe shall be consumed by those Kings by whom he was adored You cannot serue mee and the Pope with whom peace being made by you see if it be not to be called peace rather then a compact of slauerie From whence if I cannot drawe the popish Kings and Princes I will for all that warne you yee Kings and Princes Protestants that you preferre a holy warre before a wicked league with the Pope and think those armes to be holy when there is no hope left but in armes And take heede that being deceiued with an opinion of a false peace you bee not on a suddaine brought to ruine I wish you may bee at peace with neighbour Kings and neighbour Kings with you but at no hand haue peace with the Romane Antichrist Why so it is wicked it is dangerous it cannot hold
Byshoppe of Rentzburge when he deliuered the bull against the prince All of them scoft at the mans impudency and disdainefully askt what that light headed and superstitious French man what the Rome-pope himselfe did in Germanie without the consent of the Germaine-byshops his colleagues They disdaine that discordes should be sowne that the libertie of Christians should bee opprest that the flocke of Christ redeemed by his blood should bee brought into slauerie by false Teachers And when the Legate would not giue ouer the Germane Byshoppes did not onely dispise his commandements but denounced a curse against him in all their Churches as an enemie to Christian peace and an Arch hereticke and pronounced him to be worse then any Turke Saracene Tartar or Iew. They did publickly likewise accuse the Byshoppe of Rome for attempting such matters among Christians which were against reason and the law of nations against the doctrine of Christ and which were not at any time done among the most sauage Tartars And as the Byshops so the nobles of Germanie did take in foule scorne so great a wrong offered by the § 116 Pope to the Emperour their Master to repell it conuented all the States wherein Eberhardus the Archbyshoppe of Salisburge a godly olde man when hee had knowne ten Romane-byshoppes and had diligently markt their practizes and dispositions vnder Fredericke the first Henry the sixt his sonne and Fredericke the second his Nephew for fifty yeares together that the chiefe byshoppe was wholy compounded of auarice luxurie contention warres discordes and desire of rule and so did decipher him for a rauenous wolfe in each part vnder a Shepheards weede and so liuely paint him out that although in other matters he were not a Lutherane in this one you would haue said he had beene almost Luther himselfe The old Catholicke fathers Oration is extant in Auentine a Catholicke Writer Auenti annal lib. 7. fol. 683. there you may haue it if you will read it § 117 That which the Byshoppes and Nobles of Germanie with the whole commons did with common consent against Innocent the fourth in the quarrell of Fredericke the Emperour the very same they did in the like quarrell of Lewes the fourth Emperour against Iohn the 22. that although they were released from the Oath of Obedience they did notwithstanding take the Oath of obedience to be faithfull to Lewes though hee were remooued and that they did by the iudgement of all the Doctours in both lawes Philip the faire the French King in a councell with full consent of the Nobles and Byshoppes did not only set at nought and despise the iniust sentence of the Popes depriuation sent out against him but brought all the kingdome from the Popes obedience and that hee might the better tame his pride he laid hold of the Pope kept him in durance so that within sixe weekes after in great anguish of soule hee gaue vp the Ghost Popes crossed by the French The pragmaticall sanction is well knowne which did of old infringe the Popes authoritie and all the canons of the Church of France that part which maintaineth the popish religion and all the decrees of the Kings parliament do so disanull the Popes power in excommunicating Kings and releasing their Subiectes from the Oath of obedience Tract inscript le Franc. Discours an 1600. that the very body of Sorbone and the whole Vniuersitie of Paris doe condemne the doctrine of the Iesuites as schismaticall and pernicious Neither Henrie the 8. onely Edward the 6. and § 119 Queene Elizabeth English practise against Popes whom you tearme Caluinists and Heretickes did by their lawes expell this vsurped authoritie of the Pope and punished by death the Abetters thereof but other Kings of England who raigned in the midst of poperie thought good to contemne the Popes censures and to suppresse the Actors therein by your Lawes The law of Edward the 3. 25 Edwar 3. doth it not seeme to bee made by a Caluinist which makes it treason to attempt and go about the death of the King to mooue warre in his Kingdome against the King or to ioyne with the Kings enemies in his kingdome or to giue them aide and comfort either within the Kingdome or without Doe you not see how that two hundred yeares before Queene Elizabeth was borne the Priests treason couered with the habite of religion by the Statute of Edward the third in euery branch of it as it were with lime twigges is met with and suppressed If to attempt the death of the King be treason therefore Greenway and other Iesuites who tooke counsell to destroy the King and kingdome had beene Traytors by Edward the thirds Law although Queene Elizabeth had made no such law If to raise warre against the King in his kingdome were then treason the priests were Traytors who stirred vp papists to take armes and to ioyne themselues with Catsby and Persie in the rebellion If to ioyne with the Kings enemie in his kingdome were then treason how can you then ye Iesuits auoide the sharpenesse of King Edwards law who being the instruments of sedition doe adheare to the Pope the Kings deadly enemie vnder the colour of religion If to aide and animaâ—e the Kings enemies either within his kingdome or without was treason at that time truly whosoeuer at this day vnder pretense of religion whatsoeuer do either solicite foraine Kings to inuade this Kingdome as Garnet Creswell Baldwine and others haue done or perswade the people to take armes to depose their King as Greenwell Hall and others haue vndertaken were Traytors although Elizabeth with her Caluinists had neuer made any law against them § 120 But King Edwardes law you will say doth not touch the people by name True But when the noble King remembred that the French King was stirred vp against Iohn King of England who had contemned the Popes censures that the Subiectes were incensed against their King the Barons and Byshops fell from him and were the Ministers of the Popes wrong that thereby hee might the better confirme his subiects in their obedience against the French the Spanish and the Romane and all others whatsoeuer froâ— whom he foresaw danger might come to himselfe and his kingdome and that he might decline the enuy of naming the Pope particularly made a generall Statute with the consent of the Byshoppes Baron and Commons without any exception of person or cause whatsoeuer wherein hee made him a Traytor whosoeuer did adhere to the Kings enemy in his kingdome or did aide or animate any either within his dominions or without who should moue warre against the King including by his generall word aswell the Pope as the Popes factours as if hee had expressely named them § 121 But in the 26. of Richard the second the Prelates Dukes Earle Barons and aâ—l the Commons of England the Clarkes and Lay people named the Pope when they all ioyned in a couenant of association with the
that he commanded warre to be raised wherein hee might be slaine he answeres in Tortus How the Papists may kill a King how not that Bellarmine spake not of murther which may happen in battaile but of that murther which may be committed by a royster A very honest distinction As though hee bee not as well a murtherer who at the command of the Pope doth kill the King by open force Cardinall Comensis incited Parry to kill Q. Elizabeth as he that shall doe it by secret treacherie That this Cardinall threatning warres armes is no honester then Cardinall Comensis whose letters are extant wherein he encouraged Parry with promise of reward and pardon from the Pope that hee should bring to good effect the purpose of his good spirit those were his wordes that is that he should murther Queene Elizabeth with his dagger Bellarmine proued no better to our excellent King Iames but somewhat the closer Did Peter feede the Church after this manner This is not foode but poyson Did he so guide the flock of his Master as if the chiefe belweather of the flocke went astray he would take care that he should either closly or openly be slaine Giue a Shipheards crooke to a Shepheard What hath a Shipheard to doe with a sword Yes forsooth saith he when Christ made Peter a Pastor hee made him a Prince For when hee commanded him to feed he commanded him to rule And he gaue him not only a ministery but a magistracy But good Sir the inward and spirituall gouernment is one thing which Peter exercised ouer soules by the worde the Sacraments and the keies the earthly and outward gouernment is another thing which Paul the 5 doth practise by fraude and force against crownes I pray you tell mee Calander what difference you make betweene these two and the Commentaries of the Fathers and their owne popish writers Marke the consequencies depending on this interpretation partly foolish partly wicked Peter is commanded to feede the flocke of Christ § 150 Therefore none but Peter Vpon Peter is laide the charge of feeding and teaching Therefore the honour of ruling and reigning is bestowed on him Peters dutie is to teach Kings Therefore to depose Kings To instruct Kings therefore to destroy Kings To Peter is granted a spirituall regiment therefore an earthly gouernment Whether doth hee that knits together such consequences and these are necessarily gathered out of Bellarmines interpretation seeme to be sent to the schooles or to the Anticira for a purge Charge is laid Calander vpon all true Pastors in Peter to feede and rule the flocke of Christ committed to their charge but so that they feede them with the spirituall foode of wholesome doctrine and rule them with the staffe of wholesome discipline But if Paul the 5. doe not feede the flocke but feede vpon it and doe not order the steppes of his sheepe but breake their legges and their heades truly he doth giue food and vse his shepheardes staffe otherwise then Christ appointed Wherefore I thinke King Iames would rather fast then bee fed by such a Shepheard who feedeth to that end that hee may kill and eat What other Kings doe let themselues looke to it let them laugh in their sleeues as they please when they read these foolish quiddities of Schollers but let them take heede of such wicked baites of rebellion which lurke in Bellarmines new Dictionarie Wherein To feede and to rule are 〈◊〉 To teach a King and to depose a King all one The excommunication of a King and depriuation The absoluing of sinners from sâ—â—e is the absoluing subiects from their duty § 151 Doe they not perceiue that this is the Grammer of that proud and bloody Antichrist Therefore King Iames doth willingly forsake the popish flocke that hee may betake himselfe to Gods flocke which is knowne of Christ and followeth him and flieth from a stranger For he doth not regard these carnall Cardinalls so leaden-pated in their arguing Peter is the Porter of heauen Therefore the Lord of the world Peter is a Pastor therefore a Prince Peter is a Fisher of men therefore of kingdomes A net was giuen him wherewith he may take fishes as well great as little Therefore he hath gouernment aswell ouer Kings as subiects Peter is charged to feede the sheepe therefore he is charged to feede the rest of the Apostles He is twise charged to feede Lambes therefore the Iewes and Gentiles and by consequent all Christians Do not these hange together as a sickmans dreames Doth not Bellarmine seeme to expose the Scripture to mockery when he reasoneth after this fashion against Aquinas rule who doth plainely deny that symbolicall diuinitie Bellarmine buildeth his Church gouernment vppon tropes hath any force to argue whereon for all that hee hath built the whole supremacy and doth pronounce it to be a doctrine of the Catholicke faith most plainly founded vpon the Scriptures The Philosophers doe laugh at Epicure for making the world of moates And will not Diuines hisse out Bellarmine that frameth the ecclesiasticall gouernment of tropes For truely you shall assoone finde Moores Vtopia in the world as Peters Monarchy in the text Which Article notwithstanding is fained to bee the cheefe article of the Popes Creede wherein are contained many articles aswell of superstition and Idolatrie as of conspiracie and rebellion So that Poperie is nothing else but a plaine catechisme of false faith toward God and the King For that double power ecclesiasticall and temporall § 152 which you faine to bee so inwardly ioyned to the supremacy that it cannot be separated from it you haue erected as a double engine to ouerthrow the truth of diuinity and the Kings dignity For you haue translated each of them as it were from Peter to the Pope and the Popes successour which you assume and proue not Ecclesiasticall whereby by excommunication he may binde Kings and absolue subiects not only from sinnes but from vowes lawes and oathes So by excommunication the Pope stealeth away crownes from Kings and soules from subiects while he taketh away authority from the one and obedience from the other In both he breaketh Gods will wherby the ciuill power of the Prince though he be euill and the obedience of the subiect is soundly established as I haue fully and at large satisfied you in the former Dialogue and I haue no lesse infringed the Popes temporall iurisdiction where you alleadged it In the meane while there was no reason this insolent Cardinall should tearme Kings Catholike in the faith if once they began to bee wicked vnruly râ—mmes Bellarmines sawcinesse iustly reprooued and Protestant Kings and Princes rauenous wolues himselfe being a goate and a foxe he durst not I say call them so but that hee thinketh Kings to be very patient Who if they remembred themselues to bee Kings would teach this sawcy and busie Cardinall to follow his holy studie and not to trouble himselfe with Kings affaires Neither would they
such trifling toyes of the same kinde In the meane time the crafty teachers and the vnhappy hearers being vtterly voyd of true faith and repentance when they haue done all they can doe for all that inwardly feele inwardly I say feele the horror of Gods diuine iudgement and the most greeuous torment of the afflicted conscience and this falleth out after those scorpions haue strucken them with their stings whereupon their greefe is like the greefe of a scorpion when it hath stung a man For as when a Scorpion stings a man with the sting of his taile the wound is not presently felt but the deadly poison doth afterward spred it selfe abroad So those that be hurt by these Loyolane Scorpions doe not presently feele the hurt but doe by little and little perish without sense assoone as they sucke in the venome of their poysonfull doctrine So these Locusts doe hurt men with their number venome and sting CHAP. XIII Other properties of Locusts 11. THese be strange Locusts that are resembled to horses prepared for battell What comparison can there be betweene a base Locust and a warre-like Horse Thus notwithstanding the strength of this vild Locust is expressed 12. The Locusts doe likewise weare crownes vpon their heads heere hee setteth downe the cunning and the craft It is worth the noting that the heads of those Locusts are sayd to be crowned when the hornes of the Sea-beast afterward are sayd to bee crowned why so Because the Priests haue more preuailed with their subtilty and craft then the Ethnicke Emperours with their power and force 13. But the crownes the Locusts weare are not of golde but like to gold Heere hee sets out their pride true and golden crownes are fit for Kings false and couterfet for Priests and therefore are sayd not to bee golden but as it were golden Whereat as if they were true and their owne they waxe very proud for by the sufferance of Princes they are growen to that power that they haue often cast off their golden crownes 14. The faces of the Locusts are as the faces of men wherewith they deceiue men 15. They haue womens lockes which signifie the diuerse enticements and deceipts of false doctrine where againe their cunning is described 16. Teeth as it were of Lyons wherewith like their Master that roaring Lyon they rend asunder tear in peeces those with their iawes whom they caught with their guile Heere you haue their fiercenesse and their cruelty 17. They had habergions like habergions of iron These noble Locusts very warlike with crownes vpon their heades mens faces womens haire Lyons teeth armed at all points are elegantly and liuely described by the holy Ghost Some will happily obiect that all this place is not to be vnderstood of Antichrist and his Ministers but of the Turkes I answere that cannot bee For whereas at the sound of the 4. Trumpet Cap. 9. v. 1. the Angell had foreshewed the Arch heretikes the forerunners of Antichrist at the sound of the 5. Trumpet the Angell bringes in the King of the Arch-heretikes before which the Angell beginneth with that dreadful Proem in the 8. chap about the end crying with a loud voice wo wo wo vpon the inhabitants of the earth By the first wo signifying the darke kingdome of Antichrist by the second wo the violent tyrannie of the Turke which cannot be one and the same because he saith in the 12. vers one wo is past and behold two woes follow after This is not therefore the same but an other wo. By the third wo the terrible appearance of the last iudgement But Bellarmine saith but proues it not Bellarmines lewde dealing with the King of England Bellarmine Christana vic Pacenius Becanus Personius Cidonius Garnettus Gerardus Grenwellus Creswellus Reynaldus and infinite other That Luther is that falling starre and that Lutheranes and Protestants are those Locusts Hauing forgotten that Paul the fift that Prince is the Captaine Generall of those warlike Locusts Who after hee had compared the most renowned King IAMES to Iulian the Apostata doth secretly signifie that hee is denounced excommunicate and may be slaine by his Subiects in bataile but not by cutthroates Bloody Cardinall fitly painted out by a Pasquill a Lyon in the caue with this Motto well appllied Open the caue and you shall see his disposition This iest is too bitter will some say to bestow vpon that great learned Cardinall Is it so he that allowes the murther of a King in fighting doth not he deserue a sharpe reproofe in writing Hee doth not deale with our most worthy IAMES as a King and wee doe not meane to deale with him as a Cardinall Hee was learned heretofore now he is malitious heretofore he was a cheife man in disputation now in rebellion Heretofore a close enemie now an open Heretofore the scorpions venome was not wanting in him but lurckt in him Cardinall Comensis set on Parry that Cutthroate to murther Queene ELIZABETH with his dagger Cardinall Bellarmine nothing the honester but the cunninger denieth that the King may bee dispatcht by a murtherer but by a Souldier he denieth not As if there were any difference in the case of murther whether one kill a King in a Campe or vnder a canopie by open warre or secret treacherie That may be rightly spoken of Bellarmine that Cicero spake of a great Lawyer hee must kill a King that will vse his helpe Therefore that may be well said to this slippery Sophister this armed and bloody Locust which Martiall said to a certaine Cobler Good Tortus be not angrie with my iest I taxe thy craft I meane thy life none ill Indure it man from mirth I will not rest When thou dost thinke that others thou maist kill The cruell dealing of the Papists with Hen 4. the French King How ready a Scholler Mariana this mans Auditor found of Rauiliake the death of that illustrious French King Henry the 4. neuer sufficiently to bee lamented neuer of kings sufficiently to be reuenged doth too too well declare The first of his Schollers strooke out his tooth the second tooke away his life themselues buried his heart A magnanimous and valiant King murthered of a base rascally parricide like to Caesar in his life like in his death for so hee is bemonde of a Christian Poet. Caesar and Heâ— 4. compared Caesar in valour I was like to thee In kinde of death we likewise do agree The knife before thee tooke away thy breath The knife behinde me brought me to my death Thou by the handes of Senators didst fall I by a base and Sauage Caniball But this Rouge you will say was not Marians scholler no more then Catsby Percy Write and Faux were schollers to Garnet Parsons Gerard and Grenwell 18. But let vs returne to Saint Iohn Vers 16. who giueth the Locusts stings in their tailes and a short time to hurt 19. Whose King being the Angell of the bottomlesse pit he brings in
distinguish of the proposition and that out of Gods booke which considereth the Church after 2. sorts 1. After the inward truth and the outward profession 2. After the outward profession only As blessed Iohn calleth the Church of Sardis the Church of Christ although it had greeuously fallen from the doctrine of Christ Why so Because as yet it professed the name of Christ and retained the sacrament of Baptisme and because certain lay hid among them who had not polluted themselues So the Church of Rome may bee called the Church of God and of Christ because it professeth the name of Christ because it retaineth certaine footsteps and outward markes of a visible Church as Baptisme the Decalogue the creed The Papists haue the truth as the Philistines had the Arke the Lords Prayer but notes miserably corrupted as the Philistines who retained among them the Arke of Gods presence but they felt it to bee to them the Arke of pestilence as the Cutthites the bastard Israelites who had Moses bookes and would at once feare God and worship Idoles As the Samaritanes their successors who brag'd that they had Iacobs well among them when they had infected the well of the water of life Therefore the Delegates did iustly complaine of the Church of Rome in the Councell of Trent That that was true which God complained by Ieremie This people haue committed two euills one they haue forsaken me the fountaine of liuing water The other they haue digged to themselues cesternes which can hold no water Although I cannot denie that certaine relikes of the inuisible Church doe lie hidden in the same who haue not bended their knee to Baal But as it is said to the Church of Sardis You haue a name that you liue but you are dead that may deseruedly be spoken of the Romish Church in respect of the inward faith the soule of the Church you are starke dead although in outward profession you are said to liue You are called the Temple of God because you reteyne the name of Christ but you are the whore of Babylon because you haue forsaken the faith The temple of God equiuocally not vniuocally for an equiuocall Church is good enough for aequiuocating Christians Now the ten hornes that is the ten Kings haue one purpose as the Angell speaketh to giue ouer his virtue and his power to the beast Her they will serue they will loue and seeke after her her they will susteyne with their forces at her booke they will draw the sword and being confederaed in holy leagues both with the beast and within themselues will fight with the Lambe but after that the Lambe shall by litle and litle begin to weaken and consume Antichrist by the preaching of his word then the ten hornes which before had to doe with the whore shall begin to hate her and leaue her forsaken and naked CHAP. XXII An aduise to Princes to ioyne against the Pope 8 WHich cannot bee said of old but of new Rome whereof a great part of the prophecie is now fulfilled For the Pope hath lost as Bellarmine bemoaneth a great part of Germanie Suetia Gothia Noruegia all Denmarke a good part of England France Heluetia Polonia Bohemia and Pannonia He might better haue said all England and ioyn'd Scotland and Ireland thereto but that he would shew he hath a litle vaine hope in certaine secret and broken relicks of Antichrist among vs. I would to God that as the Kings of Great Britannie with many other great Princes haue cast of the whore A desire that France and Spaine would forsake the Pope so the Kings of France and Spaine would forsake her Rome is more to be feared of them then of our Britaine King whose Crowne is more free whose succession more certaine whose subiects more loyall whose kingdome is more remote and shut vp from popish assaults I would that so mighty Princes this Princes confederates would follow his valour and holines in this point whereby they might wholy fulfill the prophecie It is not for men of meane condition to giue counsell but to make prayers while they expound this so holy and waightie prophecie If not to aduise yet to wish first that those two potent Kings would ioyne with the King of Great Britaine and others those worthy Kings and Princes of the Reformed Church against Antichrist Next that if they doe make a secret league with Antichrist and within themselues against the Kings and Princes of the Reformed Church that all our side would make a holy League with all possible haste and take heed that our neighbours and brethren the Protestants of France and Flanders be not vnawares opprest by them whiles ours neglect them But wee may not make warres with our neighbour Kings But we ought to take heed lest they bring in a very dangerous warre vpon vs. But we must be addicted to peace True which hath no treacherie nor deceipt otherwise an holy warre is to be preferred before a trecherous peace whereto the Holy Ghost doth exhort Kings that with vnited forces they destroy and ouerthrow the whore of Babylon that is Rome as Bellarmine himselfe confesseth CHAP. XXIII The ouerthrow of Rome AS the Angell doth continue his prophecie to the last ouerthrow of the whore which cannot agree with heathenish and imperiall Rome for this ouerthrow doth follow the dissolution of the old Empire and the diuision thereof into ten kingdomes which according to the prophecie would that the whore should first perish afterward themselues should consume and destroy it Therefore this ouerthrow belongeth to Rome that is popish but christian in name as the Angell did notably expound it for whereas shee is said to sit vpon many waters that is many people and many nations as the Angell expounds it ver 15. and whereas the woman is called the great Citie which beareth rule ouer the Kings of the earth ver 18. nothing doth hinder but that it may be popish Rome But that popish Rome is not rightly said to haue gouerment first it is sufficient that Rome then Imperiall is described to be the seate wherein the whore of Babylon shall beare rule afterward Againe they which call her the kingdome of the Romanes Turrianus the kingdome of Priests doe confesse that shee beareth rule who haue very cunningly changed the secular kingdome into a spirituall that which Aquinas the Angelicall Doctor doth obserue Aquinas But so excellent a prophecie did not onely looke into the age then present but foresaw the age long after to follow And therefore the description of the whore is first set out in all her parts as you see and after her destruction which cannot be vnderstood of the burning of Ethnicke Rome by the Gothes and Vandales 10 but by a finall and sodaine destruction as it were a myllstone cast by great force into the sea For it shall not saith the Angell be found againe any more which cannot agree to Ethnicke Rome for after it had receiued
thought of Bellarmine and Julian alike who with Iulian the Apostata will fasten a lye vpon Christ while together with him he will as it were carrie stones to the building of it he in a mocke to Christ this in the honor of Antichrist That Bellarmine may feare fire from heauen to disturbe the worke which as the storie reporteth Iulian suffred Theodoret. lib. 3 cap 20. Sozom lib. 5. cap. vlt. Cic de orat 3. One thing I greatly feare that Antichrist will not take it in good part that such a mightie Monarch of the world as he is like to be must sit in a Temple bâ—â—â—ded in part Cicero did pretily set out the praise of the Capitol wherein Latine Iupiter doth reside that the roofe was not onely good for vse and necessitie but for ornament and beauty that although the Capitoll were builded vp as high as the heauen where the raine was not engendred yet it would haue no name if it had no roofe But Bellarmine although he caried morter and stone to the Temple of Ierusalem by the helpe of Antichrist wherein so great a Prince should sit so farre of he was for tendring his Masters honour that he did not supply necessitie for hee left the Temple with out beames or roofe hee left it on the earth where many showres doe gather many stormes doe sodenly fall that he may seeme to haue exposed the great Prince to the pleasure of the vnmercifull heauen in the middest of his stately Palace But let vs make vp the rest of the tale of this imagined Prince gouerning in an imagined place For hee addeth many things of his kingdom and his victories whereof the Scripture hath not one word It is a very conceited dreame that is fetcht out of Daniel mis-vnderstood who prophecied of Antiochus Epiphanes the sonne of great Antiochus the brother of Seleucus Philopater the successor of that namelesse beast the tenth horne literally and properly as of nine others which went before cap. 11. which Bellarmine himselfe confesseth and yet concludeth 1. That Antichrist rising out of a most base stocke by fraud and guile shall obteyne the kingdom of the Iewes 2. That he shall fight with three Kings of Aegipt Lybia and Ethiopia and shall possesse their kingdomes themselues being vanquished which was not true of Antiochus himselfe being the figure of Antichrist 3. That he shall make captiue seuen other Kings and shall enioy the Monarchie of the whole world O noble conqueror to be preferred before all the Pompeis Caesars and Alexanders who shall doe so great acts in the compasse of three yeeres and a halfe 4. With his mightie armie he shall persecute the Christians and these be the warres of Gog and Magog Doe you thinke these to be the oracles of the Scriptures or Bellarmines owne dreames grant that Antiochus was Antichrists type in many things what then if we should apply all those things Antiochus Antichrist vnlike to make them the same many absurdities do follow which were proper to the person of Antiochus to Antichrist in respect whereof he was not the type of Antichrist and shall inferre from them not the like but the same thing Let Antiochus be fetcht out of hell and let his soule passe into Antichrist that he may performe all those things And although Antichrist be a most vilde beast as Antiochus yet he must come not out of a most vilde but a most honorable stocke that he the sonne of Antiochus the Great the brother of Seleucus Philopater and successor in the kingdome of Syria as Antiochus is plainly set downe by Daniel cap 11. v. 21. in whose place one that is very vilde shall arise Platoes great yeere must returne againe that Antiochus againe must be an hostage at Rome before he come to his kingdome and kill his Nephew Demetrius as Richard the third King of England did and make three voyages into Egipt And great Achilles must be sent againe to Troy Let Antiochus make warre againe let him in his returne plague the Iewes and let Antichrist do all the acts of Antiochus which Daniel the Prophet doth so liuely describe that to Porphery who knew not with what spirit he wrote he seemeth to haue compiled an historie rather then a prophecie whereof more hereafter Now let vs pursue the rest of the pretty passages of this tale Enoch and Elias must come againe from heauen to earth to wit those two witnesses who preach the Gospell in their owne persons and fighting with Antichrist shall be killed by him and shall rise againe after three daies and a halfe and the rest which out of the 11 of the Apocalyps they miserably by force presse out by wringing the letter so that they seeme to play the Iewes in no place more Although in that place neither Enosh nor Elias The second beast mistaken for the first nor Antichrist as certaine learned men thinke is vnderstood for the beast that makes warre against these witnesses of God is said to ascend out of hell which seemes to be the first beast which is said to rise out of the sea cap 13. v. 1. when as the second is said to rise out of the earth Againe the floore of the Church is said to be giuen ouer to be trampled on by the Gentiles 42 monthes v 2. which time is assigned to the persecution of the first beast cap 13. v. 5. Againe it is to be troden on by the Gentiles not the Iewes whose Prince Antichrist is faigned to be Now they which precisely take the two witnesses to be two men The two witnesses Apoc. 11. not agreed on could neuer yet agree among themselues about the persons Some that they were Elias and Moses some Elias and Elizeus some not Elias but Ieremie others together with Elias and Moses thinke that Iohn the Diuine is added as a witnesse aboue number of Enoch none of the Fathers make any reckoning of the two Testaments as two witnesses and the diuers sincere Interpreters of the two Testaments who expound the place they doe more easily shift themselues as it shall be vnderstood afterward who being clad with sackcloth in great sorrow and griefe did preach repentance to the Gentiles at whose hands in steed of reward Persecution committed they receiued most cruell death The cruell persecution of the first beast wherein they deuoured the most faithfull witnesses of God lasted 294 yeeres which made the 42 monthes according to Daniels weekes whereof more anon Neither did God suffer his witnesses to die vnreuenged Persecution reuenged if wee compare the storie to the Prophecie For God did punish those bloody Emperors for his two witnesses sake so that the Nations were consumed by sharpe and quicke diseases growing by long drought and too great heat of the Sunne which bred such plagues that often deuoured whole Cities and consumed whole armies So happily the two witnesses may be said to haue shut heauen that it should not raine and to haue opened
word thought such a boundance of wealth to be very pernitious As Tacitus writeth that Aleius Capito and Lu Aruntius to keepe in the ouerflowing of Tyber they would diuert the fluds and streames whereby it did swell to that height that Tyber being cut off from the neighbour riuers might flow as with lesse glory so with lesse danger Ana 1. The Christian world seemeth to haue taken the same counsell to moderate the hurtfull abundance of the Tiberine Bishop so that Bellarmine may seeme to cast a needlesse doubt of the entrance of Antichrist of whose ouerthrow we so carnestly thinke We haue heard the mans first demonstration let vs consider of the second which is thus concluded CHAP. XXX Of the second token going before Antichrists comming IF the Romane Empire be not yet vtterly ouerturned so that it hath not lost the name of the Romane Empire Antichrist is not yet come But the first is true Therfore the second is true Or thus If before the comming of Antichrist the Romane Empire was to be diuided into ten Kings whereof none shall be called the King of the Romanes Antichrist is not yet come But the Antecedent is true Therefore the consequent is true Let vs see the strength and sinewes of this wonderfull demonstration wherin they so greatly triumph although in opening of the prophecy it is sufficiently before refuted the assumption whereof they go about to strengthen on euery side This is the assumption But the Romaine Empire is not yet vtterly ouerturned so that it hath lost the name of the Romane Empire Which they proue because the Romane Empire is to be diuided into tenne Kings whereof none is called the King of the Romanes They endeauour to strengthen either part out of the 2. Daniel 2.32 and seuenth of Daniel and 17. of the Apoc. in the 2. of Daniel they say is described a succession of 4. Kingdomes to last vnto the worlds end by the Image hauing the head of gold the brest of siluer the belly of brasse and the feete of iron The head of brasse signifieth say they the Kingdome of the Chaldees the brest of siluer the Kingdome of the Persians the belly of brasse the Kingdome of Alexander and the Grecians the feete of brasse the Kingdome of the Romanes the 2. feete the easterne and the westerne Empire of the Romanes Now as 2. feet haue 10. toes say they which are not feete So the Romane Empire shall bee diuided into 10. Kings whereof none is or is called the King of the Romanes The very same 4. Kingdomes Dan. 7. are described by 4. beastes a Lyon a beare a Leopard and a fourth without a name hauing 10. hornes whereof none is or is called a beast But this beast they say signifieth the Romane Empire and the 10. hornes 10. Kings which shall diuide that Empire Which they proue out of the 17. of the Apocalips where Iohn describes the beast with seauen heades and 10. hornes vpon whom the woman sate For the Angell say they doth so interpret The woman is a great city which sitteth vpon 7. hills that is Rome The 10. hornes are 10. Kings which shall raigne at one time and shall hate the whore c. By which wordes the Angell doth signifie that the Romane Empire by them shall be diuided and desolated so that it shall not retaine the name of the Romane Empire But that Antichrist is not as yet to come it is openly euicted out of Daniel cap 7. vers 14. the ten hornes are the tenne Kings of that kingdome whereof wee haue spoken hitherto And another say they shall rise after them Dan. 7.24 to wit Antichrist and he shall be more potent then the former and shall subdue three Kings and hee shall vtter speech against the most highest and shal tread vnder foote the Saints of the Almightie and shall imagine that he can change times and lawes and they shall bee deliuered into his handes for a time times and halfe a time And this they proue out of Hirom who addeth that a leuenth little King shal arise who shall ouercome three of the tenne Kings Yea Bellarmine goeth farther and out of the 11. Chapter vers 21. and in his place shall stand vp the most vile concludeth that Antichrist rising out of a base place shall by fraud and deceit get the Kingdome of the Iewes and shall not sight onely with three Kings of Egypt Libia and Ethiopia and shall enioy their Kingdomes themselues being vanquished but shal also make slaues seauen other Kings and shall haue the gouernment of the whole world 3. yeares and a halfe and in the meane time shall oppresse the Christians with an innumerable armie and these are the warres of Gog and Magog By all which prophecies of Daniel and Iohn concerning the Romane Empire and Antichrist together with the extent of his Kingdome beginning end and continuance thereof all as he thinkes so fitly agreeing betweene themselues hee peremptorily concludeth that Antichrist is not yet come Whereby there is a greater charge necessarily imposed vpon vs to looke diligently to the expounding of Daniels prophecie as wee were carefull formerly of expounding of Iohns prophecie So the argument shal be well satisfied when I shall confer the historie with the prophecie and set in order things confused and make plaine thinges obscure and shall compare Testament with Testament booke with booke chapter with chapter verse with verse neither will I adde a long Commentarie to a cleare text nor too short a Commentarie to an obscure by this meanes I shall neither admit superfluities or omit necessaries Especially when the prophecie is as a riddle which being darkely in many wordes set downe by the Prophet cannot be made plaine in a few wordes by a Doctour which doth rather require a Prophet to be the interpreter till euent hath made it plaine Wherein the Papists but chiefly Bellarmine must deale more fauourably with vs who hath reiected 12. Fathers in this cause if we likewise doe reiect the same and among them Ierome chiefly so it be without touch of his reputation seeing Austen saith that prophecies may sooner bee accomplished then vnderstood and doth sometime require that naked authorities being laid aside the matter with the matter and the cause with the cause and the reason may striue with the reason Ireneus saith that prophecies till they bee performed are to bee counted doubtfull riddles Irene lib. 4. ad ver heres c. 43. wherein Bellarmine shall not grant lesse to vs then he taketh to himselfe who when hee seeth his Master the Pope to bee pincht and stonge by Ireneus Bellar. de Pon lib. 3. cap. 18. makes this answere to serue his turne Ireneus saith he thinkes it a surer way and lesse dangerous to expect the fulfilling of the prophecie then to suspect it And the Papists seeme to haue learned this modestie out of Daniel who prophecing of other things as wee shall proue of Antichrist as the Papists thinke
say that the words are shut and sealed vp to the time appointed Who if we grant to haue foretould of the Romane Empire and of Antichrist he will neither much hurt our cause or helpe theirs For if Daniels fourth beast be the state of the Romane Empire and the 10. hornes the tenne Kings among whom it shall bee diuided and the eleuenth horne springing thence be Antichrist assuredly the Pope who is raised out of the fall and ruine of the Empire is Antichrist Here if you please I will consider of all those places alleaged by Bellarmine and search-out how they agree within themselues and how with the text Bellarmine saith that the fourth Empire Bellarmines contradiction which he taketh to be the Romane shall last to the worlds end And yet hee saith that the Romane Empire shall be vtterly destroied before the comming of Antichrist who shall raigne three yeares and a halfe How can hee then alleage it for a truth that the Romane Empire shall last to the worlds end I send this great Chrisippus againe to Aristotles Analytickes whither some time he sendeth others without cause that when he hath reuiewed them he may teach vs how two contradictions can be true at one time The Romane Empire shall last to the worlds end The Romane Empire shall not last to the worlds end for it must haue the finall destruction at the comming of Antichrist who shall raigne three yeares and a halfe Now let vs consider how Bellarmine and Daniel doe agree Many of our age and those very learned who seeme very exactly to search into Daniel do thinke that the fourth Empire which many other without doubt as well learned as they doe take for the Romane Monarchie was the Kingdome of the Seleucides and the Lagides in Siria and Egypt The exposition of the 7. of Daniel as they afflicted Iury hembd in betweene them and therefore designed to be more terrible then the three former because more dangerous to Iury. And that the ten hornes were ten Kings of Siria Egypt who did successiuely oppresse the Iewes and that Antiochus Epiphanes was the tenth and last who more then the rest did plague them most cruelly and that therefore he was the type of Antichrist who should no lesse afflict the Christians and not Antichrist himselfe as Bellarmine dreameth Let vs if you please alledge some of the reasons drawne out of the Text. Reasons th t Antichrist is not properly in Daniel 1 The fourth beast was a kingdome to be abolished before the comming and raigne of the Messias as the Prophet teacheth cap 7. v. 11. 26. 27. which is true of the kingdome of the Seleucides false of the Romane 2. The fourth beast did make warre with the Iewes and did greuously oppresse them did hinder the worship of God not onely before the comming of Christ but before the purging of the Temple and the restoring of the Iewish worship by Iudas Machabeus cap 7. v. 25. 26. 27. which agreeth with the kingdome of the Seleucides not with the Romane 3. Ten hornes and no more did belong to the fourth beast that is ten Kings I will name them anon who did oppresse Iurie with their tyrannie which being vnderstood of seuen Seleucides and three Lagides is very true of the Romanes very false who after they got the gouernment of Iurie were more then ten 4. Besides those Kings did succeed one another orderly in the same kingdome this is true in the seuen Seleucides and three Lagides but not in them who after descended from the Kings in the Româ— Empire who at the same time did raigne in diuers Prouinces as the Aduersarie himselfe confesseth 5. Lastly the Leopard cap. 7. signifying the Graecian Empire is shadowed by the Goate cap 8. which appeares by that that as the Leopard is said there to haue had foure heads so the Goate when his great horne was broken of Alexander foure hornes are said to succeed in his place i. foure Princes among whom the Empire of the Goate was diuided which to the Romane Empire agreeth not but to the Greeke it doth Alexander and his foure Princes For after Alexanders death Ptolomey the sonne of Lagis held Egipt Philip Alexanders brother Macedon Seleucus Nicanor Syria and Babylon Antigonus Asia the lesse these were Alexanders foure Princes as Hierom obserueth If it bee demanded how the two feet prophecied of by Daniel What is ment by the 2 feete and 10. toes which in Bellarmines iudgment doth fitly resemble the Rom Empire diuided into the East and West from whence ten Kings as ten toes did proceede I answer from those foure Princes of Alexander two of them that is Seleucus Nicanor and Ptolomey Lagis were the most potent who brought the other four Kingdomes by mutuall warres vnder their subiection from him the kingdom of the Seleucides and the kingdome of Syria in the North from this the kingdome of the Lagides and of the Kings of Egipt in the South did descend and both these did with their invasions greatly afflict the Iewes placed in the middest These were the two feet which did so miserably trample vpon the Iewes from whence did spring out ten Kings as ten toes which Daniel describeth cap 11. Daniels litle horne who it is for the three Lagides descended from Ptolomie the seuen Seleucides from Seleucus and from thence in the end of the kingdome of the Selcucides ouer the Iewes a litle horne sprouted out cap 7. 9 that is a King with a bold face that is The ten hornes Antiochus â—piphanes the tenth horne cap. 11. properly and liuely described 1 Ptolomie Lagis The first horne of the fourth and namelesse beast Ptolomie Lagis King of the South .i. of Egipt is described v 5. then Seleucus Nicanor the most puissant of Alexanders Princes v 11. 2. Seleucus Nicanor 3. Antiochus Soâ—er 4. Anâ—iâ—chus Theos the King of the North is the second horne for hee preuailed against Ptolomie and recouered Iurie and all Siria from him and gouerned there himselfe Him did Antiochus Soter the third horne succeed whose sonne Antiochus Theos the fourth horne that he might establish a league betweene himselfe and Ptolomie Philadelphus King of Egipt v 6. tooke Bernice Philadelphus daughter to wife that thereby he might fulfill that part of the Prophecie of the two feet one of yron thother of clay that they should mingle themselues with mans seede and yet should not grow together Dan 2. v. 43. the prophecie was proued true by euent for Antiochus Theos had already Laodice another wife aliue 5. Seleucus Callinicus of whom he begat Seleucus Calinicus the fift horne who slew Bernice her sonne and seruants Antiochus Theos was poysoned by Laodice his wife and Ptolomie v 7. Bernices Father presently after the mariage died for griefe 6. Ptolomie Euergetes But in his place arose Ptolomie Euergetes the sixt horne who being of the same race with Bernice .i. her Brother made warre vpon
Seleucus Callinicus to reuenge his sisters death v 8. and vanquished him and being crowned King of Siria returned into Egipt with his spoiles and prisoners and hauing greater power then Callinicus enioyed Siria many yeeres and Iurie therein v 9. Wherefore the two sonnes of Callinicus Seleucus Ceraunus and Antiochus the Great inuaded Siria and raised a cruell warre Ceraunus against Ptolomie Euergetes v 10. who being dead Antiochus the Great gathered great forces against Ptolomie Philopater the the sonne of Euergetes Of this Antiochus the great the Angell prophecieth from the 10. v 11. 12. verse to the 20. first of his warres with Ptolomie Philopater and those first prosperous wherein he recouered Siria then vnfortunate 7. Ptolomie Philopator wherein he lost it againe Here Ptolomie Philopator lifted vp into pride by this good successe was the seuenth horne and slew many thousands of the Iewes and therefore shall not alway preuaile v 12 13 14 15 16. After of the warres and victories of Antiochus the Great which hee got of Ptolomeus Epiphanes the sonne of Philopater and of the depopulation of the Iewes whence Antiochus the Great is the eight horne 8. Antiochus the Great He gaue his daughter Cleopatra in mariage to Ptolomie Epiphanes that hee might againe mingle the yron and the clay together but all in vaine according to the prophecie cap 2. when as hee pretended peace and friendship by that mariage but intended destruction to Ptolomie but all in vaine because Cleopatra tooke part with her husband against her Father Lastly v 17. of Antiochus the Great his inuading the Isles of Greece which he subdued v 18. and of the warres he made with the Romanes wherein hee gat great disgrace and of his ignominious death inflicted vpon him in a mutinie by sauage people for his sacrilege v 19. Into his roome succeeded Seleucus Philopator his sonne the ninth horne 9. Seleucus Philopator who did impouerish the people with greeuous impositions and emptied the treasurie and the Temple of Ierusalem and perished not by warre but by treacherie for Heliodore being suborned by Antiochus Epiphanes tooke him away by poyson Now into his place shall step vp saith the Angell a most contemptible fellow .i. there shall succeed Seleucus Philopator in the kingdome of Siria one very base in manners not in his Ancestors Antiochus Epiphanes the third sonne of Antiochus the Great the brother of Seleucus Philopator Demetrius Vnkle the tenth horne 10. Antiochus Epiphanes that litle horne so fully described by Daniel in the rest of the 7. and 11. chap for the Angell doth prophecie of his entrance deeds and end in the rest of the chapter of his entrance to note that he came not to the kingdom of Siria by any lawfull right of succession or election for Demetrius his Nephew was right heire of the kingdome but crept in by cunning and flatterie as a tutor and a gardian of the young Prince and a protector of the Kingdome in the nonage and absence of Demetrius sent to Rome for an hostage in his steed You haue the historie agreeing with the prophecie described both by others and especially by Iosephus Antiq. lib. 12. cap 1. Therefore Antiochus Epiphanes the tenth and litle horne out of small and weake beginnings vsurped the kingdome of Siria a man for his wickednes vile and contemptible who did breake off and cast away by his craft three of the former hornes in the Kingdom of Syria the father the brother and the nephew that he might attaine to the Kingdome And vttered speeches against the Almighty and so oft trampled vpon the Saints of God so that the times of persecuting the people of God Daniels country-men assigned to the little horne do precisely agree with the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes Foure degrees of deliuerance which are diuersly reckoned vp in respect of the beginning and ending for there are foure degrees noted of the deliuerance from the tyranny of Antiothus procured at foure seuerall times The first cap. 7. vers 25. when the worship of God was renewed and the Temple restored by Iudas Machabaeus for from the prophanation of the Temple which beganne the fifteenth of Casleu anno 145. to this reformation made the 25. of Casleu anno 148. three yeeres and ten dayes came betweene which space Daniel cals a time times a peece of time cap. 7. v. 25. The second degree when the Iewes hauing vanquished Antiochus draue his forces out of Iury and re-established the new reformation P◠Bell. I. de lib. 1. cap. 1. which happened 3. yeeres and an halfe as Iosephus obserues from the time when the daily sacrifice did cease which space Daniel cals a time times and halfe a time cap. 12. vers 7. The third degree is from the prophanation of the Temple to the deadly sicknesse of Antiochus which is contained by Daniel in 1290. dayes cap. 12. vers 11. The last degree is from the profanation to his death which happened 45. daye after and these daies are exactly cast vp by Daniel to be 1335. By all which it appeareth that Daniel did shadow out by the fourth beast not the Romane Empire but the kingdome of the Seleucides and the Lagides The disagreement of Bellarmine Daniel and that he described by the tenth and little horne not Antichrist properly but Antiochus Epiphanes And I pray you marke how ill Bellarmine agreeth with Daniel Daniel describeth a beast with a tenth horne Bellarmines beast hath an eleuenth Daniel speaks of ten Kings who successiuely did afflict the Iewes Daniels country-men Bellarmine speakes of ten Kings who together with an eleuenth at the same time did altogether beare rule in the world but in diuers places Daniel sets downe ten kings whereof the three latter were rooted out in the sight and procurement of the tenth the other sixe either all of them or most of them being dead before he was borne Bellarmine faines that three of them were slaine by him and seuen others subdued at such time as they were not in the world Lastly Daniel saith that his horne or king was broken off being infamous for his cowardly flight and being infected with a filthy disease after hee had tormented the Iewes the time appointed did miserably consume away and perish Bellarmine imagines his horne the Aegyptians Lybians and Aethiopians being vanquished and seuen other Kings subdued should get the monarchie of the whole world for three yeeres and a halfe O admirable Conquerour more renowned then the Antiochi Alexanders and Caesars ☜ Therefore we looke that Bellarmine shall play the Orator for Antichrist who may excellently set foorth these warres and victories as Cicero did Caesars No man hath so flowinng a wit so copious and eloquent tongue and stile who I will not say can paint and set out but point at and reckon vp thy worthy Acts Most Mighty Antichrist Neither could any man so soone passe thorow remote Kingdomes by
of Babylon not the materiall is to be vnderstood which being weakned and shaken by the preaching of the word while as yet the walls were standing fell in mens mindes and was wholy cast downe For who is there but of small vnderstanding to whom the iniquitie of the Church and Court of Rome doth not appeare to whom their impietie is not euident to whom shee seemes not to be the mother of fornication the receptacle of spoiles the queene of pride the shop of sinnes and the sinke of all filthinesse In what accompt the Pope was heretofore A hundred and threescore yeeres since one that was no Heretike as a Lutherane is termed but a Roman-Catholike writ thus of the Pope as it is recited in the catalogue of the witnesses of truth Iupiter is below In heauen is Plutoes place Vpon a brutish animal Bestowed is all grace It is as Iewells in the mire And durt vpon the face And if he were so hatefull when the darknes did couer his filthinesse how much more hatefull doth he seeme to all since the light of the Gospell hath laid him open and naked to the view of all men The third Angell followed them The third Angell Apo 14.10.11 crying with a loud voice If any shall adore the beast and her image and beare her marke in his forehead or in his hand he shall drinke of the wine of his wrath which is mingled with wine in the cup of his wrath And he shall be tormented with fire and brimestone in the sight of the Angells and before the face of the Lambe and the smoke of their torment doth ascend vp for euer This Angell doth threaten eternall destruction not onely to Rome and the beast but to all that loue Rome or adore the beast whether they carrie the marke of the beast either openly in their forhead or closely in their hand An exhortation to Ministers Here I admonish euery man of God euery messenger of God my selfe being the least and last of all Christs seruants that they seeke not after ease to make them idle or after wealth to make them couetous or after pleasures to make them luxurious or after preferment to make them proud but that they haue a continuall care to recouer soules fallen to the beast or preserue them that stand vpright to whom being stampt with the marke of the beast the Angell of God doth denounce so greeuous and endlesse torments There is no doubt but as soone as any of you doe earnestly vndertake this businesse of God and Christ but he shall endure many wrongs not onely from outward enemies but which is more greeuous from false brethren those following the quarrell of Antichrist these couering their owne with the name of Christ so that they can looke for nothing from these but molestation and trouble from those nothing but death and destruction But let him for his comfort heare that voice which Iohn heard from heauen write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord so saith the Spirit that they rest from their labours and their works follow them And if those dead be blessed that liue and die in the Lord .i. in the faith of the Lord how much more happy be they that liue and die for the Lord .i. for the faiih of the Lord We haue three witnesses testifying this happinesse Three witnesses of happinesse 1. The voice from heauen 2. The Scripture in the Church 3. The spirit in the consciences all testifying that the sense of our miserie is short but the sense of our happinesse euerlasting that the life weakned by sicknesse is necessarily to be laid downe and that it is not greatly materiall whether a man die vnder a canopie or in a campe so he die in Christ and for Christ that a momentanie life is here granted to vs but that the reward of a life well spent is immortall And whereas it is appointed that all shall die Gods seruants may rather wish that their life which must necessarily be ended be rather spent in a holy cause then reserued for a naturall end especially against seducing and bloody Antichrist and all his adherents who now if euer are most wrung and grumble threatning fire and sword to the Saints of God The wicked therefore when they fall shall be most greeuously punished in hell for all their impieties and abominations but these that are washed and redeemed with the blood of Christ shall presently from their death in great triumph enioy a place and rest in heauen The sixt Angell Apoc 16.12 For after in the sixt Viol which the sixt Angell powreth out into that great riuer Euphrates there is mention of a great battaile to which those 3. vncleane spirits cōming in the likenes of frogs out of the mouth of the Dragō out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false Prophet doe summon the Kings of the earth against the great day of the Almightie God who shall gather them together into a place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon In which words the malice of Satan and of Antichrist and the Antichristian Synagogue is plainly set downe as likewise of the Iesuites those frogs who croking out of their caues prouoke the Kings of the earth to warre against Christ and the Church but with what successe the place and day doth declare That is the day wherein the right hand of Almightie God shall be great and glorious by the fall of Antichrist The place where the Popish frogs shall be destroyed The place is called in Hebrew the hill of theeues and robbers as Aquinas or a cursed armie prepared to battaile or an armie of destruction which shall both bring destruction and endure it Vnlesse that be better as diuers read Charmagaddon that is a troupe appointed to the slaughter or Gnarmageddon which signifies a craftie kinde of killing so that the sense is that Princes are to be brought into that place by the cunning sleight of Satan and Antichrist where they may vtterly perish Although another farre otherwise and farre better doe take it not for a noune appellatiue but proper Megiddo it was a hilly city in the land of Canaan and because Har in Hebrew is a hill and that was scituated vpon an hill it was called Harmageddon That place was renowned for the slaughter of the Canaanites where where Iabin and Sisera fighting against the people of God were daunted and vanquished vnder the gouernment of Deborah for whom the starres were sayd to fight in their courses as the windes and seas did fight for our Elizabeth of blessed memorie against the Spanish inuincible Armado to whom that distichon of Claudian doth fitly agree O much belou'd of God for whom the seas doe fight And winds conspire to blow to put the foe to flight The seuenth Angell Therefore Harmageddon was the place of this battell that the enemies of the Church with Iabin and Sisera gathered together by God might expect
they may distract your mindes and stirre them vp to make warre against your brethren that thereby that Latiall Iupiter waxing great by your discords may leape for cruell ioy at your miseries and destructions I appeale to your own consciences haue you not at all times found the Popes Nuntij Dataries and Iesuites to be such Let there bee an end of quarrelling at the last all these mischiefes shall bee presently taken away and now this serpent that hath swolne so bigge with discords to the publike hurt shall be broken and consumed Let me therefore be a counseller to you The duty of Kings that a true and a sound peace being concluded among you euerie one of you in your seuerall kingdomes wherein I haue left you Kings to be my Vice-gerents that you restore the true worship of God renew a right faith establish good manners purge the true Sacraments of the Church call backe a-againe the olde discipline brought in by the Colledge of the Apostles and confirmed by the counsell of Neece Further that what euery one haue done all the rest doe allow that you gather together a generall counsell by generall consent wherein the feare of danger being taken away and the partaking of sides being layd aside An admonition to the Pontifician Princes to beware of Syren and Erinnis the cause of Christ may bee safely and freely handled against Antichrist Heere I doe seuerally admonish the Romane Catholike Kings Princes to beware of two counsellers whereof I call one of them Syren the other Erinnis Syren doth perswade them to follow their pleasures auoid labour feare danger doe not stirre a settled pollicy doe not break truce with their olde friend and companion the Pope that they goe not about to mend any mischiefe that is almost past help For they cannot she saith cast off the Pope though they would Can they not What cannot the arme of a King bring to passe being strengthened with the arme of God from thence faith doth arise from faith the magnanimity of kings whereof that driues away blinde superstition this base sluggishnesse and cowardice That makes them to discerne this makes them to withstand all human hinderances so that they may cast off the Pope as easily as an old heauy gown It is a reproch for the Popish Kings to say that the mischiefe is greater then can be remedied that as yet they cannot mend it That they cannot cast out the Pope if they would Could the Princes of Germanie could the Kings of Denmarke Scotland and Sueuland that I may not speake of a great part of France Heluetia Polonia Bohemia and Pannonia The Kings of England could the Father the young Sonne and the Daughter euen then when all their neighbours abroad were alienated from them when at home they had a seditious cleargie and a superstitious people euen then did the holy courage of a Man a Childe and a Woman breake thorow and passe ouer all humane lets and impediments whatsoeuer Let it be a shame for Popish Princes both young men and ancient men not to bee able to doe that which a Childe and a Woman were able to doe But Syren perhaps will whisper that it is not good stirring of Paul the fift beeing full of Gregories Alexanders Bonifaces and Iulij O what foolish feare is that so to take heede that they feare a mischiefe which when they are able to put it cleane away they pull it and draw it vpon them But some will not cast off the Pope if they could They think it a necessary euill for Kings to bridle their subiects and for subiects to bridle their Kings To whom Christ doth seeme more hard and rigorous as hee that neuer dispenseth with sinne and doth remit nothing but to him that earnestly repents They haue neede therefore of a gentle and a cockering Antichrist who may dispense with adultery and incest and may approoue and allow of marriages forbidden by the Law of God As the fashion of the world is now adaies licēce is to be giuē to sinning so sin doth make the Pope necessarie Vnhappy necessity which necessarily brings damnation to a man He doth worthily loue his sinne who while hee keepes that loseth his soule Hee rates his short life at too high a price who that while he may liue a while after his owne lust doth lose life eternall In the meane time while Antichrist doth constraine them with so extreame necessity what a heauy burthen doth he lay vpon them that he seemeth to bind them with linckes of golde in this life whom he hath appointed for the chaines of darknesse in the life to come These you shall easily breake asunder by the helpe of God and assistance of Protestant Princes But the contrariety of their religion is suspected vnto vs. But this contrariety is your security for if the Popes bee so sawcy to doe such things when so many Princes haue forsaken the seat of pestilence what would they attempt if none at all had departed from them for if the Frederickes Henries and Charles did so easily punish the Gregories Alexanders and Clements euen in the very midnight of popish darknesse if Philip the Faire and Lewis the 12. did handle the Bonifaces and Iulij after their deserts how farre more easily may their posterity with the ayde of Protestant Princes in so cleere a light of the Gospell tame and bring vnder Paul the fift Especially seeing Philip the 2. the present king of Spaine cannot forget that his father who alwaies was the Popes champion was vnworthily and basely abused by the Pope in keeping Sicilie and Naples from him And let the French King remember that not onely Henry the 3. but Henrie the 4. his father was cruelly murthered by a villaine sent in for that purpose Therefore the holy courage of Protestant Kings should not mooue suspition in Popish Kings against the Kings their neighbours but rather it should stir vp their anger against the Pope that with ioyned forces they might breake the Idols head shorten his armes pare his nailes open his belly cut off those legs and feet wherwith they may remember their ancestours crownes were so basely cast to the ground You haue heard how euill Syren hath perswaded them now heare how farre worse Erinnis doth aduise them whose deadly musique if you bee wise you shall keepe farre off both from your mindes and eares perswading you that it is fit to raise warre in the defence of Antichrist against your brethren and allies for they purpose nothing else but that their treasure being spent on both sides and their forces being weakened by mutuall warres as it often hapned heeretofore that they may build vp a chaire for the Priests and by casting downe the thrones of Kings to whom it is great pleasure to lift vp their shrubbe which may set fire on the wood and consume the Cedars of Libanon Now I tell you before hand that you take heed of that war which these holy Erinnis will cry out
you for all the sorrowes they haue endured For what else could haue extorted that Law from so mercifull a Queene which you ere-while blamde as bloody For your Iesuites after the sending in of Pius the fifts Bull came swarming into England as Campion Parsons and many others and did mightily labour to put that Bull in execution and did propound it as the thirteenth Article of their faith That there was no more obedience to be shewed to a Queene excommunicated The seditious doctrine of Iesuites gaâ— that seuere law when it came to practise and deposed then presently followed the rebellion in the North. It was therefore your seditious doctrine that begat so seuere a law Your schoole hath made the Catholike doctrine of Rome a Catechisme of rebellion Your Logicke first made a Papist and a Traytor to be all one your Societie was the first ouerthrow of the Roman-Catholikes estate For your Papists behaued themselues quietly for the first eleuen yeeres while Pius the fift that old credulous dotard was induced by the false whisperings of the English Catholikes as they call them shewing that their powers were so strong that they could resist the Queenes forces had excommunicated the Queene by his Bull and depriued Her of her kingdome and had released her subiects from the Oath of their Allegeance and being so released stirred them vp to take armes against Hir. But the old man quickly found his error and corrected it with his dispensation that the Papists to redeeme their troubles so hee speaketh should shew outward obedience to Queene Elizabeth but restreyned with two conditions one things so standing thother while the publike execution of the Bull might be performed that is to say while they had so much power as by force they might ouercome the Queene Rebellion among Iesuites is an article of faith Hence among the cases of conscience brought into England by you sprang out the 55 Article Where a Catholike being demanded Doe you beleeue that the Pope can put the Queene from her authoritie he is taught to answer notwithstanding any feare of death I do beleeue it For this question doth appertaine to faith and requires a confession of faith Behold your Catholike faith which this present oath is said by the Pope to crosse it is the chiefe head of Iesuitisme which we may call the marrow of Poperie And are you now in a chafe Saturnine that a few Iesuites are hangde vp for Traytors who make treason an article of their faith And doe you not thinke the King hath a iust cause to take away their heads Alaâ—us who haue with such coniuring bewitched the consciences of subiects that they thinke that warre holy iust and honorable which is raised against their Prince But what if they were not only messengers and masters § 8 but authors and actors of rebellion The Iâ—suites and authors and actors of rebellion and haue entred into the most cruellest conspiracy that euer was since the creation not onely to depose the King and absolue his subiects but to rase out the King and Kingdome and to blot out the English nation and to root out the men out of the earth for euer and that not the guilty onely but the innocents also according to that olde tyrannicall practise Cicero pro Diatore Let our friends perish so our enemies perish also And they would haue the Catholikes with heretickes The Martyrdome of the Kingdome of England as wee seeme to you the noble with the ignoble and the fathers to bee Martyrs with their sonnes For what else was that gun-powder treason deuised by you but the Martyrdome of the King and Kingdome § 9 Then Saturnine you doe great wrong to the Iesuites saith he whom you faine to bee the Authors of Catesbies conspiracy for that which they heard onely vnder the seale of confession thought it was meet to bee concealed about the martyrdome of the kingdome as you call it which God wote hurt no body being only deuised and not performed Garnet therefore the chiefe Iesuite did wrong to the Iesuites saith Patriotta who when himself had nourished that euill humor in Catesby whom hee would haue to bee the head and heart of the whole conspiracy a right Cateline and an apt scholler who concluded by a very wicked consequence out of the bull of Clement the eight wherein the Pope had excluded the King being an hereticke as hee writ from entrance into the Kingdome concluded I say that being entred he was by all meanes possibly to bee expelled out of that wicked proposition which now is in question hee suckt out that most pestilent poyson of that vnheard-of treachery But when Garnet would haue him the cheife worke-man in this conspiracy hee ioyned vnto him diuers other counsellers out of his owne tribe nay out of his owne bosome And lest that liuing messe of Iesuites being singularly inspired with the spirit of the Pope of Rome Garnet Greenwell Gerard. Parsons should lay the whole fault vpon a Lay-traitor now dead let it be vnderstood that it was confest by Garnet being now ready to die vnder his hand by a voluntarie confession Hee writ that Greenwell with Catesby was heard of him The Traytor betraies himselfe not confessing but consulting That Greenwell with Gerard were not onely authors but actors who declared their guiltinesse of the fact by their flight That Baldwine and Parsons were acquainted with it whereof he set on Fauxe that Fire brand in Germany The other made acquainted by him of the villanous treachery came flying against the day out of Italie into Lyons in France as it were on pilgrimage to S. Winefreds well as a crow to carrion that like another Nero hee might with a detestable pleasure neerer behold the fire most furiously consuming each part of his country But this Martyrdome of the King and Kingdome as you call it was not brought to effect What then As though we are ignorant that Antichrist doth deliuer many to death and doth assigne many more That hee doth thirst after more blood then he doth spill We were all Martyrs in your intention but not in execution That the mischeefe was deuised we attribute it to your malice that it tooke no effect to Gods mercy Which mooued the neuer-suspecting heart of the King the most mildest of all that are haue beene or shall be that out of those letters whereof little reckoning was made he smelt out the kind of danger and I may almost say the verie gun-powder it selfe and so was made an instrument of the publike safetie Hence riseth a double bond one that bindeth the King to God the other that more neerely for euer bindeth vs to the King There is no want either of counsell and care to the King and his prudent and faithfull Counsellers but when neither care nor counsell can preuent such blinde and secret conspiracie both thankes are to be giuen to God for our deliuerance past whereof I doubt wee
at all suffer either the truth of Gods Testament to be so corrupted by such wicked Impostors or the maiestie of kingly gouernment to bee so defaced For the dissolution of gouernment springeth out of the corruption of Gods Testament Wherefore if they would admit of wholesome counsail they would iudge these deceitfull Iuglers who make controuersies last for euer by the pernicious quirkes and trickes were to bee supprest by armes not to be refuted by arte for certainely these will neuer leaue off to offer dishonour to God and wrong to Kings § 153 Then Saturnine you are too hot and earnest sayd he Patriott against that most learned Cardinall and light of our age And you must leaue off said he to praise your Cardinall and prooue the supremacie For your Popish writers could neuer yet agree vpon a text whereon the supremacie was plainely grounded Then Saturnine what is more plaine and euident saith hee then that Peter is called the head of the Apostles Ephes 1. The Popish diuision of the head and the rocke whereon Christ promised he would build his Church Matth. 16. for although S. Paul do call Christ the principall and inuisible head of the Church which giueth life to the whole bodie of the Church yet it is euident that there is a ministeriall and a visible head appointed by Christ that may outwardly gouerne the whole Church Cor. 12. whereof hee maketh mention Corinth 12. The head cannot say to the feete I haue no neede of you which cannot be vnderstood of Christ the principall head For Christ the eternall word of God can say to vs It followeth not but might haue beene aswell spoken to Iohn or Iames. I haue no neede of you it followeth then that it is to bee vnderstood of a ministeriall head that is Peter and Peters successour the Bishop of Rome And although Paul doe affirme Christ to bee that one onely cheife foundation of the Church 1 Cor. 3 1◠yet when he saith in another place that the Church is builded vpon the foundation of the Apostles therfore vpon the person of Peter the Prince of the Apostles as Christ did first call him the Rocke and Esay when in the spirit of prophesie he spake in the person of God Behold I will lay in Sion a stone a tried stone a precious corner stone a sure foundation A text peculiarly proper to Christ blasphemously applied to Peter as hee vnderstandeth Christ the cheife foundation whereof the Apostle speaketh Another foundation 1. Cor. 3. so hee did foreshew Peter whom Christ called the rocke and the Pope that precious corner stone that surefoundation but a second foundation Bellarm in praefat de Rom. Pont. cap. 1. As was likewise prophesied of one head which the sonnes of Iuda and the sonnes of Israel being assembled should appoint to themselues Whereby it appeareth that there ought to be one vniuersall Bishop of the whole Church Saunders of the visib Monar l. 4. c. 5 and that Christ and his Vicar make one head one visible and ministeriall head whereon all the Church should depend for the remedy of schisme one rocke one secondarie foundation euen the person and chaire of Peter whereon the Church might rest for feare of slipping and falling Let vs aske after the fathers the sincere interpreters of § 154 the Scripture Optatus who thinketh that the word Cephas as it signifieth a head taken from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore calleth Peter the head of the Apostles For the word stone in the Syriake signifieth head in the Greeke Ad Marcel tom Epist 2. each prerogatiue of Peter is described by that word Now that the person of Peter was both called and laid the rocke of the Church by Christ Ierome is a witnesse who doth plainely affirme that Peter was he vpon whom the the Lord founded the Church And to Damasus tom Epist 2. August in Psal contra part Donat. I am ioyned in communion with your blessednesse that is to the chaire of Peter I know that the Church is builded vpon that rocke And Austin when hee maketh mention of the seat of Peter saith that that is the rocke Cypria de vnica Ecces Cathol And Cyprian Whosoeuer doth forsake the chaire of Peter whereon the Church is builded doth hee trust to bee in the Church It would bee too long to reckon vp all the fathers who haue written that the person of Peter was called and placed the rocke by Christ whereon hee promised not only to build the Church at that time but would build it after And therefore I alleadged three who called it not the person of Peter only but called the chaire the rocke that I might note downe in the Bishop of Rome the perpetuall building of the Church according to the words of Christ Now bee packing Patriott and deny if you can this cheife article of the Catholike faith that the supremacie and principallity of Peter is plainly grounded vpon the Scriptures Whence a diuers beginning and excellency may bee gathered both of the Ecclesiasticall and secular gouernment that the Pope as spirituall Prince as Peter hath deriued his power immediately from Christ to gouerne his subiects But secular Princes haue receiued their power mediately to gouerne their subiects either by the means of election as the Emperour and King of Polonia or of hereditary succession as the Kings of Spaine France England or of grant and donation as the free Princes or of iust warre and conquest as Godfrey heeretofore and other Lords held the holy land Therefore to the Pope as to Peter ordained the cheife spirituall Prince immediately from Christ in the Church as to the head and rocke of the Church spiritual obedience for conscience sake is to be giuen of all Christians But to secular Kings ordained mediately by humane titles onely secular obedience for policies sake to preserue good order and manners is to bee performed obedience to the higher power alway being preserued which I would haue you know I speake to that end that I might call to your remembrance Calander that whereof you cannot bee ignorant that you doe so sweare fealty to the King that you abiure not your fealty to the Vicar of Christ The vse of which article I thought good shortly to set before all Catholikes in respect of their Princes § 155 Then Patriots you haue spoken much in few words sayd he Saturnine and almost all I am sure the cheifest points which your men doe alleadge out of the Scripture for the supremacy so that you seeme to haue placed them in the rereward as your best soulders at the push of the pike whom if I shall by Gods grace ouerthrow I trust I shall more easily defeat the rest of your broken and scattered forces And first wee must shortly see in what sense Christ the eternal sonne of God is said to be the head the rock and foundation of the Church and so it shall easily