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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35696	Jus Cæsaris et ecclesiæ vere dictæ or, A treatise wherein independency, presbytery, the power of kings, and of the church, or of the brethren in ecclesiastical concerns, government and discipline of the church : and wherein also the use of liturgies, tolleration, connivence, conventicles or private assemblies, excomminication, election of popes, bishops, priests what and whom are meant by the term church, 18 Matthew are discoursed : and how I Cor. 14. 32. generally misunderstand is rightly expounded : wherein also the popes power over princes, and the liberty of the press, are discoursed / by William Denton ...	Denton, William, 1605-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing D1066; ESTC R9164	326,898	268

shall be accounted for a Law and hath confirmed it with an accursed Canon viz. that if any man shall say that by the Commandment of God or of necessity all and singular the Faithful of Christ ought to receive both kinds let him be Accursed They are not herewith content but they will impose upon us Five other Sacraments which God never ordained for Sacraments Baptism and the Eucharist Christ Instituted commanded and practised but for those other Five Supernumerary Additionals they are of Papal and not of Christs Institution Of the same Parentage is their leaving out of their ordinary Catechisms one Commandement of the Decalogue written with the Finger of God himself lest it should rise up in Judgment against them for their Idolatries and Superstition Non obstante Gods command Deut. 4.2 Ye shall not add unto the word that I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it that you may keep the Commandment of the Lord your God which I command you and Non obstante Rev. 22.18 19. If any man shall add to these things God shall add unto him the Plagues that are written in this Book And if any man shall take away from the words of the Book of this Prophecy God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life and out of the Holy City and from the things which are written in this Book Which Devillish Arithmetick of adding and subtracting to and from Holy Writ being diametrically opposite to Gods Holy Word must proceed as the rest from their Father the Devil For had they acted and decreed by the Spirit of truth he would have led them into all saving truth But these are so far from that that they hold the Truth in unrighteousness and thange the Truth of God into Lies even as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith 2 Tim. 3.8 And in as much as in them lies do make void and null the everlasting Gospel of Christ and set up a new one of their own as one of their own Communion hath collected out of Palavicim's History of the Council of Trent All which considered I cannot but wonder and stand amazed with what confidence the Papalins can preach and write so contrary to the Word of truth of both Testaments with any hope to be believed of others or to be saved themselves thereby being forewarned by the Apostles themselves that tho they themselves or an Angel from Heaven should preach any other Gospel than that which we have preached let him be accursed Gal. 1.8 Let these suffice for should I rake farther I should cloy the Reader usque ad naus●am to make scrutiny into their other Doctrines Services and Ceremonies all of the same Father the old Serpent the Devil their Idolatry Pargatory Pardons Indulgencies Merits Works of Supererogation Transubstantiation Incredible Miracles Reliques Prayers for Souls departed Sacrifices for the Dead Pilgrimages distributing their Worship in their publique Masses to so many Saints of their own making more Prayers by many to Mary than to Christ and those to make yet more ridiculous in an unknown tongue and not without ridiculous Gesticulations Consecrations Exorcisins Whisperings Sprinklings Censings c. all phantastical tricks and juglings more besitting the Stages of Piginello or Merry Andrew than the Temple and Service of God Almighty § Do they bely themselves Papists imitate the Heathen in their Worship or do they not in their Worship imitate the very Heathens or have they not borrowed many of their absurd Ceremonies from the Worshippers and Sacrificers of the Heathen Gods Carol. Patin Imperat. Roman Numismata Edit Argentine 1671. so 296. inter nummos Caracallae tells us that the fourth Picture or Medal represents the Poutifical Insigns or Emblems viz. the Lituus or Divining-Staff the Secespita or Sacrificing-Knife the Vrceolum or Flagon the Capedo or Vessel for holding of Incence and the Aspergillum or Sprinkling-bush or Asperforium a Vessel with small holes to sprinkle the Holy-water The Romans used these in the Ceremonies of their Sacrifices The Lituus the constant Sign Note or Embleme of the Augur furnished us with the form of our Pastoral and Episcopal-Staff The Secespita used by the Flamins of both sexes where by the way take notice there were Religious Orders both of Men and Virgins and by the very Pontiffs their Sacrifices or when the Popae Popes slew the Victims as an Instrument unused in the Christian Religion because our Sacrifice is unbloodied The Patera which used to hold the Praecordia of the Victim retaineth the name of Patera in our Religion and is employed for the holding the body of our Saviour Christ The Vrceolus when great was called Vrc●um and was appropriated for the holding of Oil Wine Milk and Honey Our Priests use Vessels like to these for the holding of wine and water whilst they celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass The Capedo or Capedunculus differs very little from the Simpulum so called from its holding the Incence was used by the Priest or Pontifex in their Offering The Aspergillum was used by that Age when the people purified with Holy-water then called Aqua lustralis and we in our time retain the same Thus Virgil hath it Aeneid lib. 6. Ossaque tecta Cado texit Chorineus alieno Idem ter socios purà * Verbum lustrale circumtulit undâ Spargens rora leni ramo foelicis Olivae Lustravitque viros dixitque novissima verba Chorineus did his bones in brass inclose And thrice about with Holy-water goes Purging his friends which sprinkingly he cast From happy Olive boughs then spake his last So Ovid 2. Fast Ah nimium faciles qui tristia crimina caedis Tolli stuminea posse putatis aquâ Ah silly souls that deem the guilt of murder Purified may be by Popes (a) Popes Holy-water Holy-water Lustration was nècessary to sacrifice without which they could not sacrifice nor exercise any Religious Rites So Juno returning from Hell was purged by Iris before she went to Heaven Ovid Met. lib. 4. In omnibus sacris Sacerdos quum diis immolat rem divinam facit prius corporis ablutione purgatur c. Alex. ab Alex. lib. 4. c. 17. § The Romish Ordinance of Hallowing and Consecrating Consecrations and Exorcisms and Exorcising relates and appertains to many things as it plainly appeareth Every seventh day which we call Sunday when there be many people in the Church assembled the Priest exorciseth as they term it first Salt after Water And when he hath mixed the Salt and the Water together he sprinkleth the People therewith which springling is believed to give health both to Body and (b) Haec Aqua benedicta deleat mihi mea delicta according to the Monkish Rhyme Soul and to drive away the deceits of the devil and purify not only Men but also things without life For it is cast upon the ground and on stones

Preachings they did censure the affairs of the State and Council convocate general Assemblies without his Licence conclude what they thought good not once desiring his Allowance and Approbation and in their Synods Presbyteries and particular Sessions meddle with every thing upon colour of scandal Besides divers other disorders which at an other time he would propound and have reformed else it was vain to think of any agreement or that the same being made could stand and continue any while Whilest these conferences lasted these just complaints of the King were verifyed and made good by all the Presbyteries in the person of Mr. David Blake one of the Ministers of St. Andrews with whom they sided and whom they defended to their utmost This David Blake in a Sermon uttered divers spightful speeches against the King and Queen the Lords of the Council and Session and had called the Queen of England an Atheist a Woman of no Religion of which her Ambassador complaining to the King he was cited to appear before the Council 10. Novemb. Mr. Andrew Melvil accompanying him to Edenburgh did labour to make this a common cause giving out that the same was done only as a preparative against the Ministers to bring their Doctrine under the censure and controulment of the King and Council and so far he prevailed with the Commissioners of the Church as they sent certain of their number to entreat the deserting of the Diet saying it would be ill taken to draw Ministers in question upon trifling delations very trifling matters as you will see by the Articles against him when as the enemies of the truth were spared and overseen Proud Presbyters Paul himself submitted his doctrines to the Test and judgment of his Auditory Judge ye what I say and yet these insolent Priests may defame Princes Councils Parliaments and say and do what they please impune No man must say why do ye so a shrewd sign their Coyn is not currant when it will not abide the Touch-stone They farther gave out that the Ministers were troubled for the free rebuke of sin and sinners and the Scepter of Christs Kingdom sought to be overthrown The process they said intended against Mr. Blake was but a Policy to divert the Ministers from prosecuting their Suit against Popish Earles and if he should submit his doctrine to the tryal of the Council the liberties of the Church and spiritual Government of the House of God would be quite subverted and therefore they concluded that in any case a Declinator should be used and protestation made against these proceedings whereupon a Declinator was framed and presented by Blake viz. that seeing he was brought thither to be judged by his Majesty and Council for his doctrine and that his answering to the pretended accusation might import a Prejudice to the liberties of the Church and be taken for an acknowledgment of his Majesties Jurisdiction in matters meerly spiritual He was constrained in all Humility to decline that Judicatory because the Lord Jesus of whom he had the grace of his calling had given him his Word for a Rule for his Preaching and that he could not fall in the reverence of any Civil Law but in so far as he should be tryed to have passed his instructions which Tryal belonged only to the Prophets and Pastors the spirit of the Prophets being subject to them alone For this and other reasons in the said Declinator alledged He for himself and in the name of the Commissioners of the general Assembly who had subscribed the same Declinator by which it appears that Blake was not herein a single but a publick person and that these desperate Tenets were the Tenets of the whole Presbytery and not of Blake singly did humbly beseech his Majesty not to infringe the liberty of the Church but manifest his care in maintaining the same i. e. in words at length and not in figures that his Majesty would subject his Regality to their Presbytery and be to them a King indeed but yet no otherwise then the stump of Wood was to the Frogs in the Fable a quiet and tame Idol whom every Frog every waspish Presbyter may play upon and securely dance about Now let us see his Peccadilloes not only charged but strongly proved against him viz. 1o. That he affirmed in Pulpit that the popish Lords were returned into the Country with his Majesties knowledge and on his Assurance and said that in so doing he had detected the Treachery of his Heart 2ly that he had called all Kings the Devils Barnes adding that the Devil was in the Court and in the Guiders of it 3ly In his Prayer for the Queen he had used these words We must pray for her for the Fashion but we have not cause for she will never do us good so that we have little reason to pray for her 4ly That he had called the Queen of England an Atheist 5ly That he had discuss'd a suspention granted by the Lords of the Session in Pulpit and called them Miscreants and Bribers 6ly That speaking of the Nobility he said they were degenerated Godless Dissemblers and Enemies to the Church likewise speaking of the Council he called them Holy-glasses Cormorants men of no Religion 7ly That he had convocated divers Noblemen Barons and other within St. Andrews in June 1594. caused them to take Armes and divide themselves in Troops of Horse and Foot and had thereby usurped the Power of the King and Civil Magistrate The Summons being read he desired to be remitted to his own Ordinary hereby meaning the Presbytery where the Doctrine was taught contending that speeches delivered in Pulpit all be it alledged to be Treasonable could not be judged by the King till the Church by which term they always mean themselves first took cognisance thereof and thereupon delivered the Declinator The King notwithstanding in favour of him deferred farther proceedings herein till the last of November In the mean time the Commissioners for the Church took advantage of his favour and sent a Copy of the Declinator with a Letter to all the Presbyteries requiring them to subscribe the same and to commend the cause in hand in their publick and private Prayers to God using their best credit with their flocks and employing all their labours for the maintenance thereof This their stirring up of Subjects against their King extorted from the King by the advice of his Council a Proclamation discharging the said Commission as unlawful in it self and more unlawfully executed by the said Commissioners commanding six of them to depart to their several Flocks within 24 hours and not to return to act therein under pain of Rebellion Upon notice of this intended Proclamation the Commissioners resolved that since they were convened by the Warrant of Christ in a most needful and dangerous time to see unto the good of the Church ne quid ecclesia detrimenti caperet they should obey God rather than Man notwithstanding any charge that should be given

a great wonder in his Judgment that the Pope was never thought infallible till this last age since this Pasce implies this also so clearly and if the Hereticks do not believe that his Holiness hath power to make new Articles of Faith and when they cry shame upon Pope Pius the Fourth for adding Twelve new Articles to the old Apostles Creed it is because they are ignorant and know not what Pasce signifieth In sum this one Word with them contains more Matter than all the Bible besides It works Miracles makes the Pope omnipotent gives him all power not only in Heaven and on Earth but even in Purgatory a place that God knows nothing of for if you ask by what Authority he takes upon him to pardon Sins and Souls after Death to give or sell the Saints Merits to dispence with Oaths to depose Kings and dispose of their Kingdoms or if he list to murder them c. If you look the Popes Lexicon as Dr. Potter well observes you shall find that Pasce expresly denotes all this Authority and enables him to be not only a Prince or a Pastor or Bishop but even a Butcher too by the self-same Logick for what is murdering of Kings and that by Mariana his quacunque arte less than savage Butchery For according to Sententia Baronii Cardinalis super excommunicatione Venetorum Ministerium Petri est duplex pascere occidere Feed my Sheep Joh. 21.15 16 17. Kill and eat Acts 10.13 dixit enimei Dominus Pasce oves meas Joh. 21.15 16 17. Audivitque è Coelo vocem occide manduca Acts 10.13 The Words I confess are plain and words of truth and their natural Sence obvious to every Capacity but such Conclusions and Deductions from them as are drawn by the Popes Partizans and Sycophants are strangely uncouth and utterly unknown to right Reason and so notoriously false that they carry their own Confutation in their Foreheads that they that run may read them and need no other Answer yet in their due place they shall be touched § But to return The Esteem and Powers allotted to the Brethren or body of the Church by the Apostles they did preserve unto themselves above 250 years after Christ which is very plain and manifest by the abundant Testimony of the most Antient Fathers and Old Canons as by Clement First Bishop of Rome who lived in or near the Apostles days by Tertullian and Cyprian who lived in the Third Century with divers others but because to cite the whole Caravan of Witnesses at large and in particular would make this very Paragraph swell into a Volume I forbear and shall only gently touch some of them hereafter that by them you may guess at the rest § As in the first and purest times the Name and Title of Church was common to all Congregations and Societies of Believers so unto them also according to all antient Records did belong also the Use and Propriety of the Goods which were called Ecclesiastical in which times the poor and the Ministers had their Food and Rayment from one common Fund or Bank and which is observable those were more principally provided for than these But not long after this excellent Use was perverted by the Subtilty of the Clergy and the poor put in the lowest place which according to the former Use ought to have continued in the first and chiefest And when the Name of the Church became appropriated to the Clergy only all other Christians being excluded then that was applied to few which belonged to all and that to the rich which first served for the poor In the beginning of those Times the Clergy having divided among themselves all the Revenues of the Church the Charges which before were and were called Ministeries and Offices of Spiritual Care the Temporalty and Profits being now most esteemed were now called Benesices and so long as the Old Canons remained that one man should not be Ordained unto Two Titles Titulus was the Old Word for a Church Many Ages after Christ A Bishoprick before the World was divided into Parishes was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Parish and whoever was Ordeined in and for one Bishoprick he could not belong unto two And for many Ages there were no Tithes paid or due but the Church and Clergy were maintained by the Oblations of the People and those by the old Canons divided into four parts none could have more than one Benefice But the Revenues being by Wars or Inundations diminished and become not sufficient for their Maintenance one Man might hold two yet so as that he should attend them both This was begun in favour not of the Man Benesiced but of the Church which because it could not have a proper Minister might have at least some other Service upon pretence of the insufficiency of the Benefice and that none could be found to serve in them they began to grant more of them unto one though no necessity appeared for the Service of the Churches and the Mask being taken away by little and little they were not ashamed to do it for the Man Benesiced But the World being scandalized thereat there was a Moderation used whereupon a distinction began of Men tied to Residence and not tied and of Benesices compatible and not compatible calling those of Residency incompatible one with another Trattato delle materie benesiciarie 144 145 c. and the other compatible with these and with themselves yet the Gloss of the Canonist to make a shew at least of Honesty always declared that many Benefices should not be given to one but when one is not sufficient for maintenance But they cut this Sufficiency very large proportioning it not to the Person but to the Quality not esteeming it sufficient for an ordinary Priest if it were not enough for himself the Family of his Parents three Servants and an Horse and more if he were Noble and Learned And it is strange how much they allowed for a Bishop in regard of the Decorum he was to keep For Cardinals it is sufficient to note the common Saying of the Court that they are equal unto Kings by which they conclude Aequiparant●r Regibus 144. that no Revenue is too much for them except it be more than enough for a King The Custom being begun and neither the World nor Equity being able to resist it the Popes reserved to themselves power to dispence with the Incompatible and to have more than two of the other But to find a colourable way to put this in practice they laid hold on Commendaes Commendaes a thing instituted at first to good purpose but after used to this end only For when by reason of Wars Pestilence and other such Causes the Election or Provision could not be made so soon the Superiour did recommend the vacant Church to some honest and worthy man to take care of it besides the care of his own until a Rector were provided who

sent it by Stephanus and others signifying unto them that though he were absent in Body but present in Spirit had already judged as present him that had so done and therefore advised them in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ that being gathered together and his Spirit with the vertue of the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one unto Sathan Now it is observable that when St. Paul wrote this Epistle he was absent at Philippi a City of Macedonia and directed it not to any one single person Pope or other but unto the Church of God which was at Corinth and to them that were sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours He did not according to Romish Custom write by his Breves I excommunicate such a one and in one Scrap of Paper send as much as in him lieth Kings and Queens and Emperors nay whole Kingdoms and States to the Devil but he wrote to the Church a Collective Body that being gathered together with his Spirit they should deliver that Incestuous person to Sathan And again when he wrote his Second Epistle he directed it also unto the Church of God which was at Corinth with all the Saints which are in all Achaia declaring it sufficient to such a Man is this Punishment which was inflicted of many admonishing them to forgive and comfort him lest perhaps he should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow whereby it is plain and not to be gainsaid that the Delivering of him unto Sathan be the Punishment be the Censure what it will it was inflicted by many 2 Cor. 2.6 Now if Paul an Apostle would not excommunicate or deliver unto Sathan at his own will and pleasure but would consult the Church that the Matter being transacted by common Authority and Approbation the Censure the Punishment might be performed by Common Consent It being most just and equal and of Moral Right that they who to morrow must deliver such a one to Sathan whom to day they account as a Brother dear in Christ should be fully satisfied why and wherefore Now how came Signore Papa alone to be entituled to exercise Powers greater than the Apostle Paul would use What hath he to do with it more than the rest of his Brethren If so interrogated I can make no other Answer but Ignoramus Moreover hath the practice of Christ's Vicars at Rome been correspondent to that of Paul the Apostle of such esteem and prevalency is publick consent with God himself even in the Affairs of the Church that though in his secret Decree Paul and Barnabas were to be set apart for the Work of the Ministry yet by God's own appointment were they separated after Fasting and Prayer to the same by the Church which was at Antioch Acts 13.2 Thereby teaching us not to despise the Office of the Church i.e. of the Multitude of Brethren where it may be had By these very small Hints it is easily discernable what a Nose of Wax the Papalins make both of Scripture and Tradition and Excommunication their great and terrible Thunderbolt even against Kings and Kingdoms not considering the little efficacy it hath What was the State of Venice and her Duke or Queen Elizabeth and her Dominions the worse for Romish Excommunications and Interdicts or what the worse the Kings of Spain for being excommunicated every Maunday Thursday And indeed what the worse his Holiness at Rome for being solemnly excommunicated every year by the Muscovite Fops § Some indeed of later days have intimated a great and just dislike of those who have hitherto endeavoured to hang Excommunication on some doubtful Places of Scripture but yet endeavour to settle it on another Basis viz. on the Nature and Constitution of the Church Christian as a Society Instituted by Jesus Christ whereby they say it is manifest that if Excommunication cannot be established upon some better and other Bottom than what hath hitherto been laid by their Predecessors on some doubtful places of Scripture it must necessarily decay and fall to the ground moreover they most ingenuously confess themselves unsatisfied as to any convincing Argument whereby it can be proved that any were denied Admission unto the Lords Supper who were admitted to all other parts of Church-Society and owned as Members in them § Though I have said enough already sparsim that if rightly applied doth demolish this Fabrick of Fundamental Right yet I will add a little and but a little more viz. that if by the Word Church in these Positions be meant only the Clergy met or not met in Councils Synods Consistories Convocations or Assemblies as the Representatives of the Church Assembled by their own power as by a Fundamental Right grounded on Christs Institution then to say no more is hereby justified Robert Bruce David Blake and those seventeen Scottish Ministers before-mentioned and their Tenets denying the King and his Council to have any Authority in Matters Ecclesiastical For certainly if God hath given them power of themselves to Assemble and Consult and make Laws and hath not withal given them Force and Power to put them in execution they have only a mock and ridiculous Authority which God never instituted nor ordained And if it be not so meant then they either say nothing to the purpose or equivocate But if herein by the Word * By the word Church may be meant either all Believers holding saving Truth in general of what condition or quality soever or else more striftly the collective Body of the Clergy for if we speak right of the Church Universal or this or that Particular Church as of Spain France England c. this Term may be taken in either of those two Sences Church be meant the Civil Power and Laity together with the Clergy then we are Friends and that Fundamental Right arising from the Constitution of the Church derived from Christ himself of Right belongs to the Commonwealth if Christian and to every congregated Number of Believers gathered in any Gentile State or People and united into one Society and not only to the Clergy thereof and the Laity are as capable and have as much Right to be of such Councils and Synods as the Ecclesiasticks Or that the Church be not semper and perpetuo a peculiar Society separate and distinct from the Commonwealth as certainly it is not or that the Officers thereof as limited by these Positions unto Teachers and Pastors injuriously enough if they pretend beyond Teachings Administrations of Sacraments Imposition of hands for Ordination and the publick use of the Keys are not only inflicters or executioners of Church-Censures as certainly they are not then the very Foundation of this Fabrick for the Support and Justification of Excommunication must necessarily fall to the ground It is true that every Church is a Society or Body Politick though every Society or Body Politick is not a Church every

which despiseth these things despiseth not Man but God but our Translation is he therefore that despiseth despiseth not Man but God And this despising God in his Vicar is called 1 Sam. 15.23 a kind of Idolatry Here are two very geat Clerks very opposite each to other How shall we poor Laicks now behave our selves when so great School-men cannot agree the point one accounting it a meritorious Act to resist and the other Rebellion and a kind of Idolatry not to obey Christ's Vicar First Gerson wrote 150 years before Bellarmine's answer came out being in a quiet and sedate temper not ingaged in any disputes and consequently without Bias and void of passion on the other side Bellarmine then living and deeply ingaged in that great Controversie between Rome and Venice about Temporal and Ecclesiastical Power and consequently more subject to passion and Interest very strong Biasses Let us now consider his Texts of Scripture and reasons the first is the part of the same Luke 10.16 as before and must in part receive the same Answer viz. he that despiseth you despiseth me which words were undoubtedly spoken to the Seventy Disciples which represented the Preachers which were to publish Christs Doctrine and not to Peter singly so that what power soever devolves by this Text on Christs Vicar it is but in common with the rest of his Fellow Priests and Bishops so that he can challenge nothing peculiar to himself from this Text. To this Text we will oppose and leave to their consideration Matth. 25.45 that at the day of Judgment Christ will say to the Reprobate Quatenus in as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these ye did it not to me and likewise we shall oppose the 18. Matth. 6. But who so shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me it were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his Neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea so that there is Authority of Scripture to shew that Christ takes it for an injury done unto himself that is done unto the least of his Faithful Servants But of Christs Vicar not one word not so much as once named in the whole Bible a term never heard of till about Anno 666. So that he which despiseth c. is alledged out of its natural sence by Bellarmine and in as much ye did it not c. alledged in its proper sence for that admonition or correction is indeed a work of Charity and incumbent on all Christians so it be done with prudence and with due observance of circumstances And on the contrary cum Authoritate imperare cum potentia is against Charity Besides the very construction of the words qui vos spernit c. cannot possibly bear it no more than Dic Ecclesiae can reasonably be understood of the Pope a single person for I never understood that Popes had Pigs in their Bellies tho I will not swear what Pope Joan had in her Weem when she was Delivered of a Son in the open Street as she went to St. John Laterans So that the 10. Luke 16. is to be understood of all Ministers in General among whom I will not deny His Holiness Quatenus a Priest or Bishop to have a right in Common with the rest of his Brethren but no other or greater For in the beginning Bishops and Priests were all one their Institution Commission Imploy and Duties were all one and the same and how when and by whom they came to be differenced and distinguished and an Ecclesiastical Regiment erected and regulated by * Canon Law Laws of their own making whereby they have Metamorphos'd it from a Democracy of all the Brethren together to an absolute Ecclesiastical Monarchy nay Tyranny of a Pope at Rome is not very hard to trace tho very hard to remedy If a Quaker like a bold Britain should Pilgrim it to Rome and there reprove and rebuke the Pope of Popish errors Superstitions and other false Doctrines and that by plain Scripture And the Pope should despise and scorn him not enduring sound Doctrine certainly at the day of Judgment qui vos spernit c. would be laid to the Charge of His Holiness and not unto the despicable Quaker assuredly whoever despiseth the word of truth tho in the mouth of the least of God's little ones despiseth Christ Teachings are not truth because uttered by the Supream Bishop Christ's Vicar the Head of all Christendom but because they are grounded on Scripture the word of Truth and so carry their own awe and warrant with them To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Isay 8.20 but they that will not hear Moses and the Prophets as no perverters of Scripture will will not be perswaded tho one arose from the Dead Luke 16.31 If the Apostles or an Angel from Heaven Preach any other Gospel than that which they have preached may not only be despised but accursed Gal. 1.8 then may not the Pope be despised that thus troubles the Church and labors to pervert the Gospel of Christ The next Scripture which he useth at the same rate is Qui haec spernit non hominem spernit sed Deum 1 Thes 4.8 He that despiseth these things despiseth not Man but God who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit How is it possible that this citation can be to the purpose St. Paul assisted with the Holy Spirit applied qui haec spernit to such things there spoken by himself who could not erre v. 2 3 4 5 6 7. viz that ye should abstain from Fornication that every one of you should know how to possess his Vessel in Sanctification and honor not in the lusts of concupiscence even as the Gentiles which know not God c. How then can it now be applied to the Pope who for certain hath no other assistance of the Holy Ghost than the rest of his Brethren Neither yet hath he said himself nor his Sycophants for him that he hath any extraordinary Assistance of the Holy Ghost saving only when he doth determine a matter de Fide ex Cathedra and not when he gives Orders in a Stable How can he then freely and righteously according to their own Doctrine in a Decree or an Extravagant which is not in a matter of Faith say qui haec spernit c. he that despiseth these things c. When the Pope shall teach and command Gods own Indubitable Precepts we will not complain of him if he add with all that he that despiseth c. but to equal Popes to St. Paul and their Decrees and Extravagants to Canonical Scripture and make them subservient to their Dictates and Expositions Is not this to make them lyable to the Plagues denounced against them that add or diminish from Gods word Rev. 22.18 And is it not a strange Phanatick presumption and