those things to Gods worshippe which haue bene abused by idolaters The spoiles of Egypt of Iericho the vessels of the tēple abused by the Babylonians were againe applied to Gods seruice If we vsed any thing wherein the Pope sheweth himselfe to bee the beast as his worshipping of dead Saints and images and the Masse and such like then we might be sayde to beare his image or his marke But in the prayers that wee haue there is no part no limme no clawe of that beast The people of God must not fashion themselues like the Cananites nor the heathen about them in any thing wherein they are idolatrous and impious but in that they haue as men Gods people may be like them As they are Papists we will not be like the Romanes but as they are Christians we may be like them In taking good things from them wee take not any thing that was theirs but we take to our selues that which was our owne We must not vse the Bible nor the name of God or Christ nor Baptisme if we will haue nothing that they had The fift and last thing for which in generall they cast away the booke is for that it mainteineth a reading ministery A booke of common prayer is no cause of a reading Minister The chiefest cause is that preachers will not be had nor can be made in this slender maintenance of sundry Churches the next cause is the couetousnes and wicked dealing of many godlesse patrones and a third cause is this contention and strife that is raised in the Church This hath cast out manie that were in and hath driuen backe manie that were comming on this hath caused diuerse to forsake the studie of Diuinitie and learning altogether But the booke of Common prayer is no cause of it for the preachers with vs vse it and where all are preachers there is a set forme obserued and is necessarie to bee had of all well ordered Churches These are the thinges for which they condemne the booke in generall Now in particular they trifle about many things As first about the holy dayes whereof some they call double Idoles and double feastes Hallowmas Christmas Candlemas Easter Whitsonday Trinitie sonday Then there are the Ladies dayes Saints dayes with the Eues fast and feastes and deuised worship vnto them Last of all they reckon the celebrating of dayes to Angels as Michael and the naming of manie Archangels This cauil will easily be answered For first wee make not the Calender anie parte of Gods worship Wherefore it is vaine to accuse vs of a false worship by that when wee put no parte of his worshippe in it That distinguisheth the times and directeth vs to the Psalmes and Scriptures but is no parte of Gods seruice no more then a marke by the waye to direct them which goe by is a parte of the way The names maye bee somewhat offensiue where Masse is added but in the olde tongue from whence our language came long before the corruptions of the Masse were crept in the worde signified nothing but Tide or some solemn time and the common people haue vsed to speake so and the name Missa from whence that is supposed to come is read in ancient fathers in a good and a godly meaning yea and in most Calenders those names are reformed The Saintes wee worship not nor Angels neither with prayers fastes nor any such thing But God wee worship and take occasion at such times when wee call to minde them by whome the worship of God hath bin spred throughout the world The people of God haue vsed and appointed moe dayes to publike prayer and Gods seruice then the Sabbath Hester Euang. Ioan. without controlement as the feast of Purim and of Dedication Last of all those dayes except the natiuitie of our Sauiour and those that fall vsually on the Lordes day are in most places growne to be equall with the rest Our people are readie ynough to make no difference of dayes in that behalfe The next thing that commeth vnder their censure are the fastes Lent imber dayes Ashwednesday Maundie Holy thursday Goodfridaye and the rest Two thinges are regarded of the Churche in distinguishing these times from others First a time to bee obserued of all for the vse of fishe and refraining from flesh that nauigation might bee maintained and that seeing wee may haue prouision of all kinde of foode wee doe not continuallie vse onelie one to which wee are most giuen to the decaie thereof and hinderance of the other Secondly that there maie bee vsed also a moderate abstinence not to the honour of Saintes nor as though there were anie worshippe of God in it of it selfe but that our bodies maye bee kept vnder and the minde might bee made the fitter to serue the Lorde If all those dayes and others were vsed in a whole or halfe abstinence it were better for mens bodies and soules and for the commonwealth then it is The superstition and merite in such thinges is condemned but either a ciuile or holie vse to the better ordering of our bodies and affections of none that are wise can be mislyked A third matter of reprehension is as they call it a blasphemous abuse of scriptures shredding and rending them from their natural sense and true vse to bend and apply them to the Idole feastes This accusation is both foolish and impudent If they thinke as it seemes they doe that it is not lawfull to print or reade by it selfe some portion of the scripture seuered frō the rest of the whole body it is foolish for what offence can there be in making choise of some parte for instruction seeing the bodie is left whole notwithstanding And to say they are turned from their true sense it is impudent for in the same words meaning are they set downe in the Communion booke as they are in the bodie of the scripture neither doe we apply them to the feastes but to our selues to be instructed by them The fourth crime they set downe in these wordes Abominable Collectes ouer for and to the dead What can bee spoken more spitefull and shamelesse We praye neither for the dead nor to the dead wee praye for our selues at the buriall of the dead In the fist place about Baptisme and that which pertaineth to it they finde many faults They saye it is corrupted with the signe of the crosse with godfathers and godmothers with the Fonte with vnlawfull and vnpossible vowes of gossips to these they ioyne purification or churching of women with their offerings hastie baptisme by Midwiues bishopping and second baptisme by these thinges they iudge that baptisme is corrupted But why should the signe of the crosse corrupt it Is it so odious to expresse the figure of that whereon Christ dyed without opinion of adding grace without giuing any worship to it but onely for remembrance there is none impietie it it And what impossible vowe doe the godfathers and godmothers make They
among our selues there are that blaspheme the hoste of the liuing God and say that wee are not the armie of Christ And albeit that it were out of question that we are Christes armie yet we see in all places that there is a mutinie in this armie and it is necessarie if we will obtaine the victorie that we must be an vnited armie Thus I haue set before you the matter that I must speake of and the causes that mooued me to it Nowe therefore I will first intreate of the beast The beast in this place is set for one of the greatest enemies of Iesus Christ vpon earth which is the generall and chiefe captaine ouer kings and their armies in the fielde against Christ The deuill is doubtlesse the chiefe leader of all that fight against our Sauiour But he in the Reuelation is not called the beast but by other names for he is named the Dragon the olde serpent and satan The deuill is not the beast but giueth his power to the beast the beast is not the dragon but speaketh like the dragon The beast is a visible earthly power raised vp by the diuell that hath authoritie ouer kings To know him is almost to ouercome him for fewe are hurt by him but such as knowe him not This beast as I said is the Pope of Rome The Papistes as they resist other positions that we holde against them so aboue all others they must needes stand against this They will not haue the Pope to be the beast for they knowe that this beast is Antichrist And what is Antichrist but the capitall enemie to Iesus Christ Wherefore they see that if the Pope be the beast then all reuerence and obedience to him must of necessitie be forsaken Nowe therefore I will shewe that all things which are spoken in Scripture of this beast Antichrist agree most fitly to the popedome and not to any other earthly power This Beast that is spoken of heere is the same that is mentioned Apoc. 13.11 which was the second beast that Iohn sawe which came vp out of the earth and had two hornes like the Lambe but spake like the Dragon it is the same beast which whosoeuer worshippeth or his image or receiueth his marke hee must drinke of the wine of the wrath of God Apoc 14.9 and it is that beast which sendeth out of his mouth three vncleane spirites like frogs to gather the kings to the battell here spoken of Apoc. 16.13 It is that scarlet coloured beast full of names of blasphemie which hath seuen heads and ten hornes Apoc. 17.3 of the same beast mentioned so before it is said here I sawe the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to fight against him that sate vpon the horse and against his armie This beast both in the Reuelation and in other partes of Scripture hath diuers other names for it is named the great whore that sitteth vpon many waters Apoc 17.1 The woman araied in purple and scarlet and gilded with gold and precious stones and pearles Apoc. 17.4 and it is called Babylon the great citie Apoc. 18.2 That which Paul speaketh of the Apostasie and of the man of sinne and the sonne of perdition whom he calleth an aduersarie 2. Thes 2.3 is vnderstood of this beast But the most vsuall and familiar name that all ecclesiasticall writers do giue to this most famous enemie of Christ and his Church is that which Iohn vseth when hee saieth Babes it is the last time and as ye haue heard that Antichrist shall come euen now are there many Antichrists whereby wee knowe that it is the last tyme 1. Iohn 2.18 And againe Euery spirite which confesseth not that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God but this is the spirite of Antichrist of whom yee haue heard how that hee should come and now alreadie hee is in the world This principall enemie of Christ that maketh warre here against him named an aduersarie the man of sinne the sonne of perdition called Babylon the great whore Antichrist and the second beast is the Pope of Rome with his popish gouernement The deuill as hee laboured that Christ should not bee knowen when he was in the world and wrought mans saluation by his death so likewise he doeth what he may to hide Antichrist that he may worke destruction of soules and yet not be suspected to doe it That the Papacie may not bee called the kingdome of Antichrist the papists obtrude to the world a certaine imagined Antichrist such a beast as neuer was nor euer shall bee for they say Antichrist must be one particular man borne of the tribe of Dan which shall haue his seate in Ierusalem in the temple there and shall subdue three kings first namely of Egypt Ethiopia and Libya and then other seuen and shall raigne three yeeres a halfe neither more nor lesse and shall be honoured of the Iewes as their Christ and Messias and shall be circumcised and shall abolish baptisme and the Masse and shall set vp his own image in the temple and cause the world to worship it and he will deny Iesus to be Christ and cause himself to be honoured as God and so be called and that hee shall giue a marke and set it on mens foreheads or on their right hands the print of it shal be his name and the letters of his name shall make the number of 666. And that hee may mooue men to worship him the rather he shall doe many myracles and especially shall faine himselfe to die and rise againe from the dead and cause fire to come downe from heauen in the sight of men that Enoch and Elias shal come in their owne persons and prophesie against him that Christ at the ende of three yeeres and a halfe shall ouercome him put him downe and that at the end of fourtie dayes after shal be the generall iudgement And before this Antichrist can come they say that the gospel must be receiued publikely of all kingdomes and people in the world that the empire of Rome which now the Germanes hold must cleane both in name and substance be abolished for that is a great let vnto him for while that standeth he cannot come at Ierusalem This is the papists worshipfull Antichrist a perilous beast that shall raigne but three yeeres and a halfe By this notion of Antichrist deepely printed in their heads their minds are turned away from seeing the Pope to bee the very beastly Antichrist as hee is They nourish the beast in their owne bosom and let him sucke of their breasts or rather sucke themselues poison out of that Whores breasts while they imagine that hee shall come they know not when to Ierusalem in another shape What should make them thinke that Antichrist is one singular person The first beast they and all men confesse is the state and succession of the empire of Rome as it was heathen persecuted the
but according to his owne fancie to establish his owne earthly kingdome Last of all hee denieth to Christ also his priesthood for neyther doth he admitte the sacrifice of Christ by himselfe in his owne person vpon the Crosse as sufficient for saluation but he ordaineth another sacrifice of the Masse and satisfactorie works of penance mens merites to redeeme their owne sinnes Neither doeth he permit Christ to be the only intercessor maker of request to the father for his people but hee ioyneth with him or substituteth vnder him the Virgine Marie and a great number of saintes of his owne creation Thus he denieth Iesus to be Christ sheweth himself to be an enemie vnto him the very Antichrist Wherfore al the notes markes of the beast fal vpon him This is the beast that Iohn speaketh of which doeth associate to himselfe the kings of the earth their armies maketh warre against Christ his army This is now our enemie he his kings fight against vs. It is good for vs to thinke of him as he is and as he is called in Scripture Let vs not thinke of him as of an holie Father Christes Vicar a sacred person the pillar of Christes religion the highest Byshop a god in earth as the Papistes and his owne seruants and flatterers so manie as haue not receiued the loue of the trueth such whose names are not written in the booke of life doe esteeme him But let vs thinke of him as of the great whore the mother of all fornication in the earth for his idolatrie as of Babylon for his persecuting Empire as of an Apostata for his falling from the true faith as of Antichrist and the enemie of Christ for denying the sufficiencie of Christs Sacrifice and intercession for expelling Christ out of his throne of gouernement and stepping into it himselfe for displacing Christs word and corrupting it and putting his owne word in the roome thereof Let vs account him as the beast that hath not one shape but the properties of manie beastes and therefore a monstrous beast Proude lyke the Lyon cruell lyke the Beare filthie like the Swine full of poyson through his blasphemies like the Dragon and yet in shewe of hornes like the Lambe This is the leader and captaine of all our enemies if we yeelde to them wee yeelde to the beast and the beast will make vs beastes like himselfe Wee must beare the beastes marke God defend vs from him and represse his furie and confounde his enterprises and ouerthrowe his kingdome Thus much of the beast The beast fighteth not alone against Christ and his people for thē he were not much to be feared but he hath first kings and then his owne their armies to assist him First wil I speake of the kings thē of their armies Kings were prophesied to be subiect to him The Angel saith to Iohn The ten horns which thou sawest are tenkings which yet haue not receaued a kingdome but shall receaue power as kings at one houre with the beast These haue one minde and shal giue their power and authoritie to the beast These shal fight with the Lambe and the Lambe shal ouercome thē For he is Lord of Lords king of kings they that are on his side called chosen faithful Againe he saith The ten hornes which thou sawest vpon the beast are they that shal hate the whore shal make her desolate naked shall eate her flesh and burne her with fire For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his wil to doe with one consent for to giue their kingdom vnto the beast vntill the words of God be fufilled Thus kings shal subiect thēselues to the beast shal giue their authoritie to him shal fight for him so long as God hath appointed The loue of these kings to Rome their obedience is expressed which they shewed to it in time of the prosperitie thereof in this maner With her haue cōmitted fornication the kings of the earth And in the time of the decay of it in this sort The kings of the earth shall bewaile her and lament for her which haue cōmitted fornication liued in pleasure with her when they shall see the smoke of her burning What other state hath there bin or is in the world vnto which kings haue willingly subiected themselues and yet remaine kings but this If any be vnder the great Turke the name of kings and authoritie ceaseth by and by He onely will be king But in Poperie the kings submit thēselues become seruants tributarie yet remaine kings take pleasure in this subiection and striue against al others that will not be slaues bondmen as wel as thēselues These kings had the same occasion time of beginning their kingdomes that the beast had For the dissipation of the West Empire gaue the first occasion at one time to both For after the great fight betweene the Hunni vnder Attila on the one side being 500000 men al the power that the other natiōs Romans Goths Frenchmen Britons Germans could make on the other side after this battel fought in campis Catalaunicis in France the countries were gouerned not by one Emperor ouer all but by their owne seueral gouernors Then the French began in France the Hunni in Hungarie the Saxons in England the Goths in Spaine and so in euery countrie either strangers or the olde inhabitantes tooke the gouernement to themselues To finde that they were iust ten and neither more nor lesse it is hard but ten may be set for a perfect and full number rising of all the Vnities The occasion of the rising of the Popedome of these kingdomes was one and the same and at once began albeit the Popedome shewed not it selfe in his great pride and high name of Oecumenicall Byshop till Phocas the Emperor of Constantinople in the yeare sixe hundreth and sixe Then Rome was great with childe of this beast yea and brought him forth and gaue him the name But hee did growe vp afterward in great haste till he became the mightiest in the West partes of the worlde But his growing was by the suppressing of the Empire and by sucking of strength from the Emperor and from these kings The first milke that hee did sucke was that title gotten of Phocas that hee might be called and taken to bee the Oecumenicall and generall high Byshop of all the world Before that time the other Patriarkes were equall with him but by this title hee was set ouer them and all other Byshops Then hee obtained more milke of the Emperour although hee had much a doe to get it namely that the Emperour should not confirme him but his election should bee ratified by the Romanes and not by the Emperor When hee had this then hee was able to goe alone After this he obtaineth yet more plentifull nourishment and beginneth to swallowe downe stronge meate Hee obtaineth by much
the reuenues of the church at length is compelled to flee to the mercy of the pope Innocentius the third and maketh England and Ireland tributary to the church of Rome granteth the Peter pence promiseth to pay yerely an hundred marks of gold for both Ilands Innocentius the fourth sent certaine monks legats to the Tartarian emperour with his letters exhorting them to the faith of Christ and his obedience He thought that vpon the sight of his holinesse letters the Tartarian empire would yeeld it selfe vnto him Maudauus king of Lituania being turned to Christian religion falleth into the popes net in the yere 1255. The emperours had too much experience great feare of the euill that this beast might do vnto thē Henry the first would not receiue his crowne of the pope nor go into Italie for it He said it was sufficient for him that he was left emperour by his ancestors so saluted by his nobles When Frederike the first was going to Rome with his army the Romans sent messengers to him that they would not receiue him except he came in maner of triumph Thus they mocked the emperour meaning if he came so to waste him by his expences But he perceiuing it answered that he came to get mony out of Italie and not to leaue his owne there Rodolph the emperor put off the fetching of his crowne frō Rome saying that the emperors entring into Italy was pleasant stately but his going out was alwayes miserable and dolefull Boniface the eight that ordeined the first Iubile kept it an 1330 had great contention with Philip king of France In the presumption of his heart and to declare that he is this beast and Antichrist exalting himselfe he writ vnto the king as foloweth Se esse dominū omnium tam temporalium quà m spiritualium per orbem terrarum c. That he is lord of all as well temporall as spirituall thinges through out the world that consequently the kingdome of France ought to be receiued of him which because he had not done he had deserued to be depriued but the king despised his legates and burnt his letters in an open fire and stopt the wayes of his kingdome that none might passe to Rome But the pope preuailed against him for he excommunicated him gaue his kingdome to Albert the emperour caused him to be taken by his owne housholde seruants and layd all his treasures open to the spoile Iohn the two twentieth excommunicated Ludowike the emperour because he tooke vpon him the name of the emperour without his consent Benedictus the twelft confirmed that excommunication against the emperour and vsed the empire as his owne placing officers in it himselfe Clemens the sixt absolued those that did fauour Lewes but vpon these conditions that they should sweare fidelitie to the pope and acknowledge none to be emperour but such as was confirmed by him Sigismund the emperour when three popes did striue together shewed himselfe so much a seruant to that seat that he trauelled into France and sailed into England and passed into Italie and came to the councell of Constance and sung the Gospell like a deacon in great humilitie before the pope the Gospell which he did sing was Exijt edictum à Caesare Augusto All this he did trauelling from one king to another to make these beasts agreed so glad he was to please And the greatest care of Frederike the third was that neutrality being remooued out of Germanie he might submit himselfe his people to the bishop of Rome in the yeere 1440. In this age wherein we liue Cosmus Medices was made by the pope great duke of Ferraria that he might trouble the world in the yeere 1570. Thus kings haue willingly serued him in times past and some haue bene brought vnto it whether they would or no yet at length all content to doe it In this age he hath yet some that fauour him and labour to holde him vp fight for him with all their power the king of Spaine and those that depend vpon him the duke of Sauoy the duke of Parma and the states of Italie and some fauourers he hath in France The beast is now much weaker then he was and it is maruell that there are any found in this land or els where that make so great account of his fauour I haue shewed vnto you how this beast hath had kings his assistants and as it were his seruants which neuer came to passe in any gouernment in the world that kings not subdued by armes but scarsely threatened by words so many and so willingly should submit themselues to one be content to holde their crownes of him and in all things to be at his commandement They receiued his decrees they forsooke their kingdomes they waged warre against one another they resigned a great part of their subiects they suffered their land to be tributarie they would attempt to winne the Holy land as they called it with hazzard of their liues and intolerable paines and exceeding great expences and all at his commandement When was there any power in the world that coulde worke this bring them thus to obedience The emperors of Rome had kings vnder them which remained kings but they were ouercome by battell few voluntarily did yeelde thēselues They fought oft for Spaine for Afrike for Greece for Egypt for France for Britaine for euery part of Italie it selfe before they could obteine it but the pope had all the West part subiect to him and scarse euer fought for any by the sword he subdued almost none of them vnto him nay he neuer fought for any except it were for some small dukedome or citie of Italie which he counted Peters patrimonie Is not this plainely that which the Angel saith to Iohn These haue one minde shall giue their power to the beast And againe God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to doe with one consent for to giue their kingdome to the beast vntill the words of God be fulfilled They shall giue it they shall not be conquered constreined by his power vnto it Thus much of the kings that assist the beast After the kings assisting the beast there are placed also armies vnder him Not one army but many armies are leuied for his defence They boast much of multitude and number And the Holy ghost giueth vnto them the greatest number as a sure marke of the beast This cause standeth not by number but by weight of voices If number should carie the matter of religion the Turks should haue the truth of it on their side There is more dirt thē golde moe stones then pearles more chaffe then good corne and so moe that holde on superstition then on trueth Our Sauiour saith Many are called but few are chosen and narrow is the way that leadeth to life few there be that find it but broad is the way that leadeth to destruction many there