for by reformation of our hearts and lives Luke 3. 5. Let every valley be silled and every mountain be brought low and the crooked be made straight the rough ways be made smooth let the low groveling worldling and filthy sensual fill up the Valley setting his affections on things above and every Proud and Ambitious person bring his thoughts low minding Gods glory not his own and every crooked cunning deceiver get a strait Spirit in simplicity and godly sincerity and every angry and revengful person make the rough ways smooth by endeavoring to obtain a Spirit of meeltness and kindness and then both feet are shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace and God will both receive and assist such in the conflict for his truth and glory And as Rom. 12. 1. They can confidently present their bodles a living holy Sacrifice acceptable to God which is their reasonable rational service whereas an unmortified person in whom brutish lusts do yet raign if he dyed in a good cause yet offered up a brutish unreasonable Sacrifice no way acceptable unto God Thirdly The Christian must take the sheild of Faith that is confidence in Gods promises of assistance and supports in the day of his Tryal Ephes 6. 16. He must be assured that Gods goodness and faithfulness will never suffer him to fail who flyes for refuge to his grace and mercy Thus saith David By this I know that thou favorest my righteous cause seeing mine enemy doth not Triumph over me and as for me thou preservest me in mine integrity Thus saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 1 8 9. Christ will confirm you unto the end and keep you blameless to the day of our Lord Jesus Christ or in the day of Christ that is emphatically the day of suffering for Christ and will confirm you unto the end The Christian Matron falling in Travel of Child-birth in the Prison cryed out in her strong pains and was thus assaulted by the Jaylor If saith he you cannot bear those pains without such outcrys how will you be able to bear the torments provided for you She answered These pains I suffer as the burden lay'd upon our Sex for the sin of our first Mother but in that conflict I shall have the assistance of his grace which is able to preserve me through faith against every evil work and his grace shall be sufficient for me Thus the Victory by which we overcome the world is our faith Fourthly Who ever will be a couragious Martyr must have full assurance of the goodness of his Cause that it is the truth and way of God and Christ for which he suffers and worthy of all his suffering for it This is that girdle of Truth Ephes 6. 14. As a girdle or belt not only strengthens the loins but by compacting and compressing the Muscles of the back gives an advantage and tightness to the cords or sinews of even the hands and feet also so the assurance that it is the cause of God for which we stand will make us confident that we shall not be confounded whereas but to doubt of our cause looseneth all our powers of spirit and courage Thus the Apostle prays for his Colossians Col. 2. 2 3 4. That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge The great cause maintained by the Apostolical Christians against the Jews was the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ that is that the infinite goodness and wisdom of God of old had carried on the Salvation of the Ancient Fathers of the world in the same way of Repentance and Faith in his mercy through the mediation of the promised Seed that ours is now carried on since Christs coming in the Flesh Now had any doubted whether this way of Salvation Preached by the Apostles and received by the Churches was the truth of God or questioned whether it was all of a piece with the old method of bringing Sinners to glory how could they have suffered confidently in the cause For staggering betwixt two opinions whether the Mosaical Law or Repentance towards God and Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ was the way to justification they would have been unstable in all their ways But being assured that there was but one name and way of life Jesus Christ the same to day yesterday and for ever they had a full assurance of understanding which is the Girdle of Truth necessary to gird up the loins of the Martyrs mind I do not say a Christian must be able to answer all the subtle Fallacies and Sophisms of the Adversaries of the Truth but he must be assured that notwithstanding all their Cavils it is the truth of God for which he appears And that he is assured of because he finds it works effectually in him believing it purifying his heart by the faith of it incouraging his hope and increasing his love to God and Christ and all good Men yea to all Men for Christs sake and what works so cannot he is assured be other than the Truth of God A mean-bred man who should hear a Sceptick dispute whether the snow was white arguing that the water from whence it comes is black and therefore the effect must be as is the cause yet would not however be brought to disbelieve his eyes but would continue confident the snow was white as his sight represented it for he found the effect of that whiteness in dispersing his visual Rayes and Spirits Such an assurance must every suffering Christian have of the Truth for which he suffers and that it is the true grace of God wherein he stands and for which he stands and therefore an ignorant unstudied Christian can hardly make a Martyr Fifthly Whoever will be a Martyr must have his heart ingaged in a sincere design to promote Gods glory both by doing and suffering This is that Breast-plate of Righteousness and Sincerity Ephes 6. 14. which gives courage to a suffering Saint For if there be any Hypocritical design of seeking Reputation to our selves or bringing credit to an espoused Faction or Party it flats our courage but the single eye makes the body full of light and heat also On this account it was that the Primitive Christians in times of Persecution received the Eucharist so frequently in St. Cyprians time in the Decian Perfecution they took it daily thereby renewing their Baptismal vow to live and die to Gods glory if called to it As when some great Battel was expected the Roman Generals used to renew the Sacramentum Militare the Souldiers Oath That they would not disobey nor forsake their General their Imperator So that who ever hath not frequently and seriously Consecrated himself to God to live and die to him will hardly make a Martyr that being an
and as the Beams of the Sun will put out a Fire so the frevent love of God in them morally extinguished the painful burnings of the Furnace and bound the Flames to the Peace even before Gods Power did the same miraculously Thus the Apostles went away rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ their love then burst out into transports of joy and thankfulness that God would vouchsafe to use them to bring Glory to his Name The Apostle saith If there be any consolation in love Phil. 2. Intimating that there is no consolation without it and by how much more excellent the person loved is for whom we suffer so much larger breasts of consolations hath our love so that if to suffer for the love of a desired Spouse as when Jacob served an hard Service for Raehel carry a joy and delight to the Party loving or if to die for a Friend a good Man or a good Prince whom we love be so satisfactory to the sufferer as men declare that it is how much more to suffer for God and Christ It as far excelleth all other sufferings on the motives of the sensual Love yea or Friendship or Loyalty as the benevolent warmth of the Sun beams in the Spring is more invigorating and comforting to Plants and living Creatures than the chokey heat of a Stove or Furnance nay it is indeed a glory the Saints have above the Angels that they are called to suffer for God which the others impassibility denyes them to do So that the love of God in suffering Saints gives that exceeding comfort and satisfaction that is at no other time felt because there never was that full exercise of it before it is that breaking the box of Spicknard that finelleth more sweet by its diffusion The third Grace is Love to the Church which yields exceeding satisfaction when it carries us to act for the good of our Brethren that we can willingly spend be spent for them but the â—ower and top of it is to fill up in our bodies what is behind of the sufferings of Christ for his Churches sake When a suffering Christian thinks thus these sufferings of mine may be a strengthning of the Faith of all the Christians that hear of them and see them nay it may be an establishment to some Christian an hundred years hence what a sweet and comforting reflection must it needs be What delight may we imagine have some Gallant Heathens taken to die devotedly for their Country as did Coarus the Athenian and Deoius and Curtius the Romans but how much sweeter is it to the Martyr to think that by his sufferings the Church of Christ the Houshold of Faith those who shall hereafter be fellow Citizens with the Angels shall be confirmed and strengthened The fourth Grace is love to Enemies and Persecutors at any time to forgive an Enemy is both more glorious and more comfortable than to overcome him David had more honour when he dismissed Saul alive than when he brought away the Head of Goliah in his hand and undoubtedly he had more inward comfort and satisfaction also for the Victory of Goliah was justly attributed to the Providence of God directing the stone to the mark but the dismissing and Pardoning his Enemy was the Fruit of the Grace of God in his Heartâ— but to suffer with the designing the good of our Enemies even of their Conversion and Eternal welfare is much more sweet and affecting If St. Steven had as in all likelihood he had an hope that his sufferings might Convert some of his Persecutors what joy did that thought bring into his holy Soul if there be joy in Heaven amongst the Angels for the Conversion of a sinner when yet they contribute nothing to it what joys must be to Martyrs that die in hope and desires for the Conversion of Christs Enemies and theirs For a Martyr tyed to the Stake to think with himself Some of the ring of this gazing Multitude that look on me nay some of the Officers that is humanely butcher me may come to have their hearts melted by my flames and of Lions become Lambs and followers of the Lord Jesus what a sweet and comfortable thought must that be to the suffering Saint and Martyr of Jesus A fifth Grace that then yields its Fragrancy is our Faith it the promises of sufficient Grace and Support this is our Victory whereby we overcome the world even our Faith and who is it that overcometh the world but he that believer that Jesus is the Christ of whose fulness we are to receive Grace and Grace for Grace We have now the comfort of Faith in the assurance from Gods Word that he will never fail us nor forsake us but in a time of suffering Faith girls up its Loins and makes his boast in the name of the Lord crying The Lord is our Refuge and Strength a very present help in trouble therefore will not we fear though the Earth be removed and so Psal 21. 1. The Lord is my strength and my Salvation whom shall I fear the Lord is the strength of my life of whom then shall I be afraid And also Psal 144. 12. He expresseth his confidence in abundance of words The Lord is my strength my goodness my fortress my high Tower and deliverer my shield and he in whom I trust Thus Paul 1 Tim. 1 12. I know whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep that committed to him against that day This Faith in Gods assistance triumphs in the name of the Lord and despiseth all the power of the Adversary The next Grace yielding its sweetness to a suffering Saint is his hope and heavenly mindedness it must needs be a pleasant prospect to go up to the top of Pisgah and view the Promised Land by Holy Meditation to think as far as our dark Glass will give us leave to see what is the Peace and Joy and what is the Purity and Holiness of the Glorified Saints but when we come to suffer for the Hope of Israel then our Hope grows more lively more strong and vigorous and fixed upon that Glory that shall be revealed Thus St. Steven Act. 7. when his enemies verse 45. gnashed upon him with their teeth being full of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the Glory of God and Jesus standing on the Right Hand of God thus our hope by how much the nearer it comes to injoyment grows the stronger and makes the dying Christian say as it were to himself Egredere anima mea egredere quid times Go forth my Soul go forth reach forward to lay hold on that Crown of Righteousness which now thou art not far from think with thy self what it is to have all Tears wiped away all Graces perfected and to be filled with the Love and Communion of God and Christ at whose Right Hand is fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore Thus
A PREPARATION For Martyrdom A DISCOURSE about the Cause the Temper the Assistances and Rewards OF A MARTYR of JESUS CHRIST IN A DIALOGUE Betwixt a Minister and a Gentleman his Parishioner Matt. 5. 11 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven 1 Pet. 4. 14. If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of God and of Glory resteth upon you LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chapel 1681 A Preparation FOR Martyrdom IN A DIALOGUE Betwixt a Minister and a Gentleman his Parishioner Parish SIR though I justly esteem my self who am so great a sinner unworthy of the honour to suffer for the Name of Christ yet I know it is my Duty to be prepared in Spirit for it if God vouchsafe to call me to it I request therefore your Pastoral assistance herein that whether I live I may live unto the Lord or whether I die I may die unto the Lord. Min. I bless God Dear Sir who inclines your heart to seek after such holy dispositions as are required in those whom Christ will honour in calling them to suffer for his Name But I pray tell me Why you are at this time so sollicitous to gather up your Spirit into that frame Parish There need no account be given of that betwixt you and I who have been fellow-sufferers in the late times for adhering to the cause of our Soveraign and of the Protestant Church of England and whose Persons and Fortunes do yet wear the Scars of their Loyalty and we are not secure that we may not be called to suffer on the same account again And though neither of us have at any time blessed be God made any unkind returns to those who then Persecuted us nor have since gained any thing by our Loyalty but our losses yet if the like times should return again we are like to be in the first rank of Sufferers But I confess that though the Cause we then undertook and suffered for was as just a Cause as any could fall out in a Christian Nation yet I then both acted and suffered in another manner of Spirit than I now see reason to desire to be acted by I did indeed think then and do so still that I was bound in conscience to do my utmost to secure the Person and Honour of my Soveraign and to maintain the Laws both Civil and Ecclesiastical then in being till they should be orderly changed by the Consent and Authority of my Soveraign in Parliament yet I did as I fear too many of our side did espouse an humour of Prophaneness in opposition to that Profession of Godliness which I ununcharitably thought that all on the other side did make only to drive on Rebellious Designs which probably the great Artificers of our troubles did do And certainly we Royalists by the overspreading of prophaneness amongst us ruined the best Cause that ever Loyal Subjects undertook to bear up upon the points of their Swords But it is another manner of Spirit I desire now to be baptised into namely that whereinto our suffering Lord and Saviour and his Holy Apostles and Martyrs were baptised And to deal plainly I do not think the next Tempest that will Assault us will come from that Quarter My chief fears therefore are from the success of Popish Arms abroad especially under the Conduct of that Great Monarch who seems to have sworn the utter extirpation of the Protestant Name and the prevailing of Popish Arts at home to the breaking of us with Division upon Division These I say with the loud crying sins done and countenanced amongst us makes me expect a Storm and I desire to be prepared for it Min. I hope God will bless the unwearied endeavours of our Gracious Soveraign and his most Honourable Privy Council at present and of the English Parliament when one shall by his Sacred Majesty be called to frustrate the Attempts of the Popish Adversaries both at home and abroad Parish I thankfully acknowledg that by the blessing of God on the Prudent Conduct of publick Affairs by his Sacred Majesty we yet enjoy Peace when many of the neighbouring Nations round about us feel the sad miseries of War so that if our sins stood neuter and did not strike in with our Enemies I would not fear either their Forces or Consults but alas there can be no Fencing or Walling betwixt us and Heaven to which our sins cry aloud for vengeance Min. It is very true we are great sinners but not greater than other Nations whom God is pleased yet to respit what sins therefore of this Nation seem to you so ripe for vengeance Parish Truly there are many of them and some of them seem especially to call for Popery as the only scammony strong enough to purge them out Such are the frequent and avowed Sinonaical Contracts betwixt some Patrons and their unworthy Clerks Such also are the most unchristian practices of many of our Planters abroad not only in the inhumane cruelties they exercise upon the poor Negroes and other Heathen their Slaves but especially in their discouraging and opposing all endeavours for the Conversion of those poor Infidels to Christianity For have not the Mahumetan Priests travelled to the vast Plain of Tartary and Mountains of Africa to propagate their Superstition Yea have not the Jesuits and other Romish Missionaries gone to the furthest Indies to spread that sort of Christianity which they profess and probably they taught for the substance of it the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ though they built Hay Straw and Stubble on that Foundation And their Converts in Japan and other where suffering for the owning one God and one Mediator 'twixt God and Man Christ Jesus are justly numbred in the Catalogue of Christian Martyrs Shall not these Romanists therefore rise up in Judgment against us and other Protestants who oppose the Conversion of our own Slaves Nay may not God justly say to them concerning us as he did once to Nebuchadnezzar Ezek. 29. 20. That he gave him the Land of Aegypt as his hire for his labour wherewith he served against Tyre So may God say He will give unto the Popish Emissaries those Protestant Churches who are negligent in propagating the Faith as their hire for that service they have served against Heathenisme in the new found world And did not those excellent Persons who preached before the Lords and Commons on the Fast-day Dec. 22. 1681. proclaime it in the Name of the Lord That the vine bringing forth sowre grapes would cause God to pluck up the hedge and fence and let in both the Wild-Beasts and the Wild-Boars into his Vineyard This the Learned and pious Dr. Burnett with much integrity and freedom told the Honorable House of Commons as of other sins of the Nation so of the Drunkenness and Debauchery Which saith he hath not only
to his Glorious Majesty you suffer for Righteousness sake and the Commands of God with the examples of the Saints in all Ages will justifie you herein Nay further if you suffer for exercising the true Worship of God either singly as Daniel or socially with other Devout Persons fearing God as the Primitive Christians did daily and weekly not forsaking the assembling themselves together Heb. 10. 25. You suffer for Righteousness sake For God is God and is to be worshiped whether man will allow it or no. I speak not this as if I thought it unlawful for the Civil Governor when any of his Subjects shall Assemble in a considerable Number to require security of them that they will not under pretence of Divine Worship like the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their Sacrifice complot the Disturbance of the Publick Peace Next if you suffer for holding fast and contending for the Faith and Truth once and at once delivered to the Saints you suffer for Righteousness sake And this hath been and will be the most general cause of Suffering to the Saints of God For they are Children of the Light and of the Truth and by Publishing and Professing of the Truth they not only turn others from darkness to light but also from the power of Satan unto God which makes him and his Instruments rage against it First therefore He suffers for Righteousness who suffers from Athiests for owning the belief of a God that is for professing to believe That there is a Glorious and Incomprehensible Being eternally existing unmade and distinct from all things that are made unmeasurable in his Infinite Presence Infinitely Powerful Wise Good and All-knowing who made preserves and Governs all things and is to be Feared Loved Trusted in and to be Submited to Obeyed and Worshiped by all Men and Angels and to be desired and chosen by them as their Portion and Happiness Next He Suffers on the same good account who Suffers from Heathen and Polytheists for professing to believe there is One onely God and thus some amongst the Jews yea and amongst the Heathen as Socrates and thousands of the Primitive Christians Suffered and are Martyres of God yet they were by the Polytheists reputed Atheists because they denied their false Gods Next He Suffers for Righteousness Sake who Suffers from Materialists or Hobbists for professing that God is a Glorious Spritual Being free and unconstrained by any natural or fatal necessity who is every where intire and not divided into parts Working all Things according to his own Will And indeed Hobbism or Hylexism is but a blanched and disguised Atheism and is the Pander to all sensual Lusts and the Canker of Loyalty and incourager of Rebellion Next He is God's and Christ's Martyr who Suffers for the Arrian or Socinian for professing to believe according to the Revelation of God concerning himself that the glorious Godhead through its Infinite Perfection subsists in Three Father Son and Holy-Ghost owning that Unity and undividing Communion of Essence do each of them imply Perfection and are a way of Subsistence proper to the Godhead and as incommunicable and unparallel'd in the Creatures as his Eternity of duration or the immensity of his spiritual Presence are And Thousands of Christians thus Suffered of Old under the Arrians Next He is a Martyr of Jesus who Suffers from Jew Mahometan Heathen or any other Insidel for professing to believe That Jesus conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary at Bethlehem in the time of Augustus Caesar the Roman Emperor brought up at Nazareth and Crucifi'd under Pontius Pilate the Roman Governor in Judea at Jerusalem was the Promised Seed of the Woman the Man from the Lord the same that should comfort Mankind against the Curse the Seed of Abraham the Shiloh of Juduh the Rod and Branch of the Root of Jesse the Son of David and he of whom the Tradition was to the Fathers of Old that he should Break the Serpents Head and overthrow the design of Satan for man's destruction and of whom the Prophets prophecied That in him all Nations should be Blessed and he should be a Covenant to all People and bear our Sins and have the Chastisements of our Peace laid on him that is that he should as a Mediator betwixt God and Man Seal a new Covenant for us in his Blood wherein God promiseth pardon to the Penitent Believer and grace to the humble Suppliant and peace to the Contrito and glory to the persevering in Faith and Holiness and that his Death is the onely Propitiation for our Sins and that he accordingly dyed for our Sins and confirmed thereby the Covenant and rose again the third day and ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God being exalted even in his Humane Nature above the highest Angels and that he is God the Word and Wisdom of the Father Incarnate and is appointed to be the Judge of the quick and the Dead and that there neither is nor was nor shall be any other Name under Heaven by which Sinners may be saved but the Name of Jesus Christ A Christian may meet with Sufferings also from other Sects but the main Sect and Heresie against which I perceive you desire to be fortified is that of the Papists from whom ten thousand times ten thousand of the Saints of God have suffered for owning the Faith once delivered to the Saints and that Whore sitting on the Scarlet Beast hath made her self drunk with the Blood of the Martyrs of Jesus though as I said before I belive many of our English Papists to be of a more debonaire temper at present Par. It is indeed my chief desire to be fortified in suffering in opposition to Popish Errors though your accounts about other Sects redound also to my Advantage Min. You suffer therefore as a Martyr of Jesus if you suffer because you own that God since the writing of the Scriptures hath appointed them to those who have them as an intire rule of Faith in all things which God hath by Revelation made known concerning the way in which he will carry on Sinner to Salvation and that it is the Code or Body of all the Laws and Institutions of Christ to his Church But if you please I will speak of this a little more largely Parish Yea Sir I desire you would because I find that it is pleaded that once the Faith of the Patriarchs and so also of the first Christians was built upon Oral Tradision and Catechetical Institution Min. You say right the Patriarchs Doctrine of Faith about the Creation of the World about the Fall of Man about the promised Seed and about Sacrifices Tythes the Patriarchal Sabbath and Marriage was at first delivered by Oral Tradition and derived by Catechising from Father to Son But after that the Nations had corrupted the true Doctrine and Adulterated the Tradition it pleased God to inspire Moses to
write all that Tradition Doctrine common to all Mankind and also what was peculiar to Abreham's Posterity so that no part of the Traditional Doctrine necessary to Salvation was left unwritten And the Prophet afterwards having more particular Revelations about the time place and other circumstances of the Conception Birth Preaching Miracles Death Resurrection and Ascension of the promised Seed penned them likewise So that the great Tradition that the Jewish Church was to derive down from Generation to Generation was the writings of Moses and the other divinely inspired Penmen as the intire Rule of their Faith in the Messiah to come So also what was necessary to be believed of what our Lord Jesus Christ come in the Flesh Taught and ordained did and suffered is intively collected in the Scriptures of the New Testament and no Doctrine of Christ necessary to be believed nor Institution of Christ necessary to be obeyed is left out of the said Holy Writings to be derived down by Oral Tradition and therefore it is an intollerable injury done to Christians to deny them the liberty of Reading the Scriptures in their own Tongue And an abominable Cheat is put upon the Christian world in pretending that Part of the Rule of Faith is left to be derived down by the Churches Tradition yea so that what Doctrine was not defined by the Church that is the Pope or Council or both to be de side and part of the Tradition to day may yet be so to morrow and so be made then necessary to Salvation which was not necessary before Parish I apprehend now the good warrant we have to stick to the Scriptures as the only and intire Rule of Faith and I hope by the grace of God I shall not forsake that sure Word But Sir still if we yield what the Romanists claim that there is appointed by God an Infallible Judge of the sense of the Scriptures to whose definitions all are bound to consent our Rule would be no Rule to us without the concurrent judgment of such an Authentick Interpreter Min. But it can never be proved that Christ hath appointed such an Authentick Interpreter of Scripture and infallible Judg of Controversies And besides the ridiculous perverting of Scripture by Popes to bolster up this and their other pretensions is sufficient evidence to any man that will use his eyes and his reason that the Pope is no such Judge And indeed if Gods Spirit cannot speak plain in his Word but he must need an Interpreter how can the Pope or Church speak so but they must also need an Interpreter and that Inpreter must need another Interpreter and so on in Insinitum Therefore we believe the infinitely Gracious God hath so made known his mind about Mans Salvation in his word that no man who prays to God earnestly and humbly for the assistance of his Spirit and useth serious attention and pondering of the Scripture comparing Scripture with Scripture and applies himself to the help of learned and pious Men and Ministers when he needs the same can dangerously err in necessary points of Faith and yet learned Men and Ministers convince him of the sence of Scripture who seeks their assistance not in the strength of their Authority and Infallibility but in strength of that Light in which they are inabled by God to represent the Truth But I must not inlarge upon this Head I refer you if you need farther satisfaction to what the Reverend and Learned Dr. Stillingsleet Dr. Tillotson or Mr. Poole in his Nullity of the Roman Faith Mr. Baxter and others have writ upon this Subject Parish I am well satisfied I pray you proceed Minist Next you are warranted to bear Testimony even unto Blood against the Popes Supremacy challenged over the whole Church nay in a manner over the whole World And that you may be satisfied that so you ought to do consider that the Pope claims no less than these Prerogatives following First That he as Saint Peters Successour and Christs Vicar is the Head of the Catholick Church on Earth and the first Subject of all Ecclesiastical power So that whatsoever Power of Order or Jurisdiction any Bishop Presbyter Lay-Chancellour or other Official doth exercise is derived say the Romanists from the Pope That he can dispence with Vows and Oaths grant Pardons and Indulgences yea if he decree Vertue to be Vice or contrarily none are to question it nor doth any Appeal lye from him Nor can any Prince or State or Church constitute any Order or reform any abuse in matters Ecclesiastical but by delegation from the Pope That he as Christs Vicar who is King of Kings may depose Kings for Heresy or for favouring Hereticks or for any Male-Administration or other pretended unfitness of the Person to Govern That he can absolve Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance and give to whom he will the Empires and Kingdoms of the Earth and the Glory of them as the Divel Matth. 4. said he could do For thus Popes have practised in this part of the old world oft and in the new also Pope Alexander 6th Giving Peru and Mexico to the Kings of Spain and Portugal Parish If this be his claim then every one is warranted to oppose it unto death it being such an abominable usurpation of an Authority that Christ never gave and a most unsufferable inchroachment on both the Civil and Religious Rights both of Princes and private men both Christians and Heathen And he is a Traytor to Christ and a betrayer of his own and others Rights who yeilds to it and methinks there is nothing in Popery of more dangerous consequence to be yeilded and yet nothing more groundlesly challenged nor that can more prejudice unconverted Heathen Princes against Christianity than this Doctrine That they who before were Supreme must be Subordinate to the Pope when they turn Christians For first It can never be proved that Christ gave any such power to St. Peter or if he had it cannot be proved that St. Peter's personal priviledges are derivative to his Successours nor yet that the Pope of Roma is his Successour rather than the Bishop of Antioch or Jerusalem no nor yet can it be proved that the present Pope is the rightful Bishop of Rome by uninterrupted Success when from St. Peter as they claim there having been so many Heretical wicked Schismatical and Simonaical Persons who have possessed that Seat This and more I remember you told me was said against it by the very humble learned and pious Dr. Barrow late Master of Trinity Colledg in Cambridg in his absolute and incomparable discourse on this Subject But I pray you give me a reason why all the Kings of the Earth do not rise up against the Pope in defence of their own and their Subjects Right Minist The Scripture tells us Rev. 17. 2. They are made drunk with the Wine of the fornications of the great Whore and intoxicated with the pompousness of her superstitious Worship and