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had succeeded him in it, rather than the bishop of Rome : and it being certain, as the bishop of Canaries confesses", "That there is, in Scripture, no revelation that the bishop of Rome should succeed Peter in it ;" and we being there told that St. Peter was at Antioch, but never that he was at Rome; it being confessed by some of their own parties', by cardinal Cusanus, Soto, Driedo, Canus, and Segovius, that this succession was not addicted to any particular church, nor that Christ's institution of this does any other way appear; that it cannot be proved that the bishop of Rome is prince of the church: it being also certain, that there was no such thing known in the primitive church, but that the holy fathers, both of Africa and the East, did oppose pope Victor and pope Stephen, when they began to interpose with a presumptive authority, in the affairs of other churches; and that the bishops of the church did treat with the Roman bishop as with a brother, not as their superior: and that the general council, held at Chalcedon, did give to the bishops of Constantinople equal rights and preeminence with the bishops of Rome; and that the Greek churches are, at this day, and have been a long time, great opponents of this pretension of the bishops of Rome and after all this, since it is certain that Christ, who foreknows all things, did also know that there would be great disputes and challenges of this preeminence ", did indeed suppress it in his apostles, and said not it should be otherwise in succession, and did not give any command to his church to obey the bishops of Rome as his vicars, more than what he commanded concerning all bishops; it must be certain, that it cannot be necessary to salvation to do so; but that it is more than probable, that he never intended any such thing, and that the bishops of Rome have, to the great prejudice of Christendom, made a great schism, and usurped a title which is not their due, and challenged an authority to which they have no right, and have set themselves above others, who are their equals, and impose an

• Canus Loc. lib. vi. c. 8. p. 235. Ed. Salmant. 1563.

Concor. Cath. lib. ii. c. 34. Sent. lib. iv. dist. 24. q. 2. art. 5. De Eccl. Dogm. lib. iv. c. 3.

u Luke, xxii. 25. Matt. xx. 26, 27.

article of faith of their own contriving, and have made great preparation for antichrist, if he ever get into that seat, or be in already; and made it necessary for all of the Roman' communion to believe and obey him in all things.

SECTION XI.

THERE are very many more things, in which the church of Rome hath greatly turned aside from the doctrines of Scripture, and the practice of the catholic apostolic and primitive church.

A

Such are these: The invocation of saints; the insufficiency of Scriptures without traditions of faith unto salvation; their absolving sinners before they have, by canonical penances and the fruits of a good life, testified their repentance; their giving leave to simple presbyters, by papal dispensation, to give confirmation or chrism; selling masses for nine-pences; circumgestation of the eucharist to be adored; the dangerous doctrine of the necessity of the priest's intention in collating sacraments, by which device they have put into the power of the priest to damn whom he please of his own parish; their affirming that the mass is a proper and propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and dead; private masses, or the Lord's supper without communion, which is against the doctrine and practice of the ancient church of Rome itself, and contrary to the tradition of the apostles, if we may believe pope Calixtus, and is also forbidden under pain of excommunication: "Peractâ consecratione omnes communicent, qui noluerint ecclesiasticis carere liminibus; sic autem etiam apostoli statuerunt, et sancta Romana tenet ecclesia:" " When the consecration is finished, let all communicate that will not be thrust from the bounds of the church; for so the apostles appointed, and so the holy church of Rome does hold "." The same also was decreed by pope Soter, and pope Martin, in a council of

a De Consecrat. dist. 2. cap. Peracta. Vide etiam ib. cap. In Cœna, et cap. Si quis.

bishops, and most severely enjoined by the canons of the apostles, as they are cited in the canon law '.

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There are divers others; but we suppose that those innovations, which we have already noted, may be sufficient to verify this charge of novelty. But we have done this the rather, because the Roman emissaries endeavour to prevail amongst the ignorant and prejudicate, by boasting of antiquity, and calling their religion the old religion and the catholic;' so ensnaring others by ignorant words, in which is no truth; their religion, as it is distinguished from the religion of the church of England and Ireland, being neither the old nor the catholic religion; but new and superinduced by arts known to all, who, with sincerity and diligence, have looked into their pretences.

But they have taught every priest, that can scarce understand his breviary (of which, in Ireland, there are but too many), and very many of the people, to ask, 'Where our religion was before Luther?' Whereas it appears by the premises, that it is much more easy for us to show our religion before Luther, than for them to show theirs before Trent. And although they can show too much practice of their religion in the degenerate ages of the church, yet we can, and do, clearly show ours in the purest and first ages; and can and do draw lines, pointing to the times and places where the several rooms and stories of their Babel was builded, and where polished, and where furnished.

But when the keepers of the field slept, and the enemy had sown tares, and they had choked the wheat, and almost destroyed it: when the world complained of the infinite errors in the church, and being oppressed by a violent power, durst not complain so much as they had cause: and when they, who had cause to complain, were yet themselves very much abused, and did not complain in all they might: when divers excellent persons, St. Bernard, Clemangis Grosthead, Marsilius, Ocham, Alvarus, Abbot Joachim, Petrarch, Savanarola, Valla, Erasmus, Mantuan, Gerson, Ferus, Gas

b De Consecr. dist. 1. c. Omnes fidel. Omnes fideles qui conveniunt in solennitatibus sacris ad ecclesiam, et Scripturas apostolorum et evangelia audiant. Qui autem non perseveraut in oratioue usque dum missa peragatur, nec sanctam communionem percipiunt, velut inquietudinis ecclesiæ commoventes convenit communione privari.

sander, Andreas Fricius, Modrevius, Hermannus Coloniensis, Wasseburgius, archdeacon of Verdun, Paulus Langius, Staphilus, Telesphorus de Cusentiâ, Doctor Talheymius, Francis Zabarel, the cardinal, and pope Adrian himself, with many others; not to reckon Wickliffe, Huss, Jerome of Prague, the Bohemians, and the poor men of Lions, whom they called heretics, and confuted with fire and sword; when almost all Christian princes did complain heavily of the corrupt state of the church and of religion, and no remedy could be had, but the very intended remedy made things much worse; then it was that divers Christian kingdoms, and particularly the church of England,

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Tum primùm senio docilis, tua sæcula, Roma,
Erubuit; pudet exacti jam temporis, odit
Præteritos fœdis cum religionibus annos.

being ashamed of the errors, superstitions, heresies, and impieties, which had deturpated the face of the church,— looked in the glass of Scripture and pure antiquity; and washed away those stains with which time, and inadvertency, and tyranny, had besmeared her; and being thus cleansed and washed, is accused by the Roman parties of novelty, and condemned because she refuses to run into the same excess of riot and deordination. But we cannot deserve blame, who return to our ancient and first health, by preferring a new cure before an old sore.

CHAPTER II.

The Church of Rome, as it is at this day disordered, teaches Doctrines, and uses Practices, which are in themselves, or in their true and immediate Consequences, direct Impieties, and give warranty to a wicked Life.

SECTION I.

OUR first instance is in their doctrines of repentance. For the Roman doctors teach, that unless it be by accident, or in respect of some other obligation, a sinner is not bound

e In Chronic. Zilizensi.

presently to repent of his sin, as soon as he hath committed it. Some time or other he must do it; and if he take care so to order his affairs, that it be not wholly omitted, but so that it be done one time or other, he is not by the precept or grace of repentance bound to do more. Scotus and his scholars, say, that a sinner is bound, viz. by the precept of the church, to repent on holydays, especially the great ones. But this is thought too severe by Soto and Medina, who teach that a sinner is bound to repent but once a year, that is against Easter. These doctors indeed do differ concerning the church's sense; which according to the best of them is bad enough; full as bad as it is stated in the charge: but they agree in the worst part of it, viz. that though the church calls upon sinners to repent on holydays, or at Easter; yet that by the law of God they are not tied to so much, but only to repent in the danger or article of death. This is the express doctrine taught in the church of Rome, by their famous Navar; and for this he quotes pope Adrian and cardinal Cajetan, and finally affirms it to be the sense of all men.' The same also is taught by Reginaldus, saying, “It is true, and the opinion of all men, that the time, in which a sinner is bound, by the commandment of God, to be contrite for his sins, is the imminent article of natural or violent death."

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We shall not need to aggravate this sad story, by the addition of other words to the same purpose in a worse degree; such as those words are of the same Reginaldus, "There is no precept, that a sinner should not persevere in enmity against God. There is no negative precept forbidding such a perseverance." These are the words of this man, but the proper and necessary consequent of that which they all teach, and to which they must consent. For since it is certain that he who hath sinned against God and his conscience, is in a state of enmity, we say he, therefore, ought to repent presently, because until he hath repented, he is an enemy to God. This they confess, but they suppose it concludes nothing; for though they consider and confess this, yet they still saying, a man is not bound by God's law to repent till the article of death, do consequently say the

a Enchir. c. 1. n. 31.

Praxis fori pœnit. lib. v. c. 2. sect. 4. n. 23.

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