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attain eternal salvation, but that which is God's own holy word, or may be thereof grounded without any doubt, whereby vanished and melted away of themselves many vain, yea, wicked traditions of man, as wax before the fire: but now at one brunt they are revived, and are in full hope all to return again, in as great strength as ever they have been. And how can any man look for any other thing, but when you have received the head, you must also receive the whole body withal; or else how can the head abide? The head, under Satan, of all mischief is Antichrist and his brood; and the same is he which is the Babylonical beast. The beast is he whereupon the whore sitteth. The whore is that city, saith John in plain words, which hath empire over the kings of the earth. This whore hath a golden cup of abominations in her hand, whereof she maketh to drink the kings of the earth, and of the wine of this harlot all nations hath drunk; yea, and kings of the earth have lain by this whore; and merchants of the earth, by virtue of her pleasant merchandise, have been made rich.

of Babylon

of abomina

pounded.

Now what city is there in the whole world, that when The whore John wrote, ruled over the kings of the earth; or what city with her cup can be read of in any time, that of the city itself chal- tions exlenged the empire over the kings of the earth, but only the Apoc. xvii. city of Rome, and that since the usurpation of that See hath grown to her full strength? And is it not read, that old and ancient writers understood Peter's former Epistle to be written at Rome, and it to be called of him in the same Epistle, in plain terms, Babylon! By the abominations thereof, I understand all the whole trade of the Romish religion, under the name and title of Christ, which is contrary to the only rule of all true religion, that is, God's word. What word of God hath that devilish drab, for the maintenance of her manifold abominations, and to set to sale such merchandise, wherewith, (alas, the madness of man!) the wicked harlot hath bewitched almost the whole world? Did not Peter, the true Apostle of Christ (of whom this stinking strumpet beareth herself so high, but falsely and without all just cause), did not he, I say, give all the world warning of her pelf and trash, of her false doctors and apostles (for this whore and beast will be called Dominus Apostolicus, whosoever say nay), after this

2 Pet. ii.

manner in his latter Epistle? "There were among the people in times past false prophets, as there shall be also among you, in time to come, false teachers, which shall privily bring in pestilent sects, even denying the Lord which hath bought them, and redeemed them, procuring to themselves swift damnation; and many shall follow their damnable ways, by whom the way of truth shall be railed upon, and through covetousness by counterfeit tales or sermons, they shall, saith Peter, make merchandise upon you, &c." And doth not John likewise in his Revelation, after he hath reckoned up a great rabblement of this whore's mystical merchandise, at the last (as though he would knit up all in plain words, without any mist at all, setting out the whore's merchandise) reckon up among the rest, and concludeth saying, et animas hominum, "and the souls of men too?" Whereupon All things at I pray you else rose this true proverb, Omnia Romæ venalia, "All things for money are set to sale at Rome?" not that a worthy commendation of Christ's vicar in earth, that was written of our holy father, one of the Alexanders, a bishop of Rome, thus I ween in Latin:

Rome for

money.

Verses against Pope Alexander

VI.

Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Christum;

Vendere jure potest, emerat ille prius.

Was

These two verses in Latin, I have read thus of one translated into English rhyme :

Alexander our holy father, the Pope of Rome,
Selleth for money both right and doom:

And to sale the holy father doth not stick to set
All kinds of holiness, ready money for to get:
And eke Christ himself he dare be bold,

To chop and change for silver and gold.

And why should any think this to be sore?

For what doth he sell, but that he bought before?

I grant these verses to be light gear, and the verse is but rude; but, alas! such conditions were more wicked and lewd than any wit could express. If these had been but the faults of one or a few in number, they had been less pernicious, and might have been taken for personal crimes, not to be imputed unto that See: but now, alas, the matter is more than evident to all that hath godly understanding, that these crimes be grounded upon laws, be es

tablished by custom, and set forth by all kind of wicked doctrine, falsehood, and craft: and therefore are not now to be esteemed for any one man's or of a few men's personal crimes, but are now by laws, custom, and doctrine, incorporated into that wicked See; and maketh indeed the body of the beast, whereupon the abominable whore doth sit.

But you would know, which be those merchandise, which I said this whore setteth forth to sell, for the which all her false prophets, with all their jugglings and crafty gloses, cannot bring one jot of God's word. Surely, surely, they be not only all these abominations which are come into the church of England already (whereof I have spoken somewhat before), but also an innumerable rabblement of abominations Abominaand wicked abuses, which now must needs follow: as Popish wicked apardons, pilgrimages, Romish purgatory, Romish masses, See of Rome placebo et dirige, with trentals, and scala cæli, dispensations and immunities from all godly discipline, laws, and good order, pluralities, unions, tot quots, with a thousand more'.

Now shall come in the flattering friars, and the false pardoners, and play their old pranks and knavery; as they were wont to do. Now you shall have (but of the See of Rome only, and that for money) canonizing of such saints as have stood stout in the Pope's cause, shrining of relics, and from any kind of wickedness, if you will pay well for it, clear absolution, a pœna et culpa, with thousands of years; yea, at every poor bishop's hands and suffragan, ye shall have hallowing of churches, chapels, altars, superaltars, chalices, and of all the whole household stuff and adornment, which shall be used in the church after the Romish guise; for all these things must be esteemed of such high price, that they may not be done, but by a consecrate bishop only. O Lord, all these things are such as thy Apostles never knew. As for conjuring (they call it hallowing, but it is conjuring indeed) of water and salt, of christening of bells and such like light things, what need I to speak? For every priest that can but read, hath power, they say, not only

[Placebo, dirige, etc. See note C. at the end of the volume. ED.] [The forms for these and other offices may be found in the Rituale Romanum. ED.]

tions and

buses of the

declared.

The true word of God, and the

office of the same de

clared.

to do that, but also hath such power over Christ's body, as to make God and man, once at the least every day, of a wafer-cake'.

After the rehearsal of the said abominations, and remembrance of a number of many more, which, the Lord knoweth, irketh me to think upon, and were too long to describe; when I consider on the other side the eternal word of God, that abideth for ever, and the undefiled law of the Lord, which turneth the soul from all wickedness, and giveth wisdom unto the innocent babes; I mean that milk that is without all guile, as Peter doth call it, that good word of God, that word of truth, which must be graven within the heart, and then is able to save men's souls; that wholesome seed, not mortal but immortal, of the eternal and everliving God, whereby the man is born anew, and made the child of God; that seed of God, whereby the man of God, so being born, cannot sin, as John saith (he meaneth, so long as that seed doth abide in him); that holy Scripture which hath not been devised by the wit of man, but taught from heaven by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, which is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct, and give order in all righteousness, that the man of God may be whole and sound, ready to perform every good work; when, I say, I consider this holy and wholesome true word, that teacheth us truly our bounden duty towards our Lord God in every point, what his blessed will and pleasure is, what his infinite great goodness and mercy is, what he hath done for us, how he hath given his own only dear beloved to death for our salvation, and by him hath sent us the revelation of his blessed will and pleasure; what his eternal word willeth us both to believe and also to do, and hath for the same purpose inspired the holy Apostles with the Holy Ghost, and sent them abroad into all the world, and also made them, and other disciples of Christ, inspired by the same Spirit, to write and leave behind them the same things that they taught, which as they did proceed of the Spirit of truth, so by the confession of all them that ever were endued with the Spirit of God, were sufficient to the obtaining of eternal sal

[A priest of the Roman church may perform mass once a day only, and then fasting. ED.]

:

vation and likewise when I consider that all that man doth profess in his regeneration when he is received into the holy catholic church of Christ, and is now to be accounted for one of the lively members of Christ's own body, all that is grounded upon God's holy word, and standeth in the profession of that faith, and obedience of those commandments, which are all contained and comprised in God's holy word: and furthermore, when I consider whom our Saviour Christ pronounceth in his Gospel to be blessed, and to whom Moses giveth his benedictions in the law; what ways the law, the Prophets, the Psalms, and all holy Scriptures, both new and old, do declare to be the ways of the Lord; what is good for man to obtain and abide in God's favour; which is that faith that justifieth before God; and what is that charity, that doth pass and excel all; which be the properties of heavenly wisdom; and which is that undefiled religion that is allowed of God; which things Christ himself calleth the weighty matters of the law; what thing is that which is only available in Christ; and what knowledge is that, that Paul esteemed so much, that he counted himself only to know; what shall be the manner of the extreme judgment of the later day; who shall judge, and by what he shall judge; and what shall be required at our hands at that fearful day; how all things must be tried by the fire, and that that only shall stand for ever, which Christ's word shall allow, which shall be the judge of all flesh, to give sentence upon all flesh, and every living soul, either of eternal damnation or everlasting salvation, from which sentence there shall be no place to appeal, no wit shall serve to delude, nor no power to withstand or revoke: when, I say, I consider all these things, and confer to the same again and again all those ways wherein standeth the substance of the Romish religion, whereof I spake before; it may be evident and easy to perceive, that these two ways, these two religions, the one of Christ, the other of the Romish See, in these latter days, be as far distant the one from the other, as light and darkness, good, and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness, Christ and Belial. He that is hard of belief, let him note and weigh well with himself the places of holy Scriptures, which be appointed in the margent where

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