A brief reply to a late answer to Dr. Henry More his Antidote against idolatry Shewing that there is nothing in the said answer that does any ways weaken his proofs of idolatry against the Church of Rome, and therefore all are bound to take heed how they enter into, or continue in the communion of that church as they tender their own salvation.

CHAP. X.

Severall important Consectaries from this clear Diseovery of the gross Idolatry of the Church of Rome; with an hearty and vehement Exhortation to all men, that have any serious regard to their Salvation, to beware how they be drawn into the Communion of that Church.

1. THus have we abundantly demonstrated that the Church of Rome stands guilty of gross Idolatry according to the conc••ssions and Definitions of their own Council of Trent; that is to say, though we charge them with no more then with what the Council it self doth own, touching the Adoration of the Host, the In∣vocation of Saints, and the Worshipping of Images. But we must not forget, in the mean time, that the Crime grows still more course and palpable looking upon the particular forms of their Invocation of the Saints, and the Circumstances of their worshipping their Images, and yet ratify'd by the Popes, and corroborated by the uncontrolled practice of their whole Church: Which therefore must in all reason be the Interpreter of the minde of the Council. So that there is no evasion left for them, but that they are guilty of as gross and palpable Idolatry as ever was committed by the sons of men, no less gross then Roman Paganism it self.

2. From whence, in the next place, it necessarily follows, that they are the most barbarous Murtherers of the Servants of God that ever appeared on the face of the Earth. For indeed if they had had Truth on their side so far, as that the things they required at the hands of the Dissenters had been lawfull, (though not at all necessary;) yet considering the express voice of Scripture, which must

be so exceeding effectual to raise consciencious Scruples, and indeed to fix a man in the contrary Opinions, besides the irrefragable Votes of common Sense and Reason, and the Principles of all Arts and Sciences that can pretend any usefulness to Religion in any of its Theoreticall Dis∣quisitions; I say, when it is so easie from hence, if not necessary, for some men to be born into a contrary con∣sciencious Persuasion, it had undoubtedly even in this case been notorious Murther in the Pontifician Party, to have killed men for dissenting from the Doctrine and Practice of their Church.

But now the Murtherers themselves being in so palpa∣ble an Error, and requiring of the Dissenters to profess Blasphemies and commit gross Idolatries with them, which is openly to rebell against God under pretense of obeying Holy Church, as they love to be called, they murthering so many hundred thousands of them for this Fidelity to their Maker, and their indispensable Obedience to the Lord Iesus Christ, this is Murther of a double dye, and not to be parallel'd by all the barbarous Persecutions under the red Dragon, the Pagan Emperours themselves.

3. From which two main Considerations it follows in the third place, that, considering the fit and easie con∣gruity of the names of the Seven Churches and of the Events of the seven Intervalls (denoted by them) to the Prefigurations in the Visions, there can be no doubt but that by Balaam mentioned in the Epistle to the Church in Pergamus, wherein Antipas, that is, the Opposers of the Pope, are murthered, the Papal Hierarchy is understood; as it is also by the Prophetess Iezebel in the Epistle to the Church in Thyatira, who was also a Murtheress of the Prophets of God, and both of them expr••••ly Patrons of Idolatry, as is manifest in the very Text.

Nor is it at all wonderfull that Balaam and Iezebel, the one a man, the other a woman, should signifie the

same thing. For the false Prophet and the Whore of Babylon in the following Visions of the Apocalypse signifie both one and the same thing, viz. The Hierarchy of Rome, from the Pope to the rest of their Ecclesiastick Body.

4. And what I have said of the Vision of those Seven Churches, the same I say of all those Expositions of the thirteenth and seventeenth Chapters of the Apocalypse▪ and that of the little Horn in Daniel; namely, The words of the Prophecies being so naturally applicable to the Affairs of that Church, besides the demonstration of Synchronism, that the weight of those two foregoing Conclusions being added thereto, there cannot be the least doubt or scruple left, but that those Interpretations are true; and that the Church of Rom•• is that Body of Antichrist, that Mother of Fornications and Abominations of the Earth, that is, of multifarious Modes of gross Ido∣l••tries, or that scarlet Whore on the seven Hills, that is also drunk with the bloud of the Saints, and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus.

5. And that therefore, in the fourth place, in the Church of Rome the Poison exceeding the Antidote▪ there can be no reason that Salvation should be hoped for there. It is a sad and lamentable Truth, but being a Truth, and of such huge moment, it is by no means to be concealed. What God may do in his more hidden ways of Providence, he alone knows. And therefore we cannot say that every Idolatrous Heathen must perish eternally: But to speak no farther then we have commission, and accord∣ing to the easy tenour of the Holy Scriptures, we must pronounce, though with great sadness of heart, that we have no warrant therefrom to think or declare any of the Popish Religion, so long as they continue so, to be in the state of Salvation; and especially, since that voice of the Angel which sounded in the Intervall of Thyatira, saying expresly, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not

partakers of her sins, and receive not of her plagues; and the Apostle in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, Chap. 6. 9. Be not deceived, neither Fornicatours, nor Idolaters, nor Adulterers, &c. shall inherit the Kingdome of God. And those of the Church of Rome are bound to continue Ido∣laters as long as they live, or else to renounce their Church; and therefore they are bound to be damned by adhering to the Roman Church, unless they could live in it for ever. For he that dies in such a capital si•• as Idolatry without Repentnce, nay, in a blind, obstinate perseverance in it, how can he escape eternal Damnation?

6. But though we had kept our selves to the Apocalypse, the thing is clear in that Book alone, ch. 22. ver. 14, 15. where all Idolaters are expresly excluded from the Tree of Life: Blessed are they that do his Commandments, (and one of them, though expunged by Rome, is, Thou shalt not worship any graven Image,) that they may have right to the tree of life, &c. For without are dogs, and Sorcerers and Whoremongers, and Mortherers, and Idolaters, and whoso loveth and maketh a Lie. All these are excluded the Heavenly Ierusalem, and from eating the Tree of Life. Of which who eateth not is most assuredly de∣tain'd in eternall death. As it is written in the foregoing Chapter, Apoc. 21. 8. that Murtherers, and Whoremongers, and Sorcerers, and Idolaters, and all Liers, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second Death. What sentence can be more express then this?

7. But besides this Divine sentence against them, they are also 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, they are self condemned, or at least give sentence against themselves, while they so freely pro∣nounce that no Idolaters are to be saved; which they frequently do, to save their own Church from the re∣proach of Idolatry. For, because some Protestants have declared for the Possibility of Salvation in the Romish Church, they farther improve the favour to the quitting

themselves of the guilt, from others hopefull presages that by an hearty implicit Repentance of all their sins (even of those that are the proper Crimes of that Church,) they may, through God's mercy in Christ, be delivered from the punishment.

This piece of Charity in some of our Party they turn to the fencing off all imputation of Idolatry from them∣selves, arguing thus; That no Idolaters can be saved: But those in the Romish Church may be saved, accor∣ding to those Protestants opinion: Therefore those in the Romish Church are no Idolaters.

But most assuredly while they thus abuse the Charity of some, even by their own Proposition they must bring the sentence of condemnation from all the rest upon their own heads, as they have herein given it against themselves, in saying that all Idolaters are damned, or that no idolater can be saved. For it is demonstrated as clear as the Noon-light, in this present Discourse, that the Church of Rome are Idolaters.

8. And in that of those of our Church that say they may be saved upon a sincere and hearty implicit Repen∣tance of all their sins, (wherein they include the Ido∣latries and all other Miscarriages which they know not themselves guilty of, by reason of the blinde Mis-instructi∣ons of their Church,) no more is given them by this then thus, viz. That they are saved by disowning of and dismembring themselves from the Roman Church, as much as it is in their power so to do, and by bitterly repenting them that they were ever of that Church as such, and by being so minded, that if they did know what a corrupt Church it is, they would forthwith separate from it. So that in effect those of the Roman Church that some of ours conceit may be saved, are no otherwise saved, if at all, then by an implicit renouncing Com∣munion with it, which in Foro Divino must go for an actual and formal Separation from it.

In which Position if there were any Truth, it will reach the honest-minded Pagans as well; but it can shelter neither, unless in such Circumstances, that they had not the opportunity to learn the Truth, which since the Reformation, and especially this last Age, by the mercy of God, is abundantly revealed to the world. So that all men, especially those that live in Protestant Nations or Kingdoms, are without all excuse; and therefore be∣come obnoxious to God's eternall wrath and Damnation, if they relinquish not that false Prophetess Iezebel, as she is called in the Epistle to the Church in Thyatira, who by her corrupt Doct••ines deceives the people, and inveigles them into gross Idolatrous Practices.

9. Thus little is conceded by those of our Reformed Churches that speak most favourably of those in the Church of Rome. And yet this little must be retracted, unless we can make it out, that any of that Church are capable of sincere and unfeigned Repentance while they are of it. For to repent as a Thief, because he is a∣fraid to be hanged, is not that saving Repentance. But to repent as a true Christian none can do, unless he has the Spirit of God, and be in the state of Regeneration.

For true Repentance arises out of the detestation of the ugliness of Sin it self, and out of the love to the pul∣chritude and amiableness of the Divine Life and of true Virtue, which none can be touched with but those that are Regenerate or born of God. Now those holy and Divine Sentiments of the new Birth are so contra∣ry to the Frauds and Impostures, to the gross Idolatries and bloudy Murthers of the Church of Rome, which they from time to time have perpetrated upon the dear Servants of Christ, that it is impossible for any one that has this holy sense, but that he should inconti∣nently fly from that Church with as much horrour and af∣frightment as any Countrey-man would from some evil Spectre, or at the approach of the Devil.

10. He that is born of God sinneth not, saith S. John: 1 John 5. 18. How then can they be so born whose very Religion is a Trade of sin, and that of the highest nature, they ever and anon exercising gross acts of Idolatry? be∣sides that they are consenting (by giving up their belief and suffrage to the murtherous Conclusions of that Church) to all the barbarous and bloudy Persecutions of the Saints that either have happened or may happen in their own times, or ever shall happen, by that Church; they become, I say, guilty thereof by adjoyning them∣selves to this bloud-thirsty Body of men, with whom the Murther of those that will not commit Idolatry with them, and so rebell against God, is become an holy Papal Law and Statute.

And therefore, I say, how can any man conceive that those men are born of God who are thus deeply defiled with Murtherous and Idolatrous Impurities, but rather that they are in a mere blind carnal condition, and un∣capable, while they are thus, of any true and sincere Repentance, and consequently of repenting of their daily Idolatries which they commit, and ordinarily (to make all sure) in ipso articul•• mortis, and therefore are out of all capacity of Salvation while they are members of that Church? As plainly appears both by this present Reason fetch'd from the nature of Regeneration, as also from the judgement of the Romanists themselves touching the state of Idolaters after this life, and chiefly from the express sentence of the Spirit of God in Scripture, as I intimated before.

11. And therefore, in the fifth and last place, it is ex∣ceeding manifest how stupid and regardless those Souls are of their own Salvation, that continue in the Com∣munion of the Church of Rome; and how desperately wild and extravagant they are who, never having been of it, but having had the advantage of better Principles, yet can find in their hearts to be reconciled to it. This

must be a sign of some great defect in Judgement, or else in their Sincerity, that they ever can be allured to a Re∣ligion that is so far removed from God and Heaven.

12. But this Church, as the woman in the Proverbs, is, I must confess, both very fair of speech and subtil of heart, and knows how to tamper with the simple ones right skilfully. She knows how to overcome all their carnal senses by her luxurious Enticements. She has deck'd her bed with coverings of I apestry, with carved work, with fine linens of Aegypt. She has perfumed her bed with M••rrh, Aloes and Cinnamon, Prov. 7. 16, 17. She en∣tertains her Paramours with the most delicious strains of Musick, and chants out the most sweet and pleasing Rhymes, to Iull them secure in her lap: Such as those Idolatrous forms of the ••nvocation of the Virgin Mary, and of other Saints, which I have produced, of which she has a numerous store. Unto which I conceive the Prophet Isay to allude in that passage touching the City of Tyre, representing there mystically the relapsing Church of Rome: Take an harp, go about the City, thou harlot that hast been forgotten, make sweet Melody, sing many Songs, that thou mayst be remembred, Isa. 23. 16. See Synop••is Prophetica, Book 2. ch. 16.

13. She gilds her self over also with the goodly and specious ••itles of vnity, Antiquity, ••niversality, the power of working Miracles, of Sanctity likewise, and of Infallibility; and boasts highly of her self, that she has the power of the Keys, and can give safe conduct to Heaven by Sacerdotal Absolution; and, if need be, out of the Treasury of the Merits of holy men of their Church, which she has the keeping and disposing of, can adde Oyl to the Lamps of the unprovided Virgins, and so piece out their Deficiency in the works of Righteousness. Such fair speeches and fine glo••ing words she has to befool the judgements of the simple.

14. But as to the first, it is plain that that Vnity that is

by Force is no fruit of the Spirit, and therefore no Sign of the true Church: nor that which is from free Agreement, if it be not to good Ends. For Salomon describes an Agreement of Thieves or Robbers, heartening one another to spoil and bloudshed, and to enter so strict a society as to have but one purse, Prov. 1. 14. And therefore for a company of men, under the pretense of Spirituality, to agree in the inventing or upholding such Doctrines or Fictions as are most servlceable for a wor••dly design, and for the more easily riding and abusing the credulous and carnal-minded, thereby to be masters of their Persons and Wealth, this is no holy Unity, but an horrid and unrighteous conspiracy against the deluded Sons of Adam.

15. And for Antiquity and Universality, they are both plainly on the Protestants side, who make no Funda∣mentals of Faith but such as are manifestly contained in the Scripture: which is much more ancient, and more universally received, then any of those things upon▪ whose account we separate from the Church of Rome, which are but the fruits of that Apostas••e which, after four Hundred years or thereabout,* 1.1 the Church was to fall into according to Divine Predicti∣on. So that we are as ancient and universal as the Apostolick Church it self, nor do we desire to ap∣pear to be the members of any Church that is not Apostolicall.

And for their boasts of Miracles, which are produced to ratifie their crafty Figments, they are but Fictions themselves framed by their Priests, or Delusions of the Devil, according as is foretold concerning the coming of Antichrist, that Man of sin, (which the Pope and his Clergy most assuredly is,) namely, that his coming i•• after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, 2 Thess. 2. 9. So that they glory in their own shame, and boast themselves in the known Character of Antichrist,

and would prove themselves to be Holy Church by pre∣tending to the Privileges of that Man of sin, and by ap∣pealing to the palpable signs of the Assistence of the Devil. For from thence are all Miracles that are produced in favour of Practices that are plainly repugnant to the Doctrines of the Holy Scriptures.

16. But now, as for their Sanctity, what an holy Church they are, any one may judge upon the reading of the Lives of their Popes and History of their Cardinals, and other Religious Or••ers of that Church of Rome; how rankly all things smell of Fraud and Imposture, of Pride and Covetousness, of Ostentation and Hypocrisy; what monstrous examples of Sensuality their Holinesses themselves have ordinarily been, of Fornication and Adultery, of Incest and Sodomie; to say nothing of Simonie, and that infernall sin of Necromancy. But for Murther and Ido∣latry, those horrid Crimes are not onely made familiar to them, but have passed into a Law with them, and are interwoven into the very Essence of their Religion. Judge t••en how holy that Church must be, whose Religion is t••e establishment of Idolatry and Murther. Of the latter of which Crimes the holy Inquisition is an Instance with a witn••ss. And yet that Den of Murtherers, whose Office it is to kill men for not committing Idolatry, with the Church of Rome must needs bear the title of Holy.

17. And for their pretense of Infallibility, it is expresly predicted in the Apocalypse of S. Iohn, as well as their laying claim to Miracles. For as the two-horned Beast is said Apoc. 13. 13 to do great Wonders, and to bring fire from Heaven, which two-horned Beast is the Pope and his Clergy; so Iezebel, which is the same Hierarchy, is called the Woman that gives to her self the title of a Pro∣phetess, Apoc. 2 20. whose Oracles you know must be infallible. For she does not mean that she is a false Pro∣phetess, though indeed and in truth she is so. And the Pope with his Clergy is judged to be so by the Spirit of

God, in that he is called the false Prophet, Apoc. 16. 13. as well as the two-horned Beast, in those Visions of S. Iohn.

And while he pretends himself to be a Prophet, even without Divine Revelation, one may plainly demonstrate that he is a false one from this one notorious Instance of Transubstantiation; which is a Doctrine repugnant to common Sense and Reason, and all the Faculties of the Mind of man, and bears a contradiction to the most pla••n and indubitable Principles of all Arts and Sciences, as I have proved above. So that we may be more sure that this is false, then that we feel our own bodies, or can tell our toes and fingers on our hands and feet. Judge then therefore whether is more likely, that the Church of Rome should be infallible, or Transubstantiation a mere Figment, especially it being so serviceable for their worldly Advantages, and they being taken tardy in so many Impostures and Deceits. So that Infallibility is a mere Boast.

18. And now for their Sacerdotal Absolution, that they can so safely dismiss men to Heaven or secure them from Hell thereby, this power of their Pri••st is such another vain Boast as that of Transubstantiation. Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdome of God. John 3. 3. And the form of words upon one's Death-bed can no more regenerate any one, then their Quinque∣verbiall Charm can transubstantiate the Bread and •• ine into the Body and Bloud of Christ. Where the form of Absolution has any effect, it must be on such persons as are already really regenerate and unfeignedly and sin∣cerely penitent: which I have shewn to be incompe∣tible to any one so long and so far forth as he adheres to the Roman Church. So that in this case one Aethiopian does but wash another, which is labour spent in vain.

There must be a change of Nature, or no externall

Ceremony nor words can do any thing. For the form of Absolution is not a Charm, as I said, to change the nature of things, but onely a Ticket to pass Guards and Scouts, and to procure safe conduct to the Heavenly Re∣gions. But if by Regeneration and due Repentance one has not contracted an alliance and affinity with the Saints and Angels, but is really still involved in the impure and Hellish nature, the grim Officers of that dark Kingdome will most certainly challenge their own, and they will be sure to carry that Soul captive into a sutable place, let the flattering Priest have dismissed her hence with the fairest and most hopefull circumstances he could. This is the most hideous, the most dangerous and the most perfidious Cheat of that Church of Rome that ever she could light on for the damning of poor credulous Souls, that thus superstitiously depend on the vain breath of their Priest for the security of their Salvation.

19. And yet they are not content with this Device alone to Iull men secure in wickedness, but besides their pretense of singing them out of Purgatory by mercenary Masses, and pecuniary Redemptions, by Pardons and Indulgences, and I know not what Trumperies, they allure men to come into their Church as having that great Store and Treasury of the Merits of Holy-men and women, their works of Supererogation, which they pre∣tend to have the keeping and disposing of. So that a poor Soul that is bankrupt of herself, and has no stock of Good works of her own, may sufficiently be furnished for love or money by the Merchants of this Storehonse. Which, besides that it is a blasphemous Derogation to the Merits of Christ, is the grossest Falshood that ever was uttered.

For these Holy men, as they are called, and Virgins, were, God wot, themselves most miserable Sinners, and died in most horrid Idolatries, as dying in the Practices of that Church; and he that comes to that Church

does necessarily become a gross Idolater himself; besides that he sets to his seal and makes himself accessory to all that innocent bloud, the bloud of those many hundred thousands of Martyrs for the Protestant Truth, which that Woman of bloud that sits on the Seven Hills has with the most execrable Circumstances imaginable so frequent∣ly murthered. So that a Soul otherwise passable of her self would be necessarily drown'd in this one foul Deluge of Guilt: so far is she from having any relief or advantage by reconciling her self to the Church of Rome.

20. Wherefore who-ever thou art that hast any sense or solicitude for thy future state and Salvation, believe not this Woman of subtil lips and a deceitfull heart, and give no credit to her Fictions and high Pretensions; but the more she goes about to magnifie her self, do thou humble her the more, by shewing her her ugly hue in the glass of the Holy Scriptures.

If she boast that she is that holy Ierusalem, Psal. 122. 3. a City at Unity within it self, whenas the rest of the World are so full of Sects and Factions; tell her that she is that carnal Ierusalem, wherein Christ in his true Members hath been so barbarously persecuted and murthered, and that the Stones of her buildings are no living stones, but held together by a mere iron violence, and the Cement of her walls tempered with the large effusion of innocent bloud; forasmuch as she is that two-horned Beast that gave life to the Image of the Beast, Apoc. 13. and caused him to decree that as many as would not obey his Idolatrous Edicts should be slain. This is the power of your Unity, which is not from the Spirit of God, but from the spirit of the Devil, who was a Mur∣therer from the beginning. But the Division of us Protestants is both a sign of our sincere search after the Truth, and a more strong Testimony against you of Rome, in that we being so divided amongst our selves, yet we so unanimously give sentence against you: your Miscarriages

and Crimes being so exceeding gross, that no free eye but must needs discern them.

21. If she vaunts of her Antiquity; give her enough of it, and tell her she derives her pedigree from that great Dragon, the old Serpent, Apoc. 12. 9. that is called the Devil and Satan, that Murtherer of mankind. Ye are of your father the Devil, saith our Saviour, and the works of your father will ye do. Iohn 8. 44. We grant that the Visage and Lineage of your Church reaches even beyond the times of the Apostles, the two-horned Beast reviving the Image of the Pagan Beast, the great red Dragon, by bringing up again his old bloudy Persecutions and Idolatries. It suffices us, that our Church began with the Apostles;

If she glories in her Vniversality, and in her large Ter∣ritories; tell her she is that GREAT City which spiritually is called Sodom and Aegypt, where our Lord was crucified: Apoc. 11. And that she is Babylon the GREAT, the mother of Fornications and the Abominations of the Earth.

If she boast of the power of the Keys, and of Sacerdotal Absolution; tell her that he that is holy, he that is true, he that has the Key of David, he that openeth and no man shu••teth, and shutteth and no man openeth, Apoc. 3. that is to say, our Lord Iesus Christ, will never part with these Keys to his inveterate Enemy, that notorious Man of Sin, or Antichrist.

If she spread before thee her goodly wares of merce∣nary Masses, of Pardons and Indulgences, of the mu∣tuatitious Good works of their pretended Holy men and women, or the Wealth and externall Glories of their Church, and varieties of rich Preferments and Dignities; say unto her, that she is that City of Trade of whom it is written, that no man buyeth her merchandise any more; and again, Alas, alas! that great City that was cloathed in fine linnen and purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls: For in one hour so great riches are come to nought. For her Merchants were the great men

of the Earth, and by her Sorceries were all Nations deceived. And in her was found the bloud of Prophets, and of Saints, and of all that were slain upon the Earth, Apoc. 18.

22. If she would amaze thee with the stories of the wonderfull Miracles done by her; tell her that she is that two-horned Beast Apoc. 13. 13, 14. that doth great wonders, and that deceiveth them that dwell on the Earth by means of those Miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the ten-horn'd Beast; or that false Prophet working Miracles, Apoc. 19. 20. and deceiving them that receive the mark of the Beast, and worship his Image, who together with the Beast is to be taken, and cast alive into a lake of fire burn∣ing with brimstone; or lastly, that Man of Sin and Son of perdition, 2 Thess. 2. 9. whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders.

If she would inveagle thee with her pretenses of In∣fallibility, tell her that she is that Woman Iezebel, Apoc. 2. 20. that calleth her self a Prophetess; or the Prophet Balaam, Apoc. 2. 14. that insnared the Israelites in Idolatry; and that very false Prophet that together with the Beast is to be cast alive into the lake of burning brimstone, Apoc. 19. 20.

23. And lastly, if she would gull thee with that specious and much-affected Title of Holy Church; tell her that the Spirit of Truth in the Divine Oracles, let her commend her self as much as she pleases, gives no such Character of her, but quite contrary, declaring the See of Rome to be the Seat of Satan Apoc. 2. 13. and their Church his Synagogue Apoc. 3. 9. the Pope and his Clergy to be Balaam the son of Bozor Apoc. 2. 13, 14. who loved the wages of unrighteousness, and who was the Murthe∣rer of Christ's faithfull Martyr Antipas; to be that Woman Iezebel who calls her self a Prophetess, but was indeed a Sorceress, and a murtherer of the true Prophets of the Lord Apoc. 2. 20. to be also that false Prophet, that is to be taken alive, and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone Apoc. 19. 20 to be that great

City that spiritually is called Sodom and Aegypt, where our Lord was crucified Apoc. 11. 8. to be the Beast that has the horns of a Lamb, but the voice of the Dragon, Apoc. 13. 11. decreeing Idolatries and cruel Persecutions against God's people; to be that Babylon the great, Apoc. 17. Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth; the Woman on the seven Hills that is drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus; and lastly, to be that Man of Sin, 2 Thess. 2. that notorious Antichrist, that opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or is worshipped, whose coming is with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth that they may be saved. For which cause God sends them strong delusion, that they believe a lie. That they all might be damned that believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. As well 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as well all they that love the Romish Lies and Impostures, as all they that invent them, are here plainly declared in the state of Damnation.

With this Nosegay of Rue and Wormwood antidote thy self against the Idolatrous infection of that strange Wo∣man's breath, Prov. 5. 3. whose lips yet drop as an hony•• comb, and ••er mouth is more smooth then oyl. And be assured that that cannot be the true Holy Church wherein Salvation is to be expected, which the Spirit of God has marked with such unholy and hellish Chara ••ers, let her boast of her own Holiness as much as she will.

24. And if she return this Answer to thee, That this is not to argue, but to rail in phrases of Scripture; do thou make this short Reply, That whiles she accuses thee of railing against sinfull and obnoxious men, she must take heed that she be not found guilty of blasp••eming the holy Spirit of God. I confess these Propheticall Passages ap∣ply'd to such persons as to whom they do not belong were an high and rude strain of Railing indeed, and quite

out of the road of Christianity and common Humanity: But to call them Railings when they are apply'd to that very Party to whom they are really meant by that Spirit that di∣ctated them, is indeed to pretend to a sense of Civility towards men, but in the mean time to become a down-right Blasphe∣mer against the Holy Ghost that dictated these Oracles.

And that they are not mis-apply'd, any impartial man of but an ordinary patience and comprehension of wit may have all assurance desirable from that demonstration of the truth compriz'd in the eight last Chapters of the first Book of Synopsis Prophetica; to say nothing of the present Exposi∣tion of the Seven Epistles to the Seven Churches in Asia.

25. Wherefore, O serious Soul, whoever thou art, be not complemented out of the Truth and an earnest pursuance of thine own Salvation from a vain sense of the Applauses or Reproaches of men, or from any consideration what they may think of thee for attesting or standing to such Verities as are so unwelcome to many ears, but of such huge im∣portance to all to hear. For no less a Game is at stake in our choice of what Church we adhere to, that of Rome or the Reformed, then the Possession of Heaven and eternal Life.

Wherefore stand stoutl•• upon thy guard, and whenso∣ever thou art accosted by the fair words and sugar'd speeches of that cunning Woman, (who will make semblance of great solicitude for thy future Happiness, most passionately inviting thee to return into the bosom of Holy Church,) be sure to remember what an Holy Church she is according to Divine description; and that if thou assentest to her smooth Persuasions and crafty Importunities, thou dost ••pso facto (pardon the vehemence of expression adventure thy self into the jaws of Hell, and cast thy self into the arms of the Devil, Matth. 23. 15.

God of his mercy give us all Grace to consider what has been spoken, that we may evermore escape these Snares of Death. Amen.

THE END.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Synop••. Prophet. lib. ••. c. 5.