Christian, though a stranger, not to be of the Roman religion, is capital; because the Pope pretendeth that all Christians are his subjects. For otherwise it were as much against the law of nations to persecute a Christian stranger, for profes-ing the religion of his own country, as an infidel; or rather more, inasmuch as they that are not against Christ, are with Him.

From the same it is, that in every Christian state there are certain men that are exempt, by ecclesiastical liberty, from the tributes and from the tribunals of the civil state; for so are the secular clergy, besides monks and friars, which in many places bear so great a proportion to the common people, as if need were, there might be raised out of them alone an army, sufficient for any war the Church militant should employ them in, against their own or other princes.

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A second general abuse of Scripture, is the turning of consecration into conjuration, or enchantment. Το consecrate" is, in Scripture, to offer, give, or dedicate, in pious and decent language and gesture, a man, or any other thing to God, by separating of it from common use; that is to say, to sanctify, or make it God's, and to be used only by those whom God hath appointed to be His public ministers (as I have already proved at large in the xxxvth chapter), and thereby to change, not the thing consecrated, but only the use of it, from being profane and common, to be holy, and peculiar to God's service. But when by such words, the nature or quality of the thing itself is pretended to be changed, it is not consecration, but either an extraordinary work of God, or a vain and impious conjuration. But seeing, for the frequency of pretending the change of nature in their consecrations, it cannot be esteemed a work extraordinary, it is no other than a 66 conjuration" or incantation," whereby they would have men to believe an alteration of Nature that is not, contrary to the testimony of man's sight, and of all the rest of his senses. As for example, when the priest, instead of consecrating bread and wine to God's peculiar service in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper (which is but a separation of it from the common use, to signify, that is, to put men in mind of their redemption, by the passion of Christ, whose body was broken, and blood shed upon the cross for our transgressions), pretends, that by saying of the words of our Saviour, "This is my body," and "This is my blood," the nature of bread is no more there, but His very body; notwithstanding there appeareth not to the sight, or other sense of the receiver, anything that appeared not before the consecration. The Egyptian conjurers, that are said to have turned their rods to serpents, and the water into blood, are thought but to have deluded the senses of the spectators by a false show of things, yet are esteemed enchanters. But what should we have thought of them, if there had appeared in their rods nothing like a serpent, and in the water enchanted nothing like blood, nor like anything else but water, but that they had faced down the king, that they were serpents that looked like rods, and that it was blood that seemed water? That had been both enchantment and lying. And yet in this daily act of the priest they do the very same, by turning the holy words into the manner of a charm, which produceth nothing new to the sense; but they face us down, that it hath turned the bread into a man; nay more, into a God; and require men to worship it, as if it were our Saviour himself present God and man, and thereby to commit most gross idolatry. For if it be enough to excuse it of idolatry, to say it is no more bread, but God; why should not the same excuse serve the Egyptians, in case they had the faces to say, the leeks and onions they worshipped were not very leeks and onions, but a divinity under their " species," or likeness. The words, "This is my body," are equivalent to these, this signifies,"

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or

represents my body;" and it is an ordinary figure of speech: but to take it literally is an abuse; nor though so taken, can it extend any further than to the bread which Christ himself with His own hands consecrated. For He never said that of what bread soever, any priest whatsoever should say, This is my body," or "This is Christ's body," the same should presently be transubstantiated. Nor did the Church of Rome ever establish this transubstantiation till the time of Innocent the Third; which was not above 500 years ago, when the power of Popes was at the highest, and the darkness of the time grown so great, as men discerned not the bread that was given them to eat, especially when it was stamped with the figure of Christ upon the cross, as if they would have men believe it were transubstantiated, not only into the body of Christ, but also into the wood of His cross, and that they did eat both together in the sacrament.

The like incantation, instead of consecration, is used also in the sacrament of baptism: where the abuse of God's name in each several person, and in the whole Trinity, with the sign of the cross at each name, maketh up the charm. At first, when they make the holy water, the priest saith, “I conjure thee, thou creature of water, in the name of God the Father Almighty, and in the name of Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord, and in virtue of the Holy Ghost, that thou become conjured water, to drive away all the powers of the enemy, and to eradicate and supplant the enemy, &c. And the same in the benediction of the salt to be mingled with it: "That thou become conjured salt, that all phantasms and knavery of the devil's fraud may fly and depart from the place wherein thou art sprinkled; and every unclean spirit be conjured by Him that shall come to judge the quick and the dead." The same in the benediction of the oil: "That all the power of the enemy, all the host of the devil, all assaults and phantasms of Satan, may be driven away by this creature of oil." And for the infant that is to be baptized, he is subject to many charms: first, at the church door the priest blows thrice in the child's face, and says: "Go out of him, unclean spirit, and give place to the Holy Ghost the Comforter." As if all children, till blown on by the priest, were demoniacs. Again, before his entrance into the church, he saith as before, "I conjure thee, &c., to go out, and depart from this servant of God." And again the same exorcism is repeated once more before he be baptized. These, and some other incantations, are those that are used instead of benedictions and consecrations, in administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper; wherein everything that serveth to those holy uses, except the unhallowed spittle of the priest, hath some set form of exorcism.

Nor are the other rites, as of marriage, of extreme unction, of visitation of the sick, of consecrating churches and churchyards, and the like, exempt from charms; inasmuch as there is in them the use of enchanted oil and water, with the abuse of the cross, and of the holy word of David, asperges me Domine hyssopo, as things of efficacy to drive away phantasms and imaginary spirits.

life,"

Another general error is from the misinterpretation of the words "eternal 'everlasting death," and the "second death." For though we read plainly in Holy Scripture that God created Adam in an estate of living for ever, which was conditional, that is to say, if he disobeyed not His commandment; which was not essential to human nature, but consequent to the virtue of the tree of life; whereof he had liberty to eat, as long as he had not sinned; and that he was thrust out of Paradise after he had sinned, lest he should eat thereof, and live for ever; and that Christ's Passion is a discharge of sin to all that believe on Him; and by consequence, a restitution of eternal life to all the faithful, and to them only: yet the doctrine is

now, and hath been a long time far otherwise; namely, that every man hath eternity of life by nature, inasmuch as his soul is immortal. So that the flaming sword at the entrance of Paradise, though it hinder a man from coming to the tree of life, hinders him not from the immortality which God took from him for his sin; nor makes him to need the sacrificing of Christ, for the recovering of the same; and consequently, not only the faithful and righteous, but also the wicked and the heathen, shall enjoy eternal life, without any death at all; much less a second, and everlasting death. To salve this, it is said, that by second and everlasting death, is meant a second, and everlasting life, but in torments; a figure never used but in this very

case.

All which doctrine is founded only on some of the obscurer places of the New Testament; which nevertheless, the whole scope of the Scripture considered, are clear enough in a different sense, ard unnecessary to the Christian faith. For supposing that when a man dies, there remaineth nothing of him but his carcass; cannot God, that raised inanimated dust and clay into a living creature by His word, as easily raise a dead carcass to life again, and continue him alive for ever, or make him die again, by another word? The "soul" in Scripture, signifieth always, either the life or the living creature; and the body and soul jointly, the "body alive." In the fifth day of the creation, God said: Let the waters produce reptile animæ viventis, the creeping thing that hath in it a living soul; the English translate it, "that hath life." And again, God created whales, et omnem animam viventem; which in the English is, “every living creature." And likewise of man, God made him of the dust of the earth, and breathed in his face the breath of life, et factus est homo in animam viventem, that is, "and man was made a living creature." And after Noah came out of the ark, God saith, He will no more smite omnem animam viventem, that is, every living creature." And (Deut. xii. 23), “Eat not the blood, for the blood is the soul; " that is, "the life." From which places, if by "soul" were meant a❝ substance incorporeal," with an existence separated from the body, it might as well be inferred of any other living creature as of man. But that the souls of the faithful, are not of their own nature, but by God's special grace, to remain in their bodies, from the resurrection to all eternity, I have already, I think, sufficiently proved out of the Scriptures, in chapter xxxviii. And for the places of the New Testament, where it is said that any man shall be cast body and soul into hell fire, it is no more than body and life; that is to say, they shall be cast alive into the perpetual fire of Gehenna.

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This window it is that gives entrance to the dark doctrine, first, of eternal torments; and afterwards of purgatory, and consequently of the walking abroad, especially in places consecrated, solitary, or dark, of the ghosts of men deceased; and thereby to the pretences of exorcism and conjuration of phantasms; as also of invocation of men dead; and to the doctrine of indulgences, that is to say, of exemption for a time, or for ever, from the fire of purgatory, wherein these incorporeal substances are pretended by burning to be cleansed, and made fit for heaven. For men being generally possessed before the time of our Saviour, by contagion of the demonology of the Greeks, or an opinion that the souls of men were substances distinct from their bodies, and therefore that when the body was dead, the soul of every man, whether godly or wicked, must subsist somewhere by virtue of its own nature, without acknowledging therein any supernatural gift of God; the doctors of the Church doubted a long time, what was the place which they were to abide in, till they should be reunited to their bodies in the resurrection; supposing for a while, they lay under the altars; but afterwards the Church of Rome found it more profitable to build for them this place of

purgatory; which by some other Churches in this latter age has been demolished.

Let us now consider what texts of Scripture seem most to confirm these three general errors, I have here touched. As for those which Cardinal Bellarmine hath alleged, for the present kingdom of God administered by the Pope, than which there are none that make a better show of proof; I have already answered them; and made it evident that the kingdom of God, instituted by Moses, ended in the election of Saul; after which time the priest of his own authority never deposed any king. That which the high priest did to Athaliah, was not done in his own right, but in the right of the young king Joash her son; but Solomon in his own right deposed the high priest Abiathar, and set up another in his place. The most difficult place to answer, of all those that can be brought to prove the kingdom of God by Christ is already in this world, is alleged, not by Bellarmine, nor any other of the Church of Rome; but by Beza, that will have it to begin from the resurrection of Christ. But whether he intend thereby to entitle the presbytery to the supreme power ecclesiastical in the commonwealth of Geneva, and consequently to every presbytery in every other commonwealth, or to princes, and other civil sovereigns, I do not know. For the presbytery hath challenged the power to excommunicate their own kings, and to be the supreme moderators in religion, in the places where they have that form of Church government, no less than the Pope challengeth it universally.

The words are (Mark ix. 1), " Verily I say unto you, that there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power. Which words, if taken grammatically, make it certain that either some of those men that stood by Christ at that time, are yet alive; or else, that the kingdom of God must be now in this present world. And then there is another place more difficult. For when the apostles, after our Saviour's resurrection, and immediately before His ascension, asked our Saviour, saying (Acts i. 6), "Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" He answered them, "It is not for you to know the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power; but ye shall receive power by the coming of the Holy Ghost upon you, and ye shall be my (martyrs) witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Which is as much as to say, "My kingdom is not yet come, nor shall you foreknow when it shall come; for it shall come as a thief in the night; but I will send you the Holy Ghost, and by Him you shall have power to bear witness to all the world, by your preaching of my resurrection, and the works I have done, and the doctrine I have taught, that they may believe in me, and expect eternal life, at my coming again." How does this agree with the coming of Christ's kingdom at the resurrection? And that which St. Paul says (1 Thess. i. 9, 10), "That they turned from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven;" where to wait for his Son from heaven, is to wait for His coming to be king in power; which were not necessary if His kingdom had been then present. Again, if the kingdom of God began, as Beza on that place (Mark ix. 1) would have it, at the resurrection, what reason is there for Christians ever since the resurrection to say in their prayers, "Let thy kingdom come?" It is therefore manifest, that the words of St. Mark are not so to be interpreted. There be some of them that stand here, saith our Saviour, that shall not taste of death till they have seen the kingdom of God come in power. If then this kingdom were to come at the resurrection of Christ, why is it said, 'some of them," rather than "all?" For they all lived till after Christ was risen.

But they that require an exact interpretation of this text, let them

interpret first the like words of our Saviour to St. Peter, concerning St. John (chap. xxi. 22), "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" upon which was grounded a report that he should not die. Nevertheless the truth of that report was neither confirmed, as well grounded; nor refuted, as ill grounded on those words; but left as a saying not understood. The same difficulty is also in the place of St. Mark. And if it be lawful to conjecture at their meaning, by that which immediately follows, both here and in St. Luke, where the same is again repeated, it is not improbable to say they have relation to the Transfiguration, which is described in the verses immediately following: where it is said, that "after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John" (not all, but some of His disciples), "and leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves, and was transfigured before them: and His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them and there appeared unto them, Elias with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus," &c. So that they saw Christ in glory and majesty, as He is to come; insomuch as "they were sore afraid." And thus the promise of our Saviour was accomplished by way of "vision." For it was a vision, as may probably be inferred out of St. Luke, that reciteth the same story (chap. ix. 28, &c.), and saith, that Peter and they that were with him, were heavy with sleep: but most certainly out of Matt. xvii. 9, where the same is again related; for our Saviour charged them, saying, "Tell no man the vision until the Son of man be risen from the dead." Howsoever it be, yet there can from thence be taken no argument to prove that the kingdom of God taketh beginning till the day of judgment.

As for some other texts, to prove the Pope's power over civil sovereigns (besides those of Bellarmine), as that the two swords that Christ and His apostles had amongst them, were the spiritual and the temporal sword, which they say St. Peter had given him by Christ; and that of the two luminaries, the greater signifies the Pope, and the lesser the king, one might as well infer out of the first verse of the Bible, that by heaven is meant the Pope, and by earth the king. Which is not arguing from Scripture, but a wanton insulting over princes, that came in fashion after the time the Popes were grown so secure of their greatness, as to conteinn all Christian kings, and treading on the necks of emperors, to mock both them and the Scripture, in the words of Psalm xci. 13, "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder; the young lion and the dragon thou shalt trample under thy feet."

As for the rights of consecration, though they depend for the most part upon the discretion and judgment of the governors of the Church, and not upon the Scriptures; yet those governors are obliged to such direction as the nature of the action itself requireth, as that the ceremonies, words, and gestures, be doth decent and significant, or at least conformable to the action. When Moses consecrated the tabernacle, the altar, and the vessels belonging to them (Exod. xl. 9), he anointed them with the oil which God had commanded to be made for that purpose: and they were holy; there was nothing exorcised to drive away phantasms. The same Moses, the Civil sovereign of Israei, when he consecrated Aaron, the high priest, and his sons, did wash them with water, not exorcised water, put their garments upon them, and anointed them with oil; and they were sanctified to minister unto the Lord in the priest's office; which was a simple and decent cleansing, and adorning them, before he presented them to God, to be His servants. When king Solomon, the civil sovereign of Israel, consecrated the temple he had built (1 Kings vin.), he stood before all the congregation of Israel, and having blessed them, he gave thanks to God, for putting into the heart of his father to build it; and for giving to himself the grace to