Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BS2096.A1 1701 .P3

An Advertiféntent. Emperour call'd Rebels, and SeditiousRogues, ich Writers as the Author of the Life of that Babdlendoubt not to number with Glorified Martyrs; how well let them anfwer. Ii. But what is all this to the Popesof Rome ? .Anfm. It feemeth clearly to be the Suc, 'afters ofthere that the Popes after murderd. For, r. There is no doubt but though man/ that took Arms were ki1Pd, and their Cattle demolffted, the far greateft -part were not in Arms, and therefore Cased themfelves by flight and hiding, 'fpecially old Men and Women and Children. z No doubt but they fled to the molt mountainous and deferred parts, as fafeft. t. No Hiftory tells us of their flying fo far as the Aged, and Women, and Weak could not go, but to Languedoc, Piedmont, Rhetia, and about the.,ilps. 4. The People murder'd by the Popes were found moll in chore fame Countries, and areof the yery like defcription. That there were Ionic Munichees among them, who difgracd the relt, and made Bernard, Peter Clnniacenfir, and W.rlafr. Strab. and others accufe them hardly, it is no wonder : The Apoftles Churches had Herefies, Luther's Reformation was accompanied with many difgracefùl Seas : nor is it marvel that we readof no great noi(e againft or about diem, for force hundred of Years after Diockfran, and that they were not ca11'd .A1bigenfes, Waldenfes, &c. till of late ; for it was many hundred Yearsafter, before the Bilhops turn'd to perfecute their Fellow-Chriftians openly and when they did, there were poor People and harmlefs, fled (as the Britain into Wader) where they were neither ä delirable Prey, nor any great Annoyance to any : Andwhen fome Teachers after more openly cry'd down thePope's Tyranny and Corruptions, then they began to be more de- famd andperfecuted. 5. Reynerias, that well knew them, teftifieth that they were more dangerous than new-rifen Sees, becaufe they boafted of their Antiquity, that they were tilld ,iipoffeliçls, and had continued what they then were from thedays of Sylvefter, and Sylvefler liv'd inConflantinés time, and was Bifhopof Rome about .An. 514. and fo liv'd in Diodefian's time ; fo that either there .Albigenfes were the Succeffors of the murder'd Ra- pids, or another fort juft like them in the fameCountry, which no Reafon can imagine. $15f their Antiquity fee more in PaulPerin, andMariann Hiftoryofthem, but efpecially at large in Bilhop Vjlaer, deSuccefane Ecdeliarssm. I think then it is manifeft by thisHiftory, that the bloody Popes and Pa ifts did mur. der the fame fort of Men, (yea, three or four times more in number) by Sword and Inquifition, (not only there, but inGermany, Bohemia, Poland, &c. whither they were difpers'd) which Diocletian and Max. Herculisu murder'd ; (and yet honour Sr. Maurice and the Theban Legion, that would not fight againft them, as they do St. Martin, that feparatedfrom the hilltops that were but for killing a Gnoflick Prifcilianiff): And it is not the Name of a Heretick that will cloak (itch Hypocritical Cruelty, or deceive Chrift , that he !hall not know his Flock, if men mifcall them. To own Chrift and the Gofpel, and to murder Thoufands or Millions in hisName; as if he took it for áç- ceptable Service, is incomparably a more aggravatedCrime than the molt bloodyPagan Perfecution was. Obj. Theft were Hereticks, and deferv'dDeath. ,.Inf. r. And were they worfe than Heathen Idolaters and Infidels, and mull three or four parts of theWorld be put to death ? Obj. But they were Baptiz,'d, and fo are Revolters. Auf n. And do they revolt to worfe thanPaganifm ? a. Is Infant-Baptifm of fo (mall confequence, as that the Papifts may murder all that revolt from it ? Is not this the wayto makeAntipedo-haptifts or Antibaptifts, and keep men front Chriliianity ? But ppartes Men- dacem .faMemorem, Why then do your Hiftorians charge them to hatebeen againftlnfa c- Baptifm ? Did you murdernone till they were baptiz'd ? a. But what was their Hernie, how can we know better than by your bloody Laws againit them ? The General Council, 4. at the Lateran, under b:nocent Ill, tells us, It wasdenying Tranfabflanriation (and difobeying the Pope) : And all Temporal Lords are to (wear to exterminate all fuch, and all others that they will call Hereticks, on pain of Excommunication, Depofi;tion, and Damnation. So that all that renounc'd not their Seafes were Hereticks, and all fuck to be deftroy'd or exterminated; and Sub je&s abfolv'd from their Allegiance to Temporal Lordsthat will not execute it ; and many other grievous Penalties are added. And teeing General Councils are the Rules of the Re- ligion of the through Papift, be not angry with them that call both yodr Pope and Council and Church Antichriftian, who thus excluded Diocletian and Ajax. Hercnlhei in their Work. Ob},

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