Popery condemned by scripture and the fathers - End Time Deception

SCRIPTURE AND THE FATHERS. 121
glance ; arid what views were entertained of it
by the Romish Church.
After the discovery of the Gunpowder plot,
it was judged requisite to bind the Popish part
of the community a little more securely. For
this purpose, an oath was framed, which this
king imagined sufficiently strong.
But he soon
found, that the consciences of Papists could not
be so easily fastened as he had supposed. Paschenius
shewed him a way, by which all their
obligations were speedily cancelled, as the R*
may see by consulting his treatise against the
king. " See," says he, " what simplicity dis-
" covers itself in the midst of so much cunning.
" When he had placed all his security in that
" oath, he thought it knit with so many circum-
" stances, that it could not, with a safe coft-
" science, be dissolved by any man. But he
" could not see, that if the Pope dissolved it, all
" its tyings, whether of fidelity to the king, or
" of admitting no dispensation, would be dis-
'*
solved together. Yea, I will say another thing
" which is more admirable. You know, Isup-
" pose, that afi unjust oath^ if it be evidently
*'
known or openly declared to be such, bind-
*'
eth no man, but is ipsofacto null. Ihat the
"king's oath is unjust, hath been sufficiently
'•
declared by the pastor of the church him-
" self. You see, therefore, that the obligation
" of it has vanished into smoke j sa that the
*•
bond,.