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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50252	A defence of the Protestant Christian religion against popery: in answer to A discourse of a Roman Catholick Wherein the manifold apostaties, heresies, and schisms of the chruch of Rome, as also, the weakness of her pretensions from the scriptures and the fathers, are briefly laid open: by an English Protestant.	Mather, Samuel, 1626-1671.	1672 (1672)	Wing M1278; ESTC R217670	45,074	64

your selves Your very Council of Trent though approved by the Pope yet is rejected by the French Papists unto this day This is your peace and unity amongst your selves whereof you use to boast so much Nothing forsooth but Mufick and Harmony made up of Discords Secondly As to other Churches There be Churches both elder and younger and contemporary with the Roman and some of her own sounder Members with all which she hath broke communion And they are not fugitivi but fugati it is not they but she that hath made the breach because she doth impose such conditions of communion upon them as they cannot lawfully submit unto viz. To receive all her Errors and submit their Consciences to her and her Head as Infallible and Supreme If we look back to the first times of your Apostasie there were first all the Churches and Christians without the bounds of the Roman Empire as in India Perfia c. Secondly the Grecian Churches which were one half of that Empire one Leg of Daniels Image Dan. 2. which took the Alarum very early and refused the primacy of Rome and stood upon their guard against her Thirdly the African Churches did the same Fourthly All those suffering Churches and Christians that were oppressed under and by the Papacy as living within the reach of the Popes power Or if we consider the present state of things at this day and in this Age wherein we live there be very many with whom the Church of Rome hath broke communion As for instance All the Christians in Asia and Africa except some late Colonies of Papists All the Grecian Churches in Europe All those that are under the Patriarchs of Constantinople Antioch Alexandria Jerusalem Russia and Muscovia Also the Protesant Churches and Kingdoms and many that lie hid under the Dominions of Popish Princes who sigh and mourn and groan under the Abominations of the Papacy Sir Edwin Sands Sir E S. Europae Speculum or view of the state of Religion in Western parts pag. 76. 187. who was a great Traveller and a very intelligent person his computation in Q. Elizabeths time was That about one half of the Popes Dominions were fallen from him and become Protestants five of the Ten horns have begun to hate the Whore And you know how that since those dayes you have not been gaining but rather losing ground insomuch that when all Accompts are cast up both of those who were never subject to the Pope and those who have shaken off his yoke it will be found That the Church of Rome is not a third part of the Christian world All these Companies she hath left and gone out from all these Bodies and Societies of Christians hence therefore 1. It is a strange Question for you to ask Whose Company she hath left For you cannot but know if you know any thing at all of these matters that there is a far greater number of Christians out of her Communion and Jurisdiction than are within it 2. This renders her assuming and monopolizing to her self the name and title of the Catholick Church in opposition to all other Churches out of her Communion not only false but extreamly vain and in plain terms ridiculous For is she the whole Catholick Church who is not a third part of it Or rather is not this a piece of Schismatical pride and arrogance in her the very same with the Donatists of old who did unchurch all others but themselves and so do you which is not the Spirit of the Gospel but rather an evidence against you that you have neither part nor lot in this matter and that your hearts are not right in the fight of God which are so full of the gall of bitterness and sharp censoriousness Ravn 6. Concluso Concl 5. pa. 687. It further confirms that which hath been long ago demonstrated unto you by that Learned Raynolds That the Church of Rome is not the Catholick Church nor yet a sound Member of the Catholick Church And so much for the Apostasies Heresies and Schisms of your Church The next thing in your paper is this CHAP. VI. Some places of Scripture for the Inerrability of the Church of Rome Answered DISCOURSE THe usual colour of believing more or less than the Church allows is vain and erroneous inasmuch as that very Christ that stored her with knowledge of Gods revealed Truth and with power to convey the same hath also endued her with Inerrability to convey the same justly without danger of miscarrying against Ignorance To you it is given to know the mysteries of heaven Matt. 13.11 Against darkness Ye are the light of the world Matt. 5.14 Against error and falshood I will send unto you the Spirit of truth to remain with you for ever John 14.16 Against weakness She is the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3. Hell-gates shall not prevail against her Matt. 16.18 c. ANSWER Now to examine the Contexture of this Discourse though something might be said both to the Grammar and Logick of it nor the soundness and sense of those distinctions you seem to make between Ignorance and Darkness for what is moral Darkness but Ignorance and Error and Falshood c. Your Scope is to assert the Authority and Inerrability of your Church as the supreme Rule of Faith and Obedience But what you mean by the Church whether Popes or General Councils you say not you know your Writers are divided about it But to the Scriptures you alledge we need not as you say we must but through the help of his grace we will not impeach either the power or faithfulness of Christ but there be three other things which we may truly and fitly say to you concerning those Scriptures 1. That you do not shew particularly where their pertinency lies or how you would apply them to the point you aim at they being in their plain and genuine sense most remote from it 2. That they do not prove Inerrability in those to whom they were spoken and intended for they are as applicable to every other Church yea to every true Believer as to the Church of Rome For every true Believer hath the Spirit of Grace and Truth dwelling in him and is inlightned thereby to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but yet it doth not follow nor will you affirm That every true Believer that every godly Man and every godly Woman is infallible 3. We answer further That these Promises and Scriptures were not given to the Pope and Church of Rome there is no pretence nor colour for it How ill doth it become you who do deny the perseverance of true Believers to claim to your selves an interest in such promises that the Spirit shall remain with you for ever It was never said to the Pope Ye are the light of the world For he is indeed the Angel of Death the Messenger and Instrument of Darkness a Star fallen from Heaven who hath opened the bottomless pit and

coloured and painted and having an Image in it as it were of Christ or some Saint for I do not well remember whose Image it was Wherefore when I saw this that the Image of a man hung in the Church of Christ contrary to the Authority of the Scriptures I tore it in pieces And moreover I counselled the Keepers of that place to wrap up the dead body of a poor man in the said Vail and so to carry him forth to be buried And I do beseech you to give order that there be no such Vails hung up in the Church of Christ which are contrary to our Religion Riv. Crit. Sacr. lib. 3. cap. 29. Waldens Tom. 3. Lit. 19. Cap. 157. Bell. de Imag. lib. 2. cap. 9. Salmeron Comment in 1 John cap. 5 Dis 32. Sixt. Sinens lib. 5. Annot. 247. Greg. Valent. de Idol lib. 2. cap. 7. He writes this to John Bishop of Jerusalem and the Epistle is Translated by Jerom a sign he liked it well and so you have the Testimony of two Fathers together both Epiphanius and Jerom A Testimony so full and clear that your Writers come forth against it one way but flie seven Some of them as Rivet notes senslesly affirming That he speaks it in regard of the Anthropomorphites so Tho. Waldensis as Bellarmine reports Others with as little sense or reason would have this passage to be supposititious because forsooth they know not how to shape an handsom Answer to it so Bellarmine c. But others of them Heretick-like say That he did erre and that one Swallow makes no Summer and that they regard the practice of your Church more than the Authority of Epiphanius Thus Salmeron Sixtus Sinensis Gregorius de Valentia But may you thus depress the Fathers below your Church May you thus advance your spurious Church above the Fathers as the Pope doth his Nephews above Kings and Princes And may not we prefer the Scriptures above either you or them But when you have said what you please and tryed all the shifts you can yet this Testimony of Epiphanius is an undeniable evidence against you That the gross Idolatry of Image-worship how fast soever it was then coming in yet had not generally prevailed in his time Helvicus placeth him upon the year of Christ 376. And seeing we are upon this let us see a little further what your Writers say of Epiphanius beside their anger at him for this Testimony what general censure and character do they give of him It may be a Divertisement here not unpleasant Can. Loc. Theol lib. 11. p. 477. Rivet Critic lib. 3. cap. 28. Baron ad ann Christi 310. Sect. 15. an 306. Sect. 45. an 326. Sect. 4. 8 an 327. Sect. 7. ann 338. Sect. 2. ann 342. Sect. 50. ann 306. Sect. 45. ann 310. Sect 16. Petav. Animadver ad Epiph lib. 1. tom 1. ad Haeres Samaritan pag. 21. ad Haeres 20. Herodian pag 39. ad Haeres Epicur pag. 20. nor unuseful to see how they handle him that so it may appear whether they have any greater Reverence to the Fathers than we Melchior Canus saith of him Nullos ille graves Authores sequi solet Baronius is as rude as he and saith ab omni scopo veritatis abhorrere quod apud Epiphanium legitur falsum item esse quod ait c. Rivet refers the Reader to eight or nine places wherein he shews his judgement freely concerning Epiphanius But Petavius the Jesuite equals if not exceeds his Fellows Permulta enim isthic falsa saith he false things minimeque cohaerentia disputat And again Suspicamur it aque multipliciter hallucinatum Epiphanium And again in another place Totidem paucis illis verbis a sanctissimo eruditissimoque viro Epiphanio peccata sunt Quorum admonere Lectorem● officii est institutique nostri excusare humanitatis dissimulare aut tueri velle neque officii neque humanitatis est So many Errors saith he are here committed in so few words by this holy and this learned Man Epiphanius of which Errors to give the Reader warning is both my Duty and Undertaking in these Animadversions To excuse them is a piece of courtesie and respect but to dissemble them or to defend them is no part either of Duty or Courtesie Thus he A sober and a well-tempered Speech and the more observable because uttered by one that was so full of the gall of bitterness as this Petavius was But such Animadversions such Reproofs as these have these Writers of your own thought fit to bestow upon Epiphanius And now what if we should say that he as well as some other of the Ancients did hyperbolize and exceed a little in his Encomiasticks of St. Peter and that his words and expressions are not so wary and so well guarded as they might have been in predicating the glories of that great Apostle It appears from all this that we should say no worse of him nor handle him more unmannerly and irreverently than your own Writers have done before us This may suffice at present for the further illustration of these matters As also for the Vindication of the True Reformed Protestant Christian Religion in the purity of it as contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament against the Roman Catholick Apostasie The Lord bless what hath been said for the reducing and bringing home his lost sheep and for the further establishment of Believers in their most Holy Faith FINIS

condemn as such viz. as false and destructive unto Souls and dangerously intrenching upon the very Vitals and Fundamentals of Religion And if it be demanded of us What are the Heresies of the Church of Rome in this last sense This is a large Field Popery saith Dr. Ames Ames Cas l. 5. c. 4. de Haeres Non est una aliqua singularis Haeresis sed quasi corpus quoddam ex variis Haeresibus conflatum productum Sicut enim Mahumetismus est antecedentium Haeres●●n mixtura in Oriente Meridie sic Papismus quamvis aliâ specie variarum Haerese●n sentina est in Occidente Septentrione Popery is not one single Heresie but a Sink of many Heresies a dead Sea a Sodomitick Lake of many poysonous and erroneous Opinions Look as Mahometism is a mixture of former Heresies in the Eastern and Southern Countries so is Papism though under different pretensions a Sink of many Heresies in the Western and Northern parts of the old Roman Empire Take at present for I would not leave things at random these few Instances of the Heresies your Church hath fallen into It is easie seeing you call us to it it is easie in the strength of Christ in the evidence of his Word and Spirit to make good the Charge against Her CHAP. IV. Of the Heresies of the Church of Rome eight particulars instanced THe first grand Error of your Church is this Your Dethroning and Unlording the Scripture It is Christs own phrase Matth. 15.6 and Mark 7.13 by way of Reproof to your Predecessors those ancient Papists the Pharisees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unlording the Word of God through your Tradition But to this written Word did Jesus Christ appeal John 5.39 Search the Scriptures for in them ye think to have eternal life and they are they which testifie of me We are commanded to try the spirits 1 John 4.1 even by the Rule laid down in that Scripture ver 2. The Bereans are commended by the Holy Ghost as Christians of the right breed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they would not take the Apostles Doctrine upon trust but searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so Therefore many of them believed Acts 17 11 12. But with you it is a Nose of Wax attramentary Divinity of no more Authority in it self than Aesop's Fables or Titus Livius but that your Church hath christened it for Scripture but yet She tells us withall That we must receive Her Traditions Pari pietatis affectu reverentia Concil Trident S ss 4. Decret 1. with as much pious affection and reverence as we receive the Scripture So your Tridentine Council It is lamentable to consider how many Bibles you have burnt and how many Christians you have burnt alive for having Bibles and labouring to acquaint themselves therewith In King Henry the Eighth's time those of you who then had the conduct of Affairs in England did cause to be put forth a publick and authentick Instrument for the abolishing and inhibiting of the Scriptures wherein ye thus express your selves Da●ed May 24. 1531. That foras much as there is ingendered an Opinion in divers of his Subjects that it is his Graces duty to cause the Scripture of God to be Translated into the English Tongue to be communicated unto the people It appeareth That the having of the whole Scripture in English is not necessary to christen men Fox Acts and Mon. Vor. 2. E●it 1641. the divulging of the Scripture at this time in the English Tongue to be committed to the people considering such pestilent Books and so evil Opinions as be now spread among them should rather be to their further confusion and destruction than to the edification of their Souls Thus you said and did your worst but you could not hinder the Sun from rising at its appointed hour nor frustrate the Oath of him who sware that your time should be no longer and he gave the book to his servants to prophesie again Rev. 10. ver 6 9 11. This wretched neglect and contempt of the Scripture is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very corner stone of the Tower of Babel We look upon it as the first and chief of all your Heresies and the source and fountain of all the rest Ye do erre not knowing the Scripture Matt. 22.29 For there is a self-evidencing light and majesty in the Scripture it bears the stamp and impress of the Divine Attributes upon it which he that sees not must needs be blind as to other Truths also As he that cannot see the Sun when it shines at Noon-day can see nothing else he that cannot hear the voyce of Thunder is not like to be awakened by a silent whisper 2. The Authority and Infallibility of your Church and Pope as if they were not men but gods for humanum est errare Let God be true and every man a lyar Rom. 3.4 This is the great Idol that you set up against the Scripture and consequently against God himself for the Scripture is God speaking to Mankind Hence it is written of Antichrist that he exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God shewing himself that he is God 2 Theff 2.4 He takes upon him to dispense even with the Laws of God therefore it is made the brand of a Reprobate to worship the Beast Revel 13.8 And the Lord denounces and thunders forth damnation to them Reve 14.9 10 11. The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and their doom is just for they make a god of him for put case the Pope should erre and go to Hell Bell. De summo Pontif. lib. 4. cap. 5. Bellarmine would fain make us believe that we are bound in conscience to go with him for thus he speaketh Si Papa exraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona virtutes malas nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare If the Pope should erre in commanding Vices and forbidding Vertues the Church were bound to believe that Vice is good and that Virtue is evil unless she would fin against her Conscience Here is sweet Catholick Doctrine is it not yet such stuffe as this is of such value with you that the same Bellarmine saith Bell. Praefatin li●res ●e Fortif Quâ de re agitur cum de primatu Pontificis agitur brevissime dicam de summa rei Christianae The Primacy of the Pope sayes he is the sum of Christian Religion he means Antichristian 3. Your arrogant Attributions to corrupted Free-will in derogation to the sovereignty and efficacy of converting and electing Grace yea to the utter corrupting and undermining of sundry great Gospel-truths as Election Regeneration Assurance Perseverance your Free-will is an Error that draws a soul tail after it But the Scripture saith We are not born again of the will of man