which way and why I must believe it If from Christ can I believe that the Pope hath Power from Christ before I believe that there is a Christ that hath such Power to give And can I believe in Christ and not believe that there is a God that sent him Can I believe that Jesus is the Christ and not believe that he is a Sacrifice for sin or a Mediator between God and Man and came to save his People from their sins And can I believe this and not believe that we are all sinners and that sin deserveth that punishment which Christ came to save us from Is not our Saviour and our Sin and Misery relatives as a Physician or Medicine and a Disease And can we believe that we have sin and desert of Punishment without believing that God is our Governour and gave us that Law which we broke and which obligeth us to Punishment Can we believe in Christ and not believe that he is God and Man that he dyed rose and ascended into Heaven and will judge us at last and that he pardoneth sin reneweth Souls by his Spirit and will give us life hereafter All these are included in believing in Christ as Christ And how must I believe that Christ hath given the Pope this Infallibility or Power By any written word which granteth it or by Oral Tradition If by the written Word then I must believe that that Word is true before I can believe that the Pope is made Pope or Infallible by it If by Oral Tradition whose must that be Then I must believe some bodies Oral Tradition as true and infallible before I believe in the Pope at all If it be the first Hearers of the Apostles then either the Pope was one of those or not If yea and he hath a Negative Voice in the credible report then I must believe him as Infallible before he is proved Infallible in order to my believing that he is Infallible which is a contradiction If Not Then I must believe the Infallibility of other Hearers of the Apostles before I can believe the Pope's And the Question will recur How I shall know them to be Infallible And who they were that were those Infallible Witnesses Whether Pastors only or the People Whether of some one Church or of all the Churches And how I shall prove that they gave such a Testimony So that your pretense of a Necessity of receiving Gods Word or the Christian Faith from the Pope and his Council cometh too late For it seemeth that we must believe it first before it be possible to believe in the Pope and Council as authorised by Christ And if my Implicite Faith be the Belief of this Article Any Church in all the world yea the greater part of all the Churches may err in matters of Faith or Apostatize and only the Pope of Rome and his Council cannot What Proof or whose Tradition doth this rest upon Q. 9. Do not Bellarmine Costerus and many of your Writers profess that the Scriptures contain all things ordinarily necessary to Salvation Yea many Writers that the Creed hath all that is absolutely to be believed Yea some that it hath more than all Yea abundance Cited by Fr. a Sancta Clara that the Belief in Christ is not necessary to all And will you say then that he that believeth Explicitely the whole Bible cannot be saved without believing also your pretended Traditions Q. 10. And do you not hereby instead of the light burden and easie yoak of Christ and his Commands which are not grievous bring Christians under a harder yoak than that which the Jews were not able to bear When it seemed good to the Holy Ghost in the Apostles to impose but a few and necessary things Act. 15. 28. And how large a Law is all the Bible and all your Councils Decrees and Oral Traditions set together Do all your Priests themselves or one of an hundred understand them all or know what they are Q. 11. While you pretend a Necessity of your numerous Ceremonies as Fasting on Frydays and such other named by you do you not lay a snare of perpetual Division in the Churches and do you not make as many inconsistent Churches as there be Societies of Christians that differ and still will differ about any of those Traditions or Ceremonies Q. 12. And do you not lay open your own Church to the accusation of innovation mutability and corruption when it is not to be denyed but in such things as those they have been mutable or innovated Have you not long left the Custom of adoring on the Lords-days without genuflexion though the first great General Council Nic. Can. 20. and the ancient Fathers commonly made it a Tradition and Practice of the whole Church and it was Decreed to be so used by all Abundance of such Instances may be given Q. 13. You do very injuriously to your own Sect and Cause here to pretend Tradition as coming down from the Apostles for such things as your own Doctors plead but your Churches later Institution for It 's fully proved by Daleus de jejuniis that the Lent Fast was long but for a short time before it came to fourty days And it 's an odd thing if you will pretend Tradition from the Apostles for the Holy-days or the Vigil Fasts of those Saints that were born many hundred years after the Apostles death We confess our Faith is not so big as yours We have many score Texts of Scripture that promise Salvation to them that believe much less than the Bible it self containeth Yet we profess our selves ready to believe as much more as you shall ever prove to us to have been delivered by the Apostles to the Church to be believed II. And for the second that we receive not our Faith the way that you do that is from the Authority of the Pope and Papists and from your Tradition We crave your consideration of these Questions 1. When the Apostles and Disciples Act. 8. were scattered and preached the Gospel to many Nations Were they not true Christians and saved that received the Gospel from any one of them or from any Person whatsoever If Aquila or Priscilla Converted a Sinner such a one saved a Soul from Death though Peter did it not nor his Authority was known to such a one 2. Do you believe that if the Roman Bishop or Churches Revelation or Proposal were necessary to true Faith and to Salvation that Christ would never have told Men so Nor any of his Apostles have left it us on Record When there were Heresies and Schismes so wofully troubling the Churches as we find in Paul's Epistles to the Cor. Gal. Col. and in the Rev. 2. and 3. ch should we never have found one word for this speedy way of decision to appeal to the Church of Rome Would Paul have rebuked them for saying I am of Cephas and made him but a Minister by whom they believed without ever mentioning his
And in the Contest with them the case is commonly pleaded accordingly 4. Gregory Nazianzen would never have wished so earnestly that there were no inequality superiority or priority of Seats if he had taken them to be of Divine Institution Durst he have so opposed the Law and Order of God 5. But to put all out of doubt it is expresly determined by the most famous General Councils even two of the four which are likened to the four Gospels Constantinople and Calcedon that the Primacy was given to Rome by the Fathers so they called Councils because it was the Imperial Seat and therefore they give equal Priviledges to Constantinople because it is the Imperial Seat The words of the Council of Calcedon oft cited are these translated Act. 16. Binii pag. 134. We following always the definitions of the holy Fathers and the Canons and knowing those that have now been read of the 150 Bishops most beloved of God that were congregated under the Emperour of pious memory Theodosius the Greater in the Royal City of Constantinople New Rome have our selves also defined the same things concerning the Priviledges of the same most holy Church of Constantinople New Rome For to the Seat of old Rome because of the Empire of that City the Fathers consequently gave the Priviledges And the 150 Bishops most beloved of God being moved with the same intentions have given equal Priviledges to the most holy Seat of New Rome reasonably judging that the City adorned with the Empire and Senate shall enjoy equal Priviledges with old Regal Rome This Council was called by the Emperour Martian and his Lay-Officers were called the Judges And the Bishops to shew what they thought of Rome cryed out They that contradict it are Nestorians Let them that contradict it walk to Rome Bin. p. 98. If such a General Council be not to be believed farewell all the Papists Infallibility Authority Tradition and Religion If it be to be believed the Pope is a Humane Creature and not a Divine But Binius saith that Rome receiveth not the Canons of this Council of Constantinople which this confirmeth but only their condemnation of Macedonius And he saith That every Council hath just so much strength and authority as the Apostolick See bestoweth on it For saith he unless this be admitted no reason can be given why some Councils of greater numbers of Bishops were reprobated and others of a smaller number confirmed Vol. 2. p. 515. And yet must we hear the noise of all the Christian World and all the Bishops and General Councils and the Tradition of our Fore-fathers c. as against us when all is but the Pope of Rome and such as please him and it is He and his Pleasers that refuse the most General Councils and Tradition Away with this false deceitful talk 6. Once more hear their own Confession Their late English Bishop of Calcedon a fatal name R. Smyth in his Survey against Bishop Bromhall saith cap. 5. To us it sufficeth that the Bishop of Rome is S. Peter 's Successor and this all the Fathers testifie and all the Catholick Church believeth But whether it be jure divino or humano is no point of Faith Ans 1. Is not that a point of your Faith which the General Councils affirm at least of your Religion Who can tell then what is your Faith 2. If an historical point be not to be believed from General Councils why should the History of Peter's being at Rome and Bishop there be believed as from Fathers which Nilas hath said so much against 3. Do not the Fathers as much agree that Peter was first Bishop of Antioch If then you have no more to shew than they where is your Title 4. If your Divine Right of succeeding Peter be no point of Faith then he that believeth it not doth not sin against any point that God would have him believe as from him and therefore is not to be thought erroneous in the Faith 5. And yet upon this which is no point of Faith you build your Faith and Church and would have all Christians do the like on pain of damnation II. And as the Roman Primacy was but of Man's devising so I next prove that it was but over one Empire unless any Neighbours for their own advantage did afterward voluntarily subject themselves 1. Because the Powers that gave him his Primacy extended but to the Empire The Emperour and his Subjects ruled not other Lands 2. Because the four other Patriarchs made by the same Power had no power without the Empire As appeareth by the distribution of their Provinces in the Council of Nice and afterward Pisanus's Canons we regard not that take in Ethiopia Obj. The Abassins now receive their chief Bishop from the Patriarch of Alexandria That proveth not that ever they were under Rome For there is not the least proof that ever they did so till Dioscorus and his Successors separated from Rome being rejected by them as Hereticks and by long and slow degrees enlarged their power over many Neighbour Volunteers 3. Because the General Councils in which the Pope presided were but of the Empire And the Popes never claimed a more general extensive power then than the Councils Who indeed with the Emperours made the Papacy in its first state 4. Because when the Patriarch of Constantinople claimed the Primacy yea called himself Universal Bishop which Gregory sharply reprehendeth as Antichristian yet he never claimed the Government of the whole Christian World but only of the Empire And in all their Contests there is no intimation of any such different Claim of the Competitors as if Rome claimed all the World and Constantinople but the Empire or Roman-World Their Contest was about the same Churches or Circuit who should be Chief 5. The Instances of the several Countries that were never under the Pope do prove it Even the great Empire of Abassia and all the rest fore-named without the Empire Of which and the Exception more under the next III. The General Councils were all so called only in respect to the generality of the Empire and not as of all the Christian World which was never dreamed of Proved 1. Because the Emperours that called them Constantine Martian c. had no power out of the Empire 2. There is no credible History that mentioneth any further call much less of all the Christian World 3. It was the Affairs only of the Empire that the Councils judged of as is to be seen in all their Canons 4. The Names of the Bishops yet to be seen as Subscribers fully prove it 5. It was not a thing probable if possible that the Indians Persians and other Nations should send their Bishops into the Roman Empire which was usually at War with them or dreaded and detested by them 6. Theodoret's foresaid words of James Bishop of Nisibis sheweth it that he was at the Council of Nice for Nisibis was then under the Roman Empire 7. I have oft cited the
ad infernum And as others report him Qui sine poenitentia vivit sine poenitentia moritur ad infernum descendit See Baronius forecited XXVII Though the Pope condemn and unchurch so many yet doth he tolerate in his own Church abundance of differences de fide and abundance of Controversies in Theologie and abundance of Differences and Errours in great and dangerous matters of Morality and abundance of Sects that variously serve God so they will serve him and uphold his Kingdom 1. The holy Scripture is all de fide that is a Divine Revelation to be believed The Popes tolerated Translations that differ in many hundred places or that erred so oft and Commentators that differ in many hundred Texts as to the Exposition yea they tolerate those that deny the immaculate conception of the Virgin after a General Council hath defined it 2. He tolerateth vast Volumes of Theological Differences in the School Doctors 3. He tolerateth all the Moral Doctrines for murdering Kings before mentioned and all those cited by Mr. Clarkson in his Practical Divinity of the Church of Rome and all those mentioned in the Provincial Letters and the Jesuites Morals about Murder Adultery Perjury Lying seldom loving God not loving him intensively above all c. See my Key c. p. 59. 4. He tolerateth abundance of Religious Sects Jesuites Augustinians Franciscans Carthusians c. who differ from each other in their serving God as much as many of the Sects of Protestants who are despised for their discord XXVIII He pretendeth a necessity to the ending of Controversies that he be the Judge and yet will not end them by his Judgment but continueth many hundred undecided If we dispute with a Papist and cite the Scriptures they ask us presently who shall be Judge of the meaning of them As if the Pope would decide all And yet to this day he will neither write any deciding Commentary on the Bible nor on one Book of it nor end the Controversies among his own Commentators Nor will he end any of the fore-mentioned Controversies in Morality of great importance XXIX He sweareth all his Clergie never to take or interpret Scripture but according to the unanimous sense of the Fathers see the Trent Oath when yet the Fathers do not unanimously expound the Scripture nor any one Book of it And few Priests know what the Fathers are unanimous in nor can do unless they read them all which by this Oath they seem obliged to do Was not Greg. Nazianz. one of the Fathers who saith Orat. 18. I would there were no Presidency nor Prerogative of place and tyrannical Priviledges that so we might be known only by Vertue or deserts But now this Right side and Left side and Middle and Lower Degree and Presidency and Concomitancy have begot us many contentions to no purpose and have driven many into the Ditch and have led them away to the Region of Goats Is not this Heresie or worse with you Was not Isidore Pelusiota a Father but a sharp Reprover of proud and wicked Priests and Prelates who saith lib. 3. Epist 223. ad Hieracem And when I have shewed what difference there is between the ancient Ministry and the present Tyranny why do you not crown and praise the lovers of Equality Doth not this deserve a Fagot with you How ordinarily doth Cajetan and others of yours reject deservedly the Expositions of Fathers Bellarmine chargeth Justin Irenaeus c. with error de Beat. SS li. 1. Cap. 6. He saith There is no trust to be given to Tertullian de Rom. Pont. li. 4. c. 8. He saith Eusebius was addicted to Hereticks and that Cypriâ—n seemed to sin mortally de Rom. Pont. li. 4. c. 7. Di. â—â—s Peâ—avius de Trinit citeth the words of most of the ancientest as favouring Arrianism almost like Sondius himself or Philostorgius and is fain to go to the Major Vote of the Nice ne Council as the proof that most of the ancients were not really of the Arrians mind Dallaeus hath told you more of the Fathers differences and unsatisfactory expositions XXX He confesseth all the Scripture to be Gods infallible word yea his Doctors have asserted its sufficiency as a Divine Law and yet his pretense of its Insufficiency without Traditional supplement is one of the Pillars of his Kingdom The second part needs no proof For the first the elder Popes oft assert it And the School-men in their Prologue to the Sentences Scotus Durandus and many others But when Reformers confuted them by Scripture they found that would not serve their turn as Micaiah of Ahab it prophesyed not good of them but evil And since then they cry up the Church and Tradition and depress the sufficiency of Scripture Even Card. Richlieu pag. 38. confesseth As for us we assert no other Rule but Scripture neither of another sort nor total yea we say that it is the whole Rule of our salvation and that on a double account both because it containeth immediately and formally the sum of our salvation that is all the Articles that are necessary to mans salvation by necessity of means and because it mediately containeth what ever we are bound to believe as it sends us to the Church to be instructed by her of whose infallibility it certainly confirmeth us Here the sum of our Religion is granted At the Council of Basil Ragusius's oration Bin. p. 299 saith That Faith and all things necessary to salvation both matters of belief and practice are founded in the literal sense of Scripture and only from that may argumentation be taken for the proving of those things that are matters of Faith and necessary to salvation and not from those passages that are spoken by allegory c. And sup 7. The holy Scripture in the literal sense soundly and well understood is the infallible and most sufficient rule of Faith See more of his oration opened in my Key pag. 93 94 95. The Testimony of Bellarmine Costerus and others I have formerly recited XXXI The Pope teacheth us that we cannot truly believe the Articles of our Faith or the truth of Scripture but because of the Authority and Infallibility of the Pope and his Church declaring them so that we must believe that the Pope is Christs Vicar and authorized by him and made infallible before we can believe that there is a Christ or that he hath given any authority or gifts to any This is not to be denyed And Knot against Chillingworth hath no other shift but to resolve their belief of the Churches infallibility and authority not into any word or donation of Christ but into Miracles wrought by the Church So that no man can be a Believer that is not first certain of the Papists Miracles and how can millions know them when they see them not and in all my life I could never meet with one that saw them And he must next be certain that those miracles prove the infallibility of the Pope when yet
sort of Papists and very numerous especially in Italy hold that the Pope alone is Supreme and Infallible in Legislation and Judgment and that Councils are but his Counsellors to prepare Laws to which his Fiat giveth Authority and Infallibility All these indeed are commonly called PAPISTS because that more or less they are Subjects of the Pope But who can give one definition or the same marks of men that are really of so many minds If I describe one sort the other will say this is not our Opinion you do us wrong And so of all the rest And here you may see that when the Question is Whether a Papist may be saved and Whether a Papist be a Heretick or the like that it cannot be well answered till we know of which sort of Papists you speak But because I find that already my Writing is swelled beyond my first intent I will give you the Properties or inadequate conceptions of only one sort of Papists which is the third sort in the last distribution who hold the Soveraignty and Infallibility to be in the Pope and Council conjunct and that by Divine Right Because if I speak of any of the other sorts I find they fly for refuge hither and most Writers go upon this ground and will own nothing as their Religion but what is in Approved General Councils And here I desire the Reader to peruse what I have said in my Full and easie satisfaction c. out of Veron and others as they describe their Faith themselves I. A PAPIST of this sort is one that believeth that the Pope and his Council or Church is Infallible in proposing the will of Christ and believeth in Christ and receiveth the Gospel as true for the Authority and Infallibility of this Pope and Council and hereon layeth all the hopes of his salvation as on the Churches Faith And all this Authority and Infallibility he believeth before he believeth that there is a Pope or a Church of Christ or a Christ indeed or a promise or gift from Christ of any Authority or Infallibility to them Much more before he knoweth who is the true Pope and which are true General Councils or whether ever there were any such or what it is that they have decreed to be believed 1. That they take all their Faith in Christ and the Gospel on the credit of the Church that is the Pope and Council proposing it the moderatest of all this sort profess as out of Veron and others I proved as afore-cited Hence it is that one tells us that the Scripture is so full of seeming Contradictions and Improbabilities that he would no more believe it than Esop's Fables were it not for the Authority of the Church Another said Would I ever believe the Trinity the Incarnation that if you lay a man to dye in a close Chest of Lead or Marble his Soul could get out to Heaven that the Body shall rise again c. were it not for the Authority of the Church 2. They believe this Infallibility and Authority of the Pope before they can believe that there is any Pope at all For to be a Pope is essentially to be Christs Vicar as they describe him And as I said it is impossible to believe that Christ hath a Vicar before they believe that he is Christ As it is to believe a Son without a Parent 3. They believe the Infallibility and Authority of the Church as they profess before they believe that there is any Church For to be a Church is essentially to be a Society of Christians And he that yet believeth not that Christ is truly Christ cannot believe that Christians are truly Christians save de nomine nor that Christ hath a Church For they are Relatives as Wife and Husband 4. They believe the Infallibility and Authority of the Church that is the Pope and Council before they believe that Jesus is the Christ For they profess to believe in him because of the said Churches Authority and Infallibility And the Premises go before the Conclusion 5. They believe the said Infallibility and Authority of the Church before they believe that ever Christ gave them such Authority and Infallibility For they cannot believe that Christ gave it them before they believe that there is a Christ and a Word of gift And now is not here a Riddle hard enough to pose the wisest Which way do all these Believers through all the world come to know that the Pope and Council or Church are authorized and Infallible before they believe that Christ ever gave it them Which way do they think that they came by it Let him unriddle it that can 6. They believe thus in the Pope before they know what a Pope is or who is he that they must thus believe in For alas how can all or any in the world know what is necessary to make a Pope what Election what Ordination what Qualification and whether the man had all these And of divers Pretenders which is he that hath the proofs of a true title 7. They believe thus in Councils when they know not what Councils are true and what not nay whether ever there were any For I have elsewhere fully proved that there never was any nor ever will be that are truly Universal as to all the Christian World 8. Much less do these beginners know certainly what General Councils have decreed to be believed by those that will be saved That which will be said to all this is that It is not necessary that all men receive their Faith from Councils it is sufficient if it be from the Church-real though not from the Representative Ans Very good 1. Else no man was a Christian nor could be before the first General Council which was above 300 years 2. But still this answereth none of the Contradictions about believing in and from the Pope May we all take our Faith from the Church-real without taking it from the Pope or not If yea we may possibly be good friends at last If not all the Contradictions about him are still upheld by you 3. And if you must take it from the Authority and Infallibility of the Church Real still all the Contradictions will follow as if you took it from Councils For can you believe that this Church is Christs Church and hath this power and gift from him before you believe that he is Christ and that ever he made such a gift or promise to them 4. And who or what is this Real Church that must be first known to be thus impowered and infallible Is it some few or many or must it be the most If a few or many you profess that they may be Hereticks and have not that authority or gift If it must be all or the greater part 1. Then the Church of Rome goeth down that is at most but a third part 2. How shall every poor man or any man know which is the judgment of the major part Can he take
Office and Dignity would he never have told the Church of Rome of their Mistris-ship and Infallibility above the rest Would so necessary a Fundamental of Faith have been so much silenced 3. Did the Apostles Evangelists or ancient Fathers use to Convert Infidels by any such Method and telling them that they must believe first the Infallibility of the Bishop of Rome and his Clergie and then believe the Gospel because he saith it is true Had this been the old Method would there not have been more Books necessary and written to prove this first Fundamental the Infallibility of the Roman Bishop and his Councils than to have proved the Gospel it self directly Is it not a wonder that we should have such Volumes as Eusebius his Praeparatio Demonstratio Evangel and so many written by those before and after him to prove the Gospel and none of them hit on this Method nor write at large to make it good The Churches Authority and Unity is ordinarily pleaded against Heresies and Schismes but who ever Converted Infidels by the Authority of the Papal Church either proved or asserted as the necessary Medium of Faith 4. Do you not confess that all other Churches may erre besides the Roman And their plea of Tradition you account invalid Your Book called Considerations on the Council of Trent by R. H. p. 40. saith All Conciliary Definitions are not only Declarations and Testifications of such Apostolical Traditions as were left by them evident and conspicuous in all Christian Churches Planted by them but are many times Determinations of Points deduced from and necessary consequents to such clear Traditionals whether written or unwritten 2. If the Acts of General Councils were only such Declarations of Apostolical Tradition yet it is possible that some particular Church may in time depart from such a Tradition entrusted to them else how can any Church become Heretical against any such Tradition Do you not at this day accuse the Greek Church the Muscovites the Armenians the Jacobites Syrians Copties Abassines the Protestants c. as having departed from or corrupted the first Tradition And how small a part of the Universality of Christians are the Papists And if the greater part of Christians may so forsake the Apostolical Tradition why may not the Pope of Rome and his Council How shall we be sure of their exemption from such danger You tell us over and over of our receiving this and that from our Fathers and Grand-Fathers And is that a certain Proof that it is Apostolical Why is it not so then with all the rest the Abassines the Armenians c. and the Majority of Christians But of this I have spoken in the former Treatise 5. And there I have desired you to tell us whether your Grandfather or his Priest was Infallible If yea how came he by it more than all those Churches If not do you not delude your Relations by drawing them to build their Faith on a fallible man or upon nothing Your Relations were not at the Council of Trent or Florence or Laterane How shall they be sure what the Pope and Council agreed on What Foundation but the words of your Priest or Grandfather have you for your assurance May not one of your Priests lye as well as all the Greek Abassine c. Churches When Pope Coelestine himself falsly urged the Nicene Council for Appeals to Rome contrary to Augustine and the Carthage Council Either tell your Readers plainly that it 's you and such as you that are the Infallible Foundation of their Faith or bid them stay and not go your way till they are certain what the Pope and his Council say and that he is a true Pope and it a true Council and that they are more Infallible than the major part of Christians And our Faith can be no stronger than the weakest necessary medium of it from whence it must arise 6. I have said so much of this in a small Book called The certainty of Christianity without Popery which I intreat you impartially to peruse where I have also shewed the utter uncertainty that Popery would reduce our Christianity to that I will now only tell you that after your talk of Tradition and Church and Fathers and Grandfathers if we had not much more testimony of Tradition for our Religion than you have for Popery we should think our Faith were very lame Compare ours with yours 1. Yours is A pretended Authoritative determination which rests upon a supposed Inspiration of some Persons by virtue of a special Priviledge peculiar to themselves 2. It is the Tradition of the minor part of Christians against the major 3. It rests on the pretended Infallibility of a Pope which great General Councils have said may be a Heretick and have deposed divers as Hereticks and worse And upon the Infallibility of General Councils which by Popes and other Councils are pronounced fallible unless confirmed by a Pope who may be a Heretick 4. It rests upon a Foundation viz. the Popes Divine Right of Primacy and Infallibility which is expresly denyed by two of the first four great General Councils approved to this day viz. that of Calcedon reciting the sense of that of Constantinople against the said Divine right affirming that the Popes Primacy was given him by the Fathers because Rome was the Imperial Seat 5. It rests upon an Authority of Popes and General Councils which being at first but the Clergie of one Empire hath thence claimed the same Power over all the Christian World which they had got in the Dominions of one Prince 6. It rests on a Claim downright contradictory to it self as aforesaid viz. That we must believe that the Pope hath this Power and Infallibility given him and his Councils by Christ and his Gospel before we can believe that there is a Christ and a Gospel authorized and true Now our Tradition is this For all the Essentials of our Religion the Sacramental Covenant and the three expository Symbols we have the currant Tradition both of the Papists and all the rest of the Christian World Yea that every Book that we call Canonical is the true Word of God not only the Papists but almost all the Christian World confess And defacto that these Books came down from the Apostles at least that the Gospel was preached by them we have the Testimony also of Enemies and Persecutors And are not all these more than the Testimony of one Sect alone 2. And in this we have as much to confirm us as you have of the wisdom piety care of the Church to preserve the Gospel and much more too for we have the Piety of all the Churches to plead and not your Sect alone And we undertake to prove such a moral Infallibility as is also Natural viz. That Mans Nature and Interests supposed it is no more possible for so many Persons and Nations of cross Interests to have agreed in their Testimony for the Gospel than for all the
Answ 1. Here you shew what things they be that you turn Papist for Is not eating Flesh on Frydays Lent or Vigils a worthy matter to make another Religion of or to prove men to be of differing Churches 2. I told you before that the Puritans judgment is as Paul's that such things should be left indifferent or at least make no breach among us by our judging or despising one another And that neither the Pope nor any men on Earth have Authority to make Universal Laws for them to all the Christian World and that there is no true Tradition of Apostolical Institution of them But yet that such Fasts and Feasts as are appointed by true Authority of Prince or Pastors not against the Laws of God and such as shall be proved to be instituted by the Apostles they will observe 3. But the poor Puritan is indeed in hard Circumstances were there no life after this Some of them have no Flesh to eat either on Frydays or any day in the Week but live thankfully upon Bread and Milk and some such things Fish they would gladly eat if they could get it There are now among them such as with many Children have for a long time lived almost only on brown Rye-bread and Water Many of them take it for a sufficient quantity to eat one temperate Meal a day though they are in no want and the Papist that forbeareth Flesh and eateth better than the Puritan feasteth with or that fasteth with one Meal a day which is many Puritans fullest Dyet doth condemn the poor Puritan as an Heretick and perhaps burn him at a Stake or cast him into the Inquisition for not Fasting Poor John Calvin did eat but one small Meal a day and the Papist who fast much at the rate as Calvin feasted record him for a gluttonous person And so did the Pharisees by Christ and his Disciples why do not thy Disciples fast c. II. Your second Instance is The Prelatick Protestant wonders the Puritan should scruple adorning the Communion Table with two Wax Tapers c. Ans The former Answer serveth to this Hear O ye Puritans wherein the Roman Religion doth surpass yours Their Altars have lighted Tapers on Do you not deserve to be burnt your selves if you will not burn Candles on your Altars Yea the Pope who hath power to set up and take down Emperours and Kings being not only the King of Rome but the Monarch of the whole World doth appoint these Lights as a Professing sign before God and Man that he is of that Church which in the Primitive Times for fear of Persecution served God by Candle-light in Dens and Caves And is not this to prove the immutability of their Church that vary not in a Circumstance from the Apostolioal Institution Doth his domineering over Kings and Nations and the Hosts of Great Princes Cardinals Prelates Abbots Clergy Regulars Seculars that obey him shew also that he is of that old Candle-lighted Church But while you seem still to plead Apostolical Tradition for all these Great Parts of your Religion tell the poor Puritan whether it was by Prophesie or how else that the Apostles delivered to the Church the use of these Lighted Tapers in commemoration of that which was done in Dens long after the death of these Apostles I doubt rather the Pope doth by this practice condemn himself and sets up these Lights to shew the World how much he and his Church are changed since those forementioned days III. You next say The Prelatick Protestant wonders what hurt the Puritan can see in making the sign of that on the forehead of a new baptized Infant yet smiles at a Papist when he makes it on himself or his Victuals c. Ans None of us are ashamed of the Cross of Christ nor loth to profess this as openly as you But if we do it by Word by Writing by Obeying or by Suffering we are of another Religion from you it seems by you unless we will do it also by crossing The Jews were the Cross-makers And there are now so many Cross-makers in the World whose Trade we like not that we are not forward to set up their sign at our doors But yet there are Puritans and Prelatists that were they among the Deriders of a Crucified Christ where the use were not a Formality or worse but convenient to tell the Infidels their mind that they are not ashamed of the Cross of Christ would not refuse seasonably to Cross themselves But the Puritans think that when it is made a solemn stated sign of the Duty and Grace of the New Covenant dedicating there by the person to God as one hereby obliging himself to profess the Faith of Christ Crucified and manfully to fight under his Banner against the Devil the World and the Flesh to the death in hope of the Benefits of his Cross and Covenant and so is made a Badge or Symbol of our Christianity then it is made a Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace added to Christs Sacrament of the same use or at least too like it though the Name be denyed it And they think that Christ hath given none power to make such new Sacraments or Symbols of Christianity he having done that sufficiently himself They have a conceit that the King would not be pleased with them that either frame a new Oath of Allegiance added to his as the Badge of his Subjects Loyalty nor yet that would make a new Badge of the Order of the Knights of the Garter without his consent At least the Puritans think that Baptism and Christianity and Christian Burial should not be denyed to those Children whose Parents do not offer them to be baptized with this additional Symbol And if the poor men be deceived in such thoughts it is but in fear of sinning against Christ and not that they are more ashamed of his Cross than you or more disobedient to Authority IV. Your next instance is The Prelatick Protestant wonders that the Puritane can doubt the holy Euchrist is really and truly the body of Christ c. And you cite Dr. Cosins Hist Transub p. 44. Answ 1. The Prelatick Protestant and the Puritane differ not at all about the real presence of Christs body in the Sacrament as I have shewed you elsewhere What need you more proof than King Edwards old Rubrick against the Real Presence in a gross sence lately restored to the Liturgie And as for Dr. Cosins words and book I again tell you all the Doctors of the Roman Church are never able to answer his full proof that Transubstantiation is a late innovation and none of the doctrine of the ancient Churches We challenge you all to give any reasonable answer to that book And you still Cunningly bawke the main Controversie between us and you which is not whether Christs Body be there but whether Bread and Wine be there For I have told you 1. That we who know not how far a Glorified
the Votes of all the Christian World 3. And have all that were converted in the Apostles days and since first known the Major Vote of the Christians or were they converted by the foreknown Infallibility or Authority of the Majority or of the Pope Some will say we see the Madness of this Popery but how then do you say that the faith must be received if not from the Church I answer I have told you at large in a Treatise called The Reasons of the Christian Religion and briefly in a smaller Treatise called The certainty of Christianity without Popery Briefly Judging is one thing and Teaching is another thing Before I submit to the Decision of a Judge I must know his Commission or Authority and I must then stand to his Sentence which way ever he decide the Case Men be not converted to Christianity by such Judges but by Teachers Nor will I believe the Judge if he say there is no Christ no Life to come c. But a Teacher is to make intelligible to his Hearer or Scholar the evidence of truth which is in the matter taught and to draw men to believe by telling them those true reasons upon which he did believe himself And no man takes him for his Teacher that he is perswaded knoweth no more than himself And the greater reputation of Knowledge and Honesty the Teacher hath the easier we apply our minds to learn of him and a humane trust or faith prepareth us to receive that evidence of truth which may beget a Divine Faith by the help of Grace But still the Learner truly believeth no more than he thus learneth And I may hear a stranger tell what he hath to say and be convinced by the evidence that he giveth me of the truth though I know not of any Authority that he hath to teach me much less judicially to decide the Case I little doubt but most that were converted by the Apostles themselves were perswaded to believe in Christ by the evidence of truth proposed the Spirit co-operating before they knew of any Authority of the Apostles much less before they heard what they said in a General Council or what was the Vote of the Universal Church or what any Pope said as Ruler of the rest These things are very plain and sure and they that will be wilfully blinded by faction and prejudice and worldly interest against plain truth have no excuse if they perish in darkness II. A PAPIST of this sort is one that believeth that the Pope of Rome is the rightful Governour of all the world that is that all Christians immediately and all Infidels and Heathens mediately are bound by God to obey him as Christs Vicegerent on Earth And that he with his Council is thus an Universal Lawgiver and Judge to all Kings States and Persons that dwell round about the Earth But a Protestant denyeth this and holdeth that there is no Universal Monarch or Legislator to all the world but God and our Saviour and that he hath made no such Vice-Christ or Vicegerent and that such a Claim is High-Treason as usurping his Prerogative And that if Pride had not in tantum made them mad no men could think themselves thus capable of Governing all the World Protestants believe that there is no such thing on Earth as an Universal Church headed by any mortal Head Pope or Council but that Christ is the only Universal Governour or Head III. This Papist is one that holdeth that the Church of Christ on Earth is no bigger than the Popes Dominion and that it is necessary to salvation to be subject to the Pope and consequently he unchurcheth two or three parts of the Christian world and damneth most of the Body of Christ and robbeth him of the greatest part of his Kingdom as far as denying his Right amounts to And consequently is a notorious Schismatick or Sectary appropriating the Church title only to his Sect. This is proved before from the Masters of their Religion IV. This Papist is one that holdeth that those Councils which were General as to one Empire were General as to all the Christian world And that such General Councils there must be if it please the Pope to call them though they must come from all the Quarters of the Earth and whence they have no Sea passage and out of the Empires of many Princes and many that are Enemies to the Christian Name and perhaps at Wars with Christians and when the Voyage or Journey is such that if the Churches be deprived of a thousand Bishops twenty of them are never like to live to return home to the remotest Nations Nor could they converse as a Council by reason of the number and diversity of Languages if they were equally gathered Or they hold that if a small part of the Christian World assemble as at Trent when the rest cannot come this is an Universal Council of and to all the Christian World V. This Papist is one that holdeth If a fallible Pope and a fallible General Council do but agree their Decrees are infallible As if an unlearned Pope e. g. that understands not the Text of Scripture in the Original and an unlearned Council as to the most should agree their Decrees would be learned e. g. in judging which is the true Translation of a Tongue which they never understood As if ten purblind men if they meet together might produce the Effects of the clearest sight or Fools by conjunction become wise VI. He holdeth that Tradition from Fathers to Children is the sure way of conveying all the matter of Faith and Religion and yet that the greatest General Councils which are the Church representative may erre in matter of Faith and have erred unless a Pope who is fallible approve of their Decrees VII And when he hath trusted to this way of Tradition he denyeth the Judgment and Tradition professed by the greater half or the Christian World VIII He believeth that all men are bound on pain of damnation to believe that the Senses and perception of all men in the World are deceived in apprehending that after Consecration there is true Bread and Wine in the Sacrament And he that will so believe his own and others Senses should suffer as an Heretick and be rooted out of all the Dominions of all Christian Lords on Earth So merciful is he to his Neighbours For an approved General Council hath decreed this and such Councils are his Religion Were it his own Father or Mother Wife or Child that cannot thus renounce all his own and other mens Senses and believe that there is no Bread or Wine in spight of his sight taste touch c. he believeth that they should be burnt as Hereticks or exterminated He may be a good naetur'd man that is loth it should be so or he may be one that is ignorant of his own Religion and doth not know that this is one Article of Popery or he may be an unconscionable man that
XVII Our Religion is for increasing true practical knowledge in all men by all our industry as knowing the Father of Lights saveth us by illumination and therefore we are for all mens reading or hearing the holy Scriptures and worshipping God in a known tongue But yet with the help of the skilfullest Teachers The Prince of darkness leadeth men in the dark to do the works of darkness that they may be cast into outer darkness How the case is with yours I have before shewed XVIII Our Religion is for so much fasting and austerities as is truly necessary to the subduing of Pride Worldliness or fleshly lusts or to express our self-abasement in due times of humiliation prescribed by Authority on publick occasions or discerned by our selves in private and so much as is truly helpful to us in Gods service or our preparations for death But how much you have turned these into unreasonable Ceremony and how much into a pretended satisfaction to Gods Justice by punishing our selves as if our hurt delighted God when it tends not to our healing I shall not now stay to open See Dallaeus de Poenis Indulgentis de Jejuniis of it at large XIX Our Religion teacheth us that all that truly believe in and are heartily devoted to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as their God and Saviour and Sanctifier forsaking the Devil the World and the Flesh should be taken by Baptismal profession hereof into the Church and shall be saved if they prove not Hypocrites or Apostates And that we must judge men by this their Profession till they plainly or provedly nullifie it supposing every man under God to be the best Judge of his own heart But your Religion teacheth you to hold and say that if men are never so fully perswaded in themselves that they truly love God and holiness and are thus devoted to him yea and if their lives express it yet if they be not Papists they are all deceived and none but Papists so love God And every Papist thus knoweth the hearts of others better than we can know our own XX. Our Religion leaveth us room for Repentance and hope of Pardon if we mistake For we take not our selves to be impeccable or infallible in all that we hold though we are sure that our Rule and Objective Religion is infallible But your Church being founded in the false conceit of the Popes and Councils Infallibility you shut the door against repentance and amendment and when once a false Decree is past you take your selves obliged to defend it lest by Reformation you pluck up your Foundation and all should fall Were it not for this I am perswaded your Church would recant at least the Doctrine of Transubstantiation if not that of deposing Princes and some others And now I humbly present what I have written to W. H. and not without hope if he will but impartially read it of his reduction For the man seemeth to me to sin through Ignorance and to have an honester zeal than many others For my own part 1. I profess to him I write as I think and that after forty years reading I think as many of the Papists Books as of the Protestants 2. And that I would joyfully recant whatever it cost me if I could find that I do erre But I have shewed him that I differ not from them without that which to me appeareth to be constraining Reason 3. And that if he will prove to me that I have in one word of this Book unjustly accused either their POPE PAPISTS RELIGION or CHURCH I shall thankfully receive his conviction and repent And I agree with him wholly in professing my Religion to be The APOSTOLICAL CHRISTIANITY and whatever he proveth to be truly such I will receive The Name of The Protestant Religion I like not because meer Christianity is all our Religion and our Protestation against Popery denominateth not our Religion it self but our Rejection of their Corruptions of it But the Name of The Protestants Religion I approve and own that is APOSTOLICK CHRISTIANITY CLEANSED FROM POPERY Aug. 9. 1676. FINIS THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. WHether Christ hath not left us sure and easie notice what the Christian Religion is what it is and how delivered to us in three degrees 1. The Essentials generally in the Sacramental Covenant 2. The Exposition of the Essentials in three summaries the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue 3. The Essentials Integrals and needful Accidentals in the whole Canonical Scripture p. 1 c. Our Confession Articles Books and Sermons are but the expressions of our Subjective Religion or fides mensurata and are not our Objective and fides mensurans in terminis p. 9. The Papists confess every word of our Objective Religion to be Divine and Infallible But we confess not the truth of all theirs They blame us only 1. As not having enough 2. And as not receiving it the right way p. 9. I. Whether the Papists Religion be better than ours as bigger Some Queries of the Antiquity of the belief of the Roman additions viz. the Apocrypha and the Decrees of all the Councils c. p. 10 c. What Implicite Faith we are agreed in and what not p. 12. The Papists confess that their Church hath not kept God's own written word without many hundred errours and so not all that is de fide p. 13. Therefore they must needs distinguish the Essentials of Christianity from other points Of Implicite belief in the Pope and Councils p. 13. c. II. Whether it was or is necessary to receive Christianity as from the Infallibility or Authority of the Pope and Papists or Councils p. 19. c. We have much more and surer Tradition for our Religion than that which the Papists would have us trust to 20. The difference of our Tradition from theirs Whether Rome or a Church there may not cease p. 22. Whether the Seat the Election or what doth prove the Pope to be St. Peter's successour p. 23. Whether Books or oral Tradition by Memory of all Generations be the surer preservative of the Faith p. 24. CHAP. II. THe Puritane is ambiguously named and falsly described p. 25. Of Imputed Righteousness p. 30. Puritanes not against external worship nor all Ceremonies p. 36. Of their Usage ibid. The Puritans judgment about Fasts Holy-days Ceremonies c. p. 38. The Papist writer knoweth not what the Puritans Religion is p. 40. The true Religion of a Puritane described p. 41 42. 1. The writer wrongeth his Relations 2. He declareth that he was before an ungodly perfidious Hypocrite and no true Puritane and therefore no wonder that he turned Papist p. 43. None but such can turn Papists without self Contradiction His slander of the Puritanes that they think Piety Charity Humility and other Christian Virtues not possible and necessary to salvation p. 45. CHAP. III. HIs hard Character of Prelatical Protestants p. 46. Many Nonconformists are Episcopal therefore not dislinguishable by that