believe but this one Point for when once this great Gobbet is swallow'd down the Passage will be so well open'd that all other Points of Faith either go down with it or will slip after it without the least straining or grutching The Authority of God himself speaking in Scripture will be of no farther consideration to us for that we must suppose to be included in the Authority of our Mother the Church And whatsoever we shall thence-forward perceive to be the Will of our Mother we must without all scruple conclude it to be also the Will of our Father The Representer hath lately told us that tho the Scripture which is the Word of our Heavenly Father may be the Law yet the Mother the Roman Church is the Iudg. Having learn'd from her the sense of the Scripture we are obliged to submit to this and never presume on our own private Sentiments however seemingly grounded on Reason and Scripture to believe or preach any new Doctrine opposite to the Belief of the Church And there 's reason for this if it be true which he elsewhere tells us That a Man may very easily frame as many Creeds as he pleases and make Christ and his Apostles speak what shall be most agreeable to his humour and suit best with his Interest and find plain proofs for all he means in Scripture the truth whereof as of all other Points of Doctrine stands as he saith upon the same Foundation of the Churches Tradition which if it fail in one leaves no security in any This is indeed to advance the Church to the very top-branch of all Authority and to make the holy Scripture as very a Nose of Wax and as Leaden a Rule as any of that Church ever thought it seeing a Man may form and work it into Creeds of all fashions and find plain proofs in it for any odd Humour or carnal and Worldly Interest This then as far as I can learn by him is the only way for me to be a thorow Papist and a good Catholick I must lay aside my Reason and the Scripture and heed no more what either of these tell me only I must have my Ear open to the Voice of the Church and be wholly at her teaching and command and I shall be safe enough Upon the most serious consideration of the Character which the Papist is pleas'd to give us of himself I cannot find what it is for which they of that Church are so severely bent against us Protestants save only that we will not like tame Animals without any understanding of our own learn to come and go at a whistle or trot on the Road as we are driven and stoop to take on our Backs whatever Load it shall please the Roman Church to lay upon us confessing her to have absolute and uncontroulable Authority over our Faith. The standing out against the Catholick Church makes Men Hereticks and without erring against this no Man is guilty of Heresy said the Iesuit Fisher in his Answer to certain Questions propounded to him by King Iames I. This then is the only Heresy to disown the Authority of the Roman for that he calls the Catholick Church Again saith he One fundamental Error of the Protestants is their denying the Primacy of St. Peter and his Successors the Foundation which Christ laid of his Church necessary for the perpetual Government thereof And again He that forsakes the Church puts himself into a dead and damnable State and may have all things besides Salvation and Eternal Life Bellarmine speaks out and tells us very plainly No Man can tho he would be subject to Christ and communicate with the Celestial Church that is not subject to the Pope If then we believe this Authority of the Roman Church we believe all and if we believe not this we believe nothing at all in the Papists account or to any better purpose than to our own Damnation So that without this Belief our Faith shall never pass for an entire Faith and when we once believe this it shall never be any more question'd whether it be entire or no. Now it seems a very hard matter to believe this great Point of Faith till very good Reasons be given us for it and yet it should seem the want of such Reasons will not excuse us from being Hereticks and in a State of Damnation no not tho we be never so ready to believe it when we shall have Reasons given us for it For he is an Heretick we are told who thinks any thing against the Definition of the Church yet stands so affected that he will think the contrary if he be convinced by Arguments or if the matter be propounded to him by a Learned Man. And on the contrary if we do believe this we can hardly be Hereticks whatever Errors we believe or this Belief draws us into For if a Rustick saith Cardinal Tolet believe his Bishop about the Articles of Faith teaching him some Heretical Doctrine he merits by believing altho it be an Error So weighty a Point is this of believing the Authority of the Roman Church and grounding our entire Faith upon it that I perceive I am concern'd above all things to examine it throughly and this I shall have fitter opportunity to do now I am come to the second thing propounded SECT II. Hitherto I have been considering what ground I have to hope for Salvation as I am a Protestant and of the Church of England I am now in the next place to enquire Whether I can find any Reason to believe that the Church of Rome can put me into a more hopeful Way to it should I turn Papist and be of her Communion Now seeing I have already found that the great Reason why we are held uncapable of Salvation as now we are is this That we have no entire Faith and the Defect in our Faith is this That we believe not all the Articles of the Roman Faith and that which makes it necessary for us to believe all those Articles is the Authority of the Catholick that is as they interpret the Roman Church to declare and define what things are necessary to the Salvation of Christians I perceive I have no more to do for my full Satisfaction in the present Inquiry but to consider what Reason I can have for the owning and submitting to this Authority And to discern this I think this Method fittest to be taken I will inquire into three things I. What things are implied in that Submission to this Authority which is required of me II. What the Grounds and Reasons are whereon this Authority is founded and which should perswade me to submit III. Where this Authority may be found and to whom I must submit And this is all I think that I need to do for I can never think fit to submit my Faith and Conscience and to trust my Salvation to an Authority which either requires of me such things as are
Imprimatur Liber cui Titulus The Protestant Resolved c. Marâ— 12. 1687. Guil. Needham RR. in Christo P. ac D. D. Wilhelmo Archiep Cant. a Sacr. Dom. THE Protestant Resolved OR A DISCOURSE Shewing the UNREASONABLENESS Of his Turning Roman Catholick FOR SALVATION The Second Edition LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCLXXXVIII No Necessity for a Protestant to turn Roman Catholick for Salvation WE are all I hope thus far argeed That sincere Christianity is the sure Way to Salvation That to be saved we must have the Hearts and not content our selves with the bare Name and naked Profession of Christians That the Authority of God and Divine Truth and no worldly or carnal Concern must sway and govern our whole Conversation If we be not religious in good earnest resolving and endeavouring to honour God in Heart and Life according to the Holy Gospel of our Blessed Iesus it 's no matter to us what Religion we profess or to what Church we join our selves Wickedness and Hypocrisy through what Church soever our Way lieth lead assuredly to Hell. A wicked Protestant and a wicked Papist will in Hell be of the same Communion True Christianity is none other but that which was taught at first by Christ and his Apostles and all they who believe and live according to their Doctrine shall be saved Herein again we are all I suppose agreed And if so I think it very reasonable we should agree as well in that which I now add It is not material to enquire whether a Man be of the Church of Rome or of the Church of England to find whether or no he may be saved but he that would satisfy himself of the possibility of Salvation in the Way wherein he now is ought to enquire whether he believe and live according to the Doctrine taught by Christ and his Apostles seeing they who do this are good Christians what other Names soever Men may bestow upon them and all that are such shall be saved If therefore I may be able to satisfy my self that I believe and live according to the Doctrine deliver'd by Christ and his Apostles I have no reason to doubt of the Possibility of my Salvation in the Way wherein I now am tho it were so that I had never heard to this day of any such Thing as a Church headed by a Pope or Bishop of Rome And I am yet somewhat confident that a Man may believe and live according to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and never hear of a Bishop of Rome because once Men certainly did so and yet were saved The next thing therefore that I have to do is to enquire by what Means I may certainly know what was the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles for by the same Means whereby this may be known I may also know the certain Way to Salvation If there be no such Means left us we are all Fools in professing a Religion the certain Doctrine whereof can by no means be known If such Means there be there must be some certain Records safely convey'd down from their Time to ours for by what other Means we at this distance of so many hundred years should be certainly inform'd what they taught is by me unconceivable These Records then are to be diligently searched into and impartially examined and whosoever is found to believe and practise according to the Doctrine in those Records contained may be concluded to be in the Way to Salvation Such certain Records we have even the Books of the holy Evangelists and Apostles which together with the Books of the Old Testament we call the Holy Scripture In this we are all again unamimous both Papists and Protestants agree that the Doctrine in these Books contained is the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and Divine Truth Whence it certainly follows that whatsoever Doctrine is contrary to the Doctrine contained in these Books whether it it be taught by Papists or Protestants is to be rejected as none of the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles It ought not therefore to satisfy me that this or that Doctrine is taught by the Church of Rome or by the Church of England for by which of them soever it be taught if it be found contrary to the Doctrine of the holy Scripture it is by the Consent of both Churches to be rejected Now seeing we Protestants take this holy Scripture and it only for the Rule of Faith and Life it is certain that holding to this Rule we do not err either in Belief or Practice while on the other side we cannot be sure thot they do not err in both who receive another Rule till it appear that the other Rule which they receive is as true and certain as ours is acknowledged to be Our part of the Rule and that which indeed we take to be the whole being granted us all the Question is about their part of it Ours is on all hands granted to be most sure and certain their 's alone remains disputable and therefore I cannot yet see any reason why I should think their Way safer than our own except it can be safer to follow an uncertain than a certain Rule which I think no body will be so hardy as to affirm The Rule which they of the Roman Communion advance against ours is that of Tradition I am therefore next to to consider First what they understand by it And Secondly what greater reason I can find to perswade me that it is safer to trust to it whether singly or in Conjunction with our own than to our own alone which is the holy Scripture This Tradition consists of such Doctines of Faith and Practice as are supposed to have been taught either by Christ himself or being dictated by the Holy Ghost to his Apostles were delivered by them to the Church not in Writing but in Word only and so have successively been handed down from Father to Son unto the present Age. And these are all according to the Council of Trent to be received with equal affection of Piety and Reverence as the holy Scripture Now I confess if it may appear as evidently to me that Christ or his Apostles left such Doctrines to the Custody of the Church of equal necessity to the Salvation of Christians with those that are written in the Scpipture as it doth that they left us these which are written in the Scripture and if I may be well assured that these very Doctrines which the Church of Rome now holds and pretends to an Authority of imposing upon all Christendome are indeed the very same which were at first as abovesaid deliver'd to the Church I can see no reason why I should not be bound to believe the one as firmly as the other For seeing it is the Authority of the first Preachers of it and not barely the Writings of it that bind me to believe the Doctrine if I can be
unreasonable or can produce no Reason for it self or is so lodged in Obscurity as it cannot be found I. I cannot leave the Communion of the Church of England and enter into that of Rome in obedience to an Authority which commands me to do things unreasonable agreeing neither with the Nature of Mankind nor with the undoubted Principles of Religion If therefore the Church of Rome require such things of me I must be a Protestant still and protest against that Authority which She pretends to And for ought I can yet see I cannot submit to her Authority but upon the hardest and most unreasonable Terms in the World. I must renounce my Reason and my Iudgment I must no longer trust my Senses I must either lay aside or learn to speak dishonourably of God's Word I must not believe a Word that God hath spoken without that Church's Leave I must embrace a Religion for which according to that Church's Principles no Reason can be given to convince me and when I have thus learn'd to do all things without Reason I must do what with Reason I can never do believe all Men whatsoever and how piously soever they otherwise live if they be not of the Roman Communion to be in a State of Damnation If I be deceiv'd in any thing of all this I shall be very glad to know it and I have only this to say for my self that they were Roman Catholicks who should know their own Religion best that have deceived me and if I may be deceiv'd by hearkening to them whom that Church sends abroad to make us Converts I shall be the less encouraged hereafter to embrace her Communion upon their Perswasions Whether all who are already of her Communion either own or know all this it concerns not me to enquire but I think it a Debt of Charity that I owe them to think till they tell me the contrary that they do not and that if they did they would not long continue where they are However till they who taught me these things shall either confess their own Error or shew me my Mistake I must needs think them all true and therefore also account it much safer for me to continue a Protestant than to turn Papist whatever it may seem or be to others First I think nothing can be plainer than that it is more safe to act like understanding and discreet considering Men than otherwise or that the Religion which alloweth Men so to do is safer than that which doth not allow it Now the Protestant Religion alloweth Men to make use of their Reason and Iudgment to discern between Truth and Falshood Good and Evil which the Roman Religion as it seems to me will not allow and therefore it must needs be the safer Religion Christ certainly came not into the World to save Sinners by destroying but rather by restoring and perfecting Human Nature His business was not to deprive us of the use of the most noble Faculty which God had given us but to rectify that and all the rest after they had been depraved by Sin. His Gospel was not preached to close up the Eye of the Soul the Understanding and so to lead Men blindfold to Heaven but to open Mens Eyes and to furn them from Darkness to Light Act. 26. 18. The Apostles preach'd to teach us how to offer unto God a Reasonable Service Rom. 12. 1. And Christ expects that his Sheep should be able to discern the voice of him their Shepherd from the voice of Strangers and avoiding them to follow him only Iohn 10. 4 5. St. Peter exhorts Men to be always ready to give a Reason of the Hope that is in them 1 Pet. 3. 15. And St. Paul bids Men prove all things and hold fast that which is good 1 Thess. 5. 21. And St. Iohn exhorts not to believe every Spirit but to try the Spirits whether they be of God 1 Joh. 4. 1. How any Man shall be able to do all this and much more which as a Christian he is obliged to do and not be allow'd the free use of his Reason and judging Faculty I am sure no Man can tell me neither indeed how he can be of any Religion at all for before he can really be of any Religion he must choose it and choose it he cannot till he have rationally consider'd and judg'd of it and of the Reasons which must move him to the choice of it And in Truth to deny a Man the free use of his Reason and Iudgment in Religion is to turn him into a Beast where he should be most a Man and either to make it impossible for him to be of any Religion at all and to serve God like a Man or else to say in effect That Christian Religion is altogether a most unreasonable thing and proper only to unreasonable Creatures Now the Writing Men of the Roman Church tell us nothing more frequently than that no private Man ought to be allow'd to judg for himself in matters of Faith that to allow this is to set the Gate wide open to all Heresies that every Man is bound to sumbit and captivate his Understanding and Iudgment to the Iudgment of the Church that is to all the Definitions of as they call it the Roman-Catholick Church Whatsoever this Church affirms we must believe to be true and whatsoever She commands we must chearfully obey seem the thing to our own private Reason never so false or never so wicked We must not dare to examine the Truth or Lawfulness of her Decrees or Determinations tho Reason and Scripture too seem to us to be against them as we have been lately taught by the Representer for as we receive from Her the Books so from Her only we are to receive the Sense of Scripture Hence it is that they define a Heretick to be one that obstinately opposeth the Sentence of the Church The Doctrines of Fathers Bellarmine some-where tells us may be examined by Reason because they teach but as private Doctors but the Church teaches as a Iudg with all Authority and therefore no Man may dispute the soundness of her Doctrine This then is the first step I must take if I will go over to the Church of Rome I must resolve to see no longer for my self with my own Eyes but give my self up to be led by the Church never questioning the Way I am to go in so long as she leads me And truly so far as I am yet able to discern with my Protestant Eyes it is but needful to close the Eye of Reason before-hand when I am about to go where I must otherwise see such things as no Reason can indure It was therefore very ingenuously spoken as I have heard of Mr. Cressy when he said that the Wit and Judgment of Catholicks is to renounce their own Judgment and depose their own Wit. Yet if this be true I must beg his Pardon if I dare not yet imitate his Example or
either from all Christians I cannot so much as find there that ever there was any Bishop of ROME or that there should be any there afterwards much less that all Christians are to own that Bishop for their Head and Christ's Vicar And finding nothing of all this I must needs wonder how manifest Scriptures should be produced to prove this Supreme Authority over all Churches And yet if there be such an Authority and if it be so necessary for all Christians to believe it and submit unto it I cannot but think that it ought to have been as manifestly declared in Scripture as any other point whatsoever St. Peter in whom this Authority is said to have been first setled saith not a word of it in his Epistles St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans who should in all reason have been best acquainted with it says nothing at all of it To the Civil Magistrate which the Church of ROME makes to be much inferior to the Church in Authority they both teach us our Duty and strange it is if they knew of any such thing that they should not as plainly instruct us in our Duty to the POPE or Church of ROME wherein our Salvation the main thing they were to take care for is so deeply concern'd But what are these manifest Scriptures at length I find our Blessed Saviour saying to St. Peter Matt. 16. 18. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. but I find not that all this whatever it may signify was manifestly said to the Bishops of ROME The plain and obvious Sense saith Bellarmin of these words is that we may understand the Primary of the whole Church to be promised to Saint Peter under two Metaphors And yet by all the Light that he is able to afford me I cannot discern in these words whatever was promised to St. Peter the Supremacy much less the Monarchy of the Bishop of ROME over all Churches And it is no wonder if a Protestant Heretick be so blind when such eminent Persons as Origen St. Austin St. Hilary Ambrose Chrysostome and Cyril could no more see it than I as the learned Cardinal himself there confesseth Nay here 's not a word to assure us that this Rock must needs be a Monarch invested with a Supremacy of Power over the whole Church or that this Monarch must needs be the Bishop of ROME or that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against the ROMAN Church for all this we must be beholden to that Church's own Word or we shall never find it in this place I find again that Christ commanded St. Peter Joh. 21. 16. to feed his Sheep and his Lambs as indeed it is the Duty of all Pastors of the Church to do and both St. Peter 1 Pet 5. 2. and St. Paul Acts 20. 28. tell us as much and so much the apter am I to doubt whether the POPE be so much as a good Pastor of Christ's Sheep or no seeing he takes so little care to Feed and so much to Fleece them I am sure I read of no more but one chief Shepherd and Bishop of Souls which St. Peter tells us is Christ JESUS himself 1 Pet. 2. 25. The Apostles were all Shepherds under Him but where is this manifest Scripture to shew that St. Peter was made Head-Shepherd with Commission to Feed and Rule too not only the Sheep but the Shepherds also But especially where is the Commission given to the Bishops of ROME successively for ever to govern the whole Flock of Christ with Soveraign Authority Feed the whole I am sure he neither doth nor can Many great and wonderful things as Bellarmin tells us are said of St. Peter in the Holy Scripture and very deservedly for he was a very great and eminent Apostle But the Scripture never saith That he was a great Monarch nor that he was Bishop of ROME nor that he had a Throne or but a Chair there and least of all that this Imaginary Monarchy was to descend unto the next Bishop of ROME and to his Successors for ever and that St. Iohn who long out-lived St. Peter became thereby subject to some of those Bishops which did not well suit with the Dignity of an Apostle I read those words of St. Paul 1 Cor. 12. 21. The head cannot say to the feet I have no need of you But that the POPE is the Head and all Christians Kings as well as others the Feet I may possibly read in some such Iesuit as Bellarmin but I am sure I shall never read it in the Scripture Many more such parcels of Scripture as these they give us but after the most serious perusal of them all I profess I cannot find any thing like manifest Scripture for the Authority of the ROMAN Church And therefore it seems yet as plain to me as that Two and Three make Five that the bare Word of that Church without any kind of solid Proof is all that she hath to shew for her Authority She says great things of her self and talks sometimes of Scripture but much more of Fathers and Councils and Universal Tradition and indeed every thing that 's Venerable but when all is spell'd and put together 't is but the Oral and Practical Tradition of the present Church that is her own very confident Asseveration If we have a little Scripture for Fashion's sake we must take it as she hath taught it to speak in her own Vulgar Latin which the Council of TRENT was even then pleas'd to make the only Authentick Translation when it was confessedly very faulty and hath been since that divers times corrected And then we must take it in her own Sense too tho we know not well where we may be sure to find it Her private Doctors she will not allow us to trust for it nor indeed do we find them any better agreed about it than others are only they have for the most part either the Modesty or Cunning to refer all to the Iudgment of Mother Church could they but tell us where to find it for she is loath once for all in some publick Comment or Exposition of the Scripture to tell us what it is If we may be allow'd to hear the Testimony of the Fathers she must stand at their Elbows and prompt them what to say we must have them in her own approved Editions and if they have been at School long enough in the Vatican or some Religious House 't is probable they were reasonably well instructed in her own Language before they were allow'd to go abroad again However ere they pass the Press an Expurgatory Index can teach them either to Speak or to be Silent as she thinks most seasonable Councils may be heard but only such as have his Holiness's stamp upon them and how we can understand them any better
for her own Authority It cannot I say be any thing else because the thing they are proving is That She alone is the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church And were it any thing else they would never discover it to us because they would thereby give us an unanswerable Argument against what they would prove her to be for if they will shew us any other Church or Churches by the Testimony whereof Her Authority may be proved we are thereby enabled to prove She is not the Only true Church out of which there is no Salvation What then can this Testimony be Is it that of the First and purest Ages of the Church before POPERY was brought forth Not so to be sure for POPERY was they say from the beginning and glorieth of her Antiquity above all things Is it the Testimony of all others in the World that profess Christianity It cannot be for all these if not of her Communion are Hereticks and in a state of Damnation for denying her Authority and were it possible for them to witness that to be which they deny to be yet is their Testimony invalid because they confess themselves Fallible and this point of Faith cannot stand upon a fallible Testimony By this 't is very clear to me that the Testimony of the Catholick Church of Christ if it be produced for the Authority of the Church of ROME can be nothing else but the Church of ROME's own Word and I never doubted but she hath a good word for her self any more than I doubt lest it should be thought a good proof of her Authority I have heard again much talk of Universal Tradition among ROMAM CATHOLICKS but if they alledg this for their Church's Authority they give us only the same thing again in other Words Universal Tradition can be nothing else but the Testimony of the Universal Church and that must be the Church of ROME and so we are not advanced one step farther than we were before The Credit we are to give unto Universal Tradition depends on the Authority of the ROMAN Church which we have not yet sound but are enquiring after If Fathers and Councils be brought in to Witness this Authority all the noise they make will prove but the Voice of the ROMAN Church crying her self up for the great Diana of the World and thundring Anathema to all that will not fall down and worship her Will she abide by the Testimony of either Father or Council if they speak not what she has taught them or against what she holds Or shall they be allow'd to over rule the Oral and Practical Tradition of the present Church of ROME Are Councils of any Credit more than the POPE's Confirmation gives them And are single Fathers of more Credit than they If not we have yet no more but her own Word for her own Authority If they bring us SCRIPTURE to prove this Authority I must say that as we reverence Fathers and Councils so we adore with Tertullian the fulness of the SCRIPTURE neither can we desire any better Proof than its Testimony Yet when I consider how these men use the SCRIPTURE I am at a stand to think how they can in good earnest produce it as a Witness in this matter for after they have said almost all the ill they can of it calling it imperfect insufficient obscure unsens'd they seem to ridicule both it and us when they bring it forth thus disabled for a Witness Do not they tell us again and again that both the Canon and the Sense of SCRIPTURE depend as to us on the Authority and Interpretation of their Church And can its Testimony then possibly amount to any more than that Church's bare Word Do not they deny us a Iudgment of Discretion whereby we should discern for ourselves whether it speak fór or against their Church's Authority And will they yet produce it to convince us of the Authority by which alone we are both to receive and understand it It cannot be produced to convince us in our Iudgment for we are not allow'd any use of our Iudgment in the Case It must be only to convince themselves that we are Hereticks and I dare say that may be done without the Scripture as well as with it whilst their Church must give the Sense of it But because they know we magnify it they will produce it tho I cannot see to what other end than to persuade us to take heed of trusting too much to it or thinking it worth any thing after it hath shew'd us the true Church It must be believ'd no longer than it is authorized to speak by that Authority which is to be proved by it so that by shewing us that Authority it loseth all its own Authority for ever For this saith Stapleton that God hath commanded us to believe the Church we do not hang our Faith on the Authority of the Church as upon the proper and sole cause of this Belief but partly on manifest Scriptures by which we are remitted to the teaching of the Church partly on the Creed c. This then is the end of producing the Scripture that we may be convinced by it that we are no longer to learn of it after we are once brought by it to the knowledg of the Church's Authority but thenceforward are to depend wholly upon the teaching of the Church unto which it remits us All the use then that we have of the Scripture is to be guided by it to the Church of ROME tho it cannot do so much for us neither but as that Church guides it and having thank'd it for its kindness we are then to bid it good Night Now seeing manifest Scriptures are promised us to guide us to the ROMAN Church I think it reasonable to expect that they produce such Scriptures as are more manifest to us than their Church's Authority which is to be proved by them seeing it is by their Evidence I am to be convinced of that which as yet is unevident to me Neither ought the Sense of these manifest Scriptures depend upon the Interpretation or Authority of that Church the Authority whereof they are brought to prove as a thing to me not yet evident for so I shall be still but where I was before and instead of manifest Scriptures be shuffled off with the Church's bare Word I mean with such Interpretations of Scripture as I have no reason to receive but by that Authority whereof I am yet at least in doubt Now that there are indeed no such manifest Scriptures I am reasonably well assured before-hand I have read the Scripture over and over and find not the least mention therein made of this Authority of the ROMAN Church The POPE of ROME or his Supremacy is never once named from the beginning of the Bible to the end nor can I meet with one Syllable touching either the Infallibility or Iurisdiction of Him or his Councils or of any kind of Subjection due to
Deposing and King-killing Power has been maintained by some Canonists and Divines of his Church and that it is in their Opinion lawful and annex'd to the Papal Chair And that some Popes have endeavour'd to act according to this Power Yet is he not willing that Hereticks of any sort should carry away the Honour which Bellarmin bestow'd upon them of a Loyal Religion but saith That there are of his Communion three times the number that publickly disown all such Authority that some Universities and Provincial Councils have condemn'd it and that Popish Princes sit as safe on their Thrones as others Yea and he will engage that all Catholick Nations in the World shall subscribe to the Condemnation of all such Popish Principles and Doctrines and shall join with all good Protestants for the extinguishing them with all that profess and practice them and utter rooting them out of his Majesties three Kingdoms and the whole Universe I must do him right notwithstanding all this for he hath not said That the whole Church of ROME or any General Council hath condemn'd this Doctrine or that it is by publick Authority for the offence it gives rased out of the Canon-Law nor the LATERAN Council nor that Protestant Princes can sit as safely in Popish Countries as Popish Princes may in Protestant Countries And when he tells us That the Sentence of the Supreme Pastor is to be obey'd whether he be Infallible or no altho I have a great Opinion of the Loyalty of many PAPISTS I durst hardly engage for his if there should chance to be such a POPE again as himself confesseth some have been But what saith Bellarmin A third sort there is that takes a middle way and he names not a few of them himself being one of the number These hold that the POPE as POPE hath indeed no Temporal Power directly and immediately but Spiritually only And such as he makes it there needs no more for it will serve his Holiness as well and the Hereticks as ill to all intents and purposes yea even to the deposing of Princes as the greatest Temporal Power in the World. For saith he by reason of this Spiritual he hath also at least indirectly a Temporal Power and that no less than the highest And even as the Spirit or Soul hath Power over the Flesh to Chastise and even to deliver it up to Death in order to the Spiritual ends of the Soul So also may the POPE tho not as an ordinary Iudg yet as an extraordinary in order to spiritual Ends change Kingdoms taking them from one and giving them to another abrogate the Civil Laws of Princes and determine of their Rights This I am sure is more than ever St. Peter had by Virtue either of the Rock or Keys or Pastoral Staff and I am confident he never thought of half this when he charged all Men to submit to the King as SUPREME 1 Pet. 2. 13. Nor when v. 17. bidding us Honour all Men love the Brotherhood fear God honour the King he omitted to mind us of the great Duty of all the Subjection we must yield to his Successors the Bishops of ROME especially when he might well suppose we should have been much apter to have learn'd it of himself than of any of his Successors 'T is time for me now I think to consider into what a Labyrinth I must run my self by going over to the Church of ROME and how I can behave my self when I come there I am going into a Church out of which I am told there is no Salvation yet I cannot foresee that this Church her self can tell me surely how I may be saved in it Of this Church I am told I cannot be a Member to any purpose if I be not in all things Subject and Obedient to the Supreme Head of it the POPE And subject to him I cannot be if I actively obey not his Commands for passive Obedience is now become the despised Badg of a Heretick But what the POPE's Power to command is I can meet with no Body that can certainly inform me It is an absolute Power over all the World say some No say others but only over Christians and in things Spiritual Well says the third Party tho it be directly and immediately only Spiritual yet it is no less for that but in order to Spirituals it reacheth over all both Temporal Persons Laws and Iudgments All this Power is in me only saith the POPE You are too hasty Sir say some Councils and the Doctors of France for the chief Power is by Christ himself given to the Council and even to put down and set up POPES as they would deal with Kings and Emperors Which of these now must I believe and obey The Prince under whose Government I live may command me one thing and the POPE my Spiritual Father may command the contrary How must I now do to bear my self evenly betwixt two such Masters I consult my Spiritual Guides and take the best Advice I can get some say one thing and some another and which to believe I stand in need of another Guide to direct me nay the Church it self knew I where to find her so visible is She could not tell me which is in the right If I believe those who tell me the POPE has no Power in Temporal matters then is my Prince in all such Matters to be obey'd say the POPE what he will to the contrary If I hearken to them that tell me the POPE has a fulness of Power in all both Temporal and Spiritual matters I must obey my Prince in nothing without the POPE's leave If I listen to them who say The POPE's Power in Temporal matters is indeed the highest Power yet indirectly only and in order to Spiritual ends then am I so far to obey it and no farther And here I am at as great a loss as ever for who shall judg for me whether his Commands be needful for Spiritual ends or no It is very unlikely that my Prince and the Pope should agree in the Determination of this Point and the difference being between them two and their Commands to whose award will they stand I must here necessarily be left to the Direction of my own or some other private Iudgment and which side soever I take it is an even Wager whether I can be saved I have been considering all this while for my self alone and the satisfaction of my own Conscience I presume not to judg for nor of others They who have more Light and better Eyes may go on more confidently 't is all my care to go safely for my self and as inoffensively as I can to all others I see many Wise men among ROMAN-CATHOLICKS and I dare not say the contrary but that they are of another Religion than I because they are Wiser and better able to chuse than I. If I chuse as wisely as I can for my self I cannot do any better for my self and I doubt not of being saved whilst I do so well And if it should prove so that I chuse the worse he hath no reason to be angry with me to whom I leave and do not grudg the better I cannot yet think it necessary to Salvation to believe that Church Infallible which not only in my opinion but in the Iudgment of all other Christians and they are 〈…〉 and more hath often Erred and doth very grosy 〈◊〉 many things and which if we ask her can her sâ—lf only tell us who they be in her Communion that can Err but not who they be that cannot Nor can I think it safe to be of that Church where I may not be allow'd to judg or try whether Error be taught me or no. I cannot think I am bound to Judg either my self or others in a state of Damnation for not denying our Senses or captivating our Iudgments to the Iudgment of an Infallible Church which could never determine where her Iudgment or Infallibility is certainly to be found Or for not obeying the Head of that Church which hath sometimes no Head sometimes many Heads and is always uncertain which is her Head or where it stands If I must thus believe and thus obey no body can tell me what and declare I do all this or in the Judgment of that Church which must be believ'd Infallible be no better for turning PAPIST then I verily think I am much safer as I am a poor PROTESTANT I am sure I may as safely as I can freely captivate my Iudgment both in Faith and Practice to the Doctrine and Laws of the Blessed JESUS whom all Christians unanimously acknowledg both the SUPREME and INFALLIBLE HEAD of the Universal Church I will no longer lose my labour in seeking an Infallible Guide which almost every body can tell me of but no man can certainly shew me Instead of an Ecclesiastical Monarch on Eâ—â—â—h I will content my self with that Blessed and only Potentate King of kings and Lord of lords whom his Father hath made Sole HEAD of the CHURCH which is his Body who long since told us that his Kingdom is not of this World as I fear the POPE's too much is FINIS * De verb. Dei. l. 1. c. 1. Tertul. de Praesct c. 25. Iren. cont Haer. l. 3. c. 2. Tert. adv Hermog c. 22. Iren. l. 3. c. 1. Aug. l. 2. cont Donat Pap. Repr p. 35. Ibid. p. 37 38. Bel. de Eccles l. 3. c. 5. Bonacin de Lensur D. 2. q. 5. p. 1. from Vasquez and others Tol. Instruct Sacerd l. 4. c. 3. Instr. Sacerd l. 1 c. 18. Prefat de Rom. Pontif. Stapleton Tripl c. 15. De Rom. Pont. l. 1. c. 10. Almain de Auth. Eccles. c. 3.