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

Gospel Ministers and Gospel Churches both the one and the other may be called in a safe sense the pillar and ground of truth But what is this to the Church of Rome How ridiculous a reason were it saith Mr. Cartwright for the Apostle to exhort Timothy to walk circumspectly in the Church of Ephesus Cartwr in locum because the Church of Rome is thepillar and stablement of truth The Papists saith Calvin dum ad se transferunt hoc encomium improbe faciunt alienis se plumis vestiendo Nam ut evehatur Ecclesia supra tertium Coelum nego id totum ad eos ullomodo pertinere Calvin in loc Quinetiam locum presentem adversus eos retorqueo nam si Ecclesia columna est veritatis sequitur non esse apud eos Ecclesiam ubi non modo sepulta jacet veritas sed horrendum in modum diruta eversa sub pedibus calcatur When the Papists transfer this glory to themselves they do wickedly cloathing themselves with the feathers of other Birds For suppose the Church be extolled and lifted up above the Third Heavens I deny that any thing of all this excellency belongs in the least to them yea further I retort this place against them For if the Church be the Pillar of Truth then it follows that the Church is not amongst them where the Truth doth not only lie buried but is torn down and overthrown and trampled under foot in a fearful manner An hoc est vel aeuigma vel cavillum Paulus Ecclesiam non vult agnosci nisi in qua excelsa conspicua stat Dei veritas in Papatu nihil tale apparet sed disiectio tantùm ruinae ergo genuina Ecclesiae nota illic non extat Is there any difficulty or any cavilling in this Paul will not have any Church acknowledged but such as wherein the Truth of God stands on high conspicuous to the view of all men But there is no such thing to be seen in the Papacy but the overthrow and ruines of the Truth therefore there is no true note or mark of the Church to be found there The plain Truth is That Apostate Church and the Head thereof that is Babylon and Antichrist hath no right to any one promise in the Book of God but stands directly under all the Threatnings and Curses written therein because they have both added thereto and taken from it Revel 22.18 19. Indeed those Churches and those Souls have the best right to the promises that prize them most Therefore the Protestant Churches have a better right to them than the Church of Rome By the Protestant Churches I intend all that do subject themselves to the Scripture as the Rule of Faith and Life And by the Church of Rome all those that suffer the Pope to have dominion over their Faith for we do not judge every Individual in the external communion of that Church but onely such of them as have drunk down her deadly poyson What have they to do with the promises What have they to do with God to take his Covenant into their mouths Who do believe in a man that can lye and in a Church of men who may deceive and be deceived How much better and safer would it be for your eternal peace to cleave to the Scriptures which are the voyce of God and so to bottom and ground your Faith upon the truth and faithfulness of him that cannot lye then thus to ground it upon a man that shall dye and upon the sons of men that shall be made as grass For all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass The grass withereth and the flower thereof fadeth away but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you CHAP. VII Of Humane Testimonies for and against the See of Rome THat which remains of your Discourse is partly Quotations without so much as attempting to prove your interest in them of some parallel Texts with those before answered partly repetitions of those impertinent Queries Whether did the Roman Church go from any other known Church c Answered also before under the Head of Schism partly Humane Testimonies for the See of Rome for so you phrase it the Body of your Discourse having run upon this expression the Church of Rome the Title being the Roman Faith To your Humane Testimonies I would humbly offer three things to your serious consideration which I suppose may suffice to all you say or can say from the Fathers in whom you seem to repose your greatest confidence for the defence of your cause Consid 1. That you know we do not own the Fathers but the Scriptures onely as the Supreme Judge of Controversies Though we honour them as blessed Instruments in their Generation yet we know they were but men and not Apostles infallibly inspired and assisted by the Holy Ghost Yea we do ingenuously acknowledge That the darkness and inadvertency of the Fathers in some points did contribute and make way for the rise and growth of Popery They had their hands so full of other work partly from without in all their Conflicts both with Jews and Pagans both by writing and suffering while the Christian Princes also in the mean time were not idle but had their hands full in the Wars of Michael against the Dragon against the persecuting Pagan Emperors during that fourth Century And partly from within by those intestine mischiefs which through the malice and craft of Sathan were bred within the Churches own bowels such as Arrianism with all the Errors and Blasphemies accompanying and flowing from it against the Person and Natures of Christ and against his blessed Spirit As also Pelagianism wretchedly undermining the work of his Grace and Spirit in the effectual application of Christ and his redeeming Love to the Souls of his Elect. Donatism likewise at the same time dreadfully disturbing the peace and order and fellowship of the Gospel by dischurching and disbaptising all other Christians and re-baptising themselves whil'st othres in the mean time wereas much too large and loose as they too rigid The faithful Servants of Christ were thus assaulted in those dayes on every side over and beside the daily work of Teaching and Governing their respective Flocks and Churches All which did so severely call upon them for their deepest intentions and endeavours that as it rendred the work heavy upon the shoulders of the faithful Ministry in those conflicting times so truly to my narrow capacity it is no wonder if in the mean time the deep and subtile workings of the mystery of Iniquity in the Papacy did in a great measure escape their observation And the rather if we consider the disadvantage they were under both for want of Printing and of well regulated and formed Universities and Schools of the Prophets The Monastick Institutions at first as some have thought coming nearest and seeming to

A DEFENCE Of the Protestant Christian Religion against POPERY In Answer to a Discourse of a Roman Catholick WHEREIN The Manifold Apostasies Heresies and Schisms of the Church of ROME as also the Weakness of Her Pretensions from the Scriptures and the Fathers are briefly Laid open By an English Protestant Frederic Secundus Germ. Imp. Roma diu titubans longis Erroribus acta Corruet ac Mundi desinet esse Caput In Heresies long Chace Rome stumbling shall Lose the Worlds Headship and to Ruine fall Printed in the YEAR M.DC.LXXII Advertisements TO THE READER IT is thought needless to trouble the Reader with a Narrative of the Transactions or with Copies of the Letters that have passed about this Affair or with the Names of the Persons concerned therein or lastly with the Motives and Providences which have invited in this juncture of time to the publishing this Defence of our Religion against Popery The Romanists Discourse is prefixed and published wholly and intirely by it self over and beside what is repeated of it in the Answer To the Answer there be some Additions for the Readers further help and for the further illustration of some things a brief intimation whereof might be presumed sufficient to the Romanist himself he being one of their Learned men in Holy Orders amongst them And whereas the Author of this Answer and Defence in a Letter to the person that called him to this Work did together with it express his own Sentiments thereof it is judged convenient instead of any further Preface to communicate them out of the said Letter wherein he saith I Have received your Letter and I have perused Mr. K. his Discourse which he challengeth our Divines to Answer And whereas you have pitcht upon me to do it because as your Letter Expresseth being the Cause of God you durst not Trust it in every hand As I have reason to acknowledge the great respect and value you are pleased to put upon me so withall I must needs own my own unworthiness and insufficiency for this or any other good word or work It is free Grace I have been depending and looking up unto for help from whence alone I have had it and it is the same free Grace that must bless what is said and bring it home with power I have sent you herewith an Answer to his Paper The Civilities you have done to him which I see himself in his Letter to you doth ingenuonsly acknowledge may tend I hope to let him see That it is our Religion to do good to all and that we desire to do good Works though not to be justified by them Let me have a part in your Remembrances at the Throne of Grace to which I Recommend you and yours which is all at present from Your most humble Servant in the Lord S. M. DVBLIN July ult 1670. A Discourse OF A ROMAN CATHOLICK Of the one onely and singular onely one Catholick and Roman Faith ONe Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in us all Eph. 4.5 6. Malac. 2.10 First I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for you all for that your faith is manifested in all the world Rom. 1.8 I desire also to see you that I may impart unto you of spiritual grace to confirm you that is to say to be together comforted in you which together is your faith and mine ibid v. 11. 12. That now we may not be children wavering up and down and carried about with every wind of doctrine in the wickedness of men in deceit to the circumvention of errour Ephes 4.14 Be not carried with various and strange doctrines for it is a very good grace to settle the heart Hebr. 13.9 Also I do not pray for them only but likewise for these which will believe through their word in me that all may be one as your Father and I and I in you that also they in us may be one that the world may believe that you sent me Joan. 17. ver 20. Now I hope it will not be deemed but that the Church of Rome was once a most pure excellent flourishing and Mother Church ut supra Rom. 1. This Church could not cease to be so but she must fail either by Apostasie Heresie or Schism Rom. 16.17 I. Apostasie is not only a renouncing of the Faith of Christ but the very name and title of Christianity no man will say that the Church of Rome had ever such a fall or fell thus II. Heresie is an adhesion to some private and singular Opinion or Error in Faith contrary to the general and approved Doctrine of the Church III. If the Church of Rome did ever adhere to any singular or new Opinion disagreeable to the common received Doctrine First I pray satisfie me as to these particulars viz. IV. By what general Council was it ever condemned V. Which of the Fathers ever wrote against Her VI. Or by what Authority was she ever Reproved for it seems to me very incongruous that so great a Church should be condemned by every one that hath a wind to condemn Her VII Schism is a departure or division from the Vnity of the Church whereby the band and communion held with some former Church is broken and dissolved VIII If ever the Church of Rome divided Her self by Schism from any other body of faithful Christians or brake communion or went forth from the society of any elder Church I pray satisfie your self and me to these particulars IX First Whose company did she leave Secondly from what body did she go forth X. Where was the true Church which she forsook for it appears not a little strange to me That a Church should be accounted Schismatical when there cannot be assigned any other Church different from Her which from Age to Age since Christs time hath continued visible from whom she departed c. Conclusion If the Catholick Roman Church was once the true Church she still remained so and therefore they who have departed from Her are departed from the true Church and so are out of the way c. The usual colour of believing more or less than the Church alloweth is vain and erroneous inasmuch as that very Christ which stored Her with knowledge of Gods revealed Truth and with power to convey the same hath also endued Her with inerrability to convey the same justly without danger of miscarrying against Iguorance Mat. 13. 11. To you it is given to know the mysteries of heaven Mat. 5.14 Against darkness you are the light of the world John 14.16 Against error and falshood I will send unto you the Spirit of truth to remain with you for ever 1 Tim 3. Against weakness She is the pillar and ground of truth Mat. 16.18 Hell gates shall not prevail against her to make which good Christ called his eternal Father to his aid prayed him and was heard for his reverence Mat. 28.20 Behold I am with

Church-destroying such a God-provoking sin as was prophesied of her in the sixth Trumpet Revel 9.13 20. The Learned Raynolds hath spoken very convictingly to you concerning this sin in his Book De Idololatria Romanae Ecclesiae And so hath Mede of the Apostasie of the latter Times 6. All your seditious Principles against Kings and Magistrates exempting your Clergy exalting your Pope above them The number of those you thus exempt as sous of Belial from the yoke hath been estimated to amount in spacious Popish Countries to a very great proportion even to an Hundred thousand able fighting Men in one Nation which brings to mind that expression of your own Pope Gregory That Antichrist hath an Army of Priests to fight his Battels Rex superbiae prope est quod dici●nesas est Greg. Lib. 4. Epist 38. Sacerdotum praeparatus est exercitus qui cervici militant elatioms c. The King of pride saith he is at the door and which is dreadful to be spoken there is an Army of Priests ready to fight under that neck of pride which lifteth up it self c. The fifth Trumpet proclaimeth that he hath a black Guard of Scorpion-locusts who know no other King but him whom the Holy Ghost hath named according to his Nature Abaddon and Apollyon the great Destroyer the Son of Perdition the Man of Sin Revel 9. ver 3 11. And as you thus rob and spoil Kings of their Subjects so you make Kings themselves Subjects to the Pope exalting his Throne with Lucifer above the stars of God Isa 14.13 And giving him such a barbarous power over them that it is a wonderful and unaccountable thing that ever any King or Magistrate should be a Papist no account can be given of it but the strange corruption of Nature neither their Crowns nor Lives being secure but meerly at the Popes courtesie upon the principles of that Religion which gives a forreign Priest power to depose them and give away their Kingdoms But the Apostle Peter a great Apostle and whom you pretend a kindness and a respect for he exhorts us to submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake to the King as supreme 1 Pet. 2.13 But not a word of the Popes Supremacy And the Apostle Paul though an Apostle yet did appeal unto Caesar as knowing that to be the supreme Tribunal on earth in subordination unto God for God alone is chief and the Magistrates power subordinate unto Gods Acts 25.10 11. 5.29 And he exhorteth every soul which includeth the Pope if he hath an humane soul to be subject to the higher powers Rom. 13. ver 1. to 7. There may be passive obedience when men cannot act therefore we whom you call Hereticks have set it down as amongst the Articles of our Faith that Infidelity or difference in Religion doth not make void the Magistrates just and legal Authority nor free the people from their obedience to him from which Ecclesiastical persons are not exempted much less hath the Pope any power or Jurisdiction over them in their Dominions or over any of their people and least of all to deprive them of their Dominions or Lives if he shall judge them to be Hereticks or upon any other pretence whatsoever yea some of your own have confessed That from the beginning it was not so 〈…〉 Julio 3●● 2. B. Quin omnes emnium Ecclesiarum Ministri Romanae non minus quam caeterarum ultro Regibus Principibus ac Magistratibus parebant But all the Ministers of all the Churches yea of the Church of Rome as well as any other were willingly obedient unto Kings Princes and Magistrates So those Bononian Fathers of yours before mentioned How and by what means Morney Myst. Iniq. per totum Fox Acts and Monum Vol. 1. pa. 1018. and by what steps and degrees the Pope rose from such mean beginnings to such an height of worldly power and grandeur to tread upon the Necks of Kings and Princes Guiccardin hath fully shewed in his digression towards the end of the fourth Book of his Histories which you have honestly stollen away out of some Editions but in some others it is restored Morney also speaks fully to it as being a great part of his scope and so doth Mr. Fox 7. Your sanguinary Spirit and Principles towards such as differ from and testifie against you Wherein there is not only an evil in practice but your practice being justified as lawful by your principle it is two sins conjoyned it is both Murther and Heresie and most remote from the Spirit of the Gospel which is a Spirit of love and sweetness yea it is a principal character of Antiohrist and mark of the Beast Revel 13.7 and 17.6 The Revelation often mentions these two sins the Sorceries and Fornications of your false Worship and your shedding innocent and precious blood as the two grand procuring causes of your Ruine See Revel 18.2 ult and Revel 19.2 It is Ramus his Observation that great Light and faithful Martyr of Jesus Christ whom you slew with Thirty thousand more in your great Parisian Massacre in the year 1572. P Rami Commentar de Religione Christiana Lib. 4. cap. 19. pag. 546. It is his Observation and Lamentation How that Julian the Apostate could observe and testifie concerning the Christian Religion in those primitive times That it came to be so largely diffused and propagated by means of the good turns and offices of love which Christians did towards all men of what Religion or persuasion soever But we in these dayes we Romanists are of such a spirit that if our Neighbour do not consent and concur and run along with us in every superstitious practice and opinion we presently burn him alive Julianus Apostata ad Arsacium Cappadociae Pontificem scripsit Christianam Religionem tam late propagatam esse propter Christianorum erga omnet cujusvis Religionis mortales beneficentiam Nos vero nisi de cujussibet superstitionis opinione proximus noster consentiat igne vivum protinus exurimus You have slain as some compute a greater number of Christians fince the first setting up of your Inquisition than there be Papists at this day in the World Quis talia fando Temperet à Lachrymis Who that hath either the grace of a Christian or but the common bowels of a man can speak of such things without bleeding Lamentations Alstedins observes That in the space of Forty years Alsted Encyclop Chronol cap. 8. ad Annum 1540. from the year 1540 there were Nine hundred thousand Martyrs in Europe Should we Travel into Forreign Affairs and former Ages I might tell you of your bloody Croisadoes against Christians instead of Turks against the Waldenses and Abbingenses of old as well of late your Spanish Inquisitions to which King Philip the second delivered up his own eldest Son and Heir Charles to be butchered and murthered by them for suspition of savouring the Low-Countrey Hereticks Your French Massacres and