time or a long time after any that euer heard of a number of the Articles of their Faith But this is one of their shiftes to dispute about genealogies and generalities lest comming to particulars the strength of our cause and weaknesse of theirs should appeare They will obiect Luther and Calvine and our first reformers were Papists first But it makes not to vs wee belieue not any poynt of Religion upon their worde but what wee finde aggrieing with Scripture Againe Paul was not the worse Apostle that sometime hee was a Pharisee but their Religion is so much the worse as such men and many after them behooued to quite it or lose their Soules They will obiect diuersities of opinions and diuisions and schismes but answere you that there were divisions in the Churchs of Corinth Galatia and other Apostolicke Churches and yet they were not the lesse true Churches let euery Church answere for her selfe whether shee keepe vnitie with Christ and his Apostles in her doctrine for vnitie without trueth is but conspiracie in errour It is a whorish impudencie to obiect vncleannes to a chast Matron they might remember Christs aduertisment Hypocrite cast out the beame of thy owne eye first or the Poets admonition Loripedem rectus derideat For beside the bloody schismes of their Popes and the irreconciliable diuisions of their Doctours the Jesuites and Dominicans at this day do iarre so hotly concerning grace and frie wil that their Pope darre not determine the question for feare he lose one of the parties Jf they finde you ignorant they will cause you belieue that your Ministers teaches such and such heresies as that they are enemies to good works enemies to the Virgine Mary and to the Saintes that they giue libertie to sinne and makes God the author of it that such a writer on our Religion hath such a blasphemous errour in such a book and another writer another blasphemie in another booke Luther sayes this and Caluine sayes that and a thousand slanders suchlike To bee short their whole wits they will imploy to brangle you in some generall that they may haue you at an vantage brought ouer to their grounds whereof they will make great show and ostentation or if they condescend vpon a particular and finde you therin weak they will shoote at all But if yee keepe the loue of the Scriptures the Lord shall mak you to stand Great peace haue they who Psal 119. 165. loue thy Law and nothing shall offend them As for their disputs they will make great boast and brag if they see not a learned partie if they finde a learned partie they will take them to discourse if they may if they must disput they will keepe the former method that is stick vpon generalls about the visibilitie of a Church and notes as they say thereof whether the true Church can erre and will hold off whether Rome can erre as long as they can they wil make shew to quot councils and Fathers not because that they can obtaine the victory by them but because the books are rare and few are acquaint with them to know whether they say right or wrong they wil avow forged distinctions when they are prest and flee to philosophick tearms not becaus such refuges wil saue them but because by this meanes they blovv mist in their eyes that cannot follovv them to their lurking holes vvhen their cause is vveakest then they grovv boldest and vvill set a brovv vpon their part that their countenance may giue vveight to their vvatter-vversh argument or ansvvers vvhen they are like to succumb they will cry lovvdest and cast in a nevv subiect to disput on yee will not put them to silence albeit they knovv they are ouercome For what by shifts what by subtilities what by circumventions what by apparent verities they can colour their cause though neuer so bad It vvere an endles labour to shovv all their courses impossible these may suffice to giue aduertisement to you who may bee in danger that you acquaint you with the grounds of your owne Religion and diligently read the Scriptures that you bee not rash to vndertake a disput concerning Religion and leane not much to your owne or others disputation for in a disput yee will get the two disputers wits tried and acquaintance with their owne grounds which they defend but yee will not so try Religion it is the studieing of all the grounds thereof and trying them by the Scripture must make you sure when Gods glory or others edification requires that you disput doe it advisedly for they haue their set arguments and their writen disputs carrying about with them set the state of the question right limite thy argument to be brought on either side to Scripture or reasons deduced therefrom not because thou needst to feare any councils and fathers but partly because fathers and councills are but human testimonies partlie because if you goe from the Scriptures ye goe to the long Sands and the disput will not end shortlie and so hee escapes and his errour is not convinced and the auditours is left suspense This much may serue for a generall aduertisment Now for my part pray for mee that God may show more and more mercie on mee J know many a bitter hard word will be spoken against me J deserue them all not for my departing from them but for my first revolting in my ignorant youthead from this Religion whereinto I am now brought home by Gods mercie his name be glorified for euer And the Lord make known this his trueth to the World vvho knovves it not and no doubt multituds shal come vnto the Lord this Religion vvhich is grounded on his trueth as Doves flocking to their vvindovves Lord doe it for Christs sake All glorie bee giuen to God through Christ Yours in Christ Mr PATRIK CRAVFURD FINIS Faultes escaped in the Printing Pag. 10 for Chap 5 read Chap 4. Page 47 line 8 for justification read regeneration Page 5â— line 1. at the beginning read Suarez The changes of letters or transposing of vvords the courteous reader vvill tolerate
absolute obedience to the superiors of that order renuncing both my will and iudgment as their Father Ignatius His Epistle to his Brethren in Lusitania calls it and to follow al their injunctions without asking question to goe or to stay to do or to suffer whatsoeuer they thought good to enjoyne mee for the Catholick cause and good of the Roman Church This oath J saye I could not get digested For therby J should haue bene bound if they had thought it fit to enjoyne mee for the advancement of the Catholick cause to haue beene an instrument of all the mischiefe that they could devise against my natiue Countrie and vnder colour of relieving soules to doe what any hath done or attempted in that blind obedience Skarring therefore at this oath I came home and yet forced my self still to keep the former grounds of Religion whereby I was made obstinat in errour and vntoward to be dealt with by any who wold haue studied to reclaime me Yet it pleased God at last to force in his own truth vpon my conscience that I began to smell sundrie of their errours and specially of the sacrifice of the Masse and transubstantiation that I began to examine these groundes of the Roman Religiō which I had drunk in the beginning if they could beare me out before God or not wherein finding my selfe miserablie mistaken and so long by that meanes abused freelie and of my own accord not beeing dealt with by any J addressed my selfe for conference with the Ministerie of Edinburgh Falkirke and Glasgow who all louingly and learnedly gaue mee solution to all my doubts and furthered this worke of God in helping home a forlorne Sonne to his Fathers house againe Now for all the particular reasons why I call their masse and transubstantiation an errour and the grounds of their Religion vnwarandable and why J haue renunced their particular errours builded thereon it were not convenient to set them all down here partly because it wold accresse to a volume partly because in substance they are the same that are learnedlie set down by these who handles the contrauersies against the Church of Rome Only J will content my selfe to shew some few things of many First concerning their Religion in generall Next concerning their masse adding therto compendiously in the third place some few things of their common absurdities maintained by them CHAP. 5. The Scriptures alledged imperfection the Pope of Romes perfection who can not erre as is alledged because hee sits in the Chaire of Saint Peter are the two rotten Pillars whereon all these errours are builded THis Romish Religion is a mysterie it makes show to hold the common groundes of Christianitie but by her deedes everts them The first principles of the Romish errours doe resolue vpon these two the imperfection of the Scripture and the peerelesse prerogatiue of the Church of Rome As for the imperfection of the Scripture they alledge that it does not containe all things necessarie for Salvation but place must bee left for traditions that is vnwriten doctrinall poynts and ancient customes long vsed in the Church as also for Ecclesiasticall constitutions and determinations or definitive sentences in matters controverted all which they alledge must haue equall authoritie in mens mindes with the Scriptures Next they alledge that these points necessarie to Saluation which are set down in Scripture are not cleare and plaine in the Scripture but that the Scripture is obscure and doubtsome and therefore is neither necessarie nor expedient that it should bee translated that it is a dangerous thing for laicks to read it wherein to any that will looke narrowlie vpon the matter they bewray a secreet feare if they bee hemde in into the rule of the Scriptures they cannot iustifie with any colour the abundance of their errours Thirdly evidently they show that the reading of the Scriptures by laicks shuld breed moe doubts about their Religion than they could bee able to solve and giue them such insight in this Religion that these whom they keepe now in the chaines of darknesse and blinde beliefe causing them to doe and suffer and beleeue what they please could not but break the yock if they grew acquainted with the Scripture Fourthlie they bewray the Spirit of Antichrist who thus vnder faire pretences sclander Christ Jesus who hauing taken vpon him as the great Prophet and Doctour of his Church to reveale the whole Counsell of God concerning mens Saluation and caused set it downe in Scripture yet hath come short of his purpose as their doctrine importes and neither hath set downe all things needfull nor these clearly which are set downe but obscurely ambiguously and dangerously that it is not safe for common People to read the same and so by these meanes they breed a misregard of the Scripture of Christ in mens hearts and skarres Christs sheepe as long as they can from hearing what the Spirit of Christ sayeth to his Churches As for the peerelesse prerogatiue of the Church of Rome the first is that she cannot erre If wee aske how this can bee since they cannot name six men liuing of the Romish Religion of whom they either dare or wil avow but they may erre and are subject thereto nor three nor two They will answere that yet there is one who is head of all the rest of that Religiō the Pope who cannot erre all the rest of the Church-men of that profession being gathered together without him or without his minde sent by his Legat or Nuncio to them they grant they may erre only he cannot erre So then in stead of the Church of Rome we haue the Pope whose councill of Cardinals they will ioyne with him for lusters cause but the infallibilitie of doctrine they place in none but the Pope only By vertue of this prerogatiue of the Pope they ascribe great things to the Church of Rome vnder this pretence all her traditions are Apostolicke albeit they bee not in Scripture because they are come down as is alledged through the Apostolicke channell of the Popes infallibilitie Vnder this pretence all her customes and obseruations are Catholicke and Apostolicke and all her Ecclesiasticke constitutions and definitive sentences in matters contraverted are of diuine authoritie as they alledge and doe oblige men to beliefe obedience no lesse than the Scripture Yea vnder this pretence the Scripture hath no authoritie in respect of these who beleeue it wherfore it shuld persuade them or be credited more than the fables of Esope but as much as the Church of Rome allowes vpon it Vnder this pretence when other Churches doechallenge the Roman Church for any fault or errour shee takes vpon her to bee judge in all controuersies betwixt her selfe and others The Greeke Church for example in Asia challenges her of vsurpation aboue other Churches shee will be iudge challenges her of defection from Apostolicke doctrine shee will bee iudge challenges her of not doing as shee ought to doe or
Christs spouse ought to do shee will be iudge yea shee will giue the sense of the Scripture and the exposition of it as shal best serue to iustifie her owne cause and if any man shall take a sentence of Scripture otherwise than shee allowes them than that sentence so taken shall not bee accounted Scripture These and other such like consequences they draw and deduce from this one fountaine That the Church of Rome can not erre Aske againe of them why cannot your Pope erre seeing he is a sinfull man as well as others as they will not deny and they least of all who are best acquaint with the Popes priuate conuersation seeing it is possible that the Cardinalls who are subiect to errour especially when their head is dead and a new Pope not yet created seeing they may erre in choosing an vnfit man for so great a charge what warrand can they show to giue assurance that such a Pope cannot erre They answere at last albeit they shift possibliea while becaus Saint Peter was head of the whole Catholick Church in his time hauing supreme authoritie and the fulnesse of pastorall power in doctrine and gouernment ouer the rest of the Apostles and all the Churches of the Worlde Saint Peter so qualified say they was Bishop of Rome and there is his Chaire and the Popes are his only lawfull successours inuested lawfully by God in the same Apostolicke authoritie ouer all the sheepe of Christ and all that may bee sheepe in the World and is as infalliblie assisted by the holy Spirit as euer the Apostle Saint Peter was after the descending of the holy Ghost vpon him in the Pentecost This is the key-stone of their whole building this is the Pillar of whole Popedome if this stand the better for them if this fall all goes to the ground and all that is builded thereon for if either they faile in prouing Saint Peters supremacie or his Romish Episcopacie or the Popes lawfullsuccession in Apostolick authoritie and other priuiledges then the Popes infallibilitie and the Roman Churches certaintie with all their traditions customes constitutions and all the rest of that worke of theirs builded thereon shall hurle to the ground together CHAP. 6. No Papist in the Earth can shew one cleare testimonie of Scripture to make good that ever Saint Peter was at Rome or Bishop of Rome or that the Pope is his speciall successour in his Apostolicke office TO examine then these grounds that therby some taste may be giuen briefly of that Cup which Rome propynes to the World and the Princes therof to drinke that they may fall in loue with her J will say nothing to the Apostolicke authoritie of the Lords deare servant Saint Peter nor to his personall prerogatiue in age in time of following Christ in zeale and painfulnesse in his calling Yet let me vindicate him a litle from that iniurie which his pretended successours doe him who father the basphemous titles of their Antichristian vsurpation and tyrannie ouer Gods Church vpon him For this peerelesse power above the whole Apostles headship of the Church which they alledge is a thing which without blasphemie cannot bee ascribed to any mortall man because Christ in his holy Scripture claims this for his owne royall prerogatiue to bee head of his Church and to haue the Church his body and not anothers To bee the husband of his Church and to haue the Church his spouse and not anothers for these belongs to the Sauiour of the Church who is Christ only and not another and therefore these three styles are Ephes 5. 23. joyned together and ascribed to him And this supremacie of Peter ouer the Apostles is a forgerie only of these who would haue some scugge for their vsurpation Math. 28. 19. Matth. 23. 8. 9. Marke 9. 33 34. Luk. 22. 26. 1. Pet. 5. 3. 4. for Christ gaue all his Apostles equall Cōmission equalled them as brethren and discharged any of them to take any maioririe or supremacie one ouer another And when in their infirmitie they strove for it Christ rebuked them and the night before hee suffered discharged the same absolutly among them Next Peter himselfe disclaimes this supremacie and ascribes it only to Iesus Christ and discharges all Dominion and Lordship ouer the Lords inheritance And the Apostle Paul testifies the trueth of this for magnifying his Apostleship he avows he was nothing inferior 2 Corin. 11. 5. Gal. 1. 1. 16. 17. 18. 1. Cor. 3. 21. 22. to the chiefest Apostles And declares that hee receaued his Apostleship from Christ immediatlie and exercised it sundrie yeares before he saw Peter and dischargeth all to glorie in men whether Paul or Cephas that is Peter or Apollos or any other But because this is not the maine matter let vs come to that wherevpon all stands How proue they that Peter was at Rome or Bishop there or that God hath tied his Spirit to whosoeuer should bee Bishop of Rome after him So weightie a matter as the Popes standing or falling so maine an Article of Roman Catholick Faith the only Pillar of the Romish Religion the ground of the remission of so many sinnes of sauing or damning so many Soules hath neede of expresse direct and ample warrand from the divine Scripture or else of need force the weight of Roman Religion is builded upon the sand and hath no warrand from God Let them but show vs one testimonie out of all the holy Scripture that Saint Peter was properly Bishop of Rome and next let them show any testimonie out of the same Scripture that the Popes of Rome are priuiledged from erring more than other men and are indued with as infallible assistance of the holy Spirit as Peter They will produce to vs their owne flatterers and old storie writers who both in those maters and others disagree among themselves But who are these that the Soules of so many thousands should bee grounded vpon their worde to speake nothing of the fables that is found in them and of the small respect that the Church of Rome carries to them when they seeme to make any thing against them Therefore I say againe let them produce divine warrand out of the Scripture or els let me be iustified who after the tryall of their falshood and deceat haue departed from them as seducers who when J followed their grounds to the vttermost could giue mee no warrand for the grounds whereon all their Religion stands but such as are taken from behind the Bible from lying mens words and forged histories supposititous treatises of the fauorites of Rome helpers vp of their monstruous head the Pope aboue the Church either let them proue these prime Pillars of their Religion or else let all Catholickes who in their heart would faine bee at Christ forsake their seducers as J haue done vpon iust grounds But becaus it is impossible for thē to proue S. Peter proper Bishop of Rome from Scripture far lesse that all
no fewer than these that were enioyned For they teach that in baptism our sins are forgiuen vs by the merits and satisfaction of Christ allanerly but the sins committed after baptisme be taken away and expiat by our own satisfactions but the Apostle sayth That as the wage sin is death so the gift of God is life eternall throgh Iesus Christ Rom. 6. 23. our Lord. Heauen then is Gods free gift through Christ and not our deseruing Neither can it be considered how Christs obedience is properly a satisfaction and yet either requireth or admitteth our satisfaction Besids their owne extravagant fayth that one drop of Christs blood is sufficient to saue the whole World what necessitie or place then is for our satisfaction in our Saluation They will not receaue the Kingdom of Heaven after this manner but as a iust debt to the which God of justice is bund and obliged to them not only for the merits of Christ but also for the merits of their owne works which hath an equal worth answerable to the Kingdome of Heauen J passe by here their selling of Masses their baptising of Bells baptism being a Sacrament of the new couenant only and no wayes belonging to senslesse creaturs their scrotching fire of Purgatory as hot as hell wherein the Souls of the godly dying in the Lord are tortured before they come to Heauen till such time as the punishment due to their veniall sin in that continuall torture bee ended And yet the Scritpure tels vs Blessed are the dead that Revel 14 13. die in the Lord for so sayeth the Sprit they rest from their labours and their works follow them Fearefull should their rest bee if dieing in the Lord with some little thing vnsatisfied as they affirme they shuld be cast in the torture as hot as hells fire And heere is to be obserued the mercilesse dealing of their father the Pope who hauing power to relieue soules when he pleases yet suffers many thousands to be tortured there still till he or his receaue money for their deliuerance And thus much shortly for the third part whereof I promised to speake CHAP. 16. The cunning dealing of Romish Emissaries in seducing and disputing NOw being forced here to acknowledge the foresaid false grounds of the Romish Religion which in my miscarying J laide downe as true to haue beene the beginning of all this mischiefe and hauing my mind ouercharged with the filthinesse and loathsomnes thereof to testifie the vnfained forsaking of them all the filthynes of their superstition J must add some things by way of conclusion for the loue I carry to my Country the trueth of that Religion which is allowed of God albeit J know it will incense sundry against mee I would aduertise young Schollers and others whether at home or abroad to bee warre of the Jesuite his cunning dealing with other their Emissaries such as are seminarie Priests Friers c. whether hee come directly to seduce you or come occasionally to disput with you If hee haue a purpose to seduce you hee will first make choyse of some catholicke of your acquaintance who hath best credite of you and most respected by you him he will instruct how to handle you and will put his owne speaches and arguments in his mouth if you hearken giue eare and make hopes you may bee theirs an offer will bee made to you to speak with a Father or learned man and so you and and he shall come to conference If hee can not finde a fit person to deale with you then hee will come openly to you if he be where he may professe himselfe if not he will come vnder the habite of a Gentleman or burgesse of a Towne or Countryman as best fits his purpose as it were by occasion falling in your company will talke of any purpose till hee take you vp and as he hath time to stay or to bee with you so will he worke ordinarily hee will blame all our professours for few good works and open euill liues of the great many this at once he will turne vpon the Religion But stumble not you for this for the Religion of the Jewes was good when the Prophet complaines that Faith and trueth was Psal 12. departed from the children of men The Lords word which is our Religion condemnes the sins of professours more than they can condemne the same They will obiect the liues of Ministers what they please to speak of them and they haue in readinesse some examples and instances in print or writ or in their memorie but stumble not you at this for they doe injurie to the Ministers when they blame all for the fault of some and again they doe iniury to Gods word when they prease to blame the trueth for the teachers fault One of the twelue Apostles was a Devill what was the Apostles or the Apostleship the worse and yet when all is said if their closters were as open as Ministers conversation they should mak litle talke in this poynt They will tell thee of the ignorance and want of Learning among Ministers be not you troubled for this they are learned enough that know Iesus Christ rightly and can teach him soundly learning is not the glory of our Religion but trueth and yet thogh I somtime thoght so and said so as they doe yet I found it otherwise when I mette with the Ministers Yocke with the Ministers when they will so farre as J know they will ruse themself litle for the want of learning They will obiect they haue no warrandable calling but vrge you them to iustifie the calling of their chiefe pillars Popes Cardinals and Prelates whose office and entrie in their office God neuer ordained in his worde Ministers calling goes not by succession but by election Their office is prescrived in the word their entrie and qualification Let euery one justifie as he is challanged so much as may bee seene of men is alwayes nearer the rule of the Apostles than any of their calling They will obiect the noveltie of this Religion and will aske for succession of Pastours in our Church But answer you that they slander you vniustly for novelty whose doctrin was taught by Christ and his Apostles and recommended to after ages Where the Catholick Church and true sheep of Christ vvho heard his voyce and fled sequestrating themselues from strangers were there was our Church particular professours names is no poynt of saluation What manamong ten thousand can shew his naturall pedegree from the seventh generation shal a man be questioned of the trueth of his humanity if he cannot deduce his genealogie from Adam or Noah Albeit the Protestants can bee able to show continuance of their doctrine by the lyne and catalogue of the witnesses the truth through all ages from Christs vnto our time If this obiection were of any worth wee might use it against their Church and they could not deduce from Christ or the Apostles