imposed Form only fit and a third think as the meer Puritan that both having their Conveniences and Inconveniences there should be seasons for both And I pray you here tell me two things if you can 1. Whether the great difference of Liturgies which are the very Words and Order of the Churches Worship be not liker a difference of Religions than the colour of our cloaths or the meat we eat or the lighting of a Candle c. And yet do I need to tell you how many Liturgies are recorded in the Bibliotheca Patrum Yea that it was six hundred years and more before the Churches in one Empire used all one and the same Liturgy and for some hundred years that every Church used what the Bishop pleased Yea that the first restraint of free-praying that we find was by a Council ordaining that the Presbyter should first shew his Prayer to the Fathers that they might be sure it was sound And had Basil and Chrysostome and all others that varyed as divers Religions as Liturgies 2. Whether all the doctrinal Controversies among your selves as between all your School Doctors about Predestination Grace and free will about Perseverance about the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary about the Power of the Pope over all Kings in Temporals and about the killing of excommunicate Kings and the absolving their Subjects and whether after excommunication they are Kings or no of which Hen. Fowlis hath cited great store on one side and all the Moral Controversies about loving God about Perjuries Vows Murder Fornication Lying Stealing Drunkenness Gluttony of which you may see great store in Montaltus's Letters The Mystery of Jesuitisme and Mr. Clarksons late Book called The Practical Divinity of the Church of Rome I say is not Religion as much concerned about all these differences and all the rest among you which make many Horse-loads yea I think Cart-loads of Volumes as it is in the colour of the Preachers Cloaths or the Meat he eateth And are not Protestants that is meer Christians disowning Popery as justifiable in their Unity and Charity for taking Men to be of the same Religion who use not the same Garments Gestures and Ceremonies and that bear with differences herein as your Church that beareth with all these loads of different Doctrines in your most Learned Famous Doctors and not in the weaker Priests alone even whether excommunicate Kings may be killed or no and whether the Pope hath Power to put down and set up Emperours and Kings If you say that your One Religion and One Church hath no such difference it must be by saying that you all agree to Gregory the seventh in Concil Rom. Innoc. 3. in Concil Lateran on the worser side and all own the Doctors cited by H. Fowlis aforesaid But indeed I must speak better of you even that some are of a better mind whom Goldastus hath gathered and preserved and divers of the Learned Men of France and some in Spain But we think the difference even between the Prelatists Presbyterians Independants yea and the moderate Anabaptists to be far less than these which your unanimous agreeing Church doth constantly bear with without Silencing Imprisoning Ejecting or Condemning or so much as disowning the judgments of the worser side He that readeth Parsons on one side and Watson's Quodlibets on the other Barclay and Witherington on one side and Zuarez and the far greater prevalent Party on the other will either wonder at the strength of your Unity which no doctrinal differences even about the Blood of Kings can at all dissolve or else he may wonder at the laxe and sandie temperament of such Protestants as cannot bear with a Man that readeth not in their Book and singeth not in their Tune and is still crying out against others as Sectaries because they have piped to them and they have not danced and such as no Man can live quietly within reach of unless they swallow every Morsel which they cut for them having Throats neither wider or at least no narrower than theirs As if King Henry the eighth's days were the measure of true Discipline when one Man was burnt for being too far from Popery and another hanged or beheaded for being Popish and it was hard to know the middle Region and harder to know how long it would be calm till strangers cryed Deus bone quomodo hic vivunt Gentes But as none are more cruel in Wars than Cowards nor in Robberies than Women nor any more gentle and pitiful than valiant experienced Souldiers so few are so insolent and bloody obtruders of their Dictates and Wills upon the World as those that being least able to prove them good have nothing but Inquisitions and Prisons Silencings and Banishings Fire and Faggot effectually to make them good But if St. James be in the right who saith that Pure Religion and undefiled is this to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their adversity and to keep our selves unspotted of the World then certainly the Jesuits Morals and the Mystery of Jesuitism and Clarkson's Roman Practical Divinity and Fowlis's Treasons of the Papists contain more of the concerns of Religion than preaching in a consecrated or unconsecrated place and than eating Flesh Fish or neither in Lent or on Fridays doth O the strange difference between your Unity and Concord and the Protestants How fast is yours How loose is ours And it is to be considered we pretend not to so much perfection in this world as ever to expect that all Men should be just of the same Size and Complexion or speak the same Language or have all the same Opinions Thoughts or Words If we can keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace in the seven Points named by the Apostle Eph. 4. 3 4 5 6. so far as we have attained do walk by the same Rule of Love and Peace and mind the same things till God reveal more to such as differ Phil. 3. we shall be glad of such a measure of Union For we believe it impossible to be perfect in Concord while most yea all are so wofully imperfect in Knowledge Faith Love and Obedience We wait for perfection of all in Heaven and we find that few things in the World ever did so much against Unity as pretending to more than is to be hoped for and laying ill on so high terms and so many as we know will never be received Therefore our Mutual Love and forbearance with different Forms and Circumstances is agreeable to the Principles of our Religion But for you that pretend to Unity Concord and Infallible Judgement to tolerate Cart-loads of Doctrinal Controversies divers Expositions of many hundred Texts of Scripture divers readings of the Text it self contrary Doctrines about God's Grace about all the Ten Commandments about the Estates and Lives of Kings and never so much as to condemn either side nor silence the Preachers never imprison them or banish them five miles from Cities and
Souls in Purgatory or for praying to the Virgin Mary and abundance such if Holy Water alone would do all the Business Was not he much overseen or did grosly prevaricate that drew up this Charge Might I but chuse my Adversaries Advocate and agree with him to say nothing but what I can disprove I would certainly have the better and be justified VII The next part is And as for his obedience to Magistrates if they be not of his Religion he owes them no allegiance And if he have by Oath obliged himself he has a holy Father can dispense with him for that or any other Oath for a piece of Money If his Prince persecute him for his Religion let him but have so much desperate courage as to sacrifice his own life to stab or poyson his said Persecutor he shall at Rome be canonized for a Saint Nor can private Persons expect any fidelity from him when he is thus traiterously rebellious against his Liege Lord and Soveraign c. Ans Now I perceive you are over bold and do too hardly blush when you have the face to bring in such an instance and by the inserting of a word or two of your own to dare to wash off from your Religion the blot of Perfidiousness and Rebellion when it is part of the Decrees of your approved General Council The Prevaricator wrongeth you 1. By making not of his Religion to be all that 's necessary to free you from allegiance 2. By putting in or any other Oath for a piece of Money I have not yet found that the Pope undertaketh to dispense with a man that will swear to believe the Roman Church or the rest in Pope Pius his Trent Oath nor yet with the Vow of Baptism if seconded by an Oath 3. By saying only If his Prince persecute him for the Doctors say that he must be first excommunicate or a Heretick at least and some say he must have the Pope's Order before he may kill a King and the Council only speaketh of Deposing and not of killing 4. And the Prevaricator too rashly promised Canonizing He that murdered one of the French Kings was but praised in an Oration by the Pope proved by many but not Canonized Garnet was not every one But because I see you grow so bold and also in what follows return to what you had said before I will instead of following you farther tell you what such as I mean by a Papist and what some other men mean by him CHAP. V. The true History of the Papacy its original and growth THough I reserve the opening of the ambiguities of the word Papist till near the end I shall so far anticipate that as to tell you here also that the word PAPIST is equivocal I. In the sense of Grotius and all our Reverend Country-men that are of his judgment Papists are those that without any difference do approve of all the sayings and doings of Popes for honour or lucre sake as is usual Discus p. 15. If of all then of all the Adulteries Murders Simonie Heresie Infidelity charged on some of them by their own Writers and by Councils I am sorry if this be usual I hope yet that there are few of these Papists in the World and that few Popes themselves will deny that they are sinners But he elsewhere desireth the Reformation 1. Of some bold disputes of the School-men 2. And the ill lives of the Clergie 3. And some Customs which have neither Councils nor Tradition II. Some who are for the Supremacy of General Countils above the Pope do call those Papists that are for the Pope's Supremacy above such Councils or that give him the Legislative as well as the Judicial Power over the Universal Church Though themselves give him the Supreme Judicial Power when there is no General Council III. Protestants call those Papists who hold that the Roman Pope is rightfully the Governour of the Universal Church on Earth either as to Legislative or Judicial-executive Power either with Councils or without Two things are here included in our Judgment 1. That there is no rightful Universal Governour under Christ over all the Church on Earth either as to Legislation or Judgment 2. That the Roman Pope therefore is no such Governour In this third sense now I am to tell you what we Protestants mean by a Papist more particularly And first I must tell you what a POPE is before I can well tell you what a Papist is Which I shall do I. De facto Historically II. De jure as to the Power which he claimeth I. A long time the Bishops of Rome were seldome called Popes and other Bishops were so called as well as they At first the Bishops of Rome were pious persecuted Men and many of them Martyrs and usurped no Power over any Churches but their own which with Alexandria were the two first that brake Ignatius his Test of Unity who saith To every Church there is one Altar and one Bishop with his fellow Presbyter and Deacons But Rome having long called her self the Mistris of the World and being the Seat of the Empire and Senate and of the Governing Power of the orbis Romanus the Christians there grew greater than others and the Bishop as it increased kept it under his Power And when Christians had peace which was under the far greatest part of the Heathen Emperours and for the far longest time the Greatness of Rome giving Greatness to that Church and so to the Bishop and great opportunity to help other Churches because the Governing Power of the Empire was there this Bishop grew to be of greatest wealth and interest And in times of Peace the Strife which Christ once ended was taken up among the Bishops which of them should be the greatest And St. Paul having taught Christians that they should not go voluntarily to Law against each other before Heathens if there were but a wise man among them to be an Arbitrator the Christians supposing that they had none wiser or fitter than their Bishop made him their Common Arbitrator in things Civil as well as Ecclesiastical By which means Custom making it like a Law Bishops became de facto Church-Magistrates But they had no Power to execute any Penal Laws either Jewish or Roman or to make any of their own except as Arbitrators or Doctors to those that would voluntarily receive them And they had no Power of Life and Death nor to dis-member any nor to beat or scourge them nor to Fine them or Confiscate their Estates But being entrusted by Christ as his Ministers with the Power of the Church-Keys and by the People with the Power of Civil Arbitrations they were by this the stated Governours of all Christians who yet obeyed the Roman Heathen Magistrates but brought none of their own differences voluntarily before them And because that Multitudes of Heresies took advantage of the Churches liberty and swarmed among them to their great weakning and disgrace and christ
and sacred Scripture and that henceforth it shall be lawful for no Man to Preach or Teach the contrary Where was this Tradition kept before that was so hard a Controversie till now 2. And do not General Councils bring in Novelties I cited formerly the words of Cajetan in his Oration in the Council at the Laterane under Leo 10. charging the Council of Constance Basil and Pisa with Novelty and such Novelty as would have quite defaced the Church and was inconsistent with it And Pighius chargeth them with the like Yea I told you before where he saith that General Councils themselves are a Novelty devised by Constantine 3. Be not General Councils themselves approved or reprobated at the pleasure of the Pope What a number of reprobated Councils were there that yet were as numerous as the approved and as lawfuly called and assembled Bellarmine instanceth in the 2. of Ephesus Constance Basil and many more Of which more before II. Another of their deceits is by pretending to Vinc. Lerinensis Rule quod ab omnibus ubique semper c. as if Antiquity and Universality were on their side I must remember that I have long ago confuted these and the rest of their deceits in my Key for Catholicks Yet I will briefly speak here to these two 1. For Antiquity we willingly stand to it and to the rejecting of all Novelty in Religion But we must have better proof than the word of our Grand-fathers or a Priest 1. Is any of their Books or Traditions elder than the holy Scripture 2. Either the Greeks Armenians Abassines c. have been sure Keepers of Antiquity or not If yea then we may take their Testimony as well as the Church of Romes If not why may not you prove as ill Keepers of it as they 3. But are they not certain Novelties that you would impose on us under the colour of Antiquity Read but Pet. Moulin de Novit Papismi or Mr. Th. Doelittles Discourse in the Morning Lectures against Popery and you shall see the Novelty of your Religion fully proved Take now but these few instances 1. Your very Patriarchate Primacie Claim of Universality General Councils are all proved Novelties before 2. Your own Writers confess that the denying the People Christs Blood or the Cup in the Lords Supper is a Novelty that prevailed by Custom by little and little and was not common long before the Council at Constance Dare you say that it was so from the beginning or of old 3. Can you possibly believe that your forbidding men to read the Scriptures in a known Tongue without a Licence is not a Novelty if ever you read Chrysostom Augustine Jerome or any thing of the Ancients 4. Is it not a Novelty for the publick Prayers of the Church to be ordinarily made in a Tongue not understood by the generality of the People But I must stop 2. And as to Universality I have before proved 1. That by their own Confession most of the Churches and Bishops of the World have been against them 2. That at this day they are not above the third part of Christians Too small an Universal Church for any man of Charity and Consideration to be a member of A Sect that call themselves All the Church Jacob. a Vitr Histor Orient Cap. 77. tells us that the Churches in the Easterly part of Asia alone exceeded in multitude both the Greek and Latine Churches As for their telling us that all these followed Dioscorus a Heretick or were Nestorians and that all the Abassines Armenians Georgians Syrians Coptics Greeks Protestants c. are Hereticks or Schismaticks I have answered it so oft at large that I must not repeat what I have said Only 1. I say that if the Censures and Revilings of Adversaries can un-christen all others and appropriate the Church to them that have least Charity perhaps the Qualiers may shortly have as fair a Title as the Papists If General Councils be not to be believed when they Hereticate Popes I will not believe a Railer when he Hereticates most of the Christian World whom he never saw or spake with Sure that man judgeth persons unheard 2. I repeat the words of Barchardus one of your own that long lived among them and spake what he saw p. 325 326. And is for those that we judge to be damned Hereticks as the Nestorians Jacobites Maronites Georgians and the like I found them to be for the most part good and simple men and living sincerely towards God and Men they are of great abstinence c. And p. 324. he saith that the Syrians Greeks Armenians Georgians Nestorians Nubians Jubeans Chaldeans Maronites Ethiopians Egyptians and many other Nations of Christians there inhabit and that some are Schismaticks not subject to the Pope and others called Hereticks as the Nestorians Jacobites c. but there are many in these Sects that are very simple knowing nothing of Heresies devoted to Christ materating the Flesh with Fastings and clothed with the most simple Garments so that they far excel the very RELIGIOUS of the Church of Rome And p. 323. of the Papists whom he calleth by the Name of Christians as if it were proper to them he saith There are in the Land of Promise men of every Nation under Heaven and every Nation liveth after their own Rites and to speak the very truth to our own great confusion there are none found in it that are worse and more corrupt in Manners than Christians that is Papists 3. If greater Errours and Vices than are among the Armenians the Abassines Syrians c. will allow us to reject men from our Communion how much more cause have we to renounce Communion with Popes and Papists than with these Churches 4. How can any man say that Nations and Countries are to be rejected as Hereticks unless the single persons guilty were tryed and heard when there is no Heresie but what is in individuals and no Law of God or Reason condemneth the innocent for the guilties faults much less all Posterity for their Ancestors III. But they never gain more than by aggravating the Divisions that are among other Christians and boasting of the Unity of their Church And the Contentions that have been among us have given them such advantage as that some in the sense of their former guilt having been Sect-masters themselves have turned Papists as thinking it the state of Union and having found no settlement in those ways which they have tryed because they never rightly understood the true temperament of the Christian Religion which they professed they think to find it in that way that they never tryed as sick men turn from side to side for ease while the cause of their weariness and pain is within them and turneth with them Here let the Reader note 1. That Fools judge of Differences in Religion by the noise that it makes in the World but men of Reason judge of it by the greatness and number of the points of
be judged immutable as made by Divine Inspiration yet the Pope of Rome who though of unequal merits holdeth the place of the Eternal King and the Maker of all Things and all Laws on Earth may abrogate these Decrees when they are abused XXI By the same pretended Power he changeth Christs own Instituted Sacrament even in the substance of it denying all the Laity the Cup while they condemn all that will not believe that the Wine is turned into his very Blood And he that eateth not the Flesh of Christ and drinketh not his Blood hath not Life which they expound of the Sacrament Christ said when he had given them the Cup Drink yes all of it Mat. 26. 27. And Paul delivereth it to the Laity from the Lord 1 Cor. 11. 23. 25. 28. This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me And as oft as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye shew the Lords death till he come Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup 1 Cor. 10. 21. Ye cannot drink the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Devils is given to the Laity as a reason against their Idol Communion In relation to the Sacrament it 's said that all were made to drink into one Spirit The reception of the Spirit being likened to that drinking And if the Pope may abrogate one half the Sacrament why not theother XXII The Pope declareth all the World to be damned except his own Subjects See the foresaid first Canon of Innocents Laterane Council Leo 10. Abrog Pragm Sanct. Bul. in the 17. General Council at Laterane saith And seeing it is of necessity to salvation that all the faithful of Christ be subject to the Pope of Rome as we are taught by the Testimony of Divine Scripture and of the holy Fathers and it is declared in the constitution of Pope Boniface the 7. c. Pope Pius 2. was converted from the supremacie of Councils by this Doctrine of a Cardinal which he approveth or by the Popedom Bul. Retract in Bin. Vol. 4. p. 514. I came to the Fountain of truth which the holy Doctors both Greek and Latine shew who with one Voice say that he cannot be saved that holdeth not the Unity of the holy Church of Rome and that all those Virtues are maimed to him that refuseth to obey the Pope of Rome though he lye in Sackcloth and Ashes and fast and pray both Day and Night and seem in the rest or other things to fulfil the Law of God Bellarmine saith de Eccles l. 3. c. 5. that No man though he would can be subject to Christ that is not subject to the Pope And therefore he saith that our Baptism implicitely subjecteth us to the Pope or we are so baptized to him And saith Gonzal Rodericus in Godignus de rebus Abassin l. 2. c. 18. p. 323. to the Emperours Mother I denyed that any one is subject to Christ that is not subject to his Vicar But said the old Woman to him Neither I nor mine do deny obedience to S. Peter We are in the same Faith now that we were in from the beginning If that was not the right why was there no one found in so many Ages and Generations that would warn us of our Errour See here what Tradition is and whether the Papal Church and Charge was Universal The Jesuite answered The Pope of Rome who is Pastor of the whole Church of Christ could not in the years that are by-past send Teachers into Abassia because the Mahometans incompassed all and had left no passage to them but now the Maritime way to Aethiopia is open they can do that which they could not do before So that it seemeth 1. Christ hath made the Pope Governour of Countries that he cannot send to and set the poor man an impossible task 2. He hath made it necessary to salvation to whole Kingdoms to believe in a Pope that they could never hear from nor whether there were such a Man or City in the world 3. Or else their Faith groweth new as the Sea passage is open And wo to them if their new acquaintance with the Pope make all all all his Laws necessary to them which they might have been saved without before How much happier were they when they never heard of his Name See here all you Jesuites one old Woman is able unanswerably to confute you all if she stand but on equal ground with you and be not under your power inquisition or fear XXIII In so doing the Pope damneth and unchurcheth about two or three parts of the Christians upon earth and so would destroy the Body Politick of Christ For the Body is rather to be denominated from the greater part than from the less Else why do Votes in General Councils go for the sense of the Church And I have shewed before that the Abassines Copties in Egypt Syrians Armenians Georgians Greeks Moscovites Protestants and the rest are far more two or three to one than all the Papists in the World Much more when Mahometanism had not drowned so many Countries that were of the Greek Profession was it so And how the Saviour of the World will take it for this Usurper to rob him of the most of his Flock and damn most of his Church and corrupt the rest consider and judge XXIV By so doing the Pope sets a Sect or small divided Parcel of the Church and calleth it the whole Church of Christ Even as some Anabaptists I hope not many and other Sects appropriate Christianity or true Church-Communion to themselves and say We are all the Church so doth the Pope His Universal Church is too small for any understanding Christian to own as such and to be a Member of as such XXV The Pope damneth not only two or three parts of the Christian World but also his own Representative Body or Church called Papists such an Abaddon is he Proved The General Councils at Constance and Basil to say nothing of many others were the Representative Church of the Papists and took it to be de fide that a Council was above the Pope But the Pope hath damned them for this as an error and for their deposing Popes See Concil Later sub Jul. 2. and sub Leone 10. Concil Florent Review the fore-cited Speeches of Cajetan and Pighius against them Many more Councils have they condemned XXVI Yea Popes have damned Popes also and it is most to be feared lest they damn themselves more than others I need not tell of Marcellinus nor of Honorius condemned for an Heretick by divers Popes nor repeat the Schismes and Damnations of each other therein nor the Story of Sergius and Formosus and Stephen c. nor their forementioned wickedness Watson in his Quodlibets tells you of Bellarmines Sentence against Pope Sixtus Quintus Conceptis verbis quantum capio quantum sapio quantum intelligo Dominus noster Papa descendit
Naked Popery OR THE NAKED FALSHOOD Of a Book called the CATHOLICK NAKED TRUTH OR THE Puritan Convert to Apostolical Christianity Written by W. H. Opening their Fundamental Errour of Unwritten Tradition and their unjust Description of the Puritan the Prelatical Protestant and the Papist and their differences and better acquainting the ignorant of the true difference especially what a Puritan and what a Papist is By RICHARD BAXTER a Professor of meer Apostolical Christianity Trita frequansque via est per Amici fallere nomen Trita frequensque licet sit via crimen habet The common beaten way of mens deceit Is as a Loving Friend to work the Cheat But though this be the common beaten way It will prove criminal another day W. H. this Author pag. â—5 saith If you do not find that they your Catholick Neighbours hold nothing nor Practise nothing but what they are able to give a very satisfactory account of to any impartial Enquirer then say I am a Knave a Lyar and a Cheat one that deserveth no mercy from God or Man in this World or the next LONDON Printed for N. Simmons at the Princes Arms in S. Paul's Church-Yard M DC LXXVII TO THE AUTHOR AND HIS RELATIONS CHAP. I. WHEN the Confutation of the Treatise of Transubstantiation was in the Press this Book came to my notice written if the Stile may go for Proof by the same Author It is conjectured that your Name is Mr. W. Hutchinson of Lincolnshire sometime of Queens Colledge in Cambridge and that it is indeed your nearest Relations whom you so earnestly labour to pervert Your Stile perswadeth me that you are serious and verily think that your way is right And I suppose you see that we also are as confident of the truth of our Profession as you are of yours The Question is whether it be your Zeal or ours that is according to Knowledge The Title of your Religion greatly pleaseth me and is the same that I assume For we are I perceive agreed in this that it is the Apostolical Christianity that is the true and safe Religion And hath God left the matter so obscure as that we cannot come to an agreement in so weighty a matter of Fact as to know what the Apostolical Christianity was when even Common History giveth us notice what the Athenian Philosophers held and what the ancient Romans held and so of almost every literate Nation You study and we study You pray and we pray You would know the truth whatever it cost you and so would We. As a Man that looketh daily when I am called away to God I solemnly protest that if I could find that Popery were the true Apostolick Christianity I would joyfully quit all the Friends Hope and Interests of this World to embrace it What is it that is your advantage and what is our disadvantage Are you more impartial in your search I am so Conscious of my Impartiality that I cannot believe that this maketh the difference Is it that we have not read the Papists writings I have reason to believe that I have read as many of them at least as you have done if you are not much above sixty years of age as I hear you are not near it But you have Conversed with more of them than I have done It 's like you have But is that the reason of my mistake You earnestly invite your Relations to Converse with the Papists because mens writings may be mistaken And on this ground I perceive you build all the certainty of your Faith That our Fathers and our Grand-Fathers have told us Infallibly what they received from their Fathers and Grand-Fathers and so on This is your certainty I will tell you briefly what I take for the Apostolical Christianity and by what Notices I receive it and then I will again consider yours I take not Christianity to be a thing so hardly to be known as you would make it either as to the Being of it or the Publication I take it to have its Essentials Integrals and Accidentals and that these are not to be confounded If it cannot be readily known what Christianity is how shall we preach it to Heathens or how shall Christians be known to others or themselves and who can have the comfort of an unknown Religion You tell us that nothing of it is written in the New Testament but the Life of Christ by four Men and a few occasional Epistles c. But do you think that Christ himself did not institute Christianity and tell Men plainly what it was Did not those four Men write Christ's Doctrine as well as his Life And is he not the Author of our Faith Did he not preach the Gospel And do you not call these four Books the four Evangelists And doth not the Gospel contain and describe Christianity Did not Christ oft tell us what it is to be his Disciples And were not the Disciples called Christians shortly after as words of the same signification But what place is there for any doubt when Christ himself did institute Baptism and describe it and command that all Nations being Discipled should be Baptized into the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost as being the Faith which Disciples must profess And do not you to this day profess that Baptizing is Christening and that Baptism washeth away all sin supposing the Baptized to receive it as Baptism by true Covenant-consent at least And doth not Baptism enter us into the true Church of Christ Sure all this is past dispute where then is the difficulty Is not a truly baptized Person a Christian And was it then as hard a matter as you make it to know what Faith was necessary to Baptism in the Person at age or the Parent of Infants Surely then the Scripture that mentioneth the History of so many thousands baptized would have told us of that grand Controversie and how it was decided But no such Controversie was then debated for ought we there find If Baptismal Covenanting with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as our God and Father reconciled in Christ our Saviour and our Sanctifier be not the Symbol or Badge of Christians and that which visibly maketh them such your own Church and all the Christian World is deceived And we know that it was not the Custom of the Apostles and Pastors of the ancient Churches to make a meer Ceremony and dead Formality of Baptism by baptizing those that would but say the words I believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost without understanding what they said And therefore their ordinary Preaching was the Exposition of these three Articles And the Creed called The Apostles is the Exposition of these three Articles which though some Clauses were since added and though the Churches tyed not themselves just to the very same words as we find by the various forms of this Creed in Irenaeus Tertullian Marcellus's in Epiphanius Ruffinus c. yet for the
you deny them this and make them to be as out of the true Church and state of Life If yea Q. 2. Did all that the Apostles Baptized believe all the Apocrypha and all the Decrees of your Councils and your Oral Traditions Q. 3. Did the ancient Fathers and Catechists teach all those to the Catechumens before they Baptized them Q. 4. And were not those all Christians and in the true Church and in a state of Life whom the Apostles Baptized without the profession of any such Belief Q. 5. What was the Creed the Symbolum fidei used for if not to distinguish the Faith of the Christian Church from Infidelity Heresie and all without And if all the Decrees of Councils be as necessary to be the Symbol of Faith why were they not all made up into a Creed and why is the Creed differenced from them all to this day And why do you not cause the Baptized to recite and profess all these Councils Decrees but only the old Christian Creed Q. 6. Doth not Christ at the Institution of his Sacrament Mat. 28. expresly promise that he that believeth according to Baptism in the Father Son and Holy Ghost shall be saved Q. 7. Is it not a reproach to God and the Christian Religion to tell the World that God hath written us by his Spirit so great a Book as the Bible is and yet there is not in it enough to Salvation but that abundance unnecessary to Salvation is in it and some necessary things left out Q. 8. Have your Oral superadded Traditions more Evidence of Truth than the Bible or more Evidence of Necessity to be believed Not more Evidence of Truth For you confess the certain Truth of all the Bible and that as fully manifest as your Additions If it have more Evidence of Necessity what is it It is not because it is a Divine Revelation For so you confess all the Bible to be And do you pretend to a Tradition that saith You may be saved without most of the Bible though it be of God but not without fasting on Frydays or on the Vigils of Saints-days or other such Traditions But if you will make both the whole Bible and Tradition necessary to be believed it must be either Explicitely or as you call it Implicitely If Explicitely that is as each Point is particularly understood and believed then it 's doubtful whether there be one Man in the World that is a Christian and can be saved If Implicitely that is Virtually as it is in some General Proposition what is that General Is it that All that God revealeth is true Or that All that the Spirit of Christ in his Apostles delivered to the Church as his word is true These we all agree in if this will serve the turn Is it that the Church is the Ministerial Keeper of the Sacred Doctrine as delivered This also we agree in Or is it that the Church de eventu shall never corrupt alter or lose this word or any part of it If you mean it of every particular Church we are agreed of the contrary You confess that many Churches have fallen to Heresie and many Apostatized from the Faith If you speak of the Universal Church we are agreed that the Universal Church shall never Apostatize for if Christ had no Church he were no Head of it And we are agreed that they shall never turn such true Hereticks as hold not truly all the Essentials of Christianity For such also are no Christians because each Essential part is necessary to the Essence But whether the Universal Church much more the Greater part may not make or receive some culpable alteration by Amission Omission or Commission we have reason to question We never heard any Proof that the Negative was necessary to Salvation nor is it held by all your selves and whether by any one man I cannot tell For you take the Bible to be Gods Word and your knowledge of the various Readings of the Hebrew and Greek Copies and the multitude of Errours in the Vulgar Latine corrected by P. Clem. 8. and Sixtus 5. do satisfie all the World that you hold that the Universal Church or the major part even your own may culpably erre or alter the very written Word of God And who would then believe you if you said But the Unwritten Word it cannot alter It 's true indeed the Essentials considered as Written or Unwritten all the true Church nor any one Christian while such cannot deny But sure if many thousand Errours may be found in that Book which you take your selves for the Word of God and this through the fault or failing of such as have had the keeping of it and all Divine Revelations are to be believed and all the Word of God is Divine Revelation it notoriously followeth That your own Church hath not kept all that is matter of Divine Faith from alteration So that though many of your Wranglers will not distinguish the Essentials of Christianity called Fundamentals from the Integrals and Accidentals as if Christianity were nothing and had no determinate Essence yet this sheweth that you must do it whether you will or not or else you must confess that your Church may alter any thing or every thing as it hath done all these fore-mentioned Which we will not confess of the Church Universal But I suppose that we have not yet met with the Faith that you account necessary to salvation It is that the Pope of Rome and a General Council cannot erre in delivering to us the Apostolical Doctrine to be believed And this is an implicite believing of all that is written in Scripture and that is delivered orally from the Apostles If so words and names go very far with you as to mens salvation Is this to believe a thousand things which a man never knew or heard of if he do but believe the Infallibility of your Church What! Believe that which I never once thought of But this is but Implicite Faith A cheating Name for No-belief of those things For by Implicite here you can mean only Virtual and that is no Actual Belief of that thing at all but of something else which would infer more were it known Nay Virtual is too high a Name for it But will this serve the turn to salvation to believe that the Pope and his Council are Infallible What! though the same Person believe not in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost nor any of the Articles of his Creed no not a Life to come If you say Yea Then will you call this Christianity to believe in the Pope and not in Christ Or do you mean that men may be saved without Christianity but not without Popery If so why was not the Popes Name rather than Christs put into Baptism and the Creed or at least with Christs But the insuperable difficulty is How must I believe that the Pope hath this Infallibility From Christ or otherwise If not from Christ tell me
had commanded his Servants to serve him in as much Unity and Concord as they could duty and necessity drove the Pastors of the Churches to Correspondencies and to meet together on all just occasions and at last to Associations for the ordering of these Meetings In which they agreed in what Compass and in what Place or by whose Call such Meetings should be held and what Bishops in those Meetings should preside or sit highest and first speak and subscribe And usually they thought that to follow the Order of the Civil Government and give precedency to those that were Bishops of such Cities as had precedency in the Civil Government was the most convenient Order And in these Meetings they agreed on such Canons or Orders for all in that Compass to observe as they thought best tended to their ends And having no forcing Power as is aforesaid they formed their Impositions on voluntarily penitents so as might serve instead of the Power of the Sword Even Murderers Incestuous Adulterers they could not punish with Death Stripes or Mulcts and they were loth to disgrace Christianity so much as to accuse such to the Heathen Magistrates and therefore they laid the greater shame upon them forbidding them Communion with Christians for so many years as they thought meet and before they restored them they were humbly to beg the Prayers and Communion of the Church But yet these Synods were small and few and rare and never any dreamt of them as a Council of all the Church on Earth But when God blessed the Rome World with a Christian Emperour after the sharp Persecution of Dioclesian and this Emperour had by Religion and Interest made the Christian Souldiers his chief confidents or strength he studied the utmost increase of the Christians and to that end invited all to Christianity by the favour of the Court and by such Honours Commands Wealth and Dignities as they were capable of and above all he exalted the Christian Bishops whom he found the Rulers of the Christian Societies He gave them Honours and Wealth and Power He made a Law that no Christians should be forced to go to the Civil Heathen Judicatures from their Bishops and gave Power to the Bishops to be the Christians Judges some few hainous Crimes being in time excepted And so the Bishops were by his Law made Civil Magistrates or Arbitrators yet not with any Power of Life or Limbs or Estate So that all that would become Christians and would be subject to the Bishops Canons and Church Discipline were freed from Death Stripes and Mulcts for many Crimes which all others were lyable to and Excommunication and some Penance was instead of all By such means Multitudes of worldly Men and by the Preaching of the Gospel Multitudes that were sound Christians came together into the Churches And Bishopricks being now very desirable for their Power Honour and Wealth Men that most loved Power Honour and Wealth that is Proud Worldly Carnal Men did earnestly seek them and strive for Precedency in them But yet while the People had the choice or a Negative therein and the old Spirit of Christianity remained in many of the Bishops in many places bad ones were kept out and many excellent Men were preferred The Heresie of Arrius and the Alexandrian Contentions thereabout required a remedy for the Churches Peace The Bishops could not end it themselves It spread so far that it was Constantine's great grief to see Christians so quickly disgrace themselves and weaken their Religion in the Eyes of the Heathens Therefore he called a Council of Bishops consisting mostly of those of the Eastern parts where the troubles arose Two Priests of Rome were there but not the Bishop nor but few of the West Where the Emperours open Rebukes and Lamentation for their Contention and his earnest Exhortation to Peace and his burning all the Libells or Accusations which the Bishops brought in against each other and his continual presence and moderating oversight of them brought that meeting at last to that good and peaceable End which else it was never like to have attained It never came into Constantine's mind to call this Council as an Universal Representative of the whole Christian World or as the Governours of the Churches that were out of his Dominions but as a fit expedient to end the strife that was raised in those Parts For as few of the West were there so none of all other Kingdoms were once called For who should call them Constantine that called the Council neither did it nor ever pretended to a power to do it The Pope called not the Council much less did he call the rest of the Christian World Socrates tells us l. 1. c. 15. that St. Thomas had Preached to the Parthians and Bartholomew to the Indians and Matthew to the Ethiopians though the middle India was not Converted till Constantine's days by Frumentius and Edesius and Iberia by a Maid And so Euseb l. 3. c. 3. who saith that St. Andrew Preached to the Scythians and in Vit. Constant l. 4. c. 8. that there were many Churches in Persia And no doubt these Apostles Preached not in vain Scotland and other Countries that were out of the Roman Empire had Churches Yet any Neighbour Bishop that desired it might voluntarily be present When Theodoret in his Life tells us that James Bishop of Nisibis in the borders of Persia was at the Council of Nice For Nisibis was then under the Government of the Roman Empire he plainly intimateth that none but the Subjects of the Empire were called And the names yet visible of the Subscribers prove it Notwithstanding this Councils decisions the Contentions continue and the Major part of the Bishops went that way usually as the Emperours went And so in the Reign of Constantius and Valens they most turned to the Arrians at least in words And many General Councils so called of the Empire the Arrians had in which they prevailed and made Creeds for their turn as they at Nice had done against them and brought Persecution on the Orthodox silencing and ejecting them and scattering their Meetings as prohibited Conventicles the Emperour himself sometime executing their dispersions and restraint And among other Liberius the Bishop of Rome against his Conscience Subscribed to them The Fathers at the Council of Nice did determine of the bounds of the Patriarchs of the Empire which being at first but three Rome Alexandria and Antioch Jerusalem was after added and after that Constantinople For Constantine having now strengthned himself by the Christian Interest and being further out of the danger of mutable Souldiers than his Predecessours did that which none of them was ever able to do by removing the Imperial Seat from Rome to Constantinople and so leaving that Famous City as naked and almost neglected Whereby two great changes befell the Clergie 1. The Bishop of Rome was left more absolute and uncontrouled in the West 2. And the Bishop of Constantinople set up against
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
words of Reynerius saying that the outer Churches planted by the Apostles were not under the Church of Rome 8. The executive part neither could nor ever was performed upon the Churches without the Empire When did any Patriarch or any Provincial or General Council send for any Bishop or other person out of India Scythia Ethiopia or any other exterior Nation to answer any Accusation or pass any Sentence of Deposition or Suspension against them or put any other into their places 9. General Councils are confessed by Papists to be but a Humane and not a Divine Institution and what Humane Power could settle them in and over the Church Universal If you say It is by Universal Consent prove to us that ever there was such a Consent or that ever there was any meeting or treaty for such Consent of all the Christian World and we will yield it to you Surely if there be any Christians at the Antipodes they were not sent to in those days when Lactantius Augustine and others denyed that there were any Antipodes and derided it nor when the Pope by our Countryman Boniface his Instigation excommunicated Virgilius for holding that there were Antipodes Hear their great disputer Pighius Hierarch Eccles lib. 6. c. 1. fol. 230. General Councils saith he have not a Divine or Supernatural Original but meerly an Humane Original and are the Invention of Constantine a Prince profitable indeed sometimes to find out in Controversie which is the Orthodox and Catholick Truth though to this they are not necessary seeing it is a readier way to advise with the Apostolick Seat So that General Councils are Novel Humane and only of the Empire then 10. But to end all the Controversie the names of the Subscribers are yet to be seen who were not the representatives of the Christian World but of the Empire as is notorious Aeneas Sylvius Epist 288. saith that before the Council of Nice there was little respect had to the Church of Rome And though when he was made Pope Interest caused him to revoke his judgment of the Councils being above the Pope he never revoked such historical narratives Their great Learned Mathematical yet militant Cardinal Cusanus li. de Concord Cathol c. 13. c. saith that the Papacie is but of Positive right and that Priests are jure Divino equal and that it is subjectional Consent which giveth the Pope and Bishops their Majority and that the distinction of Dioceses and that a Bishop be over Presbyters are of Positive Right and that Christ gave no more to Peter than the rest and that if the congregate Church should chuse the Bishop of Trent for their President and Head he should be more properly Peter 's Successor than the Bishop of Rome Object Oh but this Book is disallowed by the Pope Answ No wonder So is all that is against him The Exceptions which we grant are these 1. There were some Cities of the Empire that were near to other Nations where the Princes being Heathens Christians were underlings and few And the Bishops of these Cities extended their care to as many of the Neighbour Countries as would voluntarily submit to them So the Bishop of Tomys was Bishop of many Scythians and so some that were on the Borders of Persia had many Persians and were at Nice 2. There were some Countries that were sometimes under the Roman Power and sometime under the Persian or others as Victory carried it and these when they had been once of the Imperial Church took it when they fell under Heathens to be their Honour Strength and Priviledge to be so accounted still and so would come to their Councils after if they could So it was with the Armenians and the Africans when the 〈◊〉 had conquered them c. 3. There were some Bishops that lived on the Borders of the Empire under Heathens that needed the help of Neighbour Churches and accordingly were oft with them craving their help So it was with the old Britans as to the Bishops of France 4. There were some small Countries adjoining to the Empire who took the Friendship of the Roman Power for their great Honour and safety and therefore were glad to conform in Religion to the Empire and to let their Bishops join with them 5. And there were some Neighbour Countries who were turned to Christianity by the Emissaries of the Bishop of Rome who therefore rejoicing also in so powerful a Patronage were willingly his Subjects But this was long after the first great Councils These two last were the Saxons case in England Accordingly you may sometimes find two or three out of such Countries at some of the General Councils of the Empire Which yet were called General but as to the Empire and not as to the World To proceed in the History When Christians were mostly exempted from the Magistrates Judicatures that were most Heathens though under a Christian Prince and so the Bishops Canons were to them as the Laws of the Land are to us it is no wonder that Councils must then be very frequent and Canons of great esteem and hereupon Bishops by prosperity growing more and more worldly and carnal made use of their Synodical Power as is aforesaid to accomplish their own Wills So that the Synods of Bishops became the great Incendiaries and Troublers of the Empire You need no more to satisfie you of this but to read the Acts of the Councils and the words of Nazianzen called Theologus against Synods and contentious Bishops and the sad Exclamations of Hillary Pictav They that had too little zeal against Ungodliness Unrighteousness Pride and Malice were so zealous against any that withdrew from their Power and contradicted them that they easily stigmatized them for Hereticks and made even godly sober Christians suspected of Heresie for their sakes while notorious Vice was used gently in those that adhered unto them Even holy Augustine saith Drunkenness is a mortal sin si sit assidua if it be daily or constant what not else and that they must not be roughly and sharply dealt with but gently and by fair words Vid. Aquin. 22. q. 150. a. 1. 4. ad 4. a. 2. 1. And their Great Gregory That with leave they must be lest to their own wit or disposition lest they grow worse if they be pulled away from such a Custom as Drunkenness But when it came to such as withdrew from under them they were not so gentle Lucifer Calaritanus is made the Head of a Heresie because he was but too much against the receiving of such as had been Arrians The large Catalogues of Heresies contain many that never erred in Fundamentals They prosecuted the Priscillianists so hotly that if godly men were but given to fasting and strictness of life they were brought into suspicion of Priscillianism And the Vulgar took advantage of the Bishops turbulency and ill disposition to abuse the godly S. Martin therefore separated from the whole Synod of the Bishops about him and
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