A DEFENCE Of the Protestant Christian Religion against POPERY In Answer to a Discourse of a Roman Catholick WHEREIN The Manifold Apostasies Heresies and Schisms of the Church of ROME as also the Weakness of Her Pretensions from the Scriptures and the Fathers are briefly Laid open By an English Protestant Frederic Secundus Germ. Imp. Roma diu titubans longis Erroribus acta Corruet ac Mundi desinet esse Caput In Heresies long Chace Rome stumbling shall Lose the Worlds Headship and to Ruine fall Printed in the YEAR M.DC.LXXII Advertisements TO THE READER IT is thought needless to trouble the Reader with a Narrative of the Transactions or with Copies of the Letters that have passed about this Affair or with the Names of the Persons concerned therein or lastly with the Motives and Providences which have invited in this juncture of time to the publishing this Defence of our Religion against Popery The Romanists Discourse is prefixed and published wholly and intirely by it self over and beside what is repeated of it in the Answer To the Answer there be some Additions for the Readers further help and for the further illustration of some things a brief intimation whereof might be presumed sufficient to the Romanist himself he being one of their Learned men in Holy Orders amongst them And whereas the Author of this Answer and Defence in a Letter to the person that called him to this Work did together with it express his own Sentiments thereof it is judged convenient instead of any further Preface to communicate them out of the said Letter wherein he saith I Have received your Letter and I have perused Mr. K. his Discourse which he challengeth our Divines to Answer And whereas you have pitcht upon me to do it because as your Letter Expresseth being the Cause of God you durst not Trust it in every hand As I have reason to acknowledge the great respect and value you are pleased to put upon me so withall I must needs own my own unworthiness and insufficiency for this or any other good word or work It is free Grace I have been depending and looking up unto for help from whence alone I have had it and it is the same free Grace that must bless what is said and bring it home with power I have sent you herewith an Answer to his Paper The Civilities you have done to him which I see himself in his Letter to you doth ingenuonsly acknowledge may tend I hope to let him see That it is our Religion to do good to all and that we desire to do good Works though not to be justified by them Let me have a part in your Remembrances at the Throne of Grace to which I Recommend you and yours which is all at present from Your most humble Servant in the Lord S. M. DVBLIN July ult 1670. A Discourse OF A ROMAN CATHOLICK Of the one onely and singular onely one Catholick and Roman Faith ONe Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in us all Eph. 4.5 6. Malac. 2.10 First I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for you all for that your faith is manifested in all the world Rom. 1.8 I desire also to see you that I may impart unto you of spiritual grace to confirm you that is to say to be together comforted in you which together is your faith and mine ibid v. 11. 12. That now we may not be children wavering up and down and carried about with every wind of doctrine in the wickedness of men in deceit to the circumvention of errour Ephes 4.14 Be not carried with various and strange doctrines for it is a very good grace to settle the heart Hebr. 13.9 Also I do not pray for them only but likewise for these which will believe through their word in me that all may be one as your Father and I and I in you that also they in us may be one that the world may believe that you sent me Joan. 17. ver 20. Now I hope it will not be deemed but that the Church of Rome was once a most pure excellent flourishing and Mother Church ut supra Rom. 1. This Church could not cease to be so but she must fail either by Apostasie Heresie or Schism Rom. 16.17 I. Apostasie is not only a renouncing of the Faith of Christ but the very name and title of Christianity no man will say that the Church of Rome had ever such a fall or fell thus II. Heresie is an adhesion to some private and singular Opinion or Error in Faith contrary to the general and approved Doctrine of the Church III. If the Church of Rome did ever adhere to any singular or new Opinion disagreeable to the common received Doctrine First I pray satisfie me as to these particulars viz. IV. By what general Council was it ever condemned V. Which of the Fathers ever wrote against Her VI. Or by what Authority was she ever Reproved for it seems to me very incongruous that so great a Church should be condemned by every one that hath a wind to condemn Her VII Schism is a departure or division from the Vnity of the Church whereby the band and communion held with some former Church is broken and dissolved VIII If ever the Church of Rome divided Her self by Schism from any other body of faithful Christians or brake communion or went forth from the society of any elder Church I pray satisfie your self and me to these particulars IX First Whose company did she leave Secondly from what body did she go forth X. Where was the true Church which she forsook for it appears not a little strange to me That a Church should be accounted Schismatical when there cannot be assigned any other Church different from Her which from Age to Age since Christs time hath continued visible from whom she departed c. Conclusion If the Catholick Roman Church was once the true Church she still remained so and therefore they who have departed from Her are departed from the true Church and so are out of the way c. The usual colour of believing more or less than the Church alloweth is vain and erroneous inasmuch as that very Christ which stored Her with knowledge of Gods revealed Truth and with power to convey the same hath also endued Her with inerrability to convey the same justly without danger of miscarrying against Iguorance Mat. 13. 11. To you it is given to know the mysteries of heaven Mat. 5.14 Against darkness you are the light of the world John 14.16 Against error and falshood I will send unto you the Spirit of truth to remain with you for ever 1 Tim 3. Against weakness She is the pillar and ground of truth Mat. 16.18 Hell gates shall not prevail against her to make which good Christ called his eternal Father to his aid prayed him and was heard for his reverence Mat. 28.20 Behold I am with
Thyestaean Feasts and Nuptials at which you have drank more Blood than Wine The barbarous Spanish Butcheries in the Netherlands And with how much blood your Romish Faith was planted in the West-Indies to the infinite scandal and dishonour of the Name of Christ even in the blood of Nineteen Millions of poor innocent Natives as Acosta the Jesuite a Bird of your Nest as some have Noted Relates the story But to come nearer home there were near about Three hundred slain and burnt alive in England in Queen Maries time And in the late Massacre and Rebellion here in Ireland there were about Three hundred thousand English Protestants murthered by you whereof above one half above One hundred and fifty thousand in the first six Months of that Rebellion most perfidiously and treacherously in a time of Peace without ever declaring War and without any provocation given These be some of the Heresies and false Doctrines of your Church Rev. 17.3.5 some of the Blasphemies written in the Forehead of Mystical Babylon which she owneth and maintaineth in an open and avowed manner 8. But I have not here mentioned her consequential Errors because they are innumerable For thus there is no sound part in her but from the sole of the foot even to the crown of the head there is nothing but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores Thus she is at defiance even with common sense and reason she will not believe the report of three senses in the business of the carnal presence For as the Apostle calls it This bread this bread this bread three times after the Consecration 1 Cor. 11.26 27 28. So the eye saith it is bread the taste the touch say the same she sees it feels it and tastes it but yet she believes there is no bread there which is to lay aside the use of reason and to turn Sott and Sceptick The madness of which delusion did so scandalize Averroes the Arabian Philosopher that when they asked him upon his Death-bed What Religion he dyed in He gave this Answer Quia Christiani manducant Deum suum adorant quod comedunt sit anima mea cum Philosophis Because the Christians eat their God with their teeth and worship that which they eat let my soul be with the Philosophers But having heard of the glorious Name and Fame of Christ and Christianity it had been his Duty and would have been his Happiness to have made a thorow search into the Fountain of that Religion which is the Scriptures of Truth and there he might have found that this abominable Idolatry is no part at all of the Christian Religion but of the Antichristian Apostasie of the Mother of Harlots yea there is hardly any Article of the Christian Faith which she doth not some way or other by evident and unavoidable consequence corrupt and subvert As for instance she denies by consequence that Christ is come in the flesh which is one of the Characters of Antichrist 1 John 4.3 She denies the Reality of the Humane Nature of Christ by her Transubstantiation for she leaves him only a Phantastick or Imaginary body having not the true Nature and dimensions of a body yea she doth impugn and subvert by true and sound consequence of Reason that great Fundamental of One God As was ingeniously made out by an English Gentleman a Protestant in discourse with a Roman Catholick thus That is not the true Religion that doth not acknowledge One God but Popery doth not acknowledge One God For did you not pray to the Virgin Mary this morning The Roman Catholick replyed Yes To which the Protestant made this Return And did not Five thousand pray to her at the same time The Papist answered Yes doubtless From whence the Protestant inferred Then either you prayed like a Fool or else she heard you all and knows all your hearts but this is to make her a God These therefore are some of the Roman Heresies Her dethroning the Scripture The Popes Infallibility Conversion by Free-will Justification by Works Idolatry and Superstition Her seditious Principles Her sanguinary Principles Her consequential Errors Yet this is but a general and brief induction of them But now do you ask Who ever testified against her Proh pudorem tuum Although if no man had yet that is no sufficient evidence of her Innocency the cause doth not depend upon this But yet withall you know if you know any thing of the Histories of the Church in former times That the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome have been testified against all along by faithful men whom God hath raised up from Age to Age to be the Witnesses of his Truth for the Lord gave his two Witnesses light and grace and power to prophesie in sackcloth 1260 dayes Revel 11.3 There was a Woman in the Wilderness when Antichrist was upon the Throne Revel 12.14 There were Saints whom the Beast did persecute and war against during all the time of his Reign Revel 13.7 Would you know their names 〈◊〉 you may see some of them in divers of our Divines and Writers who have taken the pains to present you with Instances and Catalogues of some of the chief and most eminent And common Reason will easily suggest unto you That if there were so many left upon Record there must needs be many more whose names the Histories of former times have not preserved and delivered down to posterity But you may see a competent number of Witnesses against you in the Centurists of Magdeburg in Flacius Illyricus his Catalogus testium veritatis Morney his History of the Papacy or Mystery of Iniquity Fox his Book of Martyrs Raynolds his Conference with Hart. Sundry of our Expositors on the Revelation See Mr. Arthur Dent on Chap. 11. White 's way to the Church Vsher against Maloone And of the Religion anciently professed by the Irish and British and de statu successione Eccles Brittanicarum Yea your own Bellarmine giveth some account of those that have even from the primitive times opposed and impugned the Primacy of the Church of Rome though he doth it briefly and defectively enough for he omits besides other things all the African Bishops and Councils Bell Praefat. in libros de Pontif. This may suffice at present as to the Errors and Heresies of your Church Your next endeavour is to defend her from the charge of Schism Let us proceed in the strength and grace of Christ to consider that also CHAP. V. Of the Nature of Schism and of the Schisms of the Church of Rome both within her self and from other Churches DISCOURSE SChism is a departure or division from the Vnity of the Church whereby the band and communion held with some former Church is broken and dissolved If ever the Church of Rome divided Her self by Schism from any other body of faithful Christians or broke communion or went forth from the society of any elder Church I pray satisfie your self and me in these particulars
your selves Your very Council of Trent though approved by the Pope yet is rejected by the French Papists unto this day This is your peace and unity amongst your selves whereof you use to boast so much Nothing forsooth but Mufick and Harmony made up of Discords Secondly As to other Churches There be Churches both elder and younger and contemporary with the Roman and some of her own sounder Members with all which she hath broke communion And they are not fugitivi but fugati it is not they but she that hath made the breach because she doth impose such conditions of communion upon them as they cannot lawfully submit unto viz. To receive all her Errors and submit their Consciences to her and her Head as Infallible and Supreme If we look back to the first times of your Apostasie there were first all the Churches and Christians without the bounds of the Roman Empire as in India Perfia c. Secondly the Grecian Churches which were one half of that Empire one Leg of Daniels Image Dan. 2. which took the Alarum very early and refused the primacy of Rome and stood upon their guard against her Thirdly the African Churches did the same Fourthly All those suffering Churches and Christians that were oppressed under and by the Papacy as living within the reach of the Popes power Or if we consider the present state of things at this day and in this Age wherein we live there be very many with whom the Church of Rome hath broke communion As for instance All the Christians in Asia and Africa except some late Colonies of Papists All the Grecian Churches in Europe All those that are under the Patriarchs of Constantinople Antioch Alexandria Jerusalem Russia and Muscovia Also the Protesant Churches and Kingdoms and many that lie hid under the Dominions of Popish Princes who sigh and mourn and groan under the Abominations of the Papacy Sir Edwin Sands Sir E S. Europae Speculum or view of the state of Religion in Western parts pag. 76. 187. who was a great Traveller and a very intelligent person his computation in Q. Elizabeths time was That about one half of the Popes Dominions were fallen from him and become Protestants five of the Ten horns have begun to hate the Whore And you know how that since those dayes you have not been gaining but rather losing ground insomuch that when all Accompts are cast up both of those who were never subject to the Pope and those who have shaken off his yoke it will be found That the Church of Rome is not a third part of the Christian world All these Companies she hath left and gone out from all these Bodies and Societies of Christians hence therefore 1. It is a strange Question for you to ask Whose Company she hath left For you cannot but know if you know any thing at all of these matters that there is a far greater number of Christians out of her Communion and Jurisdiction than are within it 2. This renders her assuming and monopolizing to her self the name and title of the Catholick Church in opposition to all other Churches out of her Communion not only false but extreamly vain and in plain terms ridiculous For is she the whole Catholick Church who is not a third part of it Or rather is not this a piece of Schismatical pride and arrogance in her the very same with the Donatists of old who did unchurch all others but themselves and so do you which is not the Spirit of the Gospel but rather an evidence against you that you have neither part nor lot in this matter and that your hearts are not right in the fight of God which are so full of the gall of bitterness and sharp censoriousness Ravn 6. Concluso Concl 5. pa. 687. It further confirms that which hath been long ago demonstrated unto you by that Learned Raynolds That the Church of Rome is not the Catholick Church nor yet a sound Member of the Catholick Church And so much for the Apostasies Heresies and Schisms of your Church The next thing in your paper is this CHAP. VI. Some places of Scripture for the Inerrability of the Church of Rome Answered DISCOURSE THe usual colour of believing more or less than the Church allows is vain and erroneous inasmuch as that very Christ that stored her with knowledge of Gods revealed Truth and with power to convey the same hath also endued her with Inerrability to convey the same justly without danger of miscarrying against Ignorance To you it is given to know the mysteries of heaven Matt. 13.11 Against darkness Ye are the light of the world Matt. 5.14 Against error and falshood I will send unto you the Spirit of truth to remain with you for ever John 14.16 Against weakness She is the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3. Hell-gates shall not prevail against her Matt. 16.18 c. ANSWER Now to examine the Contexture of this Discourse though something might be said both to the Grammar and Logick of it nor the soundness and sense of those distinctions you seem to make between Ignorance and Darkness for what is moral Darkness but Ignorance and Error and Falshood c. Your Scope is to assert the Authority and Inerrability of your Church as the supreme Rule of Faith and Obedience But what you mean by the Church whether Popes or General Councils you say not you know your Writers are divided about it But to the Scriptures you alledge we need not as you say we must but through the help of his grace we will not impeach either the power or faithfulness of Christ but there be three other things which we may truly and fitly say to you concerning those Scriptures 1. That you do not shew particularly where their pertinency lies or how you would apply them to the point you aim at they being in their plain and genuine sense most remote from it 2. That they do not prove Inerrability in those to whom they were spoken and intended for they are as applicable to every other Church yea to every true Believer as to the Church of Rome For every true Believer hath the Spirit of Grace and Truth dwelling in him and is inlightned thereby to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but yet it doth not follow nor will you affirm That every true Believer that every godly Man and every godly Woman is infallible 3. We answer further That these Promises and Scriptures were not given to the Pope and Church of Rome there is no pretence nor colour for it How ill doth it become you who do deny the perseverance of true Believers to claim to your selves an interest in such promises that the Spirit shall remain with you for ever It was never said to the Pope Ye are the light of the world For he is indeed the Angel of Death the Messenger and Instrument of Darkness a Star fallen from Heaven who hath opened the bottomless pit and
you all dayes to the end of the world Therefore if they charge the Catholick Roman Church with Error they must say that either Christ was not of power to keep his Church from straying or that he wanted fidelity to make good his word Mat. 5.14 You are the light of the world A City that is set on an hill cannot be hid Mat. 16.19 Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven I pray name me the Church that was commonly counted the true Christian Church in which you remained and from which you are not departed Mat. 16.18 The Church cannot fail being builded upon a Rock nor needs no new Masons to rebuild her again 1 Tim. 4.1 St. Paul saith Certain will depart from the faith They went from us Whether did the Roman Church go from any other known Church or did any other go from her Satisfie your self and me in this I pray you Testimonies of the Fathers for the See of Rome THe Names of the Twelve Apostles are these the first Simon who is called Peter c. In which place Divine Epiphanius saith De Epiph. in Ancoratu That God knew the thoughts of hearts knoweth also who is worthy to be placed in the first place he hath chosen Peter that he might be the Head of his Diseiples St. Augustine saith of Peters Successors De Aug. contra Epist Parmenioni L. 1. c. 2. to the sitting in the Chair of the Roman Church the whole Christian world is subject Also Augustine elsewhere Aug. Epist 162. In the Roman Church alwayes flourished the Sovereignty of the Apostolical Chair The same in another place Number saith he the Priests of that same seat of St. Peter and see which of the Fathers succeed him for he is the Rock which the proud gates of Hell do not overcome St. Ambrose Rome saith he hath the principality of Apostolical Priesthood The Contents CHAP. I. Proving That a true visible Church may fall away CHAP. II. Of the Nature and kinds of Apostasie and of the Apostasies of the Church of Rome CHAP. III. Of the Nature of Heresie CHAP. IV. Of the Heresies of the Church of Rome eight particulars instanced CHAP. V. Of the Nature of Schism and of the Schisous of the Church of Rome both within her self and from other Churches CHAP. VI. Some places of Scripture for the inerrability of the Church of Rome answered CHAP. VII Of humane Testimonies for and against the Church of Rome CHAP. VIII An Appendix for the further illustration of some things which are but briefly hinted in the former Chapters A DEFENCE Of the Protestant Christian Religion against POPERY In Answer to a Discourse Intituled Of the one onely and singular onely one Catholick and Roman Faith CHAP. I. Proving That a true visible Church may fall away TO pass by the Rhetorick of the Title and the aptness of the phrase of singular onely one as an emphatical addition to the one onely and the consistence between Roman and Catholick and between singular and Catholick or universal How and in what respects of reason and what senses may be thought upon wherein the same thing may be called both Roman and Catholick both singular and universal The Discourse it self begins with unconuected Quotations of several choice portions of Holy Scripture And indeed so far as there is a cordial adherence and subjection of heart unto that rule among different parties and persuasions it will through the grace of Christ produce either union of Judgement or at least union of Brotherly affection and forbearance of love but what esteem the Church of Rome hath for the Holy Scriptures is well known She doth not subject her 〈◊〉 unto them And though you in this Discourse de Quote them as your Writers sometimes do yet if you be a true Roman Catholick it is not with any intent to subject your Church upto the Scripture and to advance the Scriptures above your Church but onely to deal with Hereticks as you call them at their own Weapons and to use the Scripture as a stepping-stone whereby to mount up your Church into the Throne of her pretended Supremacy and Inerrability as one would use a stirrup to get into the saddle wherein nevertheless your means hath an inconsistency with your end as will further appear before we come to a close of this Debate Your Argumentation from the Scriptures you recite begins thus DISCOURSE Now I hope it will not be deemed but that the Church of Rome was once a most pure excellent flourishing and Mother-Church ut supra Rom. 1. ANSWER It will not be denyed but is readily granted by us That there was once a True Church in Rome that is a Congregation of saithful men wherein the pure Word of God was Preached and the Sacraments duly ministred according to the Ordinance of Christ which is the description of the visible Church in the Thirty nine Articles Artic. 19. And that this Church which was in Rome might be instrumental as Churches in populous Cities often are to propagate the Faith and plant Churches in other places is not improbable But that she had any superlative Purity or any motherly Power and Authority over and above other Churches is part of the thing in Question between her and us The Church of Corinth the Church of Ephesus of Thessalenica of Smyrna of Philadelphia were once pure flourishing Churches as well as the Church of Rome What may be truly said of her may be truly said of all other Gospel Churches in their first plantation and constitution by the Apostles yet it doth not follow That ever they were Mother-Churches in your sense or that because they were pure at first that therefore they are so still for visible Churches may degenerate and apostatize though the Mystical Church that is such as are in Christ by the spirit of saving Faith cannot wholly fall off from him yet such as are in him onely by external and visible profession may Jer. 2.21 I had planted thee a noble vine wholly a right seed how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me How is the faithful City become an Harlot It was full of judgment righteousness lodged in it but now murtherers Isa 1. 21. Whereupon a Church thus forsaking God God may forsake them He may discovenant and un-church a people and give them a Bill of Divorce and withdraw the signs and tokens of his love and presence He may break the staffe of beauty and cut it asunder that he may break the Covenant he hath made with all the people He may also break the other staffe of bands and brotherhood between Judah and Israel Zach. 11.10 14. He may give them a Bill of Divorce Jer. 3.8 When for all the causes whereby back-sliding Israel committed Adultery I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not God may say unto a people Le-ruhamab and Lo-ammi I