whatever of which kind of Citations I have collected many and observed more in the ancient Writers especially before Constantines time yet I purposely omitted them because 1. In Questions wherein the Right of any thing is controverted to call in Witnesses is altogether impertinent 2. No Authority of man ought to prevail unless it hath the Authority of God and the consent of mankind i.e. Scripture or Right Reason to back it 3. Many Writers of our own as Mounsieur Daillee Chillingworth the Lord Falkland the Lord Digby now Earl of Bristow c. have already shewed the vanity and uselesness of such Allegations and because it is possible that the example of the last Honourable Person I named may be urged against me since his present practice doth contradict his former principles I will only adde this that since his Book is not yet answered by himself I hope he thinks it unanswerable and will not long continue in communion with that Church whose Foundations he hath so well overthrown 4. This way of writing by Quotations makes every Controversie uncertain dilatory and endless for as the possessed person said to the Exorcists Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye so may the common Reader say of Authorities and Fathers Scripture I know and Reason I know but who are ye for any farther than they speak according to the Dictates of the two former these latter must not be heard much less believed or followed That this little Treatise thus curtailed of all Authorities and deplumed of those Sentences from Fathers with which others do not think they stuff but rather adorn their Writings is like to be little read and less esteemed by the men of a contrary perswasion I easily foresee but yet the Question is so very usefull that I could not omit to handle it For 1. If it shall appear that the Church and Pope of Rome are not Infallible then I hope all those who have unwarily embraced their Errours upon the account of their unerring Authority will be induced to shake off their laziness and address themselves strictly to enquire into the Grounds of what they Believe and according to the advice of the Apostle Paul who was undoubtedly Infallible in that direction Prove all things and then hold fast that which is good The greatest Truth while it is untried may for ought we know be an Errour and all that while if we entertain it we fall upon our Religion onely by chance and serve God as the Samaritans did for which our Saviour blames them we know not why 2. If the Pope and Church of Rome be not Infallible in their Judgment about Religious matters then it follows that they ought not to impose upon the Judgment of others there being nothing more unreasonable then this that they should Lord it over the Faith or Consciencious Perswasion of other men who are not certain but they may Erre and be deceived themselves This last Consideration how far it may be improved to moderate the great Fiercenesse and Rigor of too many among our selves who in things of so poore so triviall so needlesse and so unmanly a nature will have their will to be a Law I mention only it being too sad a Theme to insist long upon But if Religion which is in it selfe the firmest lye if the Law of Christ which is a Law of Love cannot make us agree and live together as Brethren yet let feare of the common Enemy prevent our separation When Abraham and Lot fell out about their Pastures and I wish much of our Church-quarells now were not of the same nature the spirit of God remarks upon it the Canaanits and the Perizzites were then in the Land Hereby intimating that it was a most unseasonable time for them to disagree and to divide from each other in when they were surrounded in the midst of Enemies This passage perfectly agrees with our Case and on the very same motive bespeakes a mutuall Reconcilement for certainly the Canaanites are in the Land the Philistines are if not upon yet Among us who watch our Halting and hate Conformists and Non-conformists if these must be once more the Unhappy Termes to distinguish us both alike the one they hate for going so farre from the other for not comming neerer to them If God in just Judgment upon our unchristian Animosities should make us a Prey to those Incircumcised Philistines Polyphemus courtesie to Ulisses of devouring him last would be the greatest favour that he can expect whoever he be that is now most eager in denying his weake but yet Christian Brother that Liberty which he thinks Christ hath purchased and none but Antichrist will seeke utterly to bereave us of Should we ever fall into the Papists hands again I cannot expect they should use us more mildly then their predecessours did Samson i.e. put out our eyes and make us grind in their Mills Or as they afterwards served the Israelites take away our Weapows of Warre our Scripture and the best if not the onely Interpreter of it Enligtned Reason and so leave us Naked and Defencelesse to the Assaules of Ignorance first and if that will not prevaile to the Fury of a Mercilesse Inquisition Which last will be found the strongest and most forcible Engine rather then Argument by which they defend their Infallibillity But how ill an opinion soever I have both of the Papists Religion and of the unchristian wayes they take to propagate it yet farre be it from me to wish that amongst us they may suffer the same hard measure which I know by their principles they are alwayes ready to inflict For so much doe I desire their Conversion which can never be sincere unlesse it be voluntary and unconstrained and so little feare their Power of seducing since their greatest strength lies in the Ignorance of their followers rather then in the cunning of their Guides that I heartily wish all Penall Lawes against them were utterly taken away For I never yet saw any Argument that could clearly evince why any sort of men who would professe a peaceable subjection unto the Civill Government might not in all their Civill Rights be protected by it I must confess there are two things which do much difference the case of the Papists from that of any other Religious Sect this day in the World and which renders the toleration of them very unsafe if not unwarrantable One is their depending upon and owning of a forreign Power and that such a Power too which according to the Opinion of their Teachers can when he pleaseth dispense with them for and release them from their most sacred Engagements so that a State can have no security but that whenever they have opportunity they will endeavour a Change Lib. 5. de Pontif Rom. c. 7. Quod si Christiani non deposuerunt Neronem similes id fuit quia deerant vires temporales nam alioqui jure id poter an t facere c. and
not answered your Lordships expectation as to the exactnesse of my stile and strict manner of my Reasoning I shall not wonder since no Industry of mine can be sufficient to satisfie your Lordships accurate and unequalled ability in Judging But if I have showed my diligence and left no Argument unanswered how plainly and inelegantly soever I hope then your Lordship will let my willingnesse to obey compound for the failings in my Obedience since if the Enemy be killed it is all one as to the truth of the Victory whether it was done by a Rough Stone or by a Polished Sword nor was David's conquest the lesse esteemed because he vanquished Goliah onely with a sling And now My Lord before I conclude I should crave leave to tell the world how Good as well as how Great you are I should borrow so much Language from Common Fame and the Generall Voice as to declare that for Wisdome to Direct for Eloquence to Expresse for Diligence to Execute very few equall and none exceed your Lordship But since what is truth in it self and would be Justice in others in me because of my Relation may be esteemed flattery I shall turne my Praises of into Prayers for you that your Lordship may be alwayes fixed upon the Rocke of Ages and in all your walkings acknowledg that God who onely is Infallible That Christianity may ever steere your actions and all your other Politicall and Morall excellencies may still vail and doe Homage unto a knowing Piety that with your truly Religious and Excellent Lady together with your most Hopefull and Virtuous Children you may be long preserved a Good and Great Example is and shall be the constant Prayer of My Lord Your Lordships most Obliged and most Obedient Servant and Chaplain Edward Bagshawe Drury-Lane April 19th 1662. The Preface THere are none who allow themselves any liberty of Enquiry so little skilled in the Controversies and Disputes between the Papists and Us but must needs perceive that when they are driven out of all the Subterfuges and little Policies which they call Distinctions by which they labour to defend their Errours then their last resort is to the Infallibility of their Church which as they handle it is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Plaister large and broad enough though not to cure yet to palliate and hide their noisome and diseased Doctrines And therefore unless we can take from them this Refuge also it will be to as little purpose to combate their other Tenets how false and erroneous soever as it was for Hercules in the Fable to wrestle with Anteus who as often as be was thrown down upon his Mother the Earth rose up again with new and redoubled vigour So till we are able by plain force of Argument to convince the Papists of their folly in believing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Mother the Churches Infallibility no industry can be so quick in cutting off and destroying their Errours as that pregnant and fruitfull womb will be in conceiving and bringing them forth again As they tell us that young Vipers when they are assaulted run into their Mothers mouth and from thence seek shelter in the poisonous womb that bare them so all those Prodigies rather than Opinions of Transubstantiation Supererogation Image-Adoration and the like when they are pursued home and pressed beyond the strength and support of their own proper Principles then to defend themselves they take Sanctuary in Infallibility and under the protection of that they lye though not concealed from the eye yet safe from the edge of their opposers For to instance in the vast use of it what if all the senses we have and the Apostle too do assure us that the Bread in the Lords Supper even after Consecration remains true and reall Bread still yet if that Church whose judgement is supposed to be Infallible tells us there is no such matter but that under that Form whatever we think there is contained our Lord Christ both in his Divine and Humane Nature we must then in spite of all contradiction either believe her or else vindicate our selves from so unreasonable and so absurd an opinion by disproving her Infallibility Leaving therefore other parts of the Romish Religion which are either bold additions to the Word of God or else so gross falsifications of it that they deserve not a particular confutation I have here endeavoured to set upon that Man of sin where his strength lyes since by our Saviours example to break the Serpents head is not only the most ready way to dispatch him but the most safe way too to prevent any infection by his venome In prosecution of this Design that I might not out of too much eagerness and heat mistake my Adversary I took this Method 1. I laboured fully to inform my self of the Church of Romes Doctrine especially in those points wherein we as Protestants do differ from them And this I did not by studying the Collections of others or by adhering to some one Author of their Party whose Writings they are not bound universally to own but by diligent perusing the Canons of their most magnified Councels particularly that of Trent which I read only in such Editions as are approved and attested by themselves 2. Since the Popes Infallibility how tamely soever our Modern Papists swallow it was anciently a great Dispute amongst them and in the Schools among their learned men is not yet decided some attributing it to the Pope which seems to have been the judgement of the Junto at Trent others preferring a Councell of which opinion were the two Councels of Basil and Constance as appears in their Decrees yet extant Hereupon I carefully perused Cardinall Bellarmine upon this Subject who is the Popes Principall and most avowed I will adde and most learned Champion And because I think he hath spoke fully the sense of the Court of Rome and left nothing unsaid which might justifie his Cause I made it my business in the following Treatise to answer his Arguments 3. Though they inferre it from different Principles yet since both Papists and Protestants do agree in this Conclusion that the Scripture is the undoubted Word of God I have from that Armory fetched all my weapons by which I fight against this Monster of Infallibility for since Bellarmines best plea for it is from some few Texts by him miserably wrested and mistaken I thought it my duty to take this sword of the Spirit out of that Gollans hand and not only sonite off his head with it but likewise use it my self thronghout my whole Discourse For though the Papists are so bold as to deny the Scriptures to be a Sufficient Rule yet for so much as there is of them they dare not deny them to be Infallible and therefore Lastly Whatever Testimonies I might have alleadged either in behalf of the Scriptures Sufficiency and Divine Autherity or against the perpetuall Infallibility of any man or number of men
their present peaceableness may justly be attributed meerly to their want of strength which Bellarmine is not ashamed to say was the sole cause why the Primitive Christians were coment to suffer without Resistance from which Position what can follow but that it concerns the wisdome and policy of every State to keep those under whom as to tempor all Subjection it cannot confide in But could our Papists in England give sufficient evidence of their hearty disowning such an irreligious Tenet yet there is another thing practised by them which makes it highly questionable whether a Kingdome professing Christianity ought to tolerate them in and that is their Worship of Images which is a sinne so contrary to the express letter of the divine Law and so repugnant to the common sense and reason of all sober men that God punished it severely even in the Heathen Caldeans Jer. 50.38 as well as in his own people the Jews But bating these two indefensible Crimes rather than Errours their other opinions of Merit Purgatory Transubstantiation c. may for ought I see be charitably born with since in themselves they create no prejudice to the publick Peace which even Christian Magistrates so far as they are Magistrates ought principally if not solely to provide for If any think that such Indulgence like warm Aire will ripen these monstrous Births too fast and prove the ready way to encrease Popery they are utterly ignorant either how that Religion first began or by what Arts it is still upheld For till the world was asleepe in sensuality and blinded with Ignorance the Enemy could not sow these Tares and had they not afterwards maintained by force what they gained by fraud those Tares could never have prospered into so large an Harvest In opposition therefore to that conspiracy of Ignorance and Malice which goes to compound the Roman Religion I shall not scruple to say that if his Majesty whom God I doubt not hath designed for some such great and generous worke as now I mention be pleased still to continue to countenance the free Preaching and Reading of the Scripture and to disalow the imposing of any thing which either is contrary to or besides it It will then be as impossible for Popery to prevail as for dust to resist the Wind or for Airy Clouds to Eclipse the Sun The Errors of Popery for want of Divine Warrant have in them such a Fundamentall and Inherent weaknesse that unlesse they are upheld by a Coercive power they will sinke and fall of themselves as thinne and emty vapours if they have but roome enough in the Aire will disperse themselves without the help of any wind to scatter them To endeavour therefore the weakning of Popery by any thing which looks like Persecution doth indeed give it strength and Reputation as if it had reason on its side and therefore stood in need of force to suppresse it And besides it onely fills the Church with Hypocrites insteed of Converts who by mingling with and masking themselves under the Name of Protestants doe what they can secretly to dispirit and undermine our Religion the power of which they never felt since they were onely frighted to the Embracing of it But perhaps I need not plead so zealously for the not persecuting of Popery when too many of our unwary Gentry begin already to be taken with the outward Pompe of it and some that yet professe themselves to be of our Church and those of good Note too are not afraid to plead for something more then its Toleration Mr Thorndike Just Weights and Measures Since by telling us in Print that the Pope is not Anti-christ that Papists are not Idolaters nay by affirming that All are Schismatickes who upon that score do refuse Communion with them They not onely blemish the Virtue and Piety of our first Reformers who all built upon that Foundation but likewise show how willing they are upon any Termes how wretched and unworthy soever to returne into Egypt and bring us to our Bricke and Bondage again If this be not the intent of some I cannot imagine what meanes the crying up of that great Diana of the Papists the Churches Authority and making that the sole Interpreter of Scripture The Preaching up of Lent Dr Gunning upon Mat. 9. the Lent Fast Eliz. 5. Mr Thorndike ut suprà and other Politicall Fish-dayes as Religious Fasts and of Apostolicall Institution quite contrary both to expresse Scripture and an Act of Parliament The insinuating that we may Lawfully pray for the Dead and likwise expect some benefit by their Prayers which in time may easily be improved to our Praying unto them These with some other Opinions of the like nature so farre degenerating from our Primitive Protestancy doe show that if the Age is willing to be deceived there are not wanting Learned men who are willing enough to deceive them The designe therefore of this small Treatise is not only to depose the Pope from his usurped Title of Infallibility but to keep all persons else whether Churches or Church Rulers from taking the Chaire and succeeding into his room For since our Lord Christ hath given every Believer Reason to judge with and a Rule to judge by since over and above he hath promised his spirit to all that ask it which serves to assist the one and to explain the other he hath thereby appointed every man in matters of Faith and Godlinesse to be a Judge for himself though not of another And he who useth those meanes which our Saviour hath left and seekes to him in them may Infallibly be assured that though in some things he may Erre as a man yet he shall never finally miscarry Whereas he that leanes upon a Church of what denomination soever cannot be sure that he shall not be deceived since any number of men are as fallible in their Judgement as one especially when they are all sworne as in the Papacy to uphold the Authority and to defend the dictates of one This consideration alone will I hope prevaile with all Impartiall and disinteressed persons to take the safest side and with David to chuse to fall into the hands of God whose word duely searched into never deceived any rather then to fall into the hands of men who being Blind themselves do first take care to Blind their Followers and then lead them into a Ditch Edward Bagshaw Drury-Lane Aprill 16. 1662. THE GREAT QUESTION ABOUT The Infallibility of the Pope AND Church of Rome Quest Whether there be any sufficient Ground from Scripture or Reason to believe the Pope and Church of Rome to be Infallible FOr the better understanding and clearer stating of this Great Question I will premise these three things 1. By the Pope I mean the Bishop of Rome not in his Personall capacity as he is a Man for so the prodigious and monstrous Lives of many of their Popes which are obvious in Story Multi Pontifices fuerunt
which all this Babel is built that our Saviour did confer any Preeminence of Power and Authority upon Peter above the rest of the Apostles because 1. These words Upon this Rock will I build my Church cannot without blasphemy be affirmed of the Person of Peter who himself was built upon the Rock Christ and was not the Foundation but only a Workman at the Building Indeed in the Figurative Description of New Jerusalem Rev. 21.14 which John makes in his Vision he compares it to a City which had twelve Foundations upon which were written the Names of the twelve Apostles Rev. 21. So that if the Papists will needs call Peter a Foundation I hope they will take in the rest of the Apostles to be sharers with him in that Title But since the whole Description in John City and all is only Figurative and Metaphoricall the Foundation there mentioned must be like the City i. e. so called not in a Reall but only Metaphoricall Acception For to speak properly as Paul doth No other Foundation can any man lay 1 Cor. 3.11 than what is already laid and that is Eph. 2. that Jesus is the Christ And therefore when we are said to be built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles the meaning is not that we are built upon their Persons but upon their Doctrine the summe of which is contained in Peter's confession upon which Rock our Saviour hath so built his Church that the Gates or Powers of Hell however they may rage and strive to ruine it yet they shall never be able finally to prevail against it but Christ will have a Church in some place or other unto the end of the world 2. If Peter was the Rock so as all Christians even the Apostles themselves were to depend upon his guidance what a wretched and tottering condition would the Church have been in when this Rock so soon after was shaken and almost removed out of his place For within some few minutes he is rebuked by our Saviour in no milder language than this Get thee behind me Satan The Story of his denying and that with Oaths his Master is too notorious to be palliated and too sad to be insisted on Even after our Saviours Resurrection when they pretend this promise of Infallibility was inseparably annexed to him Act. 10. we find him unresolved in that part of his Commission which concerned his preaching the Gospel unto the Gentiles and therefore had the assistance of a particular Visiton more fully to inform him of it and afterwards at Antioch we read that he was of so inconstant and unequall a carriage in that great point of Christian Liberty complying herein more than he ought Gal. 2. with the Jewish rigour and austerity that Paul was forced openly to reprove him for it and so prevent the contagion of his ill example So that if he who in the Court of Rome's stile is called Prince of the Apostles in matters of so great moment was thus subject to Errour and Fallibility I wonder with what face the Pope upon the account of being Peter's Suceessour can plead any exemption 3. These words I will give unto thee the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven do not denote any peculiar power that Peter had over the rest of the Apostles for then how came it to pass afterwards that there were so many and so fierce contentions amongst them Who should be greatest Which our Saviour at two severall times silences not by commanding them to obey Peter as their Chief but by utter prohibiting any desire of Soveraignty If they answer us as Bellarmine doth that the Apostles did not clearly understand that Peter was to be Supream Head till after our Saviour's Resurrection which by the way is nothing else but a bold playing with sacred Scripture Then I demand farther when there was a new Apostle to be chosen into the room of Judas why did not Peter by his sole Authority Act. 1. design him or at least when the multitude of Disciples for so we read that all of them were concerned in the choice had appointed two why did they not present them both unto Peter that he might choose one rather than suffer the matter to be decided by Lot sure had Peter had any paramount and extraordinary Power and withall a peculiar infallible spirit he could not have better exerted it than in that emergency For the Head of the Church in so concerning a business first to permit all the multitude to have a voice in choosing an Apostle for if our modern Arguments are good he might justly fear that they being for the greatest part unlearned would choose one like themselves and so prejudice the reputation of Apostolicall Authority and afterwards to leave the matter unto the uncertain casualty of a Lot whereas the choice seemed properly to belong to Peter's Jurisdiction this argues either that his Power or his care of the Church was very little of which last I hope the Papists do not doubt and therefore must needs deny the former For what is it else but to tempt God to have recourse unto casting of Lots when a way of choice more prudent and Infallible by referring the business to Peter's single Decision was opened for them But it seemes the Apostles understood nothing of Peter's Supremacy either then or afterwards when they went to choose Deacons which by all the Apostles Peter not being so much as particularly mentioned was committed to the Mulitude and after the choice Imposition of hands was performed not by Peter alone but as the Text expressely saies by all the Apostles Will they tell us that this was a thing below him Act. 6. and that it did not become Peter's Authority to interesse himself in a matter of so petty concernment This plea is taken from them because we read that the Twelve and among them sure Peter was one did not think it below them and besides it will appeare a strange kind of conceated and uselesse Authority which they ascribe to Peter which in maters neither of the greatest such as was the choice of an Apostle nor of the least moment such as was the choice of a Deacon would ever so particularly exert it self that we might once take notice of his Prerogative But what kind of Equality Peter stood in to the rest of the Apostles he shewed Act. 8. in submitting to be sent with John unto Samaria to finish that worke of the Gospell which Philip had begun there for sure our Saviours Argument is Infallible Joh 15. that He who is sent is not greater then he who sends him And it would have been a strange boldnesse I believe the Pope would call it by a worse name in his Cardinalls should the Apostles have thus presumed to send their Prince had he indeed been so constituted over them Yet further when there was a Question started about the use of Jewish Ceremonies and a Synod convened about
Saviour saith should be ratified in Heaven For saith he where two or three not Bishops but Believers are gathered together in my Name there I will be in the midst of them i. e. When any Number of Believers how small soever though but two or three are met for those Holy Ends of Discipline and in those Ways which I by my Commands have warranted I will be with them to Assist and to Guide their Councels and to Execute their Sentence Chap. 49. Accordingly we find in Tertullian's Apology that in all Christian Meetings upon the Lords-day together with Prayer and Preaching there was likewise Censura Divina i. e. the Sentence of Excommunication pronounced against all refractory and stubborn Sinners according to this our Saviours Institution If any object that if Christ will be with two or three then in all probabily he will be with a Councell of many Hundreds much more I answer No doubt he will if they meet in his Name i. e. according to his Command and Institution for it is not the Assembly though of never so many Thousands but the End and Manner of Assembling which hath the Promise of Assistance And when I can see such a Councell which professeth solely to follow Scripture according to that sense which not the fancy of men whether Fathers or Councells but the Spirit of God enlightning their understandings doth give unto it I shall then with all Reverence embrace their Decrees For I know that such a Councell cannot Erre because they will Command nothing but what is already commanded by God which every true Christian ought to obey without the Sanction of any other Authority But such a Councell as this I am hopelesse of ever seeing under the Papecy since all their meetings for some hundreds of Yeares have been designed not to search but to smother Scripture and to Emprison that Light which if looked into would detect and manifest their Errors So that they come together not in Christs but in the Pope's name or rather in the name of that God of the world who is Prince of the Power of Darknesse and whose Kingdome is founded and upheld by the Artifice and cunning of their Teachers and by the Ignorance and Implicite Faith of their Hearers Fallere Falli To deceive and to be deceived is the best Motto which can be set upon all the Church-doores in the Papall Territories but Heaven is a place of Light and the True Church is full of Knowledge because 〈◊〉 are all taught of God not to obey or to Believe in 〈◊〉 but in him alone 2. That Promise of our Saviour I will send the Spirit John 14. c. 16. which shall lead you into all Truth was spoken Personally to the Apostles And those words Act. 15. It seemeth good to the Holy Spirit and to Us were spoken by them after the accomplishment of that Promise so that without great presumption they cannot be wrested to any other nor such wresting without great vanity be confuted since barely to deny ungrounded suppositions is a sufficient Confutation If any aske me since neither the Pope nor a Councell is Infallible as having no peculiar Promise for that purpose then how shall the Church determine Controversies or How shall Heresies be suppressed I answer that if the word of God is clear and the Heresie be Notorious than every Particular Church hath Power within it self to excommunicate all obstinate Heretickes But where the Scripture is either Dubious or Silent Phil. 3.15 there charitably to beare with dissenters and to wait till God shall reveale it to them is the best way to winne them And this was the onely method which the primitive Christians did take for three hundred yeares together to preserve and maintaine the Truth of our Religion Having no Communion with such as hold manifest and destructive Errors and in things of lesser moment Forbearing one another in Love These will at last be found to be the safe wayes of God whereas to pretend to Infallibility in determining or to practise Tyranny in Imposing these are onely the wayes of Ambitious and self-seeking men found out not so much to promote Truth which stands not in need of such Arts as to Augment a party which makes all Articles of Faith to be meerly like the Civill Lawes of a Land where most Voices doe carry the Cause Such a kind of Universality as this True Piety never had and therefore we need not be sorry that Popery doth make its boast of it And thus I have with as much Brevity and Plainnesse as the subject would beare enquired into the Grounds whereupon the Popes Infallibility is said to be grounded and after the most Impartiall search can pronounce of them all Mene Tekell that being weighed in the Balance of the Sanctuary they are found too light Neither have I diverted my self in confuting their worship of Images their Blasphemous Figment of Transsubstantiation their mingling of works in Justification their Invocation of Angells Col. 2.19 which the Apostle saith is not to hold the Head i. e. to Erre fundamentally Their forbidding of Marriage and commanding to abstain from meats Which he who prophesied of them 1 Tim. 4.1 calls the Doctrine of Devils I have omitted likwise their Furious and Bloody Tenets of Persecuting and Killing all who doe not worship the Image of that Beast which they have erected Rev. 13.15 for these things how plainely soever the Scripture speakes against them will not much concerne them to answer as long as they are fenced about with the Doctrine of Infallibility whereby they are privileged to put what sense upon Scripture they please but if the Christian Reader finds that conceit to be clearly disproved then I hope he will make use of the other Arguments to satisfie himself that we have but too much reason to suspect the Pope to be that Antichrist that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lawlesse one who sits in the Temple of God and declares that he is God For in the Church which is the Temple or House of God for any man to make Lawes which doe oblige the Conscience For a sinfull man to stile himself the Head and Bridegroome of the Church and above all to affirme that he is Infallible this is nothing else but to say that he is God and therein to fulfill the most clear Prediction that can be concerning The Man of sin whose way of Rising was to be by the Deceiveablenesse of Unrighteousnesse and his Dominion to be Established by Miracles and Lying Wonders Which no Church in the world doth more confidently boast of than the Roman And therefore till her unhappy and much mistaken Followers have cleared that She is not Antichristian we have little reason to believe that She is a True Church much lesse to think that She is Infallible FINIS
minu◠probi Bell. Prafat cannot but force them to acknowledge that he is liable to Errour but in his Politicall or which is all one his Ecclesiasticall capacity as he is the pretended Head of the Church and vested with all those Immunities and Priviledges which his Favourers suppose to be due unto the Universall Bishop 2. By the Church of Rome I mean not the diffused and scattered Body of the Papists but according to their own Sense how Absurd and Insignificant soever the Bishops and Doctours of their Church assembled together in a Councell where they may be supposed to meet with the greatest Advantage and Opportunity for the Disquisition and Search of Truth 3. By Infallible I mean to have a certain fixed and unerring Judgement in Religious matters which things alone do properly belong to the determination and cognizance of a Church as it is a Church And in this sense of the Question thus explained in as great a Latitude as any Papist can possibly understand it in I deny the Pope whether considered as apart from or conjoyned with as a part of a Councell to be Infallible For the proof of which Assertion though I might find out great variety of Arguments from the express and direct contradictions which have been among the Popes themselves some reversing that which others have ratified and others establishing that which their Predecessors under the severest Penalties have forbid Yet since the proper and direct way of Arguing lyes in shewing the weakness and insufficiency of those Arguments which are brought in defence of the Popes Infallibility that is the Method which I purpose altogether to insist on For since this great and so much admired Diana of the Papists is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a thing to be discerned by its own Light and to be credited meerly for it self as the testimony of the Spirit is when it bears witness unto the truth of Scripture and besides it being generally denied by all the Protestants who make the Errours of the Church of Rome the ground of their separation from them hence it cannot be expected that we should tamely give up out Assent to believe this Infallibility unless there be some evident and concluding Reasons to enforce it from us If therefore it shall appear that whatever Bellarmine and when I mention him I mean the strength of the whole Popish Party hath said is altogether impertinent and unconcluding indeed nothing else but a plain begging the thing in Question my Deduction from thence will be Infallible viz. that we have as yet no Reason to believe the Popes Infallibility To clear up this the best way will be to take a short view of those Arguments which Bellarmine alleadgeth in his Books De Pontifice Romano and they are briefly these three 1. Some Texts of Scripture in the New Testament 2. Some Analogicall Inferences out of the Old 3. Some Absurdities and Inconveniences which would follow in the Church of God should we not allow the Pope and Church of Rome to be Infallible 1. The Texts of Scripture which Bellarmine and all Writers since him do urge to prove the Popes Infallibility by are these three Mat. 16.18 19. Luk. 22.31 32. Job 21.15 17. From which they draw these three Conclusions 1. That in those fore-mentioned places our Saviour did confer upon Peter some speciall Priviledges above and beyond the rest of the Apostles and they were 1. Supremacy in Matthew 2. Infallibility in Luke 3. Universall Episcopacy in John 2. They Assume that whatever was bestowed upon Peter was not confined unto his Person but was promised likewise unto his Successours since what was granted unto Peter was given for the good of the Church and therefore ought not to die with him 3. They take for granted that the Pope was Peter's Successour both in the Bishoprick of Rome and also in all his other Priviledges and for the last they alleadge nothing but the credit of that which they call Apostolicall Tradition Whether or no these Deductions are cleare in the Texts or violently haled and wrested from them with so much impudent and shamelesse Sophistry as a wise and disinteressed Person would blush to be guilty of will best appeare by examining the places themselves and if when they are put upon the Racke they can be forced to confesse so much as Bellarmine and the Popes Parasites conclude from them I shall then consent to dethrone Scripture from its plainnesse and Perspicuity but till then I must take leave to thinke that that Church doth very wisely which makes Ignorance and Implicite Faith the Mother of Devotion for nothing lesse then an over-awed and Religious stupidity would make any man submit unto such Impossible and farre fetched interpretations 1. The place in Mat. 16.18 19. runs thus And Jesus answered and said unto him i. e. to Peter Blessed art thou Simon Barjona for flesh and bloud hath not revealed this to thee but my Father which is in Heaven And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And I will give unto thee the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven Which place they thus interpret 1. By the Rock upon which Christ saith he will build his Church is meant the Person of Peter and the Churche's being built upon him signifies say they that the care and government of it was committed to him and thus they understand likewise his Having of the Keyes 2. By the power of Binding and Loosing they understand the power of commanding and punishing of making and repealing Laws with all such things as belong to a Soveraign and Legislative Power 3. They tell us that whatever Peter had here was likewise granted to the Pope who is his Successour and therefore he being the Rock and the Foundation of the Church cannot be tossed about with every wind of Doctrine and therefore is Infallible But I answer 1. Upon supposition that Peter here was constituted as they call him Head and Prince of the Apostles yet how would this Personall Priviledge any more belong to the Bishop of Rome if he were Peter's Successour than what our Saviour elsewhere saith to Peter Why didst thou doubt O thou of little faith doth note the Pope's uncertainty and instability in Believing Or Mat. 14.31 what our Saviour presently after speaks Get thee behind me Satan doth signifie that every Pope is an Incarnate Devil or to take the mildest Interpretation an Adversary to Christ and to the good of mankind For what Reason can be assigned why the Pope may not as well succeed in Peter's Personall Defects as into his Priviledges since the Scripture is utterly silent either that he had or that he was to have a Successour in either But 2. I deny the Supposition upon
it is clear they cannot yet that any of Peter's personall Priviledges should be communicated to another who will needs usurp his Name and stile himself his Successour can as little be maintained as that his power of Miracles his gift of Tongues c. should be continued which the Pope as yet doth not pretend to I conclude therefore that Bellarmine's first Plea from Scripture is so far from Demonstration that it is scarce tolerable Sophistry and so much in Answer to his first Argument Secondly Arg. 2 The second Argument in defence of the Popes Infallibility Bellar. de sâ—â—mo Pontif. l. 4 1 is taken from the Analogy and Resemblance that ought to be between the Jewish and the Christian Church For in the Jewish Church saith Bella mine there was an High Priest which was Infallible unto whom they were commanded to have recourse in all difficult Causes and to abide by his Determination as appears Deut. 17.8 14. And therefore in the Christian Church there being the same if not greater necessity because of the extent of it it follows that there must likewise be some visible Infallible Judge for the ending of Controversies which will daily arise among Christians and this can be no other than the Bishop of Rome To this Argument from Analogy I answer 1. That the similitude and resemblance between the Jewish and the Christian Church doth not consist in having the same outward Oeconomy and Forms of Administration as in a visible High-Priest with other Rites and Ordinances answerable to such a Visibility but in the spirituall and inward performance of what heretofore was materially and outwardly represented He 's 9.10 So that the Jewish Sacrifices did not import that they should alwayes be continued but as the Apostle tells us they were to last only untill that great Sacrifice was offered of which all the others were only faint and weak Preludiums The like is declared concerning their meats and drinks their washings and bodily purifications Heb. 7.18 with other carnall and on side Ordinances which were only imposed untill the time of Reformation and after that were not that we read of to be continued with new names and under another form but utterly to be abolished Heb. 7.18 because of their weakness and unprofitableness The like the Apostle observes concerning the High Priest into whose room our Saviour succeeded who is called a Priest for ever after another order than that of Aaron even after the order of Melchisedeck who can supply all defects of his Church without appointing a visible Head in his place by his own immediate Energy since he lives for ever Heb. 7.25 to make intercession for them So that if any upon earth now will pretend to bear the same place in the Christian Church that Aaron did in the Jewish he must be able to shew the same divine warrant for as the Apostle observes Heb. 5.4 5. No man takes this honour to himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron so also Christ did not glorify himself to be an High Prist but he that said to him thou art my Son this day I have begotten thee Let then the Pope of Rome but deale above-board and show us some such plaine place of Scripture which doth Authorize his plea and then let them be Anathema that will not submit unto his Dictates but since this is not so much as once offered we cannot be faithfull to the Honour and Prerogative of out Great and only High Priest if we doe not looke upon this pretended Vicar of his as a bold and unwarrantable Intruder But 2. It doth not appear that the High Priest among the Jews was at all Infallible nor doth the place alleadged evince so much Deut. 17.11 for there Moses speaks not of Religious but of civil causes and commands that the Parties litigant should do according to the sentence of the Law which they shall teach thee so that the High Priests were not to pronounce according to Tradition or private fancy but according to the Law of God which whoso consulted might speak Infallibly not as if the High Priest meerly by vertue of his Office and Place was more priviledged from Errour than the common Jew but because God did give his Law for an Infallible Rule and in all parts that concerned his own Worship had made it so plain and particulat that unless they would they could not mistake it But for want of taking heed to it we find that in David's time both himself and all the Priests did Erre in conceiving that the Arke might be carried upon a Cart which was expressely commanded to be carried upon the Priests shoulders whereupon when God smote Uzzah Numb 4. David acknowledged that a breach was made upon them 2 Chron 15.13 because they sought him not in the due order Besides in the generall Apostacy of the people which the Prophets so sadly complain of and so much enveigh against we have no reason to imagine 2 Reg 16.10 that the High Priest continued stedfast in Religion since in all probability Uriah the Priest whom Ahaz employed in building an Idolatrous Altar was the Chief Priest at that time and not only a partaker in but a promoter of that wicked King's abominations We read likewise that none were more fierce against Jeremy and other of Gods Prophets than the Priests and to put the matter out of Dispute we have it plainly told us that there was for many ages none in that Church that could Infallibly guid them so the Psalmist Psal 74.9 We see not our Signs there is no more any Prophets neither is among us any that knoweth how long And in Ezra we find that the Tirshatha or Governour as some think Nebemiah Ezra 2.63 commanded that they should not eat of the most holy things till there stood up a Priest with Urim and Thummim who was to enquire of the Lord in difficult cases according to the command given to Joshua Numb 25.21 that he should consult with Eleazar the Priest who was to ask counsell for him according to the judgement of Urim which in Ezra's time was utterly ceased and we do not read that ever it revived again Just as much Infallibility therefore as the High Priest and Sanhedrim had in our Saviours time when they put him to death I am content to allow unto the Pope and a Councell of his calling and more than that this Argument from Analogy will not amount to For if they were so fatally deceived in so important and evident a truth who had as Bellarmine supposeth a clear promise of being Infallibly assisted how much more liable to Errour is the Bishop of Rome who hath no promise nor pretence of Plea but only an usurped and unjust possession Since then 1. the High Priest of the Jewes was only a Type of Christ and did not figure any other person in the Christian Church who was to bear a Resemblance to
believe they were I must affirme that this Doctrine is so farre from being owned by any of them for many Centuries that we have upon Record many pregnant Instances which doe evince that they did not so much as Dreame of it To draw up which I shall select onely two or three famous Cases which Bellarmine is pleased to take no Notice of 1. Euseb l b. 5. c. 23 24 25. The first Instance shall be from that doughty dispute which was raised about the yeare 160. concerning the day when Easter was to be kept the Churches of Asia kept Easter-day precisely upon the 14th of March at which time the Jewes did solemnize their Passeover but the Westerne Churches after many meetings to settle this weighty Controversie did agree that the day of our Saviours Resurrection should be celebrated onely upon the Lords Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Asian Bishops notwithstanding this Decree did persist in their former custome in which they were defended by Polycrates who alleaged that Philip the Evangelist John the Apostle and many others did transmit that Traditionall Observance to them Upon this Victor the Bishop of Rome in great heat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrat lib. 6. saith my Author did take upon him to excommunicate all the Churches of Asia but being sharply writ against for it and stâ—ffely opposed in it he was forced to revoke his sentence Which story might afford us very many Observations as 1. That Superstition and Needlesse Observation of Dayes 2. That Imposition and Abridging of Christian Liberty in things Indifferent 3. That the Bishop of Rome's Usurpation and exceeding the Bounds of his proper Jurisdiction did begin to worke very early But I wave these and onely note that had the Churches of Afia then thought the Bishop of Rome to be Infallible they would not so peremptorily in so small a thing as the Retaining of an Old Custome have refused to submit unto his Judgment 2. My second Instance shall be from that Controversie which for many yeares was very eagerly managed viz. Whether such as had received Baptisme from Heretickes upon their Returne to the Church Cyprian Epis 92. Edit Fam. should be Baptized again or not Cyprian and all the African Bishops maintained the Necessiry of Re-baptizing and in their Letter to Stephen the Bishop of Rome after they had at large given the Reasons of their Opinion they conclude So much Dearest Brother have we enformed you of not doubting because of the Truth of your Religion but such things will please you which are both Religious and True But yet we know that some are very unwilling to lay down any Opinion which they have once tooke up but preserving that mutuall agreement which ought to be amongst Brethren they retain the Customes which they have once been used to In which matter we neither Force nor give a Law to any since in the ordering of the Church Prapositus every Governour hath absolute power of his own will as being to give unto God alone a Reason of his Actings From which passage written by Cyprian and all the Bishops of Africh who mer together in a Councell for that purpose it sufficiently appeares 1. That they did not understand any thing of the Bishop of Rome's Infallibility since they profess to retain their own Judgement without subscribing to his 2. That in the outward Regimen and Government of the Church every Bishop hath equall Power and ought not Authoritatively to prescribe and impose Laws upon another Ibid. Ep. 73. As the same Cyprian in another Letter These things saith he according to my weak Ability have I writ not Imposing upon or Pre-judging any as if it was not lawfull for every Bishop to do as he thinks fit since he hath free Power of his own Will And afterwards when Stephen had declared his Judgement that he would have none baptized again whatever Herefie they came from but that the ancient Custome should be preserved whereby such Converts were admitted into Church Communion meerly by laying on of Hands Ibid. Ep. 74. Inter catera vel superba vel ad rem non pertinentia vel sibi ipsi contraria quae improvidè atque imperitè scripsit Cyprian in stead of yeelding to his Determination doth taxe his Letter of Pride Folly and Impertinence and in Answer to those words of his wherein Stephen commanded that nothing should be varied from the accustomed Tradition Whence saith he was that Tradition Did it descend from the Authority of our Lord and his Gospel Did it come from the Commands and Epistles of the Apostles For God testifies in his Commands both to Joshua and others that those things only should be done which were written And our Lord Christ when he sent his Apostles into the World commands them to Baptize and to Teach all Nations that they might observe and do all things which he had Commanded If therefore any such Custome meaning that of Stephen's be contained either in the Gospels or in the Epistles and Acts of the Apostles then let sach an Holy and Divine Tradition be observed But what Obstinacy what Presumption is it to prefer Humane Tradition before a Divine Appointment What Folly is it not to consider that God is angry as often as Humane Tradition doth lessen and discountenance Divine Precepts as he testifies by the Prophet Isay And our Saviour likewise in his Gospel rebuking and chiding the Pharisees Ye reject the Commands of God that ye may keep your own Tradition Of which words the Apostle Paul being mindfull he likewise adviseth and instructeth us saying If any man teach otherwise and reste not in the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and in his Doctrine he is puffed up knowing nothing from such turn aside Neither ought Custome which hath privily crept in amongst some to hinder Truth from prevailing For Custome without Truth Consuetudo sine veritate vetustas Erroris est is nothing else but the Antiquity of Errour And it ariseth only from Pride and Presumption that one is apt to defend his own Practices how False and erroneous soever rather than consent to that which is True and Right in another For which reason the Apostle Paul writing to Timothy Docibilem Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adviseth a Bishop not to be Contentious but Meek and Apt to Teach But he is Apt to Teach who is Gentle and endued with Patience to Learn for a Bishop ought not only to Teach but to Learn since he Teacheth best who continually grows and profits by Learning Which the Apostle Paul likewise declares when he admonisheth That if any thing be revealed to another which sits by the First should hold his Peace Religious and sincere Minds are alwayes prepared to lay aside Errour and to search for Truth for if we return unto the Head and Originall of Divine Tradition Hamane Errour ceaseth and when the Reason of the Heavenly Appointments is once throughly discerned whatever
him And 2. since he was not Infallible but in the most concerning business that ever happened and that was the acknowledgement of the Messiah most miserably mistaken And lastly since the whole Argument doth no more concern the Infallibility of the Bishop of Rome than of any other Bishop whatever nothing can be concluded from hence but that the Prophesie of the Apostle that God would give some up unto strong delusions that they should believe a lie 2 Thes 2 10. by mens taking pains to urge such kind of empty and frivolous Reasonings as these is abundantly fulfilled And so much in Answer to the second Argument The third and last Argument to prove the Pope's Infallibility is taken from those Inconveniences which would follow in the Church of Christ were there not some unerring Judge appointed to determine Controversies For since our Saviour foretold that there would be false Christs and false Prophets since the Apostles tell us that Heresies and Errours would be vented it would argue that our Saviour had small care of his Church should be have left it without a Guide unto whom all might have recourse As if a Master of a Ship should be at pains to rigge up a Vessell and put it to Sea if he did not appoint a Pilot that might steer it through the Waves and secure it from the Rocks he might justly be taxed as very improvident So saith Bellarmine it will lay a great Imputation upon our Saviours Wisedome if amongst so many prodigious Errours which like Waves are ready to overwhelm the Truth he should not have provided some such known and visible Pilot who can guide the Ship of the Church through all storms and preserve it safe from those Rocks and Shelves by striking upon which it is otherwise liable to miscarry Some one therefore is requisite to be the Judge of Controversies which by Confession of all Ages is no other but the Bishop of Rome I have enlarged this Argument and put some kind of stourish upon it because this is indeed the Papists Achilleum and upon all turns the supposed Inconveniences which will follow if we admit not of their groundless conceits are alleadged to authorize their Unscripturall Institutions Therefore I answer 1. That Arguments drawn from Inconveniences are so liable to mistake and Errour and for the most part do so much savour of Passion and Interest as well as short-sightedness in the Arguer that in all Disputes concerning the Truth of any thing they are of very little weight It is no hard matter to fasten some seeming Absurdities upon the most plain and clearly revealed Truth as we know the Socinians do upon the Doctrine of the Trinity The Jewes heretofore conceived our Saviour to be a Blasphemer and thought it would be very prejudiciall to their state to suffer him to live and afterwards both Jewes and Romanes did agree in striving to suppress his Doctrine because of some Politicall Inconveniences which they imagined would follow the spreading of it Yet all the while our Saviour was really the Son of God and his Doctrine the Power of God unto Salvation for all Believers So that unless the Papists can clear to us by some better Motives than any they have yet produced that their Bishop is Infallible the Inconveniences which they suppose will follow our denying it ought not to sway with us 2. Among Persons who own the Scriptures to be the Word of God certainly it is much more rationall to argue such a thing as for example the Popes Infallibility is not once mentioned there and therefore undoubtedly was never divinely appointed than to say it is divinely appointed because otherwise it would be very Inconvenient It would have been much more convenient it all Mankind had been as Infallible as the Pope is presumed to be if we had all retained our Innocence and been exempted from Possibility of offending one would think this might have made more for the Honour of God and the Peace of Mankind than our present erring and sinning Condition But we must not measure Gods Appointments or the Reall Being of things by our own Rules of Convenience nor affirm a Thing to be so because we conceive it would be very Convenient if it were so It is therefore but lost labour for the Popish Writers in a great deal of Plausible Language to declare and set out the great Convenience of Infallibility when they should first prove to us the Truth and the Existence of it We may easily fancy many things to be very Advantageous and Usefull to the World which yet never either were or will be And amongst these goodly Chimera's wherewith fond persons please themselves for ought I yet see this Dream of Infallibility may claime a Chiefe place 3. Those Terrible stories and Tragicall outcries about the danger of Herisies for the suppression of which this expedient of having some one Visible Unerring Judge must be found out they are for the most part as Mr. Hales well observes but so many Theologicall Scarecrowes set up to fright us from the Disquisition and search of Truth I know very well that to teach Heresie i. e. any False and Unchristian Doctrine is a very great sin but yet to prevent this we must not in all haste run into a greater Supremum in Terris Numen Dominus Deus noster Papa For to set up a visible God upon Earth according to the Court of Romes stile to cry up a man that is like our selves to be Infallible and then to fall down and worship him to bring him for an offering not those worthlesse Creatures as Sheep and Oxen which onely were required of Old but to Sacrifice our soules to bind over our Reasons and Understandings unto his Oracular Dictates this is so dull so stupid an Idolatry that we may wonder any learned man would ever goe about to defend it had not the God of this world blinded their eyes and did they not by this Craft as that Ancient Father Demetrius the Silver-Smith subtilty argued get their Livings and divide the spoiles of the deluded world by this grosse and Palpable Cozenage Lastly In answer to all their Allegations from Fathers and Authority I need say no more than this that as though all the world did consent to believe a Lie as that the Sun was really no bigger then it seemes to be which was the opinion of Epicurus yet this Conspiracy would never make a Lie to be Truth so upon supposition that all Antiquity did acknowledge this prerogative of the Bishop of Rome yet could we not from thence inferre the Justice and the Legallity of it because the most that such Testimonies amount to is meerly this to show us not what really was but what they conceived to be True I need not therefore be much concerned in examining Bellarmine's Quotations But yet that I may doe Justice to the Christians of former Ages and vindicate them from being so Unwise as the Pope's Champions would make us