Schism but that which is the cause of Separation now our Separation being upon a just account cannot be called Schism for the Errors and Superstitions of the Roman Church made our Separation necessary for God having discovered them to us by his Word we could not without bringing guilt upon our selves neglect that Commandment of God Revel 18.4 to come out of Babylon that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her Plagues besides it doth not become them to reproach us with our Separation and to accuse us of Schism since they first thrust us from amongst them by their Excommunications and all sorts of violence and we may much more justly call them Schismaticks they having so unworthily separated from Jesus Christ and his Apostles and from the purity of his Doctrine by so many Heresies which they teach Q. Yet could you not for peace sake have dissembled and contented your selves with distasting them in your heart A. No For God vomits out of his Mouth those that are luke warm Revel 3.16 and would have us to glorifie him as well in our bodies as in our spirits which are his 1 Cor. 6.20 and that as we believe with the Heart unto Righteousness we should with our own mouth make Confession unto Salvation Rom. 10.10 SECT X. Of the Head of the Church Quest WHo is the Head of the Church A. Jesus Christ only for St. Paul says Ephes 4.5 There is one Lord and one Faith and Chap. 1.22 he says that God hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the Head over all things to the Church which is his Body Now as Jesus Christ hath but one mystical Body viz. his Church also this Body can have but one Head Q. But hath not Jesus Christ established under him one here upon Earth to be the visible Head of the Church A. No for the Word of God hath made no mention thereof and Ephes 4.11 St. Paul rekoning up the Offices in the Church says He gave some Apostles and some Pastors and Teachers but says nothing of this pretended Head which should have been the first And Jesus Christ forbids all Superiority of Authority amongst his Disciples Luke 22.25 26. The Kings of the earth exercise Lordship over them but ye shall not be so and Matth. 23.8 Be not ye called Rabby for one is your Master even Christ and all ye are brethren Q. It would seem that Jesus Christ looked on St. Peter as a Head Ordinarily he is first named in the Gospel and Matth. 16.18 Jesus Christ says to him Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church A. His being named first doth not import any Superiority of Authority or Jurisdiction but of Honour and Order because of his Age or Gifts and when Jesus Christ says upon this Rock will I build my Church he had not regard to the person of St. Peter but to his Doctrine and the Confession he had made in the name of the other Apostles saying Thou art Christ the Son of the living God and on this consideration not only Peter but the rest of the Apostles are called the Foundation of the Church as we are taught by St. Paul Ephes 2.20 And are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself beeing the chief corner stone Q. But Jesus Christ in the same place promises to give him the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and that whosoever he shall bind on Earth shall he bound in Heaven A. In those words he gives no Authority to St. Peter which he gives not to the other Apostles to whom also he hath given the Keys and the power of binding and loosing and of remitting and retaining sins John 20.21 As my Father hath sent me so send I you verse 23. Whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted But supposing it were as true as it is false that Jesus Christ did in this passage Establish Peter Visible Head of the Church it would not follow that the Bishops of Rome are his Successors in that Office since we see no warrant for it in the Scripture neither hath the other Apostles had any Successors in their Offices as Apostles Q. But since the death of Jesus Christ and his Ascension did not the Apostles acknowledge St. Peter for their Head A. No on the contrary Acts 8.14 the Apostles send him with John to Preach the Gospel in Samaria and St. Paul says 2 Cor. 11.5 That he esteemeth not himself a whit behind the very chiefest Apostles and Gal. 2.9 Naming James before Peter he says James Peter and John gave him the right hand of Fellowship and proves at length in the same place that he was not called to be an Apostle by any but by Jesus Christ alone and 1 Cor. 1.12.13 He reproves those amongst the Corinthians that did choose to themselves any other Head or Patron but Jesus Christ every one of you says I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas and I of Christ Is Christ divided Was Paul Crucified for you Or were you Baptized in the name of Paul To acknowlege then another Head than Christ is to divide Christ Neither can we acknowlege any other Head but he who was Crucified for us and in whose Name we are Baptized St. Peter himself takes no other Title in his Epistles but that of Apostle and Elder and speaks to the Pastors of the Church not as having Authority over them but as their comparison in service 1 Pet. 5.1 The Elders that are among you I exhort who am also an Elder SECT XI Of the Invocation of Saints Quest MVst we pray to Saints A. No Because we have neither Command nor Example in the Word of God for it and when the Apostles desired Jesus Christ to teach them to Pray he injoyns them to pray to God only Luke 11.2 When you Pray say Our Father which art in Heaven c. Now that which is without the Word of God is without Faith Rom. 10.17 Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God It is then a sin to Pray unto Saints since it is to Pray without Faith which is required in Prayer James 1.6 Let him ask in Faith nothing wavering Q. But is not Praying to Saints expresly forbidden in the Word of God A. Yes For God hath commanded us to Adore and Serve him only Matth. 4.10 Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve now praying is one of the chief and principal Acts of Religious Worship and Service and St. Paul teaches us that we cannot call on those we do not believe in Rom. 10.14 How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed then we are not to Pray to Saints since it is not lawful to put our confidence in them for God declares them cursed that put their trust in man Jerem. 17.5 Cursed be the the man that trusteth in man Q. It is true we are to serve God
seems to be hidden or to be vanished from the Earth as when she was Captive in Egypt and in Babylon shut up in the Family of Abraham and when many days passed in Israel without the True God and without a Teachin Priest and without the Law 2. Chron. 15.3 and when Idolatry was publickly introduced into the Kingdom of Juda and into the Temple of Jerusalem Q. But the Christian Church having received more authentick promises for extention and splendor it is not likely to be invisible and that City set on a Hill cannot be hidden Matth. 5.14 A. It is true that by the calling of the Gentiles the Christian Church is more extended than that of the Jews was and there shall always be a Visible Christian Church in the World but it is not necessary to a particular Churches being pure that it be Splendent and Visible The seven thousand men that had not bowed their Knee to Baal were the true Church though they appeared not in Israel and since the Church of Jerusalem ceased not to be the True Church when Revelation 12. she was forced to fly into the Wilderness to shun the persecution of the Jews and Rev. 12. Wings are given to the Church that she might fly and hide her self in the Wilderness And Chap. 13. there is spoken of a time wherein all the Earth should Worship the Beast Jesus Christ says Luke 18.8 When he shall come he shall find no Faith in the Earth and they of the Church of Rome themselves say that Antichrist will make the Sacrifice of the Mass to cease for three years and a half Q. May not perpetual duration be a mark of the true Church A. No because perpetual duration is a thing not known but hoped for and there is no particular Church hath received any promise from God to endure for ever Q. But some will say we wonder not that you reject those precedent marks seeing it is two hundred years agoe only since you appeared in the World so that you cannot show your Succession nor where you were before Calvin and Luther A. We do not boast of our Succession but of our Truth yet we prove sufficiently that our Religion is not new but the first and most antient in making appear that we have the same Religion that Christ and his Apostles had and being truth it self by consequent it could not be interrupted Truth being Eternal and immutable and there must needs therefore always have been some Church in the World that hath made profession thereof for the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against the Church Those then that ask us where our Religion was before Luther and Calvin we will ask them where theirs was in the time of Christ and his Apostles both of us begin the History of our Religion at that time Q. May not multitude be a good mark of the True Church A. No more than the rest for it agrees better-with a false than with a True Church Jesus Christ commands us to enter in at the strait gate for broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at Matth. 7.13 and Luke 12.32 he calls his Church the little flock and Exodus 23.2 we are forbidden to follow a multitude to do evil in short multitude cannot be a good mark of the True Church since Pagans and Mahumetans are more in number than the Christians and amongst the Christian Churches the Hereticks are commonly more numerous than the Orthodox as Christian Catholicks were fewer than the Arians Q. What think you of Miracles A. That we have reason to suspect that Mark since Jesus Christ hath foretold us Matth. 24.24 That false Christs and false Prophets shall arise shewing great signs and wonders and St. Paul foretels us 2 Thess 2.9 That the son of perdition will come with signs and lying wonders Q. How know you that the Miracles of the Roman Church are lying wonders A. First Because they give Authority to lies as Worshiping of Images and Praying to Saints Secondly Because often they are not done in the Name of God and Jesus Christ as the Miracles of Jesus Christ and his Apostles but in the name of some Images or Saint Thirdly Because they are feigned inventions and contrivances to deceive the simple and credulous and to keep them in their Superstition therefore they do them not in publick before those they call Hereticks to Convert them but secretly without Witnesses Q. Hath the True Church no Miracles A. Yes Those of Jesus Christ and his Apostles which having sufficiently comfirmed the Doctrine declared to us we have no need of new Miracles to give Authority thereto an Evil and Adulterous Generation seeketh after a sign Matth. 12.39 16.4 Signs are not for them that believe but for them that believe not 1 Cor. 14.22 Q. May the titles of Catholick and Holy be marks of the True Church A. No Because names are not essential properties and an Heretical Church may as well assume these Titles as the True one besides the Title of Catholick or Universal can be no mark of any particular Church Q. What think you of Vnion A. That it is not an absolute mark of the Church for it is found in false and Heretical Churches which are well United but Union in Faith and Conformity to the Word of God is a true mark of a Church but if destitute of Truth it is only a conspiracy against God Q. What judgment make you of Holiness A. That is the only right mark of the True Church provided that Holyness in Doctrine be understood as well as in manners SECT IX Of our Separation from the Roman Church Quest WHy have you separated from the Church of Rome A. Because our Conscience would not suffer us to partake of her Errors and Superstitions since we find not in her the only mark of the True Church which is Conformity to the Word of God nor the pure Administration of the Sacraments Q. But ought not Christian Charity and the love of peace make us bear with their errors St. Paul tells us that Charity beareth all things 1 Cor. 13.7 and should the infirmities and faults of our brethren make us separate from them and break the Vnion of the Church by a Schism A. We must bear with our Neighbours faults but we must not consent to them now we cannot continue in Communion with an Heretical Church but we must consent to their Errors 2 Cor. 6.14 What Fellowship hath Righteousness with Unrighteousness and what Communion hath Light with Darkness and what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols And it were not just that to please our Neighbours we should defile our selves with their Superstition St. Paul recommends Truth to us as well as Charity and Ephes 4.3 he would have us to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace Q. But may not our separation be justly accused of Schesm A. No For it is not absolutely Separation which makes
No Popery OR A CATECHISM AGAINST POPERY WHEREIN The Heretical Doctrins Idolatrous Worship and Superstitious Practices of the ROMAN CHVRCH ARE Briefly yet Plainly Refuted and the Protestant Principles Proved by Testimonies of Holy Scripture and Evidence of Reason By a Minister of the Gospell Little Children keep your selves from Idols 1 Joh. 5.21 LONDON Printed for the Author and Sold by Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel 1682. TO THE READER AMongst the various Methods of Instructing such as are weak and ignorant none hath been found more useful than that by way of Question and Answer And as Christianity did at first diffuse it self by this way of Teaching so the Truth and Purity of it have been best preserved when Pastors have effectually applyed themselves to Conscientious Catechising of those under their Care and inspection By this means did the Waldenses and Albigenses maintain the Doctrine and Worship of the Gospel among them when Error Superstition and Idolatry had overspread the face of the Western Churches Nor was any thing more useful to the promoting the Reformation than the Catechisms of several Eminent Persons whom God employed in that Blessed Work For tho' Preaching be a very good way of pressing known principles upon the Consciences of men yet Catechising doth much excell it in conveying Light and Knowledge into their minds And through the woeful and universal neglect of this does Ignorance come so much to abound even where Sermons are most frequent as well as plain and practical For through want of Acquaintance with the points and subjects concerning which Ministers treat in those continued Discourses they are incompetent Auditors of what is delivered and so lose much of the benefit of it And as the present decays in Religion are to be ascribed to no one thing more than a faileur of Catechising so the Ignorance which thereupon ensues is that which betrays multitudes to be imposed upon and perverted by such as lye in wait to deceive For next to the being strangers to the power of that Religion which we do profess the want of being well grounded in the Doctrines of it is that into which the revolt of so many to Popery is to be issued and resolved And as the apprehension of our security from the Re-introduction and Establishment of the Romish Religion in these Nations hath occasioned our sloth and negligence in unmasking and detecting the folly of the Tridentine Faith so the just fears we are brought under of its obtrudeing its self once more upon these Kingdoms do bespeak all who desire to approve themselves faithful to God and the Souls of Men to concern themselves more in discovering the falshood of all the Articles of the Romish Creed And as the difference betwixt the Professors in Britain and those that profess the Reformed Religion in France is to be admired with respect to that Ability which appears in them beyond what is in us to refute and expose the Papal Tenents so their present stedfastness in the Doctrines of the Gospel when they are called to suffer the Loss of all things for them is much owing to their having been instructed before hand in all the Principles that lye in Controversie between them and the Papists For tho' the Transcript of Gospel Truth upon our Hearts will be our best Preservative in a day of Trial yet the being able to give an account of the reason of our Belief is needful as well for the honour of our Religion as the prevention of our Apostacy when we come not only to be accosted with Arguments against it but threatned with Fire and Faggot unless we renounce and abandon it And tho' there be many Discourses wrote with great Strength and Learning both to inform and fortifie our minds in the Belief of the Doctrines which we profess yet there are but few Discourses in Print either of that brevity or accommodated for manner and plainness to the Capacity of the weak as is necessary The want whereof as it recommends the seasonableness of this Catechism and familiar Treatise so if People will but consult their own Souls they will have reason for being thankful to God for the provision which is here vouchsafed them In which as they will find the Errors of the Romish Church truly represented so they will find them as nervously confuted and overthrown The Order of Sections Sect. 1. OF the Scripture pag. 1 2. How the Scripture may be known to be Divine 4 3. Of the Authority of the Scripture 7 4. Of the Perfection of the Scripture 10 5. Of the Reading of the Holy Scripture 14 6. Of the Church 17 7. If the Church can Err. 20 8. Of the Marks of the true Church 24 9. Of our Separation from the Roman Church 30 10. Of the head of the Church 32 11 Of Invocation of Saints 36 12. Of the Intercession of Saints 42 Sect. 13. Of Images 45 14. Concerning Prayers for the Dead 47 15. Of Purgatory 48 16. Of human satisfactions 52 17. If the Sufferings of Christ were accomplished in the Cross 56 18. Of Pilgrimages 58 19. Of Monkish Vows 1. of that of single life 59 20. Of Vowing Poverty 61 21. Of Vowing obedience 62 22. Of Lawful Vows 63 23. Concerning Fasts 64 24. Of Holy Days 68 25 Of the Providence of God 69 26. Of man's free will in the state of Sin 72 27. Of man's free will in the state of Grace 74 Sect. 28. Of Justification 77 29. Of Merits 81 30. Of Predestination 84 31. of Perseverance 86 32. Of the certainty of perseverance and Salvation 88 33. Of Sin and if all men are Sinners 92 34. Of venial and mortal Sins 95 35. Of the Works of Supererogation 97 36. Of Repentance 100 37. Of Auricular Confession 101 38. Of Absolution 103 39. Of Satisfactions and Indulgences 105 40. Of the Sacraments 106 41. Of Confirmation 107 42. Of the Sacrament of Penitence 109 43. Of Marriage 110 44. Of Extream Vnction 112 45. Of the Sacrament of Orders 113 46. Of the Order of Priesthood 115 47. Of the Sacrifice of the Mass 118 48. of Baptism 122 49. If original sin continues after Baptism 124 50. Of the Necessity of Baptism 125 51. Of the Lords Supper 126 52. of the Communion under both kinds 134 ERRATA PAge 3. line 22. read imaginations pag. 9. l. 26. r. have p. 22. l. 9. 10. for interted r. interrupted p. 25. l. 24. for in r. ing pag. 31. l. 13. r. Schisme p. 38. l. 15. r. God's p. 59. l. 21. after resolution r. in p. 66. l. 8. r. Tim. p. 69. l. 1. r. of signal p. 72. l. 21. for freely r. spiritually p. 74. l. 5. r. calling ibid. l. 24. r. John 8. p. 80. l. 27. r. justifies p. 82. l. 4. r. cannot p. 88. l. 18. blot out the i. p. 99. l. 5. r. young ibid. l. 9. for hath r. hast p. 109. l. 8. r. you p. 113. l. 1. r. being p.