her Soveraignty It will therefore concern me to ask How I may be rightly inform'd in both these great branches of her Power unto which my subjection is required upon pain of Damnation 1. She claims a Power of Interpreting or giving the certain Sense of Scripture of Iudging and finally Deciding all Controversies of Religion of peremptorily Defining and Determining in all matters of Faith and Religious Practice so that all are bound without any further dispute or search to submit to all her Determinations and Decrees INFALLIBLE then we must believe this Church to be and that she cannot Err in her Definitions of Faith and Manners And yet where this INFALLIBILITY is to be found is a Question she is not to this day able to resolve In short I find that this Infallible Church which tells us that she cannot Err when she is desired to make this apparent to the World can tell us certainly both How and in What she can Err and in this I doubt not but she is Infallible enough but who they are in all her Communion or in what things it is that they cannot err this she could never tell us certainly and yet it is this alone that can make her Infallibility if she have it to be of any use to us The REPRESENTER saith That the PAPIST believes that the Pastors and Prelates of his Church are Fallible that there is none of them and yet the POPE is one of them and COUNCILS are made up of them but may fall into Errors Heresy and Schism and consequently are subject to mistakes And further he tells us That tho some allow the POPE the assistance of a Divine Infallibility without being in a General Council yet he is satisfied 't is only their Opinion and not their Faith there being no obligation from the Church of assenting to any such Doctrine And tho he maintain the Necessity and Right of General Councils lawfully Assembled yet is it not so plain whether he count them infallible or no by what he says in that Chapter of Councils This we are told That if any thing contrary to what Christ taught and his Apostles should be defined and commanded to be believed even by ten thousand Councils he believes it damnable in any one to receive it But in the following Chapter he speaks out and says That by the Assistance of the Holy Ghost they are specially protected from all Error in all Definitions and Declarations in matters of Faith And this is true tho he grants it possible that the Pastors and Prelates there assembled may be proud ignorant covetous enormous sinners and infamous for other vices and at other times may prevaricate make Innovations in Faith and teach erroneous Doctrines Now a man would think That if all the Guides and Pastors of the Flock not one excepted may err then the Sheep which are bound to follow their Shepherds may err also and if the Fallible lead the Fallible 't is not impossible for both to err and who it is that is infallible is hard to see And again seeing he tells us That Christ committed the care of his Flock to St. Peter and that the POPE or Bishop of Rome is in this charge St. Peter ' s Successor and that God assists those who have this charge with a particular helping Grace such as has a special respect to the Office and Function and that such as was given to the Prophets and to Moses when he was made a God to Pharoah I cannot see but it must be as consequent to all this that the POPE should be Infallible as that a General Council is so especially when it is his Approbation that gives force to its Decrees Moreover it is not easy to believe that God hath made a promise of Infallible Assistance to any number of Pastors and Prelates who are no better qualified than he supposes they may most of them be with Pride Ignorance and Vice Turbulence and Covetousness and assembled it may be under an Heretical Pope for such 't is granted he may be and as vicious too and ignorant as any of them However there are two things which make it very hard to find out this Infalliblility where he sends us to seek it in a General Council For first they must be lawfully assembled and next they must determine nothing contrary to what Christ and his Apostles taught otherwise 't is damnable to receive their Determinations Now it will be hard for me to find out how lawfully they were assembled and therefore as hard to believe all their Decrees as Infallible and I fear I must not be allow'd to examine their Definitions whether they be according to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles or no lest I thereby seem to follow my own private Iudgment or Spirit rather than the Infallible Iudgment of the Church Representative This is all then that I can learn from his Discourse I must take it for a Truth that this Infallibility is lodg'd in a General Council and that it can determine nothing contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and then I need not inquire whether it have done so or no tho if it have done so 't is damnable for me to receive its Determinations But I will hear what others tell me Bellarmin saith That all Catholicks are thus far agreed That the POPE as he is POPE in the midst of his Councellors or together with a General COUNCIL may Err or Iudg amiss in matters of Fact. And if this be true he may even so err in the whole Faith as far as I can yet see for he may thus err in determining that there were such Men as Christ and his Apostles that any of them Preached planted Churches writ Books that these are their Books or that St. Peter was at ROME and was Bishop there left the Bishops of that See his Successors in all his Power that there hath been an uninterrupted Succession of Bishops in that Church that any unwritten Traditions concerning Faith and Manners were left to the Custody of the Church and many more such things which were matters of Fact and on which the Faith of that Church depends Again he saith That the POPE as a private Doctor may Err even through Ignorance in matters both of Faith and Manners And thus the Church whether Virtual or Representative may err But I would fain hear wherein she cannot Err and whether all Catholicks are agreed as well in that The famous Chancellor of Paris Gerson Almain Alphonsus a Castro the Parisian Doctors yea and no less man than P. ADRIAN the VI th saith the same Author have taught That the POPE as he is POPE may be a Heretick and teach Heresy when he desineth any thing without a General COUNCIL And truly If as a Man he may be a Heretick I see no reason why he may not be so as a POPE for I take the Man and the POPE to be here both one But further these last named will
have this Infallibility or Iudgment to be in the Council and not in the POPE And Bellarmin tells us That this Opinion is not properly Heretical and for this good Reason which if it should not hold they would lose a great part of their Church because they that hold it are tollerated in the Church yet it seems erroneous and next a kin to Heresie It should seem by this that an Error tollerated by the Church of ROME is no Heresie but if not tollerated it is Indeed I know not well how ever she can Err Heretically at this rate unless she will grow so unkind to her self as not to tollerate her own Errors The same Iesuit tells us again That it was the Opinion of Albertus Pighius and whether he was singular in it or no I shall not now ask That the POPE can by no means be a Heretick or teach Heresie publickly altho himself alone define any thing without a Council And this Opinion he acknowledges to be probable yet not certain But I think 't is very certain that POPES have been Hereticks either as condemned by or condemning one another for Heresie Lastly he saith the most common Opinion and that for which he brings a multitute of Authors is this That whether the POPE can be a Heretick or no yet he cannot any way define any Heretical thing to be believ'd by the whole Church This he calls the most sure Opinion tho they who are of it seem not very well agreed among themselves about it For some of them say simply The POPE cannot err Others speak it with this limitation Proceeding maturely with the advice of his Council But now suppose he should be too hasty and define something rashly of his own head Oh! That cannot be saith Bellarmin for God will not suffer it And yet I wish he could tell us Why God may not as well suffer an Heretical POPE to define rashly or indeed rather deliberately according to his own Heretical Iudgment as suffer him to whom he hath committed the Charge of the whole Flock to fall into Heresie However considering this variety of Opinions in the Church of Rome concerning this Infallible Iudg to which all must be subject in Matters of Religion I begin to think with my self with what satisfaction of Conscience I shall be able to live in that Communion I must obey the Infallible Iudg or else be damn'd And who is this Infallible Iudg whom I must obey It is the Church of ROME this all can tell me with one consent but tho this were true yet am I no wiser for it that whole Church never yet met to Iudg or Determine of any thing Who is it then in this Church to whose Iudgment I must submit It is the POPE alone say some and yet these some are not agreed whether he may not define some things rashly without due advice at least when he is a Heretick as some Popes have been if Popes themselves may be believed and it seems not impossible that an Heretick obstinate in Error may define something rashly and unadvisedly It is not the POPE but a General COUNCIL say others and why these deserve not as much credit as the former I know not for they are tolerated by the Church and surely the Infallible Church will not for shame tolerate any dangerous Error 'T is neither the One nor the Other saith a Third Party but a POPE in COUNCIL or a COUNCIL confirm'd by a POPE and yet whether the Determinations of such a Church-Representative be of full virtue till they have been universally receiv'd is made a Question by a Fourth Party Where are we now after all this to seek our Infallible Iudg Suppose a COUNCIL should define it as a matter of Faith that the POPE himself is subject to a COUNCIL and again that a POPE yea a POPE in COUNCIL define the contrary that the COUNCIL is subject to the POPE This is no idle Supposition of an impossible or unlikely thing for whosoever knows what was done in the Councils of CONSTANCE and BASIL consisting of as many Patriarchs Archbishops and Bishops as most of the Councils ever did and again what afterwards pass'd in the Councils of FLORENCE and the LATERAN under P. LEO the X th must know that such a thing at least once came to pass Suppose then this which once was and if the POPE could endure to think of a Free Council might be again what should I have to ground any certain Faith upon I must still under Pain of Damnation submit my Faith to the Iudgment of the Church It is not neither I believe ever will or can be agreed upon which is the Iudgment of the Church that of the COUNCIL or this of the POPE or the other of POPE and COUNCIL The Contest is between those that will admit of no Iudg and therefore of no Decision Their Determinations already extant are directly contrary one to another yet both pretended to be of Faith. That both cannot be so is plain and it may be neither is so And whether the one or neither be so if I would determine for my self I make my self the Iudg of the Church's Definitions even of those to which I must submit my Iudgment or be damn'd The other Branch of Power claim'd by this Church is that of giving Laws to all Christians unto which all that will be saved must yield Obedience About this I find no better Agreement among them than about the former There is so great a dispute among the Doctors saith one of them about the fulness of Ecclesiastical Power and unto what things it extends it self that in this matter few things are secure Yet that such a Power there is we must believe or perish tho none can certainly tell us what kind of Power it is whether purely Spiritual or Temporal also And an Universal Power it must be tho we cannot learn how far it reacheth whether to all or but some either things or persons It is held by many saith Bell. that the POPE hath by Divine Right a most full Power over the whole World in Matters both Ecclesiastical and Civil And for this Opinion he names Augustinus Triumphus Alvarus Pelagius Panormitan and others with whom their Angelical Doctor Thomas of Aquine seems to consent In the POPE saith he is the Top-height of both Powers Others say That the POPE as POPE hath no Temporal Power at at all neither can any way command Secular Princes or deprive them of their Kingdoms and Principalities tho otherwise they deserve to be deprived of them For this Opinion he names not so much as one of their own Communion why I know not unless it were because he knew it to be an Opinion very unwelcome at ROME or because he thought there were but a few inconsiderable PAPISTS that held it And therefore he fathers it upon the Hereticks whose Loyalty to their Princes will better bear it The REPRESENTER here tells us He knows that the
Liberius when through fear himself hâ—â— forgot he had any such thing and consented with the Arrians to the Condemnation of that holy Father St. Hierom seems not to have had any thoughts of the POPES's Supremacy when he said That whereever there is a Bishop whether at great ROME or petty Eugubium he is of the same Merit and Priesthood Neither did either he or St. Austin seem to have had a just esteem for the Church of ROME's Authority when they preferred that of the Eastern Church before it in receiving the Epistle to the Hebrews into the Canon of SCRIPTURE Above all what must I think of their Great Saint P. Gregory the First who called the Title of UNIVERSAL BISHOP a new Title which none of his Predecessors ever used a name of Vanity a Profane Name wicked and not to be uttered yea a Blasphemous saying that whosoever desired it shew'd himself to be the forerunner of Antichrist If I must believe this great POPE and SAINT I know well enough what to think of most of his Successors in the Infallible Chair If I must not believe Him why must I believe those who succeeded him Had not He and They one and the same Authority as POPES of ROME Believe both I cannot and disbelieving either as all PAPISTS no less than I must disbelieve the one I am no better than a Heretick and uncapable of Salvation Farther yet I find that the African Council but now mention'd did alledg for it self the Sixth Canon of the First General Council held at NICE which is this Let the old Custom be kept through Aegypt Lybia and Pentapolis so that the Bishop of ALEXANDRIA have power over all these because the Bishop of ROME hath also the like Custom By this Canon these two Bishops seem to be made equal in Power In the Fourth General Council held at Calcedon and Ninth Canon it is ordered That if any Bishop or Clerk have a Controversie with the Metropolitan of that Province they have recourse to the Primate of the Diocese or certainly to the See of the Royal City of Constantinople that the business may be ended there This Council seems hereby to make the Bishop of Constantinople equal to the Bishop of Rome and this it did notwithstanding great opposition made against it by P. Leo the First So that I must involve in the same Censure of Condemnation some of the most Famous General Councils that ever were This I am apt to think a very daring matter and not rashly to be attempted I have indeed been taught by our Blessed JESUS that God will not forgive us if we do not forgive our Brethren but I do not remember where he hath taught me that God will not SAVE us except we believe that no man but a PAPIST can be SAVED II. I have now consider'd sâ—â—â—e of the many Difficulties I am to struggle with before I can get through to the Church of ROME And truly they seem to me whatever men of more strength and courage may think little less than Insuperable And yet after all this if I may be convinced that the Authority of the ROMAN Church hath sufficient grounds of Scripture and Reason to support it I must confess no Difficulty in my way ought to dishearten me from breaking through it But then again if I must believe that there is such an uncontrollable Power in the Church in some One Church in the ROMAN Church by name yea in the Bishop of that Church and if I must so believe this that I must not leave in my Soul any room at all for the least Charitable thought of any man's Salvation who believes it not I think it no less than needful that I have the Clearest and most undeniable Evidence in the World for what I believe lest the Sentence of Condemnation should recoil upon my self for my Temerity and Uncharitableness Indeed if this Church may be allow'd to bear witness to its own Authority and such a Testimony be sufficient I cannot want it The Council of TRENT hath more than once call'd her the Mother and Mistriss of all Churches So Infallible in her Iudgment and Directions so Absolute in her Dominion and Command she must be that Her sole Authority must be warrant enough and nothing else any warrant without it for all things that belong to Christian Religion Whosoever saith Becanus in his Compendium in matters of Faith and Religion followeth the true Church of Christ which he there proveth to be the Roman Church only cannot err about Faith and Religion seeing the true Church of Christ is Infallible And this we are told continually as this Iesuit doth say that this is the shortest Compendium of all Controversies This then being to support the whole Fabrick of POPERY had need to stand on firm ground This ground I would now fain discover Why then must we believe that the ROMAN Church hath this Sovereign Authority in Religion I must confess my self one of those sturdy Hereticks that cannot believe without Reason When I hear that Church telling me she is Infallible and hath all Power over all other Churches I cannot believe it till I have some better reason for it than this That She must be all that which She is pleased to say of her self and therefore must be Infallible and Omnipotent too if She say it And I am a little troubled to say that this is all I can get out of her for my satisfaction lest even PROTESTANTS should think I say incredible things of her and that I have no other design but to make all the Learned Men of her Communion seem ridiculous in talking to us as to Children always childishly But it is not in my power to make their Arguments better than they are nor Civil in me to teach them what to say and I am sure my Temporal Interest cannot at this time tempt me to oversee the strength of their Reasons The very best Reasons I have yet met with with how much Artifice and Sophistry soever they are dress'd up amount to no more nor better in my opinion than her own honest Word that is her own Authority and Infallibility for proof of her Authority and Infallibility and therefore I must either believe them both before I can believe them even whilst I am enquiring for a reason why I should believe them or I must not believe them at all nor with her consent be saved The Missionaries tell us they are willing to undergo any Pains or Difficulty to rescue us from damning Error and whilst they proceed in this Method I have cause to believe them for I am confident to prove their Church hath this Authority they contend for is as great a Difficulty as they can meet with If they should here offer us what is so much talk'd of by them the Testimony of the Universal Church there is nothing more plain than that they do but Mock us For this can be nothing else but the Church of ROME's Testimony
than the Scripture till he Interprets for us is hard to say So that all returns to this still That we have her honest Word for her Authority and this is the sole Foundation that I can discover of this prodigious Faith which we must all have or else perish eternally III. And now in the last place seeing it is come to this for ought I see that I must rest upon her own Word or nothing for the Truth of her Sovereign Authority and must upon peril of my own Damnation take upon me this invidious Profession to believe all men damn'd but PAPISTS that I may enjoy the Blessing of my Mother I should be glad to know that She her-self as Infallible as she is could but probably assure me where this Word of her's may certainly be found The REPRESENTER indeed in his confident way hath told me That all the Members of his Religion however spread through the World agree like one man in every Article of their Faith. And if we would know for our learning by what happy means this wonderful Agreement is effected he tells us It is by an equal Submission to the Determinations of their Church that is as I understand it by taking her bare Word for every thing No one of them saith he tho the most learned and wise ever following any other Rule in their Faith besides this of unanimously believing as the Church of God or ROMAN Church believes And if this be so I wonder to what purpose their Learning and Wisdom can serve them any more than their Iudgment and Wit which they have renounced and deposed However if this be true Representing I shall not I hope find it difficult to find out the Church's Word and Authority on which my Faith must stand Every Member of it tho he have no more than the old Collier's Faith can help me to it in any part of the World for all agree like one Man in every Article and therefore sure in this most fundamental one But what now shall I think after this if it should so fall out that hardly one in a hundred of these Members know either where this Church of theirs is to be found or what those Determinations of hers are unto which they so unanimously submit Nay what if their Church it self cannot tell them this When She hath said all She can to inform both them and us suppose it be still two to one that we shall be mistaken in it whatever we take to be the ROMAN Church or her infallible Word This is it that I am now for a Close to inquire into It must needs seem more than a little absurd and exceeding hard to tye a man under pain of Damnation to believe he knows not what and what no body can certainly shew him I mean a Power in the Church of ROME which all men deny but they of her Communion and about which even they who are of her Communion are so divided among themselves that I do not see how ever they can agree about it Is there no Dispute in that Church about this Power Have they not been even at Daggers drawing among themselves about it Is the Controversie yet decided Or can any one promise me that it ever shall There is a great Diversity among the Schoolmen saith our REPRESENTER in their Divinity-Points and Opinions of such matters as are no Articles of Faith and have no relation to it but as some Circumstance or Manner which being never defined by the Church may be maintain'd severally either this way or that way without any breach of Faith or injury to their Religion I will not stay here to ask him what greater diversity he can find amongst the Members of our Church than he here grants to be amongst PAPISTS nor why our Divisions being no greater than theirs nor more nearly related to any Article of Faith should be less consistent with the Unity of the Church as is commonly objected against us than theirs are But I ask whether the Supreme Authority of the ROMAN Church be an Article of the ROMAN Faith or no And again whether all the Members of that Church be as one man unanimously agreed about it or no He will say it may be about the Article they are as to the Substance of it tho not as to all Circumstances But now if it appear that these Circumstances of the Power about which they differ are such as the thing it self will be as good as nothing without them or if they be not as certainly known and believ'd as the Power it self I think it will follow that all their agreement about the Thing is as good as nothing too till these Circumstances be also agreed upon Thus it is then I must for my Salvation believe that there is such a thing as a Supreme Power over all Churches in the Church of ROME and in this all PAPISTS as one man unanimously agree but about the Circumstances of this Power there is a great diversity of Opinions among them yet is this no injury to their Religion Tho without a better agreement about these Circumstances no man in my opinion can be able to satisfie me what their Religion is for these Circumstances about which they differ are no more but such inconsiderable things as these Whence this Power is whether it be of God or of Men of Divine or Human Right only whether it extends over all the World or over all Christians only to Spiritual concerns only or to Temporals also where it resides and is lodg'd in the Church-Diffusive or all Christians especially the Pastors or in the Church-Representative or General Councils or in the Church Virtual or the POPE of ROME These petty Circumstances they differ about and the Church it self knows not how to agree them but what 's all this to the Article it self most firmly believ'd by all that is a Supreme Power in the Church All their Religion rests on the Determinations of their Church all the force of these Determinations to oblige the Faith of men depend on this Supreme Power May not a man however well enough be assured of his Religion tho no man can tell him Whence this Power is Over what it is or Where it is Indeed what other men can do I know not but for my own part I must needs think it a very hard matter to believe this Power and to have any certainty of the Religion founded on this Power without some better Information about these Circumstances of it and therefore before I can yield to be of that Religion I must beseech that Church which will not allow us to be saved without an absolute Submission and Resignation of our selves to her Authority to tell us if not Whence which is yet the most material Circumstance of all the rest yet at least What and Where it is There is challeng'd by this Church a Power of over-ruling our Faith by her Infallible Iudgment and a Power of commanding our Obedience by
Imprimatur Liber cui Titulus The Protestant Resolved c. Marâ— 12. 1687. Guil. Needham RR. in Christo P. ac D. D. Wilhelmo Archiep Cant. a Sacr. Dom. THE Protestant Resolved OR A DISCOURSE Shewing the UNREASONABLENESS Of his Turning Roman Catholick FOR SALVATION The Second Edition LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCLXXXVIII No Necessity for a Protestant to turn Roman Catholick for Salvation WE are all I hope thus far argeed That sincere Christianity is the sure Way to Salvation That to be saved we must have the Hearts and not content our selves with the bare Name and naked Profession of Christians That the Authority of God and Divine Truth and no worldly or carnal Concern must sway and govern our whole Conversation If we be not religious in good earnest resolving and endeavouring to honour God in Heart and Life according to the Holy Gospel of our Blessed Iesus it 's no matter to us what Religion we profess or to what Church we join our selves Wickedness and Hypocrisy through what Church soever our Way lieth lead assuredly to Hell. A wicked Protestant and a wicked Papist will in Hell be of the same Communion True Christianity is none other but that which was taught at first by Christ and his Apostles and all they who believe and live according to their Doctrine shall be saved Herein again we are all I suppose agreed And if so I think it very reasonable we should agree as well in that which I now add It is not material to enquire whether a Man be of the Church of Rome or of the Church of England to find whether or no he may be saved but he that would satisfy himself of the possibility of Salvation in the Way wherein he now is ought to enquire whether he believe and live according to the Doctrine taught by Christ and his Apostles seeing they who do this are good Christians what other Names soever Men may bestow upon them and all that are such shall be saved If therefore I may be able to satisfy my self that I believe and live according to the Doctrine deliver'd by Christ and his Apostles I have no reason to doubt of the Possibility of my Salvation in the Way wherein I now am tho it were so that I had never heard to this day of any such Thing as a Church headed by a Pope or Bishop of Rome And I am yet somewhat confident that a Man may believe and live according to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and never hear of a Bishop of Rome because once Men certainly did so and yet were saved The next thing therefore that I have to do is to enquire by what Means I may certainly know what was the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles for by the same Means whereby this may be known I may also know the certain Way to Salvation If there be no such Means left us we are all Fools in professing a Religion the certain Doctrine whereof can by no means be known If such Means there be there must be some certain Records safely convey'd down from their Time to ours for by what other Means we at this distance of so many hundred years should be certainly inform'd what they taught is by me unconceivable These Records then are to be diligently searched into and impartially examined and whosoever is found to believe and practise according to the Doctrine in those Records contained may be concluded to be in the Way to Salvation Such certain Records we have even the Books of the holy Evangelists and Apostles which together with the Books of the Old Testament we call the Holy Scripture In this we are all again unamimous both Papists and Protestants agree that the Doctrine in these Books contained is the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and Divine Truth Whence it certainly follows that whatsoever Doctrine is contrary to the Doctrine contained in these Books whether it it be taught by Papists or Protestants is to be rejected as none of the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles It ought not therefore to satisfy me that this or that Doctrine is taught by the Church of Rome or by the Church of England for by which of them soever it be taught if it be found contrary to the Doctrine of the holy Scripture it is by the Consent of both Churches to be rejected Now seeing we Protestants take this holy Scripture and it only for the Rule of Faith and Life it is certain that holding to this Rule we do not err either in Belief or Practice while on the other side we cannot be sure thot they do not err in both who receive another Rule till it appear that the other Rule which they receive is as true and certain as ours is acknowledged to be Our part of the Rule and that which indeed we take to be the whole being granted us all the Question is about their part of it Ours is on all hands granted to be most sure and certain their 's alone remains disputable and therefore I cannot yet see any reason why I should think their Way safer than our own except it can be safer to follow an uncertain than a certain Rule which I think no body will be so hardy as to affirm The Rule which they of the Roman Communion advance against ours is that of Tradition I am therefore next to to consider First what they understand by it And Secondly what greater reason I can find to perswade me that it is safer to trust to it whether singly or in Conjunction with our own than to our own alone which is the holy Scripture This Tradition consists of such Doctines of Faith and Practice as are supposed to have been taught either by Christ himself or being dictated by the Holy Ghost to his Apostles were delivered by them to the Church not in Writing but in Word only and so have successively been handed down from Father to Son unto the present Age. And these are all according to the Council of Trent to be received with equal affection of Piety and Reverence as the holy Scripture Now I confess if it may appear as evidently to me that Christ or his Apostles left such Doctrines to the Custody of the Church of equal necessity to the Salvation of Christians with those that are written in the Scpipture as it doth that they left us these which are written in the Scripture and if I may be well assured that these very Doctrines which the Church of Rome now holds and pretends to an Authority of imposing upon all Christendome are indeed the very same which were at first as abovesaid deliver'd to the Church I can see no reason why I should not be bound to believe the one as firmly as the other For seeing it is the Authority of the first Preachers of it and not barely the Writings of it that bind me to believe the Doctrine if I can be
equally assured that as well what is unwritten as what is written was preach'd by them as necessary to the Salvation of Mankind I must needs also own an equal Obligation upon me to believe them all alike But neither of these could I ever see clear'd nor can I conceive any hope that I shall hereafter And seeing the proof of both lies wholly upon them who affirm both I cannot be obliged to believe them till by such proof they have convinced me In the mean time it seems enough to me that God himself was pleas'd to signifie to the World his Will in writing which I cannot imagine why He should do had he not intended we should learn his Will from what is written and not from any unwritten Tradition And I am the more confirm'd in this Opinion by this that he did not use this way of revealing his Mind unto Men at the first nor till after the World had had a very long time to discern by experience the Unfaithfulness of unwritten Tradition So that this and some other Considerations whereupon the Papists use to ground their Arguments against both the Necessity and Perfection of the Scripture seem to me very fully to evince both the one and the other and so to leave no room at all for their unwritten Traditions as any part of the Rule of Faith and Life Yet seeing they who are always preaching this Doctrine to us That there is no Salvation for them that are not of their Communion preach it not as a private Opinion of their own or of some few others in that Communion but as the generally received Doctrine of that Church which pretends to be no less than Infallible it concerns me so much the more to use all possible diligence to find out what Truth there may be in this Assertion And that not only because I shall thereby discern the necessity of changing my Religion to make sure of my own future Happiness but also because the Determination of this one Point will at once put an end as it seems to me to all the Disputes that are now between the Papists and Us. If I can find it true that no Man can be saved out of that Communion I shall be a Fool to trouble my self with the Study of the Scriptures and seeking out for my self in them a Way to Heaven when I may be sure by stepping over the Threshold out of the one Church into the other to meet with an Infallible Iudg whom if I do but follow I cannot go amiss And to dispute any longer with my self whether I should do so or not would but shew me fitter for Bedlam than for any Church seeing none but the maddest Man alive would dispute for Damnation On the other side if I shall find it false that a Man cannot be saved out of that Communion I must needs be convinced that the Roman Church which hath determined it for a certain Truth hath already err'd both in Faith and Charity and that having erred she is not Infallible and being not Infallible by her own Confession cannot be that One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church out of which there is no Salvation So that as this Assertion of that Church shall be found to be true or false even so will the Popish Religion appear also to be But here I meet with a very great Difficulty in my way as I am going to seek out the Truth or Falshood of this Assertion that however I may be able to satisfy my self yet I shall never for ought I can see be able to satisfy them who are the Authors of it any other way than by a total Submission of my own Iudgment and Conscience too to their Determination and a blind Obedience to their Will. The Dispute as is evident is between two Churches the one whereof challengeth to it self the big-swoln Prerogative of being the Lady and Mother of all Churches a Sovereign Authority of prescribing to the Faith of all Christians the Right and incommunicable Priviledg of being the Sole and Infallible Iudg of all Controversies in Religion finally an unquestionable Power of defining and declaring to all the World the true and only Terms of Salvation Now that this Roman-Mother and mistress-Mistress-Church sole Commandress and Infallible Iudg having already in the fulness of Power determin'd it and by her Supreme Authority imposed an Oath upon her Subjects to maintain it That none out of her Communion can be saved should after all this in pure Condescension to Men declared Hereticks divest her self of her Authority lay aside her Infallible Definitions come down from the Tribunal and the Throne of Iudicature and Majesty and stand at the Bar submitting her self and the whole Cause to an indifferent and equal Trial is a thing as little to be hoped for as it is yet unagreed upon by what Law Iury or Iudg the Controversy should be decided And truly on the other side it seems to me altogether as unreasonable in her to accept That we Protestants of the Church of England tho we pretend to nothing of this Exorbitant Power over Her or other Churches or of determining Disputes for all the World should yet upon a naked Summons from Her whose Authority we question and see no reason to acknowledg forthwith subscribe to the Sentence of our own Condemnation without any fair and legal Process or indeed so much as yield to a Trial where our professed Adversaries must be at once the Law-makers Accusers Witnesses and yet this is most notoriously our Case What course now in this Case can be taken by us The Church of Rome tells us expresly and peremptorily We cannot be saved out of her Communion Must we believe her without any more ado That 's indeed the way to make a short end of all our Differences for then we must yield to be Her 's or else run headlong to Damnation But if we believe her not as for my part I know not how we can do till we see some reason why we should do so the Dispute for ought I can see is like to be endless For no such reasons can or ought she to give us if she will be constant to her self and stand to her own Principles as will plainly appear anon and if she desert her own Principles she must yield her self to be fallible and not the true Church and then in vain is all talk of Reasons why they that are not of her Communion should be damned However suppose it be pretended as indeed it is that we have had sufficient Reasons given us why we ought to believe her in this Point This then is the present Question between us Whether she hath given us sufficient reason for this or no. She confidently affirms it We as confidently deny it She calls us obstinate Hereticks for denying it and lays many a heavy Curse upon us We for this think her a very unreasonable and imperious Mistress usurping an Authority over us which God never gave
Joh. 5. 39. for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life and they are they which testify of me I find that St. Luke writing his Gospel gives his Theophilus this good reason for it That thou mightst know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed Luk. 1. 4. The things which are most surely believed among us v. 1. all things of which himself had perfect understanding from the very first v. 3. I find St. Iohn who wrote last of all the Apostles affirming that tho Iesus did many other Signs which are not written in that Book of his yet these are written that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing we might have Life through his Name Joh. 20. 30 31. And finally I find St. Paul asserting the Perfection of the Holy Scripture as fully and plainly as any Man can speak 2 Tim. 3. 15 16 17. saying That the Holy Scripture is able to make a Man wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Iesus That all Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good Works Now what more can we desire than to be made wise unto Salvation And we are here plainly told that the holy Scripture is able to make us so What more can be needful to direct us in the Way to Salvation than what we may learn from the Scriptare It is profitable for our Information and Establishment in the Truth for the Confutation of Error and Heresy for the Correction of Vice and Wickedness for our Instruction in Righteousness It is so profitable for all these purposes that thereby the Man of God the Pastor and Teacher may be made compleat and well furnish'd for all the branches of his Office all the works of his holy Calling In short it is able to bring us to Faith in Christ Iesus And whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting Life Joh. 3. 16. Furthermore from the same Scripture I also learn that Unwritten or Oral Tradition hath ever been found too deceitful a thing to be relied on for so great a matter as Salvation I find that before the Flood notwithstanding the long Lives of Men the few Principles of Natural Religion and the easiness of learning and remembring things so agreeable to humane Nature yet all Flesh had soon corrupted his Way upon the Earth Gen. 6. 12. and every Imagination of the Thoughts of Man's Heart was only evil continually v. 5. And after the Flood the whole World was quickly over-run with Idolatry So ill was the Doctrine which had been preach'd by Noah and his Sons preserved by Oral Tradition Nay I find that after God was pleas'd to give the Iews his Will in Writing their Teachers had so corrupted the Doctrine of God with their Traditions that it was a great part of our blessed Saviour's business to rescue it from those Traditional Corruptions He reproves the Scribes and Pharisees for transgressing the Commandments of God by their Traditions Mat. 15. 3. shewing them how they had made it of none effect by the same v. 6. And that in vain they worshipp'd God teachiag for Doctrines the Commandments of Men v. 9. And St. Paul warns the Colossians to beware of being deceived through Philosophy and vain Deceit after the Tradition of Men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ Col. 2. 6. And the special occasion of writing most of the Epistles yea and the Gospels too seems to be the Danger that Christians were in of being seduced by false Teachers from the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles under the pretence of Tradition Such were the Wolves in Sheeps cloathing Mat. 7. 15 False Apostles deceitful Workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ 2 Cor. 11. 13. Pretending to another Gospel Gal. 3. 6. Men of Sleight and cunning Craftiness lying in wait to deceive Eph. 4. 14. From what I find in the Scripture I must needs conclude till I be better inform'd that it is a sufficient Rule for us to go by and that so long as we hold us to it alone in our Faith and Practice there can be no necessity of resorting to the Church of Rome for that unto which our Bibles at home can direct us The Scripture is the Word of God and sure Rule of Faith saith the Infallible Church of Rome if Bellarmine may be believ'd This holy Scripture is able to make us wise unto Salvation saith the this Infallible Scripture and we take no other but this Holy and Infallible Scripture for the Rule of our Faith and Religious Practice say we Protestants What now should hinder me to infer from hence that if the Scripture be the Word of God we Protestants are very well as we are for we have the Word of the Infallible God and if it may stand us in any stead the Word of the Infallible Church as she will needs be accounted to assure us that adhering to the holy Scripture we are in the ready and sure way to Salvation Farther yet as I am a Protestant of the Church of England I do declare in the words of our VIIIth Article That the three Creeds Nice Creed Athanasius Creed and that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed ought throughly to be received and believ'd for they may be proved by most certain Warrants of Holy Scripture Seeing then we receive and throughly believe the same Creeds and no other which the Church of Rome her self professeth to believe and which were thought by the Catholick Church of Christ for above 400 Years after the first planting of Christianity to contain all Points of Faith necessary for the Salvation of Christians I think I have hence gather'd this farther Confirmation of my Assurance that we Protestants are in the direct Way to Salvation that we are of the very same Religion and no other in all the necessary Points of Christian Faith whereof the Catholick Church evidently was in the first and purest Ages of it In the four first General Councils no other Articles of Faith were held needful to be believed by Christians but those of these Creeds which we entirely own and believe Either then it is true That these three Creeds contain all necessary Points of Christian Faith or it is not If it be true we are safe enough and can with no colour of Reason be said to err in Faith or to deserve the Name of Hereticks If it be not true then were all those Primitive Christians as much Hereticks as we are and knew no more than we do what belong'd to the Salvation of Christians And strangely partial is the Church of Rome in approving the Faith of those Councils which one of their most famous Popes and Saints is said to have reverenced as the four Gospels and yet to condemn ours tho in all
Responses The learnedst of the Romish Church are not yet well agreed about it and if the English Representer or French Expounder have had the luck to hit it I am sure that many heretofore who thought themselves as wise as either of them have strangely miss'd it Or else that Council and the Religion call'd Popery hath several Faces for several Times and Countries and in one place and time shall look like it self and in another shall be made to look as like the Protestant Religion as the Artificial Painter dares make it But that which here put us to a stand in this That as the Pope at first taught that Council to speak so hath he reserved the Interpretation of its Decrees to the See Apostolick or himself only and He is not always pleas'd in plain terms to let us know his Mind and if he should for once speak out plainly it will be a little hard for him to assure us that none of his Successors shall hereafter contradict him unless he can satisfy us that he has as well the Gift of Prophesying as that of defining and interpreting However it is for not believing the new Articles of Trent that we are accounted Hereticks and out of the way to Heaven And the reason is because these Articles are supposed to be as firmly grounded on the Word of God as any of those old ones which we believe For the Word of God saith the Council of Trent is partly contain'd in the Books of Scripture and partly in Traditions unwritten these are to be received with the same affection of Piety and Reverence and therefore he that disbelieves any Article grounded upon unwritten Tradition is no less a Heretick than he that disbelieves what is written in the Books of Scripture If I knew how to be satisfied concerning the Authority of this Council I could easily tell what Credit I should give to this which it so confidently affirms But so long as I cannot discern the reason of it's pretended Authority I am a little apt to suspect that it was not the clearness of this Principle that moved it to make so many either unscriptural or antiscriptural Decrees but rather the desire it had of vindicating its unscriptural Doctrines and Practices that made it necessary to espouse such a Principle And indeed when I well consider it I am not a little comforted by it that this equalling unwritten Tradition with Scripture which is the very Basis of the Romish Religion is one of the most incredible things in the World of it self and as destitute of any tolerable Evidence whence it may gain any Credit to it self It must needs seem very strange to any considering Man That the wise God should leave us a Rule in writing on purpose to direct us how to honour Him and attain to Salvation and give it this Commendation that it is able to make wise unto Salvation and yet omit a great many things altogether as necessary to those ends as those that are written and without the Belief and Practice whereof those that are written can no whit avail us and yet never so much as once tell us in all that Writing whither we should go to seek and learn them Nay that he should omit therein the principal Point of all and without which all that is either written or unwritten can signify nothing that is to tell us That the Roman Church is the only true Church the only sure and Infallible Interpreter of all that is written and the only faithful Keeper of all that is unwritten from the Mouth whereof we must receive all saving Truth This I think is a thing that must needs be very hard for any one to believe that believes the Infinite Wisdom Goodness and Veracity of God. And how it can ever be made evident that there are such necessary unwritten Traditions or that these which the Church of Rome holds are they I think no Man living can imagine I am sure if the Papists way of reasoning be good it 's safer not to believe this For all Sides consent that the Scripture which we have is the certain Word of God but all Sides are not agreed that unwritten Traditions are the Word of God therefore it is safer to believe the Scripture only to be the Word of God and not Traditions We hold us to Scripture and the Papists grant that to be the safest Rule their greatest strength lies in unwritten or as they are wont to speak Oral and Practical Traditions which in plain English is no more but Report and Custom and whether there can reasonably be thought any certainty in these equal to that of the written Word of God given by Divine Inspiration can be no hard matter for a very weak Understanding to determine That which makes these unwritten Traditions of the less Credit with me is the assurance I have that a pretence to them and a vain confidence in them hath produced much Error and Division in the Church 'T is well known how far and how long the Errors of the Millenaries and of administring the Eucharist to Infants to mention no more prevail'd on this account And the early Schisms betwixt the Roman and Asian Churches about the keeping of Easter and the hot Contests between the Roman and African Churches about rebaptizing Hereticks were occasion'd and upheld by Pretences on all hands to Tradition This was the only Refuge of old for Hereticks when they were confounded by the Scripture to take shelter under Tradition whence Tertullian call'd them Lucifugas Scripturarum Men who shunn'd the Light of the Scriptures Again saith he They confess indeed that the Apostles were ignorant of nothing and differed not among themselves in their preaching but they will not have it that they revealed all things to all for some things they deliver'd openly to all some things secretly and to a few and that because St. Paul useth this saying to Timothy O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust And again that good thing which is committed to thee keep Irenaeus also makes mention of Hereticks who affirm'd That out of the Scriptures the Truth could not be found out by them who understood not Tradition because it was not deliver'd by Writing but by living Voice for which cause also St. Paul said we speak Wisdom among them that are perfect St. Augustine in his 97th Tract upon Iohn saith that all the most foolish Hereticks who desire to be accounted Christians used to colour their audacious Fictions with a pretence from that Sentence of the Gospel Joh. 16. 10. I have many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now Thus did the Hereticks of old both plead Tradition and sought to strengthen their Plea by such places of Scripture as these which are the very same that the Papists produce to the same purpose as may be seen in Bellarmine and others But I find that the Orthodox Fathers of the Church were of another Mind The
Reason he denies that any Reasons can convince me because 't is plain they cannot convince me before I have judged of them and this I must do by my private Iudgment or by nothing for I have no other But here I am told We are allow'd to make use of our Reason to find out the true Church which may Infallibly guide us into all saving Truth All that is required of us is this that when we have once found this true Church we presume no longer to judg for our selves but captivate our Reason to the Infallible Iudgment of the Church This is something and yet it seems but extorted from them to make a little more plausible what to me seems one of the greatest pieces of Folly in the World I mean the attempt of convincing men by Reason who must not be allow'd to judg of the Reasons whereby they must be convinced I find Reason by a Traditionary Papist compared to a dim-sighted Man who used his Reason to find a trusty Friend to lead him in the Twilight and then reli'd on his Guidance rationally without using his own Reason at all about the way it self Thus are we allow'd Reason to find out the Church of ROME our sure Friend to guide us and on whose Guidance we must rationally Rely after we have captivated our Reason to her and for her sake have resolved to use it no more But now if this Reason which is to direct us to our Guide be such a dimsighted thing and as we heard before Hoodwink'd too so that whilst we follow it we can have no more hope than only that we may possibly stumble into the Catholick Church who will secure us that we shall not in this Twilight mistake a treacherous Enemy for a trusty Friend and then what shall we gain by our rational Reliance on him A dimsighted Man in the Twilight may easily mistake one thing for another else should he not much need a trusty Guide and why he may not mistake his Guide as well as his Way I do not yet know But that I may be satisfied how much I gain by this liberal Concession to use my Reason and private Iudgment in inquiring after the true Church I will a little consider how the PAPIST is wont to talk with me when he would persuade me to take his Church for my only sure Guide First he tells me There is but one true Faith and then that this Faith must be held entirely next that this entire Faith is nowhere to be found but in the true Church After this he begins again and tells me Christ hath a Church upon Earth That there is but one true Church That out of it there is no Salvation and lastly That the ROMAN Church and no other is that one true Church out of which there is no Salvation And till we have found that it is so he will give us leave to judg for our selves And I would thank him for this kindness if he would allow me to enjoy the benefit of it and to make any use of it otherwise it will look but like a Mockery I desire therefore some clear convincing Evidence That the ROMAN Church is the only true Church He cannot to this purpose produce the Consent of all Christians for two parts in three deny it Therefore he gives me a great many Marks or Signs sometimes more sometimes fewer whereby the only true Church must be known from others and spends a great many words in shewing me how they agree to the ROMAN Church and no other That wherein I would next have same Satisfaction is supposing that all his Marks agree to the ROMAN Church and no other how I may know that these are indeed the certain and incommunicable Marks and Proprieties of the only true Church To prove this he betakes himself to the HOLY SCRIPTURE and brings me thence some Texts whereby he says they are clearly proved to be so I now with a very hearty and sincere desire to learn the Truth and with all diligent use of such helps as I can come by read and consider all these Texts and cannot discern in them any Evidenee at all of the thing which they are brought to prove and therefore think it reasonable yet to call for some clearer proof But now when 't is come to this I presently find that his liberal Concession to make use of my Reason and private Iudgment to find out the true Church amounts to no more than I at first suspected that is just nothing For here he retires to his Principle of PORERY That I being a private Person ought not to judg for my self what is the Sense of those Texts of Scripture but must submit my Reason and Iudgment to the Iudgment of the Church yea even before I have found the Church and without any dispute receive the Sense of Scripture from her alone Thus he recals at once all that he had allow'd and undoes again whatsoever he had been adoing to persuade me to his Communion He was giving me Reasons which might convince me in my Iudgment and these at length resolve all into the Authority of the Scripture and yet of this Testimony of the Scripture I must not Iudg and therefore by it I cannot be convinced of any thing but this that the Church of ROME is resolved to be Mistress of all Christians and thinks it enough to convince us that she is so if whilst she sets some of her Sons to hold us up in empty talk of Scripture and Reason to no purpose she step out from behind the Curtain saying Believe it I am she Now I cannot possibly see whatever others may do for I keep yet to my Protestant Principles of Judging for no man but my self how I can embrace POPERY upon any conviction from PAPISTS and I fear I must either take it without any Reason for it or not at all If I cannot know the ROMAN Church to be the only true Church but by the Testimony of the SCRIPTURE and if I cannot understand the Testimony of the SCRIPTURE till I receive the true Sense of it from the ROMAN Church and if I cannot take that for the true Sense of it upon Her Declaration of it so to be unless moved by her Authority I must be persuaded to do the most unreasonable thing in the World to my thinking to believe a Church to be the only true Church for her own Authority which I yet know no more than I do her to be the true Church which it is all along supposed I do not know at all This I think not only unreasonable but impossible I must needs confess my self very hard to be persuaded of the tender goodness of that Mother who lest her Children should get hurt by the dimness of their sight will needs pull out their Eyes and keep them in her Pocket till she has taught them to use them better I am very loath to part with my Reason how dimsighted soever because
I know not how to serve God without it Yet if I should dare to venture thus far may I now have leave to take my rest here If my dimsighted Reason help me to stumble into my Mother's lap may I yet think my self safe there Not till I have learn'd her Charity too as well as her Faith which the REPRESENTER tells us She learn'd of Christ and his Apostles Therefore Lastly I must believe that all other Christians but PAPISTS are in a state of Damnation The Decree of P. BONIFACE the VIIIth as now it stands in the common Extravagants is well known to be this We declare say define and pronounce That it is altogether of necessity to SALVATION that every Creature be subject to the POPE of ROME P. PIUS the II. in his Bull of Retractation tho he was not altogether of the same mind as it seems before whilst he was Aeneas Sylvius saith He cannot be saved that doth not hold the Unity of the ROMAN Church If so lusly a Decree and so preremptory a Declaration of two POPES be too little there is abundance more to this purpose to be met with by him that has a mind to search for it I only take notice at this time that P. LEO the X th in his Lateran Council and his Bull therein read and pass'd saith We do renew and approve that same Constitution viz. of P. BONIFACE but now mentioned the present Sacred Council also approving it And Lastly P. PIUS the IV th in his Bull wherein he confirms the Council of TRENT imposeth an Oath upon Ecclesiastical Persons wherein they swear That the HOLY CATHOLICK and APOSTOLICK ROMAN Church is the MOTHER and MISTRESS of all Churches and that this is the true CATHOLICK FAITH without which no man can be SAVED Here 's enough in all Conscience for us PROTESTANTS to hear and too much a great deal as I think for any man to believe I think my self bound in Charity to have the best Opinion I can of all men and therefore I dare not think that all they who are called ROMAN CATHOLICKS have throughly learn'd this Doctrine There seems to me to be so much of Ill-nature in it that I should think my self the worst natur'd man in the World if I could believe that any considerable numbers of them besides the Priests are guilty of it Many piously disposed Souls are not so happy as to have always the clearest Understandings or the sincerest Teachers but have better Hearts than either Heads or Guides Their Zeal is too great for both their opportunities of Learning and Patience to consider their earnestness of SALVATION a thing very laudable in them puts them into too much haste to deliberate long and gives an advantage to some who watch for it to abuse them Either a cunning JESUIT or a canting FANATICK will hope to make an easy Prey of such Persons for it matters not greatly of which sort the Tempter be whilst the Temptation is the same The Fish minds not the Fisher but the Bait Every Argument from either is edged with a mighty Zeal and Importunity and sharpned with the sinest and most penetrating Expressions of a most tender Compassion for perishing Souls SALVATION is as confidently promised as earnestly desired and whether it be to be had in the ROMANISTS Infallible Church or in the SEPARATISTS purg'd and unmix'd Congregation all 's a case when once the man is made to think it cannot be had in the Church of ENGLAND If they who are so easily Proselyted either way would take time to look before they leap and could but see into the consequents of those very Arguments which most prevail with them and are made the Traps to catch them in they would stand off a little and ask a few Questions more for their better Satisfaction before they could endure to think of entring into a Communion which would oblige them as ever they hope to be saved themselves to believe that CHRIST hath no faithful Followers upon Earth but a few Subjects of the POPE of Rome I can easily perceive by divers Books written by them who call themselves Converts that the main Motive of their going over to the ROMAN Church was this That they could not hope to be saved in any other And I find that most Arguments of late used to persuade us to that Religion look the very same way And it is this Doctrine alone that hath put me upon this Enquiry for my own Satisfaction For I must needs confess that this Doctrine which some acount so powerful a Persuasive to Popery has always with me had the quite contrary effect to what I find it hath in them and has been and is at this present to me as strong a Dissuasive from it If I can never be a PAPIST till I can believe it I am very confident I shall never be one I would leave the Church of ENGLAND the next Minute should she require of me to believe that all out of her Communion were in a state of Damnation and truly I think that most PROTESTANTS are of my mind When therefore I found the REPRESENTER in good earnest to vindicate his Church in this one Point I presently concluded that he had writ his whole Book to no purpose for let him spend all his Oyl and Colours in painting POPERY to the best advantage so long as this one Spot appears in her Face she may possibly seem in her new Dress less terrible but not one jot more lovely Having told us That no one can arrive to the true knowledg of the Catholick Faith but by receiving it as proposed and believed by the Church of CHRIST and that the ROMAN CATHOLICK is the only true Church that whosoever denies any Article of her Faith denies so much of CHRIST's Doctrine That whosoever hears Her hears CHRIST and whosoever obstinately and wilfully is separated from Her is in the same distance separated from CHRIST himself and finally That God addeth to this Church daily such as shall be saved He hath told us enough to persuade us that no PROTESTANT in the World could have done that Church a greater diskindness than he hath done nor by any Misrepresentation of her have worse Represented her When the PAPISTS are pleas'd to ask us that unanswerable Question as they account it Where was your Religion before LUTHER They wish us withal to take into our Serious Consideration the state of our Forefathers who lived and died in the Religion of the Church of ROME asking us if we dare think that they were all damn'd We need not trouble our heads with shaping an Answer to so frivolous a Question because we durst never yet be so hardy as to affirm that all are damn'd who live and die in the Communion of the Church of ROME but do openly declare to the World that tho we think our own Religion the safest yet many of that Communion have been heretofore and many also are at this day under such
Circumstances as encourage us to hope very well of them as to their future state However if it so well deserve our Consideration what 's become of our Forefathers doth it not as well deserve the Consideration of the ROMANISTS what is become of many of theirs Yea What will become of the greatest part of the Christian World who live and die out of their Communion And if they would have us think the worse of the Reformation left by thinking well of it we should be wanting in Charity to our Fathers which yet we are by it no way obliged to be should it not move them to think the worse of their Religion that it constrains them to think so uncharitably not only of their Fathers but of all the World but themselves only How many most Eminent and Worthy Persons How many great and famous Churches must I be obliged by embracing the ROMAN Faith to believe excluded from SALVATION Upon these terms I cannot see how 't is possible for me to be Reconciled to the Church of ROME without professing my self an irreconcileable Enemy to all the Christian World besides I must turn Hector and call all other Christians damn'd Hereticks I must needs say this appears not to me like that Meek and Lamb like Spirit of the Blessed JESUS which is given by him to his Dove-like Spouse that thus Rants it in his pretended Vicars and their Adherents It seems not to be much a kin to that Christian Charity which hopeth and believeth all things and thinketh no evil 1 Cor. 13. 7. I must make nothing of condemning all PROTESTANTS and PROTESTANT Churches of what other Denomination soever and these alone are no inconsiderable part of Christians These Hereticks saith Bellarmin possess many and ample Provinces ENGLAND SCOTLAND and why not IRELAND DENMARK SWEEDLAND NORWAY no small part of GERMANY POLAND BOHEMIA and HUNGARY he might have said also of FRANCE and HELVETIA It was anciently the Custom saith Tolet that the POPE did three days every year tho now but once a year viz. upon the Holy Thursday he means the Thursday immediately before Easter call'd Coena Domini with great Solemnity before all the People thunder out his Sentence of Excommunication against all Hereticks of what Name or Sect soever but against the Queen of ENGLAND which was then Q. Elizabeth by name with all their Believers Receivers Favourers and Defenders against all that read their Books publickly or privately with what intention soever or under whatever pretence tho there be no Error in them or with a design to consute the Error if there be any without his Holiness's License against the Keepers Printers and Defenders in any manner of the same against all Schismaticks and such as pertinaciously withdraw themselves and depart from their Obedience to the POPE against any one that shall so much as say that Calvin was a good man against all that appeal from the Orders Decrees or Mandates of the POPE to a future COUNCIL And 't is very well known that they are not all PROTESTANTS who have done so Neither will this suffice I must also condemn the whole GREEK Church which how Ancient and of how large Extent it is is very well known And some reason there seems to be for it For saith Bellarmin the Greeks in the year 451 in the Council of CHALCEDON consisting of 600 Bishops endeavoured to make the Patriarch of CONSTANTINOPLE equal to the Bishop of ROME And again In the year 1054 they pronounc'd the Bishop of ROME to have fallen from his degree of Dignity and the Bishop of CONSTANTINOPLE to be the first Bishop And tho he pretends that these Greeks were once reconciled to ROME in the Council of FLORENCE yet he adds that they always returned to their Vomit No wonder therefore if this GREEK Church cannot escape Damnation And yet this poor Reprobated Church yields not to that of ROME in any of her own principal Marks of a true Church I read that the Christians of her Communion in NATOLIA CIRCASSIA MENGRELLIA RUSSIA GREECE MACEDONIA EPIRUS THRACIA BULGARIA c. do very near if not quite equal the number of those who are of the ROMAN Communion And yet will not this be enough unless we include in this Sentence of Condemnation all the Assyrian Christians living amongst the Mahometans in BABYLON ASSYRIA MESOPOTAMIA PARTHIA and MEDIA with the Iacobites Armenians Egyptians Aethiopians and the vast Empire of the HABASSINES All these I must look upon as cut off from CHRIST merely for their disowning the POPE's Authority tho they should be found Orthodox in all other points And truly I know not how to get up to that height of Boldness not to be afraid of condemning so many Christians most of which have given and do yet give to the World the most notable Testimony of Fidelity to CHRIST that can be expected in their constant sufferings for the sake of his holy Name and Gospel After this Consideration of whole Churches it seems needless for me to come down to that of single Persons tho confessedly of greatest Note and Eminence in the Church of CHRIST both for Learning and Piety How St. Polycarp Bishop of SMTRNA and a famous Martyr who would not obey P. Anicetus but still keep his Easter contrary to the custom of the ROMAN Church and therein seem'd either as ignorant of his Duty or as stubborn as any PROTESTANT or how his Successor in that See Polycrates who desended himself and his Church so arrogantly against the Authority of the ROMAM Church more than sufficiently declared by P. Victor still pleading the Example of Polycarp and Authority of St. Iohn as tho he had never heard St. Peter was made Prince of the Apostles or that the Bishops of ROME were his Successors in that Authority over all Churches How Irenaeus and all his Fellow-Bishops of the Gallican Church who so presumptuously took upon them to expostulate the matter with the same Victor and in very homely terms to chide him for excommunicating those Asian Christians for not changing their Ancient Customs at his Command How St. Cyprian the holy Bishop of Carthage and Martyr with his Bishops of Africa Numidia and Mauritania joining with him in so contumaciously resisting P. Stephen The Sixty Bishops in the Milevitan Council or those Two hundred and Seventeen whereof the famous St. Austin was one who not only stubbornly rejected the Claim but also manifestly demonstrated the Fraudulence and Forgery of three POPES Zosimus Boniface and Caelestine about appeals to ROME How all these shall be exempted from this Censure I know not Did not the later of these African Councils decree That the Bishop of the first See meaning ROME should not be call'd the Prince of Priests or chief Priest or any such thing but only the Bishop of the first See Did it not Excommunicate every Priest that should Appeal to ROME It seems to me that St. Athanasius could have no great opinion of the Infallibility of P.
for her own Authority It cannot I say be any thing else because the thing they are proving is That She alone is the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church And were it any thing else they would never discover it to us because they would thereby give us an unanswerable Argument against what they would prove her to be for if they will shew us any other Church or Churches by the Testimony whereof Her Authority may be proved we are thereby enabled to prove She is not the Only true Church out of which there is no Salvation What then can this Testimony be Is it that of the First and purest Ages of the Church before POPERY was brought forth Not so to be sure for POPERY was they say from the beginning and glorieth of her Antiquity above all things Is it the Testimony of all others in the World that profess Christianity It cannot be for all these if not of her Communion are Hereticks and in a state of Damnation for denying her Authority and were it possible for them to witness that to be which they deny to be yet is their Testimony invalid because they confess themselves Fallible and this point of Faith cannot stand upon a fallible Testimony By this 't is very clear to me that the Testimony of the Catholick Church of Christ if it be produced for the Authority of the Church of ROME can be nothing else but the Church of ROME's own Word and I never doubted but she hath a good word for her self any more than I doubt lest it should be thought a good proof of her Authority I have heard again much talk of Universal Tradition among ROMAM CATHOLICKS but if they alledg this for their Church's Authority they give us only the same thing again in other Words Universal Tradition can be nothing else but the Testimony of the Universal Church and that must be the Church of ROME and so we are not advanced one step farther than we were before The Credit we are to give unto Universal Tradition depends on the Authority of the ROMAN Church which we have not yet sound but are enquiring after If Fathers and Councils be brought in to Witness this Authority all the noise they make will prove but the Voice of the ROMAN Church crying her self up for the great Diana of the World and thundring Anathema to all that will not fall down and worship her Will she abide by the Testimony of either Father or Council if they speak not what she has taught them or against what she holds Or shall they be allow'd to over rule the Oral and Practical Tradition of the present Church of ROME Are Councils of any Credit more than the POPE's Confirmation gives them And are single Fathers of more Credit than they If not we have yet no more but her own Word for her own Authority If they bring us SCRIPTURE to prove this Authority I must say that as we reverence Fathers and Councils so we adore with Tertullian the fulness of the SCRIPTURE neither can we desire any better Proof than its Testimony Yet when I consider how these men use the SCRIPTURE I am at a stand to think how they can in good earnest produce it as a Witness in this matter for after they have said almost all the ill they can of it calling it imperfect insufficient obscure unsens'd they seem to ridicule both it and us when they bring it forth thus disabled for a Witness Do not they tell us again and again that both the Canon and the Sense of SCRIPTURE depend as to us on the Authority and Interpretation of their Church And can its Testimony then possibly amount to any more than that Church's bare Word Do not they deny us a Iudgment of Discretion whereby we should discern for ourselves whether it speak fór or against their Church's Authority And will they yet produce it to convince us of the Authority by which alone we are both to receive and understand it It cannot be produced to convince us in our Iudgment for we are not allow'd any use of our Iudgment in the Case It must be only to convince themselves that we are Hereticks and I dare say that may be done without the Scripture as well as with it whilst their Church must give the Sense of it But because they know we magnify it they will produce it tho I cannot see to what other end than to persuade us to take heed of trusting too much to it or thinking it worth any thing after it hath shew'd us the true Church It must be believ'd no longer than it is authorized to speak by that Authority which is to be proved by it so that by shewing us that Authority it loseth all its own Authority for ever For this saith Stapleton that God hath commanded us to believe the Church we do not hang our Faith on the Authority of the Church as upon the proper and sole cause of this Belief but partly on manifest Scriptures by which we are remitted to the teaching of the Church partly on the Creed c. This then is the end of producing the Scripture that we may be convinced by it that we are no longer to learn of it after we are once brought by it to the knowledg of the Church's Authority but thenceforward are to depend wholly upon the teaching of the Church unto which it remits us All the use then that we have of the Scripture is to be guided by it to the Church of ROME tho it cannot do so much for us neither but as that Church guides it and having thank'd it for its kindness we are then to bid it good Night Now seeing manifest Scriptures are promised us to guide us to the ROMAN Church I think it reasonable to expect that they produce such Scriptures as are more manifest to us than their Church's Authority which is to be proved by them seeing it is by their Evidence I am to be convinced of that which as yet is unevident to me Neither ought the Sense of these manifest Scriptures depend upon the Interpretation or Authority of that Church the Authority whereof they are brought to prove as a thing to me not yet evident for so I shall be still but where I was before and instead of manifest Scriptures be shuffled off with the Church's bare Word I mean with such Interpretations of Scripture as I have no reason to receive but by that Authority whereof I am yet at least in doubt Now that there are indeed no such manifest Scriptures I am reasonably well assured before-hand I have read the Scripture over and over and find not the least mention therein made of this Authority of the ROMAN Church The POPE of ROME or his Supremacy is never once named from the beginning of the Bible to the end nor can I meet with one Syllable touching either the Infallibility or Iurisdiction of Him or his Councils or of any kind of Subjection due to
either from all Christians I cannot so much as find there that ever there was any Bishop of ROME or that there should be any there afterwards much less that all Christians are to own that Bishop for their Head and Christ's Vicar And finding nothing of all this I must needs wonder how manifest Scriptures should be produced to prove this Supreme Authority over all Churches And yet if there be such an Authority and if it be so necessary for all Christians to believe it and submit unto it I cannot but think that it ought to have been as manifestly declared in Scripture as any other point whatsoever St. Peter in whom this Authority is said to have been first setled saith not a word of it in his Epistles St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans who should in all reason have been best acquainted with it says nothing at all of it To the Civil Magistrate which the Church of ROME makes to be much inferior to the Church in Authority they both teach us our Duty and strange it is if they knew of any such thing that they should not as plainly instruct us in our Duty to the POPE or Church of ROME wherein our Salvation the main thing they were to take care for is so deeply concern'd But what are these manifest Scriptures at length I find our Blessed Saviour saying to St. Peter Matt. 16. 18. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. but I find not that all this whatever it may signify was manifestly said to the Bishops of ROME The plain and obvious Sense saith Bellarmin of these words is that we may understand the Primary of the whole Church to be promised to Saint Peter under two Metaphors And yet by all the Light that he is able to afford me I cannot discern in these words whatever was promised to St. Peter the Supremacy much less the Monarchy of the Bishop of ROME over all Churches And it is no wonder if a Protestant Heretick be so blind when such eminent Persons as Origen St. Austin St. Hilary Ambrose Chrysostome and Cyril could no more see it than I as the learned Cardinal himself there confesseth Nay here 's not a word to assure us that this Rock must needs be a Monarch invested with a Supremacy of Power over the whole Church or that this Monarch must needs be the Bishop of ROME or that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against the ROMAN Church for all this we must be beholden to that Church's own Word or we shall never find it in this place I find again that Christ commanded St. Peter Joh. 21. 16. to feed his Sheep and his Lambs as indeed it is the Duty of all Pastors of the Church to do and both St. Peter 1 Pet 5. 2. and St. Paul Acts 20. 28. tell us as much and so much the apter am I to doubt whether the POPE be so much as a good Pastor of Christ's Sheep or no seeing he takes so little care to Feed and so much to Fleece them I am sure I read of no more but one chief Shepherd and Bishop of Souls which St. Peter tells us is Christ JESUS himself 1 Pet. 2. 25. The Apostles were all Shepherds under Him but where is this manifest Scripture to shew that St. Peter was made Head-Shepherd with Commission to Feed and Rule too not only the Sheep but the Shepherds also But especially where is the Commission given to the Bishops of ROME successively for ever to govern the whole Flock of Christ with Soveraign Authority Feed the whole I am sure he neither doth nor can Many great and wonderful things as Bellarmin tells us are said of St. Peter in the Holy Scripture and very deservedly for he was a very great and eminent Apostle But the Scripture never saith That he was a great Monarch nor that he was Bishop of ROME nor that he had a Throne or but a Chair there and least of all that this Imaginary Monarchy was to descend unto the next Bishop of ROME and to his Successors for ever and that St. Iohn who long out-lived St. Peter became thereby subject to some of those Bishops which did not well suit with the Dignity of an Apostle I read those words of St. Paul 1 Cor. 12. 21. The head cannot say to the feet I have no need of you But that the POPE is the Head and all Christians Kings as well as others the Feet I may possibly read in some such Iesuit as Bellarmin but I am sure I shall never read it in the Scripture Many more such parcels of Scripture as these they give us but after the most serious perusal of them all I profess I cannot find any thing like manifest Scripture for the Authority of the ROMAN Church And therefore it seems yet as plain to me as that Two and Three make Five that the bare Word of that Church without any kind of solid Proof is all that she hath to shew for her Authority She says great things of her self and talks sometimes of Scripture but much more of Fathers and Councils and Universal Tradition and indeed every thing that 's Venerable but when all is spell'd and put together 't is but the Oral and Practical Tradition of the present Church that is her own very confident Asseveration If we have a little Scripture for Fashion's sake we must take it as she hath taught it to speak in her own Vulgar Latin which the Council of TRENT was even then pleas'd to make the only Authentick Translation when it was confessedly very faulty and hath been since that divers times corrected And then we must take it in her own Sense too tho we know not well where we may be sure to find it Her private Doctors she will not allow us to trust for it nor indeed do we find them any better agreed about it than others are only they have for the most part either the Modesty or Cunning to refer all to the Iudgment of Mother Church could they but tell us where to find it for she is loath once for all in some publick Comment or Exposition of the Scripture to tell us what it is If we may be allow'd to hear the Testimony of the Fathers she must stand at their Elbows and prompt them what to say we must have them in her own approved Editions and if they have been at School long enough in the Vatican or some Religious House 't is probable they were reasonably well instructed in her own Language before they were allow'd to go abroad again However ere they pass the Press an Expurgatory Index can teach them either to Speak or to be Silent as she thinks most seasonable Councils may be heard but only such as have his Holiness's stamp upon them and how we can understand them any better
Deposing and King-killing Power has been maintained by some Canonists and Divines of his Church and that it is in their Opinion lawful and annex'd to the Papal Chair And that some Popes have endeavour'd to act according to this Power Yet is he not willing that Hereticks of any sort should carry away the Honour which Bellarmin bestow'd upon them of a Loyal Religion but saith That there are of his Communion three times the number that publickly disown all such Authority that some Universities and Provincial Councils have condemn'd it and that Popish Princes sit as safe on their Thrones as others Yea and he will engage that all Catholick Nations in the World shall subscribe to the Condemnation of all such Popish Principles and Doctrines and shall join with all good Protestants for the extinguishing them with all that profess and practice them and utter rooting them out of his Majesties three Kingdoms and the whole Universe I must do him right notwithstanding all this for he hath not said That the whole Church of ROME or any General Council hath condemn'd this Doctrine or that it is by publick Authority for the offence it gives rased out of the Canon-Law nor the LATERAN Council nor that Protestant Princes can sit as safely in Popish Countries as Popish Princes may in Protestant Countries And when he tells us That the Sentence of the Supreme Pastor is to be obey'd whether he be Infallible or no altho I have a great Opinion of the Loyalty of many PAPISTS I durst hardly engage for his if there should chance to be such a POPE again as himself confesseth some have been But what saith Bellarmin A third sort there is that takes a middle way and he names not a few of them himself being one of the number These hold that the POPE as POPE hath indeed no Temporal Power directly and immediately but Spiritually only And such as he makes it there needs no more for it will serve his Holiness as well and the Hereticks as ill to all intents and purposes yea even to the deposing of Princes as the greatest Temporal Power in the World. For saith he by reason of this Spiritual he hath also at least indirectly a Temporal Power and that no less than the highest And even as the Spirit or Soul hath Power over the Flesh to Chastise and even to deliver it up to Death in order to the Spiritual ends of the Soul So also may the POPE tho not as an ordinary Iudg yet as an extraordinary in order to spiritual Ends change Kingdoms taking them from one and giving them to another abrogate the Civil Laws of Princes and determine of their Rights This I am sure is more than ever St. Peter had by Virtue either of the Rock or Keys or Pastoral Staff and I am confident he never thought of half this when he charged all Men to submit to the King as SUPREME 1 Pet. 2. 13. Nor when v. 17. bidding us Honour all Men love the Brotherhood fear God honour the King he omitted to mind us of the great Duty of all the Subjection we must yield to his Successors the Bishops of ROME especially when he might well suppose we should have been much apter to have learn'd it of himself than of any of his Successors 'T is time for me now I think to consider into what a Labyrinth I must run my self by going over to the Church of ROME and how I can behave my self when I come there I am going into a Church out of which I am told there is no Salvation yet I cannot foresee that this Church her self can tell me surely how I may be saved in it Of this Church I am told I cannot be a Member to any purpose if I be not in all things Subject and Obedient to the Supreme Head of it the POPE And subject to him I cannot be if I actively obey not his Commands for passive Obedience is now become the despised Badg of a Heretick But what the POPE's Power to command is I can meet with no Body that can certainly inform me It is an absolute Power over all the World say some No say others but only over Christians and in things Spiritual Well says the third Party tho it be directly and immediately only Spiritual yet it is no less for that but in order to Spirituals it reacheth over all both Temporal Persons Laws and Iudgments All this Power is in me only saith the POPE You are too hasty Sir say some Councils and the Doctors of France for the chief Power is by Christ himself given to the Council and even to put down and set up POPES as they would deal with Kings and Emperors Which of these now must I believe and obey The Prince under whose Government I live may command me one thing and the POPE my Spiritual Father may command the contrary How must I now do to bear my self evenly betwixt two such Masters I consult my Spiritual Guides and take the best Advice I can get some say one thing and some another and which to believe I stand in need of another Guide to direct me nay the Church it self knew I where to find her so visible is She could not tell me which is in the right If I believe those who tell me the POPE has no Power in Temporal matters then is my Prince in all such Matters to be obey'd say the POPE what he will to the contrary If I hearken to them that tell me the POPE has a fulness of Power in all both Temporal and Spiritual matters I must obey my Prince in nothing without the POPE's leave If I listen to them who say The POPE's Power in Temporal matters is indeed the highest Power yet indirectly only and in order to Spiritual ends then am I so far to obey it and no farther And here I am at as great a loss as ever for who shall judg for me whether his Commands be needful for Spiritual ends or no It is very unlikely that my Prince and the Pope should agree in the Determination of this Point and the difference being between them two and their Commands to whose award will they stand I must here necessarily be left to the Direction of my own or some other private Iudgment and which side soever I take it is an even Wager whether I can be saved I have been considering all this while for my self alone and the satisfaction of my own Conscience I presume not to judg for nor of others They who have more Light and better Eyes may go on more confidently 't is all my care to go safely for my self and as inoffensively as I can to all others I see many Wise men among ROMAN-CATHOLICKS and I dare not say the contrary but that they are of another Religion than I because they are Wiser and better able to chuse than I. If I chuse as wisely as I can for my self I cannot do any better for my self and I doubt not of being saved whilst I do so well And if it should prove so that I chuse the worse he hath no reason to be angry with me to whom I leave and do not grudg the better I cannot yet think it necessary to Salvation to believe that Church Infallible which not only in my opinion but in the Iudgment of all other Christians and they are 〈…〉 and more hath often Erred and doth very grosy 〈◊〉 many things and which if we ask her can her sâ—lf only tell us who they be in her Communion that can Err but not who they be that cannot Nor can I think it safe to be of that Church where I may not be allow'd to judg or try whether Error be taught me or no. I cannot think I am bound to Judg either my self or others in a state of Damnation for not denying our Senses or captivating our Iudgments to the Iudgment of an Infallible Church which could never determine where her Iudgment or Infallibility is certainly to be found Or for not obeying the Head of that Church which hath sometimes no Head sometimes many Heads and is always uncertain which is her Head or where it stands If I must thus believe and thus obey no body can tell me what and declare I do all this or in the Judgment of that Church which must be believ'd Infallible be no better for turning PAPIST then I verily think I am much safer as I am a poor PROTESTANT I am sure I may as safely as I can freely captivate my Iudgment both in Faith and Practice to the Doctrine and Laws of the Blessed JESUS whom all Christians unanimously acknowledg both the SUPREME and INFALLIBLE HEAD of the Universal Church I will no longer lose my labour in seeking an Infallible Guide which almost every body can tell me of but no man can certainly shew me Instead of an Ecclesiastical Monarch on Eâ—â—â—h I will content my self with that Blessed and only Potentate King of kings and Lord of lords whom his Father hath made Sole HEAD of the CHURCH which is his Body who long since told us that his Kingdom is not of this World as I fear the POPE's too much is FINIS * De verb. Dei. l. 1. c. 1. Tertul. de Praesct c. 25. Iren. cont Haer. l. 3. c. 2. Tert. adv Hermog c. 22. Iren. l. 3. c. 1. Aug. l. 2. cont Donat Pap. Repr p. 35. Ibid. p. 37 38. Bel. de Eccles l. 3. c. 5. Bonacin de Lensur D. 2. q. 5. p. 1. from Vasquez and others Tol. Instruct Sacerd l. 4. c. 3. Instr. Sacerd l. 1 c. 18. Prefat de Rom. Pontif. Stapleton Tripl c. 15. De Rom. Pont. l. 1. c. 10. Almain de Auth. Eccles. c. 3.
who say 't is but a partial and imperfect Rule We who say 't is plain and easy to be understood in all things necessary or They who say 't is dark and obscure unable to inform and resolve Learners Doubters and Inquirers and that even in Essentials and Fundamentals of Religion Finally Whether We who say it ought to be read and studied of all Men Or They who say it is not needful yea dangerous to be read of all have the higher Veneration for the Holy Scripture is no hard matter to determine if to commend a thing may be said to be more Honour to it than to disparage it And tho here again they use some Art and Colour to set off such ill-favour'd Sayings as well as they can yet serves this to no other end in my Mind but to make them more Ugly and Odious They deny not for all this they say the Perfection Sufficiency or Plainness of the Scripture nor that it may be read by the People What then is it they say They affirm that it contains all necessary Truths either Explicitly or at least Virtually for some Truths it declares expresly and yet so as the Church alone must give the Sense and for all the rest it plainly if the same Church may here also give the Sense sends us to the Church to learn them Now I cannot for my Heart imagine what all this can signify but only a desire to lessen the Scripture's Authority as plausibly as they can To me it seems very plain that they make the Scripture just nothing and the Church all in all I think it here again well deserves my Consideration That the SCRIPTURE is very copious in declaring and repeating too over and over again many necessary Points of Faith and Duty and not only necessary things but many other things also it largely teacheth which are by all granted to be of less moment and necessity to the Salvation of Men and all this it doth in as plain Words and Phrases as can be used And hence I find it very hard for me to believe that the HOLY GHOST by whose Inspiration it was Written should do all this for our Instruction and that in a Book written on purpose to make us wise unto Salvation and by himself declared able so to do and yet omit many things of greatest necessity to that end never so much as once no not in any obscure manner pointing out to us that Church to whose Authority we must resort and submit This were to leave us a Treasure closely lock'd up and not to tell us where we may find the Key that can let us in to it and so we are neither the Wiser nor the Richer for it Whatsoever the PAPISTS are pleas'd to alledg for their speaking thus of the Word of the Blessed God I confess I cannot think any better of their Religion for it Let us say what we will in Commendation of holy SCRIPTURE they will be sure to find something to say against it lest I suppose it should be thought we can at any time speak Truth And when we charge them for speaking dishonourably of the SCRIPTURE they so interpret their Words as they seem to say the same that we did and which they blamed us for What can be their meaning in this but either to make the World believe that we are in an Error tho when they come to Apologize for themselves they are forced to confess it a Truth or that their Religion necessarily requires it of them in its Vindication to vilify the SCRIPTURE tho by saying such things of it as they acknowledge cannot be true unless interpreted so as to speak our Sense They must therefore in this deal either very disingenuously with us or very injuriously with the holy SCRIPTURE For my part I cannot believe that Men professing the Christian Faith and owning the SCRIPTURE to be the Word of GOD could ever be persuaded to speak so as but seemingly to vilify or disparage it if their Doctrines could be any other way defended Their Religion I say must need it or they too little consult the Honour of their Religion in needlesly uttering such Speeches as stand in need of a very great measure of Charity to think them less than Blasphemy Fourthly If any PROTESTANT dares venture thus far towards the Church of ROME the next thing he has to do is to resolve not to believe one Word that GOD speaks without that Church's leave I am confident that there are not many of our Lay-PAPISTS that think themselves to be under this Obligation and that if they were sensible of it they would make haste to break loose from it But for my own part I see not how I can enter into their Communion but I must draw it upon my self And this I think would be to advance the ROMAN Church to as great a height in my esteem as they in her who are most zealous for her Infallibility can desire What more would they have than that GOD himself where they confess he speaks should stand to their Church's Courtesy whether or no he should be believed I know it will be said They never disallow'd any man to believe GOD. But because all men cannot understand GOD speaking in the SCRIPTURE the Church is appointed by Him to be his Interpreter This I hear and to me it sounds not well That GOD should speak to Men things necessary for all to know and which he commands all to learn and believe upon pain of eternal Damnation and yet not speak so intelligibly as they may understand Him. Certainly he that made the Tongue and gave man Understanding can speak if he please as Intelligibly as the Church which cannot Speak or Understand at all without his Help and Teaching And considering his Infinite Goodness and Impartiality till he shall tell me so himself I know not how to believe that he hath so much more respect to the Honour of the ROMAN Church than to the Salvation of Mankind that he would so deliver things belonging to Salvation that no Man can be able to understand and be the better for them but he that resorts to that Church as God's sole Interpreter And if indeed she be so it must follow that we cannot believe one Word that God speaks without her leave For therefore is she made God's Interpreter because otherwise we cannot understand his Word and I am sure what we cannot understand we cannot believe 'T is the Sense they say and not the Letter is God's Word and this Sense is in the Church's Breast and of Her alone we must learn it and therefore till She give us leave we cannot believe it no not so much as that JESUS is the CHRIST altho till we believe this we cannot believe that he hath a Church and therefore cannot believe She is His Interpreter I will not now inquire into the Reasons Why this Church which is God's sole Interpreter takes so excellent a Course to make her
Children understand God's Word Why first She keeps it in the Latin Tongue only whereof the far greater number of them understand not one Syllable Why secondly She doth not give them some Infallible Translation Interpretation or Comment of the Scripture a thing very easie for an Infallible Interpreter to do and therefore in my Opinion must argue a great defect in her Charity and much unfaithfulness in the discharge of her Trust if she do it not I am loath to ask such Questions as these because I find it goes so much against the Hair to answer them Indeed I think she doth not the latter for a very good Reason because she cannot and 't is only her vain pretence to such a Power that makes her inexcusable if she do it not And the former she is concern'd to do that they who have the Word of God only in a Language which they cannot understand may be constrain'd of necessity to depend upon her Instruction and never to question her Authority nor discern her Errors Whilst they have nothing of the Word of God but from her mouth they can have no more of it than what she gives them leave to have and therefore can neither believe a Word of what GOD speaks nor indeed that he hath spoken any thing but by her leave God speaks very plainly and intelligibly enough in the second Commandment forbidding the Adoration of Images as plainly as he forbids to commit Adultery or to Steal And Christ spake very plainly and as intelligibly saying Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Matt. 4. 10. And again when he said of the Eucharistical Cup Drink ye all of it Matt. 26. 27. as when he said Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and thy Neighbour as thy self St. Paul very plainly ordereth that the publick Worship of God be perform'd in a known Tongue and sheweth the great absurdity of using an unknown Tongue in God's Worship 1 Cor. 14. And he speaks intelligibly enough when he saith Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup 1 Cor. 11. 28. To say no more we think it plainly enough said of them that die in the Lord that they rest from their labours Rev. 14. 13. In all these things we hear God speak and would fain believe him But here the Church of ROME comes in with her Authority and tells us That tho GOD have said He only is to be worshipped we must believe that not he only but also the Cross Images Saints and Angels are to have a share in our Religious Worship And say CHRIST and his Apostles what they please to the contrary we must believe that not all but the sacrificing Priest ought to drink of the Cup that God's publick Worship is well perform'd in an unknown Tongue that we neither eat Bread nor drink Wine in the Eucharist that all who died in the Lord do not rest from their labours but that the most of them go into most dreadful torments At this rate for ought I can see must I believe the Word of God when I have once submitted to the Authority of the Church of ROME Fifthly It seems very hard for me to conceive how I should be bound under penalty of Eternal Damnation to espouse a Religion and submit to an Authority for which no convincing Reason can be given me by them that invite me to it What is it in any Religion which can commend it before others to a man's Choice but its Truth and Goodness And how should the Truth and Goodness of any Religion commend it to my Choice till they be discover'd unto me and I be rationally convinced that it hath them Whatever Truth and Goodnoss there may really be in the Religion called POPERY I am sure they can be no motives to me to embrace it till they be clearly laid open to my Understanding and Iudgment that I may plainly discern them and therefore if any PAPIST will take an effectual course to Convert me to it he must by rational means convince me first that his is the true Church and her Doctrines sound and good How he can do this upon his own Principles I see not yet but rather think it a very gross absurdity in him to attempt it He tells me often that no private Person such as I am ought to judg for himself in Points of Faith or therein to follow his own private Iudgment tho to him grounded both on Reason and Scripture He must not therefore in disputing with me according to his own Doctrine bring either Reason or Scripture to convince me for I must not trust my own private Iudgment and I know no other that I have tho as it seems to me grounded both on Reason and Scripture I must not judg for my self by either of them whether what he commends to me by them be true or no and then I cannot imagine to what end he useth them in any dispute with me He must resolve therefore for ought I can see whenever he would convert me to judg for me too as well as dispute with me and then if I cannot make a right Choice for my self he may do it for me tho after all whether his private Iudgment be any more to be trusted in such a case than my own I may possibly doubt Either it is a matter of Faith That the Church of ROME is the only true Church and that She hath this Authority of determining for all Christians which is the saving Faith of CHRIST or it is not If it be not I may be safe enough tho I believe it not and 't is ill done of PAPISTS to terrify me with these big Words which are as false as terrible That I cannot be saved without believing this If it be a matter of Faith then must I either be allow'd to judg for my self by my own private judgment in a matter of Faith or all the PAPISTS endeavours to persuade me to believe it are altogether vain unless it be reasonable for me to believe a thing against my Reason and Iudgment When he useth Arguments I should think he meant thereby to convince me in my private Iudgment but it seems 't is only to drive me out of it and that if I may use it at all it is only to this end that I may conclude I have no use of it All the Arguments in the World cannot convince me till I judg of them and therefore no PAPIST can offer me a Reason why I should embrace POPERY but he must contradict himself and give me as strong a Reason why I should not embrace it because its Principles are false It will be all one as if he should say I ought to be convinced by Reason and yet I neither ought nor can be convinced by it In urging his Reasons upon me he intends they should convince me in denying me the Liberty of judging for my self by