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A30399 The Protestant's companion, or, An impartial survey and comparison of the Protestant religion as by law established, with the main doctrines of popery wherein is shewn that popery is contrary to scripture, primitive fathers and councils ... / by a true son of the Protestant Church of England as established by law. Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715. 1685 (1685) Wing B5845; ESTC R29606 32,970 68

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THE Protestant's Companion OR AN IMPARTIAL SURVEY AND COMPARISON OF THE Protestant Religion As by LAW Established With the main Doctrines of Popery Wherein is shewn That Popery is contrary to Scripture Primitive Fathers and Councils and that proved from Holy Writ the Writings of the Ancient Fathers for several Hundred Years and the Confession of the most Learned Papists themselves Whereby the Papists vain pretence to Antiquity and their reproaching the Protestant Doctrines with Novelty is wholly overthrown By a True Son of the Protestant Church of England as established by Law LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-Yard M DC LXXXV ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness 2 Tim. 3. 16. In vain they do worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men Matth. 15. 9. But from the beginning it was not so Matth. 19. 8. Non audiatur haec dico haec dicis sed haec dicit dominus Augustin de unit Eccles. contr Petil. c. 3. Id verius quod prius id prius quod ab initio ab initio quod ab Apostolis Tertullian advers Marcion l. 4. c. 5. Id esse verum quodcunque primum id esse adulterinum quodcunque posterius Idem advers Praxeam c. 2. THE PREFACE TO THE Protestant Reader AS we have immortal Souls of infinite more value than all transient glories and sublunary advantages so ought we both in obedience to the tender and compassionate advice of our blessed Redeemer who purchased them with his own dear Blood and out of a true concern for our Eternal Welfare to live such lives here as we may be happy hereafter Pursuant to this excellent design We ought carefully attend to that Holy Religion we have so long professed which teaches no Doctrines that are not agreeable to the Holy Scriptures and to the practice of the best and purest Ages of Christianity A Religion which neither robs God of his Honour nor the King of his due a Religion whose venerable Rites keep a just medium betwixt vain Popish Pomp and Fanatical Indecency a Religion that not only teaches us how to be good but obliges us so to be that is a Religion truly Christian and a Copy of that perfect Original which our Lord and Saviour hath left us for our direction And therefore as nothing ought to be dearer to us so we cannot be sufficiently thankful to his Sacred Majesty whom God preserve for the Gracious assurance he has given that he will support it and defend us in the profession of it A King whose Royal Progenitors of Immortal Memory for above 100 years have not only been the Ornaments but the Supports too of the Protestant Religion His fam'd Grandfather King Iames Learnedly defending it by his Pen and thereby justly meriting the glorious Title of its Defender His Excellent Father dying a Glorious Martyr and his late dearly beloved Brother being a long time Exile for our Reformed Religion Let us then strive to shew that we are not unworthy of so Illustrious and Valiant a Protector by our Loyalty to him not unworthy of such a Religion by our conformity to its Principles in Holiness Sobriety and Charity and a stedfast adherence to it in opposition to any other that will destroy that which our Church hath built upon so sure a Foundation And that we may rightly understand what this Religion is and the difference betwixt that which is established in our Church and what is owned in the Church of Rome I have made the following Collection wherein is demonstrated how contrary the Popish Religion is to our Church and how inconsistent with Scripture the practice of the Primitive and best Ages of Christianity and that prov'd not only from the Writings of the Apostles and choice Records of Antiquity but even granted to be so by the most learned and no less impartial Papists themselves which as it is the testimony of one Friend against another is lookt upon as an undenyable Evidence Before I conclude I must admonish the Reader that I have not rendered the Authors at large but so quoted them that the Learned may examine them nor have I drawn Arguments as usually from them because that would have made this Book design'd for a Pocket-companion to have swell'd into a great Volume yet to make requital for that just omission I have at the conclusion of each Section directed the Reader to other Writers of our Religion which treat of that particular Controversie at large May then the All-wise God by whose Divine permission thus much hath been perform'd so bless this poor labour of his unworthy Servant that it may be instrumental to the good of his Church and the confirming of all our weak Brethren in our most Holy Faith which was the principal design of its publication THE INTRODUCTION THE Church of Rome though she talk aloud of the Antiquity of and an universal consent in her Doctrines is so far from either That therein she will be tied to no Rule nor observe any Law as if she would verifie that Remarque of Crantzius upon her in another Case Nunc ad se omnium Ecclesiarum jura traxit Romana Ecclesia That she hath engrossed to her self all the priviledges or rights of other Churches Her greatest defendants reject the Scripture though given forth by Divine Inspiration and do say it is no more to be believed in saying it is from God than Mahomet's Alcoran c. And good reason why because her Doctrines are repugnant to the Holy Scriptures What then will she trust to Tradition that she equals with the Scriptures themselves And yet her great Annalist Cardinal Baronius who was once as it were a living Library while he kept the Vatican confesseth That he despaired to find out the truth even in those matters which true Writers have recorded because there was nothing which remained sincere and incorrupted This blow given by so skilful an Artist dashes all the Characters wherein the defence of Oral Tradition should be legible And if Tradition in true Writers be so difficult to preserve how can it be expected to be safe from spurious ones or without any Writers at all However though the Papists do not grant that this ruins their Tradition I am sure it cuts off that definition of it by Cardinal Bellarmin who affirms that to be a true Tradition which all former Doctors mind that or then will the Fathers come in for a share have successively in their Ages acknowledged to come from the Apostles and by their Doctrine or Practices have approved and which the Universal Church owns as such Moreover Bellarmin's Definition of Tradition gives us this encouragement and liberty to try Antiquity by Fathers Councils and Papal Decrees For the Fathers I hope the Romanists who boast so much of their being on their party will not refuse
no not to save all the World Here the Reader may see for this is not only the opinion of one or two private Men but runs with the stream of their Writers what may be expected from the Charity of their Popish Priests what an unlucky tool Auricular Confession is in their hands Besides to how great an awe of and respect for their Confessor to whom they are bound as I have already said to discover all their Sins under pain of Eternal Damnation To what Pride and Insolence to what Lust and Revenge to what Avarice and Rapine are not only the meanest Men but even Persons that make the greatest figure exposed unto by Auricular Confession in Popish Churches It is a slavery so great and intollerable that the Israelitish Tasks in Egypt were a pleasure or at least a divertisement in comparison of it Auricular Confession to a Priest under point of Salvation and Damnation and that People cannot be saved without it is Contrary to Scripture Isai. 55. 7. Acts 2. 38. c. 3. 19. c. 16. 30 31. Rom. 10. 3. Contrary to the Fathers who when they did speak of the necessity of Confession generally meant Confession before God only or a publick acknowledgment of some publick crimes incurring the censure of Excommunication and that in an Ecclesiastical Assembly Origen in Psal. 37. Hom. 2. Cyprian de lapsis Serm. 5. Chrysostom Hom. 4. de Lazaro Id. Hom. 2. in Psal. 50. Homil. 31. in Epist. ad Hebraeos Hom. 5. de incomprehensibili nat Dei Hom. 8. de poen Hom. de poenit Confessione Augustin Confession l. 10. c. 3. Auricular Confession acknowledged not to have been Instituted by our Saviour and that it is not of Divine Institution by these Learned Papists Cardinal Cajetan in Ioh. 20. Scotus in sent 4. dist 17. Q. 1. Maldon in summa Qu. 18. Art 4. Bell. de poenit l. 1. c. 4. Acknowledged by others That it is better to say that it was Instituted rather by the Tradition of the Universal Church than by the Authority of the Old and New Testament And yet it is denyed That this Tradition is Universal and that it is not necessary amongst the Greeks because this Custom i. e. of private Confession sprung not up among them de poenit dist 5. in principio Gloss. Again it is Confessed That the Fathers scarce speak of it as a thing commanded by Rhenanus in admonitione de Tertullian Dogmat. Lastly It is Confessed That we may obtain Pardon though our Mouths be silent then we do not confess And our Lord doth shew that a Sinner is not cleansed by the Judgment of the Priest but by the Bounty of Divine Grace Gratian dist 1. cap. Convertimini What clashing and enterfering is here Is this the pretended solid Union of the Popish Church in matters of Salvation and which she enjoyns under pain of Damnation Have they no better Grounds for their Articles of Faith than these Can Auricular Confession be of Divine Institution and yet neither be Instituted by our Blessed Saviour nor mentioned by the Fathers as a Divine Precept nor imposed by an Universal Tradition of the Church And lastly can it be necessary to Salvation and yet we can obtain pardon of Sins without the use of it Let any Papist reconcile me these erit mihi magnus Apollo Consult herein Bishop Taylor 's Disswasive Part 1. Ch. 2. Sect. 2. F. White against Jesuite Fisher p. 189. Concerning the Marriage of the Clergy see Bishop Iewel 's Defence of the Apology of the Church of England Part 2. p. 180. and Part 5. p. 456. Bishop Hall's Honour of the married Clergy SECT X. AS I have all along shewed the vast difference in Doctrines betwixt the Protestant Church of England and the Church of Rome so will I put a Period to this Discourse after I have done the like in that of Obedience Which I shall not as I have hitherto argue from the Articles and Homilies of our Church the Decrees of their Church the Writings of the Fathers and from Ancient Councils because that hath been sufficiently canvassed of late years but only subjoyn the undenyable Testimonies of King Iames I. and King Charles the Martyr of ever-blessed Memories and the Royal Grandfather and Father of our present Gracious Sovereign to determin the Case of Protestant's Loyalty and Popish Rebellion King Charles I. in his Excellent Book entituled ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chap. 27. to our late Gracious King and then Prince of Wales saith The best Profession of Religion I have ever esteemed that of the Church of England in which you have been educated In this I charge you to persevere as coming nearest to God's Word for Doctrine and to the Primitive Example for Government I tell you I have tried it and after much search and many disputes have concluded it to be the best in the World keeping the middle way between the pomp of Superstitious Tyranny and the meanness of Fantastick Anarchy King Iames I. in His Works p. 504. saith As on one part many honest Men seduced with some Errors of Popery may yet remain good and faithful Subjects so on the other part none of those that truly know and believe the whole grounds and School-conclusions of their Doctrines can ever either prove good Christians or good Subjects Ibid. Scarce any one who hath been a beginner or prosecutor of this late War against the Church the Laws and Me was or is a true Lover Embracer or Practiser of the Protestant Religion established in England To which I add Solatii ergô that excellent Expression in His Majesty's first and most Gracious Speech to His Privy Council I know the Principles of the Church of England are for Monarchy and the Members of it have shewed themselves good and faithful Subjects therefore shall I always take care to defend and support it King Charles I. in his Solemn Declaration October 23. 1642. saith That there was a greater number of Papists in the Rebels Army than in His. To which may be added That then they are guilty of this mortal Sin of Obedience to a Protestant Prince when they are not strong enough to manage a Rebellion Watson's Quodlibets p. 255. These words deserve to be written in Letters of Gold however they are written in large Characters in good Protestants Hearts Now Unto Him who is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of his Glory with exceeding Ioy To the only Wise God our Saviour be Glory and Majesty Dominion and Power both now and ever Amen FINIS Books lately printed for Richard Chiswell A Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church more particularly of the Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome upon other See's By WILLIAM CAVE D. D. Octavo An Answer to Mr. Serjeant's Sure Footing in Christianity concerning the Rule of Faith With some other Discourses By WILLIAM FALKNER D. D. 4o. A Vindication of the Ordinations of