in his Survey of Popery THere is no point almost wherein the Papist vary not from the antient Church the Article concerning the holy Trinity only excepted They teach novelties and false Doctrines concerning the very grounds of Faith for they believe the Church to be built upon the Pope They speak what they can in disgrace of the holy Scripture They give the Office of Christ's mediation to the Virgin Mary to Angels and to Saints they make also Saints our Redeemers c. For God they Worship Creatures not only giving divine honour to the Sacrament but also to Crucifixes and Images of the Trinity made of Wood c. and they do adore not only Saints but rotten bones and rags they know not of whom They overthrow grace and ascribe the merit of our salvation not to God's mercy through Christ nor to the merit of his passion but properly to our own works and merits They cut out the Second commandment because it cannot stand with the Popish worship of Images They pray before Stocks and Stones nay they put their trust in them They make no conscience to cut Christian mens throats for not yielding to all their abominations and think it conscience to obey the Popes decrees tho very unlawful The Fourth commandment concerneth the sanctifying the Sabbath but the Papists profane it by Worshiping Idols and frequenting the Idolatrous Mass Papists think they do God good service when they murder true Christians Amongst Papists Adultery and Fornication are reckoned among lesser sins By the Doctrine of Papists the Devils of Hell may be saved To this purpose they say that not only wicked and reprobate men but also the Devils of Hell may have true and justifying Faith Papists blasphemously make Christ not only a desperate Man without hope but also an infidel without Faith They deny Christ to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and affirming that his divine Essence had a beginning from some other they fall within the Compass of the errour of the Tritheites which Heresie doth tear the Vnity of the Godhead in pieces and plainly makes more Gods then one Papists do diminish the merit of Christ's satisfaction and enervate as much as in them lieth the Cross of Christ and the effect of his death and passion They are teachers of Antichrist opposite to Christ and enemies of his Cross That Christ is not the redeemer of all Man-kind They make Christ inferiour to Saints and Angels and prefer the Pope before Christ Papists make St. Francis and Dominick equal to Christ in divers things and in some things Superiour They give equal honour to a Cross of Wood and Metal and to Christ and looking on a Wooden crucifix they say thou hast redeem'd us They suppose the Virgin Mary more merciful then Christ Papists account it a small sin to use common Women Papists believe divers were by their Saints fetch'd out of Hell Papists by their irregular Doctrines and Traditions have not only corrupted but also disanul'd for the most part the law of God They deny the Gospel to be a rule of perfection but they doubt not to give that honour to the rules of Bennet c. they speak more Blasphemously of the Holy Scriptures then the Turks or Saracens To the Images of the Cross and crucifix they give as much honour as they do to God They fall down like Beasts before the Pope and Worship him as God ascribing to him most blasphemously the honour due to Christ Popery as a sink hath together with Heresie receiv'd into it self most gross and Heathenish Idolatry Papists say they put no trust in Images but never did the Gentiles trust so much in the Images of Juno or Jupiter as the Papists trust in the Images of our Lady of Loretto James of Compostella c. They give divine honour to Images which they themselves cannot deny to be Idolatrous They ascribe mans justification to his Works and exclude justification both by Christ's iustice and by Faith c. The Papists teach their disciples to distrust Gods grace and to trust rather in their own Works and Merits Popery is nothing else but a pack of old and new Heresies Papists despise marriage as Pollutions and fleshly life Bennet Dominick Francis and other authors of feigned religions took not their Rules from the Gospel but thought they could frame a more perfect religion then the Gospel As the Gentiles had one principal God and divers demy and inferior Gods so have the Papists As the Gentiles believed that every one had his good and bad Genius so the Papists assign to every Christian a good and bad Angel The second Council of Arles cap. 23. sheweth it to be a custom of Pagans to worship Trees or Stones or Fountains yet our English Papists cease not to go on pilgrimage to St. Winifrides well nor to worship Stock 's and Stones The Romish Church consists of a pack of Infidels They forbid honest Wedlock The Papist Preachers seldom teach the people and when they do it they preach their own inventions and tell idle tales without edification Both Priests and People are most ignorant of Matters of Faith where Popery is profes'd The Scriptures and Fathers they read not In a member of the Catholick Church they say neither inward Faith nor other vertue is requir'd but only that he profess outwardly the Romish Religion and be subject to the Pope The Papists promise Heaven to their followers so they profess and set forward the Popes cause whether they be Murderers of Kings or Massacrers or Robels or filthy Whoremongers or Sodomites They make more conscience to abstain from flesh on Friday then to murder Christians Divers points of Popish doctrine are specially said to proceed from the Devil It is a common practice amongst Papists to give divine Worship to dead men The Popish Church hath no true Bishops The Pope is Antichrist The Popish Synagogue hath no true Priests Popery in many points is more absurd and abominable then the doctrine of Mahomet Papists that positively hold the heretical and false doctrines of the modern Church of Rome can not possibly be saved What Papists are according to the Book of Homilies IMages in Churches and Idolatry go always both together Images in Churches have been be and ever will be none other but abominable Idols Oenomaus and Hesiod shew that in their time there were Thirty thousand Gods I think we had no fewer Saints to whom we gave the honour due to God and they have not only spoiled the true living God of his due honour in Temples Cities c. by such devices and inventions that the Gentile Idolaters have done before them but the Sea and Waters have as well special Saints with them as they had Gods with the Gentiles c. Papists make of true Servants of God false Gods and attribute to them the power and honour which is Gods and due to him only Image maintainers have the same opinion of Saints which the Gentiles had of their
own the Doctrines and Practices which they charge us with And how could this possibly be otherwise if they charge us with none but what we expresly profess to own 3. That in some cases I disown that to be the Doctrine and Belief of our Church which manifestly is so and has been prov'd on them Then for all his word to the contrary we are in some cases charg'd with more than we expresly profess to Believe As for his manifestly and his proving let that go for no more than what it is his Opinion 'T is none of mine and I think 't will be no bodies else when the matter comes to a Trial. And here now we must turn over so many Leaves till we meet with some other matter in the Reply And the first that occurs are some exceptions against the Rule observ'd by the Representer in declaring the Faith of a Papist who to clear himself from the Scandal of Interpreting the Council of Trent by his own private sense and opinion alledges the Catechism ad Parochos which he had follow'd in delivering the sense of the Council This the Replier could not pass by without an Answer and therefore gives a satisfactory one And is he sure says he that all his Representations are conformable to the sense of this Catechism May he not play tricks with the Catechism and expound that by a private Spirit as well as the Council Thus a Question or two is a full Confutation of the Reflecter He alledg'd again the Bishop of Condom's Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church which being approv'd and attested by the Pope himself by several Cardinals and Bishops brought along with it the Authority of the See Apostolick But this it seems works nothing upon the Replier Canus has put a scruple in his head and because he finds in this Author that That is not to be accounted the judgment of the Apostolick See which is given only by the Bishop of Rome privately maliciously a word slipt over by the Replier and inconsiderately or with the advice only of some few of his own mind he cannot therefore think but that the Bishop of Condom's Exposition comes short of the Authority of the Apostolick See and that the Reflecter is out in taking shelter under one whose Authority is nothing as he says downright pag. 46. This is Answering I confess with a witness thus to endeavour to overthrow so considerable and Reverend an Authority without any Authority at all besides that of an ungrounded and ill-turn'd consequence viz. Because that is not to be accounted the Judgment of the Apostolick See which is given only by the Pope privately maliciously and inconsiderately or with the advice only of some few of his own mind therefore this Learned Prelate's Exposition of the Catholick Faith is to be thrown by as of no Authority So that our Replier has here concluded without any more adoe that the approbation of this Book was only given privately maliciously inconsiderately or else with the advice only of some few of the Popes own mind otherwise the Consequence will not hold But to shew how little the Replier has weighed this matter and with how little pains he can undervalue any thing when he pleases I need only remit the Reader to the perusal of the Book it self which is lately published in English the Advertisements affixt to it will satisfie him that there has not a Book appear'd in this Age supported by greater Authority than This. He 'l find it examin'd with all due deliberation approv'd with all solennity imaginable by Men of known Integrity Piety and Learning by Abbots Cardinals Bishops and by this present Pope himself and recommended by his Holiness to be Read by all the Faithful He 'l find it not only thus approv'd but even twice Printed at Rome it self and in the Press of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide Translated out of the Original French into divers Languages as Latin Italian English Irish Flemish High-Dutch and this done by eminent Men of these Nations So that besides the Attestations of those great Men there specified it may be said to have the General Approbation of all these Catholick Prelates who in proposing it to their Flock sufficiently recommend it for a True Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church And yet notwithstanding all this with the Replier it has not the Authority of the Apostolick See nay its Authority is just nothing Now methinks I would willingly here know of the Replier whether Those Great and Good Authorities above mention'd who pretend to make a Survey of the Faith and Doctrines of Catholicks have better Authority and Grounds for what they assert and charge than this Reverend Prelate for the Exposition which he gives And whether it be not a great Mystery that every Divine of the Reformation shall be thought to have Authority sufficient for defaming the Church of Rome with whatsoever extravagant Opinions he can but find in one or two Writers of what condition soever And yet a Catholick Prelate Eminent in the Church for his great Vertue and Learning in expounding the Faith of his Church with the Consent Approbation and Authority of the Greatest Men of his Communion and even of his Supream Pastor shall be slighted and thrown by as of no Authority at all For my part I cannot understand this uneven kind of justice and reasoning Or why those who profess a Religion and depend on it as to their Salvation shall be thought less to understand it than others who protest against it and look no farther into 't than to render it Ridiculous But it must be so in an Age in which a Papist is not to pass for a Christian and must not be believ'd we 'l therefore go on to the other points And for the clearing the most material of them we need not look beyond the Exposition deliver'd by this Prelate 1st As to the Invocation of Saints he declares expresly that They have no other capacity of assisting us but only by their Prayers And tho the Replier pretends there 's no such limitation found in this Author yet methinks he should not have been so popositive in a case in which he 's so easily disprov'd The French Edition Printed at Paris 1681. has it expresly pag. 32. The First English Edition Printed likewise in Paris 1672. pag. 29. And now this last Correct Edition which came forth the last Week pag. 9. So that tho the Answerer has made some little objection yet the Representer is sufficiently vindicated in thus declaring the Faith of a Papist since what he said is founded not upon his own private sense but upon an Authority beyond all exception besides that of meer Cavil 2ly And 3ly As to the Popes personal Infallibility and the Deposing Power the Representer declar'd that tho there were Men of his Communion maintaining these Points by way of Opinion yet that they were no part of the Catholick Faith and that Papists had no
PAPISTS PROTESTING Against Protestant-Popery IN Answer to a Discourse Entituled A Papist not Mis-represented by Protestants BEING A VINDICATION Of the Papist Mis represented and Represented And the Reflections upon the Answer LONDON Printed by Hen. Hills Printer to the King 's most Excellent Majesty for his Houshold and Chappel 1686. PAPISTS PROTESTING AGAINST Protestant-Popery MY Replier begins with Complements and I cannot but admire his art of weaving raillery into them so neatly that every Eye will not discern which is which But of all his Complements I take the Reply it self to be the greatest Now in good manners I should take my turn with my compliments but am forc'd to drop these and stand upon my guard for the Replier while he Compliments me with one hand is giving me a box with the other in his very next lines calling in question my honesty without any mincing it at all In the Misrepresentation of a Papist he says I have shew'd some Art but very little Honesty The Replier said just before that he would compliment no more and is as good as his word As for me I am much mistaken if I find not upon occasion more vouchers for my honesty then Art If I did by chance stumble into it 't was against my inclination and I am sure I fell up-hill But he would have my Art lye in this that whereas I was told in the Answer that some of those misrepresentations which I had made of a Papist and given out for the Protestant Character of Popery were my own ignorant or childish or willful Mistakes I craftily insinuate that they grant all my Mis-representations of a Papist to be ignorant childish or willful Mistakes Which is in short the Answer gives some and I take all And yet those two little words upon which the whole Stress and Truth of his charge lie are neither in the Answer nor Reflections but are providentially juggled in here by himself to give the Reader an early tast of his own Honesty while he challenges mine The Answerer had said must the Character now suppos'd to be common to Protestants be taken from his ignorant c. Mistakes The Reflecter says Because you say my Character is made up of false apprehensions ignorant c. Mistakes What difference is here in sense at all And what difference even in words save that I add false apprehensions which the Answerer likewise has in the very next page Neither of us mention all or some which the Replyer not without reason suspects of craft As the Answerer thereof meant I assure him I meant the whole Character if he meant so and part only if he meant no more Nor did I ever think of extending his Authority farther than he extended it himself If the Replyer find any Art in this I for my part find no dishonesty and think I have ill luck to fall into his bad opinion for keeping precisely to my Adversaries sense and almost precisely to his words The Replyer comes after this with full Cry and asks what is the meaning of all this pother and noise about this double Character of a Papist Mis-represented and Represented Truely I cannot tell and think he would do well to ask those who make it for they in all likely-hood know best I for my part thought it a very inoffensive thing to let people know what Papists are and pray God there be not a fear they should appear what they are least they be found to be unlike what they are made appear They have been cry'd out upon for keeping the people in Ignorance of their Doctrines and when they expose them to open view 't is strange there should be a noise about it Truly I did not expect it and I could not imagine a bare Narrative of matter of Fact should fructifie into Answers and Reflections and Replies I did but relate playing the Historian not the Controvertist Not but that with the liberty of Historians who deliver their own judgment of the matters they relate and their reasons for it I discover'd what I thought and sometimes said briefly why But every Body will see I made not Disputing my business And yet I know not how it is taken it seems for a piece of Controversie and which is more unreasonable against the Church of England and defences made for her as if my Mis-represented Papist were a Represented Church of England Protestant Whenas I never gave that Character out for a Church of England Character of Popery thought nothing of her Rule or Judgement nor dreamt of concerning her or any Body in my Mis-representation whose Conscience do's not of it self concern them All those who have such Idea's of us as I there draw I said Mis-represent us and to those who have not I said nothing He that would know whether he be concern'd or no has but to ask his own Heart to which I did then and do still leave him And yet notwithstanding this harmless justifying our selves there is a pother and noise it seems about the Papist Mis-represented and Represented and it is as fiercely assaulted on every side as if it came to declare open war and bid defiance to the world The Answerer set upon it in the Mis-repesenting part and will have that to be false apprehensions of the Author to be taken from his ignorant Childish or Wilful mistakes And then the Papist Represented he endeavours to overthrow with whole vollies of Objections Now comes the Replier and tho he makes it wonderful hard p. 40. to know what the Faith of a Papist is yet he acknowledges it in the same page to be true as the Representer has declar'd it excepting some few points and therefore passing by the Papist Represented with some light touches only his main attack is against the Papist Mis-represented and not being willing this should be understood as if made up of Childish Ignorant or Wilful Mistakes he will have it to be the very avow'd Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome He will have the Papist Mis-represented and Represented to be all the same excepting some very few cases And this he has urg'd so far that I think 't is not now so much my Personal concern to make an Answer as the concern of as many as throughout the whole World profess themselves Catholicks to consider the truth of what is here charg'd against them The Salvation of their Souls their Eternity is at stake If what is here positively asserted against them be true 't is high time for them to reform and to leave off the Doctrine and Practice of so much Heathenism under a Christian Name Protestants in hopes of a mutual condescendence may flatter them as they please and tell them they have Charity enough to think they may be saved for my part I declare if Popery be guilty of what he says it cannot enter into my thoughts there 's any room for it in Heaven and that there 's any more possibility of a
false Gods Image maintainers Worship Stocks and Stones they give also the honour due to God to their Images even as did the gentile Idolaters to their Idols Who can doubt but that our Image maintainers agreeing in all Idolatrous opinions agree also with them in committing most abominable Idolatry In many points our Image maintainers have exceeded the Gentile Idolaters in all wickedness foolishness and madness and if this be not sufficient to prove them Image-Worshipers that is to say Idolaters Lo you shall hear c. The Learned and Vnlearned Laity and Clergy all Ages Sects and Degrees of Men and Women and Children of whole Christendome have been at once drown'd in abominable Idolatry the space of Eight hundred years and more This is the Protestant Character of a Papist and such as I always look'd upon no other than of a Papist Mis-represented and whoever will take the pains to compare it with what I set down under that Title will find there 's little other difference between them but that this is the Fouler But now it seems it must be no longer a Papist Mis-represented but Represented and 't is what the Best and Wisest Men have Believ'd of them And here now what shall I say Our Replier says these are Great and Good Authorities and we may well suppose they knew what Popery was And for my part because I love not quarelling I shall so far joyn with them that if this be the Popery they have hitherto prosecuted with so much Fervour and Zeal if this be the Popery from whose infection they have so industriously Laboured to deliver the Christian World they have done nothing but what is the duty of every true Believer And if 't was for the not Embracing this Popery those Martyrs Recorded by Fox pass'd the Fiery Trial their Cause was surely a Glorious Cause and I question not the Triumphs and Crowns of Glory that waited for them in Heaven were not inferior to what those enjoy'd who suffer'd under Decius or Dioclesian And for my part I am so far in earnest had I a Thousand lives I would rather choose by the assistance of Heaven to loose them all at the Stake than in the least assent to so much Heathenism to so Foul and Monstrous a Religion And what need now of any longer disagreement What necessity of keeping up Names of Division Protestant and Papist may now shake hands and by one Subscription close into a Body and joyn in a fair and amicable correspondence Popery has been hitherto the only cause of Separation one part seeming to avow and support it the other as Zealously endeavouring its overthrow And all the strife it seems has been about a Word For now we have been inform'd from Great and Good Authorities what this Popery is what Papist in the World is there that will not so far become Protestant as to give his hand for the utter suppressing this kind of Popery And when Protestants and Papists concur for the rooting out of Popery what possibility of Farther Divisions But if on the other side this Character of a Papist be intended for the setting forth the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome if this be design'd as a True Representation of the Faith and Religion of Roman Catholicks Then returns afresh my complaint of their being Mis-represented that they suffer under the greatest injustice imaginable that they are expos'd in Bears and Tigers Skins so to become a Bugbear to the Multitude That they are malign'd and render'd odious for the maintaining such Doctrines which they as heartily Detest as those that urge the charge and that 't is no wonder that Papists are put in the List with Turks and Infidels since their Religion is thus injuriously loaded with Calumnies and they made the Professors of such Tenets which bid open defiance to Truth Honesty and Christianity which strike at the Worlds Redeemer and are impossible to be entertain'd by any Creature that is one degree above a Beast I will not deny but whosoever will look into the Church of Rome as the Scavanger does into the City who stops no where but at a Dunghil may rake together so much as to defame her with the Inconsiderate and Unwary alas the Vices of Men in her Communion their abuses of the most Sacred things too abundantly furnish matter of this kind But yet whosoever shall expose this for the Doctrine and Practise of their Church and describe her and all in her Communion by these Rubbish Collections cannot possibly avoid the scandal of being unjust and might with as good reason decipher London by those loathsome heaps where all her filth is emptied And now since 't is evident the Adversaries of the Church of Rome do generally thus deal by her scraping out of every corner of that vast Communion and in every Age whatsoever can possibly contribute to make her infamous there is too too much reason to complain of her being Mis-represented and no just exception can be made against the Character of the Papist Misrepresented which lays open to the World the Artifice of these unwarrantable proceedings But here now strikes in the Replyer who undertakes to explain a Mystery in this Character and the Reflecter he says will have no reason to glory that he gave the occasion of it And this Mystery it seems are some faults he has discover'd in the Mis-representation 1st He says such things are put into this Character of a Papist as no Man in his wits ever charg'd them with And yet those very things almost in express terms and others far more absur'd we see charg'd as is shew'd above by the Best and Wisest of Men of great and good Authority with the Replyer as he confesses himself p. 2. And this too is to me a Mystery as well as to him that what no Man in his wits ever urg'd and what the former Answerer calls Childish and Ignorant or Willful mistakes should be now seen Father'd upon Men of so high a Character 2ly and 3ly He complains that the Opinions of Protestants and the consequences they draw from Popish Doctrines are put into the Character of a Papist Mis-represented as if they were his avow'd Doctrine and Belief This is a pretty speculative quarrel I confess and might deservedly find room here were it our business to consider the due method of Mis-representation in the abstract But as our present concern stands here 's a quaint conceit lost for coming in a wrong place For what had the Author of the Papist Mis-represented to do with these Rules He did not intend to Mis-represent any body His Province was only to draw forth the Character of a Papist as 't is commonly apprehended by the Vulgar or the Multitude with the common prejudices and mistakes that generally attend such a notion Now I would fain know whether this Character as it lies in the peoples heads is distinguish'd into Antecedents and Consequents Whether they when they hear one
obligation from their Church of assenting to such Doctrines And for thus delivering a matter of Fact he has the Authority again of this Great Prelate who having declar'd the Primacy of St. Peter and acknowledg'd the same in his Successors in the See of Rome immediately adds As for those things which we know are disputed of in the Schools tho the Ministers continually alledge them to render this Power odious it is not necessary we speak of them here seeing they are not Articles of the Catholick Faith It is sufficient we acknowledge a Head establish'd by God to conduct his whole Flock in his Paths which those who love Concord amongst Brethren and Ecclesiastical Vnanimity will most willingly acknowledge And is not this a sufficient discharge of the Representer from all the exceptions of his Adversaries For if this learned Author having propos'd the Primacy of St. Peters Chair to be acknowledg'd as the common Center of all Catholick Union do's purposely wave all other Points relating to the Authority of that Chair as being no part of the Catholick Faith And his Book in this form is own'd and approv'd by the Pope himself by the most eminent of the Cardinals and other great Prelates of the Churh after a most strict examination what ground of quarrel with the Representer in his following this so Authentick a Rule 'T was the main design of the Bishop of Condom in that Treatise to separate the opinions of Divines and School Debates from the Doctrine of the Catholick Faith And since he omitted to expound those Points of the Popes Personal Infallibility and the Deposing Power as not belonging to the Catholick Faith with so full and Authentick an approbation as has been declared where is the crime of the Representer in not allowing them a place in that List And here I cannot but run the venture of another smile from the Replier upon the reinforcement of my former Proposal I desir'd that the decision of the quarrel with the Representer might depend upon the experiment of any ones being judg'd capable of being receiv'd into the Catholick Church upon his assenting to matters of Faith in that form as deliver'd by the Representer The Replier having smil'd first thought it not fit to put it to that issue but chose rather to own that the Faith as declar'd by the Representer was really the Faith of a Papist excepting the Deposing Doctrine and some other few Points Here then let him make the Proposed Trial if he pleases or any friend for him and if notwithstanding his refusal to admit the Deposing Doctrine and the Popes Infallibility but as Stated by the Representer that is not as Articles of Catholick Faith he be not judg'd sufficiently qualified as to those points to be receiv'd into the Communion of the Roman Catholicks I will grant he has reason to charge the Representer not to have done his part in those Particulars This will be a much shorter and surer Conviction then twenty Answers and Replies fit only to cast a mist before the Readers eyes and which such a tryal as this will quickly dissipate And this now is all that is requisite for a full Vindication of the Representer For it being franckly own'd by the Replier himself that he has made a true Representation of the Faith of a Papist with the exception only of some few Points And it being here made evident that what the Representer deliver'd as to those very Points is according to the sense of the See Apostolick of the greatest Prelates nay I may say of the whole Church The Papist Mis-represented and Represented stands untouch'd And all that has been said against it have been nothing more then so many artificial endeavours to perswade the World that the Protestant understands better what the Faith of a Papist is then the Papist do's himself which will be easily answer'd after his manner with a smile What the Replier adds after this belongs not to the Representer who being to Represent and not to Dispute is not concern'd with those tedious arguments however not to be uncivil we 'l go so far with him tho it be out of our way 1. He proves at large that all Definitions of Faith declar'd in General Councils are not concluded with Anathema's and in this we willingly agree with him But this do's not at all prove that whatsoever is declar'd in such a Council without an Anathema is an Article of Faith and therefore nothing against us deserving any farther answer 2. He endeavours to prove the Deposing Power not to be a matter of Discipline and Government but to be a Point of Doctrine and this from a Principle lately published in the vindication of Dr. Sherlock's Sermon viz. that To decree what shall be done includs a virtual definition of that Doctrine on which that Decree is founded And this he says as we have been lately told But what respect can I possibly have for what has been lately told us by another hand since the Replier himself however he urges it in one page plainly undervalues it and contradicts it in his very next where he tells us that in the Council of the Apostles at Jerusalem there was a Decree of Manners yet it contain'd no Definition of Faith And for my part I think the Replier in the right and must needs stand with him against the Vindicator of the Sermon that to decree what shall be done do's not include a virtual Definition of Doctrine And the example produc'd by the Replier evidently shews it For tho the Apostles in their Council Acts 15. decreed abstinence from blood and strangl'd meats Yet this Decree of what was to be done did not include a virtual Definition of that Doctrine on which the Decree was founded For if it had then the Doctrine of abstaining from blood and strangled meats had been an Article of Faith which I am sure is not agreeable either to the Principles or Practices of either of our Churches And the reason of this may be because Decrees of what shall be done are often made with relation to particular circumstances of time persons place c. and not built upon Definitions of Faith but upon Prudential Motives upon Probable Opinions upon the Testimonies and Informations of Men and so may be suspended or quite abrogated as also confirm'd a new or wholly chang'd according to the alteration of Circumstances Nothing of all which can stand with Articles of Faith which being the indispensable Doctrine of Jesus Christ are not subject to change or alteration 3. But suppose this Decree to be rank'd only among the Decreta Morum which concern only the Discipline and Government of the Church yet our Adversary here urges out of Canus and Bellarmine that General Councils cannot err even in such Decrees when they relate to things necessary to Salvation and concern the whole Church And when the Replier has prov'd the Deposing Decree to be of this Nature and