you deny them this and make them to be as out of the true Church and state of Life If yea Q. 2. Did all that the Apostles Baptized believe all the Apocrypha and all the Decrees of your Councils and your Oral Traditions Q. 3. Did the ancient Fathers and Catechists teach all those to the Catechumens before they Baptized them Q. 4. And were not those all Christians and in the true Church and in a state of Life whom the Apostles Baptized without the profession of any such Belief Q. 5. What was the Creed the Symbolum fidei used for if not to distinguish the Faith of the Christian Church from Infidelity Heresie and all without And if all the Decrees of Councils be as necessary to be the Symbol of Faith why were they not all made up into a Creed and why is the Creed differenced from them all to this day And why do you not cause the Baptized to recite and profess all these Councils Decrees but only the old Christian Creed Q. 6. Doth not Christ at the Institution of his Sacrament Mat. 28. expresly promise that he that believeth according to Baptism in the Father Son and Holy Ghost shall be saved Q. 7. Is it not a reproach to God and the Christian Religion to tell the World that God hath written us by his Spirit so great a Book as the Bible is and yet there is not in it enough to Salvation but that abundance unnecessary to Salvation is in it and some necessary things left out Q. 8. Have your Oral superadded Traditions more Evidence of Truth than the Bible or more Evidence of Necessity to be believed Not more Evidence of Truth For you confess the certain Truth of all the Bible and that as fully manifest as your Additions If it have more Evidence of Necessity what is it It is not because it is a Divine Revelation For so you confess all the Bible to be And do you pretend to a Tradition that saith You may be saved without most of the Bible though it be of God but not without fasting on Frydays or on the Vigils of Saints-days or other such Traditions But if you will make both the whole Bible and Tradition necessary to be believed it must be either Explicitely or as you call it Implicitely If Explicitely that is as each Point is particularly understood and believed then it 's doubtful whether there be one Man in the World that is a Christian and can be saved If Implicitely that is Virtually as it is in some General Proposition what is that General Is it that All that God revealeth is true Or that All that the Spirit of Christ in his Apostles delivered to the Church as his word is true These we all agree in if this will serve the turn Is it that the Church is the Ministerial Keeper of the Sacred Doctrine as delivered This also we agree in Or is it that the Church de eventu shall never corrupt alter or lose this word or any part of it If you mean it of every particular Church we are agreed of the contrary You confess that many Churches have fallen to Heresie and many Apostatized from the Faith If you speak of the Universal Church we are agreed that the Universal Church shall never Apostatize for if Christ had no Church he were no Head of it And we are agreed that they shall never turn such true Hereticks as hold not truly all the Essentials of Christianity For such also are no Christians because each Essential part is necessary to the Essence But whether the Universal Church much more the Greater part may not make or receive some culpable alteration by Amission Omission or Commission we have reason to question We never heard any Proof that the Negative was necessary to Salvation nor is it held by all your selves and whether by any one man I cannot tell For you take the Bible to be Gods Word and your knowledge of the various Readings of the Hebrew and Greek Copies and the multitude of Errours in the Vulgar Latine corrected by P. Clem. 8. and Sixtus 5. do satisfie all the World that you hold that the Universal Church or the major part even your own may culpably erre or alter the very written Word of God And who would then believe you if you said But the Unwritten Word it cannot alter It 's true indeed the Essentials considered as Written or Unwritten all the true Church nor any one Christian while such cannot deny But sure if many thousand Errours may be found in that Book which you take your selves for the Word of God and this through the fault or failing of such as have had the keeping of it and all Divine Revelations are to be believed and all the Word of God is Divine Revelation it notoriously followeth That your own Church hath not kept all that is matter of Divine Faith from alteration So that though many of your Wranglers will not distinguish the Essentials of Christianity called Fundamentals from the Integrals and Accidentals as if Christianity were nothing and had no determinate Essence yet this sheweth that you must do it whether you will or not or else you must confess that your Church may alter any thing or every thing as it hath done all these fore-mentioned Which we will not confess of the Church Universal But I suppose that we have not yet met with the Faith that you account necessary to salvation It is that the Pope of Rome and a General Council cannot erre in delivering to us the Apostolical Doctrine to be believed And this is an implicite believing of all that is written in Scripture and that is delivered orally from the Apostles If so words and names go very far with you as to mens salvation Is this to believe a thousand things which a man never knew or heard of if he do but believe the Infallibility of your Church What! Believe that which I never once thought of But this is but Implicite Faith A cheating Name for No-belief of those things For by Implicite here you can mean only Virtual and that is no Actual Belief of that thing at all but of something else which would infer more were it known Nay Virtual is too high a Name for it But will this serve the turn to salvation to believe that the Pope and his Council are Infallible What! though the same Person believe not in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost nor any of the Articles of his Creed no not a Life to come If you say Yea Then will you call this Christianity to believe in the Pope and not in Christ Or do you mean that men may be saved without Christianity but not without Popery If so why was not the Popes Name rather than Christs put into Baptism and the Creed or at least with Christs But the insuperable difficulty is How must I believe that the Pope hath this Infallibility From Christ or otherwise If not from Christ tell me
Councils and what parts of them the Pope meant to approve and what not as by Pope Martin 5. his Conciliariter appeareth that there is no certainty and no end XV. It is a Church that hath almost laid by the ancient Discipline of Christs appointment and instead of it hath set up partly Auricular Confession when it should be Publick and partly a tyrannical sort of hostile proclaiming their Adversaries excommunicate without hearing them and forbidding Gods Word and Worship to whole Kingdoms Saith Learned Albaspineus a Bishop Observ 1. pag. 1. If ever any one in this Age was deprived of Communion which I know not whether it ever fell out it was only from the receiving of the Eucharist In the other parts of his life he retained the same familiarity and converse with other Believers which he had before he was excommunicated XVI It is a Church that is upheld by Flames and Blood distrusting the ancient Discipline and the meer Protection of the Magistrate and the proper work of his Office The foresaid 12. General Council at Laterane proveth it besides Inquisitions and bloody Executions XVII It is a Church that cherisheth ignorance in the matters of Salvation Proved 1. By forbidding the reading of the Scriptures translated without Licence 2. Their Prayers in an unknown Tongue 3. The quality of their commonest Members XVIII It is a Church that militateth against Christian Love 1. By their foresaid condemning the most of Christians 2. By the foresaid bloody Religion and Execution XIX It is a Church which hath often damned it self one Pope and Council damning others As is proved XX. It is a Church which indeed is no Church according to their own Rules the Pope indeed being no Pope and the General Councils no General Councils as is proved And if it were one it could not possibly be certainly known to be so because the Pope who is an essentiating part cannot be certainly known As is proved both as to Election Ordination and all that is necessary to a Right and Title As to the Doctrines which they hold contrary to the Scriptures I have named many of them elsewhere in my Key pag. 39. 142 143 c. And others more largely And thus I have told you what I take a Pope a Papist and the Papal Church to be But you must remember that as the same man may be a visible Christian or Member of the true Universal Church as headed by Christ and a visible Papist or Member of the Sectarian Church as headed by the Pope so I judge none of you as in the first respect but allow you the same Charity proportionably as I do other erring Sects And especially to those many thousands who adhere to a Church which they understand not and profess that in gross which in particulars they themselves abhor Of which number I am not hopeless your self W. H. to be one CHAP. IX How our Religion differeth from the Papists AND now out of all this it is easie for you to gather how our Religion differeth from the Papists I shall recite but a few of the Differences leaving you to collect the rest from what is said of theirs I. Our Religion is wholly Divine or made by God For so is the holy Scripture which is all ours But the Papists super additions are made by men Even Popes and Councils under pretence of Declaring Expounding Governing Judging c. II. The Religion of Protestants is no bigger nor no other in the Essentials than the Sacramental Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost expounded in the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue And in the Integrals no bigger nor other than the holy Canonical Scriptures But the Papists is as big as all the Decrees of all General Councils added to all the Bible if not the Popes Decretals also and uncertain Traditions Tell us not of our 39 Articles and other Church Confessions as contrary to this For those Confessions all profess what I here say And you may as well tell us of our other Books and Sermons Our question is not of mens Subjective Religion For so each person hath one of his own And it cannot be known but by knowing what is in each mans mind And our Books and Confessions are as is aforesaid but the Expression of our sense of that which is our Regular Objective Religion And we are ready to confess and amend any misconception but our Objective Religion which is the Rule and Law of our Faith is only Divine III. Our Religion is known even the Sacred Bible But yours is unknown what are approved Councils and what decrees are intended to be de fide and what temporal and what perpetual and how far the Popes Decretals bind and whether all Isidore Mercator's Decretals be the Popes with abundance of the like IV. Our Religion is owned by you and every word confessed to be Divine and Infallible But your added Popery is disowned by us as sinful presumptuous and false V. Our Religion is fixed and unchangeable for so you confess the holy Scriptures to be But yours is still swelling bigger and bigger while Councils will increase it and hath no certain bounds VI. Our Religion is only that ancient one delivered by the Holy Ghost in the Apostles and so is certainly Apostolical your additions are Novelties since brought in VII Our Religion is Infallible Holy Pure your additions are fallible contradictory sinful oft contrary to plain Scripture condemning one another VIII Our Religion is Universal owned by all the Christian World in the Essentials and in the Main in the Integrals that is the Scripture Greeks Papists Armenians Abassines and all other parties that are Christians own it But your additions are some disowned by one part of Cristians and some by another and some by all save your selves IX Our Religion therefore is the true terms of Catholick concord according to Vincent Lerinens Doctrine quod ab omnibus semper ubique receptum est But your additions are the very Engine of the dividing Enemy by which he hath long kept the Christian World distracted by discord with all the calamitous effects and consequents X. Our Religion hath a certain Rule for the ending of all controversies so far as there is hope of ending them in this world All men will rest in the Judgment of God and his word in all such necessary things is plainer than all your General Councils But your Humane Authority is such as fighteth with it self and all the world and which the Universal Church never yet received nor will ever rest in XI Our Religion owneth a certain lawful Government appointed by God which well used may keep just order in the world That is Parents in Families Pastors in such particular Churches as Christ hath instituted as join for personal Communion in holy Doctrine Worship and Conversation which they are indeed capable of Overseeing and Governing by Sacred Doctrine in Christs way And Associations or Correspondencies of these Pastors for concord And
Massacres as were in France of Thirty Thousand or Forty Thousand or in Ireland of Two Hundred Thousand hath made them think your Power inconsistent with their safety 3. And you must remember that the Positive Additions of the Church of Rome are in the Judgment of the Puritans very great sins But you have truly no charge against the Puritans for any one Article of their Religion but only for not receiving and for protesting against your Additions 4. But I perceive p. 5. your Instances of their defectiveness are that they are not for fasting days particular Garments for Priests set Forms Christmas-day Good-Friday Ascension Whitsuntide c. which they take for meer Humane inventions and Will-worship Because they think that the New Testament was written to instruct us Christians in the whold Body of Gospel-worship c. But you are best prove this only by telling us that you know some persons of that mind And when you have done I will demand your Proof that those Persons are no more than Puritans They have oft told you that their judgment is that for all that substance of God's Worship which is of Universal necessity to the Church and is of Divine Institution the holy Scripture is a sufficient Rule But that very many Circumstances and outward Acts have in Scripture but a General Law that they be all done to edification decently orderly in Concord c. and it is left to Humane Prudence to order them by such Rules We condemn no one that useth holy Fasts or Feasts but think them needful We judge not those that celebrate the Memorial of God's great Mercies to his Church by giving him thanks for the holy Life and Doctrine of his Eminent Saints c. But will you plainly have our judgment We think Saint Paul was in the right that taught the Church of Rome it self both the Rulers and the Flocks that they must neither judge nor despise each other for differences about Meats and Days but receive each other to Communion notwithstanding such differences as Christ received us Rom. 14. and 15. And we will not believe your Grand-Father nor Great-Grand-Father if they told us that the Apostles by Tradition did institute Holy-days and Vigils for St. Tecla or St. Bridgit or St. Thomas Becket or any that were not born till they were dead And any one Day or Order which you truly prove to us that the Apostles by Tradition ordained for the Universal Church we profess our selves ready and resolved to obey But if you plead not Tradition for any of these things but the Churches Commands as you must do or be singular or ashamed here you come to the quick of our difference 1. We know not of any Universal Vicarious Law-giver under Christ that hath any power to make Laws to the Universal Church throughout the World and we dare not own any such Usurper lest we be guilty of Treason against the only Head of the whole Church 2. We know not of any power that the chief Bishop in the Roman Empire hath over other Empires Kingdomes or Churches 3. But to our own true Pastors which are set over us according to Christ's order and his Apostles recorded in Scripture we Puritanes will submit in all such Circumstantials as aforesaid which are left to their prudent determination not putting us on any sin But 4. We detest making such things as you here name to be taken for the Characters of distinct Religions or distinct Churches as if we might not with Love Peace and Christian Communion differ about a Garment a Holy-day Fast or Vigil Thus far then you seem not to know what a meer Puritan is II. But Sir I have much more than all these little things against your Description of a Puritane I plainly perceive in your greatest praises of him that you know not what his very Religion it self is or else you would never describe him as only taken up with fears and cares and good desires to be better having yet greedy desires of the things of the World without any mention of the Love of God above all and of his Neighbour and a holy and heavenly Mind and Life with self-denyal mortification of the Flesh c. Either you judge of a Puritane by what you were your self or by what your acquaintance were or by what they commonly profess to be their Religion For the first you have no reason It followeth not that they have no better a Religion because you had no better For the second you had no reason For it 's ten to one you knew not the hearts of your acquaintance so well as to be able to know that they had not the Love of God c. And if you were so unhappy in your acquaintance what 's that to other Men Thirdly Therefore as you look that your own Religion should be described not as we find it in this or that man but as your Church professeth it so do we And I have told you before what our Religion is I have the more boldness in speaking the sense of others as I said both because I am as aforesaid stigmatized for a total Puritan and because the generality of all of them of my acquaintance as far as I can discern are of this mind A Puritan then as the Word is commonly taken by the Rabble is a serious Christian Protestant who truly believeth and practiseth what he doth profess and doth not mortifie that Profession which should help to mortifie his Sin His Religion is to be understandingly and sincerely devoted in the Sacramental Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost renouncing the Vanities of the World the Lusts of the Flesh and the Delusions of the Devil He believeth that all that truly consent to this Covenant have a right and part in and to the Love of God the Father the Grace of the Son and the Communion of the Holy Chost and that he that hath the Son hath Life Pardon Adoption Justification and Right to Life Eternal and that this Right is continued he performing his Covenant and continuing in that Faith which worketh by Love and not living impenitently in sin but sincerely obeying God his Father Saviour and Sanctifier He taketh the fear of Gods Justiâ—â— â—nd godly Sorrow to be but the lower steps of Holiness but that the Kingdom of God is not Meats and Days but Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost and that the Spirit of Christ without which none are his is not the Spirit of Bondage but of Power Love and a sound Mind even a Spirit of holy LIFE LIGHT and LOVE which are the Essentials of true Holiness and the Spirit of Adoption and Supplication causeth us with Love to cry to God and trust him as a Father They take Christ to be the only Mediator between God and Man whose sufficient Sacrifice for Sin and perfect Righteousness Habitual Active and Passive as called advanced in dignity by the Divine Nature is the Meritorious cause of
Answ 1. Here you shew what things they be that you turn Papist for Is not eating Flesh on Frydays Lent or Vigils a worthy matter to make another Religion of or to prove men to be of differing Churches 2. I told you before that the Puritans judgment is as Paul's that such things should be left indifferent or at least make no breach among us by our judging or despising one another And that neither the Pope nor any men on Earth have Authority to make Universal Laws for them to all the Christian World and that there is no true Tradition of Apostolical Institution of them But yet that such Fasts and Feasts as are appointed by true Authority of Prince or Pastors not against the Laws of God and such as shall be proved to be instituted by the Apostles they will observe 3. But the poor Puritan is indeed in hard Circumstances were there no life after this Some of them have no Flesh to eat either on Frydays or any day in the Week but live thankfully upon Bread and Milk and some such things Fish they would gladly eat if they could get it There are now among them such as with many Children have for a long time lived almost only on brown Rye-bread and Water Many of them take it for a sufficient quantity to eat one temperate Meal a day though they are in no want and the Papist that forbeareth Flesh and eateth better than the Puritan feasteth with or that fasteth with one Meal a day which is many Puritans fullest Dyet doth condemn the poor Puritan as an Heretick and perhaps burn him at a Stake or cast him into the Inquisition for not Fasting Poor John Calvin did eat but one small Meal a day and the Papist who fast much at the rate as Calvin feasted record him for a gluttonous person And so did the Pharisees by Christ and his Disciples why do not thy Disciples fast c. II. Your second Instance is The Prelatick Protestant wonders the Puritan should scruple adorning the Communion Table with two Wax Tapers c. Ans The former Answer serveth to this Hear O ye Puritans wherein the Roman Religion doth surpass yours Their Altars have lighted Tapers on Do you not deserve to be burnt your selves if you will not burn Candles on your Altars Yea the Pope who hath power to set up and take down Emperours and Kings being not only the King of Rome but the Monarch of the whole World doth appoint these Lights as a Professing sign before God and Man that he is of that Church which in the Primitive Times for fear of Persecution served God by Candle-light in Dens and Caves And is not this to prove the immutability of their Church that vary not in a Circumstance from the Apostolioal Institution Doth his domineering over Kings and Nations and the Hosts of Great Princes Cardinals Prelates Abbots Clergy Regulars Seculars that obey him shew also that he is of that old Candle-lighted Church But while you seem still to plead Apostolical Tradition for all these Great Parts of your Religion tell the poor Puritan whether it was by Prophesie or how else that the Apostles delivered to the Church the use of these Lighted Tapers in commemoration of that which was done in Dens long after the death of these Apostles I doubt rather the Pope doth by this practice condemn himself and sets up these Lights to shew the World how much he and his Church are changed since those forementioned days III. You next say The Prelatick Protestant wonders what hurt the Puritan can see in making the sign of that on the forehead of a new baptized Infant yet smiles at a Papist when he makes it on himself or his Victuals c. Ans None of us are ashamed of the Cross of Christ nor loth to profess this as openly as you But if we do it by Word by Writing by Obeying or by Suffering we are of another Religion from you it seems by you unless we will do it also by crossing The Jews were the Cross-makers And there are now so many Cross-makers in the World whose Trade we like not that we are not forward to set up their sign at our doors But yet there are Puritans and Prelatists that were they among the Deriders of a Crucified Christ where the use were not a Formality or worse but convenient to tell the Infidels their mind that they are not ashamed of the Cross of Christ would not refuse seasonably to Cross themselves But the Puritans think that when it is made a solemn stated sign of the Duty and Grace of the New Covenant dedicating there by the person to God as one hereby obliging himself to profess the Faith of Christ Crucified and manfully to fight under his Banner against the Devil the World and the Flesh to the death in hope of the Benefits of his Cross and Covenant and so is made a Badge or Symbol of our Christianity then it is made a Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace added to Christs Sacrament of the same use or at least too like it though the Name be denyed it And they think that Christ hath given none power to make such new Sacraments or Symbols of Christianity he having done that sufficiently himself They have a conceit that the King would not be pleased with them that either frame a new Oath of Allegiance added to his as the Badge of his Subjects Loyalty nor yet that would make a new Badge of the Order of the Knights of the Garter without his consent At least the Puritans think that Baptism and Christianity and Christian Burial should not be denyed to those Children whose Parents do not offer them to be baptized with this additional Symbol And if the poor men be deceived in such thoughts it is but in fear of sinning against Christ and not that they are more ashamed of his Cross than you or more disobedient to Authority IV. Your next instance is The Prelatick Protestant wonders that the Puritane can doubt the holy Euchrist is really and truly the body of Christ c. And you cite Dr. Cosins Hist Transub p. 44. Answ 1. The Prelatick Protestant and the Puritane differ not at all about the real presence of Christs body in the Sacrament as I have shewed you elsewhere What need you more proof than King Edwards old Rubrick against the Real Presence in a gross sence lately restored to the Liturgie And as for Dr. Cosins words and book I again tell you all the Doctors of the Roman Church are never able to answer his full proof that Transubstantiation is a late innovation and none of the doctrine of the ancient Churches We challenge you all to give any reasonable answer to that book And you still Cunningly bawke the main Controversie between us and you which is not whether Christs Body be there but whether Bread and Wine be there For I have told you 1. That we who know not how far a Glorified
be or can be unless Christianity come much nearer to be rooted out of the Earth and the Church brought into a narrower room V. But you have a reflecting Comparison between the Kings presiding and the Popes and between a National Council and the Bishops of the whole Christian World To begin at the later part Alas poor ignorant Man if you believe this your self And alas unfaithful Man if you believe it not and yet dare say it Do you yet know no difference between the orbis Romanus and the orbis universalis Or will you with William Johnson alias Terret prove your Councils to be Universal because such places as Thracia had Bishops there as if Thracia had been without the Empire or because such a name as Johannes Persidis is found at Nice Read all the subscribed names and return to a sounder mind Theodoret knew what he said when he gave the reason why James Bishop of Nisibis in Persia or near it was at the Council of Nice Because Nisibis was then under the Roman Emperour Do you not know that most of the Christian World two to one are not of the Pope's Subjects and are All the Bishops of the Christian World then on your side And do you not know that when Constantine presided at Nice his Dominion was full as large as the Bishop of Rome's was and a little larger VI. But because you shall find us reasonable we will tell you that we consent to General Councils where the Pope consenteth not We consent to what the great Councils at Calcedon and Constantinople before mentioned say of the Humane Institution of his Primacy and the Reason and Mutability of it and so doth not the Pope We consent to the Councils at Constance Basil Pisa that the Pope may be deposed as a Heretick and worse but the Pope doth not Is it not he then that dissenteth from all the Bishops of the World VII And for the Kings presiding we wholly own it He is the Governour of Clergy-men as well as of Physicians and he is to see that they abuse not their Function to the common hurt The difference is here 1. Our King Governeth but his own Dominions But your Pope would Govern all the World 2. Our King hath an undoubted Title Your Pope is an Usurper 3. And as to your name Head he hath given the World full satisfaction that he did never claim to be a Priest-Head or Governour a Constitutive Head of a properly called Church nor to have the power of Word Sacraments and Keys so as to administer them but to be a Civil Head and Governour of Priests and the Churches in his Dominions as he is of Physicians c. VIII And you mistake the Puritans if you think they are not for this Government Why else take they the Oath of Supremacy Yea and if you think that they are not for as much Unity and Concord of all the Churches in a Kingdom as can be had without a greater hurt than the lesser particularities of their concord will do good And they are not against National Synods for such Concord And they hold the King to be the Regular Head or Governour or Principium of that Concord But not principium essentiale ipsius Ecclesiae And therefore the Puritans differ from judicious Ric. Hooker who saith If the King be the Head of the Church he must needs be a Christian For we hold that an Infidel King may be so the Head that is the Rightful Governour of the Christians and Churches in his Dominion or else how should they be obliged to obey him IX And you are mistaken if you think that the Puritans and the Prelatists differ about submitting our Faith to the judgment of the Church We subscribe the same Articles which say that General Councils may erre and have erred even about matters of Faith X. But I must tell you that the Puritans who are accused of disorder and confusion do many of them loath disorder and confusion even in words and doctrine And they distinguish here between the Churches keeping and teaching the Christian Faith and the Churches judging in matters of Faith The first they are wholly for We must receive our Faith from our Teachers and oportet discentem fide humana credere But if by Judging you mean strictly a Decisive judgment in which we must rest which way soever the sentence pass as if the Church might not only teach us the truth of our Religion but judge in partem utramlibet whether it be true or not the Puritans own no such power in the Church nor will so submit their Faith to the judgment of it They believe that Pastors in Councils have power to judge that there is a God Almighty c. a Christ a Holy Ghost that Christ dyed rose c. that the Scripture is true that there is an absolute necessity of Holiness that there is a Resurrection and Life everlasting that Gods Commandments must be kept and sin not committed c. But that no Council hath power to judge that there is no God no Christ or the contrary to any one of these or any other revealed Truth of God XI And I must not let pass your Schismatical inference that else there should be as many Religions and ways of worship as Parishes or persons if some supreme Governour determined not in matters of worship For 1. It was not so when no Supreme Governour determined on earth 2. But either you mean the Substantials of Gods Worship or the Circumstantials In the first as faith is not to be got by force so neither is Godliness but yet Governours should here do their best But as to the other we abhor the Conceit that there are as many Religions as there is difference about vestures gestures days and meats But perhaps you take the word Religion in the Romane sense as you confine it to those that you call the Religious as if you took the people of your Church to be irreligious And so you have indeed too many Religious however they come to make one Church The Religion of the Carthusians is one and of the Benedictines another and of the Franciscans another I cannot name them all One eateth Herbs and Fish and another eateth Flesh seldom another often one weareth one habit and another weareth another one Religion hath one Rule of Life and another hath another But with us there is but one Religion which is the Christian though one man wear cloth and another stuffe one white and another black one eat Flesh and another Fish and another can seldom get either though one wear his Hair long and another short though one be old and another be young yet we are all of one Religion Yea though one preach and pray in English another in Welch another in French and another in Dutch yet we take not these to be so many Religions No nor though one think Free praying fitter for Ministers than an imposed Form and another think an
imposed Form only fit and a third think as the meer Puritan that both having their Conveniences and Inconveniences there should be seasons for both And I pray you here tell me two things if you can 1. Whether the great difference of Liturgies which are the very Words and Order of the Churches Worship be not liker a difference of Religions than the colour of our cloaths or the meat we eat or the lighting of a Candle c. And yet do I need to tell you how many Liturgies are recorded in the Bibliotheca Patrum Yea that it was six hundred years and more before the Churches in one Empire used all one and the same Liturgy and for some hundred years that every Church used what the Bishop pleased Yea that the first restraint of free-praying that we find was by a Council ordaining that the Presbyter should first shew his Prayer to the Fathers that they might be sure it was sound And had Basil and Chrysostome and all others that varyed as divers Religions as Liturgies 2. Whether all the doctrinal Controversies among your selves as between all your School Doctors about Predestination Grace and free will about Perseverance about the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary about the Power of the Pope over all Kings in Temporals and about the killing of excommunicate Kings and the absolving their Subjects and whether after excommunication they are Kings or no of which Hen. Fowlis hath cited great store on one side and all the Moral Controversies about loving God about Perjuries Vows Murder Fornication Lying Stealing Drunkenness Gluttony of which you may see great store in Montaltus's Letters The Mystery of Jesuitisme and Mr. Clarksons late Book called The Practical Divinity of the Church of Rome I say is not Religion as much concerned about all these differences and all the rest among you which make many Horse-loads yea I think Cart-loads of Volumes as it is in the colour of the Preachers Cloaths or the Meat he eateth And are not Protestants that is meer Christians disowning Popery as justifiable in their Unity and Charity for taking Men to be of the same Religion who use not the same Garments Gestures and Ceremonies and that bear with differences herein as your Church that beareth with all these loads of different Doctrines in your most Learned Famous Doctors and not in the weaker Priests alone even whether excommunicate Kings may be killed or no and whether the Pope hath Power to put down and set up Emperours and Kings If you say that your One Religion and One Church hath no such difference it must be by saying that you all agree to Gregory the seventh in Concil Rom. Innoc. 3. in Concil Lateran on the worser side and all own the Doctors cited by H. Fowlis aforesaid But indeed I must speak better of you even that some are of a better mind whom Goldastus hath gathered and preserved and divers of the Learned Men of France and some in Spain But we think the difference even between the Prelatists Presbyterians Independants yea and the moderate Anabaptists to be far less than these which your unanimous agreeing Church doth constantly bear with without Silencing Imprisoning Ejecting or Condemning or so much as disowning the judgments of the worser side He that readeth Parsons on one side and Watson's Quodlibets on the other Barclay and Witherington on one side and Zuarez and the far greater prevalent Party on the other will either wonder at the strength of your Unity which no doctrinal differences even about the Blood of Kings can at all dissolve or else he may wonder at the laxe and sandie temperament of such Protestants as cannot bear with a Man that readeth not in their Book and singeth not in their Tune and is still crying out against others as Sectaries because they have piped to them and they have not danced and such as no Man can live quietly within reach of unless they swallow every Morsel which they cut for them having Throats neither wider or at least no narrower than theirs As if King Henry the eighth's days were the measure of true Discipline when one Man was burnt for being too far from Popery and another hanged or beheaded for being Popish and it was hard to know the middle Region and harder to know how long it would be calm till strangers cryed Deus bone quomodo hic vivunt Gentes But as none are more cruel in Wars than Cowards nor in Robberies than Women nor any more gentle and pitiful than valiant experienced Souldiers so few are so insolent and bloody obtruders of their Dictates and Wills upon the World as those that being least able to prove them good have nothing but Inquisitions and Prisons Silencings and Banishings Fire and Faggot effectually to make them good But if St. James be in the right who saith that Pure Religion and undefiled is this to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their adversity and to keep our selves unspotted of the World then certainly the Jesuits Morals and the Mystery of Jesuitism and Clarkson's Roman Practical Divinity and Fowlis's Treasons of the Papists contain more of the concerns of Religion than preaching in a consecrated or unconsecrated place and than eating Flesh Fish or neither in Lent or on Fridays doth O the strange difference between your Unity and Concord and the Protestants How fast is yours How loose is ours And it is to be considered we pretend not to so much perfection in this world as ever to expect that all Men should be just of the same Size and Complexion or speak the same Language or have all the same Opinions Thoughts or Words If we can keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace in the seven Points named by the Apostle Eph. 4. 3 4 5 6. so far as we have attained do walk by the same Rule of Love and Peace and mind the same things till God reveal more to such as differ Phil. 3. we shall be glad of such a measure of Union For we believe it impossible to be perfect in Concord while most yea all are so wofully imperfect in Knowledge Faith Love and Obedience We wait for perfection of all in Heaven and we find that few things in the World ever did so much against Unity as pretending to more than is to be hoped for and laying ill on so high terms and so many as we know will never be received Therefore our Mutual Love and forbearance with different Forms and Circumstances is agreeable to the Principles of our Religion But for you that pretend to Unity Concord and Infallible Judgement to tolerate Cart-loads of Doctrinal Controversies divers Expositions of many hundred Texts of Scripture divers readings of the Text it self contrary Doctrines about God's Grace about all the Ten Commandments about the Estates and Lives of Kings and never so much as to condemn either side nor silence the Preachers never imprison them or banish them five miles from Cities and
neither would join with them nor have any Communion with them as supposing them proud men that suppressed piety and strengthened the wicked by their intemperate prosecution Whereupon they suspected and accused him also as an unlearned Fellow and a Favourer of the Priscillianists They did not only bring in the use of the Magistrates Sword in Religion against Heresie which Martin could not bear but they owned and flattered an usurping Emperour that they might have the help of his Sword to do their work So that in all those parts of France Germany and the Borders of Italy I find not a Bishop that refused to own the Usurper save S. Ambrose and Martin and one French Bishop And Sulpitius Severus tells us that they were men too bad themselves and that upon his knowledge Ithacius the Leader of them scarce cared what he said or did S. Cyril at Alexandria is noted by Socrates as the first Bishop there that used the Sword and his Kinsman S. Theophilus went beyond him and took upon him even to favour the Errour of the Anthropomorphites that he might have their help against such as he hated and prosecuted Chrysostom till he had procured his ejection which made a rupture in that Church and caused the separation of his Adherents whom the Bishop would have taken for a new Sect and called them Joannites such skill had the domineering sort of Prelates in making and multiplying Heresies and Sects and calling themselves still the Catholick Bishops because they kept the upper hand and major Vote except where the Arrians over-topt them who then claimed the Catholick Title to themselves And by what Arts some of them kept the favour of the Emperours to do their work and keep up their greatness Socrates tells you in the instance of the said S. Theophilus who sent one before the great Battel between Theodosius and Eugenius another Usurper with two Letters and a rich Present and bid him stay till the Battel was over and then give the flattering Letter and the Present to him whoever that got the better But though still since the World came into the Church and the Greatness Power and Honour of Prelacy made that Office a very alluring bait to the desires of the most worldly fleshly men yet God kept up some that maintained their integrity and bare their testimony against the pride and carnality of the rest and though the scandals of the Catholicks turned many to the Novatians and other Sects that profest more strictness yea Salvian makes the Arrians Gothes and Vandals themselves to be men of more honesty and temperance than the Catholick Clergie yet sound Doctrine had still some holy Men that did maintain it But what were the Popes doing all this while Sound Doctrine by the advantage of the soundness of the Western Emperour as is said yet kept out Arrianism Pelagianisme and such other Heresies there but they were still striving to be the Greatest Leo one of the best of them was one of the first that laid claim to an Universal Headship within the Empire I told you how Zosimus and his Followers strove with the Africans to have Appeals made to Rome from the African Bishops and Councils which the Africans stifly opposed as contrary to the Canons to Custom and to the reason of Discipline which required that Cases should be judged and ended where persons and things were known and not by Strangers afar off where Witnesses could not without intolerable charge and trouble be brought beyond Sea to prosecute the suite The words of the African Council translated are â—â—se Let your Holiness as beseemeth you repel the wicked refuges of Presbyters and the Clergie that follow them because this is not taken from the African Church by any definitions of the Fathers and the Nicene Decrees did most plainly commit both the inferior Clergie and the Bishops themselves to the Metropolitans for they did most prudently and most justly provide that all business should be ended in the very places where they began and the Grace of the Holy Ghost will not or should not be wanting to each province which Equity should by the Priests of Christ be prudently observed and most constantly maintained especially because it is granted to every one to appeal to the Councils of their own Province or to an Universal Council if he be offended with the sentence of the Cognitors unless there should be any one that can think that our God can or will inspire a Justice of tryal into any One Man and deny it to innumerable Priests that are Congregated in Council Or how can that sentence that is past beyond Seas be valid to which the necessary persons of the Witnesses could not be brought because of the infirmities of Sexe or Age many other impediments intervening For that any that is Legates should be sent from the side of your Holiness we find not constituted by any Synod of the Fathers it seems they never thought of a Divine right because that which you sent us by our Fellow Bishop Faustinus as done by the Nicene Council they prove was false send not your Clergy Executors or Agitators to potent men Do not yield to it lest we seem to bring the Secular arrogancy into the Church of Christ which preferreth the light of simplicity and day of humility for them that desire to see God For of our Brother Faustinus the Popes Legate we are secure that the saâ—â— Brotherly love in your Holinesses honesty and moderation can suffer him to stay no longer in Africa The Popes took this heinously from the Africans that they should stop them in their ascent to the Universal Monarchy So that Pope Boniface Epist ad Eulal saith Aurelius sometimes Bishop of Carthage with his Colleagues did begin by the Devils instigation to wax proud against the Church of Rome in the days of our Predecessors Boniface and Celestine O how little do proud men instigated by the Devil know themselves when they think that the Diabolical pride is in them that will not serve their pride And Harding against Jewel Art 4. Sect. 19. saith After the whole African Church had persevered in Schism the space of twenty years and had removed themselves from the obedience of the Apostolick Seat being seduced by Aurelius Bishop of Carthage c. Here note 1. That so numerous were the Bishops in Africa that one of their Provincial Councils had far more Bishops than the Council of Trent or divers others called General 2. That they were men of the most eminent learning and piety and that had kept up Discipline above almost any Church in the Empire S. Augustine was one that subscribed the foresaid Letter and were such Men like to be seduced by Aurelius 3. Note with what Impudencie even such men as Harding yet pretend that St Augustine was for their Papal Claim when yet he professeth him to be one of the Schismaticks that cast off obedience to the Seat of Rome 4. Note what good Company we have
and allowed them so many and various Societies and with so great Priviledges as obliged them generally to uphold and serve him Though he cruelly persecuted all that were against his Power and Interest yet he allowed almost all the Diversities of such as would but unite in him and serve him 6. And as he so twisted his own and all his Clergies Interest that they were all ready to obey and defend him against their several Princes and thereby had a great power in every Christian State in Europe so keeping all his Clergie unmarryed their wealth still accumulated and flowed into the Church And the Eastern Empire being first weakned and then overthrown and the Western Nations kept weak and in continual Wars against each other there was none well able to resist his Pride but one party still was ready to flatter him partly to keep their own Clergy in Peace and partly to have his help against their Enemies And the grand Cheat by which they were commonly deceived was that they lookt more at his present possession of Primacie than at the reason and right by which he claimed it and so he that had been Prime Patriarch in one Empire set up by the Prince still claimed the right of the same places when the Empire was dissolved as if the Subjects of the Kings of France Spain c. must obey him because they did so when they were the Subjects of Constantine Theodosius Valentinian c. For by little and little he changed his Title mentioned in the Council of Calcedon into a pretended Divine Right and so they that would not have obeyed him as set up by Caesar and his Councils obeyed him as if he had been set up by God For the name of St. Peter and his Chair and Successour was used as the common blind And next to that he did by degrees change his claim of a Primacie in the Empire into a claim of Primacie in all the World and his claim of a meer Primacie into a claim of Soveraignty or Governing Monarchy If you ask me how could he blind Men so far as to make such a change You seem not to know Man-kind nor to observe common experience Do you not consider what power the Clergie had every where got with the People What an advantage possession and St. Peters name were And how lamentably ignorant they kept the People Do we not see that even in our more knowing times yea among Protestants yea with some Divines the evident distinction between their Humane Right and their pretended Divine Right and between an Universal Council or Church of the Empire and of the whole World have not been sufficiently observed in our Disputes against them And the additional Countries of voluntary Subjects in Brittain Hungary Sweden Denmark c. which of later times since his Imperial Primacie have fallen in to him have much helped to blind the people herein and to serve his Claim as by Divine Right For which ends his Emissaries have taken great pains at the East and West Indies in China and Japan and Congo and once they made an attempt in Abassia and among the Greeks and in many other Nations of the World laudably seeking to win some Heathens to Christ that they might win them to the Pope and turbulently seeking to disturb the Greeks and other Christian Churches to draw them to the obedience of the Pope The Doctrines by which they promote their design are more than I may now stay to open I. One of the chief is by depressing the Honour of the sacred Scriptures as insufficient to acquaint us with all Gods will that is necessary to our salvation without supplemental Tradition that so all men might be brought to depend on them as the Keepers of Tradition But 1. Is their Tradition yet written in any of their own Books or not If not where are they kept And who knoweth what they are Is it not strange that so many Doctors in so many Ages all remembring them would none of them ever write them down Are they in the Memory of the Pope only What of those that could not read or that were condemned as Hereticks of Infidels Then all the World must receive them from the Popes Memory If so must it be Word or Writing And had he no Memory of them before he was Pope But if it be in other Mens Memories that your unwritten Traditions are kept in whose is it If in all the Doctors of your Church why did not Luther Melancthon Pet. Martyr and the rest that turned from you know them Or did they suddenly forget them all when they turned Protestants And how vast must your necessary Religion be if yet it must have more in it unwritten than is to be found in all your great Volumes of Councils and your huge Library But I suppose you will say that all your unwritten Traditions are now written If so they are not unwritten And how long have they been written and by whom If Fathers and Sons could keep them unwritten in memory a thousand years why not 1100 and why not 1600 c. If they were written in the beginning where be the Books Are they not such as other Christians can read and understand as well as you or an illiterate Pope If there be a necessity of having them in writing now was there not the same necessity to former Ages 2. I suppose you will send us to your Councils for those Traditions But if the Bishops know them not before they come to the Council how do they begin to know them then Do they go thither for a new miraculous Revelation of an old Tradition left with the whole Church 1. But do not Councils oft determine things confessedly uncertain to the Church before and yet out of utter uncertainty it suddenly becometh an Article of Faith For Instance the great Council at Basil saith Bin. sess 30. p. 80. A hard Question hath been in divers parts and before this Synod about the Conception of the glorious Virgin Mary and the beginning of her Sanctification Some saying that the Virgin and her Soul was for some time or instant of time actually under Original Sin Others on the contrary saying that from the beginning of her Creation God loving her gave her Grace by which preserving and freeing that blessed Person from the Original Spot We having diligently lookt into the Authorities and Reasons which for many years past have in publick relation on both sides been alledged before this holy Synod and having seen many other things about it and weighed them by mature consideration do Define and Declare That the Doctrine affirming That the glorious Virgin Mary the Mother of God by the singular preventing and operating Grace of God was never actually under Original Sin but was ever free from all Original and actual Sin and was holy and immaculate is to be approved held and embraced of all Catholicks as godly and consonant to Church-worship Catholick Faith right Reason
they confess that they prove not the Infallibility of him that doth them Valentine Greatreakâ— hath done and still doth more wonderous cures by touch or stroaking than ever I heard by any credible report that any Papist did and yet he pretendeth to no Infallibility And those Canonized Saints that have been most credibly famed for the greatest Miracles have born their Testimony against Popery and therefore Popery was not confirmed by them For instance St. Martin is by his Disciple and Friend Sulpitius Severus affirmed to have done more Miracles than I have ever credibly read done by any since the Apostles I scarce except Gregory Neocaesar And yet whereas the Papal Councils give high priviledges of pardon c. to those that will take the Cross to kill the Waldenses and compel Princes to it and uphold their Kingdom by such means St. Martin separated to the death from the Synods and Bishops about him for seeking the Magistrates Sword to be drawn against even Priscillian Gnosticks and he professeth that an Angel appeared to him and chastised him sharply for once communicating with the Bishops at the motion of Maximus when he did it only to save mens lives that were condemned as Priscillianists Here are Miracles against the very Pillars of Popery So also the Egyptian Monks were the most famous for Miracles of any People And yet as their Miracles were no confirmation of the errour of the Anthropomorphites which their simplicity and rashness involved them in so they renounced Communion with the Church of Rome and therefore confirmed it not by their Miracles How few Christians be there on Earth if none are such but those that by known Popish miracles believed the Pope to be infallible before they believed that there was a Christ And thus they must believe him to be Infallible not as Pope but somewhat else For to be Pope is to be Christs pretended Vicar And to believe that he is authorized or Infallible as Christs Vicar before they believe there is a Christ is a mad-mans contradiction and impossible What Infallible wight then is it that we must first believe the Pope to be before we believe him to be Pope To what impudence will interest and faction carry men I will again recite the words of an honest Jesuit Joseph Acosta de tempor novis li. 3. c. 3. To all the miracles of Antichrist though he do great ones the Church shall boldly oppose the belief of the Scriptures And by the inexpugnable testimony of this truth shall by most clear light expel all his juglings as Clouds Signs are given to Infidels Scriptures to Believers and therefore the primitive Church abounded with miracles when Infidels were to be called But the last when the faithful are already called shall rest more on the Scripture than on miracles yea I will boldly say that all miracles are vain and empty unless they be approved by the Scripture that is have a Doctrine conform to the Scripture But the Scripture it self is of it self a most firm argument of truth Obj. But he grants that Infidels had miracles Ans He lived long in the West-Indies among them and in his Treat of the Convers Ind. and his Hist Ind. he professeth that the Ignorance Drunkenness and Wickedness of the Roman Priests there was the great hinderance of their Conversion but that Miracles there were none God had not given them there any such gift Once more Did the Miracle which Thyraeus de Daemoniacis p. 76. reciteth out of Prosper that A person possessed by the Devil was cured by drinking the Wine in the Eucharist confirm the Popes Religion who hath cast out the Cup or the Protestants that use it XXXII Though S. Paul say Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers and give honour to whom honour is due the Pope as far as he is able exempteth all his Clergie from the Government of the Magistrate yea they are forbidden to fall down to Princes or eat at their Tables but Emperours must take them as equals The first part is commonly known Caranz pag. 395. reciteth this Decree of Pope Nicholas that No Lay man must judge a Priest nor examine any thing of his life And no Secular Prince ought to judge the facts of any Bishops or Priests whatsoever The Eighth General Council at Constantinople saith Can. 14. Ministers must not fall down to Princes nor eat at their Tables nor debase themselves to them but Emperours must take them as equals XXXIII The Pope confesseth every word of our Objective Religion to be true for all his killing and damning us as Hereticks Proved before We have not a word of our Objective Religion but the Sacramental Covenant and its Exposition in the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue and the Canonical Scripture which we receive And they confess all this to be infallibly true and so justifie all our Positive Religion XXXIV The Popes to this day will not tell the Church so much as what a Christian is and what must make a man a Member of their Church in the Essentials of a Member Of which more anon XXXV While the Decrees of General Councils are made quoad nos the Churches Faith the Pope will never let us know how big our Faith must be nor when we shall have all If every General Council add new Articles or many quoad nos who knoweth when they will have done and whether we have yet half the Christian Faith or not XXXVI The Popes Religion maketh Contradictions necessary to be believed that is impossibilities The Contradictions of Transubstantiation I have opened in my Full Satisfaction Confirmed General Councils they commonly agree do make Decrees which must necessarily be believed And it is notorious that such Decrees are Contradictory The General Council at Constance confirmed by Martin 5. and that at Basil confirmed by Foelix 5. do make it de fide for a Council to be above the Pope Bin. p. 43. 79. 96. Conc. Basil Sess ult they say Not one of the skilful did ever doubt but that the Pope was subject to the judgment of a General Council in matters of Faith and that he cannot without their consent dissolve or remove a General Council yea and that this is an Article of Faith which without destruction of salvation cannot be denyed and that de fide the Council is above the Pope and that he is a Heretick that is against this Eugenius also owned this Council Bin. ib. p. 42. But the Councils of Florence and at the Laterane sub Jul. 2. and sub Leone 10. say the clean contrary The 6. Council at Constant approved by Pope Adrian is now said by them to have many errors XXXVII The Pope arrogateth power to alter the constitutions of the Spirit of God in the holy Scriptures Proved The Council of Constance taking away the Cup saith Though in the Primitive Church this Sacrament was received by Believers under both kinds c. yea though Christ so instituted it yet they altered it I
XVII Our Religion is for increasing true practical knowledge in all men by all our industry as knowing the Father of Lights saveth us by illumination and therefore we are for all mens reading or hearing the holy Scriptures and worshipping God in a known tongue But yet with the help of the skilfullest Teachers The Prince of darkness leadeth men in the dark to do the works of darkness that they may be cast into outer darkness How the case is with yours I have before shewed XVIII Our Religion is for so much fasting and austerities as is truly necessary to the subduing of Pride Worldliness or fleshly lusts or to express our self-abasement in due times of humiliation prescribed by Authority on publick occasions or discerned by our selves in private and so much as is truly helpful to us in Gods service or our preparations for death But how much you have turned these into unreasonable Ceremony and how much into a pretended satisfaction to Gods Justice by punishing our selves as if our hurt delighted God when it tends not to our healing I shall not now stay to open See Dallaeus de Poenis Indulgentis de Jejuniis of it at large XIX Our Religion teacheth us that all that truly believe in and are heartily devoted to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as their God and Saviour and Sanctifier forsaking the Devil the World and the Flesh should be taken by Baptismal profession hereof into the Church and shall be saved if they prove not Hypocrites or Apostates And that we must judge men by this their Profession till they plainly or provedly nullifie it supposing every man under God to be the best Judge of his own heart But your Religion teacheth you to hold and say that if men are never so fully perswaded in themselves that they truly love God and holiness and are thus devoted to him yea and if their lives express it yet if they be not Papists they are all deceived and none but Papists so love God And every Papist thus knoweth the hearts of others better than we can know our own XX. Our Religion leaveth us room for Repentance and hope of Pardon if we mistake For we take not our selves to be impeccable or infallible in all that we hold though we are sure that our Rule and Objective Religion is infallible But your Church being founded in the false conceit of the Popes and Councils Infallibility you shut the door against repentance and amendment and when once a false Decree is past you take your selves obliged to defend it lest by Reformation you pluck up your Foundation and all should fall Were it not for this I am perswaded your Church would recant at least the Doctrine of Transubstantiation if not that of deposing Princes and some others And now I humbly present what I have written to W. H. and not without hope if he will but impartially read it of his reduction For the man seemeth to me to sin through Ignorance and to have an honester zeal than many others For my own part 1. I profess to him I write as I think and that after forty years reading I think as many of the Papists Books as of the Protestants 2. And that I would joyfully recant whatever it cost me if I could find that I do erre But I have shewed him that I differ not from them without that which to me appeareth to be constraining Reason 3. And that if he will prove to me that I have in one word of this Book unjustly accused either their POPE PAPISTS RELIGION or CHURCH I shall thankfully receive his conviction and repent And I agree with him wholly in professing my Religion to be The APOSTOLICAL CHRISTIANITY and whatever he proveth to be truly such I will receive The Name of The Protestant Religion I like not because meer Christianity is all our Religion and our Protestation against Popery denominateth not our Religion it self but our Rejection of their Corruptions of it But the Name of The Protestants Religion I approve and own that is APOSTOLICK CHRISTIANITY CLEANSED FROM POPERY Aug. 9. 1676. FINIS THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. WHether Christ hath not left us sure and easie notice what the Christian Religion is what it is and how delivered to us in three degrees 1. The Essentials generally in the Sacramental Covenant 2. The Exposition of the Essentials in three summaries the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue 3. The Essentials Integrals and needful Accidentals in the whole Canonical Scripture p. 1 c. Our Confession Articles Books and Sermons are but the expressions of our Subjective Religion or fides mensurata and are not our Objective and fides mensurans in terminis p. 9. The Papists confess every word of our Objective Religion to be Divine and Infallible But we confess not the truth of all theirs They blame us only 1. As not having enough 2. And as not receiving it the right way p. 9. I. Whether the Papists Religion be better than ours as bigger Some Queries of the Antiquity of the belief of the Roman additions viz. the Apocrypha and the Decrees of all the Councils c. p. 10 c. What Implicite Faith we are agreed in and what not p. 12. The Papists confess that their Church hath not kept God's own written word without many hundred errours and so not all that is de fide p. 13. Therefore they must needs distinguish the Essentials of Christianity from other points Of Implicite belief in the Pope and Councils p. 13. c. II. Whether it was or is necessary to receive Christianity as from the Infallibility or Authority of the Pope and Papists or Councils p. 19. c. We have much more and surer Tradition for our Religion than that which the Papists would have us trust to 20. The difference of our Tradition from theirs Whether Rome or a Church there may not cease p. 22. Whether the Seat the Election or what doth prove the Pope to be St. Peter's successour p. 23. Whether Books or oral Tradition by Memory of all Generations be the surer preservative of the Faith p. 24. CHAP. II. THe Puritane is ambiguously named and falsly described p. 25. Of Imputed Righteousness p. 30. Puritanes not against external worship nor all Ceremonies p. 36. Of their Usage ibid. The Puritans judgment about Fasts Holy-days Ceremonies c. p. 38. The Papist writer knoweth not what the Puritans Religion is p. 40. The true Religion of a Puritane described p. 41 42. 1. The writer wrongeth his Relations 2. He declareth that he was before an ungodly perfidious Hypocrite and no true Puritane and therefore no wonder that he turned Papist p. 43. None but such can turn Papists without self Contradiction His slander of the Puritanes that they think Piety Charity Humility and other Christian Virtues not possible and necessary to salvation p. 45. CHAP. III. HIs hard Character of Prelatical Protestants p. 46. Many Nonconformists are Episcopal therefore not dislinguishable by that