you all dayes to the end of the world Therefore if they charge the Catholick Roman Church with Error they must say that either Christ was not of power to keep his Church from straying or that he wanted fidelity to make good his word Mat. 5.14 You are the light of the world A City that is set on an hill cannot be hid Mat. 16.19 Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven I pray name me the Church that was commonly counted the true Christian Church in which you remained and from which you are not departed Mat. 16.18 The Church cannot fail being builded upon a Rock nor needs no new Masons to rebuild her again 1 Tim. 4.1 St. Paul saith Certain will depart from the faith They went from us Whether did the Roman Church go from any other known Church or did any other go from her Satisfie your self and me in this I pray you Testimonies of the Fathers for the See of Rome THe Names of the Twelve Apostles are these the first Simon who is called Peter c. In which place Divine Epiphanius saith De Epiph. in Ancoratu That God knew the thoughts of hearts knoweth also who is worthy to be placed in the first place he hath chosen Peter that he might be the Head of his Diseiples St. Augustine saith of Peters Successors De Aug. contra Epist Parmenioni L. 1. c. 2. to the sitting in the Chair of the Roman Church the whole Christian world is subject Also Augustine elsewhere Aug. Epist 162. In the Roman Church alwayes flourished the Sovereignty of the Apostolical Chair The same in another place Number saith he the Priests of that same seat of St. Peter and see which of the Fathers succeed him for he is the Rock which the proud gates of Hell do not overcome St. Ambrose Rome saith he hath the principality of Apostolical Priesthood The Contents CHAP. I. Proving That a true visible Church may fall away CHAP. II. Of the Nature and kinds of Apostasie and of the Apostasies of the Church of Rome CHAP. III. Of the Nature of Heresie CHAP. IV. Of the Heresies of the Church of Rome eight particulars instanced CHAP. V. Of the Nature of Schism and of the Schisous of the Church of Rome both within her self and from other Churches CHAP. VI. Some places of Scripture for the inerrability of the Church of Rome answered CHAP. VII Of humane Testimonies for and against the Church of Rome CHAP. VIII An Appendix for the further illustration of some things which are but briefly hinted in the former Chapters A DEFENCE Of the Protestant Christian Religion against POPERY In Answer to a Discourse Intituled Of the one onely and singular onely one Catholick and Roman Faith CHAP. I. Proving That a true visible Church may fall away TO pass by the Rhetorick of the Title and the aptness of the phrase of singular onely one as an emphatical addition to the one onely and the consistence between Roman and Catholick and between singular and Catholick or universal How and in what respects of reason and what senses may be thought upon wherein the same thing may be called both Roman and Catholick both singular and universal The Discourse it self begins with unconuected Quotations of several choice portions of Holy Scripture And indeed so far as there is a cordial adherence and subjection of heart unto that rule among different parties and persuasions it will through the grace of Christ produce either union of Judgement or at least union of Brotherly affection and forbearance of love but what esteem the Church of Rome hath for the Holy Scriptures is well known She doth not subject her 〈◊〉 unto them And though you in this Discourse de Quote them as your Writers sometimes do yet if you be a true Roman Catholick it is not with any intent to subject your Church upto the Scripture and to advance the Scriptures above your Church but onely to deal with Hereticks as you call them at their own Weapons and to use the Scripture as a stepping-stone whereby to mount up your Church into the Throne of her pretended Supremacy and Inerrability as one would use a stirrup to get into the saddle wherein nevertheless your means hath an inconsistency with your end as will further appear before we come to a close of this Debate Your Argumentation from the Scriptures you recite begins thus DISCOURSE Now I hope it will not be deemed but that the Church of Rome was once a most pure excellent flourishing and Mother-Church ut supra Rom. 1. ANSWER It will not be denyed but is readily granted by us That there was once a True Church in Rome that is a Congregation of saithful men wherein the pure Word of God was Preached and the Sacraments duly ministred according to the Ordinance of Christ which is the description of the visible Church in the Thirty nine Articles Artic. 19. And that this Church which was in Rome might be instrumental as Churches in populous Cities often are to propagate the Faith and plant Churches in other places is not improbable But that she had any superlative Purity or any motherly Power and Authority over and above other Churches is part of the thing in Question between her and us The Church of Corinth the Church of Ephesus of Thessalenica of Smyrna of Philadelphia were once pure flourishing Churches as well as the Church of Rome What may be truly said of her may be truly said of all other Gospel Churches in their first plantation and constitution by the Apostles yet it doth not follow That ever they were Mother-Churches in your sense or that because they were pure at first that therefore they are so still for visible Churches may degenerate and apostatize though the Mystical Church that is such as are in Christ by the spirit of saving Faith cannot wholly fall off from him yet such as are in him onely by external and visible profession may Jer. 2.21 I had planted thee a noble vine wholly a right seed how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me How is the faithful City become an Harlot It was full of judgment righteousness lodged in it but now murtherers Isa 1. 21. Whereupon a Church thus forsaking God God may forsake them He may discovenant and un-church a people and give them a Bill of Divorce and withdraw the signs and tokens of his love and presence He may break the staffe of beauty and cut it asunder that he may break the Covenant he hath made with all the people He may also break the other staffe of bands and brotherhood between Judah and Israel Zach. 11.10 14. He may give them a Bill of Divorce Jer. 3.8 When for all the causes whereby back-sliding Israel committed Adultery I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not God may say unto a people Le-ruhamab and Lo-ammi I
Predecessors having itching ears as the Apostle Paul speaks have heaped up unto themselves Teachers according to their own desires Not that they might learn from them what they ought to do but that by their study and craft a way might be found out whereby it might be lawful to do what they list From this fountain holy father as from the Trojan horse have broke forth so many abuses into the Church of God and such grievous Diseases under which we now see her labouring almost unto desperation of recovery The Popes Infallibility it seems was no Article of their Faith Then they proceed to instance in sundry particulars Page 5. deâ—â—ceps as Caralessenes in the Ordination of Clergy-men putting men both ignorant and vicious into Holy Orders bestowing Benefices and Ecclesiastical promotions upon them Reservations of Pensions changing and chopping of Livings Impropriations Pluralities Non-residences Exemptions and Impediments laid upon Bishops in governing their Flocks and punishing of Sinners The great degeneracy and corruptions of Religious Orders Simony and filthy Lucre in the exercise of the Keyes The scandals between Monks and Nuns Vain Philosophy in Schools and Universities teaching Impiety whereas say they Ostenderent infirmitatem luminis naturalis in Quaestionibus pertinentibus ad Deum Page 12. They ought to shew the weakness of the light of Nature in disquisitions about the things of God They instance also Dispensations for Marriage within the degrees forbidden Page 16. absolving Simoniacks In hac etiam urbe meretrices ut matronae incedunt habitant etiam infignes aedes corrigendus bic turpis abusus In this City of Rome say they Whores go up and down as honourably as chaste Matrons and they dwell in sumptuous Houses this shameful abuse ought to be Reformed These are some of the main Heads of their Advice Tollantur say they obtestamur sanctitatem tuam Page 11. per sanguinem Christi quo redemit sibi Ecclesiam suam eamque lavit eadem sanguine toliantur hae maculae We do beseech and obtest your Holiness by the blood of Christ wherewith he hath redeemed his Church unto himself washing it with his own blood we beseech you let these spots and blemishes be taken away But the Pope would reform nothing but was like the deaf Adder which stoppeth her ear which will not hearken to the voyce of the charmers though they charm never so wisely We would have healed Babylon but she could not be healed forsake her and let us go every one into his own countrey for her judgment reacheth unto heaven and is lifted up even to the skies Psal 58.4 5. Jer. 51.9 The other counsel was given to Pope Julius the Third by three Bishops met at Bononia It is intituled Consilium quorundam Episcoporum Bononiae congregatorum quod de ratione stabiliendae Romanae Ecclesiae Julio 3. Pont. Mux datum est It is subscribed Bononiae Octob. 20. Anno 1553. Sauctitatis tuae servi creaturae devotissimae Your Holinesses most devoted servants and creatures Vincentius de durantibus Epise Thermularum Brixiensis Aegidius Falceta Episco Caprulanus Gerardus Busdagrus Episc Thessalonicensis It was first published by Vergerius after his conversion It is mentioned by Johannes Wolphius in his Memorabilia And lastly Re-printed at London out of Mr. Crashaws Library Anno 1613. These Advisers like meer carnal Polititians do observe horrid Degeneraties and Abuses but instead of counsels tending to Reformation they mend the matter so as to make it much worse their proposals aiming at no other scope but meerly how their sins and corrupt state which they love and like so well may be continued and preserved and how Light and Reformation may be kept out some of their words being rendred in English in the Answer above Chapter 3. But most of the Latin omitted for Brevities sake I shall here subjoin it with some more also of their own words for the Readers more ample satisfaction Thus then they speak Cum nos multum ac diu cogitavissemus quisnam esset gravissimae hujus controversiae status tandem hunc esse deprehendimus Lutherani Symboli Apostolorum Niceni Athanasii articulos omnes recipiunt confitentur Folio 1. Atque id verissimum est Neque enim inficiari oportet praesertim inter nos quod adeo verum esse omnes intelliginius Itidem Lutherani negant velle se aliam doctrinam admittere praeter unicam illam quae prophetas Christum Apostolos authores habet optarentque ut paucissimis illis contenti essemus Et priscas Ecclesias imitaremur nec de recipiendis ullis traditionibus cogitaremus Folio 2. quas non constat luce meridianâ clariuÌ„s fuisse à Domino nostro Jesu Christo abipsis Apostolis dictatas atque institutas Ita sentiunt adversarii nostri Nos contra seculi opinionem beatitudinis tuae volumus credi id quod in Decreto tertiae Sessionis Concilium Tridentinum statuit nempe Christum atque ipsius Apostolos multo plura tum ad mores tum ad fidem pertinentia docuisse quam ea quae scripta sunt Et tametsi hoc aperte probare non possimus nam planè fatemur inter nos tantum habemus conjecturas quasdam tamen confitemur esse verum quia sic tenet Romana Ecclesia Hic est in summa cardo totius controversiae hinc tumultus illi hinc illa contentio Nam Apostolorum temporibus ut verum tibi fateamur sed silentio opus est vel aliquot annis post ipsos Apostolos nulla vel papatus vel Cardinalatus mentio erat nec amplissimos illos reditus Episcopatuum Sacerdotiorum fuisse constat nec templa tantis sumptibus exstruebantur nec erant Monasteria nec Priores nec Abbates multo vero minus hae doctrinae hae leges hae consuetudines sed neque imperium illud quod in Gentes Nationes hodiè obtinemus Quin omnes omnium Ecclesiarum Ministri Romanae non minus quam caeterarum ultro Regibus principibus magistratibus parebant Nos Re probe examinatâ comperimus hanc Ecclefiae gloriam authoritatem potentiam tunc primum exortam esse cum in ea sagaces solertes Episcopi praeesse caepêrunt qui per occasionem à Caesaribus contenderent ut suâ authoritate at potentiâ primatum summam in alias Ecclesias potestatem penes hanc sedem esse statuerent Praeterea Consilium nostrum esset ut tua sanctitas Cardinalibus Episcopis praeciperet ut Logicam Sophisticam Artemque Scholasticam Metaphysicam Folio 5. item decretales sex Clementinas extravagantes regulas Cancellariae in sua quisque civitate legiae doceri publice curent Utinam legendis hujusmodi libris homines ubique diligentius incubuissent Neque enim res nostrae in hujusmodi deploratissimum statum adductae essent Sed hi contemptis melioribus istis disciplinis Graecae Hebraicae linguae operam dare mox Bibliorum
will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel for ye are not my people and I will not be your God Hos 1.6 Plead with your mother plead for she is not my wife neither am I her husband Hos 2.2 God may remove the candlestick out of its place Rev. 2.5 You see in all these Scriptures what the Lord hath threatned and done to other Churches in dayes of old which as it utterly overthrows any such imagination That a True Church cannot fall away so it shews That your Church claims such a priviledge as never any Church enjoyed Go to Shiloh where I set my name at first Jer. 7.12 14. Go to Jerusalem and see what God hath done unto it for the wickedness of his people Israel Never any Church enjoyed such a priviledge as yours pretendeth to of Indefectibility and Impossibility of losing their Church estate and priviledges It was Christs own threatning to the Jewes The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof Matth. 21.43 Yea the Lord hath denounced the like Threatnings and brandished the same flaming Sword against the Church of Rome in particular and that from this very instance and example of the Jewish Church before mentioned Kem. 11.17 18 19 20 21 22. And if some of the branches were broken off and thou being a wild Olive tree wert grassed in among them Boast not against the branches which your Church doth against all the Churches in the World pretending to such transcendent priviledges and prerogatives above all other Sister-Churches But if thou boast thou bearest not the root but the root thee Thou wilt say the branches were broken off that I might be graffed in Well because of unbelief they were broken off and thou standest by faith Be not high-minded but fear This is written to Her that saith She cannot erre For if God spared not the natural branches take heed lest be also spare not thee Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God on them which fell severity but towards thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness otherwise thou also shalt be out off You see he threatneth Her with cutting off And he hath executed these his righteous Threatnings because She hath not continued in his goodness therefore he hath cut Her off and given Her a bill of Divorce having declared Her in the Scriptures of Truth to be Babylon and Her Head Antichrist even Babylan the Great the Mother of Harlots a monstrous Beast the principal object of all the vyals of his wrath And her Head a false Prophet a Star fullen from Heaven a persecuting Horn wearing out the Saints of the most High as it is written in these and the like Scriptures Daniel 7. and Dan. cap. 11. vers 36 c. 2 Thess 2. 1 Tim. 4.1 c. And it is the chief scope of the Book of the Revelation to discover and reveal Antichrist in every Chapter from the sixth to the twentieth This is something that doth some way concern this great Apostasie in all which Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament She may read as it were the Letters of her Divorce The Lord who was Her Husband having published them and left them upon Record to all the Churches that they may take notice that She is not his Wife nor he Her husband and that they may do as is written Revel 18 4. Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of bet plagues And accordingly we for our parts in obedience to this command have protested against Her and are come out from Her and our defence must be without shifts and subterfuges by making good the charge against Her What can She say for Her self How will She clear and vindicate Her self from all this fin and shame You attempt it under three Heads of Apostasic Haresie and Schism and I must follow you in your own method though it be none of the best But whether you took your Discourses hereof out of Fiat Lux for there they are verbatim there is more than a meer coincidence of matter or that Fiat Lux had learned them privately from you and then published them in Print suppressing your name I leave it to him and you to dispute that point and to your infallible Judge to determine it and judge between you Both he and you speak thus CHAP. II. Of the Nature and Kinds of Apostasie and of the Apostasies of the Church of Rome DISCOURSE This Church could not cease to be so but She must fall either by Apostasie Heresie or Schism ANSWER THis Enumeration is very defective and confused in that it makes Apostasie one particular species or kind of falling away whereas Apostasie and falling away is the same thing the one being a Greek word and the other English for Apostasie is contrary to the True Christian Religion which is the tying of man to God again from re and ligo after his fall in the bonds of Faith and Love or obedience of Love The Scripture everywhere makes these the two parts of True Religion 2 Tim. 1.13 Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 3.9 Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience Hence therefore there be two wayes of Apostasie viz. either from the Faith of the Gospel by fundamental ignorance and heresie and unbelief or from Gospel-obedience which is as large as the rule thereof of which David saith Thy Commandments are exceeding broad Psal 119.96 Therefore under this head comes Idolatry Superstition Schism Witchcraft Perjury Persecution Sedition Murther Whoredom Theft Equivocation c. Men may Apostatize and fa'l away from God by making shipwrack of the faith and by putting away a good conscience 1 Tim. 1.19 The Apostle speaks of some who profess they know God but in werks they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate Titus 1.16 But this kind of Apostasie by evil works and scandalous sins is omitted and forgotten which is another Error in your distribution though it is that which your Church and Popes are deeply guilty of notwithstanding all your boastings of your good works and merits and supererogations with God The sixth Trumpet instanceth in Idolatries Murthers Sorceries Fornications Thefts as Sins that do abound among you Revel 9. ult And all Histories bear witness to it The corruption of Life as well as Doctrine was so great before the Protestant Reformation so many the offences abuses and scandals and such the degenerated notoriety of them that as it was the common desire of Sober men in Luthers time that there might be a free and general Council in order to a general Reformation of the Church which all men observed to be wofully degenerated So there were Nine Select Cardinals and Prelates of your own Church Câ—sil Delect Card. Praed De Emendanda
They had learned to say our father Jacob as well as you can say Saint Peter John 4.12 So in like manner the Church of Rome though She hath not Renounced the very Name and Title of Christianity yet She is deeply guilty of Apostasie from God divers other wayes both in her Head and Members She is and may be called an Apostate Church as having fallen away from the Faith and Doctrine of the Gospel by fundamental Unbelief Ignorance and Herefie and from Gospel obedience by the most abominable profaneness of life by the grossest kind of sins and scandals against all the Ten Commandments concerning which you prudently forbear to say any thing but concerning the former head viz. Apostasie from the Faith Your Defence is this CHAP. III. Of the Nature of Heresie DISCOURSE Heresie is an adbesion to some private and singular Opinion or Error in Faith contrary to the general and approved Doctrine of the Church If Rome did ever adhere to any such Opinion c. By what General Council was it ever condemned Which of the Fathers ever wrote against Her Or by what Authority was She ever Reproved ANSWER This Description of Heresie and the Queries grounded thereupon as they are not agreeable either to the Scriptural or Ecclesiastical sense and use of the Word so they are indeed no better than a begging of the thing in question between you and us For you know we hold That the Rule whereby to judge of Heresie is the Scripture and not the Opinions of Churches of Fathers Mr. Gales Idea of Jansenism Histor dogmat Part. 2. Sect. 28. p. 157. or Councils Tertullian makes it the Badge of an Heretick to decline the Scriptures he saith They are Noctue Lucifugae Scripturarum Night Owls that do not love the light of that Sun yea some of your own Church who are the pars sanion thereof if yet they be of you have said That it is an Herefie to judge of Heresies without the Word of God So the Jansenists And the Reason why the generality of Papists are so desirous to derline the Scripture is because they are conscious to themselves that it is against them as Mr. White hath well observed 〈◊〉 of Brisom White 's way to the Church Sect. 7. Numb 8. Bristow Motiv ult Canus loc lib. 3. cap. 3. Confil. Episc Bononi Congreg Anno 1553. De stabilienda Roman Eccles Fol. 5. who teaching his Scholar how to deal with a Protestant 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proud Heretick out of his weak and false Castle of unely Scripturs into the plain field of Traditions Miracles Councils and Fathers and then like Cowards They shall not stand Another Papist saith There is more strength is confine Hereticks in Traditions than in the Scriptures yea all Disputations with them must be determined by Traditions Those Reverend Fathers of your Church that met at Bononia by the Popes appointment to consult of the means for establishing of the Church of Rome or healing the Wound of the Daughter of Babel in the counsel they gave to Pope Julius the Third They do confess Certè vix umbram quandam retinemus in nostris Ecclesus ejus Doctrinae Disciplinae quae Apostolorum temporibus floruerunt prorsùs aliam accersivimus The truth is we searce retain a shadow in our Churches of that Doctrine and Discipline which flourished in the Apostles times but we have brought in altogether another There was no mention Fol. 2. say they for we may confess the Truth to your Holiness but it must he kept close either of Popes or Cardinals in the Apostles times nor of some years after There were no Monasteries nor Priors nor Abbots much less were there these Doctrines these Laws these Customs no nor that Empire which now we enjoy over several people and Nations They say further That the not studying the Canon Law and Sophistry and Metaphysicks c. Fol 5. But learning the Greek and Hebrew Tongues and examining Translations by the Greek and Hebrew verity hath been the cause and fountain of the late decay of the Church of Rome and of the deplorable state and condition of her Affairs at this day And finally which they reserve to the last place as the weightiest of all their ghostly counsels They advise That as little as may be of the Gospel Fol. penult be read amongst the people in their vulgar Tongue For hic ille in summa est liber qui praeter caeteros hasce nobis tempestates acturbines conciliavit quibus prope abrepti sumus For this is in brief That Book which above all others hath raised and brought upon us these storms and whirlewinds by which we are almost carried away headlong Thus speak they It appears by all this wherefore it is that you love not the Scripture even because it restifies against you For he that doth evil hateth the light and cometh not to the light lest his deeds should be reproved John 3.16 20. As to the word Heresie for your mistakes call upon me to open it a little if we look at the notation of it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capio eligo so it signifies any thing of choice or option as Galen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Methodical and the Empirical way of Physick when applyed to matters of Religion it imports in the largest signification any Sect or way of Religion that a man makes choice of whether true or false So the Sect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Sadduces Acts 5.17 the Sect of the Pharisees Acts 15.5 called the most exquisite Sect of our Religion Acts 26.5 the Sect of the Nazarens Acts 24.5 the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herefie in all these places But it is frequently restrained by a Synecdothe to signifie a false Religion as some other words ex gr Tyrannus magnus c. which are commonly taken in deteriorem partem Thus Epiphanius seemeth to take it in his Book of Eighty Heresies where he numbers Barbarism Seythism Stoicism Platonism c. amongst Heresies But it is commonly restrained yet more by a further Synecdoche to such Errors as overthrow the Foundation and are obstinately maintained against Conviction by persons pretending in part to the True Religion and so we do not call Pagans Hereticks but Infidels This sense of the word seems to be grounded on 1 Cor. 3.10 11. and 2 Pet. 2.1 and Titus 3.10 11. where the Apostles do distinguish of Doctrines comparing some to Hay and Stubble yet retaining the true foundation But there is another sort which they call damnable Heresies or Heresies of perdition Soul-destroying Heresies the Assertors whereof are subverted or overturned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from off the true foundation and self-condemned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as sinning against their own light Now the written Word of God being the onely Rule of True Religion hence nothing ought to be rejected under the Notion of Heresie but what the Scripture doth
Church-destroying such a God-provoking sin as was prophesied of her in the sixth Trumpet Revel 9.13 20. The Learned Raynolds hath spoken very convictingly to you concerning this sin in his Book De Idololatria Romanae Ecclesiae And so hath Mede of the Apostasie of the latter Times 6. All your seditious Principles against Kings and Magistrates exempting your Clergy exalting your Pope above them The number of those you thus exempt as sous of Belial from the yoke hath been estimated to amount in spacious Popish Countries to a very great proportion even to an Hundred thousand able fighting Men in one Nation which brings to mind that expression of your own Pope Gregory That Antichrist hath an Army of Priests to fight his Battels Rex superbiae prope est quod diciâ—nesas est Greg. Lib. 4. Epist 38. Sacerdotum praeparatus est exercitus qui cervici militant elatioms c. The King of pride saith he is at the door and which is dreadful to be spoken there is an Army of Priests ready to fight under that neck of pride which lifteth up it self c. The fifth Trumpet proclaimeth that he hath a black Guard of Scorpion-locusts who know no other King but him whom the Holy Ghost hath named according to his Nature Abaddon and Apollyon the great Destroyer the Son of Perdition the Man of Sin Revel 9. ver 3 11. And as you thus rob and spoil Kings of their Subjects so you make Kings themselves Subjects to the Pope exalting his Throne with Lucifer above the stars of God Isa 14.13 And giving him such a barbarous power over them that it is a wonderful and unaccountable thing that ever any King or Magistrate should be a Papist no account can be given of it but the strange corruption of Nature neither their Crowns nor Lives being secure but meerly at the Popes courtesie upon the principles of that Religion which gives a forreign Priest power to depose them and give away their Kingdoms But the Apostle Peter a great Apostle and whom you pretend a kindness and a respect for he exhorts us to submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake to the King as supreme 1 Pet. 2.13 But not a word of the Popes Supremacy And the Apostle Paul though an Apostle yet did appeal unto Caesar as knowing that to be the supreme Tribunal on earth in subordination unto God for God alone is chief and the Magistrates power subordinate unto Gods Acts 25.10 11. 5.29 And he exhorteth every soul which includeth the Pope if he hath an humane soul to be subject to the higher powers Rom. 13. ver 1. to 7. There may be passive obedience when men cannot act therefore we whom you call Hereticks have set it down as amongst the Articles of our Faith that Infidelity or difference in Religion doth not make void the Magistrates just and legal Authority nor free the people from their obedience to him from which Ecclesiastical persons are not exempted much less hath the Pope any power or Jurisdiction over them in their Dominions or over any of their people and least of all to deprive them of their Dominions or Lives if he shall judge them to be Hereticks or upon any other pretence whatsoever yea some of your own have confessed That from the beginning it was not so 〈…〉 Julio 3â—â— 2. B. Quin omnes emnium Ecclesiarum Ministri Romanae non minus quam caeterarum ultro Regibus Principibus ac Magistratibus parebant But all the Ministers of all the Churches yea of the Church of Rome as well as any other were willingly obedient unto Kings Princes and Magistrates So those Bononian Fathers of yours before mentioned How and by what means Morney Myst. Iniq. per totum Fox Acts and Monum Vol. 1. pa. 1018. and by what steps and degrees the Pope rose from such mean beginnings to such an height of worldly power and grandeur to tread upon the Necks of Kings and Princes Guiccardin hath fully shewed in his digression towards the end of the fourth Book of his Histories which you have honestly stollen away out of some Editions but in some others it is restored Morney also speaks fully to it as being a great part of his scope and so doth Mr. Fox 7. Your sanguinary Spirit and Principles towards such as differ from and testifie against you Wherein there is not only an evil in practice but your practice being justified as lawful by your principle it is two sins conjoyned it is both Murther and Heresie and most remote from the Spirit of the Gospel which is a Spirit of love and sweetness yea it is a principal character of Antiohrist and mark of the Beast Revel 13.7 and 17.6 The Revelation often mentions these two sins the Sorceries and Fornications of your false Worship and your shedding innocent and precious blood as the two grand procuring causes of your Ruine See Revel 18.2 ult and Revel 19.2 It is Ramus his Observation that great Light and faithful Martyr of Jesus Christ whom you slew with Thirty thousand more in your great Parisian Massacre in the year 1572. P Rami Commentar de Religione Christiana Lib. 4. cap. 19. pag. 546. It is his Observation and Lamentation How that Julian the Apostate could observe and testifie concerning the Christian Religion in those primitive times That it came to be so largely diffused and propagated by means of the good turns and offices of love which Christians did towards all men of what Religion or persuasion soever But we in these dayes we Romanists are of such a spirit that if our Neighbour do not consent and concur and run along with us in every superstitious practice and opinion we presently burn him alive Julianus Apostata ad Arsacium Cappadociae Pontificem scripsit Christianam Religionem tam late propagatam esse propter Christianorum erga omnet cujusvis Religionis mortales beneficentiam Nos vero nisi de cujussibet superstitionis opinione proximus noster consentiat igne vivum protinus exurimus You have slain as some compute a greater number of Christians fince the first setting up of your Inquisition than there be Papists at this day in the World Quis talia fando Temperet à Lachrymis Who that hath either the grace of a Christian or but the common bowels of a man can speak of such things without bleeding Lamentations Alstedins observes That in the space of Forty years Alsted Encyclop Chronol cap. 8. ad Annum 1540. from the year 1540 there were Nine hundred thousand Martyrs in Europe Should we Travel into Forreign Affairs and former Ages I might tell you of your bloody Croisadoes against Christians instead of Turks against the Waldenses and Abbingenses of old as well of late your Spanish Inquisitions to which King Philip the second delivered up his own eldest Son and Heir Charles to be butchered and murthered by them for suspition of savouring the Low-Countrey Hereticks Your French Massacres and
Thyestaean Feasts and Nuptials at which you have drank more Blood than Wine The barbarous Spanish Butcheries in the Netherlands And with how much blood your Romish Faith was planted in the West-Indies to the infinite scandal and dishonour of the Name of Christ even in the blood of Nineteen Millions of poor innocent Natives as Acosta the Jesuite a Bird of your Nest as some have Noted Relates the story But to come nearer home there were near about Three hundred slain and burnt alive in England in Queen Maries time And in the late Massacre and Rebellion here in Ireland there were about Three hundred thousand English Protestants murthered by you whereof above one half above One hundred and fifty thousand in the first six Months of that Rebellion most perfidiously and treacherously in a time of Peace without ever declaring War and without any provocation given These be some of the Heresies and false Doctrines of your Church Rev. 17.3.5 some of the Blasphemies written in the Forehead of Mystical Babylon which she owneth and maintaineth in an open and avowed manner 8. But I have not here mentioned her consequential Errors because they are innumerable For thus there is no sound part in her but from the sole of the foot even to the crown of the head there is nothing but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores Thus she is at defiance even with common sense and reason she will not believe the report of three senses in the business of the carnal presence For as the Apostle calls it This bread this bread this bread three times after the Consecration 1 Cor. 11.26 27 28. So the eye saith it is bread the taste the touch say the same she sees it feels it and tastes it but yet she believes there is no bread there which is to lay aside the use of reason and to turn Sott and Sceptick The madness of which delusion did so scandalize Averroes the Arabian Philosopher that when they asked him upon his Death-bed What Religion he dyed in He gave this Answer Quia Christiani manducant Deum suum adorant quod comedunt sit anima mea cum Philosophis Because the Christians eat their God with their teeth and worship that which they eat let my soul be with the Philosophers But having heard of the glorious Name and Fame of Christ and Christianity it had been his Duty and would have been his Happiness to have made a thorow search into the Fountain of that Religion which is the Scriptures of Truth and there he might have found that this abominable Idolatry is no part at all of the Christian Religion but of the Antichristian Apostasie of the Mother of Harlots yea there is hardly any Article of the Christian Faith which she doth not some way or other by evident and unavoidable consequence corrupt and subvert As for instance she denies by consequence that Christ is come in the flesh which is one of the Characters of Antichrist 1 John 4.3 She denies the Reality of the Humane Nature of Christ by her Transubstantiation for she leaves him only a Phantastick or Imaginary body having not the true Nature and dimensions of a body yea she doth impugn and subvert by true and sound consequence of Reason that great Fundamental of One God As was ingeniously made out by an English Gentleman a Protestant in discourse with a Roman Catholick thus That is not the true Religion that doth not acknowledge One God but Popery doth not acknowledge One God For did you not pray to the Virgin Mary this morning The Roman Catholick replyed Yes To which the Protestant made this Return And did not Five thousand pray to her at the same time The Papist answered Yes doubtless From whence the Protestant inferred Then either you prayed like a Fool or else she heard you all and knows all your hearts but this is to make her a God These therefore are some of the Roman Heresies Her dethroning the Scripture The Popes Infallibility Conversion by Free-will Justification by Works Idolatry and Superstition Her seditious Principles Her sanguinary Principles Her consequential Errors Yet this is but a general and brief induction of them But now do you ask Who ever testified against her Proh pudorem tuum Although if no man had yet that is no sufficient evidence of her Innocency the cause doth not depend upon this But yet withall you know if you know any thing of the Histories of the Church in former times That the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome have been testified against all along by faithful men whom God hath raised up from Age to Age to be the Witnesses of his Truth for the Lord gave his two Witnesses light and grace and power to prophesie in sackcloth 1260 dayes Revel 11.3 There was a Woman in the Wilderness when Antichrist was upon the Throne Revel 12.14 There were Saints whom the Beast did persecute and war against during all the time of his Reign Revel 13.7 Would you know their names 〈◊〉 you may see some of them in divers of our Divines and Writers who have taken the pains to present you with Instances and Catalogues of some of the chief and most eminent And common Reason will easily suggest unto you That if there were so many left upon Record there must needs be many more whose names the Histories of former times have not preserved and delivered down to posterity But you may see a competent number of Witnesses against you in the Centurists of Magdeburg in Flacius Illyricus his Catalogus testium veritatis Morney his History of the Papacy or Mystery of Iniquity Fox his Book of Martyrs Raynolds his Conference with Hart. Sundry of our Expositors on the Revelation See Mr. Arthur Dent on Chap. 11. White 's way to the Church Vsher against Maloone And of the Religion anciently professed by the Irish and British and de statu successione Eccles Brittanicarum Yea your own Bellarmine giveth some account of those that have even from the primitive times opposed and impugned the Primacy of the Church of Rome though he doth it briefly and defectively enough for he omits besides other things all the African Bishops and Councils Bell Praefat. in libros de Pontif. This may suffice at present as to the Errors and Heresies of your Church Your next endeavour is to defend her from the charge of Schism Let us proceed in the strength and grace of Christ to consider that also CHAP. V. Of the Nature of Schism and of the Schisms of the Church of Rome both within her self and from other Churches DISCOURSE SChism is a departure or division from the Vnity of the Church whereby the band and communion held with some former Church is broken and dissolved If ever the Church of Rome divided Her self by Schism from any other body of faithful Christians or broke communion or went forth from the society of any elder Church I pray satisfie your self and me in these particulars
have had some glimpse and aim thereat so that when all accounts are cast up assuredly it will be found That we have more cause to acknowledge and admire the grace and power of Christ in acting and enabling his servants to see so much and go so far in those dark and difficult times then to stumble at the dispensation of his Providence because they did not see every thing Neither have you for your parts either cause or colour to offend at these sentiments of ours concerning the Fathers when your own Petavius can say Petav. Animadv in Epiph Haeres 69 Arriano rum p. 285. Plerisque veterum patrum usu venit ut ante Errorum atque Haereseon Originem quibus Christianae fidei capita singillatim oppugnabantur nondum satis illustrata ac patefactâ rei veritate quaedam suis scriptis asperserint quae cum orthodoxae fidei regulâ minime consentiant It is a common thing saith he with most of the ancient Fathers that before the rise of Errors and Heresies whereby the Articles of the Christian Faith were particularly oppugned the truth of the thing being not fully enough cleared and laid open they did intermingle some things in their Writings which do not agree with the rule of the Orthodox Faith Thus he yea there is nothing more common with your Writers than to cry the Fathers either up or down meerly as may serve their turn and that sometimes in term course enough Patres quos se venerari simulat saith Beza concerning your Church Palam tamen imperitis illudens conculcat Beza in 1 Tim. 3.15 Consid 2. You may do well to consider yet further That the Fathers did bear their Testimony so far as their Light served against the corruptions they saw coming in though in some things which it pleased God in his unsearchable wisdom to hide from them they did run with the Cry and say as others said yet in other things they bear witness against you And therefore it were easie to retaliate and requite you with as many Testimonies of the Ancients on the other hand against the See of Rome as you have brought for it You may see a little handful of them in Calvins Preface to his Institutions As to those speeches you quote as sounding for you out of Epiphanius Austin and Ambrose you seem to understand their words in a deeper sense than ever they intended them for what though the Ancients sometimes called Peter the Chief the First the Head the Prince of the Apostles yet these and such like Metaphors may be understood in such a modified sense as to import no more but only a precedency of order and not a supremaof power the former whereof is granted by our Divines to Peter but will stand you in no stead and the latter you cannot prove though if you could yet this also would not do your business for suppose Peter had been as great a King as Solomon yet what is this to the Pope any more than to the Turk or to the King of Spain But it will be difficult for you to evince with cogency of demonstration That the preference the Fathers give him doth amount to any further or higher power than that of the Foreman of a Jury or the Speaker of the House of Parliament or the Moderator of a Synod who hath a preheminence of Order but not of Power and Jurisdiction above the rest of his Colleagues What say you to that of Jerom Ut Plato Princeps Philosophorum Hieron 2. lib. advers Pelag. ita Petrus Apostolorum fuit As Plato was Prince of the Philosophers so was Peter of the Apostles But Plato had no power of Government or Jurisdiction over other Philosophers but onely an eminency of esteem and respect I might here also tell you as to Epiphanius but that I hasten to a close that the Testimony you alledge is not in his Anchoratus but in his Panarium contra Haereses As also what a Testimony he hath born against you concerning your Idolatry Vide infta Cap 8. Append. and how slightly your own Writers such as Canus Baronius Petavius are pleased to speak of him As to Austin the first sentence you quote from him as it doth not occur in the place you quote where I have searched for it so neither indeed do I remember any such expression of his in any other place The next wherein he speaks of Peter as the Rock I wonder you would quote when I presume you are not ignorant that he hath put it among his Retractations and given a sounder exposition of the Rock concerning Christ himself Retract lib. 1. cap. 21. Dixi de Apostolo Petro quod in illo tanquam in Petra fundata sit Ecclesia Sed scio me postea sic exposuisse ut super hunc intelligeretur quem confessus est Petrus Non enim dictum est illi tu es Petra sed tues Petrus Petra autem erat Christus And again Serm. 13. in Matth. p. 22. Edit Lovan Aedificabo Ecclesiam meam id est super meipsum filium Dei vivi aedificabo Ecclesium meam Nam volentes homines aedificari super bomines dicebant ego quidem sum Pauli ego autem Apollo ego vero Cephae And that his Principatus Apostolici Sacerdotis Epis 162. and whatever other expression of his may seem to carry a benign aspect towards the Church of Rome must be understood with some temper and allay is undeniably evident by the famous Testimonies constantly born by him and by the rest of the African Bishops and Councils against the Incroachments and Usurpations of that aspiring and devouring See of Rome Can. 22 The Milevitan Council decreed Ad Transmarina qui putaverit appellandum à nullo intra Africam in communionem suscipiatur If any man shall appeal beyond the Seas let none in Africk receive him to communion And in Cyprian's time upon occasion of Stephanus Bishop of Rome his interposing on the behalf of Basilides and Martialis who had been deposed for sacrificing to Idols Cyprian and other Bishops in Council with him decreed Cypr. Epist 55. Pamel Ut unius cujusque causa illic audiatur ubi est crimen admissum illic agere causam suam ubi accusatores habere testes sui criminis possit That every ones cause should be heard in the place of the Fact committed and there manage his cause where the Defendant may have both accusers and witnesses face to face So little understood they of the Popes Supremacy As to Ambrose the Books you quote De Vocatione Gentium are generally concluded by all Learned men both Papists and Protestants to be none of his but some ascribe them to Eucherius Lugdunensis Bellarmine to Prosper yet Vossius thinks they are none of Prospers as differing from his principles and so thinks J. Latius of them as differing from his stile Libros de Vocatione Gentium saith Rivet sentiunt fere omnes non esse