the promoters of them did also promote their authority and strengthen their hands against the Godly and most serious part of the Church But the most usual causes of errors are ignorance of the Scriptures and of the principles of religion founded on them which in the primitive times had a great occasion given it by the prejudicate opinions that new Converts brought from Judaisme and Paganisme and from the new Testament not being fully written in a considerable time and the several books thereof not gathered into one volume in a long space after and chiefly corrupt affections Men will imbrace errors because they love not the truth Vse 1. This sheweth the necessity of adhering to the Scripture and of a standing Ministry If we stick not to the Scripture the pretence of the Spirit and Traditions will lead us into a wilderness where there is no end Heathens Mahometans Papists and all Enthusiasts will distract us by their several and contrary pretensions And if there be not a standing and learned Ministry Apocryphal Scriptures and false interpretations of Scripture will easily beguile the unskilful and hinder the edification of the more wise 2. The Papist's brags of infallibility of the Pope or Church and the necessity of it to the foundation of our faith is as foolish as it is untrue The Apostles and Apostolical men were infallible and yet this will not prevent errors and Heresies of the highest nature either in their own or in the next succeeding ages An infallible head or guide will not secure the Church from errors and divisions unless all the people be infallible likewise certainly able to discern the truth declared to them and perfectly free from all evil affections which may hinder their receiving and submitting to the truth 3. It is no Wonder to see errors and divisions in these last days of the Church sith they were in the first While men are subject to ignorance and evil affections there will be both errors and divisions and if we go to the Church of Rome to avoid all errors and Schisms because they boast of such Unity which was never promised nor long enjoyed by any Church we shall but do like Children that tear many little holes in a garment into one great one that comprehends them all and more and cannot be repaired Obs 2. It is certainly foretold that there should be an Apostasie in the Church The same Apostle almost in the same words foretels it 1 Tim. 4.1 The spirit speaks expresly that some shall depart from the faith The first Christians might be apt to expect the coming of Christ and their everlasting rest to be at hand from the love and joy they had conceived upon their first receiving the Gospel but they are here told that happy time is not so nigh There must come a departure of many from the faith first and many contests and persecutions should ensue thence and therefore they should arm themselves with patience to a conflict before they must expect the Crown When God made the world he made it wonderful great and large and stored it with almost infinite variety of creatures to set forth his own Majesty he hath also continued it some thousands of years with as great variety of providences in his governing of it to shew his manifold wisdom power mercy and justice and what will be the wonderful transactions of the world to come throughout eternity to set forth the glory of the â—ernal God no creature can conceive In like manner when our Lord came from Heaven to purchase a Church to serve him it was not quickly to expire but to conflict with the world and the Devil with enemies without and within through many changes and vicissitudes a considerable time and at last through faith and patience to inherit the promises It was long that the Church continued under the bondage of the Law and there were many changes and declinings of it at several times under the Judges and Kings of Judah but there was one great Apostasie of the Ten tribes under Jeroboam which ended in the ruin of that State and people Such a departure was there to be in the Christian Church signified here by the indeterminate word There shall come a departure or Apostasie for the falling off of a few particular persons was no strange thing but happened in every age Now such Apostasies are permitted 1. To punish the ingratitude of men for the Gospel Because they receive not the love of the truth because Christ and his Gospel are not welcome to the generality of men but any or no religion would content them as well if they might have outward peace and prosperity therefore Christ suffers them to be inticed with Errors and Heresies to their own destruction which at last bring publick calamities and ruin 2. To punish the Hypocrisie of others Some pretend great zeal and affection in the peace of the Church which is either meerly pretended for worldly interest or but a light and transient passion as in the stony ground who can never be perswaded to be zealous and rooted Christians Matth. 13.20 therefore when they have been tryed a convenient time opportunities of backsliding are sufferred to come to discover and shame them 3. To manifest and honour those that are sound 1 Cor. 11.18 19. There must be heresies among you that they which be approved may be made manifest among you When peace and truth meet together the sound and best Christians are unknown and for the most part less regarded than the Hypocrites that make more shew and noise Christ therefore suffers apostasies to come to discover and honour his sincere humble diligent and stedfast servants 4. Errors are also permitted to clear the trut more and make them that are sound more stedfast and strong The truths of the Gospel have in all ages been prejudiced by the zeal and good affection of some well minded as well as by the opposition of enemies because their affection over-run their judgment and their care to get a distinct knowledge of the principles of religion but the appearance of errours and corruptions makes them more careful to search the truth which hath been always more cleared and fortified by occasion of the oppositions against it and those who are upright have been put upon getting a clearer knowledge of the grounds of their faith worship and practices thereby 5. And in all this Christ manifesteth his distinguishing grace to some and his righteous judgments upon others Rom. 11.22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God on them which fell severity but towards thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness 6. Hereby all are stirred up to diligence and watchfulness When there shall come a falling away of many all are warn'd thereby to take care how they stand lest they also fall Rom. 11.20 Vse Be not therefore suprized at discouraged or tempted by the apostasies of others Though the Church be fair as the Moon she hath
their Church declares it nor is any sense or meaning to be fixt upon as the certain sense of any Scripture but what they determine to be the meaning of the place Accordingly the Trent Council out of their great power have determined the vulgar Latin Translation of the Bible to be authentick and equal to the Greek and Hebrew originals Council of Trent Ses 4 though their own authors acknowledge it to be most false defective and in many things ridiculous Now then our faith is not ultimately resolved into the Scriptures we do not believe and obey because we know and are sure from Scripture that this is the mind of God but because the Pope or Church declare it to be the mind of God yea though the words of Scripture plainly condemn what they teach or though the Translation of a Scripture be contrary to the original which was indited by the spirit of God immediately yet if they say this is the meaning of the place and the true translation of it we must believe it The foundation then of all our faith and obedience is the determination of the Church or Pope Obj. But they are infallible they say Answ This they can never prove but if they were if I must believe meerly upon their Testimony and saying they are infallible my faith is still resolved into the witness of men their testimony concerning themselves is but a humane Testimony they do not cannot prove it by any divine infallible proof therefore my faith and obedience must ultimately pesolve into humane authority The Apostles were infallible yet had not they dominion over the faith of the Church 2 Cor. 12.24 to command what should be believed and practised but they proved by infallible and divine Testimony of miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost that what they taught came from God and so the belief of the people was built upon the Testimony of God to the Apostles doctrine 1. Cor. 2.4 5. the Apostle saith his preaching was in demonstration of the spirit and of power That their faith might not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God If their faith had been grounded upon the Apostles own Testimony of his self that he was infallible and upon his determination concerning any Scripture or doctrine out of his own wisdom though he had seemed to prove it strangely their faith had stood upon the authoty wisdom of man but therefore their faith was built on God because his spirit did powerfully demonstrate what the Apostle preacht to be from God therefore unless the Papists can prove their infallibility by miracles and demonstration of the spirit theirs is but a humane Testimony and so we know it is and a false one too and therefore it is an intolerable abuse to take the Church off from faith and obedience to Christ as the head commanding and ruling her and from the holy Spirit as inditing and confirming the holy Scriptures and to subject her to the authority and determinations of fallible and sometimes most wicked men To let pass that the Papists themselves not being agreed who is the infallible supreme judge whether the Pope Council or the whole Church no man of them hath any sure foundation for his Faith If they say the Scripture declares who is the supreme infallible Judge I answer that Judge must again tell us what is the meaning of that Scripture The Pope saith it means him the Council and Church say it means them here are three pretenders to supreme and infallible authority and to interpret the Scripture which soever a man adheres to it is two to one but he is mistaken however here is no way to determine who is the infallible Judge unless there be infallible marks and Testimonies of it given by God and then they are of the supreme authority and neither Pope Council nor Church themselves but such they can never produce Thus the whole matter is but an inconsistent juggle to bring the Church into subjection to the Pope 3. Because the Church of Rome takes away the Scriptures from the people yea and alloweth the Clergy themselves the use of the corrupt vulgar Translation of the Bible only Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God Rom. 10.14 How then shall the people get Faith or grow in it when they must not have the Scriptures to read themselves nor have them read to them by their teachers but in an unknown tongue and that Translation so corrupt also that if any of them should understand Latin they would yet have much difficulty to find the truth The Scriptures are Christs Law whereby he governs his Church and the peoples Magna Charta the Charter of all their priviledges and of all Gods promises spiritual and temporal to take this from them is to deprive them both of the rule of their obedience and of the foundation of all their faith and hope in God This is not to be endured upon any pretence whatsoever 4. Because they impose the celebration of Gods worship in an unknown tongue the Papists celebrate their prayers Sacraments and singing of Psalms all in Latin which as they know the people understand not so they would not have them understand it by this means the people are deprived of all true worship For worship is the reverence and affection of the soul to God either in ascribing honour to him or desiring of him and trusting in him for whatever we need This it is impossible man should give to God in and by those words and expressions which he understandeth not which for what he knows may blaspheme God or beg a curse instead of a blessing which as managed by illiterate Priests oftentimes are nonsense and signifie nothing and sometimes contrary to sound Doctrine yea may at all times for what the people know be directed to an Idol or a Devil instead of God For preaching of the word the Papists pretend but little to it And thus the Roman Church is a Church of Christ which acknowledgeth not him for her head and Governour nor his word for her rule and Law nor his worship for her practice but sabjecteth her self to a wicked man under the name of Christs Vicar taketh his will for her Law and his institutions for her worship without Question and without understanding This is an abuse Jot to be tolerated 5. The Idolary that the Papists impose on the Church the Apostle is express You cannot partake of the Table of the Lord and the Table of Devils the Cup of the Lord and the cup of Devils 1 Cor. wor-10 20 21. and these Devils he saith are shipped in Idols by Idolaters with whom therefore we must have no communion now the greatest part of the Papists worship consists in the worship and invocation of Saints Angels and the Virgin Mary and their waser-God which they practise upon the very same grounds on which the Heathens worshipt their Idols and therefore are Idolaters as well as the
thou so This daily experience attesteth Murdering of Kings destroying of Kingdoms any villanies must be done and that upon pain of damnation if the Pope or any inferiour governour of their Clergy commands it Never any state or government in the world though many have been very wicked challenged this prerogative to command whatsoever they pleased right or wrong and that men are bound in conscience to obey them though against God and men but this the Pope doth challenge and practise 2. The Doctrine of the Popes infallibility whereby they father all their errours superstitions and corruptions upon the spirit of God It is blasphemous against God to imagine that he should annex the infallible guidance of his spirit to a succession of men who defile and destroy his Church oppose his son and his Gospel and themselves are Monsters of men Innocent the 10. S. Amore's Journ who suffered himself and his holy Church to be governed by an impudent Harlot Don Olympia his own Brothers wife when the people of Rome complained to him of the unjust exactions of his Officers answered them You must not find fault which mine Officers for I chuse them and I am guided by the infallible spirit of God What is more wicked than to ascribe wicked actions to the guidance of Gods spirit Some Papists indeed acknowledge not the Popes infallibility but then they ascribe it to a Council of Bishops most of them as good and as wise as the Pope Some give it to the whole Roman Church but it will come all to one if whatsoever the Church of Rome or the Heads and guides of it do determine must be reckoned infallibly true and good hereby they wholly wave the Scriptures as the Rule and Christ as their Law-giver and are both Rule and Law-givers to themselves 3. The Papists have reduced the whole body of the Heathenish worship into the Church and this is the greatest part of their worship The Heathens honoured the good Angels with divine honours as the servants of the supreme God that they might be their friends to him and that they might do them many good Offices They deified men and women eminent in any way especially Princes honoured them with Temples Images Festival days and Sacrifices that they might mediate with God for the good of their Country family or friends putting themselves and their affairs under their special protection and this took up most of their worship The Papists do ascribe the very same honour and worship in all particulars to the Angels and Saints and for the same reasons every Country City yea every person hath his Tutelar Saint and upon these they call and to these they pay more devotion by many degrees than they do to God 4. Their Casuists allow common swearing and using of the name of God lightly in common discourse and contend that the Third Commandment forbideth only perjury swearing falsely or to a false thing in the name of God Hence it is that Papists almost universally are common and profane swearers 5. They teach that the Pope in all and the inferiour Clergy in ordinary cases can dispense with Oaths Vows and the most solemn obligations that can be made to God or man The Pope taketh himself for head of the Church therefore whatsoever vows and ingagements men make to God he can loose them from them when it serves his interest he gives licence to men and women to marry who have vowed single life and to his Fryars to leave off the habit and rules of their order though they have vowed never to lay them aside Also as he is Lord of all the world he can give away Kingdoms loose Subjects from their oaths of Allegiance yea make it their duty to break their oaths and to rebel and what is most abominable they can give men leave to take Oaths to make vowes and protestations on purpose to deceive when they do not intend they shall be kept but be used to carry on their own designs the more secretly by deceiving the credulous Hist Albig Book 1. ch 5. Thus the Popes Legat sent a Gentleman to the Earl of Besiers to draw him into his Camp commanding him to assure him in his name by what Oaths and protestations he would desire that he should return safe home as soon as the poor Earl came into his presence he absolved the messenger from all his Oaths kept the Earl prisoner and soon after privately murdered him 6. They make the Sabbath either a Tradition or an institution of their Church profane it with sports and plays and observe their Saints days with much more strictness and devotion than the Lords day 7. The Pope and his Clergy can dissolve all bonds and duties betwixt men They can command Princes to destroy their Subjects and absolve them from all their oaths and promises to them of protection They can discharge Subjects from their obedience to their Princes and make it meritorious of heaven to kill them and a sure way to go to heaven immediately to dye in fighting against them They can divorce or separate husbands and Wives at their pleasure Concil Trid. Ses 24. Canon 6. Can. 8. Alphonsus the present King of Portugal was deposed and imprisoned by the Popes order and his wife taken from him and given to his Brother two now rules the Kingdom Parents and children Masters and servants in case of Heresie must betray each other and if they will enter into religious houses or give any thing to the Church then they are freed from all obligations to or care of their relations Is not this a man of sin that can and daily doth dissolve all bonds of men to God and of men to themselves 8. They teach that no faith leagues promises are to be kept with Hereticks or any that are not of their Church Pope Eugenius the 4 made Vladislaus King of Hungary break his league with the Turk solemnly sworn by him and all his Nobles and absolved them by Julian his Legate The Council of Constance burnt John Huss though the Emperour Sigismond had promised him safe-conduct to and from the Council they telling the Emperour that Oaths and promises to Hereticks must not be observed 9. They teach Equivocations and mental reservations both in oaths and common discourses viz. that a man may take any Oath make any promise answer any Question directly and plainly according to the words proposed and yet mean no such thing or the contrary keeping another sense or intent in their minds Garnet and Tresmond two Jesuites that were in the powder Plot being examined apart Tresmond said he had not seen or spoke with Garnet for 14. years before Garnet confessed that they two walked and discoursed together in Moorefields London about four months before they were taken being asked what his fellow meant to say they had not met so long a time he answered I suppose he meant to equivocate and this was excuse enough Thus all bonds of humane Society
not fit the Ministers of Christ should be under the power of men of this world or that they should judge of Ecclesiastical causes or dispose of Ecclesiastical imployments but that all should be managed by a spiritual Court and spiritual person 2. They pretend the benefit of the Church It is necessary they say that as the Church is one body on earth though dispersed in all quarters so it should have one visible Head who should be the fountain of Unity that he should have supreme and absolute power to judge all persons and to determine all cases to prevent divisions and to preserve Unity to maintain the doctrine and worship of the Gospel and to prevent or redress errors and corruptions and that things may be managed with safety it is necessary this Head should be infallible who may neither be subject to deceive or be deceived for what end shall there be of Questions and controversies in Religion or in Civil matters How shall Heresies Schisms Wars and Seditions be prevented if there be not a supreme infallible head and judge whose authority and decision may put an end to all strife and lead into all truth 3. They pretend great care of the peoples Salvation They take away the Scriptures from them for fear they should prophane them by using them in common discourse or fall into error and Heresies by mistaking the meaning of them or be puffed up with knowledge and so be disobedient to their teachers and run into Sects divisions therefore they give them Images Crucifixes c. which they call Lay-mens books to stir up their devotion without danger of making them heady or high-minded they allow them little preaching and celeberate all the worship of God in an unknown tongue that the people may not grow slight and prophane and that they may still admire what they understand not ignorance being the best mother of devotion and for the greater security and ease they teach them implicitely to believe what the Church believes and that being infallible they cannot believe amiss especially when they know not in particular what she believeth nor can call her faith into Question 4. They pretend great devotion and zeal to Gods worship spiritual knowledge pious affections spiritual worship such as teaching the word prayer and use of plain Sacraments as Christ appointed them they think are mean things instead of these they build Temples adorn Images adore the bread in the Eucharist offer incense Tapers and many gifts as more real devotion Conc. Trid. Ses 25. The Council of Trent commands that the Priests should carefully teach the people the right use of Images which are to mind them of their Saints their virtues and miracles and sufferings that they may be stirred up thereby to the imitation of them Their worship of the Virgin is devotion to her Son and their praying to Saints and Angels is honour to God whose servants they are and the Pomp and riches of the Pope and his Bishops is to preserve the Gospel in honour and religion from contempt 5. They pretend great mortification They have frequent fasts at least from flesh and some sorts of food to curb keep down the flesh has they pretend Their voluntary penance whippings pilgrimages to remote places confessing all their sins to a Priest and craving his absolution and all to shew their sorrow for sin and to break them off from it more surely than the plain Spiritual means of the word and prayer It is thought great self-denyal to forsake the world to live in wildernesses and Monasteries to vow single life and to refrain those comforts and imployments which God hath both allowed and commanded 6. They pretend great humility It is humility in them to be subject to their superiours especially the Pope against their own reason and conscience and to obey all the commands and ordinances of their Church without presuming to inquire into the reason of them or to prove them by Scripture They account it presumption to pretend to assurance of Salvation and great humility to live and dye in doubt but especially that the best of them must not pretend to go to Heaven but through long suffering the pains of Purgatory and the help of the prayers of the Church on earth and of the merits of the Church in Heaven 7. They pretend great care to have the Ministery pure and industrious therefore they allow them not to marry because said Pope Ciricius they that are in the flesh cannot please God and that being free from the cares of a family they may wholly attend upon their Ministry and lest the service of Parish Priests should not be sufficient they have multitudes of Monks and Friars to help them in private and whose prayers and private Masses are always going for the benefit of the Church Thus they have plausible pretences for all their doctrines and practices nevertheless it is a mystery of iniquity in every particular 1. The universal power the Pope claimeth is only to set up himself and his own institutions therefore he taketh upon him all the state and grandeur of the Roman Emperours even the proudest of them he gives away Kingdoms when Kings any way displease him though they be very religious towards God and when he can make any advantage He sets Christian Kings at war with each other and taketh the unjustest part so it be the strongest yea himself raiseth War and driveth Princes out of their dominions to increase the riches of the Church or to preferr his own Nephews and kindred This was notorious in Julius 2 and many of his predecessours he maketh the Emperours swear allegiance to him and the Bishops at their consecration use to swear to maintain Regalia sancti Petri the royalties of Saint Peter 2. The pretence of infallibility is only to gain authority to himself that he may command and do what he pleaseth in the world it is used only to draw people into seditions and massacres to patronize any unjust actions or claims when the Pope giveth away the right of a King or other person when he dissolveth Lawful marriages or giveth dispensations to contract unlawful Matrimony as betwixt Uncle and Niece in Philip 2. of Spain or betwixt Brother and brothers Wife as at this day in Portugal the former husband yet living and the like when he forgives all manner of sins when he maketh as his Canons give him leave just things unjust and sins to be duties then he maketh use of his pretended infallibility and never but it such cases for the Popes never do nor never will determine or end any controversie in religion for fear of losing one part of the contenders There is a great difference among themselves betwixt the Dominicans and Jesuites about the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary Philip the 2 and 3. of Spain did for many years together by their Embassadours earnestly sollicite the Popes to use their Infallibility and decide the controversie but they could never
Pagan which did impose her Idolatrous wrship upon the world Lastly that it is Rome Papal as it now is and hath been for many ages past which is this Babylon and not Rome when she shall utterly renounce the Christian faith in the end of the world as some Papists without shadow of reason fancy is proved in that she is arrayed in purple and Scarlet decked with gold and precious stones and pearls which is the garb of the Pope and his Cardinals In that she is the Mother of fornications Idolatries through the earth and that she is drunk with the blood of Saints and Martyrs Rome Papal having destroyed far more Christians than ever Heathen Rome did And that the beast that carries this whore the Roman State is full of names of blasphemy v. 3. the blasphemous titles and power which the Pope usurpeth to himself and his Roman Church above any heathen that ever was And especially in that the ten horns upon the head of the beast that carries this Whore which are ten Kingsarising out of the dissolution of the Roman Empire are said to have received no Kingdom in Johns time but to receive it one hour with the beast v. 12. yea to give their power to the beast to set him up and maintain his Empire and to be deluded by him till God shall turn their hearts against him to destroy him v. 13 -17 The beast himself also was to be the eighth head of the former great beast and yet one of the seven i. c. a new government in Rome for the manner of it not much different from the preceding Emperours all which are apparently fulfilled in the Pope and his adherents For when Augustulus laid down the Empire Ann. Chr. 476. there immediately appeared ten small Kingdomes sometimes more sometimes fewer in this Western part of the world and then the Pope began to usurp the dominion of Rome and both he and they grew up together and strengthened each other till they were all inslaved by him and had inabled him to trample Emperours under his feet likewise the declining or wane of Popedome in these too last ages hath been caused by the withdrawing of these very Princes from his subjection whose Kingdomes were once provinces of Rome and whose predecessors had given their power to the Pope and when a few more shall follow their example the Pope will lofe his triple Crown These things thus explained the Observation is clear Obs It is the command of Christ to all his people to withdraw from the communion of Papal Rome as they would avoid joyning in her sins and to those that have opportunity to forsake the dwellings of Rome as they would escape her plagues When the whole world after the flood apostatized from God and his worship God singled out the family of Abraham and in time increast them to a nation to put his name and to keep up his worship among them for this the rest especially their neighbours in the East hated and opposed them and the heads of this opposition were Egypt Niniveh and at last Babylon in Chaldea which swallowed up all her neighbours Thus there was a long contest betwixt the Church of the Jews who adhered to God and pure religion and Babylon which was become the head of the Pagan Apostasie in the East In like manner the Gospel was no sooner planted and spread throughout the Western world but there began a defection to Idolatry in the worship of Saints and Angels and after some while Rome became the head of this Apostasie and for above 1 thousand years past there hath been a continual contest betwixt a purer part of Christs Church scattered through divers Countries and this Mystical Babylon a certain number specified by one hundred forty four thousand Rev 14.1 have kept themselves pure from the whoredomes of Rome they were Virgins and followed the Lamb whithersoever he went and with them the Roman beast hath continually made war and still seeks to destroy them out of the earth now all that would be the faithful servants of Christ must joyn with this small persecuted company and neither comply with nor submit to Rome nor connive at her power and impositions as they would not be found guilty of her Apostasie and be swept away in her destruction To prove this because we speak to them who are already separated from Rome it will be sufficient to clear these 2 Questions which being cleared will also prove the duty of others to separate from her who yet either adhere to or lean towards her 1. Question whether there was a just ground for the Potestants to separate from the Church of Rome 2. Whether there can be any reconciliation of Protestants to Rome In which I shall be brief because a foundation is in a sort laid for it in the foregoing discourse 1. Qu. Whether Protestants did upon just and necessary grounds separate from the communion of the Church of Rome in her worship and discipline Answ They did which I thus prove 1. Because the Church of Rome hath altered the rule of the Christian faith The Church is a holy Common-wealth under the government of the Lord Jesus Christ and he governs it by his laws contained in the holy Scriptures these are the rule of their worship and obedience to him Math. 28.18 19 20. He that alters this rule altereth the fundamental constitution of the Church But the Church of Rome hath altered this rule they teach the Scriptures to be a defective insufficient rule and therefore they joyn to them the Apocryphal books of the Old Testament and the Traditions of the Church which also they receive and reject at their pleasure Decrees of Councils and decretals and decisions of Popes all these together are the perfect rule that the Papists acknowledge and pretend to I say pretend because the Scripture hath little share in it when it comes to Tryal hereby they have made a new foundation of the Church both of faith and practice For it is not sufficient that we believe and practise all that is in the Canonical Scriptures but we must believe and obey the Apocryphal writings and unwritten Traditions as of the same authority with the Bible thus the Council of Trent hath determined as was shewed before This altereth the very constitution of the Church and subjecteth it to men instead of Christ and this is the root of all apostasie 2. Because the Papists pretend their Pope or Church to be above the Scriptures and to put an authentick authority on them and their sense Thus all our faith and obedience is resolved into the determination of men That the Papists pretend the Pope their Council or Church to be above the Scriptures cannot be denied they give the authority and authentickness to the Scriptures 't is from their command that the Bible is received and if they pleased they might cause it to be laid aside it cannot be known they say that the Scriptures are Gods word but that