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A27015 The safe religion, or, Three disputations for the reformed catholike religion against popery proving that popery is against the Holy Scriptures, the unity of the catholike church, the consent of the antient doctors, the plainest reason, and common judgment of sense it self / by Richard Baxter. Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1657 (1657) Wing B1381; ESTC R16189 289,769 704

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10. Mans will is the Ruler of it self under God and it s fully free from that necessity which is contrary to its natural essential Liberty 11 It is a willful servant onely 12. The matter of their works is oft good but because their end and manner is alwayes wrong therefore they sin in all for bonum est ex causis integris 13. The will is free and not free in several sences 1. It is not free from Gods Government 2. Nor from its natural inclination to good in general and therefore cannot will evil as evil For these were but slavery 3. Nor is it free from the moral force of a darke and erring judgment 4. Nor from temptations 5. Nor from its own vicious disposition till grace free it But it s free 1. From any natural determination to evil or to unknown good in particular 2. And free from coaction or violence 3. And from a physical efficient immediate exterior Determiner in ordinary natural or sinful actions 4. And its free from sinful habites in that measure as it is sanctified 14. No question but the will is potentia activa naturalis or hath such an active power which is imployed in spirituals when it is inclined by a habit thereto but till then will not act spiritually not because the natural faculty is absent but because the inclination without which it will not act is absent 15. No doubt but under the common grace of Christ an unregenerate man may do that which he shall be more disposed to conversion by then also he would have been as our practical Divines all teach and we are fain daily to preach it to our people or else we shall make but ill work with them 16. Many by congruous merit do mean no more then the foresaid aptitude comparative to others 17. This also some Protestants hold But no wicked man ever did his best 18. There is a common grace whose efficacy is laid on the will as Adams was And a special which shall infallibly bow and change the will 19. A self-contradiction to deserve pardon 20. Some sin is but consequentially against love and other sin directly but all is against Gods Laws 21. Who ever denyeth that sin may be done away without Christs blood doth know little of sin or Christ 22. Mortal sin 1. As to merit is all sin 2. As to signification symptomatically it is all sin inconsistent with regeneration 3. Effectually it is all that eventually kills which is in several degrees and sorts 26. O unmerciful men that will dig so many pits then to entrap poor souls in mortal sin 27 28. Many of the ancients also were of this mind of which see my Treat against infidelity Part. 3. 2. Of this see the writings between Dr. Hammond and Mr. Jeanes many Schoolmen say otherwise 6 7. Saints on earth must intercede under Christ for others especially Pastors whose office it is And we may pray them to pray for us But not the Saints departed 10. All Pastors of the Church do hold their office in a subordination to Christs Prophetical Office And many a Prophet there hath been under Christ But none that hath the Office of being the universal infallible Teacher of the Church as the Pope would be 11. All Christians are Priests to God to offer up spiritual sacrifice metaphorically so called And Pastors offer up Christ Representatively Commemoratively and Sacramentally but not really The name Priest is not worth contending about 15. No doubt but Christ merited the glorifying of his own humane nature But that was but consequential to his meriting for us 16. Some of them prosess that by merit they mean but Rewardableness by promise which we maintain 1. It s no Covenant of works in Pauls sence or as Moses Law was But humane Actions are its condition And as all the Ancients use to call it the new Law so it s justly seeing Christ is the King of the Church and it hath the nature of a Law But the promise is the chief part and the moral precepts prescribe no other obedience then they did before in nature But Positives are added 3. In this they have some new friends among our selves 4. So say some Anabaptists 5. I would we could see this in the fruits and proof But de opere operato they are not themselves agreed of the sence 7. His real intention is necessary to make it a lawful administration as to himself but not to others but his seeming intention and their own seeming intention is necessary to the external being of the Sacrament that it be no nullity And the receivers real intention is necessary to the effects and well being of it to himself 8. It is not the name of a Sacrament that we contend about but the nature and definition 9. They know not what to make of this Character themselves many Schoolmen make it to be but a Relation And we confess that Baptism Ordination c. do fix us in a Relation to God 10. They that think it their duty to serve God by such inventions will easily be drawn to think too well of their invented works 1. By nature all are Satans captives which exorcism will not deliver us from 2. This error in case of Necessity some ancients and Councils held 3. Some of them except those that have the to●um baptismi none can be saved without the thing signified in Baptism but they may without the sign 4. There is a ground work laid for the pardon of future sins but no actual pardon of them 6. If the Pope were the head of the Church we must needs be baptized into him 7. How comes it then to appear in all as 〈◊〉 as they come to age 8. What goes with i● in m●st before they come to age 9. In many things they agree and in many they differ more then all confess Of which see Zanchy oft and fully 10. So the Antients thought and I think it the safest way 11 12. There 's no end of humane inventions when once men depart from the Scripture sufficiency and give way to their own self conceitedness and arrogancy 38. This the antient Church used and I should not refuse it either way 1. The word Sacrament is not fit matter for much contention 2. There is some difference in the terminus a quo and ad quem as the Law differeth but not such as to make one a Sacrament and the other none Publike profession of Repentance for open scandalous sins is a needful duty sinfully neglected by us as it is brought to a Sacrament and ceremony with them 3. This is a certain truth but that freewill is enabled and moved by Gods grace 4. Many of them by merit mean but that ex pacto it is the qualification of these to whom God hath promised Salvation 5 6 7 c. In flying from their invented way of Confession we have lamentably wronged the souls of men by disusing so much as Christ hath made our duty and
yet living in mortal bodies where they place them as behind the stage that they may be ready to act their parts in the fable o● Antichrist To the Article of creation is annexed the Article of providence 1. In this the Papists erre in making mans actions not to depend on Gods Providence but on mans Free-will which they make the absolute Lord of its own actions 2. And that they are not determined of God according to whose determinate Council things come to pass Act. 2.30 4.28 but that God rather who worketh all according to the Council of his will doth follow the determination of the will of man 3. And that he foreknows them from eternity only in mans will 4. Also in that they interpret the action of God as judge punishing sin with sin hardening men giving them over to their lusts and to the temptations of Satan to be naked permission as if the judge or Magistrate might not deliver a malefactor to the hangman as executioner of his judgement to be punished but should not onely permit him to be punished that is not hinder it § 3. Of Redemption IN the Doctrine of Redemption and Salvation we must consider 1. Whence we are redeemed to wit from sin and a state of obstinacy 2. By whom to wit by Christ who is the author and foundation of our Salvation 3. By what means the benefit of Redemption and Salvation is applyed to us where of the Covenant of God the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments 4. The effects of Gods Grace in Christ or the degrees of Salvation which are fruits of the Merits of Christ applyed to us In all these the Papists do filthily erre for as to sin which intercedeth between the works of Creation and Redemption as a medium they teach 1. That the blessed Virgin was free from all sin original and actual as being conceived without Original sin and having lived without actual sin 2. Under the name of the flesh which lusteth against the Spirit and is to be mortified among other things they mean the body of man 3. That all sin is not a transgression of the Law John defineth it 1. Jo. 3.4 Gal. 3.10 nor all transgression of the Law is sin 4. That there is no sin but what is voluntary which is not onely false of concupiscence habitual and actual which goes before the wills consent but of other sins also which are done of ignorance or infirmity for though the actions are voluntary by which they are committed yet the sin is not Sin is original or actual The Papists marvailously ●xtenuate original sin and amplifie and set forth the strength of nature 5. For some of them would have original sin to be only the guilt of Adams transgression most will have it to be onely the want of Original righteousness And so that the state of man after Adams fall and in pure naturals doth differ onely as a stript man and a naked man 6. Others would have it to be a very small sin and less then any venial sin and therefore needeth no repentance nor is punished with pain of sense but onely with pain of loss 7. Others deny original sin to be properly sin or that any thing is found in infants that properly hath the nature of sin 8. That we are not by nature dead in sin but sick nor do they acknowledge in us an impotency to spiritual good but a difficulty nor that Free-will to spiritual good is wholly taken from us but hindred and tyed 9. That men are naturally inclined to love God above all 10. They attribute to man a will that is the Ruler and Lord of it self such as belongeth to no creature Yea they say that the will of man is as free from Necessity as the Will of God 11. They deny the will of the unregenerate to be a servant 12. They deny also that all the works of the unregerate are sins or that the unregenerate sin when they do the works that are commanded 13. They say that before all grace a man hath freewill not onely to works natural and moral but also to works of piety and supernatural 14. That there is in mans free will not onely a possibility or passive power but also an active power to spiritural works 15. That the unregenerate can prepare and dispose themselves to justification 16. That a wicked man by doing his best may congruously merit the grace of justification 17. God necessarily giveth grace to him that doth his best 18. That the efficacy of preventing grace dependeth on the freedome of the will 19. That every transgresgression of the Law which yet pronounceth every man accursed that continueth not in all things commanded in the Law to do them deserveth not death But that there are many sins of themselves and of their own nature venial and deserving pardon 20. That charity is not violated by venial sins and that they are not aginst Gods precepts but besides them 21. That the blood of Christ is not necessary to wash them away but that they may be done away by Holy Water knocking the brest Episcopal benediction and other ridiculous means 22. That sin is called mortal because it brings death upon the soul that is depriveth it of Gods grace 23. And they teach that by every mortal sin grace is lost and charity expectorated 24. That this mortal sin is any that shall obtain the wills consent though the act be not performed 25. That the sins of the regenerate are in the same sence mortal even those committed of ignorance and infimity 26. And that it is such a mortal sin to neglect or not observe any Ecclesiastical law or tradition of the Romane Church 27. That the sin against the Holy Ghost is not unpardonable 28. Nor that its impossible for him that commits that sin to be renewed by Repentance § 4. Of Christ. IN Christ are considerable 1. His Person 2. His Office About his Person he erreth who thinks not rightly of his Godhead or of his Manhood 1. About Christs Godhead those Papists erre that deny Christ to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God of himself for that 's as much as to deny him to be Jehovah About the Humane Nature both Soul and Body they erre 2. For they deny that the soul of Christ did increase in wisdom and grace which Luke expresly affirmeth Luk. 2.52 3. Or that he was ignorant of the day and hour of the last judgement which yet himself confesseth Mat. 13.32 4. They seem to give him a phantastick body that neither consisteth of dimensions nor occupieth a place which when he was born did not open the wombe of his mother and when he rose did penetrate the stone of the sepulchre and when he instituted his Supper lay hid under the Species of Bread and Wine 5. Yea that they may stablish that monstrous opinion
do they take Marriage for a prop●● Sacrament 2. We cannot dispute this point wi●● you upon the bare name Give us the definition of a Sacrament and we shall give you our Reply As a Sacrament signifieth any Christian mystery or mysterious Ordinance signifying some spiritual thing we doubt not but there are more then seven Sacraments but not as it signifieth an instituted signe to seal the Covenant of Grace and exhibit its great ●enefits Calvin hath yielded to you that in a ●●rger sence Ordination is a Sacrament He next addeth They say that Christ dyed for all ●ankind You say not but onely for the Elect. Repl. ●till more confusion do not your own Schoolmen ●nd other Divines say that he dyed for All men suf●●ciently and for the Elect onely effectually And 〈◊〉 do we where then is the difference Not so much 〈◊〉 this point as in another conjunct You say that ●●s mans Free-will that is the chief differencing ●ause in making Christs death effectual for the sal●ation of the Elect and we deny it and say that 〈◊〉 is Gods special Grace 2. Do not you know that about this and the former point of Freewill you differ as much among your selves and that we say ●o more then your Dominicans do no nor so much 〈◊〉 the point of predetermination 3. Do you not ●now that half the Protestants those whom you ●all Lutherans do hold universal Redemption as well as you Be it right or wrong therefore you ●hould not impute the contrary to all We say that it was the sins of all mankind and not onely of the Elect that lay upon Christ in his ●uffering and that God as Legislator of the old vi●lated Law hath received a sufficient satisfaction for ●ll and that hereupon a conditional Pardon is grant●d to all by a Law of Grace and that the condition 〈◊〉 but their Acceptance of what is freely offered ac●ording to its nature and use and that all and onely ●hey that perform this condition shall have Actual pardon and salvation But then we do not say that Christ did equally intend the procurement of the performance of this condition but that he giveth some an inseparable special Grace which shall infallib●● procure it which he doth not to others who y● have so much as shall leave them in their own consciences and at his bar without any just excuse I pra● you shew us next what the Greeks say more then th●● In particular that Reverend man against whom y●● write hath an excellent M.S. abroad for Univer●● Redemption The next feigned difference between us and th● Greeke is this They confess that God hath given sufficient Grace to every one to be saved You 〈◊〉 but only to the Elect Repl. You again wrong them shew us where they say so if you can You own th● Doctrine your selves it seems and thereby discover your enmity to Grace Do you think that every childe ignorant sot or wicked person ha● Grace sufficient to salvation If he have sufficient either he needs no more or he may be saved without more And then it seems converting Grace i● needless to an Infidel for he hath enough already then it seems you will be beholden to God for no more Grace after the first hour of your conversion nay after the first hour of your life or use of reason to your death For if you had sufficient for salvation the first hour then what need you any more you will it seems pray God to keep it to himself for you have enough already I will tell you what th● Greeks and we and some of your selves hold th●● is that every man hath so much Grace th●● is Helpe and Mercy contrary to Merit as is in ● own kind sufficient to make him better then he is and to bring him neerer to Christ or salvation and which his owne will is obliged to make effectual by ● right entertainment and improvement and might do But we do not say that all men have sufficient ●race to believe to justification or sufficient to sal●●tion nay we say that no Believer hath sufficient grace to salvation till the soul pass from the body ●r still he hath need of preserving Grace to the last ●eath Men that are at a great distance from Christ ●ay have sufficient Grace to come neer to him ●d justly perish if they refuse or abuse such Grace ●ough they never had Grace sufficient to believe ●ecause it is their own fault that they had it ●ot The next pretended difference is They pray and ●er Sacrifice for the dead You not Repl. I will see ●our proof of this too before I will believe you ●e know they do it not in the Popish sence that for delivering souls out of the fire of Purgatory because they deny such a state If you will read this ●everend Bishop whom you oppose in his Answer to ●e Jesuites challenge on that point you will see ●e difference between the Ancients and so the ●reeks praying for the dead and yours He addeth They invocate Saints and Angels you ●ot Repl. Of this also see Bishop Vsher in the fore●ted place We take this for their error and we ●o not take our selves to be of a different Church or ●eligion from every one that erreth He next addeth They worship the Cross and Im●ges you not Repl. But they do it not as many of ●ours with Divine worship Their worship is but ●everence for the Relation sake and they will not so ●uch as use any Statues or Graven Images as you ●o And do not those you call Lutherans do as ●hey in this though how rightly I say not He addes They honor reliques you not Rep. 〈◊〉 honor them as far as they have any true Relation 〈◊〉 any honorable person But we will not therefo●● carry them about us to keep away the Devil 〈◊〉 forge a multitude of lies about tbe cures which the miraculously perform Nor do the Greeks so far 〈◊〉 I know or hear The next is They maintain Traditions you 〈◊〉 Repl. They renounce your Traditions which are pretended to be part of Gods Word supplying the ●●fects of Scripture which is but the other half 〈◊〉 they maintain the sufficiency of Scripture to salva●●on And some Traditions both they and we maintai● As the Tradition of the Scriptures themselves do 〈◊〉 to our hands the Tradition of the Sum of Chri●●●anity in the Creed and Baptism c. Of which 〈◊〉 what I have said elswhere in the Preface to the seco●● part of the Saints Rest Edit 2. c. And in the d●termination in a book called The unreasonableness 〈◊〉 Infidelity And see what the Bishop whom you oppose hath said against the Jesuite on Tradition The next is They Au●icular confession you not Rep. 1. The Christians that deny your communion are divided in this These called Nestorians and ●●ny more deny Auricular Confession and others 〈◊〉 it 2. We deny not our selves but that it is the duty 〈◊〉 Christians when sin lyeth on
keep him from This is to make Gods Commissions to be impious and his Grace to the Pope onely to hinder the execution of them in an impious way Who dare say openly that God hath given authority to the Pope to judge decisively and obligatorily that there is no God Christ or Scripture though he will graciously hinder him from so doing If the Papists say that they do not say so I would know then what their judicial power in these matters is Is it onely this that the Pope hath Power to judge that there is a God a Christ a word of God c. Why so have others as well he If they shall dare to say that matters of faith are not such to us that is we be not obliged to believe them till the Pope have determined them I answer What! is no Heathen or Infidel bound to Believe that there is a God a Christ a Scripture till the Pope tell him so Shall all Infidels be excused in judgement that had the Gospel preached to them by any other Christians except the Pope or others in his name Is no man on earth bound to believe in Christ that knows not the Popes mind in the matter And must men believe in the Pope before they believe in Christ And must they believe in Christ onely because the Pope bids them or because they first believe in the Pope I do not think that either the eares of Good Christians or rational Infidels will relish such doctrine And what is this Believing in the Pope that must go first Is it not to take him to be Saint Peters successor and that Saint Peter was Christs Disciple who had a promise of infallibility which is now devolved to the Pope And must this be believed before men believe in Christ We must believe what he promised and who were his servants before we believe in himself This is a ground too like the Popish superstructure But perhaps they may in time grow moderate and tell us that it is not in all points of faith but some onely that the Pope is made Judge He may not judge about Christ himself whether he be the Messiah but about his Doctrines Answ 1. By what warrant will they distinguish and claim power in one which they have not in the other 2. Is it all or some of Christs Doctrines that the Pope is Judge of If all then it seems he must judge whether he that Believeth shall be saved or not Whether we should love God or hate him Whether we should seek first Gods Kingdom or worldly vanities And whether a man should commit Murder Adultery Theft c. or not May he decide these on either part or on one only as others may do May he judge that there is no Judgement Resurrection or life Everlasting I know they dare not say it If it be but some of Christs Doctrines that the Pope is made Judge of then let them tell us which it is and give us their proofs and they shall hear more from us Let it be the smallest point they will imagine Hath God given power to the Pope to contradict him and give him the Lye If God saith It is so May the Pope say It is not so What if the Pope say that the Gospel of Mathew or Luke or John is no part of Gods word Must we believe him What if he tell as that the world was made in five days and not in six Must we believe him 2. If they yet flye to his infallibility I shall speak more to that anon though the former answer may well suffice them But to another Arg. 3. The Scripture is Gods Law The Pope is not the Judge of Gods Law therefore he is not the Judge of Scripture The Major I hope no Christian will deny The Minor is evident from the nature and use of Laws and Judgements The Law is Norma judicis in judicando the Judges Rule He is not to Judge the Law but the cause of particular persons by that Law Indeed as to the right guidance of his own act of Decisive Judging the cause of the person he hath a Judgement of discretion concerning the sence of the Law but as if he Judge upon a false exposition of the Law the party may appeal from him so which concerneth our present case he hath no power to Judge the Law it self As he cannot make a plaine text to bear a false sence or oblige the subject to believe a false sence so in a doubtful case it belongeth to the Law-givers onely to interpret their own Laws Onely a sentence of a lawful Judge grounded upon a false exposition may sometime be executed among men where justice cannot be had but no man is bound to Believe that it is true and just James tells men what it is to pretend to be a Judge of the Law in stead of doing it and leaving that to the one Law-giver Jam. 4 11 12. And if the Pope be made Judge of every controverted difficulty in Scripture then why is he so unfaithful that he hath not hitherto written us an infallible Commentary on it and why doth he not determine all the controversies about it that among his own followers remain yet undetermined of which more anon Arg. 4. If the Pope be made the Deciding Judge of Faith and Scripture then either of the plain points or onely of the controverted difficulties or of both But not of the plain points For 1. That which is evident and not under controversie needs no Judge To the ignorant there may be need of an interpreter and teacher but not of a Judge 2. Such texts of Scripture do oblige us whether the Pope Judge of them or not Therefore there is no need of his judgement that they may oblige us Who dare think that a man is not bound by the word of God to love God above all to believe the Resurrection of Christ and of us to love Christs disciples c. unless he know the judgement of the Pope Do not all Laws of the Land oblige the subject upon the bare legislation and promulgation before the Judge meddle with them If they did not first oblige us to duty there were no place for the Judge to sentence us to punishment for disobedience It is the Legislator that oblige●h to duty by his Law proclaimed or any way published in his name But judgement interveneth to oblige men to punishment and bring it to execution and to help them to that which by the Law is their right If therefore it be evident in the very nature of Laws and judgement that we are obliged by Gods Laws to Believe and obey them in the several particulars before any judgement of the Popes it is then but dotage to talk of a Judicial Decisive power in the Pope to oblige men to Believe those same doctrines and obey those same precepts of the word And for the dark and controverted texts 1. Those are not of that moment as that mens salvation
necessary before the Pope dedeclare them so and he therefore declares them so because they are so or else he declares them de fide and necessary before they are so that by declaring them so he may make them so If the first 1. then the Papists have lost their cause for that 's it which they deny at least quoad nos though not in se as they use to distinguish 2. And then its plain that no Pope hath been positively infallible in necessariis or all points de fide for no one hath declared all nor are they yet all say they declared by them but every Pope may still add more and who knows when we shall have all But if they take the later way then 1. They suppose that Gods word how express soever doth not make a point to be de fide and necessary till the Pope declare it so at least quoad nos and how it can be de fide and necessary any other way then quoad nos they should do well to declare For that which is credendum est ab aliquo credendum that which is to be believed must be believed by some body and that which is necessary is necessary to some one So that the Gospel shall be no Gospel with them nor the Law of God any Law though we read it and hear it a thousand times till the Pope tell us by parcels the meaning of its particular words and sentences 2. They make the Popes acts to go before their objects which is against the nature of actions while they make him to declare a point to be de fide that it may become de fide For to declare that it is so supposeth that it is so and not onely that it will or shall be so de futuro 3. And so they make all the Popes infallible Declarations Expositions and Determinations de fide to be Lyes for if he Declare a thing to be necessary before it is necessary or declare this or that to be the sence of Scripture before it is the sence of Scripture or to be de fide before it be so what is this but plaine lying But if they say that he declareth it to be de fide and necessary onely for the future and not to have been so before this Declaration then the forementioned Absurdities fall upon them And also 1. The Pope is then a Gospel-maker and the Law giver of the Church and that in spirituals and internals and consequently it is he that is the King of the Church who hath the Legislative power and without whom nothing that Christ hath said shall bind us 2. Then the Churches faith is mutable and in a continual change by new additions For the Decrees or Expositions of every Pope do make more Articles of faith then were before 3. Then the present Papists are not of the same Religion as their fore-fathers or their fore-fathers not of the same with them nor do they go to Heaven by the same way For according to their own doctrine if the present age of the Church did not believe as de fide many things more then the former ages were bound to believe they cannot be saved 4. And then it is evident unmercifulness in the Popes of Rome to make more Expositions Decrees or Determinations and so to make us of this Age so much work to do before we can get to heaven and scape damnation which our forefathers never had to do I know one of them replyeth to this that these Additions are no cruelty because they make not salvation more difficult but facilitate that which was necessary before or to that sence But 1. It seems then that somewhat was necessary and de fide before the Pope defined determined or declared them so By that time we are plainly told which those points be the Papist that undertakes and performeth it will finde himself at a sad loss 2. But is this man serious Doth he think indeed that it is not easier to believe the Apostles Creed than to believe all that is in the Councils of Trent Basil Constance Laterane with all the rest and all the Decretals both the Popes and Isidore Meccator's alias Peccator For instance before the Pope determined the other day for the Molinists against some part of the Dominican Jansenian doctrine both parties might have gone to heaven But now the poor Dominicans must change part of their doctrine or go to hell fire I demand now whether the Popes determination have not made salvation harder to many then before I appeal to all the Thomists Dominicans Jansenians whether the Pope hath facilitated their salvation by this determination I appeal to Tho. Whites friendly combate with Francisc Macedo to the late Animadversions of the French Doctors on the Popes determinations Further I adde that if all the Popes infallibility Positive be onely in points of absolute necessity to salvation then many a private Doctor nay every Christian man or woman is at present as infallible as the Pope for it implyes a contradiction to be a true Christian and not to believe all that is essential to Christianity or absolutely necessary to salvation And if it be not de praesenti in sensu composito but de futuro in sensu diviso that they mean it that is that another man may fall from the faith but the Pope cannot 1. Clean contrary we maintain and the Papists confess that no elect person shall fall quite from the faith 2. But a reprobate Pope may witness John 23. and many another So much for that Argument Argu. 12. If every Pope be infallible Positively in all matters of faith or in expounding all Scripture then all Popes are of equal understanding and fidelity in matters of faith and Scriptures For the most learned wise and pious can go no higher but to be able infallibly to interpret all Scripture and declare all Gods will concerning our faith and duty But sure all Popes are not equal None of those children or dunces that Alphonsus a Castro saith understood not the Grammar are equal to Pius 2. or Adrian the 6. Argu. 13. If every Pope be infallible then study learning consultations yea and Councils are needless for the most unlearned Pope is as infallible as the most learned and after all the study in the world consultation and advice of General Councils he can he but infallible and so say they he was before If they say still that before he was but negatively infallible I say again so is a block an infant or an ideot But that studies learning consultations and Councils are not needless I suppose all Papists will grant therefore they must grant that all Popes are not infallible Argu. 14. Notorious ungodly men that live in murder fornication incest Sodomy blasphemy c. have no promise from God nor any other assurance of infallibility but such were many Popes Therefore c. The Major I prove from many Scriptures 2 Thess 2.10 11.