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
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
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
A DEFENCE Of the Protestant Christian Religion against POPERY In Answer to a Discourse of a Roman Catholick WHEREIN The Manifold Apostasies Heresies and Schisms of the Church of ROME as also the Weakness of Her Pretensions from the Scriptures and the Fathers are briefly Laid open By an English Protestant Frederic Secundus Germ. Imp. Roma diu titubans longis Erroribus acta Corruet ac Mundi desinet esse Caput In Heresies long Chace Rome stumbling shall Lose the Worlds Headship and to Ruine fall Printed in the YEAR M.DC.LXXII Advertisements TO THE READER IT is thought needless to trouble the Reader with a Narrative of the Transactions or with Copies of the Letters that have passed about this Affair or with the Names of the Persons concerned therein or lastly with the Motives and Providences which have invited in this juncture of time to the publishing this Defence of our Religion against Popery The Romanists Discourse is prefixed and published wholly and intirely by it self over and beside what is repeated of it in the Answer To the Answer there be some Additions for the Readers further help and for the further illustration of some things a brief intimation whereof might be presumed sufficient to the Romanist himself he being one of their Learned men in Holy Orders amongst them And whereas the Author of this Answer and Defence in a Letter to the person that called him to this Work did together with it express his own Sentiments thereof it is judged convenient instead of any further Preface to communicate them out of the said Letter wherein he saith I Have received your Letter and I have perused Mr. K. his Discourse which he challengeth our Divines to Answer And whereas you have pitcht upon me to do it because as your Letter Expresseth being the Cause of God you durst not Trust it in every hand As I have reason to acknowledge the great respect and value you are pleased to put upon me so withall I must needs own my own unworthiness and insufficiency for this or any other good word or work It is free Grace I have been depending and looking up unto for help from whence alone I have had it and it is the same free Grace that must bless what is said and bring it home with power I have sent you herewith an Answer to his Paper The Civilities you have done to him which I see himself in his Letter to you doth ingenuonsly acknowledge may tend I hope to let him see That it is our Religion to do good to all and that we desire to do good Works though not to be justified by them Let me have a part in your Remembrances at the Throne of Grace to which I Recommend you and yours which is all at present from Your most humble Servant in the Lord S. M. DVBLIN July ult 1670. A Discourse OF A ROMAN CATHOLICK Of the one onely and singular onely one Catholick and Roman Faith ONe Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in us all Eph. 4.5 6. Malac. 2.10 First I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for you all for that your faith is manifested in all the world Rom. 1.8 I desire also to see you that I may impart unto you of spiritual grace to confirm you that is to say to be together comforted in you which together is your faith and mine ibid v. 11. 12. That now we may not be children wavering up and down and carried about with every wind of doctrine in the wickedness of men in deceit to the circumvention of errour Ephes 4.14 Be not carried with various and strange doctrines for it is a very good grace to settle the heart Hebr. 13.9 Also I do not pray for them only but likewise for these which will believe through their word in me that all may be one as your Father and I and I in you that also they in us may be one that the world may believe that you sent me Joan. 17. ver 20. 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. This Church could not cease to be so but she must fail either by Apostasie Heresie or Schism Rom. 16.17 I. Apostasie is not only a renouncing of the Faith of Christ but the very name and title of Christianity no man will say that the Church of Rome had ever such a fall or fell thus II. Heresie is an adhesion to some private and singular Opinion or Error in Faith contrary to the general and approved Doctrine of the Church III. If the Church of Rome did ever adhere to any singular or new Opinion disagreeable to the common received Doctrine First I pray satisfie me as to these particulars viz. IV. By what general Council was it ever condemned V. Which of the Fathers ever wrote against Her VI. Or by what Authority was she ever Reproved for it seems to me very incongruous that so great a Church should be condemned by every one that hath a wind to condemn Her VII 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 VIII If ever the Church of Rome divided Her self by Schism from any other body of faithful Christians or brake communion or went forth from the society of any elder Church I pray satisfie your self and me to these particulars IX First Whose company did she leave Secondly from what body did she go forth X. Where was the true Church which she forsook for it appears not a little strange to me That a Church should be accounted Schismatical when there cannot be assigned any other Church different from Her which from Age to Age since Christs time hath continued visible from whom she departed c. Conclusion If the Catholick Roman Church was once the true Church she still remained so and therefore they who have departed from Her are departed from the true Church and so are out of the way c. The usual colour of believing more or less than the Church alloweth is vain and erroneous inasmuch as that very Christ which stored Her with knowledge of Gods revealed Truth and with power to convey the same hath also endued Her with inerrability to convey the same justly without danger of miscarrying against Iguorance Mat. 13. 11. To you it is given to know the mysteries of heaven Mat. 5.14 Against darkness you are the light of the world John 14.16 Against error and falshood I will send unto you the Spirit of truth to remain with you for ever 1 Tim 3. Against weakness She is the pillar and ground of truth Mat. 16.18 Hell gates shall not prevail against her to make which good Christ called his eternal Father to his aid prayed him and was heard for his reverence Mat. 28.20 Behold I am with