Saviour saith should be ratified in Heaven For saith he where two or three not Bishops but Believers are gathered together in my Name there I will be in the midst of them i. e. When any Number of Believers how small soever though but two or three are met for those Holy Ends of Discipline and in those Ways which I by my Commands have warranted I will be with them to Assist and to Guide their Councels and to Execute their Sentence Chap. 49. Accordingly we find in Tertullian's Apology that in all Christian Meetings upon the Lords-day together with Prayer and Preaching there was likewise Censura Divina i. e. the Sentence of Excommunication pronounced against all refractory and stubborn Sinners according to this our Saviours Institution If any object that if Christ will be with two or three then in all probabily he will be with a Councell of many Hundreds much more I answer No doubt he will if they meet in his Name i. e. according to his Command and Institution for it is not the Assembly though of never so many Thousands but the End and Manner of Assembling which hath the Promise of Assistance And when I can see such a Councell which professeth solely to follow Scripture according to that sense which not the fancy of men whether Fathers or Councells but the Spirit of God enlightning their understandings doth give unto it I shall then with all Reverence embrace their Decrees For I know that such a Councell cannot Erre because they will Command nothing but what is already commanded by God which every true Christian ought to obey without the Sanction of any other Authority But such a Councell as this I am hopelesse of ever seeing under the Papecy since all their meetings for some hundreds of Yeares have been designed not to search but to smother Scripture and to Emprison that Light which if looked into would detect and manifest their Errors So that they come together not in Christs but in the Pope's name or rather in the name of that God of the world who is Prince of the Power of Darknesse and whose Kingdome is founded and upheld by the Artifice and cunning of their Teachers and by the Ignorance and Implicite Faith of their Hearers Fallere Falli To deceive and to be deceived is the best Motto which can be set upon all the Church-doores in the Papall Territories but Heaven is a place of Light and the True Church is full of Knowledge because 〈◊〉 are all taught of God not to obey or to Believe in 〈◊〉 but in him alone 2. That Promise of our Saviour I will send the Spirit John 14. c. 16. which shall lead you into all Truth was spoken Personally to the Apostles And those words Act. 15. It seemeth good to the Holy Spirit and to Us were spoken by them after the accomplishment of that Promise so that without great presumption they cannot be wrested to any other nor such wresting without great vanity be confuted since barely to deny ungrounded suppositions is a sufficient Confutation If any aske me since neither the Pope nor a Councell is Infallible as having no peculiar Promise for that purpose then how shall the Church determine Controversies or How shall Heresies be suppressed I answer that if the word of God is clear and the Heresie be Notorious than every Particular Church hath Power within it self to excommunicate all obstinate Heretickes But where the Scripture is either Dubious or Silent Phil. 3.15 there charitably to beare with dissenters and to wait till God shall reveale it to them is the best way to winne them And this was the onely method which the primitive Christians did take for three hundred yeares together to preserve and maintaine the Truth of our Religion Having no Communion with such as hold manifest and destructive Errors and in things of lesser moment Forbearing one another in Love These will at last be found to be the safe wayes of God whereas to pretend to Infallibility in determining or to practise Tyranny in Imposing these are onely the wayes of Ambitious and self-seeking men found out not so much to promote Truth which stands not in need of such Arts as to Augment a party which makes all Articles of Faith to be meerly like the Civill Lawes of a Land where most Voices doe carry the Cause Such a kind of Universality as this True Piety never had and therefore we need not be sorry that Popery doth make its boast of it And thus I have with as much Brevity and Plainnesse as the subject would beare enquired into the Grounds whereupon the Popes Infallibility is said to be grounded and after the most Impartiall search can pronounce of them all Mene Tekell that being weighed in the Balance of the Sanctuary they are found too light Neither have I diverted my self in confuting their worship of Images their Blasphemous Figment of Transsubstantiation their mingling of works in Justification their Invocation of Angells Col. 2.19 which the Apostle saith is not to hold the Head i. e. to Erre fundamentally Their forbidding of Marriage and commanding to abstain from meats Which he who prophesied of them 1 Tim. 4.1 calls the Doctrine of Devils I have omitted likwise their Furious and Bloody Tenets of Persecuting and Killing all who doe not worship the Image of that Beast which they have erected Rev. 13.15 for these things how plainely soever the Scripture speakes against them will not much concerne them to answer as long as they are fenced about with the Doctrine of Infallibility whereby they are privileged to put what sense upon Scripture they please but if the Christian Reader finds that conceit to be clearly disproved then I hope he will make use of the other Arguments to satisfie himself that we have but too much reason to suspect the Pope to be that Antichrist that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lawlesse one who sits in the Temple of God and declares that he is God For in the Church which is the Temple or House of God for any man to make Lawes which doe oblige the Conscience For a sinfull man to stile himself the Head and Bridegroome of the Church and above all to affirme that he is Infallible this is nothing else but to say that he is God and therein to fulfill the most clear Prediction that can be concerning The Man of sin whose way of Rising was to be by the Deceiveablenesse of Unrighteousnesse and his Dominion to be Established by Miracles and Lying Wonders Which no Church in the world doth more confidently boast of than the Roman And therefore till her unhappy and much mistaken Followers have cleared that She is not Antichristian we have little reason to believe that She is a True Church much lesse to think that She is Infallible FINIS
whatever of which kind of Citations I have collected many and observed more in the ancient Writers especially before Constantines time yet I purposely omitted them because 1. In Questions wherein the Right of any thing is controverted to call in Witnesses is altogether impertinent 2. No Authority of man ought to prevail unless it hath the Authority of God and the consent of mankind i.e. Scripture or Right Reason to back it 3. Many Writers of our own as Mounsieur Daillee Chillingworth the Lord Falkland the Lord Digby now Earl of Bristow c. have already shewed the vanity and uselesness of such Allegations and because it is possible that the example of the last Honourable Person I named may be urged against me since his present practice doth contradict his former principles I will only adde this that since his Book is not yet answered by himself I hope he thinks it unanswerable and will not long continue in communion with that Church whose Foundations he hath so well overthrown 4. This way of writing by Quotations makes every Controversie uncertain dilatory and endless for as the possessed person said to the Exorcists Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye so may the common Reader say of Authorities and Fathers Scripture I know and Reason I know but who are ye for any farther than they speak according to the Dictates of the two former these latter must not be heard much less believed or followed That this little Treatise thus curtailed of all Authorities and deplumed of those Sentences from Fathers with which others do not think they stuff but rather adorn their Writings is like to be little read and less esteemed by the men of a contrary perswasion I easily foresee but yet the Question is so very usefull that I could not omit to handle it For 1. If it shall appear that the Church and Pope of Rome are not Infallible then I hope all those who have unwarily embraced their Errours upon the account of their unerring Authority will be induced to shake off their laziness and address themselves strictly to enquire into the Grounds of what they Believe and according to the advice of the Apostle Paul who was undoubtedly Infallible in that direction Prove all things and then hold fast that which is good The greatest Truth while it is untried may for ought we know be an Errour and all that while if we entertain it we fall upon our Religion onely by chance and serve God as the Samaritans did for which our Saviour blames them we know not why 2. If the Pope and Church of Rome be not Infallible in their Judgment about Religious matters then it follows that they ought not to impose upon the Judgment of others there being nothing more unreasonable then this that they should Lord it over the Faith or Consciencious Perswasion of other men who are not certain but they may Erre and be deceived themselves This last Consideration how far it may be improved to moderate the great Fiercenesse and Rigor of too many among our selves who in things of so poore so triviall so needlesse and so unmanly a nature will have their will to be a Law I mention only it being too sad a Theme to insist long upon But if Religion which is in it selfe the firmest lye if the Law of Christ which is a Law of Love cannot make us agree and live together as Brethren yet let feare of the common Enemy prevent our separation When Abraham and Lot fell out about their Pastures and I wish much of our Church-quarells now were not of the same nature the spirit of God remarks upon it the Canaanits and the Perizzites were then in the Land Hereby intimating that it was a most unseasonable time for them to disagree and to divide from each other in when they were surrounded in the midst of Enemies This passage perfectly agrees with our Case and on the very same motive bespeakes a mutuall Reconcilement for certainly the Canaanites are in the Land the Philistines are if not upon yet Among us who watch our Halting and hate Conformists and Non-conformists if these must be once more the Unhappy Termes to distinguish us both alike the one they hate for going so farre from the other for not comming neerer to them If God in just Judgment upon our unchristian Animosities should make us a Prey to those Incircumcised Philistines Polyphemus courtesie to Ulisses of devouring him last would be the greatest favour that he can expect whoever he be that is now most eager in denying his weake but yet Christian Brother that Liberty which he thinks Christ hath purchased and none but Antichrist will seeke utterly to bereave us of Should we ever fall into the Papists hands again I cannot expect they should use us more mildly then their predecessours did Samson i.e. put out our eyes and make us grind in their Mills Or as they afterwards served the Israelites take away our Weapows of Warre our Scripture and the best if not the onely Interpreter of it Enligtned Reason and so leave us Naked and Defencelesse to the Assaules of Ignorance first and if that will not prevaile to the Fury of a Mercilesse Inquisition Which last will be found the strongest and most forcible Engine rather then Argument by which they defend their Infallibillity But how ill an opinion soever I have both of the Papists Religion and of the unchristian wayes they take to propagate it yet farre be it from me to wish that amongst us they may suffer the same hard measure which I know by their principles they are alwayes ready to inflict For so much doe I desire their Conversion which can never be sincere unlesse it be voluntary and unconstrained and so little feare their Power of seducing since their greatest strength lies in the Ignorance of their followers rather then in the cunning of their Guides that I heartily wish all Penall Lawes against them were utterly taken away For I never yet saw any Argument that could clearly evince why any sort of men who would professe a peaceable subjection unto the Civill Government might not in all their Civill Rights be protected by it I must confess there are two things which do much difference the case of the Papists from that of any other Religious Sect this day in the World and which renders the toleration of them very unsafe if not unwarrantable One is their depending upon and owning of a forreign Power and that such a Power too which according to the Opinion of their Teachers can when he pleaseth dispense with them for and release them from their most sacred Engagements so that a State can have no security but that whenever they have opportunity they will endeavour a Change Lib. 5. de Pontif Rom. c. 7. Quod si Christiani non deposuerunt Neronem similes id fuit quia deerant vires temporales nam alioqui jure id poter an t facere c. and
their present peaceableness may justly be attributed meerly to their want of strength which Bellarmine is not ashamed to say was the sole cause why the Primitive Christians were coment to suffer without Resistance from which Position what can follow but that it concerns the wisdome and policy of every State to keep those under whom as to tempor all Subjection it cannot confide in But could our Papists in England give sufficient evidence of their hearty disowning such an irreligious Tenet yet there is another thing practised by them which makes it highly questionable whether a Kingdome professing Christianity ought to tolerate them in and that is their Worship of Images which is a sinne so contrary to the express letter of the divine Law and so repugnant to the common sense and reason of all sober men that God punished it severely even in the Heathen Caldeans Jer. 50.38 as well as in his own people the Jews But bating these two indefensible Crimes rather than Errours their other opinions of Merit Purgatory Transubstantiation c. may for ought I see be charitably born with since in themselves they create no prejudice to the publick Peace which even Christian Magistrates so far as they are Magistrates ought principally if not solely to provide for If any think that such Indulgence like warm Aire will ripen these monstrous Births too fast and prove the ready way to encrease Popery they are utterly ignorant either how that Religion first began or by what Arts it is still upheld For till the world was asleepe in sensuality and blinded with Ignorance the Enemy could not sow these Tares and had they not afterwards maintained by force what they gained by fraud those Tares could never have prospered into so large an Harvest In opposition therefore to that conspiracy of Ignorance and Malice which goes to compound the Roman Religion I shall not scruple to say that if his Majesty whom God I doubt not hath designed for some such great and generous worke as now I mention be pleased still to continue to countenance the free Preaching and Reading of the Scripture and to disalow the imposing of any thing which either is contrary to or besides it It will then be as impossible for Popery to prevail as for dust to resist the Wind or for Airy Clouds to Eclipse the Sun The Errors of Popery for want of Divine Warrant have in them such a Fundamentall and Inherent weaknesse that unlesse they are upheld by a Coercive power they will sinke and fall of themselves as thinne and emty vapours if they have but roome enough in the Aire will disperse themselves without the help of any wind to scatter them To endeavour therefore the weakning of Popery by any thing which looks like Persecution doth indeed give it strength and Reputation as if it had reason on its side and therefore stood in need of force to suppresse it And besides it onely fills the Church with Hypocrites insteed of Converts who by mingling with and masking themselves under the Name of Protestants doe what they can secretly to dispirit and undermine our Religion the power of which they never felt since they were onely frighted to the Embracing of it But perhaps I need not plead so zealously for the not persecuting of Popery when too many of our unwary Gentry begin already to be taken with the outward Pompe of it and some that yet professe themselves to be of our Church and those of good Note too are not afraid to plead for something more then its Toleration Mr Thorndike Just Weights and Measures Since by telling us in Print that the Pope is not Anti-christ that Papists are not Idolaters nay by affirming that All are Schismatickes who upon that score do refuse Communion with them They not onely blemish the Virtue and Piety of our first Reformers who all built upon that Foundation but likewise show how willing they are upon any Termes how wretched and unworthy soever to returne into Egypt and bring us to our Bricke and Bondage again If this be not the intent of some I cannot imagine what meanes the crying up of that great Diana of the Papists the Churches Authority and making that the sole Interpreter of Scripture The Preaching up of Lent Dr Gunning upon Mat. 9. the Lent Fast Eliz. 5. Mr Thorndike ut suprà and other Politicall Fish-dayes as Religious Fasts and of Apostolicall Institution quite contrary both to expresse Scripture and an Act of Parliament The insinuating that we may Lawfully pray for the Dead and likwise expect some benefit by their Prayers which in time may easily be improved to our Praying unto them These with some other Opinions of the like nature so farre degenerating from our Primitive Protestancy doe show that if the Age is willing to be deceived there are not wanting Learned men who are willing enough to deceive them The designe therefore of this small Treatise is not only to depose the Pope from his usurped Title of Infallibility but to keep all persons else whether Churches or Church Rulers from taking the Chaire and succeeding into his room For since our Lord Christ hath given every Believer Reason to judge with and a Rule to judge by since over and above he hath promised his spirit to all that ask it which serves to assist the one and to explain the other he hath thereby appointed every man in matters of Faith and Godlinesse to be a Judge for himself though not of another And he who useth those meanes which our Saviour hath left and seekes to him in them may Infallibly be assured that though in some things he may Erre as a man yet he shall never finally miscarry Whereas he that leanes upon a Church of what denomination soever cannot be sure that he shall not be deceived since any number of men are as fallible in their Judgement as one especially when they are all sworne as in the Papacy to uphold the Authority and to defend the dictates of one This consideration alone will I hope prevaile with all Impartiall and disinteressed persons to take the safest side and with David to chuse to fall into the hands of God whose word duely searched into never deceived any rather then to fall into the hands of men who being Blind themselves do first take care to Blind their Followers and then lead them into a Ditch Edward Bagshaw Drury-Lane Aprill 16. 1662. THE GREAT QUESTION ABOUT The Infallibility of the Pope AND Church of Rome Quest Whether there be any sufficient Ground from Scripture or Reason to believe the Pope and Church of Rome to be Infallible FOr the better understanding and clearer stating of this Great Question I will premise these three things 1. By the Pope I mean the Bishop of Rome not in his Personall capacity as he is a Man for so the prodigious and monstrous Lives of many of their Popes which are obvious in Story Multi Pontifices fuerunt
minu◠probi Bell. Prafat cannot but force them to acknowledge that he is liable to Errour but in his Politicall or which is all one his Ecclesiasticall capacity as he is the pretended Head of the Church and vested with all those Immunities and Priviledges which his Favourers suppose to be due unto the Universall Bishop 2. By the Church of Rome I mean not the diffused and scattered Body of the Papists but according to their own Sense how Absurd and Insignificant soever the Bishops and Doctours of their Church assembled together in a Councell where they may be supposed to meet with the greatest Advantage and Opportunity for the Disquisition and Search of Truth 3. By Infallible I mean to have a certain fixed and unerring Judgement in Religious matters which things alone do properly belong to the determination and cognizance of a Church as it is a Church And in this sense of the Question thus explained in as great a Latitude as any Papist can possibly understand it in I deny the Pope whether considered as apart from or conjoyned with as a part of a Councell to be Infallible For the proof of which Assertion though I might find out great variety of Arguments from the express and direct contradictions which have been among the Popes themselves some reversing that which others have ratified and others establishing that which their Predecessors under the severest Penalties have forbid Yet since the proper and direct way of Arguing lyes in shewing the weakness and insufficiency of those Arguments which are brought in defence of the Popes Infallibility that is the Method which I purpose altogether to insist on For since this great and so much admired Diana of the Papists is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a thing to be discerned by its own Light and to be credited meerly for it self as the testimony of the Spirit is when it bears witness unto the truth of Scripture and besides it being generally denied by all the Protestants who make the Errours of the Church of Rome the ground of their separation from them hence it cannot be expected that we should tamely give up out Assent to believe this Infallibility unless there be some evident and concluding Reasons to enforce it from us If therefore it shall appear that whatever Bellarmine and when I mention him I mean the strength of the whole Popish Party hath said is altogether impertinent and unconcluding indeed nothing else but a plain begging the thing in Question my Deduction from thence will be Infallible viz. that we have as yet no Reason to believe the Popes Infallibility To clear up this the best way will be to take a short view of those Arguments which Bellarmine alleadgeth in his Books De Pontifice Romano and they are briefly these three 1. Some Texts of Scripture in the New Testament 2. Some Analogicall Inferences out of the Old 3. Some Absurdities and Inconveniences which would follow in the Church of God should we not allow the Pope and Church of Rome to be Infallible 1. The Texts of Scripture which Bellarmine and all Writers since him do urge to prove the Popes Infallibility by are these three Mat. 16.18 19. Luk. 22.31 32. Job 21.15 17. From which they draw these three Conclusions 1. That in those fore-mentioned places our Saviour did confer upon Peter some speciall Priviledges above and beyond the rest of the Apostles and they were 1. Supremacy in Matthew 2. Infallibility in Luke 3. Universall Episcopacy in John 2. They Assume that whatever was bestowed upon Peter was not confined unto his Person but was promised likewise unto his Successours since what was granted unto Peter was given for the good of the Church and therefore ought not to die with him 3. They take for granted that the Pope was Peter's Successour both in the Bishoprick of Rome and also in all his other Priviledges and for the last they alleadge nothing but the credit of that which they call Apostolicall Tradition Whether or no these Deductions are cleare in the Texts or violently haled and wrested from them with so much impudent and shamelesse Sophistry as a wise and disinteressed Person would blush to be guilty of will best appeare by examining the places themselves and if when they are put upon the Racke they can be forced to confesse so much as Bellarmine and the Popes Parasites conclude from them I shall then consent to dethrone Scripture from its plainnesse and Perspicuity but till then I must take leave to thinke that that Church doth very wisely which makes Ignorance and Implicite Faith the Mother of Devotion for nothing lesse then an over-awed and Religious stupidity would make any man submit unto such Impossible and farre fetched interpretations 1. The place in Mat. 16.18 19. runs thus And Jesus answered and said unto him i. e. to Peter Blessed art thou Simon Barjona for flesh and bloud hath not revealed this to thee but my Father which is in Heaven And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And I will give unto thee the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven Which place they thus interpret 1. By the Rock upon which Christ saith he will build his Church is meant the Person of Peter and the Churche's being built upon him signifies say they that the care and government of it was committed to him and thus they understand likewise his Having of the Keyes 2. By the power of Binding and Loosing they understand the power of commanding and punishing of making and repealing Laws with all such things as belong to a Soveraign and Legislative Power 3. They tell us that whatever Peter had here was likewise granted to the Pope who is his Successour and therefore he being the Rock and the Foundation of the Church cannot be tossed about with every wind of Doctrine and therefore is Infallible But I answer 1. Upon supposition that Peter here was constituted as they call him Head and Prince of the Apostles yet how would this Personall Priviledge any more belong to the Bishop of Rome if he were Peter's Successour than what our Saviour elsewhere saith to Peter Why didst thou doubt O thou of little faith doth note the Pope's uncertainty and instability in Believing Or Mat. 14.31 what our Saviour presently after speaks Get thee behind me Satan doth signifie that every Pope is an Incarnate Devil or to take the mildest Interpretation an Adversary to Christ and to the good of mankind For what Reason can be assigned why the Pope may not as well succeed in Peter's Personall Defects as into his Priviledges since the Scripture is utterly silent either that he had or that he was to have a Successour in either But 2. I deny the Supposition upon
not answered your Lordships expectation as to the exactnesse of my stile and strict manner of my Reasoning I shall not wonder since no Industry of mine can be sufficient to satisfie your Lordships accurate and unequalled ability in Judging But if I have showed my diligence and left no Argument unanswered how plainly and inelegantly soever I hope then your Lordship will let my willingnesse to obey compound for the failings in my Obedience since if the Enemy be killed it is all one as to the truth of the Victory whether it was done by a Rough Stone or by a Polished Sword nor was David's conquest the lesse esteemed because he vanquished Goliah onely with a sling And now My Lord before I conclude I should crave leave to tell the world how Good as well as how Great you are I should borrow so much Language from Common Fame and the Generall Voice as to declare that for Wisdome to Direct for Eloquence to Expresse for Diligence to Execute very few equall and none exceed your Lordship But since what is truth in it self and would be Justice in others in me because of my Relation may be esteemed flattery I shall turne my Praises of into Prayers for you that your Lordship may be alwayes fixed upon the Rocke of Ages and in all your walkings acknowledg that God who onely is Infallible That Christianity may ever steere your actions and all your other Politicall and Morall excellencies may still vail and doe Homage unto a knowing Piety that with your truly Religious and Excellent Lady together with your most Hopefull and Virtuous Children you may be long preserved a Good and Great Example is and shall be the constant Prayer of My Lord Your Lordships most Obliged and most Obedient Servant and Chaplain Edward Bagshawe Drury-Lane April 19th 1662. The Preface THere are none who allow themselves any liberty of Enquiry so little skilled in the Controversies and Disputes between the Papists and Us but must needs perceive that when they are driven out of all the Subterfuges and little Policies which they call Distinctions by which they labour to defend their Errours then their last resort is to the Infallibility of their Church which as they handle it is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Plaister large and broad enough though not to cure yet to palliate and hide their noisome and diseased Doctrines And therefore unless we can take from them this Refuge also it will be to as little purpose to combate their other Tenets how false and erroneous soever as it was for Hercules in the Fable to wrestle with Anteus who as often as be was thrown down upon his Mother the Earth rose up again with new and redoubled vigour So till we are able by plain force of Argument to convince the Papists of their folly in believing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Mother the Churches Infallibility no industry can be so quick in cutting off and destroying their Errours as that pregnant and fruitfull womb will be in conceiving and bringing them forth again As they tell us that young Vipers when they are assaulted run into their Mothers mouth and from thence seek shelter in the poisonous womb that bare them so all those Prodigies rather than Opinions of Transubstantiation Supererogation Image-Adoration and the like when they are pursued home and pressed beyond the strength and support of their own proper Principles then to defend themselves they take Sanctuary in Infallibility and under the protection of that they lye though not concealed from the eye yet safe from the edge of their opposers For to instance in the vast use of it what if all the senses we have and the Apostle too do assure us that the Bread in the Lords Supper even after Consecration remains true and reall Bread still yet if that Church whose judgement is supposed to be Infallible tells us there is no such matter but that under that Form whatever we think there is contained our Lord Christ both in his Divine and Humane Nature we must then in spite of all contradiction either believe her or else vindicate our selves from so unreasonable and so absurd an opinion by disproving her Infallibility Leaving therefore other parts of the Romish Religion which are either bold additions to the Word of God or else so gross falsifications of it that they deserve not a particular confutation I have here endeavoured to set upon that Man of sin where his strength lyes since by our Saviours example to break the Serpents head is not only the most ready way to dispatch him but the most safe way too to prevent any infection by his venome In prosecution of this Design that I might not out of too much eagerness and heat mistake my Adversary I took this Method 1. I laboured fully to inform my self of the Church of Romes Doctrine especially in those points wherein we as Protestants do differ from them And this I did not by studying the Collections of others or by adhering to some one Author of their Party whose Writings they are not bound universally to own but by diligent perusing the Canons of their most magnified Councels particularly that of Trent which I read only in such Editions as are approved and attested by themselves 2. Since the Popes Infallibility how tamely soever our Modern Papists swallow it was anciently a great Dispute amongst them and in the Schools among their learned men is not yet decided some attributing it to the Pope which seems to have been the judgement of the Junto at Trent others preferring a Councell of which opinion were the two Councels of Basil and Constance as appears in their Decrees yet extant Hereupon I carefully perused Cardinall Bellarmine upon this Subject who is the Popes Principall and most avowed I will adde and most learned Champion And because I think he hath spoke fully the sense of the Court of Rome and left nothing unsaid which might justifie his Cause I made it my business in the following Treatise to answer his Arguments 3. Though they inferre it from different Principles yet since both Papists and Protestants do agree in this Conclusion that the Scripture is the undoubted Word of God I have from that Armory fetched all my weapons by which I fight against this Monster of Infallibility for since Bellarmines best plea for it is from some few Texts by him miserably wrested and mistaken I thought it my duty to take this sword of the Spirit out of that Gollans hand and not only sonite off his head with it but likewise use it my self thronghout my whole Discourse For though the Papists are so bold as to deny the Scriptures to be a Sufficient Rule yet for so much as there is of them they dare not deny them to be Infallible and therefore Lastly Whatever Testimonies I might have alleadged either in behalf of the Scriptures Sufficiency and Divine Autherity or against the perpetuall Infallibility of any man or number of men
lay hid in Obscurity is cleared up and brought to Light As if a Pipe that formerly conveyed a great Quantity of Water should suddenly fail we would the a have recourse unto the Fountain to learn the true Conse of such a Stop and Intercision that if the fault was in the Pipe it might be repaited and fitted to receive the Streams of Water in the same Abundance and Purity that they issue from the Fountain so likewise ought all the Ministers of God in their Observance of Divine Commands to do that if the Truth seems wavering and uncertain in any Point Ad Originem Dominicam Evangelicam Apostolicam Traditionem we may have recourse unto the Originall to wit the Tradition of our Lord in his Gospel and by his Apostles that so the Ground of our Acting may proceed thence whence the Order and Originall of it did first arise I have at large quoted these words out of Cyprian both to shew how little the Bishop of Rome's Authority was then valued and likewise to manifest what that Holy and Learned Man thought to be the only way whereby all Controversies in Religion ought to be decided not to depend upon Uncertain Traditions which at the best are but the Inventions of Men but to have Immediate recourse unto the Scriptures and to go no further in any part of Divine Worship than as their Rule doth guid us And this Testimony of his the Papists cannot in Justice refuse since Cyprian is a Saint in their Calender and yet died without ever retracting his Judgement 3. My Third and Last Instance shall be that notable Speech of Pope Gregory about six hundred years after our Saviours time who having had great contests for Superiority with John the Patriarch of Constantinople when at sast John having the Emperour on his side did endeavour to gain the Title of Universall Bishop Greg. lib. 4. Ep. 32 33. Gregory did fiercely oppose him in it and in many of his Epistles affirms that whoever should Assume that Stile he was the Forerunner of Antichrist a Child of the Devil an Apostate from the Faith with many other sharp but true sayings to the same Purpose It pleased God that within few years after An. 606 Pope Boniface little minding the Predictions of his Predecessour did not only claim but likewise actually take to himself that Name which as a Badge of Antichrist and an Infallible Mark to know him by he hath ever since transmitted to his Successours Now I ask whether Pope Gregory was Infallible in that Opinion of his which he doth so often and so earnestly insist upon If they tell me he was then we need not dispute any farther Whether the Pope be Antichrist for we have Gregorie's own Confession that whoever would arrogate to himself the Name of Universall Bishop was undoubtedly so but if they say he was not then their Conceit of Infallibility vanisheth as amounting to no more than this that the Pope is Infallible when he Speaks and Acts for the Advantage of his See but very Fallible when he speaks any thing though never so deliberately which in after Ages may make against it I have forebore to Urge that many of the Popes have actually fallen into Heresie as Honorius by Name who by the sixth Synod was condemned for an Heretick and his Epistles commanded to be burnt and the very express words of some of their Canons are That the Pope cannot be judged by any unless he be found to have crred from the Faith which doth suppose even in the Judgement of his own Canonists that there is a Possibility of his Erring Neither do I insist upon the Decrees of the Councels of Basil and Constance which were both assembled for the deposing of two Popes that were unduely Chosen and in them it was Enacted that A Councell was above the Pope which they strictly command all to believe as an Article of Faith Which Instances though they strike sufficiently at the Pope's Infallibility and Paramount Authority yet because the Answer of some of the most Moderate and Ingenuous Papists is that Though the Pope be not Infallible in himself yet in and with a Councell he is I shall therefore speak a little to this Conceit and then conclude I demand therefore of those who maintain the Infallibility of the Pope and a Councell conjunctim what Divine Warrant have they for such an Opinion and where hath God promised Infallible Assistance unto a Councell of the Pope's Calling For those Texts that are commonly made use of as Hear the Church and The Spirit shall lead you into all Truth and It seemed good unto the Holy Ghost and to us with some few others to the same sense are as impertinently alleadged in behalf of a Councell as those fore-mentioned are in behalf of the Pope For 1. That Command Tell the Church doth not signifie an Appeal unto a Synod of Bishops â—at 18. who are all of the Pope's Creation and therefore must needs be Partiall for him but Church there signifies that particular Congregation to which we relate as Members neither do our Saviour's words concern Articles of Faith and Matters of Opinion but meerly Civil Injuries as is plain from the Context for our Saviour having commanded them to forgive one another he then goes on to tell them what course they should take in case a Brother should offend them first to reprove him privately and if that prevailed not then to take two or three as witnesses of their proceedings But if notwithstanding this the Injurious Person still continued Obstinate then to tell it Caetui or to the Congregation 1 Cor. 5. as the Apostle Paul adviseth the Corinthians that being all met together they should proceed to censure 1 Tim. 5.20 and to Timothy Them that sin rebuke before all i. e. all of that Church or Congregation to which they belong that others also may fear And this sense besides that it is the proper meaning of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Church which often in Scripture signifies the Congregation distinct from their Officers but never the contrary it likewise fully agrees with our Saviours Scope who as the Offence ariseth would have the Remedy to arise proportionably and therefore he useth this Gradation that first one should reprove an Offending Brother then two or three then the Church or more according to what we find practised in the Church of Corinth who it seems had agreed to censure the Incestuous Person according as the Apostle had commanded them 2 Cor. 2.9 and therefore he tells them Sufficient to such a one is the Reprehension by many i. e. even by all the Members of that Christian Assembly to which he did relate and if the Offender would not hearken to them then he was to be thrown out of Communion and to be accounted as a Stranger to the Church even as an Heathen and a Publican And such Determinations of every particular Church our