overspread the whole face of the visible Church with smoke and darkness as was prophesied of him in the fifth Trumpet Revel 9.1 It was not said to the Pope What ye bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and to you it is given to know the mysteries of Heaven or that I will send the Spirit to you to remain with you for ever It was not said to him nor to the Roman Catholick visible Church You have been told so an Hundred times You have been challenged an Hundred times over to prove your interest in these promises if you can And now again if you reply to this paper what ever you pass by in silence yet I pray remember this That you prove your interest in them now once at last And to provoke you if possible thereunto give me leave to tell you That howsoever you labour to put a good face upon the matter yet there are not wanting appearances and grounds of diffidence even among your selves about it for Bellarmine numbers the alligation of the Apostolick See to Rome in no higher rank than that of pious and very probable Opinions Bâ—ll de Rom. Pontif. lib. 4. cap. 4. Quod non sit omnino de fide à Romana Ecclesia non posse separari Apostolicam sedem patet quia neque Scriptura neque traditio habet sedem Apostolicam ita fixam esse Romae ut inde auferri non possit nibilominus tamen pia probabilissima est sententia But if the Apostolick seat be removeable from Rome then by your own principles she may erre and perish Therefore I say again prove your interest in any Scripture-promise if you can Do it if you can for instance concerning that famous Text upon which you found your claim Matt. 16.18 Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it This Text belongs as much to Mahomet as to the Pope you would fain give it to the Pope but how many postulata must you beg without proof before you can arrive at such a conclusion as 1. That Peter was at Rome 2. That he was there martyred and marthered by the Romans 3. That the murthering of an honest man doth give the Thief that did it a just right and title to all his Estates and Honours Cartwr on Matth. 16.18 or as Mr. Cartwright speaketh That innocent blood which polluteth other places should sanctifie Rome and that the Lord who in revenge threw down Jerusalem from her priviledges which she had above all the Cities in the world for spilling the blood of the Prophets should in reward lift up the head of Rome above all other Cities for shedding the blood of the Apostles Nay rather forasmuch as it was more drunken with the blood of Saints under the Government of the Emperors than ever was any and therein hath justified her elder sister Jerusalem therefore by the most just judgment of God it is become the Seat of Antichrist Yea by this Argument as he also observes Jerusalem that killed our Saviour Christ himself getteth the prize from her 4. That Peter was Bishop of Rome which was inconsistent with his Office of Apostleship 5. That he left a Successor in eodem gradu in his Apostolical power and office that whereas the Commission was personal to the rest to determine with themselves he onely of all the Twelve should hold the Apostleship as it were in fee-simple for himself and his Successors for ever 6. That the Bishop of Rome is this Successor though Peter taught at Jerusalem first Cartwr on Matth 16.18 afterwards at Lidda then at Joppa afterwards at Antioch and likewise at Caesarea lastly at Alexandria before he came to Rome And so the Apostolical Authority is holden by the tenure of Burrow English where the youngest enjoyeth all as Mr. Cartwright there observes Of all which suppositions the two first are meerly disputable and uncertain and can never be demonstrated but the four last are most certainly and indisputably salse But yet all these we must believe to the end we may believe the Popes concernment in this promise made to Peter And many a child of God have you offered in the fire to Molech for not believing these Romances But when will you go about to prove them You know in your own Consciences that there is as much footing in the Scripture for the old Pagan Theogonie their Pedigrees and Fables of their Canonized Ancestors and for the Jewish Thalmudick as for these Romantick Figments Learned men have observed That there may be some dark footsteps of the true Scripture History of Adam investigated and discerned in the old Heathenish Fable of Saturn some footsteps of the History of Cham and Cain in the Fables of Jupiter of Noah in Bacchus of Moses and Joseph in Mercurius Trismegistus of Joshuah and Sampson in Hercules c. And truly there is no more of Peter the Apostle in the Pope of Rome those being nothing else but depravations of and depraved Traditions and Additions to the Truths and Sacred Histories of the Old Testament and so is Popery to the New You reason from the promise made to Peter that the Church cannot fail being builded upon a Rock nor needs no new Masons to re-build her again But why do you not prove the Roman Synagogue to be a Church You know we deny it otherwise then as the dead carcass or picture of a man is called a man She is Ecclesia malignantium as Psal 26.5 A Church of evil doers but not a true Gospel Church not a Spouse of Christ Though if she were yet a true Church when declining or defective may need Instruments in the hand of Christ to Reform her call them new Masons or by what other name of honour or contempt you please Therefore after the renewed promulgation of the Gospel in the tenth Chapter of the Revelations Christ doth authorize and commissionate his servants to measure the Temple and to leave out the outer Court Revel 11.1 2. which importeth some further degree of Reformation but prove the Pope and Church of Rome to be at all concerned in what was said to Peter if you can Do it if you can concerning that other Scripture so much abused by you 1 Tim. 3.15 The Church is the pillar and ground of Truth because by the Ministry of the Church the Truth is published and propagated Mr. Bedle 's Letters to Wadsworth cap. 8. p. 118. as if a Law or Proclamation of the King be set up upon a pillar in the Market-place or in allusion as Mr. Bedle takes it to the bases or pillars that held up the Vail or Curtains in the Tabernacle And whether you refer it to Timothy as some or to the Church as others it comes much to one Evident it is that the Apostle speaks it directly either of Timothy or of the Church of Ephesus and that it holds by a parity of reason concerning all other
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
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
Ecclesia Ann. 1538. See the Appendix cap. 8. who did privately advise the Pope to Reform things amiss in a Paper they presented to him he having asked their Advice wherein they do attaque the very Popes themselves as the Heads of the Apostasie and Fountains of Corruption to the whole Church Principium horum malorum vide fuisse quod nonnulli Pontifices tui Praedecessores prurientes auribus c. Wherein they do their Popes no wrong for they speak no worse of them then your own Historians represent them nor then Pope Adrian the Sixth did acknowledge them to be In his Instructions to his Legate Cheregatus and in his Letter to the Princes of Germany Assembled in the Imperial Dyet at Norimberge 1523. He saith Sâ—imus in hac sede aliquot jam annis multa abominanda fuisse Fox's Acts and Mon. Vol. 2. pag. 78. Lampad Mellif Histor Part. 3. pag. 425. abusus in spiritualibus excessus in mandatis omnia denique in perversum mutata Se quidem non ignorare quid Scriptura docet nempe à Sacerdotibus populi iniquitatis originem scaturire ab ipsocapite Pontificio malum diffiuere in membra inferiora There have been saith he many years many Abominations in this See Abuses in Spirituals Excesses in Commands and all things perversly ordered The Fountain of Iniquity hath flowed from the Priests to the people as the Scripture saith and from the Pontificial Head the evil hath flowed into the inferiour members Thus he who as you say could not erre in judgment If a man would choose a Religion on purpose for the gratifying of his lusts Sir Walter Raleigh saith He knows none like Popery You have so many wayes to dispense with your Consciences and to indulge Sinners a licentious liberty to take their swinge in their lusts Your last swarm of Locusts the Jesuites have made it their business to corrupt all Morality as is to be seen at large in the Book called The Mystery of Jesuitism Moreover there is yet a third oversight in your Enumeration over and above both the former for as a Church which was once true and pure may cease to be so by such backslidings as have been instanced on her part so she may cease to be at all by righteous and destroying Judgments on Gods part which is also the case of the Old Church of Rome Providence having cut them off by the Sword of the Goths and Vandals and other Northern Nations about 400 years after Christ as he did the ten Tribes by the Assyrians of old and he hath substituted another people and language in their Land and place viz. those we call Italians as he did the Samaritans in the Land of Israel And as then so now the Successors are worse and further off from God than their degenerate Predecessors whom they saw the Lord destroy and cut off before their eyes Now suppose the Samaritans of old had pleaded a Plea not unlike yours viz. thus The Israelites were a true famous flourishing Church in the dayes of Moses and Joshuah and in the dayes of David and Solomon therefore we Samaritans are so now The Answer is easie You are neither of the same Religion no nor yet so much as the same people for they were Israelites but ye Samaritans So here What though there was in the dayes of Paul a Gospel Church of Romans at Rome though so far as appears not very great or numerous in those dayes but that ever there was such a Church of Samaritans or Italians there a pure Church there since the Roman people were cut off and their Language ceased to be a Mother-tongue and the Italian came in place Hoe tibi incumbit demonstrandum prove this if you can Alas the True Church is dead and gone from thence above 1000 years ago and a monstrons Beast with Ten crowned Horns is risen up instead thereof But you proceed to the first Head of your Distribution thus DISCOURSE Apostasie is not only a Renouncing of the Faith of Christ but of the very Name and Title of Christianity No man will say That the Church of Rome bad ever such a fall or fell thus ANSWER You thus restrain the word Apostasie to the grossest and deepest degree thereof that so you may the better defend your Church from the guilt of this sin But there is no necessity so to restrain it for there may be deep Apostasie from God under a name and outside profession of Religion It is written of the Church of Sardis Revel 3.1 Thou hast a name that thou livest but art dead Neither the Scripture nor the original signification of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a falling away nor the common and ordinary use of it requires that there be in it a Renouncing of the very Name and Title of Christianity It is used in sundry places of Scripture where no such Restraint is intimated as Acts. 21.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou teachest the Jews to forsake Moses And concerning Antichrist 1 Tim. 4.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some shall apostatize or depart from the faith And again 2 Thess 2.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except there come a falling away first And ver 7. This Apostasie is called A Mystery of Iniquity Therefore it shall not be an open total professed Apostasie but partial and palliated over with fair umbrages and plausible pretensions else why is it called A Mystery of Iniquity and Mystical Babylon Nor do you indeed your own selves alwayes use the word Apostasie onely in that gross sense for you scruple not to bestow the title of Apostate as well as Heretick upon Luther and the Protestant Churches though neither he nor we ever did nor through grace ever will Renounce the Name and Title of Christianity Cyprian warning the Saints and people of God in his time to take heed of spiritual and sitbtile Delusions Cypr. De Vnitate Ecclefia open and professed persecution being not their only danger He sheweth how Sathan perceiving that by the large diffusion and spreading of Gospel-light Pagan Idolatry and their Temples were much forsaken Excogitavit novam fraudem ut sub ipso Christiani nominis titulo fallat Incautos He hath bethought himself of a new deceit whereby to mislead unwary Souls under the very Name and Title of Christianity Sathan saith he transforming himself into an Angel of light and suborning his Ministers as Ministers of righteousness bringing night for day Antichristum sub vocabulo Christi Antichrist under the name of Christ The Church of Israel in the time of her Apostasie did not Renounce the very Name and Title of Jehovah but they did worship and swear by the Lord and by Malcham too Zephan 1.5 So those mungrel Samaritans 2 Kings 17.33 41. They professed Ezra 4.2 We seek your God as you do as fair a pretension as any your Church can make And in Christs time they had some confused notions and expectations of the Messiah John 4.29
They had learned to say our father Jacob as well as you can say Saint Peter John 4.12 So in like manner the Church of Rome though She hath not Renounced the very Name and Title of Christianity yet She is deeply guilty of Apostasie from God divers other wayes both in her Head and Members She is and may be called an Apostate Church as having fallen away from the Faith and Doctrine of the Gospel by fundamental Unbelief Ignorance and Herefie and from Gospel obedience by the most abominable profaneness of life by the grossest kind of sins and scandals against all the Ten Commandments concerning which you prudently forbear to say any thing but concerning the former head viz. Apostasie from the Faith Your Defence is this CHAP. III. Of the Nature of Heresie DISCOURSE Heresie is an adbesion to some private and singular Opinion or Error in Faith contrary to the general and approved Doctrine of the Church If Rome did ever adhere to any such Opinion c. By what General Council was it ever condemned Which of the Fathers ever wrote against Her Or by what Authority was She ever Reproved ANSWER This Description of Heresie and the Queries grounded thereupon as they are not agreeable either to the Scriptural or Ecclesiastical sense and use of the Word so they are indeed no better than a begging of the thing in question between you and us For you know we hold That the Rule whereby to judge of Heresie is the Scripture and not the Opinions of Churches of Fathers Mr. Gales Idea of Jansenism Histor dogmat Part. 2. Sect. 28. p. 157. or Councils Tertullian makes it the Badge of an Heretick to decline the Scriptures he saith They are Noctue Lucifugae Scripturarum Night Owls that do not love the light of that Sun yea some of your own Church who are the pars sanion thereof if yet they be of you have said That it is an Herefie to judge of Heresies without the Word of God So the Jansenists And the Reason why the generality of Papists are so desirous to derline the Scripture is because they are conscious to themselves that it is against them as Mr. White hath well observed 〈◊〉 of Brisom White 's way to the Church Sect. 7. Numb 8. Bristow Motiv ult Canus loc lib. 3. cap. 3. Confil. Episc Bononi Congreg Anno 1553. De stabilienda Roman Eccles Fol. 5. who teaching his Scholar how to deal with a Protestant 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proud Heretick out of his weak and false Castle of unely Scripturs into the plain field of Traditions Miracles Councils and Fathers and then like Cowards They shall not stand Another Papist saith There is more strength is confine Hereticks in Traditions than in the Scriptures yea all Disputations with them must be determined by Traditions Those Reverend Fathers of your Church that met at Bononia by the Popes appointment to consult of the means for establishing of the Church of Rome or healing the Wound of the Daughter of Babel in the counsel they gave to Pope Julius the Third They do confess Certè vix umbram quandam retinemus in nostris Ecclesus ejus Doctrinae Disciplinae quae Apostolorum temporibus floruerunt prorsùs aliam accersivimus The truth is we searce retain a shadow in our Churches of that Doctrine and Discipline which flourished in the Apostles times but we have brought in altogether another There was no mention Fol. 2. say they for we may confess the Truth to your Holiness but it must he kept close either of Popes or Cardinals in the Apostles times nor of some years after There were no Monasteries nor Priors nor Abbots much less were there these Doctrines these Laws these Customs no nor that Empire which now we enjoy over several people and Nations They say further That the not studying the Canon Law and Sophistry and Metaphysicks c. Fol 5. But learning the Greek and Hebrew Tongues and examining Translations by the Greek and Hebrew verity hath been the cause and fountain of the late decay of the Church of Rome and of the deplorable state and condition of her Affairs at this day And finally which they reserve to the last place as the weightiest of all their ghostly counsels They advise That as little as may be of the Gospel Fol. penult be read amongst the people in their vulgar Tongue For hic ille in summa est liber qui praeter caeteros hasce nobis tempestates acturbines conciliavit quibus prope abrepti sumus For this is in brief That Book which above all others hath raised and brought upon us these storms and whirlewinds by which we are almost carried away headlong Thus speak they It appears by all this wherefore it is that you love not the Scripture even because it restifies against you For he that doth evil hateth the light and cometh not to the light lest his deeds should be reproved John 3.16 20. As to the word Heresie for your mistakes call upon me to open it a little if we look at the notation of it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capio eligo so it signifies any thing of choice or option as Galen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Methodical and the Empirical way of Physick when applyed to matters of Religion it imports in the largest signification any Sect or way of Religion that a man makes choice of whether true or false So the Sect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Sadduces Acts 5.17 the Sect of the Pharisees Acts 15.5 called the most exquisite Sect of our Religion Acts 26.5 the Sect of the Nazarens Acts 24.5 the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herefie in all these places But it is frequently restrained by a Synecdothe to signifie a false Religion as some other words ex gr Tyrannus magnus c. which are commonly taken in deteriorem partem Thus Epiphanius seemeth to take it in his Book of Eighty Heresies where he numbers Barbarism Seythism Stoicism Platonism c. amongst Heresies But it is commonly restrained yet more by a further Synecdoche to such Errors as overthrow the Foundation and are obstinately maintained against Conviction by persons pretending in part to the True Religion and so we do not call Pagans Hereticks but Infidels This sense of the word seems to be grounded on 1 Cor. 3.10 11. and 2 Pet. 2.1 and Titus 3.10 11. where the Apostles do distinguish of Doctrines comparing some to Hay and Stubble yet retaining the true foundation But there is another sort which they call damnable Heresies or Heresies of perdition Soul-destroying Heresies the Assertors whereof are subverted or overturned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from off the true foundation and self-condemned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as sinning against their own light Now the written Word of God being the onely Rule of True Religion hence nothing ought to be rejected under the Notion of Heresie but what the Scripture doth
condemn as such viz. as false and destructive unto Souls and dangerously intrenching upon the very Vitals and Fundamentals of Religion And if it be demanded of us What are the Heresies of the Church of Rome in this last sense This is a large Field Popery saith Dr. Ames Ames Cas l. 5. c. 4. de Haeres Non est una aliqua singularis Haeresis sed quasi corpus quoddam ex variis Haeresibus conflatum productum Sicut enim Mahumetismus est antecedentium Haeresâ—â—n mixtura in Oriente Meridie sic Papismus quamvis aliâ specie variarum Haereseâ—n sentina est in Occidente Septentrione Popery is not one single Heresie but a Sink of many Heresies a dead Sea a Sodomitick Lake of many poysonous and erroneous Opinions Look as Mahometism is a mixture of former Heresies in the Eastern and Southern Countries so is Papism though under different pretensions a Sink of many Heresies in the Western and Northern parts of the old Roman Empire Take at present for I would not leave things at random these few Instances of the Heresies your Church hath fallen into It is easie seeing you call us to it it is easie in the strength of Christ in the evidence of his Word and Spirit to make good the Charge against Her CHAP. IV. Of the Heresies of the Church of Rome eight particulars instanced THe first grand Error of your Church is this Your Dethroning and Unlording the Scripture It is Christs own phrase Matth. 15.6 and Mark 7.13 by way of Reproof to your Predecessors those ancient Papists the Pharisees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unlording the Word of God through your Tradition But to this written Word did Jesus Christ appeal John 5.39 Search the Scriptures for in them ye think to have eternal life and they are they which testifie of me We are commanded to try the spirits 1 John 4.1 even by the Rule laid down in that Scripture ver 2. The Bereans are commended by the Holy Ghost as Christians of the right breed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they would not take the Apostles Doctrine upon trust but searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so Therefore many of them believed Acts 17 11 12. But with you it is a Nose of Wax attramentary Divinity of no more Authority in it self than Aesop's Fables or Titus Livius but that your Church hath christened it for Scripture but yet She tells us withall That we must receive Her Traditions Pari pietatis affectu reverentia Concil Trident S ss 4. Decret 1. with as much pious affection and reverence as we receive the Scripture So your Tridentine Council It is lamentable to consider how many Bibles you have burnt and how many Christians you have burnt alive for having Bibles and labouring to acquaint themselves therewith In King Henry the Eighth's time those of you who then had the conduct of Affairs in England did cause to be put forth a publick and authentick Instrument for the abolishing and inhibiting of the Scriptures wherein ye thus express your selves Daâ—ed May 24. 1531. That foras much as there is ingendered an Opinion in divers of his Subjects that it is his Graces duty to cause the Scripture of God to be Translated into the English Tongue to be communicated unto the people It appeareth That the having of the whole Scripture in English is not necessary to christen men Fox Acts and Mon. Vor. 2. Eâ—it 1641. the divulging of the Scripture at this time in the English Tongue to be committed to the people considering such pestilent Books and so evil Opinions as be now spread among them should rather be to their further confusion and destruction than to the edification of their Souls Thus you said and did your worst but you could not hinder the Sun from rising at its appointed hour nor frustrate the Oath of him who sware that your time should be no longer and he gave the book to his servants to prophesie again Rev. 10. ver 6 9 11. This wretched neglect and contempt of the Scripture is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very corner stone of the Tower of Babel We look upon it as the first and chief of all your Heresies and the source and fountain of all the rest Ye do erre not knowing the Scripture Matt. 22.29 For there is a self-evidencing light and majesty in the Scripture it bears the stamp and impress of the Divine Attributes upon it which he that sees not must needs be blind as to other Truths also As he that cannot see the Sun when it shines at Noon-day can see nothing else he that cannot hear the voyce of Thunder is not like to be awakened by a silent whisper 2. The Authority and Infallibility of your Church and Pope as if they were not men but gods for humanum est errare Let God be true and every man a lyar Rom. 3.4 This is the great Idol that you set up against the Scripture and consequently against God himself for the Scripture is God speaking to Mankind Hence it is written of Antichrist that he exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God shewing himself that he is God 2 Theff 2.4 He takes upon him to dispense even with the Laws of God therefore it is made the brand of a Reprobate to worship the Beast Revel 13.8 And the Lord denounces and thunders forth damnation to them Reve 14.9 10 11. The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and their doom is just for they make a god of him for put case the Pope should erre and go to Hell Bell. De summo Pontif. lib. 4. cap. 5. Bellarmine would fain make us believe that we are bound in conscience to go with him for thus he speaketh Si Papa exraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona virtutes malas nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare If the Pope should erre in commanding Vices and forbidding Vertues the Church were bound to believe that Vice is good and that Virtue is evil unless she would fin against her Conscience Here is sweet Catholick Doctrine is it not yet such stuffe as this is of such value with you that the same Bellarmine saith Bell. Praefatin liâ—res â—e Fortif Quâ de re agitur cum de primatu Pontificis agitur brevissime dicam de summa rei Christianae The Primacy of the Pope sayes he is the sum of Christian Religion he means Antichristian 3. Your arrogant Attributions to corrupted Free-will in derogation to the sovereignty and efficacy of converting and electing Grace yea to the utter corrupting and undermining of sundry great Gospel-truths as Election Regeneration Assurance Perseverance your Free-will is an Error that draws a soul tail after it But the Scripture saith We are not born again of the will of man
but of his own will he begat us John 1.13 James 1.18 So then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth it is neither Free will nor good Works but it is of God that sheweth mercy Rom. 9.16 When thou wast in thy blood yea when thou wast in thy blood I said unto thee Live Ezek. 16.6 Which is that that fills the hearts of his people with such admiring and adoring thoughts of the freedom and sovereignty and efficacy of his grace That gratia vorti-cordia as Austin speaks that wonderful heart-changing grace that slayes the enmity subdues the heart and turns the will who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy Now to the King eternal immortal invisible the onely wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen 1 Tim. 1.13 14 15 16 17. Vnto him that hath loved us and washed us from our sins with his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen Revel 1.5.6 But he that thinks he is converted and doth not sing his Hallelujahs and Songs of salvation for it to this King Eternal Immortal Invisible and to the Lamb that was slain and to the power of his Spirit but to his own corrupted will As he sets the Crown upon his own head and robs God of his glory as if he were not Master and sovereign disposer of his own gifts and graces so he doth thereby give in evidence against himself that he never knew the grace of God in truth The whole work of our salvation is both begun and carried on by free grace alone from first to last from the foundation thereof in election to the top-stone of glorification the Saints cry grace grace unto it Zach. 4.7 That as sin hath reigned unto death even so grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 5. ult 4. Your Justification by the merit of good Works to the infinite dishonour of the grace and blood of Christ and to the keeping of afflicted Consciences upon the rack of everlasting perplexity and trouble for Conscience once effectually awakened will never be pacified but by the blood of Christ for we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Rom. 3.24 When you have done all those things that are commanded you say we are but unprofitable servants and where then is merit Luke 17.7 8 9 10. There is iniquity even in our holy things Exod. 28.38 Our best Duties are in part defiled and mixed with sin The very tears of Repentance need washing with the blood of Christ Therefore well did Austin pray Lava Lachrymas meas Domine You can allow the righteousness of a meer man or of a woman of a Monk or a Nun to be imputed and reckoned to another as in your Supererogations and yet cavil at the imputation of Christs righteousness This is a Truth of so great weight that Luther called it Articulus stantis aut cadentis Ecclesiae the very Crisis and chief Indication of the Churches state she stands or falls with this Truth And as the Scripture describes the Protestant Reformation by their standing upon the Sea of glass as spiritual Priests washing themselves in the Righteousness of Christ and making their Robes white with the blood of the Lamb whereof the molten Sea and Lavers of the Temple were a Type Revel 4.6 and 7.14 and 15.2 So indeed it was upon this grand Truth and Principle of the Gospel Dr. Grew of Justification Preface as Dr. Grew hath well observed That Luther that Champion of the Lord did pitch the Field against you And well he might for the Apostle doubteth not to tell the Galathians when corrupted here That Christ was become of none effect to them and that they were fullen from grace and turned to another Gospel Galat. 5.4 and 1.6 Our Justification by the blood of Christ and our Regeneration by his Spirit being the two main parts of those glad tydings of the Gospel by which it refreshes and gives rest to weary Souls And therefore to deny these or to ascribe them to other causes as to our own Wills or Works as it is to send distressed Souls to the Brooks of Teman in a day of drought and unto Waters that fail so it is to reject at once both the Blood of the Covenant and also the Spirit of the Covenant of Grace and so to turn both Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost as it were out of Office For it is a Truth as firm as the foundations of the Earth and as immoveable as the Pillars of Heaven that it is the peculiar work and glory both of the blood of Christ to justifie and reconcile and of his Spirit to convert and apply that precious blood And seeing the riches of his Free-grace appears and shines forth exceeding gloriously in these influences of his blood and Spirit into our salvation therefore to detract from these by founding it in our own Wills or Works is to eclipse the glory of his Grace From all which you may see the danger of both these Errors of your Church there being nothing wherein the enmity of corrupt Nature against the Gospel doth more directly work out and vent it self like the venom of Asps and as the poyson of Dragons then in these delusions of Conversion by your own Wills and Justification by your own Works 5. A fifth pernicious Error of the Roman Church is Idolatry and Superstition of all sorts contrary to the very Letter of the Second Commandment As worshipping Images praying to Saints and Angels your Cake-Idol or Breaden-god Your Sacriledge of the Cup in the Lords Supper Your five supernumerary Sacraments Your Latin-Service Your Superstitious or Religious Orders as you call them Your prohibition of of Meats and Marriage Your Holy Water Reliques Pilgrimages c. As it were on every high Hill and under every green Tree hath that Idolatrous Church play'd the Harlot whereby she scandaliseth and hardeneth both Jews and Turks against the Gospel Yea she hath corrupted and intoxicated almost all the Churches in the world with this sin and made all Nations drunk with the wine of the wrath of her Fornication for which the Holy Ghost brands her as THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS Revel 17.5 and 18.3 Yea though she hath seen the jealousie and the fury of her Husband against her treacherous sister Judah yet she feareth not I mean the desolations of the Eastern Churches by those Instruments of his fury those Angels of his wrath whom the Lord hath let loose upon them from about the River Euphrates the Turks who have destroyed and subjugated a third part of the Christian world for this sin yet she repenteth not being besotted and dead drunk with the poyson of her own Fornications and given up to a reprobate sense she hath a heart that cannot repent of such a
your selves Your very Council of Trent though approved by the Pope yet is rejected by the French Papists unto this day This is your peace and unity amongst your selves whereof you use to boast so much Nothing forsooth but Mufick and Harmony made up of Discords Secondly As to other Churches There be Churches both elder and younger and contemporary with the Roman and some of her own sounder Members with all which she hath broke communion And they are not fugitivi but fugati it is not they but she that hath made the breach because she doth impose such conditions of communion upon them as they cannot lawfully submit unto viz. To receive all her Errors and submit their Consciences to her and her Head as Infallible and Supreme If we look back to the first times of your Apostasie there were first all the Churches and Christians without the bounds of the Roman Empire as in India Perfia c. Secondly the Grecian Churches which were one half of that Empire one Leg of Daniels Image Dan. 2. which took the Alarum very early and refused the primacy of Rome and stood upon their guard against her Thirdly the African Churches did the same Fourthly All those suffering Churches and Christians that were oppressed under and by the Papacy as living within the reach of the Popes power Or if we consider the present state of things at this day and in this Age wherein we live there be very many with whom the Church of Rome hath broke communion As for instance All the Christians in Asia and Africa except some late Colonies of Papists All the Grecian Churches in Europe All those that are under the Patriarchs of Constantinople Antioch Alexandria Jerusalem Russia and Muscovia Also the Protesant Churches and Kingdoms and many that lie hid under the Dominions of Popish Princes who sigh and mourn and groan under the Abominations of the Papacy Sir Edwin Sands Sir E S. Europae Speculum or view of the state of Religion in Western parts pag. 76. 187. who was a great Traveller and a very intelligent person his computation in Q. Elizabeths time was That about one half of the Popes Dominions were fallen from him and become Protestants five of the Ten horns have begun to hate the Whore And you know how that since those dayes you have not been gaining but rather losing ground insomuch that when all Accompts are cast up both of those who were never subject to the Pope and those who have shaken off his yoke it will be found That the Church of Rome is not a third part of the Christian world All these Companies she hath left and gone out from all these Bodies and Societies of Christians hence therefore 1. It is a strange Question for you to ask Whose Company she hath left For you cannot but know if you know any thing at all of these matters that there is a far greater number of Christians out of her Communion and Jurisdiction than are within it 2. This renders her assuming and monopolizing to her self the name and title of the Catholick Church in opposition to all other Churches out of her Communion not only false but extreamly vain and in plain terms ridiculous For is she the whole Catholick Church who is not a third part of it Or rather is not this a piece of Schismatical pride and arrogance in her the very same with the Donatists of old who did unchurch all others but themselves and so do you which is not the Spirit of the Gospel but rather an evidence against you that you have neither part nor lot in this matter and that your hearts are not right in the fight of God which are so full of the gall of bitterness and sharp censoriousness Ravn 6. Concluso Concl 5. pa. 687. It further confirms that which hath been long ago demonstrated unto you by that Learned Raynolds That the Church of Rome is not the Catholick Church nor yet a sound Member of the Catholick Church And so much for the Apostasies Heresies and Schisms of your Church The next thing in your paper is this CHAP. VI. Some places of Scripture for the Inerrability of the Church of Rome Answered DISCOURSE THe usual colour of believing more or less than the Church allows is vain and erroneous inasmuch as that very Christ that 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 Ignorance To you it is given to know the mysteries of heaven Matt. 13.11 Against darkness Ye are the light of the world Matt. 5.14 Against error and falshood I will send unto you the Spirit of truth to remain with you for ever John 14.16 Against weakness She is the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3. Hell-gates shall not prevail against her Matt. 16.18 c. ANSWER Now to examine the Contexture of this Discourse though something might be said both to the Grammar and Logick of it nor the soundness and sense of those distinctions you seem to make between Ignorance and Darkness for what is moral Darkness but Ignorance and Error and Falshood c. Your Scope is to assert the Authority and Inerrability of your Church as the supreme Rule of Faith and Obedience But what you mean by the Church whether Popes or General Councils you say not you know your Writers are divided about it But to the Scriptures you alledge we need not as you say we must but through the help of his grace we will not impeach either the power or faithfulness of Christ but there be three other things which we may truly and fitly say to you concerning those Scriptures 1. That you do not shew particularly where their pertinency lies or how you would apply them to the point you aim at they being in their plain and genuine sense most remote from it 2. That they do not prove Inerrability in those to whom they were spoken and intended for they are as applicable to every other Church yea to every true Believer as to the Church of Rome For every true Believer hath the Spirit of Grace and Truth dwelling in him and is inlightned thereby to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but yet it doth not follow nor will you affirm That every true Believer that every godly Man and every godly Woman is infallible 3. We answer further That these Promises and Scriptures were not given to the Pope and Church of Rome there is no pretence nor colour for it How ill doth it become you who do deny the perseverance of true Believers to claim to your selves an interest in such promises that the Spirit shall remain with you for ever It was never said to the Pope Ye are the light of the world For he is indeed the Angel of Death the Messenger and Instrument of Darkness a Star fallen from Heaven who hath opened the bottomless pit and
Gospel Ministers and Gospel Churches both the one and the other may be called in a safe sense the pillar and ground of truth But what is this to the Church of Rome How ridiculous a reason were it saith Mr. Cartwright for the Apostle to exhort Timothy to walk circumspectly in the Church of Ephesus Cartwr in locum because the Church of Rome is thepillar and stablement of truth The Papists saith Calvin dum ad se transferunt hoc encomium improbe faciunt alienis se plumis vestiendo Nam ut evehatur Ecclesia supra tertium Coelum nego id totum ad eos ullomodo pertinere Calvin in loc Quinetiam locum presentem adversus eos retorqueo nam si Ecclesia columna est veritatis sequitur non esse apud eos Ecclesiam ubi non modo sepulta jacet veritas sed horrendum in modum diruta eversa sub pedibus calcatur When the Papists transfer this glory to themselves they do wickedly cloathing themselves with the feathers of other Birds For suppose the Church be extolled and lifted up above the Third Heavens I deny that any thing of all this excellency belongs in the least to them yea further I retort this place against them For if the Church be the Pillar of Truth then it follows that the Church is not amongst them where the Truth doth not only lie buried but is torn down and overthrown and trampled under foot in a fearful manner An hoc est vel aeuigma vel cavillum Paulus Ecclesiam non vult agnosci nisi in qua excelsa conspicua stat Dei veritas in Papatu nihil tale apparet sed disiectio tantùm ruinae ergo genuina Ecclesiae nota illic non extat Is there any difficulty or any cavilling in this Paul will not have any Church acknowledged but such as wherein the Truth of God stands on high conspicuous to the view of all men But there is no such thing to be seen in the Papacy but the overthrow and ruines of the Truth therefore there is no true note or mark of the Church to be found there The plain Truth is That Apostate Church and the Head thereof that is Babylon and Antichrist hath no right to any one promise in the Book of God but stands directly under all the Threatnings and Curses written therein because they have both added thereto and taken from it Revel 22.18 19. Indeed those Churches and those Souls have the best right to the promises that prize them most Therefore the Protestant Churches have a better right to them than the Church of Rome By the Protestant Churches I intend all that do subject themselves to the Scripture as the Rule of Faith and Life And by the Church of Rome all those that suffer the Pope to have dominion over their Faith for we do not judge every Individual in the external communion of that Church but onely such of them as have drunk down her deadly poyson What have they to do with the promises What have they to do with God to take his Covenant into their mouths Who do believe in a man that can lye and in a Church of men who may deceive and be deceived How much better and safer would it be for your eternal peace to cleave to the Scriptures which are the voyce of God and so to bottom and ground your Faith upon the truth and faithfulness of him that cannot lye then thus to ground it upon a man that shall dye and upon the sons of men that shall be made as grass For all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass The grass withereth and the flower thereof fadeth away but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you CHAP. VII Of Humane Testimonies for and against the See of Rome THat which remains of your Discourse is partly Quotations without so much as attempting to prove your interest in them of some parallel Texts with those before answered partly repetitions of those impertinent Queries Whether did the Roman Church go from any other known Church c Answered also before under the Head of Schism partly Humane Testimonies for the See of Rome for so you phrase it the Body of your Discourse having run upon this expression the Church of Rome the Title being the Roman Faith To your Humane Testimonies I would humbly offer three things to your serious consideration which I suppose may suffice to all you say or can say from the Fathers in whom you seem to repose your greatest confidence for the defence of your cause Consid 1. That you know we do not own the Fathers but the Scriptures onely as the Supreme Judge of Controversies Though we honour them as blessed Instruments in their Generation yet we know they were but men and not Apostles infallibly inspired and assisted by the Holy Ghost Yea we do ingenuously acknowledge That the darkness and inadvertency of the Fathers in some points did contribute and make way for the rise and growth of Popery They had their hands so full of other work partly from without in all their Conflicts both with Jews and Pagans both by writing and suffering while the Christian Princes also in the mean time were not idle but had their hands full in the Wars of Michael against the Dragon against the persecuting Pagan Emperors during that fourth Century And partly from within by those intestine mischiefs which through the malice and craft of Sathan were bred within the Churches own bowels such as Arrianism with all the Errors and Blasphemies accompanying and flowing from it against the Person and Natures of Christ and against his blessed Spirit As also Pelagianism wretchedly undermining the work of his Grace and Spirit in the effectual application of Christ and his redeeming Love to the Souls of his Elect. Donatism likewise at the same time dreadfully disturbing the peace and order and fellowship of the Gospel by dischurching and disbaptising all other Christians and re-baptising themselves whil'st othres in the mean time wereas much too large and loose as they too rigid The faithful Servants of Christ were thus assaulted in those dayes on every side over and beside the daily work of Teaching and Governing their respective Flocks and Churches All which did so severely call upon them for their deepest intentions and endeavours that as it rendred the work heavy upon the shoulders of the faithful Ministry in those conflicting times so truly to my narrow capacity it is no wonder if in the mean time the deep and subtile workings of the mystery of Iniquity in the Papacy did in a great measure escape their observation And the rather if we consider the disadvantage they were under both for want of Printing and of well regulated and formed Universities and Schools of the Prophets The Monastick Institutions at first as some have thought coming nearest and seeming to
Witnesses to this truth It was also in my thoughts to have noted something out of your own Writers concerning the Popish Circle I mean the maze of unbelief wherein they run round to prove the Scripture by the Church and the Church back again by the Scripture Like men drunk and giddy with the cup of the Wine of Astonishment and with the spirit of Delusion it being just with God to smite them with a vertiginous distemper of mind that they shall never come to any consistence to any settlement in the Faith who will not settle upon the true foundation and acquiesce in the Scriptures of Truth For as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaffe so their root shall be as rottenness and their blossome shall go up as dust because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts and despised the word of the holy One of Israel Isa 5.24 And finally seeing you call so much for Humane Testimonies I had thought to have offered some which I think you will blush to read out of your own Writers concerning the Veneration you give to your Popes your Representative Christs and Vice-gods and yet withall concerning the hideous prophaneness of their Lives and their Errability yea their actual erring Errors damnably and fundamentally destructive of the Faith and all this out of your own approved Authors out of whom I have observed and collected a few things but these few are too many to be here inserted The Subject is so copious that it requires an intire Tractate by it self therefore must be deferred till some other occasion do present And in the mean time so long as Gregories praecursor Antichristi and so long as Bellarmines Tulissimum est remains upon Record among men you may shut your mouths and cease your boastings of Humane Testimonies I Have now according to the measure of Light and Grace received returned you an Answer to your Paper somewhat largely I confess being desired to answer it to the full but yet as briefly as I could yea omitting many things which might have been both truly and pertinently spoken I find that it hath been answered twice before by more Learned pens which as it renders this Labour of mine less necessary and which I think might have been spared had you not called with such renewed importunities for an Answer so it renders you the more without excuse for that now you have the Truth against one opposition confirmed to you in the mouth of Three Witnesses First by Mr. Baxter in his Key for Catholicks printed Anno 1659 who received a great part of this your paper in a Manuscript sent from Wolverhampton to Sturbridge and hath inserted it and confuted it in his Book before mentioned page 244. It hath been answered a second time by Dr. Owen in his Animadversions on Fiat Lux Cap. 2. page 59 c. and in his Vindication of his Animadversions Cap. 4. page 48. deinceps And yet now after two Answers in print you send the same words again such is the penury of your cause in a Manuscript to a person of Honour in this Kingdom of Ireland with a challenge to our Divines to answer it which hath produced and drawn forth this third Answer to it besides all that hath been written in former times as also of late by Dr. Stillingfleete Mr. Poole and others though not to this individual paper but upon occasion of other oppositions yet in defence of the same general Truth and Cause of Christ against Popery O that He who alone is able would vouchsafe to bless both those former and these present endeavours so as to undeceive and open your eyes and convince you by his Spirit of the Vanity of Vanities that is in these pretensions of Supremacy Inerrability and Indefectibility in your Church and Pope The Lord awaken you out of these golden Dreams before it be too late Yea I do believe through grace and am persuaded That he will yet do it by one means or other for such of you as do belong to the election of his grace The same free and sovereign grace that did pity that did undeceive and convince and conquer Paul when in his full career of blind Zeal and opposition is able to convince and over-power you Father forgive them for they know not what they do Now the Lord in mercy do it That your Faith may not stand hereafter in the wisdom of men but in the power of God CHAP. VIII An APPENDIX for the further Illustration of some things which are but briefly hinted in the former Chapters IN Cap. 2. of Apostasie and again in Cap. 3. of Heresie mention is made of counsel given by Papists to the Pope A Friend to whom the Answer was communicated in Manuscript made some Inquiry about it to whom a further Account was sent which because the same Inquiries are not unlikely to arise in the studious Readers mind is thought fit to be communicated I find there were two papers of Advice presented to the Pope in those dayes about the time of the Council of Trent for the help and support of the then declining Church of Rome both which give pregnant evidence against her of her corruption and departure from Apostolical and primitive purity The first to Pope Paul the Third in the Year 1538. by Nine select Cardinals and Prelates viz. Cardinal Contarenus Cardinal Peter Theatinus afterwards Pope Paul the Fourth Cardinal Sadolet Cardinal Reginald Poole of England c. The Title is Consilium Delectorum Cardinalium Praelatorum de emendanda Ecclesia This Novem-virale Concilium was sent by Nicholaus Cardinalis Capulanus to a Prince in Germany by whom it came to the hands of Luther and Sturmius and by their means was made publick It is mentioned and quoted by Espensaeus a Popish Bishop a Sorbenist in his Commentaries on Titus 1. It was extant in the Book of the Councils Tom 3. Concil Edit per Crab. Edit Colon 1551. But in all other Editions Pontificiorum furto fraude desideratur saith Mr. Crashaw who Reprinted it London 1609. These men do with something of Ingenuity acknowledge and advise to a Reformation of sundry enormous Abuses and Corruptions in the Church of Rome and they begin wisely and faithfully at the fountain Well-head telling the Pope plainly Principium horum malorum inde suisse quod nonnuili Pontifices tui Praedecessores prurientes auribus ut inquit Apostolus Paulus coacervarunt sibi magistros ad desideria sua non ut ab eis discerent quod facerè deberent Page 2. sed ut eorum studio calliditate inveniretur ratio quâ liceret id quod liberet Ex hoc fonte sancte pater tanquam ex equo Trojano irrupêre in Ecclesiam Dei tot abusus tam gravissimi morbi quibus nune conspicim is eam ad desperationem sere salutis laborasse The beginning of these Eviis say they hath been that some of the Popes your
coloured and painted and having an Image in it as it were of Christ or some Saint for I do not well remember whose Image it was Wherefore when I saw this that the Image of a man hung in the Church of Christ contrary to the Authority of the Scriptures I tore it in pieces And moreover I counselled the Keepers of that place to wrap up the dead body of a poor man in the said Vail and so to carry him forth to be buried And I do beseech you to give order that there be no such Vails hung up in the Church of Christ which are contrary to our Religion Riv. Crit. Sacr. lib. 3. cap. 29. Waldens Tom. 3. Lit. 19. Cap. 157. Bell. de Imag. lib. 2. cap. 9. Salmeron Comment in 1 John cap. 5 Dis 32. Sixt. Sinens lib. 5. Annot. 247. Greg. Valent. de Idol lib. 2. cap. 7. He writes this to John Bishop of Jerusalem and the Epistle is Translated by Jerom a sign he liked it well and so you have the Testimony of two Fathers together both Epiphanius and Jerom A Testimony so full and clear that your Writers come forth against it one way but flie seven Some of them as Rivet notes senslesly affirming That he speaks it in regard of the Anthropomorphites so Tho. Waldensis as Bellarmine reports Others with as little sense or reason would have this passage to be supposititious because forsooth they know not how to shape an handsom Answer to it so Bellarmine c. But others of them Heretick-like say That he did erre and that one Swallow makes no Summer and that they regard the practice of your Church more than the Authority of Epiphanius Thus Salmeron Sixtus Sinensis Gregorius de Valentia But may you thus depress the Fathers below your Church May you thus advance your spurious Church above the Fathers as the Pope doth his Nephews above Kings and Princes And may not we prefer the Scriptures above either you or them But when you have said what you please and tryed all the shifts you can yet this Testimony of Epiphanius is an undeniable evidence against you That the gross Idolatry of Image-worship how fast soever it was then coming in yet had not generally prevailed in his time Helvicus placeth him upon the year of Christ 376. And seeing we are upon this let us see a little further what your Writers say of Epiphanius beside their anger at him for this Testimony what general censure and character do they give of him It may be a Divertisement here not unpleasant Can. Loc. Theol lib. 11. p. 477. Rivet Critic lib. 3. cap. 28. Baron ad ann Christi 310. Sect. 15. an 306. Sect. 45. an 326. Sect. 4. 8 an 327. Sect. 7. ann 338. Sect. 2. ann 342. Sect. 50. ann 306. Sect. 45. ann 310. Sect 16. Petav. Animadver ad Epiph lib. 1. tom 1. ad Haeres Samaritan pag. 21. ad Haeres 20. Herodian pag 39. ad Haeres Epicur pag. 20. nor unuseful to see how they handle him that so it may appear whether they have any greater Reverence to the Fathers than we Melchior Canus saith of him Nullos ille graves Authores sequi solet Baronius is as rude as he and saith ab omni scopo veritatis abhorrere quod apud Epiphanium legitur falsum item esse quod ait c. Rivet refers the Reader to eight or nine places wherein he shews his judgement freely concerning Epiphanius But Petavius the Jesuite equals if not exceeds his Fellows Permulta enim isthic falsa saith he false things minimeque cohaerentia disputat And again Suspicamur it aque multipliciter hallucinatum Epiphanium And again in another place Totidem paucis illis verbis a sanctissimo eruditissimoque viro Epiphanio peccata sunt Quorum admonere Lectoremâ— officii est institutique nostri excusare humanitatis dissimulare aut tueri velle neque officii neque humanitatis est So many Errors saith he are here committed in so few words by this holy and this learned Man Epiphanius of which Errors to give the Reader warning is both my Duty and Undertaking in these Animadversions To excuse them is a piece of courtesie and respect but to dissemble them or to defend them is no part either of Duty or Courtesie Thus he A sober and a well-tempered Speech and the more observable because uttered by one that was so full of the gall of bitterness as this Petavius was But such Animadversions such Reproofs as these have these Writers of your own thought fit to bestow upon Epiphanius And now what if we should say that he as well as some other of the Ancients did hyperbolize and exceed a little in his Encomiasticks of St. Peter and that his words and expressions are not so wary and so well guarded as they might have been in predicating the glories of that great Apostle It appears from all this that we should say no worse of him nor handle him more unmannerly and irreverently than your own Writers have done before us This may suffice at present for the further illustration of these matters As also for the Vindication of the True Reformed Protestant Christian Religion in the purity of it as contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament against the Roman Catholick Apostasie The Lord bless what hath been said for the reducing and bringing home his lost sheep and for the further establishment of Believers in their most Holy Faith FINIS