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A30976 A few plain reasons why a Protestant of the Church of England should not turn Roman Catholick by a real Catholick of the Church of England. Barlow, Thomas, 1607-1691. 1688 (1688) Wing B831; ESTC R18233 36,351 51

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temporal things and so the loss of them less considerable But in our Blessed Saviour's Will and Testament the Legacies are Spiritual the promises of Grace here and eternal Glory hereafter and therefore to take away the Gospel from the People in any Language understood by them so that they cannot certainly know the Promises or their duties requir'd for the attaining of them is as I said not only injurious but pernicious to the poor people detain'd from the only means to know those things which in order to their Salvation they are by the Law of God and the Gospel bound to know For 1. Without the knowledge of Christ and belief in him there is no possibility of Salvation Joh. 3.16 Act. 10.43 Joh. 17.3 And 2. such knowledge of our Blessed Saviour whereon we may fiducially and with certainty rely can no where be had but in Scripture the only Infallible rule of our Faith. 3. Now the Pope and his party severely prohibiting the People to read or have the Scriptures or any part of them in any vulgar Language which they understand do by consequence deprive them of the only sure and certain means of their Salvation Which how unbecoming it is the pretended Successor of S. Peter who was commanded by our Blessed Saviour to feed his Sheep not to famish them by taking the Scriptures from them and how pernicious to the poor People let the Reader judge 4. And that the Pope quantum in se est deprives the People of the knowledge of Scripture besides what is above said I shall only add a signal passage out of a late Popes Bull wherein he condemns a French Translation of their own vulgar Latine in these words The said Gallican Version of the New Testament wheresoever Printed or hereafter to be Printed as rash and mischievous differing from the vulgar Latin and scandalous to the ignorant We by our Apostolical Authority condemn and prohibit so that hereafter none of what Degree or condition soever he be under pain of Excommunication shall dare or presume to read have sell print or cause it to be printed and whosoever has that French Translation of the N. Testament he is bound under pain of Excommunication to deliver it presently to the Ordinary of the place or the Inquisitors notwithstanding any thing whatsoever which may be to the contrary Thus Pope Clement the 9 th about 20 years since condemns and prohibits the Gospel of Jesus Christ in French a vulgar Tongue and we are told by a great and learned Casuist of their own that long before him Innocent the 3 d. condemned and prohibited a French Translation of the Bible Azorius in the place cited gives the reasons why the Scriptures are not to be permitted to be read or had in any vulgar Tongue where his irreverent speeches of the holy Word of God are so many and horrid that I shall not offend the pious Reader nor pollute these papers with them he who would be satisfied may see them in the place cited The Premisses consider'd I believe that intelligent and impartial Judges who love and seek truth will think that we had just reason to forsake the Church of Rome which unjustly in contradiction to Scripture and the practice of all Christian Churches except her self took the Holy Scriptures from us and consequently depriv'd us of the happiness which God himself had given us to be a sure and sufficient ground of our spiritual comfort and hope of Heaven For tho' they are pleas'd to contradict it the Apostle assures us That whatever things were written aforetime were written for our Learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope The Scriptures were dictated by the Holy Ghost and given to the Church not to be lockt up in an unknown Language but for our Learning and a firm foundation of our comfort and hope of Heaven 2. The Gospel was dictated by the Holy Ghost and given to this very end that it might be an effectual and powerful means to bring us to true Faith and by it to eternal life So the Apostle or Holy Spirit by him tells us These things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ and believing them might have life 3. Nor is the Scripture an imperfect and defective means or without Traditions unable to beget such a Faith as will bring us to eternal life For the Apostle who knew better expresly tells Timothy That the Scriptures were ABLE to make him wise unto Salvation 4. Lastly Nor are the Scriptures so obscurely penn'd as they are commonly and most unjustly slander'd by our Adversaries that to ordinary people and understandings they are unintelligible I shall not go about to prove this being abundantly done by many of our Protestant Divines already I shall only add one testimony of a Cardinal I mean Bessarion who at the Council of Florence in a Speech to his Countrey-men expresly says That in Scripture ALL Doctrines of Faith are either plainly explain'd or if they be hid they may without difficulty be found out This Assertion of Bessarion is to me and all Protestants an evident and clear truth and is more considerable in that a Roman Cardinal dares and does publickly attest it in contradiction to the receiv'd Doctrine of the Church of Rome And while I am writing this there providentially comes in my way something concerning the taking away the Scriptures from the people which if I mistake not is very pertinent to our present purpose For 1. I find that Dioclesian in his Bloody Persecution of the Christians published an Edict that the Christians should bring in their Bibles to be publickly burnt They knew by the suggestion of Satan and their Pagan Priests that the Scriptures were the great and most effectual means to convert Pagans to Christianity and confirm them in it and therefore they did cunningly and impiously endeavour to deprive the Christians of the Benefit of those Sacred Books because no other Books were so destructive of their Pagan Religion and therefore they might not read them 2. And let sober and pious men consider whether the Pope does not for the same reason forbid the Scriptures to the People because no other Books make a clearer discovery of their Errors For they absolutely forbid the Bible in any vulgar Language whatsoever so that none of their Superiors could Licence them to have it and yet permit the abominable Turkish Alcoran to be read in a vulgar Tongue This may justly seem strange that the Gospel of our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ shall be absolutely prohibited and yet the Turkish Alcoran permitted to be read in a vulgar Tongue 3. Tho' the Pagans permitted not the Christians to have the Scriptures yet never any Christian Church no not the Roman for above 1000 years after our Blessed Saviour depriv'd the People of the use and benefit of the Sacred Scriptures In France