but divers Popes I might prove have made distinct articles and divers Councils and Bishops so that I might clearly prove and can and shall if God permit me with life if I hear any more of the church of Rome or the Author of this Book that I shall prove that the church of Rome in the articles of her Faith is not the same that the church of Christ was in before Rome was planted a church 2. I shall prove if need require her universal Councils as she calls them to vary and her Bishops to be different in their Decrees and that her faith in points of Religion is not the same from the Apostles day to this time as the author of this Book would make people believe but what I have said to this unanswerable Proposition as he calls it may be sufficient to convince both the Author and them that are doubtful in their minds about this particular 3. Proposition is That neither the Sacraments nor Ceremonies or any Doctrine of the Church of Rome contain any thing that is contrary to the Scriptures but learned Doctors maintain the same and that there is no alteration in any article of faith And then the Author makes a conclusion though full too hastily That they which dissent from the Church of Rome which he is pleased to stile Sectaries and Hereticks have no reason to withdraw from the Catholick Church Ans. As for that which you call the Catholick church of Rome we find such diversity of Orders and constitutions one distinct from another that to begin to enumerate them all would take up much time before one ended and would prove tedious to the Reader to view over the variety of Constitutions and Decrees that have been made concerning the ceremonies Sacraments as they call them and other Doctrines of the church of Rome which at this time is not my intention but Pope Alexander commanded that unleavened Bread should be used in the Supper in the year 1119. Lib Concil grat Sabil Before that time the outward Bread was indifferent whether it was leavened or unleavened notwithstanding the Greeks do use leavened bread unto this day in that which is called a Supper and they use Wine onely in the Cup but the Church of Rome mingle Water with their Wine according to Pope Alexander's Decree And the Doctrine of Transubstantiation of turning the bread into the body of Christ and wine into the blood as they say was an unknown Doctrine in the Apostles dayes and also among the Greeks until Pope Innocent the third 1215. Likewise Honorus the third he made a new Ordinance That the Sacrament of the Altar as the Church of Rome terms it should be worshipped and kneeled unto of the people and also it should be born unto the sick yea and that with Candle-light though it be at noon-day in the year 1214. D. 3. Tit. Cap. 10. Lib. Council Pant. And Innocent the third ordained that the Sacrament of the Altar should be kept under lock and key that such as were like to dye might not want spiritual comfort at the time of their death Lib. Council Cron. Pant. Pope Innocent the 8th permitted that the Priests of Norduegia might fing Masse with Water for lack of Wine in the year 1484. Math. Palm Pant. And as about the ceremonies about the Sacrament or Masse in a Council held at Rottomage it was decreed that the Sacrament should not thenceforth be given to Lay-men nor Lay-women in their hands any more but the Priests should put it in their mouths contrary to the use and practice of the primitive church yea and of the church of Rome it self many years after Lib. Council c. And so here the church of Rome is contrary to the former churches and to their own church of Rome in former times though C. M. would elevate the Propositions of Francis Costorus a Jesuit unanswerable 4. Proposition The Author saith It cannot be proved that any have been admitted Priests but were duly consecrated by Bishops Whence we infer That Lutherans Calvinists and other Hereticks are no true Ministers neither are of Divine Priesthood because they give to people a meer piece of bread and nothing else and they have no power to absolve people from their sins but send them away entangled with sin as when they came to them Ans. As for the consecration of the Priests of Rome you have consecrated many who are out of the Doctrine of Christ who are traytors to Kings and Governments and it 's a Maxime and a thing meritorious in your church to slay a Heretick that is one dissenting or not consenting to your corrupt principles and as one deceiver hath ordained and admitted another so hath your Bishops and Popes ordained the rest to execute their drudgery and corrupt traffick and as I have offered unto thee before if it be not a piece of bread and wine except mingled with water according to your changeable Ordinances before-mentioned put it to trial upon the terms I before mentioned that you may be made manifest to be deceivers or else we to all people And as for your Absolutions Pardons it hath been that which you have sold for money which made Luther and divers of your own church to deny you because it hath been contrary to Christ and the Apostles Doctrine And as for forgiveness of sins it properly belongs to Christ and to them that are in the same Power to them that confess forsake and turn from sin to pronounce forgiveness and mercy but the members of your Church confess from day to day unto your Priests that are as much entangled in sin as they who do confess and neither do repent nor find mercy at the hand of the Lord and your confessors and they that do confess they are defiled as much with sin when they end their work as when they began 5. Proposition It cannot be found in the holy Scripture that nothing is to be believed but what is clearly and expresly contained in the same Hence follows the overthrow of the ground work of the Sectaries who say that nothing is to be believed but what is expresly set down in the Scripture Ans. What others have said as to this particular I shall not now stand to vindicate because it is not my work to vindicate every particular judgement and person who believe contrary to your church but I say many are of that mind that are not of your church that things may be believed to be true according to the manifestation of God's Spirit though the Scripture in express words doth not declare the same yet you to bring in fabulous stories which you call unwritten verity that are to be believed though never so repugnant unto the Scripture and to the truth contained in it this we cannot receive neither believe and this will never be attributed by the Lord unto any for unbelief although you say it 6. Proposition The Author saith He would fain have Luther and Calvin and the
they be ruled that may not read them without a Licence or a Toleration from the Superior If it be lawful to read with Toleration it 's lawful to read without Toleration for the toleration of men neither addeth to nor diminisheth from any spiritual exercise and Timothy read the Scriptures of a youth and who gave him his Toleration And Apollos was a mighty man and a knowing man in the Scriptures from whence had he his License 3. Because thou judgest according to the judgement of this present evil world that they are onely fit to read the Scripture and give interpretations upon it who are naturally learned and have the wisdom of this world I say Nay the world by wisdom knew not God neither know him now and them that had natural learning rejected the Foundation them that had the Hebrew Language set Christ at nought they that had the Greek tongue withstood Paul and called him a babler them that had the Latine Tongue the Tongue of the Whore your Mother persecuted the Christians in the first three hundred years after Christ as your own Histories do relate So according to all these who had onely the knowledg in the natural Languages they did not understand the things of God and it was the wise builders which builded by art skill in the Earthly Wisdom that rejected the true Foundation and Corner-stone but on the contrary we say according to the Apostolick Doctrine that the Scriptures may be read and ought to be read for they are profitable for instruction and correction and information to make the man of God perfect and thorowly furnisht to every good work through faith in Christ Jesus And I would have the Author know that we do not look upon Cardinals Fryers Monks and Bishops to be the alone men of God so that they alone have the sole power to tolerate the reading of Scriptures for he is a man of God who is born of the spirit which sanctifieth and leadeth into the clear pathes of Equity and Righteousness who walks not after the flesh neither fulfils the lusts thereof and such there are and have been which have been unlearned in natural Tongues but this is the way to keep your Church in reputation to believe as you believe and every man to put out his own eyes and live by another's sight and hang his faith upon another's shoulders this is not like Apostolick Doctrine for the Apostle said Let every one be perswaded in his own mind not by other mens minds and he that believeth hath the witness in himself and hath it not to seek among the litteral Rabbies who darken Counsel through words and it is not for want of natural learning that one understandeth the Scriptures this way and another that way but because they want the understanding of that Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures which Spirit universally is given to all men and women a measure of it to lead into truth and through which the deep things of God are revealed And it 's not your Traditions Inventions natural Learning Schools Colledges Fryeries and Covents in which the Spirit of God is onely limited but every one that seeks finds whether learned or unlearned for of a truth God is no respector of persons And so the mind of Christ is manifest unto them that believe and the one Spirit into which the Saints were baptized is that which opens the Scriptures truly as they are and discerneth the times and the seasons and fulfilleth it in the hearts of them that believe and manifests the state unto which they were spoken And if the Scriptures be so hard to be understood by reason of the hard sayings or because of the Translations what have you been doing these fourteen hundred years with all your learning with all your Councils Popes Bishops and Clergy that you have not translated them aright or so plain that they may be understood by all that reads But then your Doctrine Worship and Practice would be soon manifest not to be Apostolical nor consonant and agreeing to the practice of the true Church of Christ. And now I come to the effectual Arguments and pregnant wayes which the Author tells of which will work upon the Sectaries to make them return to the Catholick Church which he saith they have groundlesly forsaken and now I shall come to try his arguments and search the force of them which he layeth down as the most efficacious way to convince all Sectaries as he is pleased to stile them to come to the Church of Rome but the hope of this man will be like a Spider's Web for unto all whose Eyes God hath illuminated in any measure will come to see the weakness of this Philosophy and vain deceit which he hath laid down as a chief instrument to convince all that the Roman Church is the true Church and that salvation is onely concluded in her 1. The first argument he takes from Matth. 18. 17. Christ sends us to the Church saith he if any neglect to hear her they must be counted as Heathens and Publicans From hence this is the Argument That that Church is to be heard in which there is most assurance to be had that one is in the way to salvation but in the Roman Church there is most assurance therefore the Roman Church is to be heard Ans. The Minor is false and also the Conclusion That Church which hath the foundation of its assurance without it is not the true Church of Christ neither is to be heard but the Roman Church hath onely their assurance of salvation without them therefore are not to be heard it is manifest their assurance stands onely in outward things as Antiquity and Visibility which are not the alone Marks of the true Church Cain was ancient enough and there were them that were in Cain's way before Rome was so highly elevated and that for Universality and Visibility there is no assurance in that for all the World hath wondered after the Beast and the Whore hath sitten upon Nations Kindreds and People and so the first argument is denied and proved to be false I shall lay down another 1. That Church which hath always been so visible and Universal since the Apostles dayes as hath had its seat over Nations Kindreds and Tongues is not the true Church of Christ but the Harlot but the Church of Rome hath been universal over Nations Kindreds Tongues and People therefore the Church of Rome is the Harlot and not the true Church of Christ. But I shall not traduce thee in thy vain deceit but return thy arguments upon thy self which thon chargest upon others 1. As first That Church is not to be heard whose Authors and Doctors are Cozeners and Impostors 2. But all are Cozeners and Impostors but the Church of Rome Again That the Church of Rome hath the Marks of the true Church and no other as Antiquity Miracles holiness of life Universality Again That the Church of Rome takes the
divers others as about your Lent your fasts feasts and invented holy-dayes which the true Church of Christ did not allow of but you have brought those things in as Apostolical and excommunicated all the rest that would not bow unto you As for example about the Feast of Easter the time when it should be celebrated though Victor the Bishop of Rome excommunicated all the Eastern Churches because they did not accord with Rome Euseb Lib. 5. cap. 23. At which Iraeneus Bishop of Lyons in France sharply reproved him ibid. cap. 23 So in many more things which I shall not now stand neither to trouble my self nor the Reader which the church of Rome hath departed in her practice from the primitive Church as you may see farther in a Book entituled The Glory of the true church discovered Published by F. H. And whereas the Author desires to be satisfied by what General Councils she was ever condemned or which of the Fathers wrote against her or 3dly By what Authority she was otherwise approved Ans. Because the Author is so confident in his assertions as though they were unanswerable I return this short answer which if I hear any more from the Author may be amplified For instance In the year 287. there was a Council of Bishops called at Sinvisâ—â— where the Pope was condemned which your Church hath taught could not err for sacrificing to Idols At a Council held at Carthage decreed That Clergy men should not meddle with temporal affairs At a Council held at Valentia in France a Decree was made that Priests should not marry and these were called Christians and some of Rome's Visible Universal Church And this was again reproved and condemned in the first Council held at Tolledo in Spain they decreed that Priests should marry And now Rome look to thy unity Again at a Council held at Caesar Augusta accursed all them that eat not the Sacrament in the Church but the church of Rome hath decreed that it may be kept and ready to carry abroad to sick people and upon other occasions out of the Church At a general Council at Constantinople decreed That Mary shall be called the Mother of God as though God were generated by natural generation which is Blasphemy The Council of Armenium decreed for the Armenians That Christ was not God The Council of Chalcedon which was one of the four Councils that Pope Gregory compared to the four Gospels and that their Decrees were sure and certain as the Scripture yet Pope Leo did not stick to condemn it and all of them as unadvised viz. the whole Council So Councils have erred as is evident and that which some have decreed for Apostolick Doctrine since the Apostles dayes other Councils have condemned as Heresie though called Christians as well as the Church of Rome and yet they have condemned that which some Councils did allow So the Pope hath erred the Councils have erred as is manifest in what I have said that I shall not trouble my Reader in large things which I could and might do upon another occasion if I hear any more from the Church of Rome 2. By what Authority she viz. the church of Rome is reproved In short Leo the fourth Bishop of Rome made void the the acts of Adrian Bishop of Rome Stephanus made void and abrogated the Decrees of Formesus and Sabian Christ's Vicars so called commanded that Pope Gregory another Vicar so called his Writings and Decrees should be burned And all these before-mentioned did say and the Church of Rome holds it as such that they were Peter's Successors So here one Father or Head of the church as they reckon the Bishop of Rome hath confounded another 3. The Nicene council determined That Images were not onely to be placed in the churches but also worshipped and the then Pope said that Images were lay-mens Calenders The Latterane council under Julius did repeal the Decrees of the Pissan council The Bazil council decreed that a council was above the Pope but the Latteran council decreed that the Pope was above the council that he that should think otherwise should be counted a Heretick Yet the Bazil council aforesaid decreed that they that judged that a council was not above the Pope were Hereticks And yet the Church of Rome layes claim to visibility and universality over all the World and yet one as distinct from another as black is to white and is as unsuitable as Snow is in Summer or Rain in Harvest One word more and I have done Boniface the eighth a great Father of the Church of Rome and a Pope That no man in the World can be saved unless he be subject to the Roman Church like this Author And Pope Paschal thus said That no Council could make Laws for the Church of Rome And so much of General Councils and of the confusion of the Church of Rome a few words more of Synods and I have done 1. Bernardus saith the Church of Rome was polluted with many Superstitions that the Bishops were biters of the Sheep rather than true Shepherds Sometimes saith he I have admired that there should be a Traytor among the twelve Disciples but now I much more wonder that among so great a company of Bishops and Prelates one upright Disciple cannot be found Apop Chr. Lib. 13 p. 260. Gregorius Theologus who lived about three hundred years after Christ did determine never to come more at Councils or Synods Because saith he there comes more evil than good out of them for the contention and ambitiousnesse of the Bishops is above measure said he Anno 300. D. Paraeus said Often hath the Truth suffered wrong in Synods because all that were assembled agreed in one error so that Truth came to be passed by with silence Iren. pag. 57. Again Gregorius Nazianzius used to say That he never had seen any good end of any Council or Synod Vide Inst. Clav. 4. Lib. 9. cap. 11. And some Synods have said That remedy was not to be expected from the Clergy who were the cause of the Disease Anno 1616. So the Author saith Whose company did the Church of Rome leave And from whom did she go forth And where was the Church that she did forsake that she should be counted Heretical and Schismatical I say She left the company and society of the Primitive Church in Christ's and the Apostles days and she went forth from the rest of the Churches that were planted as I instanced The Church of Rome in the year 193 did excommunicate all the Eastern Churches And where was the true Church that she did forsake saith the Author Not onely one I say but many to wit The Doctrine that the Apostles had laid down and preach'd at Antioch at Philippi at Corinth at Ephesus and the rest of the Churches of Asia And so the Church of Rome is proved to be an Apostate in the Apostacy in Heresie in Schism so that there is an absolute defection from the Life and Power of God which was manifested in the Apostles dayes and therefore the church of Rome is not the true Church What I have said as to the Doctrines and Grounds which have been laid down by the Author I shall refer it and the answer unto Gods Witnesse in every man's Conscience and if I hear any more of the Author his great Boasts or ambitious challenges which may reach to all that do dissent from the Church of Rome as to be Hereticks I shall engage in the strength of the Lord to vindicate the Truth however opposed and shall further if God permit be ready to give a more large and full answer unto the Doctrines and Practices and Worship of the Church of Rome and prove them to be contrary to the Scriptures and the Apostolick Doctrine and the Faith that was once delivered unto the Saints So in what I have said I hope may convince the Authour of his vain assertions and them that are enclined towards Babylon it may put a stop to that which would too readily close with every thing which goes under the name of ANTIQUITIE But in what I have said upon the whole matter I hope will be sufficient unto all who read with a single Eye without prejudice and unto such I say The Lord give them an Understanding that they may see and discern the way which leadeth to Life and Felicity from that which leadeth to the Chambers of Death and the pathes that take hold on destruction FINIS
other Sectaries to shew where Matthew's Writing is called holy Scripture more than Nichodemus his Gospel and seeing they cannot prove the one no more than the other they must needs believe something that is not written in the holy Scripture Ans. I shall let Luther and Calvin alone they were men that God did honor and I do honor and many more as in their day they are at rest in the Sepulchers of their fathers where your reviling cannot touch them they prevailed in their Doctrine and Faith so much against you as you have not recovered in a hundred and thirty years neither I believe ever will so long as the Church of Rome will have any cause to call her self Christ's onely visible Church upon Earth And I do not believe Matthew's Writing onely because it is reckoned by you and us for holy Scripture but because we feel by the Spirit of God that gave forth all words that it is a declaration of those things which were brought to pass in his day and likewise Mark John and Luke testifie unto the same matter but for Nichodemus his Gospel as you are pleased to call it the Spirit of God doth not testifie in us unto the same but that it is repugnant unto the mind of the Spirit and is a meer patcht up thing in the corruption of time wherein many things are contained that are in opposition and contrary to Matthew Mark Luke and John their Declaration And so thy feeble Argument is answered which thou concludâ—st hath not been alterable these fifteen hundred years and let not him that puts on his Armour boast but him that hath overcome and puts it off 7. Proposition is That it cannot bee shewen for this fifteen hundred years that there hath been any Catholick that held that the Pope of Rome was Antichrist or that did rail at the most holy Sacrifice of the Mass or Invocation of Saints and Angels and usual Praying for the Dead and such like works of Piety belonging to our Faith and Religion which the whole world hath laudably practised and reverenced for fifteen hundred years It is a wonder that this Author belonging to the the Church of Rome is not ashamed of his Arguments the silly Propositions that he hath propounded from another hand It seems neither this Author nor Francis Costherus whose Propositions the Author hath vaunted in and boasted of knows the Apostles Doctrine who said The whole world lay in wickedness and If any man loved the World the love of the Father dwells not in him and Christ said to his true Church Ye are not of the World therefore the World hates you and again I have chosen you out of the World and John in his day saw through the Spirit all the World wandering after the Beast and worshipping his Image and not the Image of God and saw all Nations Kindreds Tongues and People to be Waters and the Nations Kindreds Tongues and People to drink the Whores Cup and these the two Authors brings in for a great proof and for an unanswerable Proposition as that the whole World lies in wickedness in whom the love of God dwells not in and they that have drunk of the Whores Cup of Fornication and they that have wondred after the Beast to wit the whole World these are his dark cloud of Witnesses to prove that the Pope was never called Antichrist Will they that have received the Roman Faith and accounteth the Pope Christ's Vicar and the Visible Head call him Antichrist which hath exalted himself and the Church of Romes Faith over the whole world as the Author boasts That the whole world hath laudably practised and reverenced Invocation of Saints and Praying for the Dead for the Piety Faith and Religion of the Church of Rome for this 1500 years This proves the Church of Rome to lye in wickedness and to be contrary to the Doctrine and Practice of Christ and his Apostles And this doth not clear the Pope at all but rather makes him to be an Antichrist and your Church to be the ill-favored Harlot and not the true Church of Christ. Hast thou forgotten how John Bishop of Constantinople would needs be chief Bishop over all the rest of the Churches about the year two hundred fifty and upwards and how the other Bishops cried out against him for to be Antichrist But your Bishop he got to be called Chief-Bishop over all Christian Churches not by consent of the Elders nor Churches but by the means of Phocus a Heathen Emperor as before I have said and is not he much more an Antichrist And as for the Sacrifice in the Mass Invocation of Saints and Praying for the Dead which thou saist is a laudable practice I say none hath or doth reckon it worthy of praise but they that worship the Beast and his Image and have drunk of the Whores Cup and are erred from the Faith and Religion that the Apostles and true Church of Christ were in which all the world did that wondred after the Beast Lastly this I say He that teaches a Faith a Religion a Doctrine contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and the Apostles is an Antichrist But the Pope this 1500 years hath taught a contrary Doctrine therefore he is an Antichrist The first Proposition is evident from diverse testimonies of Scriptures who teaches onely to pray unto the Lord in the name of Christ and for them that are alive in the body and not for them that are dead The Second is proved by the Authors own testimony That the Pope and Church of Rome hath prayed unto the Saints and prayed for the Dead this 1500 years to his shame be it spoken therefore the consequence must necessary follow The Pope is an Antichrist 8. And last Proposition is this That the first Authors of the Christian Faith in Germany Italy Spain France England and Low Countries have acknowledged no other Faith nor brought any other to them then the Catholick Roman Faith which the whole Universe hath acknowledged which we have learned of our Forefathes therefore they that have brought in another are accursed That which the Whole Universe hath acknowledged in the Apostacy which lieth in wickedness seeing all hath wondered after the Beast and drunk of the Whore's cup since the Apostles dayes is but a lame and pitiful argument as to prove the Church of Rome the true Church and as for the Faith delivering such as it was to the Nations before-mentioned onely excepting Spain because it 's probable that the Apostle Paul spread the Faith there seeing that he said he had a purpose to come there into Spain which if he did thy boast may cease as for the planting of Religion there and we know he was no hypocrite but the same Faith and gospel which he had preached over the Regions he would preach there and his Gospel and Doctrine we find contrary to the Church of Rome he condemned diverse Doctrines which the Church of Rome holds as forbidding Meats