minu◠probi Bell. Prafat cannot but force them to acknowledge that he is liable to Errour but in his Politicall or which is all one his Ecclesiasticall capacity as he is the pretended Head of the Church and vested with all those Immunities and Priviledges which his Favourers suppose to be due unto the Universall Bishop 2. By the Church of Rome I mean not the diffused and scattered Body of the Papists but according to their own Sense how Absurd and Insignificant soever the Bishops and Doctours of their Church assembled together in a Councell where they may be supposed to meet with the greatest Advantage and Opportunity for the Disquisition and Search of Truth 3. By Infallible I mean to have a certain fixed and unerring Judgement in Religious matters which things alone do properly belong to the determination and cognizance of a Church as it is a Church And in this sense of the Question thus explained in as great a Latitude as any Papist can possibly understand it in I deny the Pope whether considered as apart from or conjoyned with as a part of a Councell to be Infallible For the proof of which Assertion though I might find out great variety of Arguments from the express and direct contradictions which have been among the Popes themselves some reversing that which others have ratified and others establishing that which their Predecessors under the severest Penalties have forbid Yet since the proper and direct way of Arguing lyes in shewing the weakness and insufficiency of those Arguments which are brought in defence of the Popes Infallibility that is the Method which I purpose altogether to insist on For since this great and so much admired Diana of the Papists is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a thing to be discerned by its own Light and to be credited meerly for it self as the testimony of the Spirit is when it bears witness unto the truth of Scripture and besides it being generally denied by all the Protestants who make the Errours of the Church of Rome the ground of their separation from them hence it cannot be expected that we should tamely give up out Assent to believe this Infallibility unless there be some evident and concluding Reasons to enforce it from us If therefore it shall appear that whatever Bellarmine and when I mention him I mean the strength of the whole Popish Party hath said is altogether impertinent and unconcluding indeed nothing else but a plain begging the thing in Question my Deduction from thence will be Infallible viz. that we have as yet no Reason to believe the Popes Infallibility To clear up this the best way will be to take a short view of those Arguments which Bellarmine alleadgeth in his Books De Pontifice Romano and they are briefly these three 1. Some Texts of Scripture in the New Testament 2. Some Analogicall Inferences out of the Old 3. Some Absurdities and Inconveniences which would follow in the Church of God should we not allow the Pope and Church of Rome to be Infallible 1. The Texts of Scripture which Bellarmine and all Writers since him do urge to prove the Popes Infallibility by are these three Mat. 16.18 19. Luk. 22.31 32. Job 21.15 17. From which they draw these three Conclusions 1. That in those fore-mentioned places our Saviour did confer upon Peter some speciall Priviledges above and beyond the rest of the Apostles and they were 1. Supremacy in Matthew 2. Infallibility in Luke 3. Universall Episcopacy in John 2. They Assume that whatever was bestowed upon Peter was not confined unto his Person but was promised likewise unto his Successours since what was granted unto Peter was given for the good of the Church and therefore ought not to die with him 3. They take for granted that the Pope was Peter's Successour both in the Bishoprick of Rome and also in all his other Priviledges and for the last they alleadge nothing but the credit of that which they call Apostolicall Tradition Whether or no these Deductions are cleare in the Texts or violently haled and wrested from them with so much impudent and shamelesse Sophistry as a wise and disinteressed Person would blush to be guilty of will best appeare by examining the places themselves and if when they are put upon the Racke they can be forced to confesse so much as Bellarmine and the Popes Parasites conclude from them I shall then consent to dethrone Scripture from its plainnesse and Perspicuity but till then I must take leave to thinke that that Church doth very wisely which makes Ignorance and Implicite Faith the Mother of Devotion for nothing lesse then an over-awed and Religious stupidity would make any man submit unto such Impossible and farre fetched interpretations 1. The place in Mat. 16.18 19. runs thus And Jesus answered and said unto him i. e. to Peter Blessed art thou Simon Barjona for flesh and bloud hath not revealed this to thee but my Father which is in Heaven And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And I will give unto thee the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven Which place they thus interpret 1. By the Rock upon which Christ saith he will build his Church is meant the Person of Peter and the Churche's being built upon him signifies say they that the care and government of it was committed to him and thus they understand likewise his Having of the Keyes 2. By the power of Binding and Loosing they understand the power of commanding and punishing of making and repealing Laws with all such things as belong to a Soveraign and Legislative Power 3. They tell us that whatever Peter had here was likewise granted to the Pope who is his Successour and therefore he being the Rock and the Foundation of the Church cannot be tossed about with every wind of Doctrine and therefore is Infallible But I answer 1. Upon supposition that Peter here was constituted as they call him Head and Prince of the Apostles yet how would this Personall Priviledge any more belong to the Bishop of Rome if he were Peter's Successour than what our Saviour elsewhere saith to Peter Why didst thou doubt O thou of little faith doth note the Pope's uncertainty and instability in Believing Or Mat. 14.31 what our Saviour presently after speaks Get thee behind me Satan doth signifie that every Pope is an Incarnate Devil or to take the mildest Interpretation an Adversary to Christ and to the good of mankind For what Reason can be assigned why the Pope may not as well succeed in Peter's Personall Defects as into his Priviledges since the Scripture is utterly silent either that he had or that he was to have a Successour in either But 2. I deny the Supposition upon
A Brief ENQUIRY INTO THE Grounds and Reasons Whereupon the INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE and CHVRCH OF ROME Is said to be Founded By Edward Bagshawe St. of Ch. Church Luk. 19. Why do you not of your selves judge 〈◊〉 is right Eph. 5. Let no Man deceive you with 〈◊〉 words LONDON Printed by A.M. and are to be sold by the Book 〈…〉 To the Right Honourable the Earl of ANGLESEY one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Councell Right Honourable I Believe your Lordship in your Search and Survey of the Mysteries of Providence with which you entertain your Privacy have often with great amazement considered how many strange and admirable Effects do daily proceed from small and ignoble Causes for not only Thunder Rain Lightning and other common Phaenomena which do astonish the World have their whole Make and Composition from a seemingly casuall and undesigned Concourse of Light and Fleeting Clouds but likewise largest Rivers are fed by secret and concealed Springs and the World it self if traced and resolved into its most visible Originall is framed of Atomes and the Earth which is vulgarly conceived to be the Basis and Center of the Universe is as God himself is pleased to express it hung upon Nothing and yet by that Almighty Hand which fixed it it is made stable and firm enough to endure unmoved all that Hurry and Variety of Mutation wherewith the rolling Motion of the Heavens do daily threaten it What wonder your Lordships Contemplation hath begot in viewing the Works of Nature I doubt not but hath been continued when you descended from them to behold the Works of Art especially the Civil Policies of States and Kingdomes in which as your Lordship hath been alwayes most knowingly conversant so you can from the deepest and best grounded Experience evince that though Earthly Empires I mean such as are not guided by Christian and truly-Religious Principles have an Outward Semblance of a Substantiall and Lasting Greatness yet the Basis which doth support the whole Politicall Frame is but some State-trick or other some little Expedients found out to amuse the Vulgar whose Folly must be pleased or else they will never be governed But how far the Wit of man can advance it self to imitate the Works of God even those of a Creative Power the making Something out of Nothing is in no Policy more discernible than in that deep and wise contrivance of subtle men the Papacy the Body of which hath a pleasing Aspect and is set out with a very specious Gloss all the Parts do seem extreamly well-proportioned there is a strange Linking and Confederacy of all its Principles and to the Eye of a Superficiall Beholder it presents nothing but a beautifull and comely Outside But if any be so curious as to look beyond its Varnish and first Appearance should we pry into the Foundation of this Goodly Structure we shall find it like the Island of Delos alwayes Floating or rather like the Earth to hang upon nothing For the Pope's Infallibility or the Churches Authority or some such fond Chimera is all the Basis which doth under-prop this Building Things that are so confidently asserted and yet upon triall so shamefully begged that were not the world in Gods just Judgement given over to a vicious and Lazy Credulity all that is built upon such thin and empty Fallacies would not subsist one moment but for the present the Arts of planting a devout Ignorance have so farre prevailed that the world doth hugge its Bondage and men finding a great deal of ease in being quietly deceived they are content to worship the Beast and are angry that any should fright them from embracing a Religion which hath made the way to Heaven so very plaine and easie that whatsoever becomes of the Seeing they that are Blind enough shall be sure never to misse of it It is now My Lord some scores of Yeares since we of this Nation have by Scripture-Light discovered all the Frauds and Cheats of this Mistery of Iniquity and yet it seems all mens eyes are not opened for some of late have pleaded for Popery and for that which is the chief Bulwark of it the Popes Authority with as good a grace if Railing and needlesse Rhetorick may deserve that name as if they had never been answered Rushworth Dial 1. One in his great heat of zeal or something worth doth tell us That Questions about the Popes Authority over Bishops of Bishops over Priests and of Priests over the Laity are of no small moment But he that goes about to destroy this Hierarchy aimeth at nothing lesse then an Utter overthrow of Religion Which are but Bellarmines words in English Bellar. Praef. and if in stead of the word Religion they had said Popery they had spoke nothing but the Truth since that is bottomed onely in the Popes Authority Fiat Lux dedicated to the Countess of Arundell and twice Printed Which a late namelesse Author so farre cryes up that he ventures to speake words which no sober man would owne In my Judgement saith he Christ our Lord hath no lesse showne his Divinity and Power in the Pope than in himself And again All things considered I may truly say that Christ in the Pope and Church Pag. 376 377 c. is more miraculous than in his own Person And yet farther as if those expressions were too modest Blasphemy and not barefaced enough he goes on The first great Fundamentall of Christian Religion which is the Truth and Divinity of Christ had it not been for the Pope had failed long agoe in the world Whereupon enlarging himselfe he addes whence I may truly say that Christ is the Popes God for if the Pope had not been and proved so resolute an Assertour Christ had not been taken for any such person as he is believed this day And so in a boaste concludes This I will boldly say and am assured of that if the Pope be not an Unerring Guide in affaires of Religion all is lost For a man once rid of the Controll of his Authority may as easily deride and as solidly confute the Incarnation as the sprinkling of Holy-water nor could the reason of the world confute them While I relate such kind of Passages as these which I tremble to mention I hope your Lordship will pardon my zeal if I complaine a little that Treatises of a farre more innocent Nature are sharply censured while these open Impieties doe scape unpunished as if our Lawes were keen onely against the Asserters of Christian Liberty but had no edge at all against the Broachers of Antichristian Blasphemy Since then the Pope's Infallibility is that Name of Blasphemy which makes all its Patrons so bold and Irreligious since that is the Bottomlesse Pit out of which all this Deadly smoke doth issue I have here according to your Lordships commands endeavoured to show the Vanity and Ridiculousnesse as well as Impiety of that opinion In which if I have
whatever of which kind of Citations I have collected many and observed more in the ancient Writers especially before Constantines time yet I purposely omitted them because 1. In Questions wherein the Right of any thing is controverted to call in Witnesses is altogether impertinent 2. No Authority of man ought to prevail unless it hath the Authority of God and the consent of mankind i.e. Scripture or Right Reason to back it 3. Many Writers of our own as Mounsieur Daillee Chillingworth the Lord Falkland the Lord Digby now Earl of Bristow c. have already shewed the vanity and uselesness of such Allegations and because it is possible that the example of the last Honourable Person I named may be urged against me since his present practice doth contradict his former principles I will only adde this that since his Book is not yet answered by himself I hope he thinks it unanswerable and will not long continue in communion with that Church whose Foundations he hath so well overthrown 4. This way of writing by Quotations makes every Controversie uncertain dilatory and endless for as the possessed person said to the Exorcists Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye so may the common Reader say of Authorities and Fathers Scripture I know and Reason I know but who are ye for any farther than they speak according to the Dictates of the two former these latter must not be heard much less believed or followed That this little Treatise thus curtailed of all Authorities and deplumed of those Sentences from Fathers with which others do not think they stuff but rather adorn their Writings is like to be little read and less esteemed by the men of a contrary perswasion I easily foresee but yet the Question is so very usefull that I could not omit to handle it For 1. If it shall appear that the Church and Pope of Rome are not Infallible then I hope all those who have unwarily embraced their Errours upon the account of their unerring Authority will be induced to shake off their laziness and address themselves strictly to enquire into the Grounds of what they Believe and according to the advice of the Apostle Paul who was undoubtedly Infallible in that direction Prove all things and then hold fast that which is good The greatest Truth while it is untried may for ought we know be an Errour and all that while if we entertain it we fall upon our Religion onely by chance and serve God as the Samaritans did for which our Saviour blames them we know not why 2. If the Pope and Church of Rome be not Infallible in their Judgment about Religious matters then it follows that they ought not to impose upon the Judgment of others there being nothing more unreasonable then this that they should Lord it over the Faith or Consciencious Perswasion of other men who are not certain but they may Erre and be deceived themselves This last Consideration how far it may be improved to moderate the great Fiercenesse and Rigor of too many among our selves who in things of so poore so triviall so needlesse and so unmanly a nature will have their will to be a Law I mention only it being too sad a Theme to insist long upon But if Religion which is in it selfe the firmest lye if the Law of Christ which is a Law of Love cannot make us agree and live together as Brethren yet let feare of the common Enemy prevent our separation When Abraham and Lot fell out about their Pastures and I wish much of our Church-quarells now were not of the same nature the spirit of God remarks upon it the Canaanits and the Perizzites were then in the Land Hereby intimating that it was a most unseasonable time for them to disagree and to divide from each other in when they were surrounded in the midst of Enemies This passage perfectly agrees with our Case and on the very same motive bespeakes a mutuall Reconcilement for certainly the Canaanites are in the Land the Philistines are if not upon yet Among us who watch our Halting and hate Conformists and Non-conformists if these must be once more the Unhappy Termes to distinguish us both alike the one they hate for going so farre from the other for not comming neerer to them If God in just Judgment upon our unchristian Animosities should make us a Prey to those Incircumcised Philistines Polyphemus courtesie to Ulisses of devouring him last would be the greatest favour that he can expect whoever he be that is now most eager in denying his weake but yet Christian Brother that Liberty which he thinks Christ hath purchased and none but Antichrist will seeke utterly to bereave us of Should we ever fall into the Papists hands again I cannot expect they should use us more mildly then their predecessours did Samson i.e. put out our eyes and make us grind in their Mills Or as they afterwards served the Israelites take away our Weapows of Warre our Scripture and the best if not the onely Interpreter of it Enligtned Reason and so leave us Naked and Defencelesse to the Assaules of Ignorance first and if that will not prevaile to the Fury of a Mercilesse Inquisition Which last will be found the strongest and most forcible Engine rather then Argument by which they defend their Infallibillity But how ill an opinion soever I have both of the Papists Religion and of the unchristian wayes they take to propagate it yet farre be it from me to wish that amongst us they may suffer the same hard measure which I know by their principles they are alwayes ready to inflict For so much doe I desire their Conversion which can never be sincere unlesse it be voluntary and unconstrained and so little feare their Power of seducing since their greatest strength lies in the Ignorance of their followers rather then in the cunning of their Guides that I heartily wish all Penall Lawes against them were utterly taken away For I never yet saw any Argument that could clearly evince why any sort of men who would professe a peaceable subjection unto the Civill Government might not in all their Civill Rights be protected by it I must confess there are two things which do much difference the case of the Papists from that of any other Religious Sect this day in the World and which renders the toleration of them very unsafe if not unwarrantable One is their depending upon and owning of a forreign Power and that such a Power too which according to the Opinion of their Teachers can when he pleaseth dispense with them for and release them from their most sacred Engagements so that a State can have no security but that whenever they have opportunity they will endeavour a Change Lib. 5. de Pontif Rom. c. 7. Quod si Christiani non deposuerunt Neronem similes id fuit quia deerant vires temporales nam alioqui jure id poter an t facere c. and
Saviour saith should be ratified in Heaven For saith he where two or three not Bishops but Believers are gathered together in my Name there I will be in the midst of them i. e. When any Number of Believers how small soever though but two or three are met for those Holy Ends of Discipline and in those Ways which I by my Commands have warranted I will be with them to Assist and to Guide their Councels and to Execute their Sentence Chap. 49. Accordingly we find in Tertullian's Apology that in all Christian Meetings upon the Lords-day together with Prayer and Preaching there was likewise Censura Divina i. e. the Sentence of Excommunication pronounced against all refractory and stubborn Sinners according to this our Saviours Institution If any object that if Christ will be with two or three then in all probabily he will be with a Councell of many Hundreds much more I answer No doubt he will if they meet in his Name i. e. according to his Command and Institution for it is not the Assembly though of never so many Thousands but the End and Manner of Assembling which hath the Promise of Assistance And when I can see such a Councell which professeth solely to follow Scripture according to that sense which not the fancy of men whether Fathers or Councells but the Spirit of God enlightning their understandings doth give unto it I shall then with all Reverence embrace their Decrees For I know that such a Councell cannot Erre because they will Command nothing but what is already commanded by God which every true Christian ought to obey without the Sanction of any other Authority But such a Councell as this I am hopelesse of ever seeing under the Papecy since all their meetings for some hundreds of Yeares have been designed not to search but to smother Scripture and to Emprison that Light which if looked into would detect and manifest their Errors So that they come together not in Christs but in the Pope's name or rather in the name of that God of the world who is Prince of the Power of Darknesse and whose Kingdome is founded and upheld by the Artifice and cunning of their Teachers and by the Ignorance and Implicite Faith of their Hearers Fallere Falli To deceive and to be deceived is the best Motto which can be set upon all the Church-doores in the Papall Territories but Heaven is a place of Light and the True Church is full of Knowledge because 〈◊〉 are all taught of God not to obey or to Believe in 〈◊〉 but in him alone 2. That Promise of our Saviour I will send the Spirit John 14. c. 16. which shall lead you into all Truth was spoken Personally to the Apostles And those words Act. 15. It seemeth good to the Holy Spirit and to Us were spoken by them after the accomplishment of that Promise so that without great presumption they cannot be wrested to any other nor such wresting without great vanity be confuted since barely to deny ungrounded suppositions is a sufficient Confutation If any aske me since neither the Pope nor a Councell is Infallible as having no peculiar Promise for that purpose then how shall the Church determine Controversies or How shall Heresies be suppressed I answer that if the word of God is clear and the Heresie be Notorious than every Particular Church hath Power within it self to excommunicate all obstinate Heretickes But where the Scripture is either Dubious or Silent Phil. 3.15 there charitably to beare with dissenters and to wait till God shall reveale it to them is the best way to winne them And this was the onely method which the primitive Christians did take for three hundred yeares together to preserve and maintaine the Truth of our Religion Having no Communion with such as hold manifest and destructive Errors and in things of lesser moment Forbearing one another in Love These will at last be found to be the safe wayes of God whereas to pretend to Infallibility in determining or to practise Tyranny in Imposing these are onely the wayes of Ambitious and self-seeking men found out not so much to promote Truth which stands not in need of such Arts as to Augment a party which makes all Articles of Faith to be meerly like the Civill Lawes of a Land where most Voices doe carry the Cause Such a kind of Universality as this True Piety never had and therefore we need not be sorry that Popery doth make its boast of it And thus I have with as much Brevity and Plainnesse as the subject would beare enquired into the Grounds whereupon the Popes Infallibility is said to be grounded and after the most Impartiall search can pronounce of them all Mene Tekell that being weighed in the Balance of the Sanctuary they are found too light Neither have I diverted my self in confuting their worship of Images their Blasphemous Figment of Transsubstantiation their mingling of works in Justification their Invocation of Angells Col. 2.19 which the Apostle saith is not to hold the Head i. e. to Erre fundamentally Their forbidding of Marriage and commanding to abstain from meats Which he who prophesied of them 1 Tim. 4.1 calls the Doctrine of Devils I have omitted likwise their Furious and Bloody Tenets of Persecuting and Killing all who doe not worship the Image of that Beast which they have erected Rev. 13.15 for these things how plainely soever the Scripture speakes against them will not much concerne them to answer as long as they are fenced about with the Doctrine of Infallibility whereby they are privileged to put what sense upon Scripture they please but if the Christian Reader finds that conceit to be clearly disproved then I hope he will make use of the other Arguments to satisfie himself that we have but too much reason to suspect the Pope to be that Antichrist that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lawlesse one who sits in the Temple of God and declares that he is God For in the Church which is the Temple or House of God for any man to make Lawes which doe oblige the Conscience For a sinfull man to stile himself the Head and Bridegroome of the Church and above all to affirme that he is Infallible this is nothing else but to say that he is God and therein to fulfill the most clear Prediction that can be concerning The Man of sin whose way of Rising was to be by the Deceiveablenesse of Unrighteousnesse and his Dominion to be Established by Miracles and Lying Wonders Which no Church in the world doth more confidently boast of than the Roman And therefore till her unhappy and much mistaken Followers have cleared that She is not Antichristian we have little reason to believe that She is a True Church much lesse to think that She is Infallible FINIS