believe they were I must affirme that this Doctrine is so farre from being owned by any of them for many Centuries that we have upon Record many pregnant Instances which doe evince that they did not so much as Dreame of it To draw up which I shall select onely two or three famous Cases which Bellarmine is pleased to take no Notice of 1. Euseb l b. 5. c. 23 24 25. The first Instance shall be from that doughty dispute which was raised about the yeare 160. concerning the day when Easter was to be kept the Churches of Asia kept Easter-day precisely upon the 14th of March at which time the Jewes did solemnize their Passeover but the Westerne Churches after many meetings to settle this weighty Controversie did agree that the day of our Saviours Resurrection should be celebrated onely upon the Lords Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Asian Bishops notwithstanding this Decree did persist in their former custome in which they were defended by Polycrates who alleaged that Philip the Evangelist John the Apostle and many others did transmit that Traditionall Observance to them Upon this Victor the Bishop of Rome in great heat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrat lib. 6. saith my Author did take upon him to excommunicate all the Churches of Asia but being sharply writ against for it and stâ—ffely opposed in it he was forced to revoke his sentence Which story might afford us very many Observations as 1. That Superstition and Needlesse Observation of Dayes 2. That Imposition and Abridging of Christian Liberty in things Indifferent 3. That the Bishop of Rome's Usurpation and exceeding the Bounds of his proper Jurisdiction did begin to worke very early But I wave these and onely note that had the Churches of Afia then thought the Bishop of Rome to be Infallible they would not so peremptorily in so small a thing as the Retaining of an Old Custome have refused to submit unto his Judgment 2. My second Instance shall be from that Controversie which for many yeares was very eagerly managed viz. Whether such as had received Baptisme from Heretickes upon their Returne to the Church Cyprian Epis 92. Edit Fam. should be Baptized again or not Cyprian and all the African Bishops maintained the Necessiry of Re-baptizing and in their Letter to Stephen the Bishop of Rome after they had at large given the Reasons of their Opinion they conclude So much Dearest Brother have we enformed you of not doubting because of the Truth of your Religion but such things will please you which are both Religious and True But yet we know that some are very unwilling to lay down any Opinion which they have once tooke up but preserving that mutuall agreement which ought to be amongst Brethren they retain the Customes which they have once been used to In which matter we neither Force nor give a Law to any since in the ordering of the Church Prapositus every Governour hath absolute power of his own will as being to give unto God alone a Reason of his Actings From which passage written by Cyprian and all the Bishops of Africh who mer together in a Councell for that purpose it sufficiently appeares 1. That they did not understand any thing of the Bishop of Rome's Infallibility since they profess to retain their own Judgement without subscribing to his 2. That in the outward Regimen and Government of the Church every Bishop hath equall Power and ought not Authoritatively to prescribe and impose Laws upon another Ibid. Ep. 73. As the same Cyprian in another Letter These things saith he according to my weak Ability have I writ not Imposing upon or Pre-judging any as if it was not lawfull for every Bishop to do as he thinks fit since he hath free Power of his own Will And afterwards when Stephen had declared his Judgement that he would have none baptized again whatever Herefie they came from but that the ancient Custome should be preserved whereby such Converts were admitted into Church Communion meerly by laying on of Hands Ibid. Ep. 74. Inter catera vel superba vel ad rem non pertinentia vel sibi ipsi contraria quae improvidè atque imperitè scripsit Cyprian in stead of yeelding to his Determination doth taxe his Letter of Pride Folly and Impertinence and in Answer to those words of his wherein Stephen commanded that nothing should be varied from the accustomed Tradition Whence saith he was that Tradition Did it descend from the Authority of our Lord and his Gospel Did it come from the Commands and Epistles of the Apostles For God testifies in his Commands both to Joshua and others that those things only should be done which were written And our Lord Christ when he sent his Apostles into the World commands them to Baptize and to Teach all Nations that they might observe and do all things which he had Commanded If therefore any such Custome meaning that of Stephen's be contained either in the Gospels or in the Epistles and Acts of the Apostles then let sach an Holy and Divine Tradition be observed But what Obstinacy what Presumption is it to prefer Humane Tradition before a Divine Appointment What Folly is it not to consider that God is angry as often as Humane Tradition doth lessen and discountenance Divine Precepts as he testifies by the Prophet Isay And our Saviour likewise in his Gospel rebuking and chiding the Pharisees Ye reject the Commands of God that ye may keep your own Tradition Of which words the Apostle Paul being mindfull he likewise adviseth and instructeth us saying If any man teach otherwise and reste not in the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and in his Doctrine he is puffed up knowing nothing from such turn aside Neither ought Custome which hath privily crept in amongst some to hinder Truth from prevailing For Custome without Truth Consuetudo sine veritate vetustas Erroris est is nothing else but the Antiquity of Errour And it ariseth only from Pride and Presumption that one is apt to defend his own Practices how False and erroneous soever rather than consent to that which is True and Right in another For which reason the Apostle Paul writing to Timothy Docibilem Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adviseth a Bishop not to be Contentious but Meek and Apt to Teach But he is Apt to Teach who is Gentle and endued with Patience to Learn for a Bishop ought not only to Teach but to Learn since he Teacheth best who continually grows and profits by Learning Which the Apostle Paul likewise declares when he admonisheth That if any thing be revealed to another which sits by the First should hold his Peace Religious and sincere Minds are alwayes prepared to lay aside Errour and to search for Truth for if we return unto the Head and Originall of Divine Tradition Hamane Errour ceaseth and when the Reason of the Heavenly Appointments is once throughly discerned whatever
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
him And 2. since he was not Infallible but in the most concerning business that ever happened and that was the acknowledgement of the Messiah most miserably mistaken And lastly since the whole Argument doth no more concern the Infallibility of the Bishop of Rome than of any other Bishop whatever nothing can be concluded from hence but that the Prophesie of the Apostle that God would give some up unto strong delusions that they should believe a lie 2 Thes 2 10. by mens taking pains to urge such kind of empty and frivolous Reasonings as these is abundantly fulfilled And so much in Answer to the second Argument The third and last Argument to prove the Pope's Infallibility is taken from those Inconveniences which would follow in the Church of Christ were there not some unerring Judge appointed to determine Controversies For since our Saviour foretold that there would be false Christs and false Prophets since the Apostles tell us that Heresies and Errours would be vented it would argue that our Saviour had small care of his Church should be have left it without a Guide unto whom all might have recourse As if a Master of a Ship should be at pains to rigge up a Vessell and put it to Sea if he did not appoint a Pilot that might steer it through the Waves and secure it from the Rocks he might justly be taxed as very improvident So saith Bellarmine it will lay a great Imputation upon our Saviours Wisedome if amongst so many prodigious Errours which like Waves are ready to overwhelm the Truth he should not have provided some such known and visible Pilot who can guide the Ship of the Church through all storms and preserve it safe from those Rocks and Shelves by striking upon which it is otherwise liable to miscarry Some one therefore is requisite to be the Judge of Controversies which by Confession of all Ages is no other but the Bishop of Rome I have enlarged this Argument and put some kind of stourish upon it because this is indeed the Papists Achilleum and upon all turns the supposed Inconveniences which will follow if we admit not of their groundless conceits are alleadged to authorize their Unscripturall Institutions Therefore I answer 1. That Arguments drawn from Inconveniences are so liable to mistake and Errour and for the most part do so much savour of Passion and Interest as well as short-sightedness in the Arguer that in all Disputes concerning the Truth of any thing they are of very little weight It is no hard matter to fasten some seeming Absurdities upon the most plain and clearly revealed Truth as we know the Socinians do upon the Doctrine of the Trinity The Jewes heretofore conceived our Saviour to be a Blasphemer and thought it would be very prejudiciall to their state to suffer him to live and afterwards both Jewes and Romanes did agree in striving to suppress his Doctrine because of some Politicall Inconveniences which they imagined would follow the spreading of it Yet all the while our Saviour was really the Son of God and his Doctrine the Power of God unto Salvation for all Believers So that unless the Papists can clear to us by some better Motives than any they have yet produced that their Bishop is Infallible the Inconveniences which they suppose will follow our denying it ought not to sway with us 2. Among Persons who own the Scriptures to be the Word of God certainly it is much more rationall to argue such a thing as for example the Popes Infallibility is not once mentioned there and therefore undoubtedly was never divinely appointed than to say it is divinely appointed because otherwise it would be very Inconvenient It would have been much more convenient it all Mankind had been as Infallible as the Pope is presumed to be if we had all retained our Innocence and been exempted from Possibility of offending one would think this might have made more for the Honour of God and the Peace of Mankind than our present erring and sinning Condition But we must not measure Gods Appointments or the Reall Being of things by our own Rules of Convenience nor affirm a Thing to be so because we conceive it would be very Convenient if it were so It is therefore but lost labour for the Popish Writers in a great deal of Plausible Language to declare and set out the great Convenience of Infallibility when they should first prove to us the Truth and the Existence of it We may easily fancy many things to be very Advantageous and Usefull to the World which yet never either were or will be And amongst these goodly Chimera's wherewith fond persons please themselves for ought I yet see this Dream of Infallibility may claime a Chiefe place 3. Those Terrible stories and Tragicall outcries about the danger of Herisies for the suppression of which this expedient of having some one Visible Unerring Judge must be found out they are for the most part as Mr. Hales well observes but so many Theologicall Scarecrowes set up to fright us from the Disquisition and search of Truth I know very well that to teach Heresie i. e. any False and Unchristian Doctrine is a very great sin but yet to prevent this we must not in all haste run into a greater Supremum in Terris Numen Dominus Deus noster Papa For to set up a visible God upon Earth according to the Court of Romes stile to cry up a man that is like our selves to be Infallible and then to fall down and worship him to bring him for an offering not those worthlesse Creatures as Sheep and Oxen which onely were required of Old but to Sacrifice our soules to bind over our Reasons and Understandings unto his Oracular Dictates this is so dull so stupid an Idolatry that we may wonder any learned man would ever goe about to defend it had not the God of this world blinded their eyes and did they not by this Craft as that Ancient Father Demetrius the Silver-Smith subtilty argued get their Livings and divide the spoiles of the deluded world by this grosse and Palpable Cozenage Lastly In answer to all their Allegations from Fathers and Authority I need say no more than this that as though all the world did consent to believe a Lie as that the Sun was really no bigger then it seemes to be which was the opinion of Epicurus yet this Conspiracy would never make a Lie to be Truth so upon supposition that all Antiquity did acknowledge this prerogative of the Bishop of Rome yet could we not from thence inferre the Justice and the Legallity of it because the most that such Testimonies amount to is meerly this to show us not what really was but what they conceived to be True I need not therefore be much concerned in examining Bellarmine's Quotations But yet that I may doe Justice to the Christians of former Ages and vindicate them from being so Unwise as the Pope's Champions would make us