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
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
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
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
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