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
They had learned to say our father Jacob as well as you can say Saint Peter John 4.12 So in like manner the Church of Rome though She hath not Renounced the very Name and Title of Christianity yet She is deeply guilty of Apostasie from God divers other wayes both in her Head and Members She is and may be called an Apostate Church as having fallen away from the Faith and Doctrine of the Gospel by fundamental Unbelief Ignorance and Herefie and from Gospel obedience by the most abominable profaneness of life by the grossest kind of sins and scandals against all the Ten Commandments concerning which you prudently forbear to say any thing but concerning the former head viz. Apostasie from the Faith Your Defence is this CHAP. III. Of the Nature of Heresie DISCOURSE Heresie is an adbesion to some private and singular Opinion or Error in Faith contrary to the general and approved Doctrine of the Church If Rome did ever adhere to any such Opinion c. By what General Council was it ever condemned Which of the Fathers ever wrote against Her Or by what Authority was She ever Reproved ANSWER This Description of Heresie and the Queries grounded thereupon as they are not agreeable either to the Scriptural or Ecclesiastical sense and use of the Word so they are indeed no better than a begging of the thing in question between you and us For you know we hold That the Rule whereby to judge of Heresie is the Scripture and not the Opinions of Churches of Fathers Mr. Gales Idea of Jansenism Histor dogmat Part. 2. Sect. 28. p. 157. or Councils Tertullian makes it the Badge of an Heretick to decline the Scriptures he saith They are Noctue Lucifugae Scripturarum Night Owls that do not love the light of that Sun yea some of your own Church who are the pars sanion thereof if yet they be of you have said That it is an Herefie to judge of Heresies without the Word of God So the Jansenists And the Reason why the generality of Papists are so desirous to derline the Scripture is because they are conscious to themselves that it is against them as Mr. White hath well observed 〈◊〉 of Brisom White 's way to the Church Sect. 7. Numb 8. Bristow Motiv ult Canus loc lib. 3. cap. 3. Confil. Episc Bononi Congreg Anno 1553. De stabilienda Roman Eccles Fol. 5. who teaching his Scholar how to deal with a Protestant 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proud Heretick out of his weak and false Castle of unely Scripturs into the plain field of Traditions Miracles Councils and Fathers and then like Cowards They shall not stand Another Papist saith There is more strength is confine Hereticks in Traditions than in the Scriptures yea all Disputations with them must be determined by Traditions Those Reverend Fathers of your Church that met at Bononia by the Popes appointment to consult of the means for establishing of the Church of Rome or healing the Wound of the Daughter of Babel in the counsel they gave to Pope Julius the Third They do confess Certè vix umbram quandam retinemus in nostris Ecclesus ejus Doctrinae Disciplinae quae Apostolorum temporibus floruerunt prorsùs aliam accersivimus The truth is we searce retain a shadow in our Churches of that Doctrine and Discipline which flourished in the Apostles times but we have brought in altogether another There was no mention Fol. 2. say they for we may confess the Truth to your Holiness but it must he kept close either of Popes or Cardinals in the Apostles times nor of some years after There were no Monasteries nor Priors nor Abbots much less were there these Doctrines these Laws these Customs no nor that Empire which now we enjoy over several people and Nations They say further That the not studying the Canon Law and Sophistry and Metaphysicks c. Fol 5. But learning the Greek and Hebrew Tongues and examining Translations by the Greek and Hebrew verity hath been the cause and fountain of the late decay of the Church of Rome and of the deplorable state and condition of her Affairs at this day And finally which they reserve to the last place as the weightiest of all their ghostly counsels They advise That as little as may be of the Gospel Fol. penult be read amongst the people in their vulgar Tongue For hic ille in summa est liber qui praeter caeteros hasce nobis tempestates acturbines conciliavit quibus prope abrepti sumus For this is in brief That Book which above all others hath raised and brought upon us these storms and whirlewinds by which we are almost carried away headlong Thus speak they It appears by all this wherefore it is that you love not the Scripture even because it restifies against you For he that doth evil hateth the light and cometh not to the light lest his deeds should be reproved John 3.16 20. As to the word Heresie for your mistakes call upon me to open it a little if we look at the notation of it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capio eligo so it signifies any thing of choice or option as Galen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Methodical and the Empirical way of Physick when applyed to matters of Religion it imports in the largest signification any Sect or way of Religion that a man makes choice of whether true or false So the Sect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Sadduces Acts 5.17 the Sect of the Pharisees Acts 15.5 called the most exquisite Sect of our Religion Acts 26.5 the Sect of the Nazarens Acts 24.5 the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herefie in all these places But it is frequently restrained by a Synecdothe to signifie a false Religion as some other words ex gr Tyrannus magnus c. which are commonly taken in deteriorem partem Thus Epiphanius seemeth to take it in his Book of Eighty Heresies where he numbers Barbarism Seythism Stoicism Platonism c. amongst Heresies But it is commonly restrained yet more by a further Synecdoche to such Errors as overthrow the Foundation and are obstinately maintained against Conviction by persons pretending in part to the True Religion and so we do not call Pagans Hereticks but Infidels This sense of the word seems to be grounded on 1 Cor. 3.10 11. and 2 Pet. 2.1 and Titus 3.10 11. where the Apostles do distinguish of Doctrines comparing some to Hay and Stubble yet retaining the true foundation But there is another sort which they call damnable Heresies or Heresies of perdition Soul-destroying Heresies the Assertors whereof are subverted or overturned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from off the true foundation and self-condemned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as sinning against their own light Now the written Word of God being the onely Rule of True Religion hence nothing ought to be rejected under the Notion of Heresie but what the Scripture doth
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
Thyestaean Feasts and Nuptials at which you have drank more Blood than Wine The barbarous Spanish Butcheries in the Netherlands And with how much blood your Romish Faith was planted in the West-Indies to the infinite scandal and dishonour of the Name of Christ even in the blood of Nineteen Millions of poor innocent Natives as Acosta the Jesuite a Bird of your Nest as some have Noted Relates the story But to come nearer home there were near about Three hundred slain and burnt alive in England in Queen Maries time And in the late Massacre and Rebellion here in Ireland there were about Three hundred thousand English Protestants murthered by you whereof above one half above One hundred and fifty thousand in the first six Months of that Rebellion most perfidiously and treacherously in a time of Peace without ever declaring War and without any provocation given These be some of the Heresies and false Doctrines of your Church Rev. 17.3.5 some of the Blasphemies written in the Forehead of Mystical Babylon which she owneth and maintaineth in an open and avowed manner 8. But I have not here mentioned her consequential Errors because they are innumerable For thus there is no sound part in her but from the sole of the foot even to the crown of the head there is nothing but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores Thus she is at defiance even with common sense and reason she will not believe the report of three senses in the business of the carnal presence For as the Apostle calls it This bread this bread this bread three times after the Consecration 1 Cor. 11.26 27 28. So the eye saith it is bread the taste the touch say the same she sees it feels it and tastes it but yet she believes there is no bread there which is to lay aside the use of reason and to turn Sott and Sceptick The madness of which delusion did so scandalize Averroes the Arabian Philosopher that when they asked him upon his Death-bed What Religion he dyed in He gave this Answer Quia Christiani manducant Deum suum adorant quod comedunt sit anima mea cum Philosophis Because the Christians eat their God with their teeth and worship that which they eat let my soul be with the Philosophers But having heard of the glorious Name and Fame of Christ and Christianity it had been his Duty and would have been his Happiness to have made a thorow search into the Fountain of that Religion which is the Scriptures of Truth and there he might have found that this abominable Idolatry is no part at all of the Christian Religion but of the Antichristian Apostasie of the Mother of Harlots yea there is hardly any Article of the Christian Faith which she doth not some way or other by evident and unavoidable consequence corrupt and subvert As for instance she denies by consequence that Christ is come in the flesh which is one of the Characters of Antichrist 1 John 4.3 She denies the Reality of the Humane Nature of Christ by her Transubstantiation for she leaves him only a Phantastick or Imaginary body having not the true Nature and dimensions of a body yea she doth impugn and subvert by true and sound consequence of Reason that great Fundamental of One God As was ingeniously made out by an English Gentleman a Protestant in discourse with a Roman Catholick thus That is not the true Religion that doth not acknowledge One God but Popery doth not acknowledge One God For did you not pray to the Virgin Mary this morning The Roman Catholick replyed Yes To which the Protestant made this Return And did not Five thousand pray to her at the same time The Papist answered Yes doubtless From whence the Protestant inferred Then either you prayed like a Fool or else she heard you all and knows all your hearts but this is to make her a God These therefore are some of the Roman Heresies Her dethroning the Scripture The Popes Infallibility Conversion by Free-will Justification by Works Idolatry and Superstition Her seditious Principles Her sanguinary Principles Her consequential Errors Yet this is but a general and brief induction of them But now do you ask Who ever testified against her Proh pudorem tuum Although if no man had yet that is no sufficient evidence of her Innocency the cause doth not depend upon this But yet withall you know if you know any thing of the Histories of the Church in former times That the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome have been testified against all along by faithful men whom God hath raised up from Age to Age to be the Witnesses of his Truth for the Lord gave his two Witnesses light and grace and power to prophesie in sackcloth 1260 dayes Revel 11.3 There was a Woman in the Wilderness when Antichrist was upon the Throne Revel 12.14 There were Saints whom the Beast did persecute and war against during all the time of his Reign Revel 13.7 Would you know their names 〈◊〉 you may see some of them in divers of our Divines and Writers who have taken the pains to present you with Instances and Catalogues of some of the chief and most eminent And common Reason will easily suggest unto you That if there were so many left upon Record there must needs be many more whose names the Histories of former times have not preserved and delivered down to posterity But you may see a competent number of Witnesses against you in the Centurists of Magdeburg in Flacius Illyricus his Catalogus testium veritatis Morney his History of the Papacy or Mystery of Iniquity Fox his Book of Martyrs Raynolds his Conference with Hart. Sundry of our Expositors on the Revelation See Mr. Arthur Dent on Chap. 11. White 's way to the Church Vsher against Maloone And of the Religion anciently professed by the Irish and British and de statu successione Eccles Brittanicarum Yea your own Bellarmine giveth some account of those that have even from the primitive times opposed and impugned the Primacy of the Church of Rome though he doth it briefly and defectively enough for he omits besides other things all the African Bishops and Councils Bell Praefat. in libros de Pontif. This may suffice at present as to the Errors and Heresies of your Church Your next endeavour is to defend her from the charge of Schism Let us proceed in the strength and grace of Christ to consider that also CHAP. V. Of the Nature of Schism and of the Schisms of the Church of Rome both within her self and from other Churches DISCOURSE 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 If ever the Church of Rome divided Her self by Schism from any other body of faithful Christians or broke communion or went forth from the society of any elder Church I pray satisfie your self and me in these particulars
First Whose company did she leave Secondly From what body did she go forth Where was the true Church which she forsook And the same thing is repeated again a second and a third time in your Paper ANSWER You do here again as before in your description of Apostasie and Heresie describe the thing amiss that you may the better ward off the blow and deâ—â—â—â— your Church Not that we desire to strive with you about words but as they do involve erroneous and undue apprehensions of things Be it granted That Schism is a rent or a breach of that Unity that Christ hath appointed in his Church and so as Heresie denies the Faith Schism destroyes 〈…〉 of the Gospel but your description of it fails in 〈◊〉 I. There may be Schism in a Church within it self The Apostle several times useth this word in this Epistle to the Corinthians as 1 Cor. 1.10 and cap. 11.18 and cap. 12.25 I hear saith he that when you come together in the Church there be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divisions or schisms among you Though that any of them did break off from the communion of the Church doth not appear but there were carnal contendings and strivings within and among themselves rending and tearing one another which the Apostle there calls Rents or Schisms II. There may be Schism from another Church contemporary and coexistent as well as from a Church praeexistent There is no necessity that it must be only from a former Elder Church yea an Elder Church may be guilty of Schism from a younger and from those that were her own Members if she break the bond of love and order with them by her own corruptions and persecutions It is the apostatizing persecuting Church that makes the rent and is guilty of the Schism and not the Reforming party who are driven out by them Now to apply these things a little to the Church of Rome she may be charged with Schism upon all these Accounts The plain truth is she is the most Schismatical Church in the World both within her self and in reference to other Churches also a the evidence whereof is so notorious that if I were a Roman Catholick I would tell you That it was very unhappily and unadvisedly done of you to mention this business of Schism in a Paper of Dispute offered by you to the Hereticks For first within her self Her intestine Schisms and Divisions have been so many that it would make this Paper swell into a Volume Bell Praef. in Libr. de Pontif to number them all up unto you It is Bellarmines own concession though he labours also to cover this nakedness with a Fig leaf That there were Schismata gravissima plurima ipsorum interase Romanorum Pontificum Very grievous and very many Schisms Voet. Disp Vol. 2. Dis 43. p. even of the Popes of Rome amongst themselves Voetius refers you to Mayer's Book of the Six and twenty Schisms of the Church and See of Rome 689. Onuphr Roman Pontif. Cardinal ad Annum Christi 1378. but your own Onuphrius reckons up no less than Twenty nine Schisms in the Church of Rome And of the Twenty eighth in the time of Clement the seventh he saith it was Pessimum diuturnum Schisma omnisque Res-publica Christiana divisa A most wicked and long lasting Schism for it lasted as he saith no less than One and fifty years together and the whole Christian world was divided by it the French Spaniards and others following Clement the seventh but Germany Hungary England and part of Italy followed Urban the sixth Moreover Anno Christi circiter 897. c. to mention another instance among so many the Schisms were so violent between Pope Stephanus and Pope Formosus and their Successors That they did nothing but do and undo Ratifie and Rescind the Acts and Decrees of one another Stephanus for his part he Rescinds the Decrees of Formosus and like a quiet and peaceable man digs him up out of his Grave cuts off his Fingers c. But Pope Romanus and Theodorus and John the Tenth disannulled the Acts of Stephen and approved Formosus Yet after these comes Sergius the third who digs up Formosus his dead body once more cuts off his Head casts it into Tyber Rescinds his Decrees Now the Question is Which of them shall we believe for Bell. de Pontif. lib 4. cap. 12. they were all infallible Bellarmine determines That Stephanus and Sergius were in the Error and so like an Heretick he takes upon him to judge the Pope And as you have Popes and Antipopes so you have Councils against Councils for instance V. Calvis Chrâ—nol ad annum 1437. your Councils of Constanoe and Basil have defined That the Council is above the Pope Quod nisi est quis unquam Romano Pontifici quamvis improbissimo contradicerei Which if it be not so Who would ever gainsay the Pope though never so wicked say they of Basil in their Bull Jan. 17. 1438. But Pope Leo and the Council of Lateran have determined the contrary And here again Bell. de Conciliorum authoritate lib. 2. cap. 19. de Eceles militante lib. 3. cap. 16. Bellarmine takes upon him to determine between the dissenting Popes and Councils and plonounceth that of Basil as soon as Antichrist was angry with them to be but Conciliabulum c. But in the mean time your boastings of a Supreme Infallible Visible Judge amongst you to end your Controversies are to much purpose unless Bellarmine be he but he is dead and who succeeds him in the Office I cannot tell And I wonder What became of your uninterrupted Succession all this while during all these Broyles and Schisms And where is your Pâ—â—câ— and Unity among your selves When Bellarmine almost upon every Controversie reports the contrary Opinions of your own Doctors some of which he condemns very severely Voet. Disp part 2 inventar Eccles Roman p. 689. I have not told them how many they be but Voetius saith He mentions no less than Two hundred contrary Opinions amongst your own Writers which your Infallible Judge as it seemeth hath not determined to this day I might here mention as signal Instances thereof The sharp Contests and Digladiations between your Dominicans and Franciscans and Jesuites about the power and interests of Free-will and Free-grace and the influence thereof into mans Conversion and Predestination and about the immaculate Conception of the blessed Virgin Mary about which your Trent Council durst not give a clear definitive sentence but speaks ambiguously like the Delphick Oracles of old As also the Contests between your French Sorbonists and your Hildebrandine Parasites of the Court of Rome about the pragmatick Sanction of the Council of Basil the Liberties of the Gallican Church the power of Popes in reference to Councils and Magistrates c. Nor indeed do I know any one point wherein you differ from the Protestants wherein you are agreed amongst
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