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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26947	A key for Catholicks, to open the jugling of the Jesuits, and satisfie all that are but truly willing to understand, whether the cause of the Roman or reformed churches be of God ... containing some arguments by which the meanest may see the vanity of popery, and 40 detections of their fraud, with directions, and materials sufficient for the confutation of their voluminous deceits ... : the second part sheweth (especially against the French and Grotians) that the Catholick Church is not united in any meerly humane head, either Pope or council / by Richard Baxter, a Catholick Christian and Pastor of a church ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1659 (1659)	Wing B1295; ESTC R19360	404,289	516

my Lecture-day from Thursday to Friday that I change my Religion or the worship of God These are our great changes Well I will you now hear whether the Papists or we be the greatest Changlings 1. Some just changes they have made themselves that they know well enough are as great as ours It was so common in the antient Church to Pray only standing on every Lords day and not to kneel at all in any part of the worship of that day that it was taken for an universal Tradition and to kneel was taken for a great sin and condemned by General Councils many hundred years after Christ and yet the Church of Rome and other Churches as well as we have cast off this pretended Tradition violated this Decree of General Councils and forsaken this universal Custom of the Church And the Papists receive the Eucharist kneeling for all this Law and Custome In the primitive Church and in Tertullians dayes a Common Feast of the Church was used with the Lords Supper and the Sacrament taken then But now this Custom is also changed It was then the Custom to sing extempore in the Congregation to Gods praise But now Rome it self hath no such Custom It was once the Custom to give Infants the Lords Supper but now Rome it self hath cast off that Custom Once it was a Canon that Bishops must not read the books of Gentiles Concil Carthag 4. which yet Paul made use of and the Papists now do too much value Abundance such changes might be mentioned greater then ours in which we are justified by the Papists themselves 2. But they have yet other kind of changes then these They have changed the very Essence of the Catholick Church in their esteem they have changed the Officers the Doctrine the Discipline the Worship and what not as though they had been born for change to turn all upside down In the Primitive times the Church had no universal Monarch but Christ but they have set up a new universal Monarch at Rome In the primitive times the Catholick Church was the Universality of Christians and they have changed it to be only the subjects of the Pope In the Primitive times Rome was but a particular Church as Jerusalem and other Churches were but they have changed it to be the Mistris of all Churches For many hundred years after Christ the Scripture was taken to be a sufficient Rule of faith but they have changed it to be but part of the Rule In the antient Church all sorts were earnestly exhorted to read or hear and study the Scripture in a known tongue but they have changed this into a desperate restraint proclaiming it the cause of all Heresies In the antient Church the Bread and Wine was the Body and Blood of Christ Representative and Relative but they have changed it into the real Body and Blood Heretofore there was Bread and Wine remaining after the words of Consecration but they have changed so that there remaineth neither Bread nor Wine but the qualities and quantity without the substance and this must be believed because they say it against Scripture and Antiquity and in despight of sense it self In the antient Church the Lords Supper was administred in both kinds bread and wine to all but they have lately changed this into one kind only to the people denying them one half of the Sacrament Of old the Lords Supper was but the Commemoration of the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross and a Sacrament of our Communion with him and his members but now they have changed it into a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the quick and dead and in it they adore a piece of Bread as very God with Divine worship Of old men were taught to make daily confession of sin and beg pardon and when they had done all to confess themselves unprofitable servants but now they are so changed that they pretend not only to be perfect without sin and to Merit by the Condignity of their works with God but to supererogate and be more perfect then innocency could make them by doing more then their duty Of old those things were accounted sins deserving Hell and needing the blood of Christ for pardon which now are changed into venial sins which properly are no sins and deserve no more then temporal punishment Of old the Saints had no proper merits to plead for themselves and now men have some to spare for the buying of souls out of Purgatory Of old the Pastors of the Churches were subject to the Rulers of the Commonwealth even every soul not only for wrath but for Conscience sake was obliged to be subject but now all the Clergy are exempted from secular Judgement and yet the secular power is subject to them for the Pope hath power to depose Princes and dispossess them of their Dominions and put others in their rooms and dissolve the bonds of Oaths and Covenants in which the subjects were obliged to them and to allow men to murder them by stabbing poysoning c. If you do not believe me stay but till I come to it and I shall give you yet some further proof Would you have any more of the Popish Changes Why I might fill a volume with them Should I but recite all the changes they have made in Doctrines and all that they have made in Church Orders and Discipline and Religious Orders and their Discipline and in Worship and Ceremonies I should be over tedious their very Liturgy or Mass-book hath been changed and made by changes such abundance of additions it hath had since the beginning of it What changes Sixtus the fift and Clement the eighth made in their Bibles I told you before as also what changes they have had in the election of their Popes And now I am content that any impartial man be judge whether Papists or the Reformed Churches are the more mutable and unsetled in their Religion and which of them is at the greater certainty firmness and immutability CHAP. XXIV Detect 15. ANother fraud of the Papists which they place not the least of their confidence in is this They perswade the people that our Church and Religion is but new of the other dayes invention and that theirs is the only old Religion And therefore they call upon us to give them a Catalogue of the professors of our Religion in all ages which they pretend we cannot do and ask us where our Church was before Luther To this we shall give them once more a brief but satisfactory answer I. We are so fully assured that the oldest Religion is the best since the date of the Gospell that we are contented that our whole cause do stand or fall by this tryall Let him be esteemed of the true Religion that is of the oldest Religion This is the main difference between us and the Papists We are for no Religion that is not as old as the dayes of the Apostles but they are for the Novelties and Additions of

Albaspinaeus before cited saith he knows not whether ever any one was kept away in his age 5. The Protestants hold that men are not to be let alone in scandalous sin but admonished privately and then openly before the Church and if yet they Repent not and Reform not to be cast out and not to be absolved or re-admitted without a Publick Confession and Penitence answerable to the sin And this wicked people hate at the very heart and will not endure But the Papists have got a device to please them by Auricular secret Confession to a Priest where if he will but confess and sin and sin and confess again he may have a pardon of course without any open shame or true Reformation If we durst but imitate the Papists in this one particular we should do much to please the people that are now exasperated for I find that almost any of them will confess in secret that they have sinned that will not endure the open shame 6. The Protestants hold that every sin deserveth death and that every breach of the Law is such a sin though God will not inflict the Punishment on them that have a pardon But the Papists tell us of a multitude of sins that are but venial that is sins that deserve pardon and yet deserve not Hell and are indeed no sins but analogically so called And they make those to be such venial sins which Protestants account abominably gross as some lying some swearing in common talk some drunkenness some fornication and the like are with them but venial sins which are properly no sins And yet here also they are by the ears among themselves some saying that venial sins are properly sins and most denying it Yea all sins that are not deliberated on are with them but venial sins So that if they will but sufficiently brutifie themselves by suspending the exercise of reason and will swear curse murder without deliberation they are then free from sin and danger And how easie and pleasing is this to the ungodly Those are but Evangelical Counsails with the Papists that are the Precepts or Laws of Christ to the Protestants 7. The Protestants teach men that it is their duty to seek the understanding of the holy Scripture and to meditate in it day and night but the Papists do forbid the Common people to read it in a language which they understand and save them all that labour that Protestants put them on Nothing can win the people more then cherishing them thus in sloth and ignorance 8. The Protestants say that a man cannot be justified or saved without an actual faith in Christ or being the Infant of a believer Dedicated to Christ and that this faith must extend to all things that are Essential to Christianity But what the Papists say of the Justification and Salvation of Infidels if they believe in the Pope you heard in their own words in the last Detection A comfortable doctrine to the unbelieving world to whom God hath spoken no such Comfort We confess that those that never had the Gospel are under the Law of nature or works and that the penalty of this is such as God can in some cases dispense with or else we could not be saved by Christ and so that all Pagans are not under the Peremptory undispensable threatning of the Gospel against final Privative unbelievers But yet though God may pardon some of these he hath made them no promise that he will and therefore they can have no positive hope grounded on a promise nor can any man say that God will save any of them or that he will not it being certain that they are under the condemnation of the Law which God can dispense with in wayes of security to his Justice and Ends but uncertain whether he will or not and therefore is to be left among his unrevealed things The true believer is under a certain promise of salvation The unbeliever that hath had the Gospel or might have had it and would not is under the Gospel sentence of damnation which is certain and irreversible if he die in that Condition The negative unbeliever that never had or could have the Gospel is under the Condemning sentence of the Law of works or nature that is his sin Deserveth eternal death but this sentence is not peremptory and indispensable but yet it is such as God will not dispense with rashly but on terms that may secure his Ends and Justice This is the true mean between extreams in this weighty point 9. The Protestants say that all our best works are imperfect and the sin that adhereth to them deserves Gods wrath according to the Law of works though he pardon it by the Law of Grace and that when we have done all we are unprofitable servants and properly Merit nothing of God for the worth of our works or in Commutative Justice But the Papists take those very works to Merit heaven ex Condigno and for here they are by the ears again say some of them by the Proportion of the work and in Commutative Justice which the Protestants say deserve damnation for their sinful imperfections and therefore need a pardon through the blood of Christ Yea they take these works to be perfect and the man to be perfect and say that by such works as these they may Merit for others as well as for themselves And how easie and pleasing is this to proud corrupted Nature 10. The Protestants think that no Faith Justifieth but that which is accompanyed with unfeigned Love and Resolution for Obedience But the Papists make Faith that 's separated from Charity and joyned with Attrition to be sufficient for admission to the Sacrament which shall be instead of Love or Contrition and so shall put away all sin 11. The Protestants knowing that God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in Spirit and truth do teach people a spiritual way of worship which Carnal men are undisposed to and unacquainted with But the Papists do accommodate them by a multitude of Ceremonies Images and a Pompous histrionical kind of worship which is easie and pleasant to flesh and blood To have an Image before them and Copes and Ornaments and abundance of formalities and to drop so many Beads and be saved for saying over so many Ave Maries or such like words what an easie kind of Religion is this and how agreeable to flesh and blood How much easier is it to say over their offices then to Love God above all and desire after Communion with him in the spirit and to delight in him and to pray in Faith and heavenly fervour 12. Protestants tell men of Hell-fire as the remediless punishment of those sins which Papists say deserve but a Purgatory and they have hopes of coming out of Purgatory but there 's none of coming out of Hell 13. Protestants tell them of no hope of ease or pardon of sin after this life if it be not pardoned here But Papists tell

Religion as if they were so many Articles of our Faith or at least were the common doctrines of our Churches They will not give us leave to do so by them when yet we have much more reason for it For 1. They teach the People that they are bound to believe as their Teachers bid them and they reproach us for confessing that we are not in all points of Doctrine infallible And yet we still confess this fallibility and say in plain terms that we know but in part 2. Divers of their particular Doctors that we use to cite are such as the Pope hath Canonized for Saints and they tell us that in Canonizing he is infallible And therefore an Infallibly Canonized Saint must not be supposed to err in a point of faith 3. They boast so much of Unity and Concent among themselves that we may the better cite particular Doctors And yet we think our selves bound to stand to their own Law in this and to charge nothing on them as the faith of their Church but what their Church doth own and therefore while they refuse to stand to particular Doctors we will not urge them to it for its good reason that all men should be the Professors of their own belief But what reason is there then that we may not have the same measure from them which they expect We profess to take no man nor Council of men for the Lords of our faith but for the Helpers of our faith They tell us that they know not where to find our Religion We tell them it is entirely in the written word of God and that we know no other Infallible Rule because we know no other Divine Revelation supposing what in Nature is revealed They tell us that All Hereticks do pretend to Scripture and therefore this cannot be the Test of our Religion I answer that so all cavillers and defrauders and extortioners may pretend to the Law of the Land to undo poor men by quirks of wit or tire them with vexatious suits And yet it follows not that we must seek another Rule of Right and take the Law for insufficient And what if Hereticks pretend to Tradition to General Councils and the Decretals of the Popes as you know how frequently they do Will you yield therefore that these are an infufficient Rule or Test of your own Religion Open your eyes and judge as you would be judged But I will come to some of the particular Opinions which they charge us with And because I know not a more weighty renowned Champion of their cause then Cardinal Richleiu then Bishop of Lucion I shall take notice of his twelve great errors which he so vehemently chargeth on the Reformed Churches as contrary to the Scripture And sure I shall do much to make clean our Churches if I fully wipe off all the pretended blots of errour that so wise a man could charge upon them In his Defens contra script 4. Ministr Charenton cap. 2. pag. 12. c. he begins his enumeration thus 1. The Scripture saith Jam. 2. that a man is not Justified by Faith only but you say that he is Justified by Faith alone and by Faith only which is found in no place of Scripture and do you not then resist the Scriptures Answ 1. We believe both the words of Paul and James that a man is Justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law and saved through Faith not of works lest any man should boast Rom. 3. 28. Ephes 2. 8 9. and also that a man is Justified by works and not by Faith only Jam. 2 Did not this Learned man know that we believe all the Bible why then should he charge us with denying that which we retain and publickly read in our Churches as the word of God Did he think that we set so much by Luthers or any mans writings as by the Bible 2. But if he can prove that we understand not these words aright he should have evinced it better then by the use of the words Faith alone For our Churches by Faith alone do profess openly to mean no more then Paul doth by Faith without works And can they find fault with Paul 3. Indeed we are not all agreed upon the fittest Notion of the interest of Faith and works in our Justification but our difference is more in words and notions then matter of which see my Disput of Justification 4. And. why do you not quarrel with your own Cardinal Contarenus de Justif and others of your own that joyn with us in the doctrine of Justification His second Accusation is The Scripture saith that we can Love God with all the heart you say that no man can Love God with all the heart which is no where read in Scripture and yet do you not resist the Scriptures Answ 1. Unprofitable Confusion we distinguish between Loving God with all the Heart as it signifieth the sincerity and predominant degree of Love and so every true Christian hath it and as it signifieth some extraordinary degree above this meer sincerity and so some eminent stronger Christians have it and as it signifieth the highest Degree which is our duty and which excludeth all sinful imperfection And thus we say that no man actually doth Love God perfectly in this life nor do we think he speaks like a Christian that dare say Lord I Love thee so much that I will not be beholden to thee to forgive the imperfection of my Love or to help me against any sinful imperfection of it Your own Followers whom you admire as the highest Lovers of God do oft lament the imperfections of their Love as M. de Renty for instance in his Life But now if the question be only of the posse and not the act we say that the Potentia naturalis is in all and the Potentia Moralis which is the Habit is in the sanctified but this Moral Power is not perfect it self that is of the highest degree and without any sinful imperfection though yet it hath the perfection of sincerity and in some the perfection of an eminent degree And will not this content you His third Accusation is The Scripture saith that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ with the adjunction of those words that signifie a true Body and Blood you say that it is not Christs Body and Blood but only a figure sign and testimony which the Scripture no where saith Answ 1. The Scripture saith not that it is his Body and Blood substantially or by Transubstantiation And we say not as you feign that it is not his Body and Blood but a figure c. For we say that it is his Body and Blood Sacramentally and Representatively as he that personateth a King on some just account is called a King and as in actions of Investiture and Delivery the delivering of a Key is the delivering of the House and the delivery of a twig and turf is the delivery of the Land and the deliverer