THE Romish Priest TURN'D PROTESTANT With the REASONS OF HIS CONVERSION WHEREIN The True Church is Exposed to the View of Christians and Derived out of the Holy Scriptures Sound Reason and the Ancient Fathers Humbly presented to both Houses of Parliament By JAMES SALGADO a Spaniard formerly a Priest of the Order of the Dominicans LONDON Printed for Tho. Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market 1679. To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal with the Honourable the Commons of England in Parliament Assembled Sirs I Hope you will pardon my boldness because I presume to appear before your faces It is requisite I should give an account of my hope in Christ unto you who are next to the most Illustrious King Charles the II. Defender of the Faith the surest Maintainers of the Protestant Religion And unto whom else should I dedicate a Treatise of the True Church if not to the Parliament where as well the Commonwealth is to be found in the Church as the Church in the Commonwealth Namely There is a new resemblance in your Houses of the old face of Israel which maketh me the bolder as the countenance of Law-givers like that of Moses doth in its lustre go far beyond the rest Nature and Religion have made you of that constitution that you do not only shine for your selves but also spread out your beams for the benefit of others Sirs Be pleas'd to accept of this small token of my due submission and to look upon him with an eye of benevolence who desiring to depend upon your Sanhedrim will always remain Sirs Your most Obedient Servant James Salgado a Spaniard a Converted Priest THE PREFACE TO THE READER THere are so many of this kind of Books put out that one should think This to be superfluous But I was constrain'd to conform my self to the present Age not only for that I might wipe off the Calumnies of the Papists who commonly say That the Roman Priests desert the Roman Church for no other reason than this That they may have liberty to do what they please whereas God knoweth they amongst themselves have a freedom so unbridled that there is almost nothing found there but a great disorder and license and to satisfie the Protestants in the reason of my Conversion and shew to both the parties why I am turn'd a Protestant I composed this Book first in Latin but that my Conversion should be manifest to all yea even to the meanest I caused it to be Translated into English Kind Reader apply these newly-shuffled Cards as I may use the phrase of a Right Reverend Bishop of this Realm for thy own profit May be you will find that in it you never heard before So farewel From one that is desirous of thy Salvation JAMES SALGADO Chr. Ch. Oxon Dec. 26 78. Reverend Sir I Am to give you thanks for the occasion you gave me of acquaintance with the bearer hereof Mr. James Salgado whom I find by his discourse to be a right Spaniard born of a good Family and of very good parts and to have suffered very much by the Inquisition of Spain for embracing the Truth of our Protestant Religion This consideration and the great bounty and charity I saw used by his Countreymen towards ours when found in distress among them makes me think him an object singularly well deserving our common charity and benevolence especially considering how very rare a case it is to see a Clergy-man of his Nation come to us They have been civil to him in this Vniversity and I hope good men will be so to him with you To such as may desire to learn the Spanish or Italian Tongue he may be serviceable having good skill in both but in the former he is eminent as born and bred in Madrid I will presume to beg the continuance of your goodness to him affording him your instruction and commendation to good men there for some employment he may be capable of by which you shall oblige much Reverend Sir Your very affectionate humble Servant Andr. Sall. Courteous Reader I Do believe that the Author of this Book James Salgado was a Romish Priest according to the Order of the Dominicans and that he is now become a true Convert to the Protestant Religion as the ensuing Discourse will further evidence to the intelligent Reader Nic. Lloyd Rector of St. Mary Newington 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE True Church THE ancient Fathers commonly called the Church an Ark of Noah without whose bosom none could be freed from the peril of everlasting damnation as well as none that was out of the Ark could escape the danger of the flood And indeed they did not say it without reason because they knew that to them that were strangers from the Church her priviledges did not belong as Vocation Justification Sanctification the want of which disinables a man from coming to the perfection of the future world and to the enjoyment of it And as those members that are not joyn'd to a human body are destitute of sense and life so they that are rooted out from the Head of the Church which is Christ or have never been inserted into the Olive-tree can expect no spiritual influence which is able to make us the heirs of eternal salvation This was the reason for which David affirmeth That the Heathens did not know the statutes of the Lord namely because they have been without the communion of Israel where the Church was in the Old Testament Because the Lord shewed his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel and he hath not dealt so with any Nation Psal 147.19 20. therefore they have not known his judgments The Apostle doth ascend higher on this matter when he writing to the Ephesians saith At that time you were without Christ Ephes 2.12 you were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world Namely because they were not in the bosome of the Church and were without that Ark of Noah we spoke of they were also without the Communion of Christ who is a loyal Husband only to one Spouse as it is said in the Canticles My Dove my undefiled is but one Cant. 6.9 But when the Fathers did use this similitude they meant by it the Universal Church whose beginning Austin deriveth from Abel and deduceth the continuation of it until the consummation of the world Therefore no Church which is extant here or there or in any place of the world can go in that signification under a name of an Universal Church but that which was is and shall be and comprehends in its ambit as well the Triumphant as the Militant part And if that be Catholick Vinc. Lirin contra noph novitates according to the Rule of Vincentius Lirinensis in his Book against the prophane novelties Which has been believed always every-where and
by all surely the Catholick Church it self must be this which was everywhere always and was or will be found amongst all Nations of the World by reason the thing ruled cannot be narrower than the Rule nor Faith cannot be found but in Believers I cannot but confess that there are many particular Congregations many Provincial or National Churches amongst which one may be and is sounder than the other yet notwithstanding this none of these Churches can be call'd Catholick if we take this word in a strict signification Being they are only parts or members making up one general body none of which can be call'd without a contradiction Universal except one would grant unto a hand or a foot the name of a whole body From hence we may see that the Roman Church being it is a particular one albeit it should be sound and Orthodox as it is not cannot appropriate unto it self exclusively to other Churches professing Christ the name of a Catholick or Universal Church I confess I am not so rigid as to cut off the Roman Church it self from the latitude of the Universal Church because besides that people living in that same Communion yet not formally Papists which in the simplicity of their hearts do profess God and our Saviour and believe in him and in order to that do work out their salvation as well as they can although many of them neither understand the matter nor the circumstances of it by reason of their unavoidable or invincible ignorance can arrive to eternal salvation being it is truth That God is no respecter of persons Act. 10.34 35. But in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him We do likewise yield that the Roman Church may be called a Church although not in the moral yet in the physical sense just as an Adultress doth not lose the name of a Wife albeit she loseth the name of an honest Wife But now because the Court of Rome will have their Church to consist either in the Pope or in the Council or else in them both therefore we will speak of it as it is considered in that kind and consequently shew and declare the same to be false and erroneous It is true that the Church taken in that kind cannot be but as they say in Schools a representative one nevertheless because the rest of that communion are bound to obey it as an infallible one therefore we take the denomination a potiori and so affirm the same to be false and non-Catholick yea none at all It was not enough for the Papists to pronounce all those Churches that hold no communion with them Hereticks and so to shut up the Gates of Heaven before them but they were and are so bold as to affirm their Church to be infallible and without error It is indeed a great postulatum which is not only false in it self but also a great cause why the rest of the Churches will not nor can hold communion with them And that I may pass it by that no particular Church as the Roman is can be call'd infallible likewise it is as sure that they according to the way of the Athenians do not know whom they worship and so erect an Altar To the unknown God. Act. 17.23 In vain do any dispute about the propriety or priviledg of a thing when they can have no certain knowledg about the subject it self In vain do they affirm their Church to be Infallible when they cannot tell where and which this Church may be because in this matter we may see Pares aquilas pila minantia pilis one contradicting another Some of them as namely the Sorbonists do place it in the Council others as Jesuits only in the Pope some again say that it doth consist in them both jointly that is in the Pope and Council Chuse any side you please and take hold either of one or of the other sentiment you will find your self to stagger and being set in the midst of doubtfulness with Masius of Sylvaducis you shall not know where to turn you May be you will perceive from whence you have declined but not whither you should go because after you have made choice of either of their meanings you will find your self intangled with many difficulties out of which you shall not be able to free your self and so you will find your self to offer a sacrifice unto an unknown god This I will endeavour to shew briefly Suppose now you should yield that the Church doth consist in the Council only there you shall find presently some of that same Communion contradicting that But having past over this I may ask such a man Who can know this Council to be infallible Because first Ex partibus homogeneis nihil heterogeneum potest constari out of things which are of that same nature nothing can be made of a diverse nature All the members making up the Council were fallible How can it be then that they should become infallible when they are gathered into one Synodical body And if this infallibility came but then to the Council when it came to be a Council I pray Where was it before in what part of the World did it uphold it self By what Tubus opticus or by what insensible transpiration did this good infallibility come down upon the Fathers of the Council or what shall become of that infallibility after the Council is dissolved into what place shall it betake it self to rest None can give an account Then how shall you know that all they that were gathered in the Council have been lawfully baptized or baptized at all because you are not certain of the Ministers or the Priests intention upon which hangeth the efficacy of the Sacraments how that they are canonically ordained and not per saltum how that they have not intruded themselves by Simony all which thou must believe with a Divine Faith before thou canst embrace the decrees of the Council for infallible ones Moreover if the infallibility of the Church do consist in the Council then of necessity there should be always extant a general Council so that the diffident parts might have a free entrance in order to make a disquisition of their quarrel and likewise a determination and so live in peace But where is there such a one And suppose there should be always a Council in esse which nevertheless is impossible yet how should you know this Council not to be partial and not such a one as the Council of Ariminum neither subject to correction by reason many former Councils have been mended by the later as Austin tells us May be you will make this exception Christ promiseth unto his Disciples Joh. 16.13 and so consequently unto his Church That the spirit of truth shall guide them into all truth and that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Mat. 16.18 Well said Christ did promise the holy Spirit unto his Disciples but
stedfastly concluded with my self as soon as God would grant me an opportunity to associate my self in the Protestant Church and reject the Roman Idolatry Which I accordingly have done and having renounced the Popish Religion have adjoyned my self unto the body of our Saviour Christ Jesus that is unto the true Protestant Church Whose truth I am going to shew now as shortly as I can and that by this argument That Church which doth vindicate the authority of the Scriptures defends the proprieties of them and teacheth according to the Scriptures is a true Church but the Protestant Church doth so The Major is firm and without contradiction The Minor is to be proved which I am endeavouring to do Neither will I be so Scripturary as that I should reject the old Fathers and the Primitive Councils I will alledg them likewise as bearing witness unto truth which cannot be overthrown As to the first The Protestant Church doth vindicate the authority of Scriptures when she denieth the same to depend from the authority of the Church not so much as to us Robert Bellarmin seeing that these who affirmed without any limitation Bell. de V. D. l. 1. c. 46. the Divinity of Scriptures doth depend from the authority of the Church did not speak soberly enough he endeavoured to mollify the Proposition with this distinction viz. that the Scriptures must be considered either in themselves or in respect unto us As they are considered in the first manner they do not depend from the authority of the Church but as they are in the second But as the distinction is vain because every authority is Relative and is not so much to be considered in it self as in respect of the object so likewise the supposition is false viz. That the authority of Scriptures in respect or in relation unto us doth depend from the Church But before I come to the demolishing of this assertion we will consider the reason why Papists say and believe so And indeed I can find no other besides this that they seeing themselves unable for resisting the Arguments of the Protestants which are drawn out of the Scriptures endeavouring to pervert the sense of them asserting that the same dependeth from the interpretation of the Church and so consequently are constrained to affirm that also the authority of Scriptures dependeth from the Church of which Scriptures nor of the right meaning of them nothing can be certain without the Tradition of the Church And by this same they very handsomely tread in the footsteps of the old Hereticks of whom one thus speaks The Hereticks when they come to be argued by the Scriptures they presently fall to the accusing of them as if they could not be from or of a sufficient authority or not so to be understood and of which no certainty can be had without Tradition Here is the true Protraicture of our modern Papists But to the thing it self We deny the authority of Scriptures to depend any way from the authority of the Church but only from the holy Spirit speaking within the Scriptures 2 Pet. 1.21 2 Tim. 3.16 17. by reason he is the author of them and so he doth endue them with an irrefragable authority And as Christ desires no testimony from any besides from the Father so likewise his word which he hath been pleased to leave upon earth instead of his person And as it is very unreasonable that the Kings Proclamation should depend from a Crier or a Rule from a thing that is ruled or that the Sun should borrow its brightness from that Orb or Vortex which it is contained in so it is very disagreeable to affirm that the Scriptures should depend from the authority of the Church The Church is a Candlestick the Word of God is a Candle as our Saviour declareth Luke 8.16 Now as a Candlestick doth contribute nothing at all to the light of the Candle so neither doth the Church to the authority of Scriptures We do not reject the Ministerial Testimony of the Church in that case by reason the Church leads us unto the Gospel as the Samaritan Woman did lead her fellow-citizens to Christ as Austin saith yet for all that none of them can be call'd the cause of our faith but an instrument Yet the Papists do object against us viz. 1 Tim. 3.15 That the Church is call'd the pillar and ground of the truth and from thence they bring in this conclusion that she is the only cause from whom the authority of the Scriptures doth depend But very foolishly because first that I may pass by the Observation of Camero who affirmeth these words to belong unto the 16 verse by reason there is to be found in that verse a Copulative Particle which otherwise should be to no purpose c. the Apostle doth speak of the Church considered as a house and then sheweth which is the chiefest pillar or ground of the same and indeed if we speak reasonably a house cannot be a pillar but a pillar is in a house It is secondly to be observed that by this pillar is not to be understood an Architectonical but a Political one not one that should uphold by its strength the authority of Scriptures but one upon which the Proclamations and Constitutions of the Supreme King are affixed Neither is the exception of Bellarmin against this distinction of any value viz. That by this way the Church may be as well call'd a Library as a Pillar by reason we do affirm that the office of the Church is not only to keep the books as it is of a Library but to expose the Contents of the same to the view of people and to under-teach them in the way of their Superiors will which belongs to a pillar The Church then can be an external Motive unto us that the Scriptures are of divine authority but cannot perswade us unto it by reason it is only the propriety and the business of the holy Ghost whom the Lord joyneth with his word Ps 59.21 when he saith My spirit which is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth c. Austin speaketh very handsomely to that purpose Lib. de Confess speaking of the authority of Scripture But how shall I be perswaded to believe this Moses indeed did say so it is true he said but he is gone and although he should be present and talk Hebrew to me I should not understand what he meant but if he should speak Latin I should understand But by what means should I know that he speaketh truth Therefore inwardly inwardly I say in the Cabinet of my heart not the Greek nor the Hebrew nor the Latin neither the Barbarian truth but he that without the sound of lips or the noise of syllables should tell me he speaketh truth and I should say to this this man You speak truth You may see Christian and impartial Reader how Austin did