her Who I wonder shall now be thought fit to decide this Dispute She will be tried and judg'd by no other but her self for She is resolv'd to be Sole and Infallible Iudg in all Controversies of Religion That is in plain terms She will accuse us and she will leave us no room for our own Defence She will condemn us and she will not permit us to question the Iustice of her Sentence She tells us we are bound to believe her and obey her or else we must die eternally for it We desire some reason may be brought to convince us of this Duty and she tells us again she is our Supreme and Infallible Mistress and Mother and Iudg and so the Conclusion is We must believe she hath this Supreme Authority and Infallibility because she is Supreme and Infallible which we can yet see no reason to believe and therefore cannot believe and because we cannot believe it we are declared to be Hereticks and in a State of Damnation Seeing then that the Church of Rome will by no means recede from her Claim to this Supremacy and Infallibility it seems plain to me that there is no possibility of satisfying her any way whatsoever but by yielding my self up intirely to her without any farther dispute But because I cannot do this without violence to my Conscience and incurring that very Damnation which she would persuade me thereby to prevent I must of necessity leave her a while to satisfy her self about the Truth and Charity of this Doctrine as she can whilst I for my own private Satisfaction take into a very serious Consideration these two things I. Whether I can discern any solid ground to hope that I may be saved as I am now a Protestant of the Church of England II. What more hopeful way to Salvation the Church of Rome can me put into should I enter into her Communion If the result of this double Enquiry shall be that I really think my self in a fair way to Salvation where I am already and cannot discern any more hopeful way to it in the Church of Rome I must needs accout my self bound in Conscience and under the Penalty of Damnation to steer my course according to the best Light I shall be able by such a diligent and impartial Inquiry to attain unto and content my self with that Religion which seems best and safest to me till some better and safer can be found SECT I. The first thing I am to inquire into is What good ground of hope I can discern that I may be saved as I am a Protestant And here the first thing I am to consider is what I mean by the Name of Protestant as it is own'd by the Members of the Church of England and as I can heartily answer to it By a Protestant I understand no other but a Christian adhering firmly both in Faith and Practice to the written Word of God and protesting against both the Faith and Practice of the Papists and all others whatsoever so far only as they are either repugnant to the Holy Scripture in any thing or ungrounded on the same in things pretended by them necessary to Salvation Such Protestants do we of the Church of England profess our selves to be as is apparent unto all from the 6 th of our XXXIX Articles affirming That the Scriptures contain all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation This is our very first Principle as we are called Protestants and such an one I do heartily profess my self neither see I yet the least cause to doubt of my Salvation whilst by the Grace of God I live answerably to this Profession For that the Protestant Religion built upon this Principle is a safe Religion is I think altogether as plain as that Christianity it self pure and unmix'd is the Way to Salvation because 't is plain that this Religion we profess holding to this Principle can be nothing else but pure and unmix'd Christianity being that and no other which is contained in the Holy Scripture Is then the holy Scripture the Word of God or not Was it given unto us of God to be the Rule of our Religion that is of our Faith Worship and holy Conversation or was it not If Bellarmine may be credited this is the Declaration of the Catholick Church both in the third Council of Carthage and also in that of Trent The Books of the Prophets and Apostles are the true Word of God and the sure and stable Rule of Life And as he shortly after adds The most sure and safest Rule Now whether it be the compleat perfect and adequate Rule as we constantly affirm or only a partial Rule or but some part of it as the Papists contend it self when diligently consulted will be best able to inform us For it is on all hands granted to be the Word of God which cannot lie and therefore unquestionably true in all things what soever it teacheth us and of those many excellent things which it very plainly teacheth its one Perfection and Sufficiency is one and for my present Satisfaction very considerable I find in the first place that God himself writ the Ten Commandments the compleat Rule of Piety and Iustice with his own Finger Exod. 31. 1 18. Deut. 9. 10. 10. 2 4. That he commanded them to be written on the Posts and Gates Deut. 6. 9. 11. 20. That Moses wrote all the Words of the Lord Exod. 24. 4. and deliver'd the Writing to the Priests to be read unto the People Deut. 31. 9. And that the King was to have by him a Copy of it for his Direction Deut. 17. 18. I find many Curses denounced against the Breakers of it Deut. 28. 58. and Blessings promised to them that keep it Deut. 30. 10. I find it was expresly forbidden to add unto it or to aiminish from it Deut. 4. 2 12 32. To turn from it to the right-hand or to the left Josh. 1. 7. And that the good Kings were careful to order all things according to it and to reform what had been amiss by it 1 Chron. 16. 40. 2 Kings 22. 13. And therefore I do not wonder to hear the Psalmist saying The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul Psal. 19. 7. nor to find Isaiah sending Men to the Law and to the Testimony saying If any speak not according to this Word it is because there is no Light in them Isa. 8. 20. Again I find our Blessed Saviour himself and his Apostles after him very frequently appealing and referring their Hearers to that which had been written in the Books of Moses in the Psalms and in the Prophets They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them saith Abraham in the Parable Luk. 16. 29. Search the Scriptures saith Christ
Joh. 5. 39. for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life and they are they which testify of me I find that St. Luke writing his Gospel gives his Theophilus this good reason for it That thou mightst know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed Luk. 1. 4. The things which are most surely believed among us v. 1. all things of which himself had perfect understanding from the very first v. 3. I find St. Iohn who wrote last of all the Apostles affirming that tho Iesus did many other Signs which are not written in that Book of his yet these are written that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing we might have Life through his Name Joh. 20. 30 31. And finally I find St. Paul asserting the Perfection of the Holy Scripture as fully and plainly as any Man can speak 2 Tim. 3. 15 16 17. saying That the Holy Scripture is able to make a Man wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Iesus That all Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good Works Now what more can we desire than to be made wise unto Salvation And we are here plainly told that the holy Scripture is able to make us so What more can be needful to direct us in the Way to Salvation than what we may learn from the Scriptare It is profitable for our Information and Establishment in the Truth for the Confutation of Error and Heresy for the Correction of Vice and Wickedness for our Instruction in Righteousness It is so profitable for all these purposes that thereby the Man of God the Pastor and Teacher may be made compleat and well furnish'd for all the branches of his Office all the works of his holy Calling In short it is able to bring us to Faith in Christ Iesus And whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting Life Joh. 3. 16. Furthermore from the same Scripture I also learn that Unwritten or Oral Tradition hath ever been found too deceitful a thing to be relied on for so great a matter as Salvation I find that before the Flood notwithstanding the long Lives of Men the few Principles of Natural Religion and the easiness of learning and remembring things so agreeable to humane Nature yet all Flesh had soon corrupted his Way upon the Earth Gen. 6. 12. and every Imagination of the Thoughts of Man's Heart was only evil continually v. 5. And after the Flood the whole World was quickly over-run with Idolatry So ill was the Doctrine which had been preach'd by Noah and his Sons preserved by Oral Tradition Nay I find that after God was pleas'd to give the Iews his Will in Writing their Teachers had so corrupted the Doctrine of God with their Traditions that it was a great part of our blessed Saviour's business to rescue it from those Traditional Corruptions He reproves the Scribes and Pharisees for transgressing the Commandments of God by their Traditions Mat. 15. 3. shewing them how they had made it of none effect by the same v. 6. And that in vain they worshipp'd God teachiag for Doctrines the Commandments of Men v. 9. And St. Paul warns the Colossians to beware of being deceived through Philosophy and vain Deceit after the Tradition of Men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ Col. 2. 6. And the special occasion of writing most of the Epistles yea and the Gospels too seems to be the Danger that Christians were in of being seduced by false Teachers from the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles under the pretence of Tradition Such were the Wolves in Sheeps cloathing Mat. 7. 15 False Apostles deceitful Workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ 2 Cor. 11. 13. Pretending to another Gospel Gal. 3. 6. Men of Sleight and cunning Craftiness lying in wait to deceive Eph. 4. 14. From what I find in the Scripture I must needs conclude till I be better inform'd that it is a sufficient Rule for us to go by and that so long as we hold us to it alone in our Faith and Practice there can be no necessity of resorting to the Church of Rome for that unto which our Bibles at home can direct us The Scripture is the Word of God and sure Rule of Faith saith the Infallible Church of Rome if Bellarmine may be believ'd This holy Scripture is able to make us wise unto Salvation saith the this Infallible Scripture and we take no other but this Holy and Infallible Scripture for the Rule of our Faith and Religious Practice say we Protestants What now should hinder me to infer from hence that if the Scripture be the Word of God we Protestants are very well as we are for we have the Word of the Infallible God and if it may stand us in any stead the Word of the Infallible Church as she will needs be accounted to assure us that adhering to the holy Scripture we are in the ready and sure way to Salvation Farther yet as I am a Protestant of the Church of England I do declare in the words of our VIIIth Article That the three Creeds Nice Creed Athanasius Creed and that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed ought throughly to be received and believ'd for they may be proved by most certain Warrants of Holy Scripture Seeing then we receive and throughly believe the same Creeds and no other which the Church of Rome her self professeth to believe and which were thought by the Catholick Church of Christ for above 400 Years after the first planting of Christianity to contain all Points of Faith necessary for the Salvation of Christians I think I have hence gather'd this farther Confirmation of my Assurance that we Protestants are in the direct Way to Salvation that we are of the very same Religion and no other in all the necessary Points of Christian Faith whereof the Catholick Church evidently was in the first and purest Ages of it In the four first General Councils no other Articles of Faith were held needful to be believed by Christians but those of these Creeds which we entirely own and believe Either then it is true That these three Creeds contain all necessary Points of Christian Faith or it is not If it be true we are safe enough and can with no colour of Reason be said to err in Faith or to deserve the Name of Hereticks If it be not true then were all those Primitive Christians as much Hereticks as we are and knew no more than we do what belong'd to the Salvation of Christians And strangely partial is the Church of Rome in approving the Faith of those Councils which one of their most famous Popes and Saints is said to have reverenced as the four Gospels and yet to condemn ours tho in all
as they that affirmed the Resurrection to be past already or denied that Jesus is the Christ c. are in a State of Condemnation Other Texts of Scripture he brings wherein Christians are charged to be unanimous and condemned for causing Strife and Divisions warn'd to maintain Unity and not to hearken to false Teachers and Seducers c. But I find not by all this that St. Paul or any of the Apostles taught the Church of Rome which both forbids to marry and commands to abstain from Meats allow'd of God which teacheth divers Doctrines whereof we find not any thing in the Scripture to condemn those for Hereticks that adhere wholly to the Doctrine of the Scripture or for Schismaticks who hold Communion with all Christians so far as they keep to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and divide from the Church of Rome no farther than in those Points only wherein they cannot hold her Communion and the Doctrine of Christ too I do not see but after the same rate as he here defends the Charity of his Church he might also defend her Iustice if She should pretend that because Christ commanded his Disciples to fetch him another Man's Ass and her Colt She did but what he taught in taking away other Mens Goods and giving no other reason for it but this that she hath need of them What the Papists say more to shew that we can have no Saving Faith is one of these two things Either first That it is not an entire Faith there being as they say many necessary Articles which we believe not Or Secondly That it is no right-grounded Faith seeing it is not built upon sufficient Authority that is to say on the Authority of the Catholick Church Their first Objection to the Protestant Faith is this That it is no entire Faith. And here I am told by the Representer There is no more hopes for one that denies obstinately any one Point of Catholick Faith tho he believes all the rest than there is for one that keeps Nine of the Commandments with the Breach of the Tenth Now this seems to me no great Encouragement to change the Communion of the Church of England for that of Rome if an entire Faith and an entire Obedience be but equally necessary I wish with all my Heart I could be as sure that the Church of Rome doth not break the first Commandment by her Invocation of Saints and Adoration of the Host and the second Commandment in her Adoration of Images and the Cross as I am sure that the Church of England neither obstinately denies any Article of the Catholick Faith nor countenanceth the Breach of any one of the ten Commandments as that Church seems too much to do whilst she takes no little Care that the People may not know them all We stedfastly believe the whole Scripture so far as we are able to understand it explicitly and when we do not implicitly we receive the three Creeds which have ever been thought to contain the entire Faith of a Christian wherein then is our Faith partial or defective I must consider that anon at present seeing Obstinacy according to our Adversaries is a necessary ingredient of an Heretick I can easily assure my self tho I do not see how 't is possible for me to satisfy them that I am no Heretick for I certainly know that I am very desirous to be throughly inform'd and to be brought to a right understanding of all necessary Truths and am still in a readiness and full preparation of Mind to believe any one or all of their Articles whensoever they shall please to prove the Truth of them either by Scripture or by unquestionable Apostolical Tradition I am sure therefore I deny not obstinately any one Point of Catholick Faith. But till they vouchsafe me the proof I desire I must content my self with the Scripture which is able to make wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Iesus and not in the Pope of Rome nor in the Roman Church And yet I find that it is for this especially that we are call'd Hereticks that we adhere only to the Scripture and that they often explain their meaning in bestowing that Title on us by calling us Scripturists and Gospellers and ridicule us for talking of only Scripture But when I consider that this is the Fundamental Heresy wherewith we are charged I cannot but a little wonder at it and find less cause than ever to think we can be Hereticks indeed or that they can call us so any otherwise than in jest Can they grant the Scripture to be the Word of God and the Gospel to be the Power of God unto Salvation and yet in earnest call us Hereticks for being Scripturists and Gospellers If submitting our Faith in all things to the Scripture we can be Hereticks then must the Scripture teach Heresy and cannot be the Word of God. What a Contradiction is this in Papists to call us Scripturists and Hereticks which is in effect to say That we adhere only to the Infallible Truth of God and yet are guilty of obstinate Error in the Faith What is it then wherein our Faith is defective It is in this that we do not believe all that the Church of Rome propounds to be believed This indeed would make us Papists but whether it would make us better Christians than we are already is not so certain A Papist saith the Representer is one that lives and believes what is prescribed in the Council of Trent But this Rule of the Papists Faith came into the World as we think too late almost by fifteen hundred Years to be the Rule of the Christian Faith and therefore he could not have represented his Religion to us with greater disadvantage than here he doth We cannot conceive how so small a handful of Prelats most of them Italians sworn Vassals to the Bishop of Rome assembled together at Trent fifteen hundred Years after Christ's preaching and wholly limited and directed in all their proceedings by the Will and Command of Him whose Authority was the principal thing in question and submitting all at last to Him alone should come by that immense Authority to command the Faith of the Christian World or what Commission they could shew from Christ the Supream Lawgiver to prescribe Laws of Faith and Life to all Christendom And we can as little conceive how this pretended Council could at once confirm all the General Councils and among the rest that of Ephesus before mention'd yea and declare the Nicene Creed to be the firm and only Foundation and yet contrary to the Decree of that Ephesine Council and not very consistently to it 's own Declaration decree so many more Points than that Creed contains as necessary to be believed Moreover if this be the great Oracle we must consult as our surest Guide to Heaven where must we meet with him that can give us the certain Sense of its General and Ambiguous
believe but this one Point for when once this great Gobbet is swallow'd down the Passage will be so well open'd that all other Points of Faith either go down with it or will slip after it without the least straining or grutching The Authority of God himself speaking in Scripture will be of no farther consideration to us for that we must suppose to be included in the Authority of our Mother the Church And whatsoever we shall thence-forward perceive to be the Will of our Mother we must without all scruple conclude it to be also the Will of our Father The Representer hath lately told us that tho the Scripture which is the Word of our Heavenly Father may be the Law yet the Mother the Roman Church is the Iudg. Having learn'd from her the sense of the Scripture we are obliged to submit to this and never presume on our own private Sentiments however seemingly grounded on Reason and Scripture to believe or preach any new Doctrine opposite to the Belief of the Church And there 's reason for this if it be true which he elsewhere tells us That a Man may very easily frame as many Creeds as he pleases and make Christ and his Apostles speak what shall be most agreeable to his humour and suit best with his Interest and find plain proofs for all he means in Scripture the truth whereof as of all other Points of Doctrine stands as he saith upon the same Foundation of the Churches Tradition which if it fail in one leaves no security in any This is indeed to advance the Church to the very top-branch of all Authority and to make the holy Scripture as very a Nose of Wax and as Leaden a Rule as any of that Church ever thought it seeing a Man may form and work it into Creeds of all fashions and find plain proofs in it for any odd Humour or carnal and Worldly Interest This then as far as I can learn by him is the only way for me to be a thorow Papist and a good Catholick I must lay aside my Reason and the Scripture and heed no more what either of these tell me only I must have my Ear open to the Voice of the Church and be wholly at her teaching and command and I shall be safe enough Upon the most serious consideration of the Character which the Papist is pleas'd to give us of himself I cannot find what it is for which they of that Church are so severely bent against us Protestants save only that we will not like tame Animals without any understanding of our own learn to come and go at a whistle or trot on the Road as we are driven and stoop to take on our Backs whatever Load it shall please the Roman Church to lay upon us confessing her to have absolute and uncontroulable Authority over our Faith. The standing out against the Catholick Church makes Men Hereticks and without erring against this no Man is guilty of Heresy said the Iesuit Fisher in his Answer to certain Questions propounded to him by King Iames I. This then is the only Heresy to disown the Authority of the Roman for that he calls the Catholick Church Again saith he One fundamental Error of the Protestants is their denying the Primacy of St. Peter and his Successors the Foundation which Christ laid of his Church necessary for the perpetual Government thereof And again He that forsakes the Church puts himself into a dead and damnable State and may have all things besides Salvation and Eternal Life Bellarmine speaks out and tells us very plainly No Man can tho he would be subject to Christ and communicate with the Celestial Church that is not subject to the Pope If then we believe this Authority of the Roman Church we believe all and if we believe not this we believe nothing at all in the Papists account or to any better purpose than to our own Damnation So that without this Belief our Faith shall never pass for an entire Faith and when we once believe this it shall never be any more question'd whether it be entire or no. Now it seems a very hard matter to believe this great Point of Faith till very good Reasons be given us for it and yet it should seem the want of such Reasons will not excuse us from being Hereticks and in a State of Damnation no not tho we be never so ready to believe it when we shall have Reasons given us for it For he is an Heretick we are told who thinks any thing against the Definition of the Church yet stands so affected that he will think the contrary if he be convinced by Arguments or if the matter be propounded to him by a Learned Man. And on the contrary if we do believe this we can hardly be Hereticks whatever Errors we believe or this Belief draws us into For if a Rustick saith Cardinal Tolet believe his Bishop about the Articles of Faith teaching him some Heretical Doctrine he merits by believing altho it be an Error So weighty a Point is this of believing the Authority of the Roman Church and grounding our entire Faith upon it that I perceive I am concern'd above all things to examine it throughly and this I shall have fitter opportunity to do now I am come to the second thing propounded SECT II. Hitherto I have been considering what ground I have to hope for Salvation as I am a Protestant and of the Church of England I am now in the next place to enquire Whether I can find any Reason to believe that the Church of Rome can put me into a more hopeful Way to it should I turn Papist and be of her Communion Now seeing I have already found that the great Reason why we are held uncapable of Salvation as now we are is this That we have no entire Faith and the Defect in our Faith is this That we believe not all the Articles of the Roman Faith and that which makes it necessary for us to believe all those Articles is the Authority of the Catholick that is as they interpret the Roman Church to declare and define what things are necessary to the Salvation of Christians I perceive I have no more to do for my full Satisfaction in the present Inquiry but to consider what Reason I can have for the owning and submitting to this Authority And to discern this I think this Method fittest to be taken I will inquire into three things I. What things are implied in that Submission to this Authority which is required of me II. What the Grounds and Reasons are whereon this Authority is founded and which should perswade me to submit III. Where this Authority may be found and to whom I must submit And this is all I think that I need to do for I can never think fit to submit my Faith and Conscience and to trust my Salvation to an Authority which either requires of me such things as are
Imprimatur Liber cui Titulus The Protestant Resolved c. Marâ— 12. 1687. Guil. Needham RR. in Christo P. ac D. D. Wilhelmo Archiep Cant. a Sacr. Dom. THE Protestant Resolved OR A DISCOURSE Shewing the UNREASONABLENESS Of his Turning Roman Catholick FOR SALVATION The Second Edition LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCLXXXVIII No Necessity for a Protestant to turn Roman Catholick for Salvation WE are all I hope thus far argeed That sincere Christianity is the sure Way to Salvation That to be saved we must have the Hearts and not content our selves with the bare Name and naked Profession of Christians That the Authority of God and Divine Truth and no worldly or carnal Concern must sway and govern our whole Conversation If we be not religious in good earnest resolving and endeavouring to honour God in Heart and Life according to the Holy Gospel of our Blessed Iesus it 's no matter to us what Religion we profess or to what Church we join our selves Wickedness and Hypocrisy through what Church soever our Way lieth lead assuredly to Hell. A wicked Protestant and a wicked Papist will in Hell be of the same Communion True Christianity is none other but that which was taught at first by Christ and his Apostles and all they who believe and live according to their Doctrine shall be saved Herein again we are all I suppose agreed And if so I think it very reasonable we should agree as well in that which I now add It is not material to enquire whether a Man be of the Church of Rome or of the Church of England to find whether or no he may be saved but he that would satisfy himself of the possibility of Salvation in the Way wherein he now is ought to enquire whether he believe and live according to the Doctrine taught by Christ and his Apostles seeing they who do this are good Christians what other Names soever Men may bestow upon them and all that are such shall be saved If therefore I may be able to satisfy my self that I believe and live according to the Doctrine deliver'd by Christ and his Apostles I have no reason to doubt of the Possibility of my Salvation in the Way wherein I now am tho it were so that I had never heard to this day of any such Thing as a Church headed by a Pope or Bishop of Rome And I am yet somewhat confident that a Man may believe and live according to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and never hear of a Bishop of Rome because once Men certainly did so and yet were saved The next thing therefore that I have to do is to enquire by what Means I may certainly know what was the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles for by the same Means whereby this may be known I may also know the certain Way to Salvation If there be no such Means left us we are all Fools in professing a Religion the certain Doctrine whereof can by no means be known If such Means there be there must be some certain Records safely convey'd down from their Time to ours for by what other Means we at this distance of so many hundred years should be certainly inform'd what they taught is by me unconceivable These Records then are to be diligently searched into and impartially examined and whosoever is found to believe and practise according to the Doctrine in those Records contained may be concluded to be in the Way to Salvation Such certain Records we have even the Books of the holy Evangelists and Apostles which together with the Books of the Old Testament we call the Holy Scripture In this we are all again unamimous both Papists and Protestants agree that the Doctrine in these Books contained is the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and Divine Truth Whence it certainly follows that whatsoever Doctrine is contrary to the Doctrine contained in these Books whether it it be taught by Papists or Protestants is to be rejected as none of the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles It ought not therefore to satisfy me that this or that Doctrine is taught by the Church of Rome or by the Church of England for by which of them soever it be taught if it be found contrary to the Doctrine of the holy Scripture it is by the Consent of both Churches to be rejected Now seeing we Protestants take this holy Scripture and it only for the Rule of Faith and Life it is certain that holding to this Rule we do not err either in Belief or Practice while on the other side we cannot be sure thot they do not err in both who receive another Rule till it appear that the other Rule which they receive is as true and certain as ours is acknowledged to be Our part of the Rule and that which indeed we take to be the whole being granted us all the Question is about their part of it Ours is on all hands granted to be most sure and certain their 's alone remains disputable and therefore I cannot yet see any reason why I should think their Way safer than our own except it can be safer to follow an uncertain than a certain Rule which I think no body will be so hardy as to affirm The Rule which they of the Roman Communion advance against ours is that of Tradition I am therefore next to to consider First what they understand by it And Secondly what greater reason I can find to perswade me that it is safer to trust to it whether singly or in Conjunction with our own than to our own alone which is the holy Scripture This Tradition consists of such Doctines of Faith and Practice as are supposed to have been taught either by Christ himself or being dictated by the Holy Ghost to his Apostles were delivered by them to the Church not in Writing but in Word only and so have successively been handed down from Father to Son unto the present Age. And these are all according to the Council of Trent to be received with equal affection of Piety and Reverence as the holy Scripture Now I confess if it may appear as evidently to me that Christ or his Apostles left such Doctrines to the Custody of the Church of equal necessity to the Salvation of Christians with those that are written in the Scpipture as it doth that they left us these which are written in the Scripture and if I may be well assured that these very Doctrines which the Church of Rome now holds and pretends to an Authority of imposing upon all Christendome are indeed the very same which were at first as abovesaid deliver'd to the Church I can see no reason why I should not be bound to believe the one as firmly as the other For seeing it is the Authority of the first Preachers of it and not barely the Writings of it that bind me to believe the Doctrine if I can be
equally assured that as well what is unwritten as what is written was preach'd by them as necessary to the Salvation of Mankind I must needs also own an equal Obligation upon me to believe them all alike But neither of these could I ever see clear'd nor can I conceive any hope that I shall hereafter And seeing the proof of both lies wholly upon them who affirm both I cannot be obliged to believe them till by such proof they have convinced me In the mean time it seems enough to me that God himself was pleas'd to signifie to the World his Will in writing which I cannot imagine why He should do had he not intended we should learn his Will from what is written and not from any unwritten Tradition And I am the more confirm'd in this Opinion by this that he did not use this way of revealing his Mind unto Men at the first nor till after the World had had a very long time to discern by experience the Unfaithfulness of unwritten Tradition So that this and some other Considerations whereupon the Papists use to ground their Arguments against both the Necessity and Perfection of the Scripture seem to me very fully to evince both the one and the other and so to leave no room at all for their unwritten Traditions as any part of the Rule of Faith and Life Yet seeing they who are always preaching this Doctrine to us That there is no Salvation for them that are not of their Communion preach it not as a private Opinion of their own or of some few others in that Communion but as the generally received Doctrine of that Church which pretends to be no less than Infallible it concerns me so much the more to use all possible diligence to find out what Truth there may be in this Assertion And that not only because I shall thereby discern the necessity of changing my Religion to make sure of my own future Happiness but also because the Determination of this one Point will at once put an end as it seems to me to all the Disputes that are now between the Papists and Us. If I can find it true that no Man can be saved out of that Communion I shall be a Fool to trouble my self with the Study of the Scriptures and seeking out for my self in them a Way to Heaven when I may be sure by stepping over the Threshold out of the one Church into the other to meet with an Infallible Iudg whom if I do but follow I cannot go amiss And to dispute any longer with my self whether I should do so or not would but shew me fitter for Bedlam than for any Church seeing none but the maddest Man alive would dispute for Damnation On the other side if I shall find it false that a Man cannot be saved out of that Communion I must needs be convinced that the Roman Church which hath determined it for a certain Truth hath already err'd both in Faith and Charity and that having erred she is not Infallible and being not Infallible by her own Confession cannot be that One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church out of which there is no Salvation So that as this Assertion of that Church shall be found to be true or false even so will the Popish Religion appear also to be But here I meet with a very great Difficulty in my way as I am going to seek out the Truth or Falshood of this Assertion that however I may be able to satisfy my self yet I shall never for ought I can see be able to satisfy them who are the Authors of it any other way than by a total Submission of my own Iudgment and Conscience too to their Determination and a blind Obedience to their Will. The Dispute as is evident is between two Churches the one whereof challengeth to it self the big-swoln Prerogative of being the Lady and Mother of all Churches a Sovereign Authority of prescribing to the Faith of all Christians the Right and incommunicable Priviledg of being the Sole and Infallible Iudg of all Controversies in Religion finally an unquestionable Power of defining and declaring to all the World the true and only Terms of Salvation Now that this Roman-Mother and Mistress-Church sole Commandress and Infallible Iudg having already in the fulness of Power determin'd it and by her Supreme Authority imposed an Oath upon her Subjects to maintain it That none out of her Communion can be saved should after all this in pure Condescension to Men declared Hereticks divest her self of her Authority lay aside her Infallible Definitions come down from the Tribunal and the Throne of Iudicature and Majesty and stand at the Bar submitting her self and the whole Cause to an indifferent and equal Trial is a thing as little to be hoped for as it is yet unagreed upon by what Law Iury or Iudg the Controversy should be decided And truly on the other side it seems to me altogether as unreasonable in her to accept That we Protestants of the Church of England tho we pretend to nothing of this Exorbitant Power over Her or other Churches or of determining Disputes for all the World should yet upon a naked Summons from Her whose Authority we question and see no reason to acknowledg forthwith subscribe to the Sentence of our own Condemnation without any fair and legal Process or indeed so much as yield to a Trial where our professed Adversaries must be at once the Law-makers Accusers Witnesses and yet this is most notoriously our Case What course now in this Case can be taken by us The Church of Rome tells us expresly and peremptorily We cannot be saved out of her Communion Must we believe her without any more ado That 's indeed the way to make a short end of all our Differences for then we must yield to be Her 's or else run headlong to Damnation But if we believe her not as for my part I know not how we can do till we see some reason why we should do so the Dispute for ought I can see is like to be endless For no such reasons can or ought she to give us if she will be constant to her self and stand to her own Principles as will plainly appear anon and if she desert her own Principles she must yield her self to be fallible and not the true Church and then in vain is all talk of Reasons why they that are not of her Communion should be damned However suppose it be pretended as indeed it is that we have had sufficient Reasons given us why we ought to believe her in this Point This then is the present Question between us Whether she hath given us sufficient reason for this or no. She confidently affirms it We as confidently deny it She calls us obstinate Hereticks for denying it and lays many a heavy Curse upon us We for this think her a very unreasonable and imperious Mistress usurping an Authority over us which God never gave
unreasonable or can produce no Reason for it self or is so lodged in Obscurity as it cannot be found I. I cannot leave the Communion of the Church of England and enter into that of Rome in obedience to an Authority which commands me to do things unreasonable agreeing neither with the Nature of Mankind nor with the undoubted Principles of Religion If therefore the Church of Rome require such things of me I must be a Protestant still and protest against that Authority which She pretends to And for ought I can yet see I cannot submit to her Authority but upon the hardest and most unreasonable Terms in the World. I must renounce my Reason and my Iudgment I must no longer trust my Senses I must either lay aside or learn to speak dishonourably of God's Word I must not believe a Word that God hath spoken without that Church's Leave I must embrace a Religion for which according to that Church's Principles no Reason can be given to convince me and when I have thus learn'd to do all things without Reason I must do what with Reason I can never do believe all Men whatsoever and how piously soever they otherwise live if they be not of the Roman Communion to be in a State of Damnation If I be deceiv'd in any thing of all this I shall be very glad to know it and I have only this to say for my self that they were Roman Catholicks who should know their own Religion best that have deceived me and if I may be deceiv'd by hearkening to them whom that Church sends abroad to make us Converts I shall be the less encouraged hereafter to embrace her Communion upon their Perswasions Whether all who are already of her Communion either own or know all this it concerns not me to enquire but I think it a Debt of Charity that I owe them to think till they tell me the contrary that they do not and that if they did they would not long continue where they are However till they who taught me these things shall either confess their own Error or shew me my Mistake I must needs think them all true and therefore also account it much safer for me to continue a Protestant than to turn Papist whatever it may seem or be to others First I think nothing can be plainer than that it is more safe to act like understanding and discreet considering Men than otherwise or that the Religion which alloweth Men so to do is safer than that which doth not allow it Now the Protestant Religion alloweth Men to make use of their Reason and Iudgment to discern between Truth and Falshood Good and Evil which the Roman Religion as it seems to me will not allow and therefore it must needs be the safer Religion Christ certainly came not into the World to save Sinners by destroying but rather by restoring and perfecting Human Nature His business was not to deprive us of the use of the most noble Faculty which God had given us but to rectify that and all the rest after they had been depraved by Sin. His Gospel was not preached to close up the Eye of the Soul the Understanding and so to lead Men blindfold to Heaven but to open Mens Eyes and to furn them from Darkness to Light Act. 26. 18. The Apostles preach'd to teach us how to offer unto God a Reasonable Service Rom. 12. 1. And Christ expects that his Sheep should be able to discern the voice of him their Shepherd from the voice of Strangers and avoiding them to follow him only Iohn 10. 4 5. St. Peter exhorts Men to be always ready to give a Reason of the Hope that is in them 1 Pet. 3. 15. And St. Paul bids Men prove all things and hold fast that which is good 1 Thess. 5. 21. And St. Iohn exhorts not to believe every Spirit but to try the Spirits whether they be of God 1 Joh. 4. 1. How any Man shall be able to do all this and much more which as a Christian he is obliged to do and not be allow'd the free use of his Reason and judging Faculty I am sure no Man can tell me neither indeed how he can be of any Religion at all for before he can really be of any Religion he must choose it and choose it he cannot till he have rationally consider'd and judg'd of it and of the Reasons which must move him to the choice of it And in Truth to deny a Man the free use of his Reason and Iudgment in Religion is to turn him into a Beast where he should be most a Man and either to make it impossible for him to be of any Religion at all and to serve God like a Man or else to say in effect That Christian Religion is altogether a most unreasonable thing and proper only to unreasonable Creatures Now the Writing Men of the Roman Church tell us nothing more frequently than that no private Man ought to be allow'd to judg for himself in matters of Faith that to allow this is to set the Gate wide open to all Heresies that every Man is bound to sumbit and captivate his Understanding and Iudgment to the Iudgment of the Church that is to all the Definitions of as they call it the Roman-Catholick Church Whatsoever this Church affirms we must believe to be true and whatsoever She commands we must chearfully obey seem the thing to our own private Reason never so false or never so wicked We must not dare to examine the Truth or Lawfulness of her Decrees or Determinations tho Reason and Scripture too seem to us to be against them as we have been lately taught by the Representer for as we receive from Her the Books so from Her only we are to receive the Sense of Scripture Hence it is that they define a Heretick to be one that obstinately opposeth the Sentence of the Church The Doctrines of Fathers Bellarmine some-where tells us may be examined by Reason because they teach but as private Doctors but the Church teaches as a Iudg with all Authority and therefore no Man may dispute the soundness of her Doctrine This then is the first step I must take if I will go over to the Church of Rome I must resolve to see no longer for my self with my own Eyes but give my self up to be led by the Church never questioning the Way I am to go in so long as she leads me And truly so far as I am yet able to discern with my Protestant Eyes it is but needful to close the Eye of Reason before-hand when I am about to go where I must otherwise see such things as no Reason can indure It was therefore very ingenuously spoken as I have heard of Mr. Cressy when he said that the Wit and Judgment of Catholicks is to renounce their own Judgment and depose their own Wit. Yet if this be true I must beg his Pardon if I dare not yet imitate his Example or
I know not how to serve God without it Yet if I should dare to venture thus far may I now have leave to take my rest here If my dimsighted Reason help me to stumble into my Mother's lap may I yet think my self safe there Not till I have learn'd her Charity too as well as her Faith which the REPRESENTER tells us She learn'd of Christ and his Apostles Therefore Lastly I must believe that all other Christians but PAPISTS are in a state of Damnation The Decree of P. BONIFACE the VIIIth as now it stands in the common Extravagants is well known to be this We declare say define and pronounce That it is altogether of necessity to SALVATION that every Creature be subject to the POPE of ROME P. PIUS the II. in his Bull of Retractation tho he was not altogether of the same mind as it seems before whilst he was Aeneas Sylvius saith He cannot be saved that doth not hold the Unity of the ROMAN Church If so lusly a Decree and so preremptory a Declaration of two POPES be too little there is abundance more to this purpose to be met with by him that has a mind to search for it I only take notice at this time that P. LEO the X th in his Lateran Council and his Bull therein read and pass'd saith We do renew and approve that same Constitution viz. of P. BONIFACE but now mentioned the present Sacred Council also approving it And Lastly P. PIUS the IV th in his Bull wherein he confirms the Council of TRENT imposeth an Oath upon Ecclesiastical Persons wherein they swear That the HOLY CATHOLICK and APOSTOLICK ROMAN Church is the MOTHER and MISTRESS of all Churches and that this is the true CATHOLICK FAITH without which no man can be SAVED Here 's enough in all Conscience for us PROTESTANTS to hear and too much a great deal as I think for any man to believe I think my self bound in Charity to have the best Opinion I can of all men and therefore I dare not think that all they who are called ROMAN CATHOLICKS have throughly learn'd this Doctrine There seems to me to be so much of Ill-nature in it that I should think my self the worst natur'd man in the World if I could believe that any considerable numbers of them besides the Priests are guilty of it Many piously disposed Souls are not so happy as to have always the clearest Understandings or the sincerest Teachers but have better Hearts than either Heads or Guides Their Zeal is too great for both their opportunities of Learning and Patience to consider their earnestness of SALVATION a thing very laudable in them puts them into too much haste to deliberate long and gives an advantage to some who watch for it to abuse them Either a cunning JESUIT or a canting FANATICK will hope to make an easy Prey of such Persons for it matters not greatly of which sort the Tempter be whilst the Temptation is the same The Fish minds not the Fisher but the Bait Every Argument from either is edged with a mighty Zeal and Importunity and sharpned with the sinest and most penetrating Expressions of a most tender Compassion for perishing Souls SALVATION is as confidently promised as earnestly desired and whether it be to be had in the ROMANISTS Infallible Church or in the SEPARATISTS purg'd and unmix'd Congregation all 's a case when once the man is made to think it cannot be had in the Church of ENGLAND If they who are so easily Proselyted either way would take time to look before they leap and could but see into the consequents of those very Arguments which most prevail with them and are made the Traps to catch them in they would stand off a little and ask a few Questions more for their better Satisfaction before they could endure to think of entring into a Communion which would oblige them as ever they hope to be saved themselves to believe that CHRIST hath no faithful Followers upon Earth but a few Subjects of the POPE of Rome I can easily perceive by divers Books written by them who call themselves Converts that the main Motive of their going over to the ROMAN Church was this That they could not hope to be saved in any other And I find that most Arguments of late used to persuade us to that Religion look the very same way And it is this Doctrine alone that hath put me upon this Enquiry for my own Satisfaction For I must needs confess that this Doctrine which some acount so powerful a Persuasive to Popery has always with me had the quite contrary effect to what I find it hath in them and has been and is at this present to me as strong a Dissuasive from it If I can never be a PAPIST till I can believe it I am very confident I shall never be one I would leave the Church of ENGLAND the next Minute should she require of me to believe that all out of her Communion were in a state of Damnation and truly I think that most PROTESTANTS are of my mind When therefore I found the REPRESENTER in good earnest to vindicate his Church in this one Point I presently concluded that he had writ his whole Book to no purpose for let him spend all his Oyl and Colours in painting POPERY to the best advantage so long as this one Spot appears in her Face she may possibly seem in her new Dress less terrible but not one jot more lovely Having told us That no one can arrive to the true knowledg of the Catholick Faith but by receiving it as proposed and believed by the Church of CHRIST and that the ROMAN CATHOLICK is the only true Church that whosoever denies any Article of her Faith denies so much of CHRIST's Doctrine That whosoever hears Her hears CHRIST and whosoever obstinately and wilfully is separated from Her is in the same distance separated from CHRIST himself and finally That God addeth to this Church daily such as shall be saved He hath told us enough to persuade us that no PROTESTANT in the World could have done that Church a greater diskindness than he hath done nor by any Misrepresentation of her have worse Represented her When the PAPISTS are pleas'd to ask us that unanswerable Question as they account it Where was your Religion before LUTHER They wish us withal to take into our Serious Consideration the state of our Forefathers who lived and died in the Religion of the Church of ROME asking us if we dare think that they were all damn'd We need not trouble our heads with shaping an Answer to so frivolous a Question because we durst never yet be so hardy as to affirm that all are damn'd who live and die in the Communion of the Church of ROME but do openly declare to the World that tho we think our own Religion the safest yet many of that Communion have been heretofore and many also are at this day under such
Circumstances as encourage us to hope very well of them as to their future state However if it so well deserve our Consideration what 's become of our Forefathers doth it not as well deserve the Consideration of the ROMANISTS what is become of many of theirs Yea What will become of the greatest part of the Christian World who live and die out of their Communion And if they would have us think the worse of the Reformation left by thinking well of it we should be wanting in Charity to our Fathers which yet we are by it no way obliged to be should it not move them to think the worse of their Religion that it constrains them to think so uncharitably not only of their Fathers but of all the World but themselves only How many most Eminent and Worthy Persons How many great and famous Churches must I be obliged by embracing the ROMAN Faith to believe excluded from SALVATION Upon these terms I cannot see how 't is possible for me to be Reconciled to the Church of ROME without professing my self an irreconcileable Enemy to all the Christian World besides I must turn Hector and call all other Christians damn'd Hereticks I must needs say this appears not to me like that Meek and Lamb like Spirit of the Blessed JESUS which is given by him to his Dove-like Spouse that thus Rants it in his pretended Vicars and their Adherents It seems not to be much a kin to that Christian Charity which hopeth and believeth all things and thinketh no evil 1 Cor. 13. 7. I must make nothing of condemning all PROTESTANTS and PROTESTANT Churches of what other Denomination soever and these alone are no inconsiderable part of Christians These Hereticks saith Bellarmin possess many and ample Provinces ENGLAND SCOTLAND and why not IRELAND DENMARK SWEEDLAND NORWAY no small part of GERMANY POLAND BOHEMIA and HUNGARY he might have said also of FRANCE and HELVETIA It was anciently the Custom saith Tolet that the POPE did three days every year tho now but once a year viz. upon the Holy Thursday he means the Thursday immediately before Easter call'd Coena Domini with great Solemnity before all the People thunder out his Sentence of Excommunication against all Hereticks of what Name or Sect soever but against the Queen of ENGLAND which was then Q. Elizabeth by name with all their Believers Receivers Favourers and Defenders against all that read their Books publickly or privately with what intention soever or under whatever pretence tho there be no Error in them or with a design to consute the Error if there be any without his Holiness's License against the Keepers Printers and Defenders in any manner of the same against all Schismaticks and such as pertinaciously withdraw themselves and depart from their Obedience to the POPE against any one that shall so much as say that Calvin was a good man against all that appeal from the Orders Decrees or Mandates of the POPE to a future COUNCIL And 't is very well known that they are not all PROTESTANTS who have done so Neither will this suffice I must also condemn the whole GREEK Church which how Ancient and of how large Extent it is is very well known And some reason there seems to be for it For saith Bellarmin the Greeks in the year 451 in the Council of CHALCEDON consisting of 600 Bishops endeavoured to make the Patriarch of CONSTANTINOPLE equal to the Bishop of ROME And again In the year 1054 they pronounc'd the Bishop of ROME to have fallen from his degree of Dignity and the Bishop of CONSTANTINOPLE to be the first Bishop And tho he pretends that these Greeks were once reconciled to ROME in the Council of FLORENCE yet he adds that they always returned to their Vomit No wonder therefore if this GREEK Church cannot escape Damnation And yet this poor Reprobated Church yields not to that of ROME in any of her own principal Marks of a true Church I read that the Christians of her Communion in NATOLIA CIRCASSIA MENGRELLIA RUSSIA GREECE MACEDONIA EPIRUS THRACIA BULGARIA c. do very near if not quite equal the number of those who are of the ROMAN Communion And yet will not this be enough unless we include in this Sentence of Condemnation all the Assyrian Christians living amongst the Mahometans in BABYLON ASSYRIA MESOPOTAMIA PARTHIA and MEDIA with the Iacobites Armenians Egyptians Aethiopians and the vast Empire of the HABASSINES All these I must look upon as cut off from CHRIST merely for their disowning the POPE's Authority tho they should be found Orthodox in all other points And truly I know not how to get up to that height of Boldness not to be afraid of condemning so many Christians most of which have given and do yet give to the World the most notable Testimony of Fidelity to CHRIST that can be expected in their constant sufferings for the sake of his holy Name and Gospel After this Consideration of whole Churches it seems needless for me to come down to that of single Persons tho confessedly of greatest Note and Eminence in the Church of CHRIST both for Learning and Piety How St. Polycarp Bishop of SMTRNA and a famous Martyr who would not obey P. Anicetus but still keep his Easter contrary to the custom of the ROMAN Church and therein seem'd either as ignorant of his Duty or as stubborn as any PROTESTANT or how his Successor in that See Polycrates who desended himself and his Church so arrogantly against the Authority of the ROMAM Church more than sufficiently declared by P. Victor still pleading the Example of Polycarp and Authority of St. Iohn as tho he had never heard St. Peter was made Prince of the Apostles or that the Bishops of ROME were his Successors in that Authority over all Churches How Irenaeus and all his Fellow-Bishops of the Gallican Church who so presumptuously took upon them to expostulate the matter with the same Victor and in very homely terms to chide him for excommunicating those Asian Christians for not changing their Ancient Customs at his Command How St. Cyprian the holy Bishop of Carthage and Martyr with his Bishops of Africa Numidia and Mauritania joining with him in so contumaciously resisting P. Stephen The Sixty Bishops in the Milevitan Council or those Two hundred and Seventeen whereof the famous St. Austin was one who not only stubbornly rejected the Claim but also manifestly demonstrated the Fraudulence and Forgery of three POPES Zosimus Boniface and Caelestine about appeals to ROME How all these shall be exempted from this Censure I know not Did not the later of these African Councils decree That the Bishop of the first See meaning ROME should not be call'd the Prince of Priests or chief Priest or any such thing but only the Bishop of the first See Did it not Excommunicate every Priest that should Appeal to ROME It seems to me that St. Athanasius could have no great opinion of the Infallibility of P.