A DEFENCE Of the Protestant Christian Religion against POPERY: In Answer to a Discourse of a Roman Catholic.  
WHEREIN The Manifold Apostasies, Heresies, and Schisms of the Church of ROME, as also, the Weakness of Her Pretensions from the Scriptures and the Fathers, are briefly Laid open:  
By an English Protestant.  Frederic. Secundus Germ. Imp. 

Roma diu titubans, longis Erroribus acta  
Corruet, ac Mundi desinet esse Caput.   

In Heresies long Chase, Rome stumbling shall  
Lose the World's Headship, and to Ruin fall.   
Printed in the YEAR, M.DC.LXXII.   

Advertisements TO THE READER.  
IT is thought needless to trouble the Reader with a Narrative of the Transactions, or with Copies of the Letters that have passed about this Affair, or with the Names of the Persons concerned therein; or lastly, with the Motives and Providences which have invited in this juncture of time, to the publishing this Defence of our Religion against Popery. The Romanists Discourse is prefixed and published wholly and entirely by itself, over and beside what is repeated of it in the Answer. To the Answer there be some Additions, for the Readers further help, and for the further illustration of some things; a brief intimation whereof, might be presumed sufficient to the Romanist himself, he being one of their Learned men in Holy Orders amongst them. And whereas the Author of this Answer and Defence, in a Letter to the person that called him to this Work, did together with it, express his own Sentiments thereof, it is judged convenient, instead of any further Preface, to communicate them out of the said Letter, wherein he saith:  
I Have received your Letter, and I have perused Mr. K. his Discourse, which he challengeth our Divines to Answer. And whereas you have pitched upon me to do it, because (as your Letter Expresseth) being the Cause of God, you durst not Trust it in every hand: As I have reason to acknowledge the great respect and value you are pleased to put upon me, so withal I must needs own my own unworthiness and insufficiency for this, or any other good word or work. It is free Grace I have been depending and looking up unto for help, from whence alone I have had it; and it is the same free Grace that must bless what is said, and bring it home with power. I have sent you herewith an Answer to his Paper. The Civilities you have done to him (which I see himself in his Letter to you doth ingenuonsly acknowledge) may tend, I hope, to let him see. That it is our Religion to do good to all, and that we desire to do good Works, though not to be justified by them. Let me have a part in your Remembrances at the Throne of Grace, to which I Recommend you and yours; which is all, at present, from  
Your most humble Servant in the Lord, S. M. DUBLIN, July ult. 1670.   

A Discourse OF A ROMAN CATHOLIC: Of the one, only, and singular only one Catholic, and Roman Faith.  ONe Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all, Eph. 4.5, 6. Malac. 2.10. First I give thanks to my God, through Jesus Christ for you all, for that your faith is manifested in all the world, Rom. 1.8. I desire also to see you, that I may impart unto you of spiritual grace to confirm you, that is to say, to be together comforted in you, which together is your faith and mine, ibid. v. 11. & 12. That now we may not be children, wavering up and down, and carried about with every wind of doctrine in the wickedness of men, in deceit, to the circumvention of error, Ephes. 4.14. Be not carried with various and strange doctrines, for it is a very good grace to settle the heart, Hebr. 13.9. Also I do not pray for them only, but likewise for these which will believe through their word in me, that all may be one, as your Father and I, and I in you, that also they in us may be one, that the world may believe that you sent me, Joan. 17. ver. 20. 
Now, I hope, it will not be deemed, but that the Church of Rome, was once a most pure, excellent, flourishing, and Mother Church, ut supra, Rom. 1.  
This Church could not cease to be so, but she must fail either by Apostasy, Heresy, or Schism, Rom. 16.17.  


I. Apostasy is not only a renouncing of the Faith of Christ, but the very name and title of Christianity; no man will say, that the Church of Rome had ever such a fall, or fell thus.  
II. Heresy is an adhesion to some private and singular Opinion or Error in Faith, contrary to the general and approved Doctrine of the Church.  
III. If the Church of Rome did ever adhere to any singular, or new Opinion, disagreeable to the common received Doctrine?  
First, I pray satisfy me as to these particulars, viz.  
iv By what general Council was it ever condemned?  
V Which of the Fathers ever wrote against Her?  
VI Or by what Authority was she ever Reproved? for it seems to me very incongruous, that so great a Church should be condemned by every one that hath a wind to condemn Her.  
VII. Schism is a departure or division from the Unity of the Church, whereby the band and communion held with some former Church, is broken and dissolved.  
VIII. If ever the Church of Rome divided Herself by Schism, from any other body of faithful Christians, or broke communion, or went forth from the society of any elder Church, I pray satisfy yourself and me to these particulars.  
IX. First, Whose company did she leave? Secondly, from what body did she go forth?  
X. Where was the true Church which she forsook? for it appears not a little strange to me, That a Church should be accounted Schismatical, when there cannot be assigned any other Church different from Her (which from Age to Age since Christ's time, hath continued visible) from whom she departed, etc.    
Conclusion. If the Catholic Roman Church was once the true Church, she still remained so; and therefore they who have departed from Her, are departed from the true Church, and so are out of the way, etc.  
The usual colour of believing more or less than the Church alloweth, is vain and erroneous, inasmuch as that very Christ which stored Her with knowledge of Gods revealed Truth, and with power to convey the same, hath also endued Her with inerrability to convey the same justly, without danger of miscarrying, against Iguorance.  Mat. 13. 11. To you it is given to know the mysteries of heaven. Mat. 5.14. Against darkness, you are the light of the world. John 14.16. Against error and falsehood: I will send unto you the Spirit of truth, to remain with you for ever. 1 Tim 3. Against weakness: She is the pillar and ground of truth. Mat. 16.18. Hell gates shall not prevail against her; to make which good, Christ called his eternal Father to his aid, prayed him, and was heard for his reverence. Mat. 28.20. Behold I am with you all days to the end of the world. 
Therefore if they charge the Catholic Roman Church with Error, they must say, that either Christ was not of power to keep his Church from straying, or that he wanted fidelity to make good his word.  Mat. 5.14. You are the light of the world. A City that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Mat. 16.19. Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven. 
I pray name me the Church that was commonly counted the true Christian Church, in which you remained, and from which you are not departed.  
Mat. 16.18. The Church cannot fail being builded upon a Rock, nor needs no new Masons to rebuild her again.  
1 Tim. 4.1. St. Paul saith, Certain will departed from the faith. They went from us.  
Whether did the Roman Church go from any other known Church, or did any other go from her? Satisfy yourself and me, in this, I pray you.  

Testimonies of the Fathers, for the See of Rome.  
THe Names of the Twelve Apostles are these, the first Simon, who is called Peter, etc. In which place, Divine Epiphanius saith, 
De Epiph. in Ancoratu.  That God knew the thoughts of hearts, knoweth also who is worthy to be placed in the first place; he hath chosen Peter, that he might be the Head of his Diseiples.  
St. Augustine saith of Peter's Successors, 
De Aug. contra Epist. Parmenioni. L. 1. c. 2.  to the sitting in the Chair of the Roman Church, the whole Christian world is subject.  
Also Augustine elsewhere: 
Aug. Epist. 162.  In the Roman Church always flourished the Sovereignty of the Apostolical Chair.  
The same in another place, Number (saith he) the Priests of that same seat of St. Peter, and see which of the Fathers succeed him; for he is the Rock which the proud gates of Hell do not overcome.  
St. Ambrose, Rome (saith he) hath the principality of Apostolical Priesthood.    

The Contents.  

CHAP. I. Proving, That a true visible Church may fall away.  
CHAP. II. Of the Nature and kinds of Apostasy, and of the Apostasies of the Church of Rome.  
CHAP. III. Of the Nature of Heresy.  
CHAP. IU. Of the Heresies of the Church of Rome, eight particulars instanced.  
CHAP. V Of the Nature of Schism, and of the Schisous of the Church of Rome, both within herself, and from other Churches.  
CHAP. VI Some places of Scripture for the inerrability of the Church of Rome, answered.  
CHAP. VII. Of humane Testimonies for, and against the Church of Rome.  
CHAP. VIII. An Appendix for the further illustration of some things which are but briefly hinted in the former Chapters.    

A DEFENCE Of the Protestant Christian Religion against POPERY: In Answer to a Discourse, Entitled, [Of the one, only, and singular only one Catholic, and Roman Faith.]  

CHAP. I. Proving, That a true visible Church may fall away.  
TO pass by the Rhetoric of the Title, and the aptness of the phrase of [singular only one] as an emphatical addition to [the one only] and the consistence between Roman, and Catholic, and between singular, and Catholic, or universal. How, and in what respects of reason, and what senses may be thought upon, wherein the same thing may be called both Roman and Catholic, both singular and universal. The Discourse itself gins with unconuected Quotations of several choice portions of Holy Scripture: And, indeed, so far as there is a cordial adherence and subjection of heart unto that rule among different parties and persuasions, it will, through the grace of Christ, produce either union of Judgement, or at least union of Brotherly affection, and forbearance of love; but what esteem the Church of Rome hath for the Holy Scriptures, is well known, She doth not subject her 〈◊〉 unto them: And though you in this Discourse de Quote them, as your Writers sometimes do; yet, if you be a true Roman Catholic, it is not with any intent to subject your Church upto the Scripture, and to advance the Scriptures above your Church; but only to deal with Heretics (as you call them) at their own Weapons; and to use the Scripture as a stepping-stone, whereby to mount up your Church into the Throne of her pretended Supremacy and Inerrability, as one would use a stirrup to get into the saddle; wherein, nevertheless, your means hath an inconsistency with your end, as will further appear, before we come to a close of this Debate: Your Argumentation from the Scriptures you recite, gins thus.  

DISCOURSE.  
Now, I hope, it will not be deemed, but that the Church of Rome was once a most pure, excellent, flourishing, and Mother-Church, ut supra, Rom. 1.   

ANSWER.  
It will not be denied, but is readily granted by us, That there was once a True Church in Rome; that is, a Congregation of saithful men, wherein the pure Word of God was Preached, and the Sacraments duly ministered, according to the Ordinance of Christ, which is the description of the visible Church in the Thirty nine Articles. 
Artic. 19  And that this Church which was in Rome, might be instrumental (as Churches in populous Cities often are) to propagate the Faith, and plant Churches in other places, is not improbable: But that she had any superlative Purity, or any motherly Power and Authority, over and above other Churches, is part of the thing in Question between her and us.  
The Church of Corinth, the Church of Ephesus, of Thessalenica, of Smyrna, of Philadelphia, were once pure, flourishing Churches, as well as the Church of Rome. What may be truly said of her, may be truly said of all other Gospel Churches, in their first plantation and constitution by the Apostles; yet, it doth not follow, That ever they were Mother-Churches in your sense, or, that because they were pure at first, that therefore they are so still; for visible Churches may degenerate, and apostatise, though the Mystical Church, that is, such as are in Christ by the spirit of saving Faith, cannot wholly fall off from him, yet such as are in him only by external and visible profession may: Jer. 2.21. I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed; how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? How is the faithful City become an Harlot? It was full of judgement, righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers, Isa. 1.: 21. Whereupon a Church thus forsaking God, God may forsake them. He may discovenant and un-church a people, and give them a Bill of Divorce, and withdraw the signs and tokens of his love and presence. He may break the staff of beauty, and cut it asunder, that he may break the Covenant he hath made with all the people. He may also break the other staff of bands and brotherhood between Judah and Israel, Zach. 11.10, 14. He may give them a Bill of Divorce, Jer. 3.8. When for all the causes whereby back-sliding Israel committed Adultery, I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah, feared not. God may say unto a people Le-ruhamab and Lo-ammi, I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; for ye are not my people and I will not be your God, Hos. 1.6. Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband, Hos. 2.2. God may remove the candlestick out of its place, Rev. 2.5.  
You see in all these Scriptures, what the Lord hath threatened and done to other Churches in days of old; which, as it utterly overthrows any such imagination, That a True Church cannot fall away; so it shows, That your Church claims such a privilege, as never any Church enjoyed: Go to Shiloh, where I set my name at first, Jer. 7.12, 14. Go to Jerusalem, and see what God hath done unto it for the wickedness of his people Israel: Never any Church enjoyed such a privilege as yours pretendeth to, of Indefectibility and Impossibility of losing their Church estate and privileges. It was Christ's own threatening to the Jews, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof, Matth. 21.43.  
Yea, the Lord hath denounced the like: Threaten, and brandished the same flaming Sword against the Church of Rome in particular, and that from this very instance and example of the Jewish Church before mentioned, Kem. 11.17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. And if some of the branches were broken off, and thou being, a wild Olive tree wert grass in among them, Boast not against the branches; which your Church doth against all the Churches in the World, pretending to such transcendent privileges and prerogatives above all other Sister-Churches: But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say, the branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in: Well, because of unbelief, they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear. This is written to Her, that saith, She cannot err: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest be also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness, and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but towards thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be out off. You see he threatneth Her with cutting off; And he hath executed these his righteous Threaten, because She hath not continued in his goodness, therefore he hath cut Her off, and given Her a bill of Divorce, having declared Her in the Scriptures of Truth to be Babylon, and Her Head Antichrist, even Babylan the Great, the Mother of Harlots, a monstrous Beast, the principal object of all the vyals of his wrath. And her Head, a false Prophet, a Star fallen from Heaven, a persecuting Horn, wearing out the Saints of the most High, as it is written in these, and the like Scriptures: Daniel 7. and Dan. cap. 11. vers. 36, etc. 2 Thess. 2. 1 Tim. 4.1, etc. And it is the chief scope of the Book of the Revelation, to discover and reveal Antichrist, in every Chapter, from the sixth, to the twentieth. This is something that doth some way concern this great Apostasy; in all which Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament, She may read, as it were, the Letters of her Divorce: The Lord, who was Her Husband, having published them, and left them upon Record to all the Churches, that they may take notice that She is not his Wife, nor he Her husband; and that they may do as is written, Revel. 18 4. Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers, of her sins, and that ye receive not of bet plagues. And accordingly we, for our parts, in obedience to this command, have protested against Her, and are come out from Her; and our defence must be without shifts and subterfuges, by making good the charge against Her. What can She say for Herself? How will She clear and vindicate Herself from all this fin and shame? You attempt it under three Heads, of Apostasic, Haresie, and Schism; and I must follow you in your own method, though it be none of the best: But whether you took your Discourses hereof out of Fiat Lux, for there they are verbatim, there is more than a mere coincidence of matter, or that Fiat Lux had learned them privately from you, and then published them in Print, suppressing your name, I leave it to him and you to dispute that point, and to your infallible Judge to determine it, and judge between you: Both he and you speak thus.    

CHAP. II. Of the Nature and Kind's of Apostasy, and of the Apostasies of the Church of Rome.  

DISCOURSE.  
This Church could not cease to be so, but She must fall either by Apostasy, Heresy, or Schism.   

ANSWER.  
THis Enumeration is very defective and confused, in that it makes Apostasy one particular species, or kind of falling away, whereas Apostasy, and falling away, is the same thing; the one being a Greek word, and the other English: for Apostasy is contrary to the True Christian Religion, which is the tying of man to God again (from re, and ligo) after his fall in the bonds of Faith and Love, or obedience of Love. The Scripture everywhere makes these the two parts of True Religion: 2 Tim. 1.13. Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. 1 Tim. 3.9. Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.  
Hence therefore there be two ways of Apostasy, viz. either from the Faith of the Gospel by fundamental ignorance, and heresy, and unbelief, or from Gospel-obedience, which is as large as the rule thereof; of which David saith, Thy Commandments are exceeding broad, Psal. 119.96. Therefore under this head comes Idolatry, Superstition, Schism, Witchcraft, Perjury, Persecution, Sedition, Murder, Whoredom, Theft, Equivocation, etc. Men may Apostatise, and fa'l away from God, by making shipwreck of the faith, and by putting away a good conscience, 1 Tim. 1.19. The Apostle speaks of some, who profess they know God; but in werks they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate, Titus. 1.16.  
But this kind of Apostasy by evil works, and scandalous sins, is omitted and forgotten, which is another Error in your distribution; though it is that which your Church, and Popes, are deeply guilty of, notwithstanding all your boastings of your good works, and merits, and supererogations with God. The sixth Trumpet instanceth in Idolatries, Murders, Sorceries, Fornications, Thefts, as Sins that do abound among you, Revel. 9 ult. And all Histories bear witness to it. The corruption of Life, as well as Doctrine, was so great, before the Protestant Reformation; so many the offences, abuses, and scandals; and such the degenerated notoriety of them, that as it was the common desire of Sober men in Luther's time, that there might be a free and general Council, in order to a general Reformation of the Church, which all men observed to be woefully degenerated: So there were Nine Select Cardinals and Prelates of your own Church, 
C●sil. Delect. Card. & Praed. De Emendanda Ecclesia. Ann. 1538. See the Appendix, cap. 8.  who did privately advise the Pope to Reform things amiss, in a Paper they presented to him, he having asked their Advice; wherein they do attaque the very Popes themselves, as the Heads of the Apostasy, and Fountains of Corruption to the whole Church. Principium horum malorum vide fuisse, quod nonnulli Pontifices tui Praedecessores prurientes auribus, etc. Wherein they do their Popes no wrong, for they speak no worse of them, than your own Historians represent them, nor then Pope Adrian the Sixth did acknowledge them to be. In his Instructions to his Legate Cheregatus, and in his Letter to the Princes of Germany, Assembled in the Imperial Diet at Norimberge, 1523. He saith, S●imus in hac sede aliquot jam annis multa abominanda fuisse, 
Fox's Acts and Mon. Vol. 2. pag. 78. Lampad. Mellif. Histor. Part. 3. pag. 425.  abusus in spiritualibus excessus in mandatis, & omnia denique in perversum mutata— Se quidem non ignorare quid Scriptura docet, nempe à Sacerdotibus populi iniquitatis originem scaturire,— & ab ipsocapite Pontificio malum diffivere in membra inferiora. There have been, saith he, many years, many Abominations in this See, Abuses in Spirituals, Excesses in Commands, and all things perversely ordered.— The Fountain of Iniquity hath flowed from the Priests to the people, as the Scripture saith; and from the Pontificial Head, the evil hath flowed into the inferior members. Thus he, who, as you say, could not err in judgement. If a man would choose a Religion on purpose for the gratifying of his lusts, Sir Walter Raleigh saith, He knows none like Popery. You have so many ways to dispense with your Consciences, and to indulge Sinners a licentious liberty to take their swinge in their lusts. Your last swarm of Locusts, the Jesuits, have made it their business to corrupt all Morality, as is to be seen at large, in the Book called, The Mystery of Jesuitism.  
Moreover, there is yet a third oversight in your Enumeration over and above both the former; for as a Church which was once true and pure, may cease to be so, by such backslidings as have been instanced on her part, so she may cease to be at all by righteous and destroying Judgements on God's part; which is also the case of the Old Church of Rome, Providence having cut them off by the Sword of the Goths and Vandals, and other Northern Nations, about 400 years after Christ, as he did the ten Tribes by the Assyrians of old; and he hath substituted another people and language in their Land and place, viz. those we call Italians, as he did the Samaritans in the Land of Israel: And as then, so now, the Successors are worse, and further off from God, than their degenerate Predecessors, whom they saw the Lord destroy and cut off before their eyes. Now suppose the Samaritans of old had pleaded a Plea not unlike yours, viz. thus: The Israelites were a true, famous, flourishing Church in the days of Moses, and Joshuah; and in the days of David, and Solomon, therefore we Samaritans are so now. The Answer is easy, You are neither of the same Religion, no, nor yet so much as the same people; for they were Israelites, but ye Samaritans. So here, What though there was in the days of Paul a Gospel Church of Romans at Rome, though so far as appears not very great or numerous in those days; but that ever there was such a Church of Samaritans or Italians there, a pure Church there since the Roman people were cut off, and their Language ceased, to be a Mother-tongue, and the Italian came in place, Ho tibi incumbit demonstrandum, prove this if you can. Alas, the True Church is dead, and gone from thence above 1000 years ago, and a monstrons' Beast with Ten crowned Horns is risen up instead thereof: But you proceed to the first Head of your Distribution, thus.   

DISCOURSE.  
Apostasy is not only a Renouncing of the Faith of Christ, but of the very Name and Title of Christianity. No man will say, That the Church of Rome bade ever such a fall, or fell thus.   

ANSWER.  
You thus restrain the word Apostasy to the grossest, and deepest degree thereof, that so you may the better defend your Church from the guilt of this sin: But there is no necessity so to restrain it; for there may be deep Apostasy from God, under a name and outside profession of Religion. It is written of the Church of Sardis, Revel. 3.1. Thou hast a name that thou livest, but art dead. Neither the Scripture, nor the original signification of the Greek word, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which signifies a falling away; nor the common and ordinary use of it, requires that there be in it, a Renouncing of the very Name and Title of Christianity. It is used in sundry places of Scripture, where no such Restraint is intimated, as Acts. 21.21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Thou teachest the Jews to forsake Moses. And concerning Antichrist, 1 Tim. 4.1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Some shall apostatise, or departed from the faith. And again, 2 Thess. 2.3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, except there come a falling away first. And, ver. 7. This Apostasy is called, A Mystery of Iniquity. Therefore it shall not be an open, total, professed Apostasy, but partial, and palliated over with fair umbrages, and plausible pretensions, else why is it called, A Mystery of Iniquity, and Mystical Babylon? Nor do you indeed your own selves, always use the word Apostasy only in that gross sense; for you scruple not to bestow the title of Apostate, as well as Heretic, upon Luther, and the Protestant Churches; though neither he, nor we, ever did, nor through grace, ever will Renounce the Name and Title of Christianity.  
Cyprian, warning the Saints, and people of God, in his time, to take heed of spiritual and sitbtile Delusions, 
Cypr. De Vnitate Ecclefia.  open and professed persecution being not their only danger: He showeth, how Satan perceiving, that by the large diffusion, and spreading of Gospel-light, Pagan Idolatry, and their Temples were much forsaken: Excogitavit novam fraudem, ut sub ipso Christiani nominis titulo fallat Incautos: He hath bethought himself of a new deceit, whereby to misled unwary Souls; under the very Name, and Title of Christianity. Satan (saith he) transforming himself into an Angel of light, and suborning his Ministers, as Ministers of righteousness, bringing night for day, Antichristum, sub vocabulo Christi. Antichrist, under the name of Christ. The Church of Israel, in the time of her Apostasy, did not Renounce the very Name and Title of Jehovah; but they did worship, and swear by the Lord, and by Malcham too, Zephan. 1.5. So those mongrel Samaritans, 2 Kings 17.33, 41. They professed, Ezra. 4.2. We seek your God, as you do; as fair a pretention as any your Church can make: And in Christ's time, they had some confused notions and expectations of the Messiah, John 4.29. They had learned to say, our father Jacob, as well as you can say Saint Peter, John. 4.12.  
So in like manner the Church of Rome, though She hath not Renounced the very Name and Title of Christianity, yet She is deeply guilty of Apostasy from God, divers other ways, both in her Head and Members; She is, and may be called an Apostate Church, as having fallen away from the Faith and Doctrine of the Gospel, by fundamental Unbelief, Ignorance and Heresy, and from Gospel obedience, by the most abominable profaneness of life, by the grossest kind of sins, and scandals against all the Ten Commandments; concerning which, you prudently forbear to say any thing, but concerning the former head, viz. Apostasy from the Faith: Your Defence is this.    

CHAP. III. Of the Nature of Heresy.  

DISCOURSE.  
Heresy is an adbesion to some private, and singular Opinion, or Error in Faith, contrary to the general and approved Doctrine of the Church. If Rome did ever adhere to any such Opinion, etc. By what General Council was it ever condemned? Which of the Fathers ever wrote against Her? Or by what Authority was She ever Reproved?   

ANSWER.  
This Description of Heresy, and the Queries grounded thereupon, as they are not agreeable, either to the Scriptural, or Ecclesiastical sense, and use of the Word; so they are indeed no better than a begging of the thing in question between you and us: For you know we hold, That the Rule whereby to judge of Heresy, is the Scripture, and not the Opinions of Churches, of Fathers, 
Mr. Gales Idea of Jansenism Histor. & dogmat. Part. 2. Sect. 28. p. 157.  or Councils. Tertullian makes it the Badge of an Heretic to decline the Scriptures; he saith, They are Noctue & Lucifugae Scripturarum: Night Owls, that do not love the light of that Sun; yea, some of your own Church, who are the pars sanion thereof (if yet they be of you) have said, That it is an Heresy to judge of Heresies, without the Word of God. So the Jansenists.  
And the Reason why the generality of Papists, are so desirous to derline the Scripture, is, because they are conscious to themselves, that it is against them, as Mr. White hath well observed 〈◊〉 of Brisom, 

White 's way to the Church, Sect. 7. Numb. 8.  
Bristol Motiv. ult. Canus loc. lib. 3. cap. 3.  
Confil. Episc. Bononi Congreg. Anno 1553. De stabilienda Roman. Eccles. Fol. 5.   who teaching his Scholar, how to deal with a Protestant, 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proud Heretic out of his weak and false Castle of unely Scriptures, into the plain field of Traditions, Miracles, Councils, and Fathers; and then, like Cowards, They shall not stand. Another Papist saith, There is more strength is confine Heretics in Traditions, than in the Scriptures; yea, all Disputations with them must be determined, by Traditions. Those Reverend Fathers of your Church, that met at Bononia, by the Pope's appointment, to consult of the means for establishing of the Church of Rome (or healing the Wound of the Daughter of Babel) in the counsel they gave to Pope Julius the Third, They do confess, Certè vix umbram quandam retinemus in nostris Ecclesus ejus Doctrinae, & Disciplinae quae Apostolorum temporibus floruerunt, & prorsùs aliam accersivimus. The truth is, we searce retain a shadow in our Churches of that Doctrine and Discipline which flourished in the Apostles times, but we have brought in altogether another. There was no mention, 
Fol. 2.  say they (for we may confess the Truth to your Holiness, but it must he kept close) either of Popes or Cardinals in the Apostles times, nor of some years after. There were no Monasteries, nor Priors, nor Abbots, much less were there these Doctrines, these Laws, these Customs, no nor that Empire which now we enjoy over several people and Nations. They say further, That the not studying the Canon Law, and Sophistry, and Metaphysics, etc. 
Folly 5.  But learning the Greek and Hebrew Tongues, and examining Translations, by the Greek and Hebrew verity, hath been the cause and fountain of the late decay of the Church of Rome, and of the deplorable state and condition of her Affairs at this day. And finally, which they reserve to the last place, as the weightiest of all their ghostly counsels, They advise, That as little as may be of the Gospel, 
Fol. penult.  be read amongst the people in their vulgar Tongue: For, hic ille in summa est liber, qui praeter caeteros hasce nobis tempestates acturbines conciliavit, quibus, prope abrepti sumus. For this is in brief, That Book, which above all others, hath raised, and brought upon us these storms and whirlwinds, by which we are almost carried away headlong: Thus speak they. It appears by all this, wherefore it is that you love not the Scripture, even because it testifies against you: For he that doth evil, hateth the light; and cometh not to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved, John 3.16, 20.  
As to the word Heresy, for your mistakes call upon me, to open it a little; if we look at the notation of it, from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, capio, eligo, so it signifies any thing of choice, or option, as Galen, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Methodical, and the Empirical way of Physic; when applied to matters of Religion, it imports in the largest signification, any Sect, or way of Religion that a man makes choice of, whether true or false: So the Sect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Sadduces, Acts 5.17. the Sect of the Pharisees, Acts 15.5. called the most exquisite Sect of our Religion, Acts 26.5. the Sect of the nazarenes, Acts 24.5. the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Heresy, in all these places. But it is frequently restrained by a Synecdothe, to signify a false Religion, as some other words, ex gr. Tyrannus magnus, etc. which are commonly taken in deteriorem partem: Thus Epiphanius seemeth to take it in his Book of Eighty Heresies, where he numbers Barbarism, Seythism, Stoicism, Platonism, etc. amongst Heresies. But it is commonly restrained yet more by a further Synecdoche, to such Errors as overthrow the Foundation, and are obstinately maintained, against Conviction, by persons pretending (in part) to the True Religion; and so we do not call Pagans, Heretics, but Infidels. This sense of the word seems to be grounded, on 1 Cor. 3.10, 11. and 2 Pet. 2.1. and Titus 3.10, 11. where the Apostles do distinguish of Doctrines, comparing some to Hay and Stubble, yet retaining the true foundation: But there is another sort, which they call, damnable Heresies, or Heresies of perdition, Soul-destroying Heresies; the Assertors whereof, are subverted, or overturned, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from off the true foundation; and self-condemned, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as sinning against their own light. Now the written Word of God being the only Rule of True Religion, hence nothing ought to be rejected under the Notion of Heresy, but what the Scripture doth condemn as such, viz. as false, and destructive unto Souls, and dangerously entrenching upon the very Vitals, and Fundamentals of Religion.  
And if it be demanded of us, What are the Heresies of the Church of Rome, in this last sense? This is a large Field: Popery, saith Dr. Ames, 
Ames Cas. l. 5. c. 4. de Haeres:  Non est una aliqua singularis Haeresis, sed quasi corpus quoddam ex variis Haeresibus conflatum & productum. Sicut enim Mahumetismus est antecedentium Haeres●●n mixtura, in Oriente & Meridie; sic Papismus, quamvis aliâ specie variarum Haerese●n sentina est in Occidente & Septentrione. Popery, is not one single Heresy, but a Sink of many Heresies, a dead Sea, a Sodomitick Lake of many poisonous and erroneous Opinions. Look, as Mahometism is a mixture of former Heresies, in the Eastern and Southern Countries; so is Papism (though under different pretensions) a Sink of many Heresies, in the Western and Northern parts of the old Roman Empire. Take at present, for I would not leave things at random, these few Instances of the Heresies your Church hath fallen into. It is easy, seeing you call us to it; it is easy, in the strength of Christ, in the evidence of his Word and Spirit, to make good the Charge against Her.    

CHAP. IU. Of the Heresies of the Church of Rome, eight particulars instanced.  
THe first grand Error of your Church, is this, Your Dethroning and Unlording the Scripture. It is Christ's own phrase, Matth. 15.6. and Mark 7.13. by way of Reproof to your Predecessors, those ancient Papists, the Pharisees, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Unlording the Word of God, through your Tradition. But to this written Word, did Jesus Christ appeal, John 5.39. Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think to have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. We are commanded, to try the spirits, 1 John 4.1. even by the Rule laid down in that Scripture, ver. 2. The Bereans are commended by the Holy Ghost, as Christians of the right breed, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, because they would not take the Apostles Doctrine upon trust, but searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed, Acts 17 11, 12. But with you, it is a Nose of Wax, attramentary Divinity, of no more Authority in itself, than Aesop's Fables, or Titus Livius, but that your Church hath christened it for Scripture; but yet She tells us withal, That we must receive Her Traditions, Pari pietatis affectu, & reverentia, 
Concil. Trident. S ss. 4. Decret. 1.  with as much pious affection and reverence, as we receive the Scripture. So your Tridentine Council. It is lamentable to consider, how many Bible's you have burnt, and how many Christians you have burnt alive, for having Bibles, and labouring to acquaint themselves therewith. In King Henry the Eighth's time, those of you, who then had, the conduct of Affairs in England, did cause to be put forth a public and authentic Instrument, for the abolishing, and inhibiting of the Scriptures, wherein, ye thus express yourselves, 
Da●ed. May 24. 1531.  That foras much as there is engendered an Opinion in divers of his Subjects, that it is his Grace's duty to cause the Scripture of God to be Translated into the English Tongue, to be communicated unto the people.— It appeareth, That the having of the whole Scripture in English, is not necessary to christian men, 
Fox, Acts and Mon. Vor. 2. E●it. 1641.  the divulging of the Scripture at this time in the English Tongue to be committed to the people, considering such pestilent Books, and so evil Opinions, as be now spread among them, should rather be to their further confusion and destruction, than to the edification of their Souls. Thus you said, and did your worst, but you could not hinder the Sun from rising, at its appointed hour; nor frustrate the Oath of him, who swore, that (your) time should be no longer, and he gave the book to his servants to prophesy again, Rev. 10. ver. 6, 9, 11.  
This wretched neglect, and contempt of the Scripture, is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the very corner stone of the Tower of Babel. We look upon it as the first and chief of all your Heresies, and the source and fountain of all the rest: Ye do err, not knowing the Scripture, Matt. 22.29. For there is a self-evidencing light and majesty in the Scripture, it bears the stamp and impress of the Divine Attributes upon it; which he that sees not, must needs be blind, as to other Truths also: As he that cannot see the Sun, when it shines at Noonday, can see nothing else; he that cannot hear the voice of Thunder, is not like to be awakened, by a silent whisper.  
2. The Authority, and Infallibility of your Church and Pope, as if they were not men, but gods; for, humanum est errare: Let God be true, and every man a liar, Rom. 3.4. This is the great Idol that you set up against the Scripture, and consequently against God himself; for the Scripture is God speaking to Mankind: Hence it is written of Antichrist, that he exalteth himself, above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God, 2 Theff. 2.4. He takes upon him to dispense even with the Laws of God; therefore it is made the brand of a Reprobate, to worship the Beast, Revel. 13.8. And the Lord denounces and thunders forth damnation to them, Reve 14.9, 10, 11. The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and their doom is just, for they make a god of him; for, put case the Pope should err, and go to Hell, 
Bell. De summo Pontif. lib. 4. cap. 5.  Bellarmine would fain make us believe, that we are bound in conscience to go with him, for thus he speaketh: Simo Papa exraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes, teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona & virtutes malas, nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare. If the Pope should err in commanding Vices, and forbidding Virtues, the Church were bound to believe that Vice is good, and that Virtue is evil, unless she would fin against her Conscience. Here is sweet Catholic Doctrine, is it not? yet such stuff as this, is of such value, with you, that the same Bellarmine saith, 
Bell. Praefatin li●res ●e Fortif.  Quâ de re agitur, cum de primatu Pontificis agitur? brevissime dicam, de summa rei Christianae; The Primacy of the Pope, says he, is the sum of Christian Religion, he means Antichristian.  
3. Your arrogant Attributions, to corrupted , in derogation to the sovereignty and efficacy of converting and electing Grace, yea, to the utter corrupting and undermining of sundry great Gospel-truths, as Election, Regeneration, Assurance, Perseverance; your , is an Error that draws a soul tail after it: But the Scripture saith, We are not born again of the will of man, but of his own will he begat us, John 1.13. James 1.18. So then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth; it is neither Free will, nor good Works, but it is of God that showeth mercy, Rom. 9.16. When thou wast in thy blood, yea, when thou wast in thy blood, I said unto thee, Live, Ezek. 16.6. Which is that that fills the hearts of his people, with such admiring and adoring thoughts of the freedom, and sovereignty, and efficacy of his grace. That gratia vorti-cordia, as Austin speaks, that wonderful heart-changing grace, that slays the enmity, subdues the heart, and turns the will; who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained mercy.— Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory, for ever and ever, Amen, 1 Tim. 1.13, 14, 15, 16, 17. Unto him that hath loved us, and washed us from our sins, with his own blood, and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God, and his Father, to him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever, Amen, Revel. 1.5.6. But he that thinks he is converted, and doth not sing his Hallelujahs and Songs of salvation, for it, to this King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, and to the Lamb that was slain, and to the power of his Spirit, but to his own corrupted will: As he sets the Crown upon his own head, and robs God of his glory, as if he were not Master, and sovereign disposer of his own gifts and graces, so he doth thereby give in evidence against himself, that he never knew the grace of God in truth; The whole work of our salvation is both begun and carried on, by free grace alone, from first to last; from the foundation thereof, in election to the top-stone of glorification, the Saints cry grace, grace unto it, Zach. 4.7. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord, Rom. 5. ult.  
4. Your Justification by the merit of good Works, to the infinite dishonour of the grace and blood of Christ, and to the keeping of afflicted Consciences upon the rack of everlasting perplexity and trouble: for Conscience once effectually awakened, will never be pacified, but by the blood of Christ, for we are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, Rom. 3.24. When you have done all those things that are commanded you, say we are but unprofitable servants, and where then is merit? Luke 17.7, 8, 9, 10. There is iniquity even in our holy things, Exod. 28.38. Our best Duties are in part defiled, and mixed with sin. The very tears of Repentance need washing with the blood of Christ. Therefore well did Austin pray, Lava Lachrymas meas Domine. You can allow the righteousness of a mere man, or of a woman, of a Monk, or a Nun, to be imputed and reckoned to another, as in your Supererogations, and yet cavil at the imputation of Christ's righteousness.  
This is a Truth of so great weight, that Luther called it, Articulus stantis aut cadentis Ecclesiae, the very Crisis and chief Indication of the Church's state, she stands or falls with this Truth. And as the Scripture describes the Protestant Reformation by their standing upon the Sea of glass, as spiritual Priests, washing themselves in the Righteousness of Christ, and making their Robes white with the blood of the Lamb, whereof the molten Sea and Lavers of the Temple were a Type, Revel. 4.6. and 7.14. and 15.2. So indeed it was upon this grand Truth, and Principle of the Gospel, 
Dr. Grew of Justification. Preface.  as Dr. Grew hath well observed, That Luther, that Champion of the Lord, did pitch the Field against you: And well he might, for the Apostle doubteth not to tell the Galathians when corrupted here, That Christ was become of none effect to them, and that they were fallen from grace, and turned to another Gospel, Galat. 5.4. and 1.6. Our Justification by the blood of Christ, and our Regeneration by his Spirit, being the two main parts of those glad tidings of the Gospel, by which it refreshes and gives rest to weary Souls. And therefore to deny these, or to ascribe them to other causes, as to our own Wills or Works, as it is to send distressed Souls to the Brooks of Teman in a day of drought, and unto Waters that fail; so it is to reject at once, both the Blood of the Covenant, and also the Spirit of the Covenant of Grace, and so to turn both Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, as it were, out of Office: For, it is a Truth as firm as the foundations of the Earth, and as  as the Pillars of Heaven, that it is the peculiar work and glory, both of the blood of Christ, to justify and reconcile, and of his Spirit to convert, and apply that precious blood: And seeing the riches of his Freegrace appears, and shines forth exceeding gloriously, in these influences of his blood and Spirit into our salvation; therefore to detract from these, by founding it in our own Wills or Works, is to eclipse the glory of his Grace. From all which, you may see the danger of both these Errors of your Church, there being nothing wherein the enmity of corrupt Nature against the Gospel, doth more directly work out and vent itself, like the venom of Asps, and as the poison of Dragons, then in these delusions, of Conversion by your own Wills, and Justification by your own Works.  
5. A fifth pernicious Error of the Roman Church, is Idolatry, and Superstition of all sorts, contrary to the very Letter of the Second Commandment: As worshipping Images, praying to Saints and Angels, your Cake-Idol, or Breaden-god; Your Sacrilege of the Cup in the Lord's Supper; Your five supernumerary Sacraments; Your Latin-Service; Your Superstitious, or Religious Orders, as you call them; Your prohibition of of Meats and Marriage; Your Holy Water, Relics, Pilgrimages, etc. As it were on every high Hill, and under every green Tree, hath that Idolatrous Church played the Harlot; whereby she scandaliseth and hardeneth both Jews and Turks against the Gospel: Yea, she hath corrupted and intoxicated almost all the Churches in the world, with this sin, and made all Nations drunk with the wine of the wrath of her Fornication, for which the Holy Ghost brands her, as THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS, Revel. 17.5. and 18.3. Yea, though she hath seen the jealousy, and the fury of her Husband, against her treacherous sister Judah, yet she feareth not. I mean, the desolations of the Eastern Churches, by those Instruments of his fury, those Angels of his wrath, whom the Lord hath let lose upon them, from about the River Euphrates; the Turks, who have destroyed and subjugated a third part of the Christian world for this sin, yet she repenteth not, being besotted, and dead drunk with the poison of her own Fornications, and given up to a reprobate sense; she hath a heart that cannot repent of such a Church-destroying, such a God-provoking sin, as was prophesied of her in the sixth Trumpet, Revel. 9.13.— 20. The Learned Raynolds hath spoken very convictingly to you, concerning this sin, in his Book, De Idololatria Romanae Ecclesiae: And so hath Mede, of the Apostasy of the latter Times.  
6. All your seditious Principles against Kings and Magistrates, exempting your Clergy, exalting your Pope above them. The number of those you thus exempt, as sous of Belial from the yoke, hath been estimated to amount in spacious Popish Countries, to a very great proportion, even to an Hundred thousand able fight Men in one Nation; which brings to mind that expression of your own Pope Gregory, That Antichrist hath an Army of Priests to fight his Battles. Rex superbiae prope est, & quod dici●nesas est, 
Greg. Lib. 4. Epist. 38.  Sacerdotum praeparatus est exercitus qui cervici militant elatioms, etc. The King of pride (saith he) is at the door, and which is dreadful to be spoken, there is an Army of Priests ready to fight under that neck of pride which lifteth up itself, etc. The fifth Trumpet proclaimeth, that he hath a black Guard of Scorpion-locusts, who know no other King but him whom the Holy Ghost hath named according to his Nature, Abaddon, and Apollyon, the great Destroyer, the Son of Perdition, the Man of Sin, Revel. 9 ver. 3, 11. And as you thus rob and spoil Kings of their Subjects, so you make Kings themselves Subjects to the Pope, exalting his Throne with Lucifer, above the stars of God, Isa. 14.13. And giving him such a barbarous power over them, that it is a wonderful and unaccountable thing that ever any King or Magistrate should be a Papist; no account can be given of it, but the strange corruption of Nature, neither their Crowns, nor Lives, being secure, but merely at the Pope's courtesy, upon the principles of that Religion, which gives a foreign Priest power to depose them, and give away their Kingdoms.  
But the Apostle Peter, a great Apostle, and whom you pretend a kindness, and a respect for, he exhorts us to submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake; to the King as supreme, 1 Pet. 2.13. But not a word of the Pope's Supremacy. And the Apostle Paul, though an Apostle, yet did appeal unto Caesar, as knowing that to be the supreme Tribunal on earth in subordination unto God, for God alone is chief, and the Magistrates power subordinate unto Gods, Acts 25.10, 11. & 5.29. And he exhorteth every soul, which includeth the Pope, if he hath an humane soul, to be subject to the higher powers, Rom. 13. ver. 1. to 7. There may be passive obedience when men cannot act, therefore we whom you call Heretics, have set it down as amongst the Articles of our Faith, that Infidelity, or difference in Religion, doth not make void the Magistrates just and legal Authority, nor free the people from their obedience to him, from which Ecclesiastical persons are not exempted, much less hath the Pope any power, or Jurisdiction over them in their Dominions, or over any of their people, and least of all to deprive them of their Dominions or Lives, if he shall judge them to be Heretics, or upon any other pretence whatsoever; yea, some of your own have confessed, That from the beginning it was not so. 
〈…〉 Julio. 3●● 2. B.  Quin omnes emnium Ecclesiarum Ministri, Romanae non minus quam caeterarum ultro Regibus Principibus ac Magistratibus parebant. But all the Ministers of all the Churches, yea, of the Church of Rome, as well as any other, were willingly obedient unto Kings, Princes, and Magistrates. So those Bononian Fathers of yours before mentioned. How, and by what means, 
Morney Myst. Iniq. per totum: Fox Acts and Monum. Vol. 1. pa. 1018.  and by what steps and degrees, the Pope risen from such mean beginnings, to such an height of worldly power and grandeur, to tread upon the Necks of Kings and Princes, Guiccardin hath fully showed in his digression, towards the end of the fourth Book of his Histories, which you have honestly stolen away out of some Editions, but in some others it is restored. Morney also speaks fully to it, as being a great part of his scope, and so doth Mr. Fox.  
7. Your sanguinary Spirit and Principles, towards such as differ from, and testify against you: Wherein there is not only an evil in practice, but your practice being justified as lawful by your principle, it is two sins conjoined, it is both Murder and Heresy, and most remote from the Spirit of the Gospel, which is a Spirit of love and sweetness; yea, it is a principal character of Antiohrist, and mark of the Beast, Revel. 13.7. and 17.6. The Revelation often mentions these two sins, the Sorceries and Fornications of your false Worship, and your shedding innocent and precious blood, as the two grand procuring causes of your Ruin: See Revel. 18.2. ult. and Revel. 19.2.  
It is Ramus his Observation, that great Light, and faithful Martyr of Jesus Christ, whom you slew, with Thirty thousand more, in your great Parisian Massacre in the year 1572. 
P: Rami Commentar. de Religione Christiana. Lib. 4. cap. 19 pag. 546.  It is his Observation and Lamentation, How that Julian the Apostate could observe, and testify concerning the Christian Religion, in those primitive times, That it came to be so largely diffused and propagated, by means of the good turns and offices of love, which Christians did towards all men of what Religion, or persuasion soever: But we, in these days (we Romanists) are of such a spirit, that if our Neighbour do not consent, and concur, and run along with us in every superstitious practice and opinion, we presently burn him alive. Julianus Apostata ad Arsacium Cappadociae Pontificem scripsit, Christianam Religionem tam late propagatam esse propter Christianorum erga omnet cujusvis Religionis mortales beneficentiam. Nos vero, nisi de cujussibet superstitionis opinion proximus noster consentiat, igne vivum protinus exurimus. You have slain (as some compute) a greater number of Christians since the first setting up of your Inquisition, than there be Papists at this day in the World. 
— Quis talia fando  
Temperet à Lachrymis?  Who that hath either the grace of a Christian, or but the common bowels of a man, can speak of such things, without bleeding Lamentations! Alstedins observes, That in the space of Forty years, 
Alsted Encyclop. Chronol. cap. 8. ad Annum 1540  from the year 1540, there were Nine hundred thousand Martyrs in Europe. Should we Travel into Foreign Affairs, and former Ages, I might tell you of your bloody Croisadoes against Christians, instead of Turks, against the Waldenses, and Abbingenses of old, as well of late, your Spanish Inquisitions, to which King Philip the second, delivered up his own eldest Son and Heir Charles, to be butchered and murdered by them, for suspicion of savouring the Low-country Heretics. Your French Massacres, and Thyestaean Feasts and Nuptials, at which you have drank more Blood, than Wine! The barbarous Spanish Butcheries in the Netherlands: And with how much blood your Romish Faith was planted in the West-Indies, to the infinite scandal and dishonour of the Name of Christ, even in the blood of Nineteen Millions of poor innocent Natives, as Acosta, the Jesuit, a Bird of your Nest, as some have Noted, Relates the story. But to come nearer home, there were near about Three hundred slain, and burned alive in England, in Queen Mary's time: And in the late Massacre and Rebellion here in Ireland, there were about Three hundred thousand English Protestant's murdered by you, whereof above one half, above One hundred and fifty thousand in the first six Months of that Rebellion, most perfidiously and treacherously, in a time of Peace, without ever declaring War, and without any provocation given.  
These be some of the Heresies, and false Doctrines of your Church; 
Rev. 17.3.5.  some of the Blasphemies written in the Forehead of Mystical Babylon, which she owneth and maintaineth in an open and avowed manner.  
8. But I have not here mentioned her consequential Errors, because they are innumerable. For thus, there is no sound part in her, but from the sole of the foot, even to the crown of the head, there is nothing but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores. Thus, she is at defiance even with common sense and reason; she will not believe the report of three senses, in the business of the carnal presence: For as the Apostle calls it, This bread, this bread, this bread, three times after the Consecration, 1 Cor. 11.26, 27, 28. So the eye saith it is bread, the taste, the touch say the same, she sees it, feels it, and tastes it; but yet she believes there is no bread there, which is to lay aside the use of reason, and to turn Sot and Sceptic. The madness of which delusion, did so scandalise Averro, the Arabian Philosopher, that when they asked him upon his Deathbed, What Religion he died in? He gave this Answer, Quia Christiani manducant Deum suum, & adorant quod comedunt, sit anima mea cum Philosophis: Because the Christians eat their God with their teeth, and worship that which they eat, let my soul be with the Philosophers. But having heard of the glorious Name and Fame of Christ, and Christianity, it had been his Duty, and would have been his Happiness, to have made a thorough search into the Fountain of that Religion, which is the Scriptures of Truth; and there he might have found, that this abominable Idolatry, is no part at all of the Christian Religion, but of the Antichristian Apostasy, of the Mother of Harlots; yea, there is hardly any Article of the Christian Faith, which she doth not some way or other, by evident and unavoidable consequence, corrupt and subvert: As for instance, she denies by consequence that Christ is come in the flesh, which is one of the Characters of Antichrist, 1 John 4.3. She denies the Reality of the Humane Nature of Christ, by her Transubstantiation; for she leaves him only a Fantastic, or Imaginary body, having not the true Nature, and dimensions of a body; yea, she doth impugn and subvert, by true and sound consequence of Reason, that great Fundamental, of One God: As was ingeniously made out, by an English Gentleman, a Protestant, in discourse with a Roman Catholic, thus; That is not the true Religion, that doth not acknowledge One God, but Popery doth not acknowledge One God: For did you not pray to the Virgin Mary this morning? The Roman Catholic replied, Yes: To which the Protestant made this Return, And did not Five thousand pray to her at the same time? The Papist answered, Yes, doubtless. From whence the Protestant inferred, Then either you prayed like a Fool, or else she heard you all, and knows all your hearts; but this is to make her a God.  
These therefore, are some of the Roman Heresies; Her dethroning the Scripture; The Pope's Infallibility; Conversion by ; Justification by Works; Idolatry and Superstition; Her seditious Principles; Her sanguinary Principles; Her consequential Errors: Yet this is but a general and brief induction of them.  
But now do you ask, Who ever testified against her? Proh pudorem tuum! Although if no man had, yet that is no sufficient evidence of her Innocency; the cause doth not depend upon this: But yet withal you know, if you know any thing of the Histories of the Church, in former times, That the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome, have been testified against, all along by faithful men, whom God hath raised up from Age to Age, to be the Witnesses of his Truth; for the Lord gave his two Witnesses light, and grace, and power, to prophesy in sackcloth 1260 days, Revel. 11.3. There was a Woman in the Wilderness, when Antichrist was upon the Throne, Revel. 12.14. There were Saints, whom the Beast did persecute and war against, during all the time of his Reign, Revel. 13.7. Would you know their names 〈◊〉 you may see some of them, in divers of our Divines, and Writers, who have taken the pains to present you with Instances and Catalogues of some of the chief, and most eminent. And common Reason will easily suggest unto you, That if there were so many left upon Record, there must needs be many more, whose names, the Histories of former times have not preserved, and delivered down to posterity: But you may see a competent number of Witnesses against you, in the Centurists of Magdeburg in Flacius Illyricus his Catalogus testium veritatis: Morney his History of the Papacy, or Mystery of Iniquity. Fox his Book of Martyrs. Raynolds his Conference with Hart. Sundry of our Expositors on the Revelation. See Mr. Arthur Dent on Chap. 11. White's way to the Church. Usher against Maloone: And of the Religion anciently professed by the Irish, and British, and de statu & successione Eccles. Brittanicarum: Yea, your own Bellarmine giveth some account of those that have even from the primitive times, opposed and impugned the Primacy of the Church of Rome, though he doth it briefly, and defectively enough; for he omits, besides other things, all the African Bishops and Councils, Bell: Praefat. in libros de Pontif. This may suffice at present, as to the Errors and Heresies of your Church. Your next endeavour, is to defend her, from the charge of Schism: Let us proceed, in the strength and grace of Christ, to consider that also.   

CHAP. V Of the Nature of Schism, and of the Schisms of the Church of Rome, both within herself, and from other Churches.  

DISCOURSE.  
SChism is a departure or division from the Unity of the Church, whereby the band and communion held with some former Church, is broken and dissolved. If ever the Church of Rome divided Herself by Schism, from any other body of faithful Christians, or broke communion, or went forth from the society of any elder Church, I pray satisfy yourself and me in these particulars. First, Whose company did she leave? Secondly, From what body did she go forth? Where was the true Church which she forsook? And the same thing is repeated again, a second and a third time in your Paper.   

ANSWER.  
You do here again, as before, in your description of Apostasy and Heresy, describe the thing amiss, that you may the better ward off the blow, and de●●●● your Church; Not that we desire to strive with you about words, but as they do involve erroneous, and undue apprehensions of things: Be it granted, That Schism is a rent, or a breach of that Unity that Christ hath appointed in his Church; and so as Heresy denies the Faith, Schism destroys 〈…〉 of the Gospel; but your description of it fails in 〈◊〉.  
I. There may be Schism in a Church within itself: The Apostle several times useth this word, in this Epistle to the Corinthians, as 1 Cor. 1.10. and cap. 11.18. and cap. 12.25. I hear, saith he, that, when you come together in the Church, there be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, divisions, or schisms among you: Though that any of them did break off from the communion of the Church, doth not appear; but there were carnal contendings and strive within, and among themselves, rending and tearing one another, which the Apostle there calls Rents or Schisms.  
II. There may be Schism from another Church, contemporary and coexistent, as well as from a Church preaexistent. There is no necessity, that it must be only from a former Elder Church; yea, an Elder Church may be guilty of Schism from a younger, and from those that were her own Members, if she break the bond of love and order with them, by her own corruptions, and persecutions. It is the apostatising, persecuting Church, that makes the rent, and is guilty of the Schism, and not the Reforming party, who are driven out by them.  
Now to apply these things a little to the Church of Rome she may be charged with Schism upon all these Accounts: The plain truth is, she is the most Schismatical Church in the World, both within herself, and in reference to other Churches also a the evidence whereof is so notorious, that if I were a Roman Catholic, I would tell you, That it was very unhappily, and unadvisedly done of you, to mention this business of Schism, in a Paper of Dispute offered by you to the Heretics.  
For first, within herself. Her intestine Schisms and Divisions have been so many, that it would make this Paper swell into a Volume, 
Bell: Praef. in Libr. de Pontif.  to number them all up unto you. It is Bellarmine's own concession, though he labours also to cover this nakedness with a Fig leaf, That there were Schismata gravissima & plurima ipsorum interase Romanorum Pontificum. Very grievous, and very many Schisms, 
Voet. Disp. Vol. 2. Dis. 43. p.  even of the Popes of Rome amongst themselves. Voetius refers you to Mayer's Book, of the Six and twenty Schisms of the Church and See of Rome; 
689. Onuphr. Roman. Pontif. & Cardinal. ad Annum Christi 1378.  but your own Onuphrius reckons up no less than Twenty nine Schisms in the Church of Rome: And of the Twenty eighth in the time of Clement the seventh, he saith, it was Pessimum & diuturnum Schisma, omnisque Respublica Christiana divisa. A most wicked and long lasting Schism; for it lasted, as he saith, no less than One and fifty years together, and the whole Christian world was divided by it; the French, Spaniards, and others, following Clement the seventh; but Germany, Hungary, England, and part of Italy, followed Urban the sixth. Moreover, 
Anno Christi circiter 897. etc.  to mention another instance among so many, the Schisms were so violent between Pope Stephanus, and Pope Formosus, and their Successors, That they did nothing but do, and undo; Ratify, and Rescind the Acts and Decrees of one another. Stephanus, for his part, he Rescinds the Decrees of Formosus, and like a quiet, and peaceable man, digs him up out of his Grave, cuts off his Fingers, etc. But Pope Romanus, and Theodorus, and John the Tenth, disannulled the Acts of Stephen, and approved Formosus: Yet after these, comes Sergius the third, who digs up Formosus his dead body once more, cuts off his Head, casts it into Tiber, Rescinds his Decrees. Now the Question is, Which of them shall we believe? for, 
Bell. de Pontif. lib 4. cap. 12.  they were all infallible. Bellarmine determines, That Stephanus and Sergius were in the Error, and so like an Heretic he takes upon him to judge the Pope: And as you have Popes and Antipopes, so you have Councils against Councils; for instance, 
V Calvis. Chr●nol. ad annum: 1437.  your Councils of Constanoe and Basil have defined, That the Council is above the Pope. Quod nisi est, quis unquam Romano Pontifici quamvis improbissimo contradicerei? Which if it be not so, Who would ever gainsay the Pope, though never so wicked, say they of Basil in their Bull, Jan. 17. 1438. But Pope Leo, and the Council of Lateran, have determined the contrary. And here again, 
Bell. de Conciliorum authoritate. lib. 2. cap. 19 & de Eceles. militante. lib. 3. cap. 16.  Bellarmine takes upon him to determine between the dissenting Popes and Councils, and plonounceth that of Basil, as soon as Antichrist was angry with them, to be but Conciliabulum, etc. But, in the mean time, your boastings of a Supreme, Infallible, Visible Judge amongst you, to end your Controversies, are to much purpose, unless Bellarmine be he; but he is dead, and who succeeds him in the Office, I cannot tell. And, I wonder, What became of your uninterrupted Succession all this while, during all these Broils and Schisms? And where is your P●●c● and Unity among yourselves? When Bellarmine almost upon every Controversy, reports the contrary Opinions of your own Doctors, some of which he condemns very severely. 
Voet. Disp. part. 2 inventar. Eccles. Roman. p. 689.  I have not told them how many they be, but Voetius saith, He mentions no less than Two hundred contrary Opinions amongst your own Writers, which your Infallible Judge (as it seemeth) hath not determined to this day. I might here mention, as signal Instances thereof, The sharp Contests, and Digladiations between your Dominicans and Franciscans, and Jesuits, about the power and interests of , and Freegrace, and the influence thereof into man's Conversion and Predestination; and about the immaculate Conception of the blessed Virgin Mary, about which your Trent Council durst not give a clear definitive sentence, but speaks ambiguously, like the Delphic Oracles of old: As also the Contests between your French Sorbonists, and your Hildebrandine Parasites of the Court of Rome, about the pragmatic Sanction of the Council of Basil, the Liberties of the Gallican Church, the power of Popes, in reference to Councils and Magistrates, etc. Nor, indeed, do I know any one point, wherein you differ from the Protestants, wherein you are agreed amongst yourselves: Your very Council of Trent, though approved by the Pope, yet is rejected by the French Papists unto this day. This is your peace and unity amongst yourselves, whereof you use to boast so much; Nothing, forsooth, but Music and Harmony, made up of Discords.  
Secondly, As to other Churches. There be Churches both elder and younger, and contemporary with the Roman, and some of her own sounder Members, with all which she hath broke communion; And they are not fugitivi, but fugati; it is not they, but she that hath made the breach, because she doth impose such conditions of communion upon them, as they cannot lawfully submit unto; viz. To receive all her Errors, and submit their Consciences to her, and her Head as Infallible and Supreme.  
If we look back to the first times of your Apostasy, there were first, all the Churches and Christians, without the bounds of the Roman Empire, as in India, Perfia, etc. Secondly, the Grecian Churches, which were one half of that Empire, one Leg of daniel's Image, Dan. 2. which took the Alarm very early, and refused the primacy of Rome, and stood upon their guard against her. Thirdly, the African Churches did the same. Fourthly, All those suffering Churches and Christians, that were oppressed under, and by the Papacy, as living within the reach of the Pope's power.  
Or, if we consider the present state of things, at this day, and in this Age, wherein we live, there be very many, with whom the Church of Rome, hath broke communion: As for instance, All the Christians in Asia, and Africa, except some late Colonies of Papists: All the Grecian Churches in Europe: All those that are under the Patriarches of Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Russia, and Muscovia. Also the Protesant Churches and Kingdoms, and many that lie hid under the Dominions of Popish Princes, who sigh, and mourn, and groan under the Abominations of the Papacy. Sir Edwin Sands, 
Sir E S. Europae Speculum, or view of the state of Religion in Western parts, pag. 76. & 187.  who was a great Traveller, and a very intelligent person, his computation in Q. Elizabeth's time, was, That about one half of the Pope's Dominions, were fallen from him, and become Protestants, five of the Ten horns have begun to hate the Whore; And you know how that since those days, you have not been gaining, but rather losing ground; insomuch, that when all Accounts are cast up, both of those who were never subject to the Pope, and those who have shaken off his yoke, it will be found, That the Church of Rome is not a third part of the Christian world. All these Companies she hath left, and gone out from all these Bodies, and Societies of Christians; hence therefore:  
1. It is a strange Question for you to ask, Whose Company she hath left? For you cannot but know, if you know any thing at all of these matters, that there is a far greater number of Christians out of her Communion and Jurisdiction, than are within it.  
2. This renders her assuming and monopolising to herself, the name and title of the Catholic Church, in opposition to all other Churches out of her Communion, not only false, but extremely vain, and (in plain terms) ridiculous: For is she the whole Catholic Church, who is not a third part of it? Or rather, is not this a piece of Schismatical pride and arrogance in her? the very same with the Donatists of old, who did unchurch all others but themselves, and so do you, which is not the Spirit of the Gospel, but rather an evidence against you, that you have neither part nor lot in this matter, and that your hearts are not right in the fight of God, which are so full of the gall of bitterness, and sharp censoriousness. 
Raun. 6. Concluso Concl, 5. pa. 687.  It further confirms that which hath been long ago demonstrated unto you, by that Learned Raynolds, That the Church of Rome is not the Catholic Church, nor yet a sound Member of the Catholic Church.  
And so much for the Apostasies, Heresies, and Schisms of your Church; The next thing in your paper is this:    

CHAP. VI Some places of Scripture for the Inerrability of the Church of Rome, Answered.  

DISCOURSE.  
THe usual colour of believing more or less, than the Church allows, is vain and erroneous; inasmuch, as that very Christ, that stored her with knowledge of Gods revealed Truth, and with power to convey the same, hath also endued her with Inerrability to convey the same justly, without danger of miscarrying, against Ignorance. To you it is given to know the mysteries of heaven, Matt. 13.11. Against darkness; Ye are the light of the world, Matt. 5.14. Against error and falsehood; I will send unto you the Spirit of truth, to remain with you for ever, John 14.16. Against weakness; She is the pillar and ground of truth, 1 Tim. 3. Hell-gates shall not prevail against her, Matt. 16.18, etc.   

ANSWER.  
Now to examine the Contexture of this Discourse, though something might be said, both to the Grammar, and Logic of it, nor the soundness and sense of those distinctions you seem to make between Ignorance and Darkness (for what is moral Darkness, but Ignorance?) and Error and Falsehood, etc. Your Scope is, to assert the Authority, and Inerrability of your Church, as the supreme Rule of Faith and Obedience. But what you mean by the Church, whether Popes, or General Councils, you say not, you know your Writers are divided about it. But to the Scriptures you allege, we need not (as you say we must) but through the help of his grace, we will not impeach either the power or faithfulness of Christ; but there be three other things, which we may truly, and fitly say to you concerning those Scriptures.  
1. That you do not show particularly, where their pertinency lies, or how you would apply them to the point you aim at, they being in their plain and genuine sense, most remote from it.  
2. That they do not prove Inerrability in those, to whom they were spoken and intended; for they are as applicable to every other Church, yea, to every true Believer, as to the Church of Rome: For every true Believer hath the Spirit of Grace and Truth dwelling in him, and is enlightened thereby, to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven; but yet it doth not follow, nor will you affirm, That every true Believer, that every godly Man, and every godly Woman, is infallible.  
3. We answer, further, That these Promises and Scriptures were not given to the Pope and Church of Rome, there is no pretence nor colour for it. How ill doth it become you, who do deny the perseverance of true Believers, to claim to yourselves an interest in such promises, that the Spirit shall remain with you for ever? It was never said to the Pope, Ye are the light of the world: For he is indeed the Angel of Death, the Messenger and Instrument of Darkness; a Star fallen from Heaven, who hath opened the bottomless pit, and overspread the whole face of the visible Church, with smoke and darkness, as was prophesied of him, in the fifth Trumpet, Revel. 9.1. It was not said to the Pope, What ye bind on Earth, shall be bound in Heaven; and to you it is given to know the mysteries of Heaven: or that I will send the Spirit to you, to remain with you for ever. It was not said to him, nor to the Roman Catholic visible Church. You have been told so an Hundred times. You have been challenged an Hundred times over, to prove your interest in these promises, if you can: And now again, if you reply to this paper, what ever you pass by in silence, yet I pray remember this, That you prove your interest in them, now once at last. And to provoke you, if possible, thereunto, give me leave to tell you, That howsoever you labour to put a good face upon the matter, yet there are not wanting appearances and grounds of diffidence, even among yourselves about it; for Bellarmine numbers the alligation of the Apostolic See to Rome, in no higher rank, than that of pious, and very probable Opinions. 
B●ll. de Rom. Pontif. lib. 4. cap. 4.  Quod non sit omnino de fide à Romana Ecclesia non posse separari Apostolicam sedem patet, quia neque Scriptura, neque traditio habet sedem Apostolicam ita fixam esse Romae, ut inde auferri non possit nibilominus tamen pia & probabilissima est sententia. But if the Apostolic seat be removable from Rome, then by your own principles she may err and perish: Therefore, I say again, prove your interest in any Scripture-promise, if you can.  
Do it if you can (for instance) concerning that famous Text, upon which you found your claim, Matt. 16.18. Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock will I build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. This Text belongs as much to Mahomet, as to the Pope; you would fain give it to the Pope, but how many postulata must you beg without proof, before you can arrive at such a conclusion? as,  
1. That Peter was at Rome.  
2. That he was there martyred, and marthered by the Romans.  
3. That the murdering of an honest man, doth give the Thief that did it, a just right and title to all his Estates and Honours; 
Cartwr. on Matth. 16.18.  or, as Mr. Cartwright speaketh, That innocent blood, which polluteth other places, should sanctify Rome; and that the Lord, who in revenge threw down Jerusalem from her privileges, which she had above all the Cities in the world, for spilling the blood of the Prophets, should in reward lift up the head of Rome, above all other Cities, for shedding the blood of the Apostles: Nay, rather, forasmuch as it was more drunken with the blood of Saints, under the Government of the Emperors, than ever was any, and therein hath justified, her elder sister Jerusalem, therefore by the most just judgement of God, it is become the Seat of Antichrist. Yea, by this Argument, as he also observes, Jerusalem that killed our Saviour Christ himself, getteth the prize from her.  
4. That Peter was Bishop of Rome, which was inconsistent with his Office of Apostleship.  
5. That he left a Successor in eodem gradu, in his Apostolical power and office; that whereas the Commission was personal to the rest to determine with themselves, he only of all the Twelve should hold the Apostleship, as it were, in fee-simple, for himself, and his Successors for ever.  
6. That the Bishop of Rome is this Successor, though Peter taught at Jerusalem first, 
Cartwr. on Matth 16.18.  afterwards at Lidda, then at Joppa, afterwards at Antioch, and likewise at Caesarea, lastly, at Alexandria, before he came to Rome: And so the Apostolical Authority is holden by the tenure of Burrow English, where the youngest enjoyeth all, as Mr. Cartwright there observes.  
Of all which suppositions, the two first are merely disputable and uncertain, and can never be demonstrated, but the four last are most certainly and indisputably . But yet all these we must believe, to the end we may believe the Pope's concernment in this promise made to Peter. And many a child of God have you offered in the fire to Molech, for not believing these Romances: But when will you go about to prove them? You know in your own Consciences, that there is as much footing in the Scripture for the old Pagan theogony, their Pedigrees and Fables of their Canonised Ancestors, and for the Jewish Thalmudick, as for these Romantic Figments. Learned men have observed, That there may be some dark footsteps of the true Scripture History of Adam, investigated, and discerned in the old Heathenish Fable of Saturn; some footsteps of the History of Cham and Cain in the Fables of Jupiter, of Noah in Bacchus, of Moses and Joseph in Mercurius Trismegistus, of Joshuah and Samson in Hercules, etc. And truly there is no more of Peter the Apostle, in the Pope of Rome; those being nothing else, but depravations of, and depraved Traditions, and Additions to, the Truths and Sacred Histories of the Old Testament, and so is Popery to the New. You reason from the promise made to Peter, that the Church cannot fail, being builded upon a Rock; nor, needs no new Masons, to rebuild her again: But why do you not prove the Roman Synagogue to be a Church? You know we deny it, otherwise then as the dead carcase, or picture of a man, is called a man; She is Ecclesia malignantium, as Psal. 26.5. A Church of evil doers, but not a true Gospel Church, not a Spouse of Christ. Though if she were, yet a true Church, when declining, or defective, may need Instruments in the hand of Christ to Reform her; call them new Masons, or by what other name of honour or contempt you please. Therefore, after the renewed promulgation of the Gospel, in the tenth Chapter of the Revelations, Christ doth authorise and commissionate his servants to measure the Temple, and to leave out the outer Court, Revel. 11.1, 2. which importeth some further degree of Reformation; but prove the Pope, and Church of Rome, to be at all concerned, in what was said, to Peter, if you can.  
Do it, if you can; concerning that other Scripture, so much abused by you, 1 Tim. 3.15. The Church is the pillar and ground of Truth, because by the Ministry of the Church, the Truth is published and propagated; 
Mr. Bedle 's Letters to Wadsworth. cap. 8. p. 118.  as if a Law, or Proclamation of the King be set up, upon a pillar in the Marketplace; or in allusion, as Mr. Bedle takes it, to the bases or pillars that held up the Veil or Curtains in the Tabernacle: And whether you refer it to Timothy as some, or to the Church as others, it comes much to one. Evident it is, that the Apostle speaks it directly, either of Timothy, or of the Church of Ephesus; and that it holds by a parity of reason, concerning all other Gospel Ministers, and Gospel Churches, both the one, and the other, may be called in a safe sense, the pillar and ground of truth. But what is this to the Church of Rome? How ridiculous a reason were it (saith Mr. Cartwright) for the Apostle to exhort Timothy to walk circumspectly in the Church of Ephesus, 
Cartwr. in locum.  because the Church of Rome is thepillar and stablement of truth? The Papists (saith Calvin) dum ad se transferunt hoc encomium, improbe faciunt, alienis se plumis vestiendo. Nam ut evehatur Ecclesia supra tertium Coelum, nego id totum ad eos ullomodo pertinere. 
Calvin in loc.  Quinetiam locum presentem adversus eos retorqueo: nam si Ecclesia columna est veritatis, sequitur non esse apud eos Ecclesiam, ubi non modo sepulta jacet veritas, sed horrendum in modum diruta & eversa sub pedibus calcatur. When the Papists transfer this glory to themselves, they do wickedly, clothing themselves with the feathers of other Birds: For, suppose the Church be extolled, and lifted up above the Third Heavens, I deny, that any thing of all this excellency belongs in the least to them; yea, further, I retort this place against them: For, if the Church be the Pillar of Truth, than it follows, that the Church is not amongst them, where the Truth doth not only, lie buried, but is torn down, and overthrown, and trampled under foot, in a fearful manner. An hoc est vel aevigma, vel cavillum? Paulus Ecclesiam non vult agnosci, nisi in qua excelsa & conspicua stat Dei veritas in Papatu nihil tale apparet, sed disiectio tantùm & ruinae, ergo genuina Ecclesiae nota illic non extat. Is there any difficulty, or any cavilling in this! Paul will not have any Church acknowledged, but such as wherein the Truth of God stands on high, conspicuous to the view of all men. But there is no such thing to be seen in the Papacy, but the overthrow and ruins of the Truth; therefore there is no true note, or mark of the Church to be found there.  
The plain Truth is, That Apostate Church, and the Head thereof, that is Babylon, and Antichrist, hath no right to any one promise in the Book of God, but stands directly under all the Threaten and Curses written therein, because they have both added thereto, and taken from it, Revel. 22.18, 19 Indeed those Churches, and those Souls, have the best right to the promises, that prise them most: Therefore the Protestant Churches have a better right to them, than the Church of Rome. By the Protestant Churches, I intent, all that do subject themselves to the Scripture, as the Rule of Faith and Life: And by the Church of Rome, all those that suffer the Pope to have dominion over their Faith; for we do not judge every Individual in the external communion of that Church, but only such of them as have drunk down her deadly poison; What have they to do with the promises? What have they to do with God, to take his Covenant into their mouths? Who do believe in a man that can lie? and in a Church of men, who may deceive, and be deceived? How much better and safer would it be for your eternal peace, to cleave to the Scriptures, which are the voice of God, and so to bottom and ground your Faith upon the truth and faithfulness of him that cannot lie, than thus to ground it upon a man that shall die, and upon the sons of men, that shall be made as grass: For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man, as the flower of grass; The grass withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth away, but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.    

CHAP. VII. Of Humane Testimonies, for and against the See of Rome.  
THat which remains of your Discourse, is partly Quotations, without so much as attempting to prove your interest in them, of some parallel Texts with those before answered; partly repetitions of those impertinent Queries, Whether did the Roman Church go from any other known Church, & c? Answered also before, under the Head of Schism, partly Humane Testimonies for the See of Rome, for so you phrase it, the Body of your Discourse having run upon this expression, the Church of Rome, the Title being the Roman Faith. To your Humane Testimonies, I would humbly offer three things to your serious consideration, which, I suppose, may suffice to all you say, or can say, from the Fathers, in whom you seem to repose your greatest confidence, for the defence of your cause.  
Consid. 1. That you know we do not own the Fathers, but the Scriptures only, as the Supreme Judge of Controversies: Though we honour them, as blessed Instruments in their Generation; yet we know they were but men, and not Apostles infallibly, inspired and assisted by the Holy Ghost, Yea, we do ingenuously acknowledge, That the darkness, and inadvertency of the Fathers in some points, did contribute and make way for the rise and growth of Popery. They had their hands so full of other work, partly from without, in all their Conflicts, both with Jews and Pagans, both by writing and suffering, while the Christian Princes also in the mean time, were not idle, but had their hands full, in the Wars of Michael against the Dragon, against the persecuting Pagan Emperors, during that fourth Century: And partly from within, by those intestine mischiefs, which, through the malice and craft of Satan, were bred within the Churches own bowels, such as Arrianism, with all the Errors and Blasphemies accompanying and flowing from it, against the Person and Natures of Christ, and against his blessed Spirit. As also Pelagianism, wretchedly undermining the work of his Grace and Spirit, in the effectual application of Christ, and his redeeming Love, to the Souls of his Elect. Donatism likewise at the same time dreadfully disturbing the peace, and order, and fellowship of the Gospel, by dischurching, and disbaptising all other Christians, and re-baptising themselves, whilst othres in the mean time whereas much too large, and lose, as they too rigid. The faithful Servants of Christ were thus assaulted in those days on every side, over and beside the daily work of Teaching and Governing their respective Flocks and Churches. All which, did so severely call upon them for their deepest intentions and endeavours, that as it rendered the work heavy upon the shoulders of the faithful Ministry in those conflicting times, so, truly, to my narrow capacity, it is no wonder, if in the mean time, the deep and subtle workings of the mystery of Iniquity in the Papacy, did, in a great measure, escape their observation. And the rather, if we consider the disadvantage they were under, both for want of Printing, and of well regulated and form Universities and Schools of the Prophets. The Monastic Institutions at first (as some have thought) coming nearest, and seeming to have had some glimpse and aim thereat; so that when all accounts are cast up, assuredly it will be found, That we have more cause to acknowledge and admire the grace and power of Christ, in acting and enabling his servants to see so much, and go so far, in those dark and difficult times, then to stumble at the dispensation of his Providence, because they did not see every thing. Neither have you for your parts, either cause or colour to offend at these sentiments of ours concerning the Fathers, when your own Petavius can say, 
Petau. Animadv. in Epiph. Haeres. 69 Arriano rum. p. 285.  Plerisque veterum patrum— usu venit ut ante Errorum atque Haereseon— Originem, quibus Christianae fidei capita singillatim oppugnabantur, nondum satis illustrata ac patefactâ rei veritate, quaedam suis scriptis asperserint, quae cum orthodoxae fidei regulâ minime consentiant. It is a common thing (saith he) with most of the ancient Fathers, that before the rise of Errors and Heresies, whereby the Articles of the Christian Faith were particularly oppugned (the truth of the thing being not fully enough cleared and laid open) they did intermingle some things in their Writings, which do not agree with the rule of the Orthodox Faith. Thus he; yea, there is nothing more common with your Writers, than to cry the Fathers either up or down, merely as may serve their turn, and that sometimes in term; course enough. Patres quos se venerari simulat, saith Beza, concerning your Church, Palam tamen imperitis illudens conculcat. 
Beza in 1 Tim. 3.15.   
Consid. 2. You may do well to consider yet further, That the Fathers did bear their Testimony so far as their Light served against the corruptions they saw coming in; though in some things, which it pleased God in his unsearchable wisdom to hid from them, they did run with the Cry, and say, as others said; yet, in other things, they bear witness against you. And therefore it were easy to retaliate, and requite you with as many Testimonies of the Ancients on the other hand, against the See of Rome, as you have brought for it: You may see a little handful of them in calvin's Preface to his Institutions.  
As to those speeches you quote, as sounding for you out of Epiphanius, Austin, and Ambrose, you seem to understand their words in a deeper sense, than ever they intended them; for what though the Ancients sometimes called Peter the Chief, the First, the Head, the Prince of the Apostles, yet these, and such like Metaphors, may be understood in such a modified sense, as to import no more but only a precedency of order, and not a supremaof power; the former whereof, is granted by our Divines to Peter, but will stand you in no stead; and the latter you cannot prove, though if you could, yet this also would not do your business; for, suppose Peter had been as great a King as Solomon, yet what is this to the Pope, any more than to the Turk, or to the King of Spain? But it will be difficult for you to evince, with cogency of demonstration, That the preference the Fathers give him, doth amount to any further or higher power, than that of the Foreman of a Jury, or the Speaker of the House of Parliament, or the Moderator of a Synod, who hath a pre-eminence of Order, but not of Power and Jurisdiction, above the rest of his Colleagues. What say you to that of Jerom? Ut Plato Princeps Philosophorum, 
Hieron. 2. lib. advers. Pelag.  ita Petrus Apostolorum fuit; As Plato was Prince of the Philosophers, so was Peter of the Apostles: But Plato had no power of Government or Jurisdiction over other Philosophers, but only an eminency of esteem and respect. I might here also tell you, as to Epiphanius (but that I hasten to a close) that the Testimony you allege, is not in his Anchoratus, but in his Panarium contra Haereses. As also, what a Testimony he hath born against you, concerning your Idolatry; 
Vide infta Cap 8. Append.  and how slightly your own Writers, such as Canus, Baronius, Petavius, are pleased to speak of him.  
As to Austin, the first sentence you quote from him, as it doth not occur in the place you quote, where I have searched for it, so neither indeed do I remember any such expression of his in any other place. The next, wherein he speaks of Peter as the Rock, I wonder you would quote, when I presume you are not ignorant, that he hath put it among his Retractations, and given a sounder exposition of the Rock concerning Christ himself. 
Retract. lib. 1. cap. 21.  Dixi de Apostolo Petro quoth in illo tanquam in Petra fundata sit Ecclesia. Sed scio me postea sic exposuisse, ut super hunc, intelligeretur quem confessus est Petrus— Non enim dictum est illi tu es Petra, sed tues Petrus. Petra autem erat Christus. And again, 
Serm. 13. in Matth. p. 22. Edit. Lovan. — Aedificabo Ecclesiam meam, id est super meipsum filium Dei vivi aedificabo Ecclesium meam. Nam volentes homines aedificari super bomines, dicebant, ego quidem sum Pauli, ego autem Apollo, ego vero Cephae. And that his Principatus Apostolici Sacerdotis, 
Epis. 162.  and whatever other expression of his, may seem to carry a benign aspect towards the Church of Rome, must be understood with some temper and allay, is undeniably evident by the famous Testimonies, constantly born by him, and by the rest of the African Bishops and Councils, against the Encroachments and Usurpations, of that aspiring, and devouring See of Rome. 
Can. 22:  The Milevitan Council decreed, Ad Transmarina qui putaverit appellandum, à nullo intra Africam in communionem suscipiatur. If any man shall appeal beyond the Seas, let none in afric receive him to communion. And in Cyprian's time, upon occasion of Stephanus Bishop of Rome, his interposing on the behalf of Basilides, and Martialis, who had been deposed for sacrificing to Idols, Cyprian, and other Bishops in Council with him, decreed, 
Cypr. Epist. 55. Pamel.  Ut unius cujusque causa illic audiatur ubi est crimen admissum, & illic agere causam suam, ubi & accusatores habere & testes sui criminis possit. That every one's cause should be heard in the place of the Fact committed, and there manage his cause— where the Defendant may have both accusers and witnesses face to face. So little understood they of the Pope's Supremacy.  
As to Ambrose, the Books you quote, De Vocatione Gentium, are generally concluded, by all Learned men, both Papists and Protestants, to be none of his; but some ascribe them to Eucherius Lugdunensis. Bellarmine to Prosper; yet Vossius thinks they are none of Prospers, as differing from his principles, and so thinks J. Latius of them, as differing from his stile. Libros de Vocatione Gentium (saith Rivet) sentiunt fere omnes non esse Ambrosii. 
Riu. Crit. Sacr. lib. 3. cap. 17. & lib. 4. cap. 18. Lat. lib. 2. the Semi Pelag. cap. 3.  Erasmo stilus videtur non abhorrere à phrasi Eucherii Lugdunensis. Bellarminus & alii fere omnes eos asserunt Prospero, Obstare tamen, scribit clarissimus Vessius, quod illius Authoris sententia non videtur quadrare cum doctrina Prosperi. A Prosperi etiam stilo abludere judicavit vir eruditus Joh. Latius. Moreover, seeing you mention Ambrose, you may remember his judgement was, That Rome is Babylon, Apoc. 17. So much for this second Consideration, That the Fathers did testify in part against you, and not so much for you, as you pretend.  
Considerate. 3. I pray consider in the third place, That there be many, even of your own Writers, that testify against you in several things; for which, you have put their Names, and their Books, into your honest Indices Expurgatorii, and into your Index librorum prohibitorum, such as Stella, Masius Espencaeus, Ferus, etc. But there be others left, who have escaped your Interpolations, Expurgations, and Prohibitions, who testify against you to your faces. Let me add but two or three signal Instances to what you have had already.  
First, 
Greg. lib. 6. Epist. 30. Lib. 4. Epist. 38. Bellarm. de Pontif. lib. 2. cap. 2. & lib. 2. cap. 13. Ribera in Apoc. 14.8. Tertoll. count. Judae. cap. 9 Aug. the Civ. Dei. lib. 18. cap. 22. Hieron. de Spiritu sanct. Prologue. & Ep. 151, in Algas Qu. 11. Ambros. in Apoc. 17.  You know how sharply Pope Gregory the first, inveighs against that proud, swelling, smoky title of Universal Pastor, used and claimed by all his Successors to this day. Ego autem fidenter dico, quia quisquis se universalem vocat vel vocari desiderat, in elatione sua Antichristum praecurrit, quia superbiendo caeteris se praeponit. I speak it confidently (saith he, and the Pope, you say, cannot err) that whosoever calls himself, or desireth to be called by others, universal Bishop, or Pastor, is the Forerunner of Antichrist, in his elation of mind, because he lifts up himself in pride above others. And he saith, That it is a profane Title, and that the King of pride is at the door, and an Army of Priests ready to fight his Battles, with many other such like expressions.  
Secondly, I might here also tell you, how that Bellarmine and Ribera, both Jesuits, and some others of the same Tribe, do confess and maintain, and that according to the judgement of sundry of the Fathers, viz. Tertullian, Austin, Jerom, Ambrose, That mystical Babylon in the Revelations, is Rome, and that she is reserved and devoted to destruction, even to be burnt with fire. A concession of more dangerous consequence, and importance to your cause and interest, then to be evaded by Romances of an imaginary Antichrist of the Tribe of Dan.  
Thirdly, If you ask for Humane Testimonies against that Scorpion Doctrine of Justification by the merit of your own Works, and Penances, and Satisfactions, wherewith your Locusts use to sting and torment, and torture the Consciences of men, worse than Death; and upon which, as was said before, that Champion of the Lord, did pitch the Field against you; it is worth your noting, how Bellarmine having wrestled, with his wit, in five Books against the truth of God, yet, at last (God confounding him in his opposition to it) he confesseth, 
Bell. the Justif. lib, 5. cap. 7. prop. 3.  Propter incertitudinem propriae justitiae, & periculum inanis gloriae, Tutissimum est totam fiduciam in sola Dei misericordia & benignitate reponere. Because of the uncertainty of our own Righteousness, and the danger of Vainglory, it is the safest way to put our whole trust in the mere mercy and goodness of God. And it is so indeed: But then Bellarmine, why did you dispute against it? against the inward workings and recoilings of your own Conscience, which did whisper you in the ear, and told you, That this is the best and safest way, Ex ore tuo serve nequam. I cannot but often think of this passage of his, as one of the greatest triumphs in this kind, that ever truth had, out of the mouth of such an impetuous Adversary; for magna est veritas, & praevalebit. Surely these words of his do as well deserve to be blotted out by an Index Expurgatorius, as those of Chrysostom, 
Index Expurg. Litera C. Chrysostom. Index Expurg. Cardinal. Quirega in litera B. Biblia Roberti Stephani.  Meritum nullum esse nisi quod à Christo confertur, which you have ordered to be purged out of his works, and as well as those passages out of Robert Stephen's Table to his Bible, Credendo in Christum remittuntur peccata; and Credens Christo non morietur in aeternum; fide purificantur corda; justificamur fide in Christum. Our sins are forgiven, by believing in Christ; he that believeth in Christ, shall not die eternally; our hearts are purified by saith; we are justified by saith in Christ; of which your pious Index saith, Deleantur subjectae propositiones, tanquam suspectae. Let these propositions be blotted out, as being suspicious; for, it seems, you suspect the very words of Scripture, and the Gospel itself, whether it be true or no; but there is nothing renders your Religion more suspicious, and more odious unto my heart, than this your enmity unto the free grace of God, and against the Scripture, by which it is revealed, which you are still venting upon all occasions. 
Matth. 19.16.  Coelum gratis non accipiam, saith Vega, I will not accept of heaven upon terms of free grace. But when death appears, and stairs upon you, some of you can speak at another rate; so did Bellarmine, when he prayed upon his Deathbed, Precor ut me Deus, 
Fuligatus in vita Bellar. referente. Dr. Grew of Justif. pag. 91.169.  inter sanctos, & electos suos, non estimator meriti, sed veniae largitor admittat. I pray, that God would receive me among his Saints, and chosen one's; not upon the account of merit, but for the sake of his own pardoning grace and mercy. So Stephen Gardiner, when Dr. Day, Bishop of Chichester, came to see him on his Deathbed, and began to comfort him with the words of God's promises, and with the free justification in the blood of Christ our Saviour: 
Fox 's Acts and Mon. Vol. 3. page 527. col. 2.  Gardiner hearing that, What, my Lord, (quoth he) Will you open that Gap now, then farewell altogether; To me, and such other in my case you may speak it; but open this window to the people, then farewell altogether. Here were clear convictions, but strange rebellion of spirit against them: And to leave this head, 
Voet. Vol. 2. Disput 47. pag. 726.  Voetius hath a large and learned Dispute with this Title, Vis veritatis in ipso papatu crumpentis, de salute per solam Dei misericordiam in Christo. Wherein he produceth a cloud of Witnesses to this truth.  
It was also in my thoughts to have noted something out of your own Writers concerning the Popish Circle, I mean, the maze of unbelief, wherein they run round, to prove the Scripture by the Church, and the Church back again by the Scripture: Like men drunk, and giddy with the cup of the Wine of Astonishment, and with the spirit of Delusion; it being just with God to smite them with a vertiginous distemper of mind, that they shall never come to any consistence, to any settlement in the Faith, who will not settle upon the true foundation, and acquiesce in the Scriptures of Truth. For as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts, and despised the word of the holy One of Israel, Isa. 5.24.  
And, finally, seeing you call so much for Humane Testimonies, I had thought to have offered some, which, I think, you will blush to read, out of your own Writers, concerning the Veneration you give to your Popes, your Representative Christ's, and Vice-gods; and yet withal, concerning the hideous profaneness of their Lives, and their Errability, yea, their actual erring Errors, damnably, and fundamentally destructive of the Faith, and all this out of your own approved Authors, out of whom I have observed and collected a few things, but these few are too many to be here inserted. The Subject is so copious, that it requires an entire Tractate by itself, therefore must be deferred, till some other occasion do present: And in the mean time, so long as Gregory's praecursor Antichristi, and so long as Bellarmine's Tulissimum est, remains upon Record among men, you may shut your mouths, and cease your boastings of Humane Testimonies.  

I Have now, according to the measure of Light and Grace received, returned you an Answer to your Paper, somewhat largely, I confess, being desired to answer it to the full, but yet as briefly as I could; yea, omitting many things which might have been, both truly and pertinently spoken. I find, that it hath been answered twice before by more Learned pens, which, as it renders this Labour of mine less necessary, and, which I think might have been spared, had you not called with such renewed importunities for an Answer; so it renders you the more without excuse, for that now you have the Truth against one opposition confirmed to you in the mouth of Three Witnesses. First, by Mr. Baxter, in his Key for Catholics, printed Anno 1659., who received a great part of this your paper, in a Manuscript sent from Wolverhampton to Sturbridge, and hath inserted it, and confuted it in his Book before mentioned, page 244. It hath been answered a second time by Dr. Owen, in his Animadversions on Fiat Lux, Cap. 2. page 59, etc. and in his Vindication of his Animadversions, Cap. 4. page 48. & deinceps. And yet now, after two Answers in print, you send the same words again (such is the penury of your cause) in a Manuscript, to a person of Honour in this Kingdom of Ireland, with a challenge to our Divines to answer it, which hath produced and drawn forth this third Answer to it, besides all that hath been written in former times, as also of late by Dr. Stillingfleete, Mr. Poole, and others, though not to this individual paper, but upon occasion of other oppositions, yet in defence of the same general Truth, and Cause of Christ against Popery.  
O that He, who alone is able, would vouchsafe to bless both those former, and these present endeavours, so as to undeceive and open your eyes, and convince you by his Spirit of the Vanity of Vanities, that is in these pretensions of Supremacy, Inerrability, and Indefectibility in your Church and Pope. The Lord awaken you out of these golden Dreams, before it be too late: Yea, I do believe through grace, and am persuaded, That he will yet do it, by one means or other, for such of you as do belong to the election of his grace: The same free and sovereign grace that did pity, that did undeceive, and convince, and conquer Paul, when in his full career of blind Zeal, and opposition, is able to convince, and overpower you. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Now the Lord in mercy do it, That your Faith may not stand hereafter in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.    

CHAP. VIII. An APPENDIX for the further Illustration of some things, which are but briefly hinted in the former Chapters.  
IN Cap. 2. of Apostasy, and again, in Cap. 3. of Heresy, mention is made of counsel given by Papists to the Pope. A Friend, to whom the Answer was communicated in Manuscript, made some Inquiry about it, to whom a further Account was sent; which because the same Inquiries are not unlikely to arise in the studious Readers mind, is thought fit to be communicated.  
I find there were two papers of Advice presented to the Pope in those days, about the time of the Council of Trent, for the help and support of the then declining Church of Rome; both which, give pregnant evidence against her, of her corruption, and departure from Apostolical, and primitive purity. The first to Pope Paul the Third, in the Year 1538. by Nine select Cardinals and Prelates, viz. Cardinal Contarenus, Cardinal Peter Theatinus, afterwards Pope Paul the Fourth, Cardinal Sadolet, Cardinal Reginald Poole of England, etc. The Title is, Consilium Delectorum Cardinalium & Praelatorum de emendanda Ecclesia: This Novem-virale Concilium, was sent by Nicholaus Cardinalis Capulanus, to a Prince in Germany, by whom it came to the hands of Luther, and Sturmius, and by their means was made public. It is mentioned and quoted by Espensaeus, a Popish Bishop, a Sorbenist, in his Commentaries on Titus 1. It was extant in the Book of the Councils, Tom 3. Concil. Edit. per Crab. Edit. Colon. 1551. But in all other Editions, Pontificiorum furto & fraud desideratur, saith Mr. Crashaw, who Reprinted it London 1609.  
These men do with something of Ingenuity acknowledge, and advise to a Reformation of sundry enormous Abuses and Corruptions in the Church of Rome; and they begin wisely and faithfully, at the fountain & Wellhead, telling the Pope plainly, Principium horum malorum inde suisse quod nonnuili Pontifices tui Praedecessores, prurientes auribus ut inquit Apostolus Paulus coacervarunt sibi magistros ad desideria sua non ut ab eis discerent quod facerè deberent, 
Page 2.  sed ut eorum study & calliditate inveniretur ratio quâ liceret id quod liberet.— Ex hoc fonte sancte pater, tanquam ex equo Trojano, irrupêre in Ecclesiam Dei tot abusus tam & gravissimi morbi, quibus nune conspicim is eam ad desperationem sere salutis laborasse. The beginning of these Eviis (say they) hath been, that some of the Popes your Predecessors, having itching ears, as the Apostle Paul speaks, have heaped up unto themselves Teachers according to their own desires; Not that they might learn from them what they ought to do, but that by their study and craft a way might be found out whereby it might be lawful to do what they list. From this fountain holy father, as from the Trojan horse, have broke forth so many abuses into the Church of God, and such grievous Diseases under which we now see her labouring almost unto desperation of recovery. The Pope's Infallibility, it seems, was no Article of their Faith. Then they proceed to instance in sundry particulars, 
Page 5. & de●●ceps.  as Caralessenes', in the Ordination of Clergymen, putting men both ignorant and vicious into Holy Orders, bestowing Benefices and Ecclesiastical promotions upon them; Reservations of Pensions, changing and chopping of Live, Impropriations, Pluralities, Non-residences, Exemptions and Impediments laid upon Bishops, in governing their Flocks, and punishing of Sinners. The great degeneracy and corruptions of Religious Orders, Simony, and filthy Lucre, in the exercise of the Keys. The scandals between Monks and Nuns. Vain Philosophy in Schools, and Universities, teaching Impiety; whereas, say they, Ostenderent infirmitatem luminis naturalis in Quaestionibus pertinentibus ad Deum: 
Page 12.  They ought to show the weakness of the light of Nature in disquisitions about the things of God. They instance also Dispensations for Marriage within the degrees forbidden, 
Page 16.  absolving Simoniacs: In hac etiam urbe meretrices ut matronae incedunt, habitant etiam infignes aedes, corrigendus bic turpis abusus. In this City of Rome (say they) Whores go up and down as honourably, as chaste Matrons; and they dwell in sumptuous Houses, this shameful abuse ought to be Reform. These are some of the main Heads of their Advice. Tollantur (say they) obtestamur sanctitatem tuam, 
Page 11.  per sanguinem Christi quo redemit sibi Ecclesiam suam eamque lavit eadem sanguine, toliantur hae maculae. We do beseech and obtest your Holiness, by the blood of Christ, wherewith he hath redeemed his Church unto himself, washing it with his own blood, we beseech you let these spots and blemishes be taken away. But the Pope would reform nothing, but was like the deaf Adder, which stoppeth her ear: which will not hearken to the voice of the charmers, though they charm never so wisely. We would have healed Babylon, but she could not be healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgement reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies, Psal. 58.4, 5. Jer. 51.9.  
The other counsel was given to Pope Julius the Third, by three Bishops met at Bononia. It is entitled, Consilium quorundam Episcoporum Bononiae congregatorum: quod de ratione stabiliendae Romanae Ecclesiae. Julio. 3. Pont. Mux. datum est. It is subscribed, Bononiae Octob. 20. Anno 1553. Sauctitatis tuae servi & creaturae devotissimae. (Your Holinesses most devoted servants and creatures) Vincentius de durantibus Epise. Thermularum Brixiensis. Aegidius Falceta Episco. Caprulanus. Gerardus Busdagrus Episc. Thessalonicensis. It was first published by Vergerius after his conversion. It is mentioned by Johannes Wolphius, in his Memorabilia. And, lastly, reprinted at London, out of Mr. Crashaws' Library, Anno 1613. These Advisers, like mere carnal Politicians, do observe horrid Degeneraties and Abuses; but instead of counsels tending to Reformation, they mend the matter so, as to make it much worse; their proposals aiming at no other scope, but merely how their sins, and corrupt state, which they love, and like so well, may be continued and preserved, and how Light and Reformation may be kept out; some of their words being rendered in English, in the Answer above, Chapter 3. But most of the Latin omitted, for Brevity's sake; I shall here subjoin it, with some more also of their own words, for the Readers more ample satisfaction: Thus than they speak.  
Cum nos multum ac diu cogitavissemus quisnam esset gravissimae hujus controversiae status— tandem hunc esse deprehendimus. Lutherani Symboli Apostolorum Niceni & Athanasii articulos omnes recipiunt & confitentur. 
Folio 1.  Atque id verissimum est. Neque enim inficiari oportet praesertim inter nos, quod adeo verum esse omnes intelliginius. Itidem Lutherani negant velle se aliam doctrinam admittere, praeter unicam illam, quae prophetas Christum & Apostolos authores habet; optarentque ut paucissimis illis contenti essemus— Et priscas Ecclesias imitaremur nec de recipiendis ullis traditionibus cogitaremus, 
Folio 2.  quas non constat luce meridianâ clariuns fuisse à Domino nostro Jesu Christo, & abipsis Apostolis dictatas atque institutas. Ita sentiunt adversarii nostri.— Nos contra seculi opinionem beatitudinis tuae volumus credi— id quod in Decreto tertiae Sessionis Concilium Tridentinum— statuit; nempe Christum atque ipsius Apostolos multo plura tum ad mores, tum ad fidem pertinentia docuisse— quam ea quae scripta sunt. Et tametsi hoc aperte probare non possimus (nam planè fatemur inter nos— tantum habemus conjecturas quasdam) tamen confitemur esse verum quia sic tenet Romana Ecclesia. Hic est in summa cardo totius controversiae, hinc tumultus illi, hinc illa contentio.— Nam Apostolorum temporibus, ut verum tibi fateamur, sed silentio opus est, vel aliquot annis post ipsos Apostolos, nulla vel papatus, vel Cardinalatus mentio erat, nec amplissimos illos reditus Episcopatuum & Sacerdotiorum fuisse constat, nec templa tantis sumptibus exstruebantur, nec erant Monasteria, nec Priores, nec Abbates, multo vero minus hae doctrinae, hae leges, hae consuetudines, sed neque imperium illud quod in Gentes, & Nationes hodiè obtinemus. Quin omnes omnium Ecclesiarum Ministri Romanae non minus quam caeterarum, ultro Regibus, principibus, & magistratibus parebant.— Nos Re probe examinatâ comperimus hanc Ecclefiae gloriam, authoritatem & potentiam tunc primum exortam esse, cum in ea sagaces & solertes Episcopi praeesse caepêrunt, qui per occasionem à Caesaribus contenderent, ut suâ authoritate at potentiâ primatum & summam in alias Ecclesias potestatem, penes hanc sedem esse statuerent.  
Praeterea Consilium nostrum esset, ut tua sanctitas Cardinalibus & Episcopis praeciperet, ut Logicam, Sophisticam, Artemque Scholasticam & Metaphysicam, 
Folio 5.  item decretales, sex Clementinas extravagantes, & regulas Cancellariae, in sua quisque civitate legiae doceri publice curent. Utinam legendis hujusmodi libris homines ubique diligentius incubuissent. Neque enim res nostrae in hujusmodi deploratissimum statum adductae essent. Sed hi contemptis melioribus istis disciplinis Graecae & Hebraicae linguae operam dare, & mox Bibliorum versionem ad Graecam & Hebraicam veritatem exigere examinareque ac Theologiae & Antiquis Ecclesiae doctoribus studere caeperunt. Unde damna illa quae jam sustinemus Omnia extitere. Quare danda erit opera ut studiis istiusmodi valere jussis, Scholasticam artem & tuum jus Canonicum homines repetant quibus Theologiae studia sepulta pene atque obruta fuisse olim constat.— Decretalium, &c meminimus at non item Decreti, est enim perniciosus liber & authoritatem tuam valde vehementer imminuit. Ita enim inquit Canon qui incipit Transferunt 24. Q. 3. Immutant mendacio veritatem, qui aliud praedicant quam ab Apostolis acceperunt. Hoc plane Lutheranum est axioma: Quid enim aliud quotidie inculcant nostri adversarii, quam ne latum quidem unguem licere ab his rebus quae Apostolis fuere in usu recedere? At quis est ex nostris qui non recedat saepe quotidie?  vix umbram quandam retinemus in nostris Ecclesiis ejus Doctrinae & Disciplinae quae Apostolorum temporibus sieut etiam initio attigimus floruerunt & prorsus aliam accersivimus.  
Denique quod inter omnia Consilia quae nos hoc tempore dare possumus, 
Folio penult.  omnium gravissimum ad extremum reservavimus. Oculi hîc aperiendi sunt, omnibus nervis advitendum erit ut quam minimum Evangelii poterit praesertim vulgari lingua, in iis legatur civitatibus quae sub tua ditione & potestate sunt, sufficiatque tantillum illud quod in missa legi solet, nec eo amplius cuiquam mortalium legere liceat. Quamdiu enim pauculo illo homines contenti fuerunt tamdiu res tuae ex sententia successêre, eaedemque in contrarium labi caeperunt ex quo ulterius legi vulgo usurpatum est. Hic ille in summa est liber qui praeter caeteros hasce nobis tempestates ac turbines conciliavit quibus prope abrepti sumus: Et sane siquis illum diligenter expendat, deinde quae in nostris fieri Ecclesiis consueverunt singula ordine contempletur, videbit plurimum inter se dissidere, & hanc doctrinam nostram ab illa prorsus diversam esse, ac saepe contrariam etiam. Quod simulatque homines intelligant, à docto scilicet aliquo adversariorum stimulati non ante clamandi finem faciunt, quam rem plane omnem divulgaverint, nosque invisos omnibus reddiderint. Quare occultandae pauculae illae chartulae, sed adhibitâ quâdam cautione & dilige●tiâ, ne ea res majores nobis turbas ac tumultus excitet. This last Paragraph, let English ears hear it.  
Last of all (say they) which we have reserved to the last place, as the weightiest of all the counsels that we can give at this time. Your eyes are here to be opened. You must endeavour, with all the power you have, that as little as can be of the Gospel be read, especially in the vulgar tongue, in those Cities which are within your power and jurisdiction, but let that little which is wont to be read in the Mass suffice, and let it not be lawful for any mortal man to read any more than that. For as long as men were content with that little, your affairs succeeded according to your hearts desire; but they began to decline, and go back, as soon as it came in use to read more of it. This is in sum that Book, which above all others, hath brought upon us these storms and whirlwinds, wherewith we are almost carried away headlong. And truly if any man shall diligently weigh that Book, and then consider distinctly all those things which are wont to be done in our Churches, he will see that they differ very much the one from the other, and that this Doctrine of ours is altogether divers from that, yea, and oftentimes directly contrary to it. Which as soon as men understand, being stirred up by some Learned man amongst the Adversaries, they make no end of clamoring, till they have laid open the whole matter, and rendered us odious unto all. Wherefore those few sheets of paper must be hid, and kept out of sight, but with some caution and diligence, lest the very doing of this, should increase the storm, and bring yet greater troubles and tumults upon us. This is their advice, with other things ejusdem farinae, too many to be here Transcribed. Ghostly counsel, of ghostly Fathers. Wherein, indeed, they state the Controversy between them and us aright, namely, That their departure from the Scripture, and our adherence to it, is that which hath begun and bred the Quarrel, and made the breach between them and us, and the name Protestant arise; then instead of trembling at his Word, and humbling themselves to reform by that unerring Rule, they enter into open Rebellion and Conspiracy against the Rule, to suppress it, and smother it, even in the spiritual Language of those Rebels, Who say, Psalm 2.3. Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us: For which, he that sits in heaven, laughs at them, and the Lord hath them in derision.  
I find both these counsels mentioned by Pope Paul the 4th, and Pope Clement the 8th, in their Index librorum prohibitorum, published by them in pursuance of the Decrees of the Council of Trent. The former, in the letter L. under this Title, Liber inscriptus, Consilium de emendanda Ecclesia: And so Pope Paul the 4th, prohibits and condemns the Book, and Council, subscribed by himself, when he was Cardinal Peter Theatin: As the like change of judgement upon change of interest is commonly observed in Aeneas Silvius, when he came to be Pope Pius the 2d. The latter counsel is mentioned in the letter C. under this Italian Title, Consiglio d'alicuui Vescovi congregati in Bologna. The counsel of certain Bishops met together in Bononia. This may suffice, as to a further Account of this matter.  
In Cap. 7. of humane Testimonies, mention is made of Epiphanius his Testimony against Idolatry, and of the freedom of expression used by sundry Romanists concerning him, whereof take this further account. Epiphanius his words are these: Quando venissem ad villam, quae dicitur Anablatha— Inveni ibi velum pendens in foribus ejusdem Ecclesiae tinctum atque depinctum, 
Epiph. Operae. tom. 2, Epist. ad Johan. Hierosol. page 317. Edit. Petau. 1622.  & habens imaginem quasi Christi vel sancti cujusdam, non enim satis memini cujus imago fuerit. Cum ergo hoc vidissem in Ecclesia Christi contra authoritatem Scripturarum, hominis pendere imaginem, scidi illud, & magis dedi consilium custodibus ejusdem loci ut pauperem mortuum eo obvolverent, & efferrent.— Precor ut Jubeas— in Ecclesia Christi ejusmodi vela quae contra Religionem nostram veniunt, non appendi. As we were going to Bethel (saith he) when I came to a Village called Anablatha, I found there a Veil hanging in the Church-door coloured and painted, and having an Image in it, as it were of Christ, or some Saint; for I do not well remember whose Image it was: Wherefore when I saw this, that the Image of a man hung in the Church of Christ contrary to the Authority of the Scriptures, I tore it in pieces. And, moreover, I counselled the Keepers of that place, to wrap up the dead body of a poor man in the said Veil, and so to carry him forth to be buried. And I do beseech you to give order, that there be no such Vails hung up in the Church of Christ, which are contrary to our Religion. 
Riu. Crit. Sacr. lib. 3. cap. 29. Waldens. Tom. 3. Lit. 19 Cap. 157. Bell. de Imag. lib. 2. cap. 9 Salmeron Comment. in 1 John. cap. 5: Dis. 32. Sixt. Sinens. lib. 5. Annot. 247. Greg. Valent. de Idol. lib. 2. cap. 7.   
He writes this to John Bishop of Jerusalem, and the Epistle is Translated by Jerom, a sign he liked it well; and so you have the Testimony of two Fathers together, both Epiphanius and Jerom: A Testimony so full and clear, that your Writers come forth against it one way, but fly seven. Some of them, as Rivet notes, senslesly affirming, That he speaks it in regard of the Anthropomorphites, so Tho. Waldensis, as Bellarmine reports. Others, with as little sense, or reason, would have this passage to be supposititious, because, forsooth, they know not how to shape an handsome Answer to it, so Bellarmine, etc. But others of them, Heretic-like, say, That he did err, and that one Swallow makes no Summer; and that they regard the practice of your Church, more than the Authority of Epiphanius. Thus Salmeron, Sixtus Sinensis, Gregorius de Valentia. But may you thus depress the Fathers below your Church? May you thus advance your spurious Church above the Fathers, as the Pope doth his Nephews, above Kings and Princes? And may not we prefer the Scriptures above either you or them? But when you have said what you please, and tried all the shifts you can, yet this Testimony of Epiphanius is an undeniable evidence against you, That the gross Idolatry of Image-worship, how fast soever it was then coming in, yet had not generally prevailed in his time. Helvicus placeth him upon the year of Christ, 376.  
And seeing we are upon this, let us see a little further what your Writers say of Epiphanius, beside their anger at him for this Testimony, what general censure and character do they give of him? It may be a Divertisement here, not unpleasant, 
Can. Loc. Theol lib. 11. p. 477. Rivet. Critic. lib. 3. cap. 28. Baron ad ann. Christi 310. Sect. 15. an. 306. Sect. 45. an. 326. Sect. 4. & 8 an. 327. Sect. 7. ann. 338. Sect. 2. ann. 342. Sect. 50. ann. 306. Sect. 45. ann. 310. Sect 16. Petau. Animadver. ad Epiph. lib. 1. tom. 1. ad Haeres Samaritan. pag. 21. ad. Haeres. 20. Herodian. pag 39 ad Haeres. Epicur. pag. 20.  nor unuseful, to see how they handle him, that so it may appear whether they have any greater Reverence to the Fathers, than we. Melchior Canus saith of him, Nullos ille graves Authores sequi solet. Baronius is as rude as he, and saith, ab omni scopo veritatis abhorrere quod apud Epiphanium legitur falsum item esse quod ait, etc. Rivet refers the Reader to eight or nine places, wherein he shows his judgement freely concerning Epiphanius. But Petavius the Jesuit equals, if not exceeds his Fellows, Permulta enim isthic falsa (saith he, false things) minimeque cohaerentia disputat. And again, Suspicamur it aque multipliciter hallucinatum Epiphanium. And again, in another place, Totidem paucis illis verbis a sanctissimo eruditissimoque viro Epiphanio peccata sunt. Quorum admonere Lectorem● officii est institutique nostri, excusare humanitatis, dissimulare aut tueri velle, neque officii, neque humanitatis est. So many Errors (saith he) are here committed in so few words, by this holy, and this learned Man Epiphanius; of which Errors, to give the Reader warning, is both my Duty and Undertaking in these Animadversions. To excuse them, is a piece of courtesy and respect; but to dissemble them, or to defend them, is no part either of Duty or Courtesy. Thus he. A sober, and a well-tempered Speech▪ and the more observable, because uttered by one that was so full of the gall of bitterness, as this Petavius was. But such Animadversions, such Reproofs as these, have these Writers of your own, thought fit to bestow upon Epiphanius. And now, what if we should say, that he, as well as some other of the Ancients, did hyperbolise, and exceed a little in his Encomiastics of St. Peter; and that his words and expressions are not so wary, and so well guarded, as they might have been, in predicating the glories of that great Apostle. It appears from all this, that we should say no worse of him, nor handle him more unmannerly and irreverently, than your own Writers have done before us:  
This may suffice, at present, for the further illustration of these matters. As also, for the Vindication of the True Reformed Protestant Christian Religion, in the purity of it, as contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, against the Roman Catholic Apostasy. The Lord bless what hath been said, for the reducing and bringing home his lost sheep, and for the further establishment of Believers in their most Holy Faith.  
FINIS.