Roman Catholick to a Divine of the Church of England; With his ANSWER to them.

I

The QUERIES.

Should be glad to know, if it can be deny'd, but that the Church of Rome was once a moft Pure, Excellent, Flourishing, and Mother Church; and it feems to be acknowledg'd by feveral learned Authors, and alfo by King James in his Speech to the Parliament.

This Church could not ceafe to be fuch, but the must fall either by Apoftacy, Herefy, or Schifm. ApoStacy is not only a renouncing of the Faith of Chrift, but the very Name and Title to Chriftianity. No Man will fay that the Church of Rome had ever fuch a fall, or fell thus.

Herefy is an adhesion to fome private and fingular Opinion, or Error in Faith, contrary to the general approved Doctrine of the Church.

If

If the Church of Rome did ever adhere to any fingular or new Opinion, difagreeable to the common receiv'd Doctrine of the Chriftian World; pray fatisfy me as to thefe particulars.

1. By what General Council was fhe ever condemned? 2. Which of the Fathers once writ against her?

3. By what Authority was fhe otherwise reproved? For it feems to me to be a thing very incongruous, that fo great a Church fhould be condemn'd by every one

that hath a mind to condemn her.

Schifm is a departure or divifion from the Unity of the Church, whereby the Band and Communion held with fome former Church is broken and diffolved.

If the Church of Rome divided her felf by Schifm from any other body of faithful Chriftians, or brake Communion, or went forth from the Society of any elder Church: I pray fatisfy me as to thefe particulars. 1. Whofe Company did he leave?

2. From what body did fhe go forth?

3. Where was the true Church which she forfook? It appears ftrange that a Church fhould be accounted Schifmatical, when there cannot be affigned any other Church different from her, which from Age to Age, fince Chrift's time; hath continued vifible, from whence fhe departed?

TH

The ANSWER.

His Stuff put in a new Dress, hath for the whole Matter of it been anfwer'd a hundred times over, but if they should take notice of our Answers, it would spoil their Trade; they therefore refolve to pursue their old Artifice in laying down the fame feeming Doubts, or fophiftical Proposals with a little variation of Method, and with them to fet upon well-difpofed, but unskilful Perfons, and commonly upon fuch as are young, and of an unfteady, and over inquifitive Temper. Now though

it be neither ingenuous nor fair, thus to pafs over our Arguments in filence, and looks like holding the Conclufion in fpite of the Premiffes, yet that I may, as much as in me lies, prevent others from hazarding their Souls, by going off from a Pure to a most corrupt and dangerous Communion, I fhall for once take upon me this unreasonable Task, and anfwer this busy Romanist in every Particular. And thus he begins.

I fhould be glad to know if it can be deny'd, but that the Church of Rome was once a moft Pure, Excellent, Flourishing, and Mother Church; and it feems to be acknowledged by feveral learned Anthors, and alfo by King James in his Speech to the Par

liament.

Refp. Our concern is not so much to know, what the Church of Rome was at first, as what it is now; for if the prove bad now, inftead of an advantage, it will rather be a Reproach and Dishonour to her to have been fo good in former Times. It is an uncomfortable faying, How is the faithful City become an Harlot? But not to deny them any Pretenfions which carry the face of Truth, I am as ready as any of his learned Authors, or King James hinfelf, to acknowledge, that the Church of Rome was once a glorious Member of the Catholick Church. But I muft except against one thing in his defcription of her, wherein he calls her Mother Church, as if the Rife and Beginning of all Churches was from her, and wherein he would flily infinuate the belief of that manifeft Falfhood no less than thrice foyfted into the determination of the Council of Trent, that she is Omnium Ecclefiarum Mater & Magiftra, i. e. The Mother and Mistress of all Churches; whereas we were grafted into the Jewish Stock, and the found of the Apoftles went out into all the World from Jerufalem, and there was the first Chriftian Church; and Rome was not only later than her, but than feveral others, and if any can be called properly

properly the Mother Church, it must be that of Jerufalem. But to do him all the right I can, if by Mother Church he will be content to mean no more than Tertullian doth by his Matrices Ecclefie, fuch as Antioch, Ephefus, Corinth, and others planted by the Apoftles themselves, I will grant her to have been a Mother Church in the Senfe that they were, though it is certain fome of them were before her: But now she is much changed from what fhe was then by Corruption, both in Doctrine and Practice; and unless she can juftify the doing Evil, when she thinks good may come of it, whofe Damnation the Apostle faith is juft, (Rom. 3. 8.) I see not how she can vindicate her self in fending forth her Emiffaries, to put on all Shapes to create numerous Sects and Divisions, to inftil Enthusiastical Notions, to preach and argue among Presbyterians, Independants, Anabaptifts, Quakers, and what not; and to poifon them with Notions contrary to the true Hierarchy, Doctrine, and Difcipline of the Church. For at this rate, instead of being a Mother Church, the looks more like what St. John calls the Mother of Harlots, Revel. 17. 5. But this Querift thinks he hath got a quirk to acquit her of these and all other Crimes; and though he takes too much upon him in impofing upon others what way of Proof they fhall proceed in, yet I will follow him in his own way. And thus he proceeds.

This Church could not cease to be fuch, but fhe must fall either by Apoftacy, Herefy, or Schifm. ApoStacy is not only a renouncing of the Faith of Christ, but the very Name and Title to Chriftianity. No Man will fay, that the Church of Rome had ever fuch a fall, or fell thus.

Refp. Far be it from me to accuse her, or any other Church, of more than they are guilty of; I had much rather there were no caufe for any accufation at all: And fince it is granted, that the

proof

proof of any one of the Three is fufficient to carry the Cause against her, I am willing to drop this firft; and I pray God preserve her and all other Churches from Apoftacy, to prevent which it may become us often to call to mind that of the Apostle, Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed leaft he fall, I Cor. 10. 12. For the Church of Rome, as a particular Church, hath no better fecurity against a total falling away, than had the Afiatick Churches mentioned in the Revelations, which are all gone, or the African Churches, which though now loft, were once a more eminent Pattern of Christian Simplicity, Humility, and Piety, than her contemporary Church of Rome, though then of great Reputation. She ought not therefore to be fo proud and fcornful, as to defpife those who advise her to beware, left thofe foul Corruptions cherished in her, and abetted by her, fhould, by the juft Judgment of God, have a tendency in time even to Apoftacy: But let this pafs, that we may come to the next; which he fets down thus.

Herefy is an adhesion to fome private and fingular Opinion or Error in Faith, contrary to the general approved Doctrine of the Church.

If the Church of Rome did ever adhere to any fingular or new Opinion, difagreeable to the common receiv'd Doctrine of the Chriftian World: Pray fatisfy me as to thefe particulars.

1. By what General Council was fhe ever condemn'd? 2. Which of the Fathers ever wrote against her? 3. By what Authority was fhe otherwife reproved? For it feems to me to be a thing very incongruous, that fo great a Church fhould be condemned by every one

that hath a mind to condemn her.

Refp. His account or definition of Herefy feems to me to be too narrow, for not only Errors in Faith, but fuch as are founded upon Principles utterly inconfiftent with and deftructive of a good Life, may come within the Notion of Herefy:

And