Romanism discussed, or, An answer to the nine first articles of H.T. his Manual of controversies. Whereby is manifested, that H.T. hath not (as he pretends) clearly demonstrated the truth of the Roman religion by him falsly called Catholick, by texts of holy scripture, councils of all ages, Fathers of the first five hundred years, common sense, and experience, nor fully answered the principal objections of protestants, whom he unjustly terms sectaries. By John Tombes, B.D. And commended to the world by Mr. Richard Baxter.

AN EPISTLE SENT BY M^r. RICHARD BAXTER To the AUTHOUR, to be prefixed.

Readers,

WEre not the Judgements of God so dreadfull, and infatuation so lamentable in matters of everlasting consequence, and sin so odious, and the calamities of the Church, the disho∣nour of God, and the Damnation of Souls such deplorable things, as tolerate not a laughter in the standers by, it would seem one of the most ridiculous things in the World, that a man of seeming wisdom should be a Papist, and that so many Princes, and learned men, with the vulgar multitude, should be able so far to renounce or in∣toxicate their Reason while they are awake: And a Papist would be described, to be one that sets up his understanding

to be the laughing-stock of the sober rational World. There are abundance of Controversies among Physicians that con∣cern mens lives; and yet I have heard of none so vain, as to step forth and challenge the Authority of being the uni∣versal Decider of them, or to charge God with folly or over∣sight, if he have not appointed some such universal Judge in the World, to end all Controversies in matters of such weight. But if in Physick's, Law, or any of the Sciences, the Controversies should be never so many or so great, if yet you could resolve them into sense it self, and bring all to the judgement of mens eys, and ears, and taste, and feeling, who would not laugh or hiss at him that would still make them the matter of serious doubts?

The Papists finding that man is yet imperfect, and know∣eth but in part, and that in the Scripture there are some things are hard to be understood, and that Earth hath not so much Light as Heaven, imagine that hereby they have a fair advantage to plead for an universal terrestrial Judge, and to reproach God, if he have appointed none such, and next to plead that their Pope or his approved Councils must needs have this Authority. And when they come to the De∣cision, they are not ashamed to see after so many hundred years pretensions, that the World is but baffled with the em∣pty name of a Judge of Controversies, and that Difficul∣ties are no less Difficulties still, and Controversies are no where so voluminous as with them. But this is a small mat∣ter with them. Their Judge seems much wiser when he is silent than when he speaks. When he comes to a Decision, and formeth up thereby the Hodge-podge of Popery, they seem not to smile at, nor be ashamed of the Picture which they have drawn; which is, of an Harlot shewing her na∣kedness, and committing her lewdness in the open Assemblies, in the sight of the Sun. They openly proclaim their shame

against the light of all the acknowledged Principles in the World, their own or others, and in opposition to all, or almost all that is commendable among men. The charge seems high, but (in a few words) take the proof.

1. They confess the Scripture to be the Word of God: and yet when we would appeal to that as the Rule of Faith and Life, or as a divine Revelation, in our Disputes, they fly off, and tell us of its obscurity and the necessity of a Judge. If they meet with a Hoc est corpus meum, they seem for a while to be zealous for the Scripture: But tell them that Paul in 1 Cor. 11. 26, 27, 28. doth call it Bread after the Consecration, no less than three times in the three next Verses, and then Scripture is non-sense to them till the Pope make sense of it. It is one of their principal labours against us, to argue against the Scriptures sufficiency to this use. By no means can we prevail with them to stand to the Decision of the Scripture.

2. They excessively cry up the Church, and appeal to its Decision: and therefore we might hope, that here if any where, we might have some hold of them. But when it comes to the Point, they not onely disown the judgement of the Church, but impudently call Christ's Spouse a Strumpet, and cut off (in their uncharitable imagination) two or three parts of the universal Church as Hereticks or Schisma∣ticks. The judgements of the Churches in Armenia, Ethi∣opia, Egypt, Syria, the Greeks, and many more besides the Reformed Churches in the West, is against their Popes universal Vicarship or Sovereignty, and many of their Errours that depend thereon. And yet their judgement is not regarded by this Faction. And if a third or fourth part (such as it is) of the Universal Church, may cry up themselves as the Church to be appealed to, and condemn the far greater part, why may not a tenth or a twentieth part do

the like? Why may not the Donatists, the Novatians, or the Greeks, (much more) do so as well as Papists?

3. They cry up Tradition. And when we ask them, How we shall know it, and where it is to be found, they tell us, principally in the profession and practice of the present Church. And yet when two or three parts of the universal Church profess that Tradition is against the Papal Monar∣chy, and other Points depending on it; they cast Tradition behinde their backs.

4. They cry up the Fathers: and when we bring their judgements against the substance of Popery, they sometime vilifie or accuse them as erroneous, and sometime tell us, that Fathers as well as Scripture must be no otherwise under∣stood, than their Church expoundeth them.

5. They plead for and appeal to Councils; and (though we easily prove that none of them were universal, yet such as they were) they call them all Reprobate, which were not ap∣proved by their Pope, let the number of Bishops there be never so great. And those that were approved, if they speak against them, they reject also, either with lying shifts denying the approbation, or saying, the acts are not de fide, or not conciliariter facta, or the sense must be given by their pre∣sent Church, or one such contemptible shift or other.

6. At least one would think they should stand to the judgement of the Pope, which yet they will not: for shame forbids them to own the Doctrine of those Popes that were Hereticks or Infidels (and by Councils so judged): And others they are forced to disown, because they contradict their Predecessours. And at Rome the Cardinals are the Pope, while he that hath the name is oft made light of. And how infallible he is judged by the French and the Venetians; how Sixtus the fifth was valued by the Spaniards, and by Bellarmine, is commonly known.

7. But all this is nothing to their renunciation of huma∣nity, even of the common senses and reason of the world. When the matter is brought to the Decision of their eys, and taste, and feeling, whether Bread be Bread, and Wine be Wine, and yet all Italy, Spain, Austria, Bava∣ria, &c. cannot resolve it; yea, generally, (unless some la∣tent Protestant) do pass their judgement against their senses, and the senses of all sound men in the World; and that not in a matter beyond the reach of sense (as whether Christ be there spiritually) but in a matter belonging to sense, if any thing belong to it; as whether Bread be Bread, &c. Kings and Nobles, Prelates and Priests, do all give their judge∣ment, that all their senses are deceived. And is it pos∣sible for these men than to know any thing? or any con∣troversie between us and them to be decided? If we say that the Sun is light, or that the Pope is a man, and Scripture le∣gible, or that there are the Writings of Councils and Fathers extant in the World, they may as well concur in a denial of all this, or any thing else that sense should judge of. If they tell us that Scripture requireth them to contradict all their senses in this point; I answer,

1. Not that Scripture before mentioned, that calleth it [Bread] after the Consecration, thrice in the three next Verses.

2. And how know they that there is such a Scripture, if all their senses be so fallible. If the certainty of sense be not supposed, a little Learning or Wit might satisfie them, that Faith can have no certainty. But is it not a most dreadfull judgement of God, that Princes and Nations, Learned men, and some that in their way are consciencious, should be given over to so much inhumanity, and to make a Religion of this brutishness, (and worse) and to persecute those with Fire and Sword, that are not so far forsaken by God, and by their

reason? and that they should so sollicitously labour the perver∣sion of States and Kingdoms for the promoting of stupidity or stark madness.

8. And (if we go from their Principles to their Ends, or Ways, we shall soon see that) they are also against the Unity of the Church, while they pretend this as their chiefest Ar∣gument, to draw men to their way. They set up a corrupted Faction, and condemn the far greater part of the Church; and will have no unity with any but those of their own Fa∣ction and Subjection: and fix this as an essential part of their Religion, creating thereby an impossibility of univer∣sal concord.

9. They also contradict the Experience of many thou∣sand Saints; asserting that they are all void of the Love of God and saving Grace, till they become subject to the Pope of Rome; when as the Souls of these Believers have Ex∣perience of the Love of God within them, and feel that Grace that proveth their Justification. I wonder what kinde of thing it is that is called Love or Holiness in a Papist, which Protestants and other Christians have not, and what is the difference.

10. They are most notorious Enemies to Charity, con∣demning most of the Christian World to Hell, for being out of their subjection.

11. They are notorious Enemies to Knowledge under pre∣tence of Obedience and Unity, and avoiding Heresie. They celebrate their Worship in a Language not understood by the vulgar Worshippers. They hinder the People from Reading the holy Scriptures, (which the ancient Fathers exhorted men and women to, as an ordinary thing.) The qua∣lity of their Priests and People, testifie this.

12. They oppose the Purity of divine Worship, setting up a multitude of humane Inventions in stead thereof, and

idolatrously (for no less can be said of it) adoring a piece of consecrated Bread as their God.

13. They are Opposers of Holiness, both by the foresaid enmity to Knowledge, Charity, and purity of Worship, and by many unholy Doctrines, and by deluding Souls with an outside historical way of Religion, never required by the Lord, consisting in a multitude of Ceremonies, and wor∣shiping of Angels, and the Souls of Saints, and Images, and Crosses, &c. Let Experience speak how much the Life of Holiness is promoted by them.

14. They are Enemies to common Honesty, teaching the Doctrines of Equivocations and Mental Reservations, and making many hainous sins venial, and many of the most odious sins to be Duties, as killing Kings that are excommu∣nicated by the Pope, taking Oaths with the foresaid Reserva∣tions, and breaking them, &c. For the Jesuits Doctrine, Montaltus the Jansenist, and many of the French Clergy have pretty well opened it: and the Pope himself hath lately been fain to publish a condemnation of their Apology. And yet the power and interest of the Jesuits and their fol∣lowers among them, is not altogether unknown to the World.

15. They are Enemies to Civil Peace and Govern∣ment, (if there be any such in the World) as their Doctrine and Practise of killing and deposing excommunicate Princes, breaking Oaths, &c. shews. Bellarmine that will go a middle way, gives the Pope power in ordine ad spiritu∣alia, and indirectly to dispose of Kingdoms, and tells us, that it is unlawfull to tolerate heretical Kings that propagate their Heresie, (that is, the ancient Faith.) How well Doctor Heylin hath vindicated their Council of Laterane in this, (whose Decrees stand as a Monument of the horrid treason∣able Doctrine of the Papists) I shall, if God will, hereafter

manifest: In the mean time, let any man reade the words of the Council, and judge.

And now whether a Religion that is at such open enmity with 1. Scripture, 2. The Church, 3. Tradition, 4. Fathers, 5. Councils, 6. Some Popes, 7. The common senses and Reason of all the World, even their own, 8. Unity of Christians, 9. Knowledge, 10. Experi∣ence of Believers, 11. Charity, 12. Purity of Wor∣ship, 13. Holiness, 14. Common Honesty, 15. And to Civil Government and Peace (which might all easily be fully proved, though here but touched) I say, whether such a Religion should be embraced and advanced with such dili∣gence and violence, and mens souls laid upon it, is the con∣troversie before us. And whether it should be tolerated (even the propagation of it, to the damnation of the peoples souls) is now the Question which the juggling Papists have set a foot among those that have made themselves our Ru∣lers: and there are found men among us, that call them∣selves Protestants and godly, that plead for the said Tole∣ration; (and consequently for the delivering up of these Nations to Popery, if not to Spanish or other foreign Po∣wers) which if they effect, and after their contrary Profes∣sions, prove such Traitors to Christ, his Gospel and their po∣sterity, as they leave the Land of their Nativity in misery, they shall leave their stinking names for a reproach and curse to future Generations; and on such Pillars shall be written, [This pride, self-seeking, uncharitableness, and schism hath done.]

If thou marvel, Reader, that the learned Authour of this Book and I, do joyn thus against the common Adversary, after our own Differences in the one point of Infant-ba∣ptism, thou dost but marvel that we are Christians, and have not made shipwrack of our Faith and Charity; and on

the account of our Imperfections and little Differences, cast away our salvation and the Churches peace. Be it known to you that we are some years elder than when our Differences begun: and therefore if we have made no progress in Holi∣ness, we are unexcusable. And we know that he that is strongest in holy Love, is strongest in Grace. Marvel not then if we get some little increase by the opportunities and mercies we possess; and if we forget not, that we are Mem∣bers of the same Christ, and Heirs of the same Kingdome, (where we hope to live in perfect Love) when we draw nearer to it, and see that long we cannot be thence; and when we see what havock the Devil hath made in the Churches of Christ, and the Souls of multitudes seemingly religious, by uncharitableness and Schism. I am sure the Soul that is most for Unity and Love is likest to those that are in Heaven.

This also is my Answer to the Papists, that I know will make it my Reproach, that I hold so much Communion with Anabaptists; that is, that I am not as uncharitable and schismatical as they, that confine the Church to their deluded Faction. We own nothing in each other that we discern to be evil; but we unanimously practise so far as we are agreed. If sin have left England and Europe any hopes, the Lord have mercy upon a divided self-destroying Generation, and suffer not the sins of men professing godli∣ness, to drive away the Gospel, and send it to America, (ac∣cording to Mr. Herbert's sad conjecture in his Church Mili∣tant.) And, O that Professours of Godliness would consider, both, what they have done, and how much of Holiness doth consist in Charity, Unity, and Peace, and leave not to the Papists the temptation or honour, of seeming more unani∣mous and peaceable than we, lest they seem to themselves and others more holy than we. Experience and Judge∣ments

will leave us the most unexcusable people under Hea∣ven, if we prevent not our own and the Churches ruine, by a speedy, diligent return, to Charity and Peace. As these are the thoughts which I judged most necessary on this oc∣casion to communicate, so are they the matter of my daily Prayers.

Reader, the times require thee to be well versed in the Controversies with the Papists. If thou love thy Faith and Soul, be not lazy; but as there are multitudes of excellent Treatises at hand against Popery, be not through negligence a stranger to them. And among others, in this Treatise thou wilt finde the Adversary solidly confuted, and the va∣nity of his Reasonings detected, (which briefly I did in his most material parts, in my Key for Catholicks.) And among the many excellent Treatises, against them, with which Shops and Libraries abound, I commend to the Countrey Reader, that would see much in a little room, and know the true grounds of confuting Popery, two little Trea∣tises, viz. Dr. Challoner's Credo Sanctam Ecclesiam Ca∣tholicam, and Dr. Peter Moulin's Answer to Cotton's Questions, with the Questions and Challenges annexed. And for Arguments against Toleration of Popery, Dr. Sutliffe's Answer to the Lay Papists Petition for Toleration, and Gabriel Powel's Answer to the same. Whose side the Scriptures are on, reade a little Book called, The abatement of Popish Brags by Alexander Cook. Reade also their own [Catholick Mo∣deratour, proving Protestants no Hereticks] and the Ca∣tholick Judge or Moderatour of the Moderatour, by John of the Cross, &c. Shortly I hope you may have Dr. Peter Moulin's excellent Treatise of the Novelty of Popery, translated by his Reverend Son, and now going to the Press. The Lord grant, that mens refusing to receive the Truth in the Love of it to their Salvation, and their

base subjecting it to their pride and worldly interests, pro∣voke not God to give them over to believe such Lyes as are here detected, and to withdraw the Gospel from an unworthy Nation. Amen.

Novemb. 11. 1659.

RI. BAXTER.