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.

SECT. IV.

None of these texts Matth. 28. 20. 1 Tim. 3. 15. Matth. 16. 18. John 14. 26. John 16. 23. Act. 15. 28. do prove the infallibility in points of faith of the Catholick or Roman Church, or the Pope or a general council approved by him.

H. T. adds a third argument for the Churches infallibil••ty thus: If Christ be alwayes with his Church, and have made her the pillar and firmament of truth, against which the gates of hell (heresies) shall not prevail, and given her the holy Ghost to assist her to all truth, so that her definitions in an approved general council are the very dictates of the holy Ghost, then is it impossible the Church should erre in faith: But all this Christ hath done for his Church, there∣fore it is impossible the Church should erre in faith. The sequel of the Major is manifest by the very terms of the supposition: the Minor is proved, go ye teach∣ing all Nations, &c. And behold I am with you all daies (he is with her teach∣ing) St. Matth. 28. 20. The house of God, which is the pillar and firmament of truth, 1 Tim. 3. 15. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. St. Matth. 16. 18. He will give you another paraclere that he may abide with you for ever, ••c. He shall teach you all things, and suggest to you all things whatsoever I shall say to you (in all points of faith) St. John 14. 26. He shall ••••ach you all truth (no errors) St. John 16. 13. It hath seemed good (say the Apostles in coun∣cil) to the holy Ghost and to us, Act. 15. 28.

Answ. This Author still abuseth his reader by putting his conclusion other∣wise

then his tenet. For whereas his tenet was, that the Roman Catholick Church is infallible▪ he puts his conclusion thus, [the Church is infallible] as if [the Church] and [the Catholick Church] were all one, and [the Catholick] and [the Roman] were all one, and [the Church of Christ] and [the visible Church militant] were the same: which are indeed fallacies, which easily take with silly or prejudiced Papists, that take what is said of the Church to be meant of the visible militant Church, and what is said of the visible militant to be said of the Catholick Church, and by the Catholick imagin the Roman meant, and by the Roman the Pope. But to discover the vanity of this argu∣ment. 1. The sequel of the Major is denied, nor is it manifest by the terms of the supposition. For Christs presence is with every believer, and he hath made every believer a pillar and firmament of truth, and against every true be∣liever the gates of hell (heresies) shall not prevail, and he hath given the holy Ghost to every true believer to assist him to all truth as well as to the Church, and his definitions are the very dictates of the holy Ghost, when he defines ac∣cording to Scripture, and yet it is not impossible he should erre in faith. Christ hath made promises of his presence and of his spirit, and his spirit is said to be in and with every true believer, as well as the Church, Rom. 8. 1, 9, 15. 1 Cor. 6. 19. 2 Cor. 1. 22. and 13. 5. Gal. 4 6. Ephes. 1. 13. 2 Cor. 6. 16. John 10 16, 27, 28, 29. and yet believers may erre in faith, Rom. 14. 2, 3, 5. 1 Cor. 15. 12. Gal. 3. 1. and 4. ••0. 21. And therefore it is not true, which this Author supposeth manifest.

Not is the Minor tr••e or proved by the texts he brings. For the promise, Matth. 28 20. is not to the Church, but to the Apostles and other teachers, who succeed them: nor is the promise made to them that they should teach no error in faith: but that teaching (as H. T. speaks) or as long as they teach the true faith, he would be with them by assisting and prospering them in their work. The words, 1 Tim. 3. 15 may be meant of the mystery of godliness mentioned, v. 16. thus, the Mystery of godliness is the pillar and firmament, ground or seat of truth, and without controver••ie great, which I do conceive after Cameron and others to be the truest exposition, as the same Apostle in o∣ther places gives such elogies to the great points of faith, 1 Tim. 1. 15. and 4. 9. and 2 Tim. 2. 11. and the conjunction 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and ver. 16. doth make it very probable. Nor doth Grotius his reason avoid it: For the mystery even according to this exposition is the subject not the predicate. Others re∣fer it to Timo••hy, but then it should be in the accusative case. But let it be granted that it is meant of the Church which is said, that it is the pillar and firmament of truth, yet it is certain from the very words, that it is meant of that Church in which Timothy was directed how to behave himself, which was the Church of Ephesus, as appears 1 Tim. 1. 3. not the Church of Rome, and therefore must be understood in such a sense as agrees to it: which the Papists themselves will not say was infallible or could not erre in faith. And therefore they must yeild it to be meant either of what they were in duty to be, or what they were actually, thus they were such, as by profession and practice did hold forth, and maintain and uphold the truth in those parts: not that they held nothing but tenets, nor so held forth the truth, but that they might erre and decay in their holding out the truth. For it is certain they did so, Rev. 2. 4 5. Act. 20. 29, 30. The terms [the pillar and firmament, or ground or seat of

truth] are but metaphors, and whereas there are these two things signified by hem. 1. The upholding of the truth, so as that otherwise it should fall. 2. The fixing of the truth there, so as that it should abide and be permanent there, doubtlesse the former sense cannot be true. For though God should have no Church on earth or in heaven, no Apostle, Prophet, Bishop, yet his truth would be upheld; his word is for ever settled in heaven, Psal. 119. 89. Christ who is the truth, John 14. 6. abides for ever, and the spirit of truth re∣mains for ever, and will uphold his truth. If it were as some of the Romanists say, the Church only abode in the Virgin Mary at Christs death, or as others say, in the time of Antichrist there shall be no sacrifice, nor ceremonies, nor religion, yet the Gospel of Christ shall be everlasting; as the Angel terms it, Revel. 14. 6. therefore of necessity it must be understood in that sense in which it notes stability, permanency, fixednesse or abiding, and the sense is, the Church is the company among whom the truth abides unshaken, in which sense Revel. 3. 12. it is said, him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple of my God, and he shall go no more out. And so 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is used, 1 Cor. 7. 37. for stedfast, and 1 Cor. 15. 58. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, stedfast, unmoveable are made synonymous, and Col. 1. 13. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, grounded and setled in the faith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 not moved away from the hope. So that the meaning is no more but this, the Church of the living God is not a tile which is often shaken and blown down with the winde, but a pillar that abides unshaken, and the seat or ground or basis of truth, where it abides being received and embraced by it. Which is to be understood of the invisible Church of true believers; and though not of every truth, yet of the main truth of the Gospel, as it is termed, Gal. 1. 5. the Word of truth, James 1. 18. the truth, John 17. 17. which is expressed in the next words, 1 Tim. 3. 16. from which he foretels an Apostasie, 1 Tim. 4. 1. and cannot be meant of any truth whatsoever which may be in contro∣versie. For it is certain no meer mortal man, nor all men, were ever so infalli∣ble. Which being rightly understood makes nothing for infallibility in all points which the Catholick Roman Church, Oecumenical council, or Pope, or all together shall define, as H. T. would have it. The next text, Matth. 16. 18. is as little to his purpose. For it is not said against the Roman Church, much lesse it is said against an Oecumenical council or the Pope of Rome, the gates of hell shall not prevail, but against my Church, that is, Christs wheresoever. 2. Nor is it proved, that by the gates of hell are meant heresies as this Author supposeth. The truth is, however by the modern use the term [hell] is appro∣priated almost to the place of the damned and the tormented there, yet the word [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] translated [hell] is either never or not many times used in the bible for that place or those persons, nor was of old the word [hell] appropriated to that place of torment, but meant of the grave or the state of the dead, in which sense it was meant of old that Christ went into hell, that is for a time to abide among the dead, as the learned Usher proves in his answer to the Jesuits challenge, ch. 8. and the gates of hell are no more than the gates of death or the grave, as Isa. 38. 10▪ Psal. 9. 13. &c. is meant. So that the meaning of Matth. 16. 18. is no more but this, the gates of hell, or the grave, that is death, shall not so prevail against my Church, but that I will raise it up at the last day to life eternal, as our

Lord Christ speaks, John 6. 39. Which being the genuine meaning, it is true onely of the church of the elect, not of the meer visible, nor of that is such a prevalency denied, but that they may erre in faith, however it be assured that it shall not erre in faith finally to perdition.

The next Text John 14. 26. is ill translated, [shall suggest to you all things whatsoever I shall say to you] the words being 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is, he shall minde you of all things which I have said to you: nor is this meant onely in points of faith, as this Authour adds, without any reason in the Text, that he might restrain it to them, in which he would have the church to be accounted infallible, but also in matters of practise; and this is meant onely of the Apostles, as the words [which I have said to you] and particularities expressed vers. 25, 28, 29. chap. 15. 27. chap. 16 4, 6, 12, 13. shew. And in like manner is the next Text, John 16. 13. appropriate to the Apostles, to whom the words were spoken. Nor are the words restrained to matters of faith, but extended also to points of practise, and there is a promise of shewing them also things to come. Which argues plainly, that it is not a promise to the whole Church, or Pope, or Council, or every particular believer, sith it is cer∣tain that to none of these it is verified, they have not things to come shewed to them according to that promise, and therefore it must needs be impertinently alleged by H. T. to prove his Minor.

The last Text Acts 15. 28. H. T. himself confesseth was said by the Apo∣stles in council, not by Peter onely, nor by a council without the Apostles, much less by any Bishop of one City as Rome is, and therefore proves not any unerringness in any but the Apostles, nor in them at all times in all points of faith, but onely their not erring in their determination at that time. So that his Texts do none of them prove his Minor.