A26887:220
The certainty of Christianity without popery, or, Whether the Catholic-Protestant or the papist have…The certainty of Christianity without popery, or, Whether the Catholick-Protestant or the papist have…
The certainty of Christianity without popery, or, Whether the Catholic-Protestant or the papist have the surer faith being an answer to one of the oft canted questions and challenges of the papists, sent to one who desired this : published to direct the unskilful, how to defend their faith against papists and infidels, but especially against the temptations of the Devil, that by saving their faith, they may save their holiness, their comfort and their souls / by Richard Baxter.The certainty of Christianity without popery, or, Whether the Catholick-Protestant or the papist have the surer faith being an answer to one of the oft canted questions and challenges of the papists, sent to one who desired this : published to direct the unskilful, how to defend their faith against papists and infidels, but especially against the temptations of the Devil, that by saving their faith, they may save their holiness, their comfort and their souls / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Nevil Simons, 1672
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
XIV. They give us no Proof of their Infallibility; Either from any promise of God antecedently, or subsequent effect: How then shall we be sure of it.
XV. It is impossible for us to know who is a true Pope: And is every man that will call himself Pope, or only the true ones possest with this Infallibility? If all; then one of our Bishops may have it when he will: If not, no man can be sure of Gods word for want of being sure who is a true Pope? Read but what a plunge poor Mr. Johnson, alias Terret, ⟨p. 74⟩alias &c. is put to, as to the Questions about what makes a Pope in his answers to me, and you will see how they are bewildered: Their forty years Schism, in which there were divers pretended Popes, and the uncertainty who is the true successor to this day, especially since Eugenius was deposed as a Heretic by a General Council, hath left this matter unrecoverably uncertain. If Electors give the Essence, People, Priests, Princes, Prelates, Cardinals, have been Electors by turns. If Consecration be necessary; it must be by an Inferior, and no man knoweth by whom, and some have been Popes unconsecrated, and their power defended. If the Churches acceptance be necessary, no man knoweth in many schisms which had the greater party; but certainly neither had the Church.
XV. It is impossible for us to know who is a true Pope: And is every man that will call himself Pope, or only the true ones possest with this Infallibility? If all; then one of our Bishops may have it when he will: If not, no man can be sure of Gods word for want of being sure who is a true Pope? Read but what a plunge poor Mr. Iohnson, alias Terret, ⟨p. 74⟩alias &c. is put to, as to the Questions about what makes a Pope in his answers to me, and you will see how they are bewildred: Their fourty years Schism, in which there were divers pretended Popes, and the uncertainty who is the true successor to this day, especially since Eugenius was deposed as a Heretick by a General Council, hath left this matter unrecoverably uncertain. If Electors give the Essence, People, Priests, Princes, Prelates, Cardinals, have been Electors by turns. If Consecration be necessary; it must be by an Inferiour, and no man knoweth by whom, and some have been Popes unconsecrated, and their power defended. If the Churches acceptance be necessary, no man knoweth in many schisms which had the greater party; but certainly neither had the Church.