A27015:396
The safe religion, or, Three disputations for the reformed catholic religion against popery proving…The safe religion, or, Three disputations for the reformed catholike religion against popery proving…
The safe religion, or, Three disputations for the reformed catholic religion against popery proving that popery is against the Holy Scriptures, the unity of the catholic church, the consent of the ancient doctors, the plainest reason, and common judgment of sense it self / by Richard Baxter.The safe religion, or, Three disputations for the reformed catholike religion against popery proving that popery is against the Holy Scriptures, the unity of the catholike church, the consent of the antient doctors, the plainest reason, and common judgment of sense it self / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by Abraham Miller for Thomas Underhill, 1657
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.
What, must the only rule that condemneth Heresies, be made the cause of them? Must the light which God hath given the world, be blamed for all the Darkness of mens errors? Or must men be kept from the light, for fear least it lead them into Darkness? This is the Popish Piety and Charity: In stead of helping to Illuminate the dark world, as all preachers of the Gospel should do (Act. 26.17, 10.) they •ust have all the unlearned to put out their eyes, •d be led by their guides, and trust their souls with them, for fear lest if they have any eyes in their heads, and any light to walk by, they should stumble or err through the imperfection of their sight.
What, must the onely rule that condemneth Heresies, be made the cause of them? Must the light which God hath given the world, be blamed for all the Darkness of mens errors? Or must men be kept from the light, for fear least it lead them into Darkness? This is the Popish Piety and Charity: In stead of helping to Illuminate the dark world, as all preachers of the Gospel should do (Act. 26.17, 10.) they •ust have all the unlearned to put out their eyes, •d be led by their guides, and trust their souls with them, for fear lest if they have any eyes in their heads, and any light to walk by, they should stumble or erre through the imperfection of their sight.
And yet the Papists, who so much pretend to unity, are various and changeable in this high point of their abomination, as well as in other things. For when they once see that they cannot keep the Scriptures from the people, because the Protestants Translations are among them, then they will permit them to read their own Translations: And upon this account the Rhemists translated the New Testament into English, when they saw they could not wholly suppress and hide that light: And on this account it is that our Papists in England, and some other parts where the Protestants abound among them, are permitted by their Priests (with some warnings of the needlessness, and the danger of it) to read the Scripture in their Country tongue: When as to a Papist in Spain or Italy it is no less a crime then to merit the Rack or Strappado of the Inquisition, and its strange if they be not burnt for it at a stake. So that I have met with some seduced Papists in England, so ignorant of their course abroad, and so gulled by the lies of their companions or Priests, that they would not believe that they do any where forbid the vulgar to read the Scripture in their own tongue; but were confidently persuaded that it was our slander of them: so that these poor people believe that the Sun is not set in Spain at midnight, because it shines at noon in England. Let them read but Joh. Arboreus Theosoph l. 8. c. 9. Andradius Defens. Concil. Trident. l. 4. Petrus Lizetus Dialog. de sacris libris in vulg. Floq non evertendis. Hosius Dialog. de Communion. &c. Petrus sutor de Translatione Bibliae: Bellarm. de verbo Dei l. 2. c. 15. & 16. Salmeron. in 1 Cor. Disp. 30. Bellarmine himself mentioneth the Index librorum prohibit. of Pope Pius 4. Reg. 4.