A27015:524
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.
Argu. 1, They that lay claim to this Infallibility, do give us no proof of their claim: Therefore they cannot expect that we should believe them. The proof lieth on the pretenders, who give us no proof.
Argu. 1, They that lay claim to this Infallibility, do give us no proof of their claim: Therefore they cannot expect that we should believe them. The proof lyeth on the pretenders, who give us no proof.
If they can prove it, it must be either by his natural perfection, or some supernatural endowment, by which the Pope must be more Infallible then other men: The former they pretend not to (and no wonder) The later they do pretend to: But, if God supernaturally have ascertained all Popes of an Infallibility in matters of Faith, then he hath done this either by his written Word, or by unwritten Tradition, or both: by which it must to us be proved: But he hath done it neither by his written Word, nor by unwritten Tradition. For Tradition they must show it us, either in certain monuments of the Church which are in stead of writing (but that they cannot do) or else in the minds of all the members of the Church. For that which concerneth all their ⟨p. 212⟩Salvation, must be delivered to all: But this they cannot show: Nay we show them the contrary: that is, the greatest part of the present Church on earth denying any such Tradition: and the most approved Writers of the former Ages, telling us the contrary, and all taking the Pope as fallible, so that they cannot give us one line of any one Father or Council for many hundred years after Christ, that ever had such a conceit as theirs. And if they will pretend to a private Tradition which none but themselves have received and are entrusted with, and so make themselves the absolute Judges of their own cause, and give us no proof but their own words, we will believe them as fast as we can, but we must desire them not to be too hasty with us.
If they can prove it, it must be either by his natural perfection, or some supernatural endowment, by which the Pope must be more Infallible then other men: The former they pretend not to (and no wonder) The later they do pretend to: But, if God supernaturally have ascertained all Popes of an Infallibility in matters of Faith, then he hath done this either by his written Word, or by unwritten Tradition, or both: by which it must to us be proved: But he hath done it neither by his written Word, nor by unwritten Tradition. For Tradition they must shew it us, either in certain monuments of the Church which are in stead of writing (but that they cannot do) or else in the mindes of all the members of the Church. For that which concerneth all their