The Novelty of Popery Opposed to the Antiquity of True Christianity, Notice to the reader
Advertiſement to the Reader.
THE four following books contain the hiſtory of the Roman Biſhops from the Apoſtles to the fourth Ʋniverſal Council in the year 451. which is the term that Cardinal du Perron hath ſet to himſelf in his diſpute againſt his Majeſty of Great Britain. I ſhew that in all that time, and lower, the Biſhop of Rome was not acknowledged Head of the Ʋniverſal Church; and I diſcover the untruth and inutility of the proofs brought by the Cardinal. In which deduction I have followed, not the order of the Chapters of the Cardinal, but the order of the times, to give more light to the Reader, and to unravell the thred of the hiſtory which the Cardinal hath ravelled purpoſely to decieve with more facility: Alſo that I may not be conſtrained, by following all his ſteps, to go fifty times over the ſame things as he doth. I did not meddle with ſuch things as are nothing to our controverſies. For Cardinal du Perron to make a ſhew of his learning, hath inſerted in his book long diſputes againſt Cardinal Baronius, which concern us not at all. But as for the things that belong to our Controverſies, I hope I have given ſuch ſatisfaction upon all that the Cardinal brings forth, that the Reader who is not prepoſſeſt with hatred, and hath reſerved to himſelf ſome liberty of judgement, will acknowledge that this Prelats book is a heap of impoſtures and uſeleſs proofs: And that going about to cover himſelf with the authority of Fathers againſt the word of God, he is caſt by thoſe very Judges whom he hath choſen.