Romanism Discussed, Treatise · Article 5 · Section 3
SECT. III.
Matth. 18. 17. or 18. 1 John 4. 6. Mark. 16. 15, 16. make nothing for H. T. his claim of the Roman church, or Popes or oecumenical councils infallibility.
THe ſecond argument is this. No man can be damned for not believing an error in faith. But every man ſhall be damned for not believing the church, therefore no man can believe an error in faith by believing the church. The Major is proved, becauſe otherwiſe God were a tyrant in damning us for not believing a lye, which contradicts himſelf. The Minor is as evident; he that will not hear the church let him be to thee as an heathen and a publican: ſo Matth. 18. 18. He that knoweth God heareth us, and he that heareth us not is not of God; in this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 1 John 4. 6. Go ye preaching the Goſpel to all creatures, &c. He that believeth not ſhall be condemned, St. Mark. 16. 16.
Anſw. 1. The concluſion is not the ſame with H. T. his tenet, and ſo the proof is in the ſame manner faulty as in the firſt argument. 2. The Minor is denied: nor doth any one of the texts alleged prove it or any thing like it, For, 1. The text Matth. 18 17, or 18. is not as this Author cites it [be that will not hear the Church] as if it were an indefinite ſpeech equipollent to this univerſal [every man that will not hear the Church] without which H. T. proves not his Minor, but thus [but and if he hear not the Church] reſtraining it to the brother finning againſt his brother: And firſt, reproved ſingly. 2. Before two or three witneſſes. 3. Of whom the Church hath been told. 4. And he doth not obey the Church. 2. The text ſpeaks not at all of believing the Church in a point of faith, but doing right to an injured brother. For the phraſe of ſinning againſt a brother, ver. 15. can neither be meant of hereſie, or error in faith, no nor ſinfulneſſe in life, which is termed commonly (though for the moſt part miſtakingly) a publick ſcandal, or ſcandalous practiſe, but only of a particular injury, ſuch as he, againſt whom the ſin was, might forgive, as is manifeſt from, ver. 21. and the parable following: whereas to forgive hereſies or errors in faith or publick ſcandalous practiſes, is not in the power of a private brother. 3. That by [the Church] is meant, the Chriſtian Church is not certain, ſith it is not as Matth. 16. 18. [my Church] but [the Church] nor if it were, can it be underſtood either of the univerſal Church diffuſed over all the world, ſith it is impoſſible for every injured brother to tell his injury to it, not of a perfectly Oecumenical council called out of the world; for either there never was ſuch a Church, or if ever there were it hath not been in many ages together. H. T. confeſſeth, p. 7. 25. the ſecond third and tenth ages produced no councils. Nor if there were in every age or every year, could every injured brother addreſſe their complaints to them. And the ſame may be ſaid of the Pope, ſometimes there hath been none for ſome years together, ſometimes it hath been uncertain which was the true Pope, ſometimes by reaſon of perſecutions and for other cauſes no acceſſe could be to him, ſometimes the wronged brother could not travel to him, nor he hear his cauſe. Nor is there any direction to go to his legate, or any aſſurance that he can commit his power to another, or that ſuch a legate is infallible. Undoubtedly by [the Church] Matth. 18. 17. muſt be meant ſuch an aſſembly, whether regularly formed, or otherwiſe occaſionally convening, which is of near acceſſe, and which is fit to hear the cauſe and to determin. And I muſt confeſſe that I cannot deprehend that by [the Church] is meant the meer Eccleſiaſtical authority, nor is here appointed that diſciplin Eccleſiaſtical, which is termed the power of the keyes, to excommunicate hereticks and ſcandalous livers in the Church, but a direction to a wronged brother how to deal in caſe of particular injuries, the neglect of which the Apoſtle Paul blames ſo much in the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 6. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 4. Neither doth [let him be to thee as a heathen and a Publican] import excommunication out of the Church. For it is ſaid, let him be to thee, not to the Church, as a heathen or a Publican, nor is any power at all therein given to the Church to excommunicate: all that the Church is to do, is to injoyn what the injurious brother ſhould do, that excommunication which is here mentioned is appointed or permitted to the wronged brother. Nor did the being a Publican exclude out of the Jewiſh aſſembly or ſervice, the Publican went up to the Temple to pray, Luke 18. 10. Matthew a Publican was a Jew and had the priviledge of a Jew though a Publican: nor was a heathen, as ſuch, damned, there were proſelytes, as Corn…lius, who were heathens, and yet were accepted with God: only the publicans and heathens were ſuch as the Jews would not have familiar arbitrary converſe with, as Luke 15. 2. & 19. 7. Acts 11. 3. appears, and therefore the ſpeech can have no other ſenſe but this: If thy brother who wrongs thee will neither right thee after private rebuke, nor after rebuke before two or three witneſſes, nor after the monition of the Church, that is either that particular aſſembly of Chriſtians to which ye are joyned, or ſome other competent number of Chriſtian brethren fit to hear ſuch differences, then mayſt thou ſhun his ſociety in ſuch a manner as Jews are wont to ſhun heathens and publicans, by not going in to them to eat, or inviting them, or other unneceſſary ſociety, that ſo they may know how evil their dealing is and be aſhamed and amended. Which is nothing to that Eccleſiaſtical diſcipline or juridical excommunication which is at this day arrogantly claimed by Popes even over Emperours, and by other Eccleſiaſtical prelates for breaking their Canons: much leſſe doth this text infer damnation to him that ſhall not hear the univerſal Church, or Oecumenical council, or Roman Pope.
The other text, 1 John 4. 6. is leſſe to H. T. his purpoſe. For it ſpeaks not a word of hearing the Catholick Roman Chu…ch, or univerſal, diffuſed over all the world, or Oecumenical council or Roman Pop…, but of hearing the Apoſtles, and other teachers of the Goſpel oppoſite to falſe Proph…s, ver. 1. who denyed Jeſus Chriſt to become in the fleſh, and of hearing them, not in every thing, but in the doctrine of Chriſts coming in the fleſh.
And in like ſort, Marke 16 15, 16. is a plain command to the Apoſtles, not to the Biſhop of Rome or an Oecumenical council, or the univerſal Church: for then the Pope ſhould be …ound to leave his See, and the Biſhops in a council to be non reſident, and go into all the world, and the Apoſtles are bid preach, not Popes decrees or councils Canons, but the Goſpel of Chriſt, and the threatning of damnation is not to him that ſhall not believe the Popes decrees, or the determinations of an Oecumenical council or univerſal Church, but the Goſpel of Chriſt, which reacheth not them who deny the Popiſh doctrine of tranſubſtantiation, purgatory, humane merits, worſhipping imag…, not eating fleſh in Lent, Prieſts ſingle life, and ſuch other innovations as neither Chriſt nor his Apoſtles taught: but ſuch as believe not the doctrine of Jeſus being the Chriſt, and ſalvation by him alone. Whence it is apparent to any that are not reſolved to ſhut their eyes againſt manifeſt light, that none of theſe texts do prove the infallibility of the Roman Church, or Oecumenical council or Pope, but are impiouſly wreſted to uphold the moſt cruel tyranny that ever was in the world.