CHAP. XL. Ranking the Protestants among the rabble of Sects and Heresies that are in the world
CHAP. XL. Ranking the Protestants among the rabble of Sects and Heresies that are in the world.
D etect. 31. Another of their frauds is, By ranking the Protestants among the rabble of Sects and Heresies that are in the world, and then asking ignorant souls, If you will needs be of any sect, how many are here before you? And what reason have you rather to be of the Protestants, then of any other?
Answ. Indeed this question is worth the considering by a Papist, or any sectary; but the true Catholic is quite out of the reach of it. The Church of Christ is one, and but One. This one Catholic Church containeth all the true
Christians in the world. This is the Church that I am a member of, which is far wider than the Roman Church. The Church that I profess myself a member of, containeth three parts; 1. The most sound and healthful part; and that is the Reformed Churches. 2. The most unsound in doctrine, though possessed of many Learned men; and that is the Papists themselves;
(not as Papists simply, but as Christians, though infected with Popery.) 3.
The middle part, which is sounder than the Papists in doctrine, but less learned; and below the Protestants in both: and that is all the Greeks and
other Eastern and Southern Churches that are no subjects of the Pope. All these, even all true Christians, are members of the Church that I belong to, though some of them be more sound, and some be leprous or lamentably polluted. To these I may add many particular lesser sects, that subvert not the foundation, as some Anabaptists, and diverse others. And will you ask me now why I will not be of another sect, as well as of the Protestants?
Why, my answer is ready: A Sect divided from the body, I abhor: I am of no Sect, It is the Unity, Universality and Antiquity of the Church that are its honorable attributes in my eyes. Protestants that unchurch all the rest of the world, and count themselves the whole Church of Christ, do in some sort make themselves a Sect: But where is there any such? I know none such, nor I hope ever shall do: And therefore I may say that Protestants are no more a sect, then the Patients in an Hospital that are almost healed, or then the higher form of Scholars in a school, or then the Merchants or richer sort of Tradesmen in a City: And such a Sect God grant that I may be of, even one in the Church that shall be of soundest understanding, and of purest worship, and of the most careful, holy, honest life; But still I shall acknowledge them of the lowest form, even them that learn the A.B.C. to be in the same School with me: And if they (Papists or any others) will disclaim me, that shall not unchurch me, as long as Christ disclaims me not:
Nor shall it provoke me to disclaim them any further then I see Christ leading me the way. So that the Papists may see that if they will deny the Church that I am of, they must deny their own, and all the Christian world.
But how will they answer this themselves? Seriously I profess, that besides their other errors, it is one of the greatest reasons why I dare not be a Papist, because then I know I must be a Sectary. What is a Papist but as mere a sectary as any that retaineth a name in the Church? They are a
company of men that have set up a Human Usurping Head or Vice-christ over the Catholic Church, owning him themselves, and unchurching and condemning all the Church that will not own him. The Church that I am of is near thrice as big as the Papists Church is. Theirs is but a piece, and a polluted piece, that would divide itself from all the rest by condemning them.
And now I would seriously desire any Papist living to resolve the question, If he will needs be of a sect, and forsake the Universal Church, why of the Popish sect rather than another? If because it is the greatest, I answer, its less than the whole. If because it is the purest, it is one of the most impure: If for Antiquity, it is founded (as Papal) upon Novelty. If because it is the Richest, their money perish with them that measure the Church and truth of Christ by the Riches and splendor of this world. For my part I cannot help you out of this snare.