The supposition on which all his ensuing queries ai'e founded must be rightly stated, its terms freed from ambiguity, and the whole from equivocation; — which a word or two, unto, first, the subject; and then, secondly, the predicate of the proposition, or what is attributed unto the subject spoken of; and, thirdly, the proof of the whole, will sufiice to do. The thesis laid down is this : " The church of Rome was once a most pure, excellent, flourishing, and mother church ; this good St Paul amply testifies in his epistle to them, and is acknow- ledged by Protestants." The subject is, "The church of Rome;" and this may be taken either for the church that was founded in Rome in the apostles' days, consisting of believers, with those that had then- rule and oversight in the Lord ; or it may be taken for the church of Rome in the sense of latter ages, consisting of the pope its head, and
26 ANISIAD VERSIONS ON A TREATISE
cardinals, priucipal members, with all the jurisdiction dependent on them, and way of worship established by them and their authority ; or that collection of men throughout the world that yield obedience to the pope in their several places and subordinations, according to the ndes by him and his authority given unto them. That which is attributed to this church is, " That it was once a most pure, excel- lent, flourishing, and mother church;" all, it seems, in the superlative degi'ee. I will not contend about the purity, excellence, or flourish- ing of that church. The boasting of the superlativeness of that purity and excellency seems to be borrowed from that of Rev. iii. 1 5-1 7. But we shall not exagitate that in that church which it would never have affirmed of itself, because it is fallen out to be the interest of some men in these latter days to talk at such a rate as primitive humdity was an utter stranger unto. I somewhat guess at what he means by a mother church ; for though the Scripture knows no such thing, but only appropriates that title to " Jerusalem that was above,'' which is said to be the " mother of us all," Gal. iv. 26, — which, I suppose, is not Rome (and I also think that no man can have two mothers), nor did purer antiquity ever dream of any such mother, — yet the vogue of latter days hath made this expression not only passable in the world, but sacred and unquestionable. I shall only say, that in the sense wherein it is by some understood, the old Roman church could lay no more claim unto it than most other churches in the world, and not so good as some others could.
The proof of this assertion lies first on the testimony of St Paul, and then on the acknowledgment of Protestants. First, " Good St Paul," he says, " amply testifies this in his Epistle to the Romans." This? What, I pray? — tliat the then Roman church was a mother church ? Not a word in all the epistle of any such matter. Nay, as I observed before, though he greatly commends the faith and holiness of many believers, Jews and Gentiles, that were at Rome, yet he makes mention of no church there, but only of a little assembly that used to meet at Aquilas house; nor doth St Paul give any testimony at all to the Roman church in the latter sense of that expression. Is there any thing in his epistle of the pope, cardinals, patriarchs, etc.? any thing of their power and rale over other churches, or Christians not living at Rome? Is there any one word in that epistle about that which the Papists make the principal ingredient in their definition of the church,— namely, subjection to the pope? What, then, is the " this " tliat good St Paul so amply testifies unto in his Epistle to the Romans^ Why this, and this only, that when he wrote this epistle to Rome, there were then living in that city sundry good and holy men, believing in Christ Jesus according to the gospel, and making profession of the faith that is in him; but that these' men
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should live there to the end of the world, he says not, nor do we find that they do. The acknowledgment of Protestants is next, to as little purpose, insisted on. They acknowledge a pure and flourishing church to have been once at Rome, as they maintain there was at Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Smyrna, Laodicea, Alexandria, Babylon, etc. That in all these places such churches do still continue, they den}'^, and particularly at Rome. For that church which then was, they deny it to be the same that now is ; at least, any more than Argo was the same ship as when first built, after there was not one plank or pin of its first structure remaining. That tlie church of Rome, in the latter sense, was ever a pure, flourishing church, never any Protestant ac- knowledged. The most of them deny it ever to have been, in that sense, any church at all ; and those that grant it to retain the essen- tial constituting princijiles of a church, yet aver that as it is, so it ever was, since it had a being, very far from a pure and flourishing church. For avight, then, that I can perceive, we are not at all con- cerned in the following queries; the supposition they are all built upon being partly sophistical and partly false. But yet, because he doth so earnestly request us to ponder them, we shall not give him cause to complain of us, in this particular at least (as he doth in ge- neral of all Protestants), that we deal uncivilly, and therefore shall pass through them ; after which, if he pleaseth, he may deliver them to his friend of whom they were borrowed.