Popery Another Gospel by Rev. John Willison, Dundee

“But though we, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other Gospel to you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed,” Gal. 1: 8.

I have adduced four arguments to prove Popery to be another gospel than that of our Lord Jesus Christ. I proceed to add to them, in the next place,

A Fifth Argument

That religion which takes people off from the holy scriptures, and casts contempt upon them, is another gospel than Christ’s, and under the anathema of the text: but Popery is such a religion; therefore, &c.

Before I mention the Popish errors relative to the scriptures, it is fit we hear what the Spirit saith of the holy scriptures. He teacheth us, that they are given by inspiration of God, to be the rule of faith and life; and that the observing this rule is the only way to please God here, and to attain salvation hereafter: and therefore he enjoins us to read and study the scriptures, to regulate our faith and practice by them, and to instruct our children in them; see 2 Tim. 3: 16; Eph. 2: 20; Isa. 8: 20; Luke 16: 29, 31; Rev. 22: 18, 19; John 5: 39; Col. 4: 16; Deut. 6: 7; 11: 18, 19. He also commends those who read and study the scriptures, and pronounces them blessed, Josh. 1: 8; Acts 17: 11; 2 Tim. 3: 15; Rev. 1: 3. He shows us, that they were not written only for ministers, but also for the people; and they are directed to them, for their use, in the vulgar tongue, which they best understood; see John 20: 31; Eph. 3: 4; 1 John 1: 4; Rev. 1: 11; 2: 24; yea, to persons of every rank and degree, as kings, subjects, fathers, young men, children, husbands, wives, masters, servants, &c; see Deut. 17: 18, 19; Josh. 1: 8; Rom. 13: 1, &c; 1 John 2: 13; 5: 13; 1 Pet. 2: 13, &c; Eph. 5: 22, &c; 6: 1, &c.

Yet notwithstanding of what the Spirit of God saith of the holy scriptures, his own dictates, and their usefulness to all sorts of men, and the necessity of their reading and searching them for their souls salvation; the church of Rome slight, condemn, and discredit the scriptures many ways; which being so contrary to the Spirit of Christ, must certainly come from the spirit of antichrist.

1. In order to weaken the authority of the scriptures, which they find so opposite to them, they would fain accuse them of imperfection, obscurity, corruption, &c.
2. They maintain many doctrines not contained in the scriptures, yea, directly contrary to them; as I have already shown.
3. They teach that the scriptures are not sufficient to salvation, unless the traditions of the church be joined with them; and these traditions, though inconsistent with the scriptures, they appoint to be received with equal veneration with them. Now, we see, Christ in his word rejects all such traditions, in Mat. 15: 9, “In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men; that is, commandments that require what God doth not require, and forbid what God doth not forbid. Christ will have all his followers to receive his written word, as the great storehouse of his truths, containing all things necessary to be believed for salvation.
4. They impose new scriptures on the world, by making books canonical, which the ancient church still held as apocryphal, and that upon good ground; for the words of some of the authors testify that they were not inspired by the Spirit of God; see 2 Mac. 15:38; where the author makes apology for the weakness and imperfection of his work, which is not like the language of the Holy Ghost.
5. They hide the scriptures from the people, and forbid their reading them in their own language. And though they may indulge some of their people in this matter where the reformation takes place, yet they deal more strictly elsewhere. They say, people by reading the scriptures may drink in error, and so get more hurt than benefit; wherefore none should read them without licence from the bishop or inquisitor. Strange doctrine! Must we have a licence from men to obey our Lord Jesus, who commands us to read them? Must we lay aside the scriptures because some abuse them? They may as well say we should lay aside our meat and drink, because some destroy their life and health by them! Thus the Papists make themselves guilty of the crime of the Jewish lawyers, for which our Lord denounces a woe against them, to wit, they took away the key of knowledge from the people, Luke 9: 52.
6. They exalt the church of Rome and her bishop above the scriptures, by making them the infallible judge, to determine the sense of the scriptures, and all controversies about religion: yea, they will have the authority of the scriptures founded upon the church; whereas the church and her authority is founded upon the scriptures. The authority of the scriptures doth not hang upon any church, or the voice of any man, but upon the voice of the Spirit of God that speaketh in them, who hath wisely ordered his own word to be the best expounder of itself, by speaking more clearly in one place what is more darkly delivered in another.

A Sixth Argument

That religion that gives a particular church or bishop the sovereign dominion over the faith of Christians, or such a headship, supremacy, or infallibility, as should oblige all men to give them implicit faith or blind obedience, is another gospel: but Popery is such a religion; therefore, &c.

Protestants maintain, according to God’s word, That God alone is Lord of the conscience, which he hath left free from the doctrines and commandments of men, that are anywise contrary to his word, or beside it, in matters of faith or worship: that Christ discharged his apostles to assume any such dominion over the faith or consciences of men, which accordingly they disclaimed, and owned their subjection to the scriptures, and allowed their hearers to examine their doctrine if it was agreeable to them. Wherefore no church or bishop now can teach such doctrines, or give such commandments in matters of faith or worship, as are disagreeable to God’s word; neither ought any to believe or obey them, but to maintain that Christian liberty which Christ hath obtained for them; see Jam. 4: 12; Acts 4: 19; 5: 29; Matt. 23: 8, &c; Luke 21: 25, &c; 2 Cor. 1: 24; Acts 17: 11; Col. 2: 20; Gal. 5: 1. Protestants also maintain, That the purest churches and the best men on earth are liable to errors and mistakes, seeing they know but in part, and therefore cannot be our rule; yea, some famous churches have degenerated so far, as to become no churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan, Mat. 23: 9; Gal. 2: 11, &c; 1 Cor. 13: 12; Rev. 18: 2; Rom. 11: 20, &c. And none hath any claim to be head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ; and the Pope of Rome can in no sense be head thereof, but is that antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the church against Christ and all that is called, God, and openeth his mouth in blasphemy against God; see Col. 1: 18; Eph. 1: 22; Mat. 23: 8, &c; 2 Thes. 2: 3, 4, 8, 9; Rev. 13: 6. We see then, that the word of God quite overthrows the pretended supremacy and infallibility of the church and bishop of Rome.

But the church of Rome maintains, that she is the mother and mistress of all churches; and that it is necessary to salvation for all persons to believe her to be so, and to receive her doctrines upon her sole authority, and to be subject to her bishop, who is head of the church, and hath supreme power on earth over the whole church; that she with her bishop have never erred, nor can err; that they are the infallible interpreters of scripture, and judge of controversies. And all this they assert without any ground from scripture, nay, in plain opposition to it.

If any church on earth hath a claim to be the mother of all churches, it is Jerusalem, not Rome; for there the church began, as was foretold, Isa. 2: 3; “Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” If Rome will be mistress because she was once the imperial city, then Constantinople hath an equal title; for she was so also, and got a decree of the council of Chalcedon in her favour, Can. 28. And pray, doth Rome’s being once the imperial city, give her any title to be the judge of the sense of scripture, and of all controversies, and to be infallible too in her judgment, and in all her doctrines and practices? They must show a better title before Protestants own it. They must show where infallibility is promised to the church of Rome, more than to the churches of Scotland, England, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Antioch, Corinth, Ephesus, the Greek church, &c. Why may not any of these churches lay claim to the same right of judgment and infallibility with Rome, seeing Rome can plead no promise nor revelation for it more than they? But yet we see, in spite of all reason and good sense, they do and will maintain the church of Rome is infallible. And indeed, it is by this unreasonable and wilful assertion that they fortify themselves in the grossest errors and absurdities, against the most demonstrative arguments of Protestants brought against them. How can any convince the church of Rome or her adherents of mistakes, so long as they believe her infallibility? How can we bring her to remorse for her errors, while she confidently maintains she cannot err? The whole articles of the Romish religion hang upon this one point, their church and Pope’s infallibility. Should they let go this one article, Rome presently falls headlong, and her delusions are shamefully exposed to all men.

But have they nothing to say for this marvellous article? Why, say they, Rome is the seat of the papal or infallible chair, and this keeps the church from erring: for they make the church and Pope all one. However, much they speak of the church, all is included in the closet of the Pope’s breast; and upon his judgment all things so depend, that whatever he determines must be received without contradiction, as if every officer and member of the church had voted in it: so that the Pope is the same with the church. Now it is that absurd principle of the church or Pope’s infallibility, which is the great foundation and pillar of the Romish faith, that is, the long train of errors gradually received by them for above a thousand years’ time. No warrant have they from reason or antiquity, more than from scripture, for the infallibility of the bishops of Rome more than of other bishops. The best Popish historians confess, that they were far from excelling others in holiness, wisdom, or learning; nay, they own that many of them were notoriously wicked, even atheists, blasphemers, heretics, adulterers, conjurers, necromancers, &c. and some of them so illiterate as scarcely to know the rules of grammar. Now, is it easy to persuade Protestants that men so wicked, so ignorant, were fit to be infallible interpreters of the scriptures, or to be supreme dictators to the universal church? Though this be unanswerable, yet Rome is still so tenacious of her supremacy and infallibility, that it seems to be an invincible bar in the way of any reformation; for they are so puffed up with the conceit of it, that let Protestants argue never so strongly, they will not acknowledge the least error, nor quit the greatest absurdity, nor make any step to meet or gain them: Protestants must either go into all their errors, and swallow this infallibility with the rest, otherwise there can be no reconciliation.

Now the great ground of their claim is, The bishops of Rome are the apostle Peter’s successors; though they cannot make it appear that Peter was bishop of Rome, or that he ever was there. The apostles were not fixed pastors of any city, having the whole world for their charge. And though Peter had lived at Rome, this could not entitle the bishops there to Peter’s apostolical dignity and power, which died with himself. As all the apostles, by their commission, were equal in power and dignity, so Peter never arrogated any power or supremacy over the rest. He knew his Master had expressly discharged this, Luke 21: 25, 26; Mat. 20: 26, 27. Hence we find him humbly submitting to his brethren, when called to account for his conduct, Acts 11: 2, &c and obeying their order, when they sent him forth in mission to preach the gospel, Acts 8: 14. And it is evident from Paul’s conduct, that he owned no supremacy in Peter above the rest; for he withstood him to the face, when he judged him blameable, Gal. 2: 11. And he saith of himself, that he was in nothing inferior to him or any of the apostles, 2 Cor. 12: 11. None of the apostles then had any primacy above the rest. If any had a claim to it, one would think that John bid fairer for it than Peter, in regard he was the beloved disciple that leaned on our Lord’s breast, and long survived Peter and all the other apostles, and so most fit to be universal pastor. When Peter died, will Papists say, that either Linus, Cletus, or Clemens, the succeeding pastors at Rome, assumed the supremacy over John or other surviving apostles?

The supremacy and infallibility of the bishops of Rome is a mere usurpation, without any foundation from scripture or antiquity. The primitive fathers, and the whole church, never dreamed of it for six hundred years after Christ; nor did ever any bishop of Rome claim it, until it was conferred upon Boniface III by the emperor Phocas, who murdered his master, Mauritius the emperor, and his whole family, and usurped the empire; he exalted Boniface to the dignity of Pope, or universal bishop, for favouring his usurpation. And this is the best title the Pope hath to his supremacy and infallibility, which indeed is none at all. God has appointed no supreme or infallible judge on earth, for all Christians to resort to, beside the holy scriptures. Had he appointed any other, he had told us in his word where to find him; but he is so far from that, that on the contrary he requires every man to judge for himself according to scripture-rules, 1 John 4: 1; 1 Thes. 5: 21; Gal. 1: 8. It was in obedience to these commands, that Protestants at the reformation searched the scriptures, and judged for themselves, and thereupon separated from the antisciptural and idolatrous church of Rome, as they found God required them to do, 2 Cor. 6: 17, 18; Rev. 18: 4.