A Dialogue Between a Catholic Priest and a Protestant by Matthew Poole

Northampton Press - 2010.  d.w. 152pp.

Matthew Poole is a highly-regarded Puritan scholar and preacher. This work of his has been out of print for nearly 200 years. It is a dialogue between a Roman Catholic priest and a Protestant, old friends who meet after many years and decide to discuss the differences between their various religions. Poole uses official Roman documents for the arguments of that faith, and the Protestant appeals to Scripture and logic in answering back.

There are many polemical books one can buy that present each side's case, but I've never seen or read one where it is an actual back-and-forth, where both sides are presented. It is like watching a debate. And Matthew Poole says in his introduction to the book that he has not set up the priest as a straw man with weak arguments, but has actually taken the Catholic position from official Romanist documents that have that Church's imprimatur. Some of the topics covered include transubstantiation, the authority of the church, praying to saints, justification by faith alone, the role of Mary, and many other key issues.

Table of Contents:

The First Session: The Catholic Priest’s Objections to Protestantism

The Greeting

The Issue of an Infallible Church

The Issue of Protestantism Being a Novelty

The Charge of Schism

The Issue of Apostolic Succession

The Issue of Divisions among Protestants

The Issue of the Visibility of the Church

The Issue of When the Roman Church Fell

The Issue of Scripture Versus Tradition

The Second Session: The Protestant’s Objections to Romanism

The Roman Church Declines All Judgment But Her Own

Romanism Contradicts the Ends of the Christian Religion

The Desperate Measures Romanists Use to Defend Their Cause

Romanism’s Respect of Persons

The Uncertainty of Romanism

Romanism Destroys the Principles of Morality

The Sacrifice of the Mass

Transubstantiation

Praying to Saints

The Worship of Images

Praying for the Dead and of Purgatory

Confession to a Priest

Absolutions and Indulgences

The Merit of Good Works