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
