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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	church_n	faith_n	infallible_a	1,453	5	9.5102	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64702	The church-papist (so-called), his religion and tenets fully discovered in a serious dispute ... whereby the common ... arguments of pretended visibility, succession, universality, &c., of the Roman Church ... are briefly confuted : whereunto is added, a short discourse proving episcopacy to be of divine institution, kingly government of Gods setting up, and the religion of the Church of England, to be the best in the world / by one of the children of the late captivity, 1680.	Underwood, John, fl. 1680.	1680 (1680)	Wing U46; ESTC R7367	28,086	42

Visibility is the only mark of the true Church you have not proved to be granted be Churches differing from the Roman therefore is a Principle of your own and a begging of the Question I deny it to be the only mark for a mark must be infallible and That mark which may possibly deceive and is common both to a True and a False Church and may as probably lead to the one as the other is no certain infallible mark to find the true Church But Visibility may deceive being common to both and may as readily lead to a False as a True Church Therefore Visibility no sure mark and unerring Rule to find the True Church The Major is undeniable bearing its own Proof Truth and Reason in it self The Minor is apparent in all Ages even from the beginning of the World to this day Go up into Paradise the Garden of Eden there was Truth and Falshood even as soon as God had laid his Church the Devil began to build a Chappel for in Genesis not long after Et Deus dixit And God said c. the Devil was busie to set up a false Worship and wrong Obedience and then comes Et Serpens dixit And the Serpent said which visibly and miserably deceived our first Parents The Church was with Moses in Egypt there were Magicians and mock Miracles Falshood ever followed the Truth or Truth found it where it went There were Calves in Dan and Bethel there were worshipers of Baal Error is almost as old in the world as Truth No sooner went the Apostles out to Preach but a false Doctrine appeared in Simon Magus and his Followers Acts 8.14 In one place or other Erroneous and false Churches have been always Visible to this day even when the true Church have been obscured by Persecutions for so it must be according to the saying of St. Paul 1 Cor. 11.19 Oportet esse Haereses Were the idolatrous People in the time of Elias Achas Manasses and others the True Church because they only were Visible to the World For where was Visibility of the True Church when the Prophet cried out and complained 1 Kings He only was left alone so a true Church may be though not visible for there were seven thousand true Worshippers which he knew not of Where was Visibility when the Shepherd was smitten and the Sheep scattered hid and concealed Zach. 13.7 Joh. 16.32 Where was Visibility of the True Church in the time of Dioclesian the Emperour when neither Church Book nor Men escaped Was she not as St. Joh. testifieth Revel 12.6 fled into a Desart where she should not be found for a space c. And St. Chrysostom in Math. 24. saith In the time of Abomination of Desolation viz. of wicked Heresie Nulla probatio potest Christianitatis c. No proof of Christianity can be made or refuge found for Christians to know the true Faith but only the Divine Scripture So the Church of Antichrist may be Visible and Flourishing when the true Church of Christ is in obscurity and hath no Lustre Therefore Visibility is not in all Ages and all times an infallible mark of the true Church but is a mark also of a false one and so a true Church hath been and may be though not Visible to Humane Eyes c. Your next Position is from Succession viz. 2. That Church that have lawfull Succession is the True Church But only the Roman have lawful Succession Ergo only the Roman Church is the True Church To prove the Major you twice instance St. Augustine but direct to no place where therefore I know not whether he speaks as you represent him or if he doth whether he denotes a Succession in Place of Persons or of Doctrine and you bring in Irenaeus to say Successione Confundimus omnes c. but there is no such saying in the manner you mention found in Irenaeus 't is only corruptly quoted by Bellarmine Bellar. li. 4. de notis Eccles ca. 8. Sect. 2. nor have I heard or found Irenaeus or any other Father make Local Personal Visible and Continued Succession a necessary Sign or Mark of the True Church in any one place as though a True Church could not be in any place without it yet the Faith was delivered over by Succession in some places or other to their time and is to our time and shall be till there be no time for a True Church may be hath been and is in places where there hath not been Continued Visible Personal Succession Were not Jerusalem Antioch c. and others in the Primitive times true Churches yet Succession of Bishops hath not continually succeeded in them to this day and later Churches are true likewise Constat omnem Doctrinam quae cum illis Ecclesiis Apostolicis Matricibus Originalibus Fidei conspiret Veritati deputandam So saith Tertullian De praescript advers Haeret. c. 21. And in the same place Ecclesiae posteriores non minus Apostolicae deputantur pro consanguinitate Doctrinae The Succession Irenaeus stood upon was of the Churches then in Asia and of Smyrna where Polycarpus sat Bishop as that of Rome Testimonium his perhibent quae sunt in Asia Ecclesiae omnes qui usque adhuc successerunt Polycarpo Iren. l. 3. advers Haeret. ca. 3. And St. Hierom tells us Ecclesia non in parietibus consistit in Psal 133. So Succession in the Fathers Account is not tyed to Place or Person but to the verity of Doctrine as Tertullian de praescript c. 32. Ad hanc formam provocabantur ab illis Ecclesiis quae licet nullum ex Apostolis vel Apostolicis Authorem suum proferunt ut multo posteriores quae denique quotidie instituuntur tamen in eadem fide conspirantes non minus Apostolicae deputantur pro cansanguinitate Doctrinae shewing that modern Churches such as are daily instituted and set up agreeing and linking together in the same true Faith are no less to be esteemed Apostolical for their neerness and consanguinity of Doctrine and to that we have as good Succession as any Christian Church this day in the whole Catholick Body the Religion professed in the Church of England being nearest of any Church now in being to the Primitive Christian Church Churches that have Doctrine that is not allied in Blood to that of Christ and his Apostles have no lawful or good Succession for Consanguinitas Doctrinae is required Irenaeus speaks plain Illis Presbyteris obediendum est qui cum Episcopatus Successione Charissima acceperunt veritatis Iren. l. 4. ca. 43. We are to obey those Priests who with their Succession in the Office of Bishop have received the Pledge or Gift of Truth whereupon Stapleton Relic cont 1. q. 4. A. 2. Notab 1. is forced to confess successio nec locorum tantum est neo personarum sed etiam verae sanae Doctrinae And why it cannot be of Pastours he again tells us Notab 4. ibid. name Pastore Lups fleri potest

or Stilo Novo more modernly a Papist in disguise is one who holds Unity and Communion with the Church of England in a strict compliance subscribes to all the Protestant Professions of Faith and received Principles in the same yet in heart adheres also to the Church of Rome in all such Points and Doctrines as are agreeable to Scripture and the Apostolick Faith He is known by his high Conformity to the Liturgy Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and noted for his devout observance of all the Rights and Ceremonies used in publick Worship nor can the Church impose the thing not thwarting the Canon of holy Scripture to which he thinks it not his duty to incline his Obedience He cannot be brought to countenance those who would diminish or so much as dispute her Authority or labour to introduce Novelties and schismatical Fangles into her Government accounting such as wild Boars breaking into the Vineyard to root it up nor will he be justled out of his belief of what the cruel Experiment of the late Times have shown him that the Lambskin of Reformation harbours Wolves for Desolation He is one who will and doth take lawful Oaths of Allegiance Supremacy Test c. tendred him and is obstinate in nothing more than in keeping them He peaceably submits to the Government without dishonourable Reflections on Church or State and in defence of both dares and will venture his All He is one who esteems Obedience better than Sacrifice and prefers performing his Duty before his Life He looks upon the Governours of the Church as those whom God hath sent and through whose words we are to believe in Christ St. Joh. 17.20 and upon the Magistrate and Temporal Rulers as Ministers of God to us for our good and knoweth that the Powers that be are ordained of God and that to resist the Power is to resist the Ordinance of God and will not incur Damnation by resisting He is the same man who stilo veteri in the late Usurpation would not swallow the several unhallowed Bits against Law and Honesty tempted on him not the Vow and Covenant nor subscribe the Association publick Protestation not take the League and Covenant Abjuration of certain Doctrines Oaths c. contradictory one to another and contrary to former lawful Oaths nor close with the Engagement contrary to them all He was the chief sufferer in those times and still is the Butt at which envenomed Arrows from all corners are shot and principally aimed at by the Enemies of the Church for the first Destruction Under the like denomination of Church-Papists were then the best of men delivered to popular ignominy and Contempt preparatives for Ruine and Fore-runners of all Confusion so exposed were the greatest and best of men the Church or Nation of England ever produced pretended fears and Jealousies of being Popishly addicted assaulted the Throne and pretences of Hypocrisie in Religion made many Martyrs for the true one The Sluce of Blood first opened in the best Counsellor of State many Torrents followed the Veins of Royal Majesty it self of the great Patriarch of our Reformed Church of the most Religious of the Nobility and of many prime Christians of the Protestant Profession were launched and flowing in many streams made up a Red Sea Under such an Appellation and Reproach was the Author of this Paper in the same usurped Times particularly numbred and persecuted and by the cruelty of the pretended Reformers suffered many Calamities Plunderings Imprisonments Loss of Employment c. narrowly escaping with life and so strong was the Calumny which took away the Lives of the best Protestants in the world cast on the Churchmen that it prevailed on the belief of many who were innocent of the malicious Project that we were Papists indeed even the very Papists themselves were beguiled thereby and believed us of their perswasion insomuch that soon after the blessed Restauration of the Government the Author was accosted with their Salutes expressing their amazement in that now persecution ceased and a door opened for more freedom as they said he communicated not with them in worship but his refusal of their solemn invitation showing them their mistake one of them no mean one set upon him and made it his business to gain a Proselyte engaging him to comply with or answer the Arguments he soon after delivered in Writing which put the Author upon a serious Scrutiny and Study to know his own Religion aright and to defend it for he being a Layman had then read little of Controversie upon the Points He hapned at the very first on the best Lights the Word of God and the Word of the King Authorities rightly understood and aptly applied not to be withstood by any in the world The best direction to understand the former he received from the later even from that best of Christians and King of Protestants in his ΕΙΚΩΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ by which were framed the following Answers which have slept these many years from their first Conception and might have been dumb till the Papers had turn'd to Ashes had not the now revived term of disguised Papist been clamorous and awakned them to face the world that the well meaning Christian may not in thought joyn with the Deceiver to reproach the Innocent that the old Intrigue and Stratagem now on foot may not proceed again to trapan the Nation into an Uprore and Confusion by first rendring a man criminal by aspersion to fit him for a destruction without pity then cruelly destroy him for a Crime of which he is not guilty See here then such a Church Papist dissected and behold him and his Religion in the following Pages The aforementioned Arguments of Dr. R. S. are four in number The First from the perpetual Visibility of the Church of Rome viz. 1. That Church only that is Visible in all Ages is the true Church But only the Roman Church is Visible in all Ages Ergo only the Roman Church is the True Church The Proof THe Major is manifest which I prove by St. Matth. 18.17 Dic Ecclesiae Tell the Church But how can we tell the Church if it be invisible tanquam Idea Platonica Ergo The Church is Visible in all Ages The Minor is clear by all Church Histories Councils Fathers that the Roman Church only is Visible in all Ages for no other Church can shew her Visibility in any Kingdom City or Village from the Apostles time to Luther Ergo only the Roman Church is the True Church The Second Argument from Succession viz. 2. That Church only that hath lawful Succession is the True Church But only the Roman Church hath lawful Succession Ergo only the Roman Church is the True Church The Proof THe Major is proved by St. August That Church saith he in which is Succession is the Rock against which Hell-Gates cannot prevail And Irenaeus saith Successione confundimus omnes Succession confound all Hereticks but only the Roman Church have lawful

which is true many great men have turned Hereticks Judas chang'd from an Apostle to a Devil so 't is the easie for others to change from Shepherds into Wolves Nor can the Roman Prelates pretend they have only this veràm et sanam Doctrinam or claim a lawful succession of Pastors continually holding entire the Unity and the Eaith for they have not kept the Unity of the Church but have had more Schisms among them than any other Church above thirty acknowledged by their own Chronologer Onuphrius Even Popes themselves have many of them by confession of several Romish Authors who have written of their Lives been very vile erroneous Heretical c. So 't is clear Rome hath no lawful Succession by confession they have only a Succession of gross Superstitions and Errors for a bout a thousand years for which they can shew no Practice on Warrant from the Apostles You further say That our English Bishops had no Succession from Roman Catholick for immediately after Conscoration Stapleton Harding c. your own men told them to their faces they were no Bishops Ergo only the Roman Church have lawful Succession I see you are put to hard straits for proof that seeing the Fathers will not speak for you you are forced to be your own Testimony which with me is less than nothing for who will or can take an Adversary's bare objections for a sufficient confutation of a matter in question for by this your Argument and Rule of proof should I tell you that any of our Party say Stapleton Harding c. were no Scholars though indeed they were great Clarks and should I say they were damnable Hereticks and forsakers of the Truth as in truth they are you ought to admit it as a convincing Testimony else why do you obtrude your sayings for proof but let that pass You confess English Bishops had Consecration from the Roman and so enabled and qualified for the service of the Church If then the Roman had any lawful power to consecrate which I deny not I do not question but their Consecration is valid enough and hold good notwithstanding Stapleton and Hardings words to the contrary for such sayings do not unordain and so we have your Succession and Consecration to boot But whether ordinary Mission or Ordination be so absolutely necessary to the being of Truth as though Truth could nor be without it is with me a question seeing Christ encouraged the Faithful that did wonders in Christ's name and was not sent St. Mark 9.39 40. forbid him not he is on our part c. nor did I ever conceive a necessity lay on the English Church to receive Orders from Rome more than on the Roman to receive Orders from it seeing we were a Church Apostolick assoon yea were a Church before any settlement of a Church in Rome The Religion of Christ was received in Brittain tempore ut scimus summo Tiberii Caesaris in the latter time of Tiberius Caesar as saith St. Gildas de excid Brit. the same is acknowledged by your own man Baronius whereas St. Peter kept in Jury long after Tiberius his death And as Theodoret and Sophronimus Patriarchs of Jerusalem affirm the Apostle St. Paul first taught in Britain Also Aristobulus mentioned Romans 16. came to this Isle and discharged the Office of a Bishop as Dorotheus witnesseth and in his Synopsis also averreth Simon Zelotes Christum praedicavit in Britannia ubi crucifixus occisus et sepultus est The same also affirmeth Nicephorus lib. 2. cap. 40. Simon Zelotes Evangelii Doctrinam ad occidentalem Oceanum Insulasque Britannicas perfert And Joseph of Arimathea An. Dom. 53. taught the Gospel in Britain as Baleus Flemingus and others affirm likewise Tertullian who lived An. Christi 200 saith Britanorum loca Romanis inapoessa Christo subdita sunt advers Judaeos cap. 7.8 After him Origin An. Christi 260. witnesseth Britanniam in Christianam consentire Religionem So it is evident and most clear that Apostles and Apostolick men delivered over the Faith to us and were the first Planters we had many Waterers after of this Plantation and a succession of Doctrine by confession on all sides St. Jerom also Anno 405. records Gallia Britanniá Africa c. unum Christum adorant unam observant Regulam veritatis In which time Bellarmine confesseth the Church was a true Apostolick Church Antiqua Ecclesia primis quingentis Annis vera Ecclesia fuit c. Bel. l. 4. de notab Eccl. cap. 9. and then viz. the first four hundred years we and Rome were of one joint Belief and Faith from one Fountain Christ Jesus and his Apostles and the same faith we had then the same we have now we hold to the old Foundation the Scripture Creed and ractice of the general Church in those times so are we a true Church and a right Member of the Catholick having lawful succession of Doctrine convey'd to us as before is proved from Apostles and Apostolick men whereby it 's evident we are no Novelists nor any of our Profession the Antiquity whereof our very Enemies do acknowledge Reinerus a Roman Inquisitor above three hundred years since speaking of the Professors at Lyons calling them Valdensae Leonistae c. in contempt saith they are more pernitious to the Church of Rome than all other Sects for three causes First being of longer continuance than any other the Sect enduring ever since the Apostles Secondly It is general creeping into all Lands Thirdly It hath a great shew of Godliness they live justly believe all things well concerning God and all the Articles contained in the Creed only they Blaspheme in hating the Church of Rome c. He calls us indeed a Sect as of old the Priests of the Jews called the Church of Christians a Sect of Nazarites Acts 24.5 but you see by Confession we had our Doctrine in former Ages and were a Church from the Beginning and are not estranged from the Church of Rome where she holds the Truth but she from us and the true Catholick Church of Christ nor do we depart from her as they charge us or are any further remote from her than she her self is from her primitive Purity antient Principles from Scripture Reason Charity Antiouity and from what she was in her best of times our present Church of England though often have been under clouds and heavy persecutions still retaining the primitive verity to this day So your second Argument is invalid in that you have not proved nor can prove that the Church of Rome hath this lawful Succession of uncorrupted Doctrine and Principles or that succession of Pastors is necessarily tied to one particular place for ever to make the being of the Catholick Church as though the universal Church of Christ could cease to be if Rome and her Prelates were extinct and turn'd to Ashes Your third Argument from pretended Privileges belonging to the Roman Church viz. 3. That Church only that have confuted and anathematized

from Heaven hath Rome above the former and above other particular Churches that it shall there remain to the end of the World Nay they that most stand for it even the greatest Champion Rome hath can only say 'T is a pious and probable Opinion to think Cathedram Petri non posse seperari a Roma proinde Romanam Ecclesiam non posse errare vel deficere Bellar. de Ro. Pont. cap. 4. so 't is but pretended probality and that is no proof able to convince However he that thinks the contrary viz. that the particular Church of Rome can err and fall away from the Faith which the true Church can never do I mean the Catholick Church before described can never fall away from the Faith and St. Peters Chair be severed from Rome is by Bellarmines own confession no Heretick for he adds Contraria sententia nec est Haeretica nec manifesta erronia Bellarm. ibid. And if the Apostolick Chair can be removed from Rome and the Roman Church fall away from the Faith then it is so far being the only Catholick that it ceaseth to be a part of the Catholick Church where it appeareth that Rome never was is or can be The only Catholick Church of Christ Your fourth Argument from Universality of the Roman Church hath its Answer already in a great measure But something more I shall particularly answer to the same which you propound thus Arg. 4. That Church is only Catholick which is dispersed through all Nations But only the Roman is dispersed through all Nations Ergo the Roman only is the Catholick Church And how comes the denomination of the Church to be changed from Christian to Roman certainly 't is no small fellony to rob the Church of the more honourable Appellation and give it your own name Men were first called Christians at Antioch and yet the Universal Church was never stiled Antiochian If you make a difference between the Christian Faith and the Roman speak out and confess it If you mean the Christian Faith why do you not say so alter your Minor Proposition and the conclusion will follow for the Church of Christ and I 'le assent to it without more ado for then your Proposition will be true and you will contend without an Adversary But have you any other Doctrine can parallel this Sacriledge in taking away the Christian Name from the universal Church of Christ As though the Spouse of Christ could become Anabaptist forget her Virgin Name and change her Beloved Is Christ and Rome convertible Is the Gospel of Christ become the Gospel of the Pope or hath the Pope a Gospel of his own that is spread over the World was there not a true Church that had Radix Essentiae and is the Root Essence and Being to Rome and other particular Churches before Rome received the Faith And what was that Church called not Roman surely And why did you not say the Church of Jerusalem or the Church of Antioch c. where the first Plantation was is dispersed through all Nations Ergo the Church of Jerusalem Antioch c. only is the Catholick Church it had been more tollerable though as little to sence The first Appellation before ever Rome was a Church viz. Christian shall stand with me for ever I dare not change from Christian to Roman in as much as Christian Religion is elder and was before ever Rome was converted therefore Christian not Roman is the primitive and right term and name of the universal Church Besides How the Roman or any particular Church can be the Catholick for at best she was but a Catholick Church is no ways apparent St. Cyril tells us Catholica est illa quae diffusa est per universum Orbem Rome is not the universal but the Christian Church is so not Catholick in extent Romana Ecclesia particularis confesseth Bellarmin lib. 4. de R. Pont. c. 4. so not the Catholick Church Rome it self must be judged by Scripture and the Catholick Church and is right no further than it agrees with the Catholick and not the Catholick Church by it Our fierce Adversary Stapleton pours out his Reason why Roman is esteemed Catholick Quia ejus Communio erat evidenter certissimè cum tota Catholica So you see the Communion of the Roman was with the Catholick not of the Catholick with it And St. Cyprian in the rent and open Schism between Cornelius and Novatian employed his Legates c. Elaborarent ut ad Catholicae Ecclesiae unitatem scissi sorpor is membra componerent Now the members of this torn Body were they of Rome then in open Schism between Cornelius and Novatian St. Cypr. li. 2. Ep. 10. And St. Cyprian endeavoured to bring Rome to the Unity of the Catholick so Rome then was not The Catholick nor is the Radix c. or can she be her own Original There is a double Root as one learnedly observes Radix Essentiae which gives Essence and Being to Rome and all other particular Churches and there is Radix Existentiae as Rome with all other particular Churches and no more than other Patriarchal Churches which was and is the Root of the Churches Existence agreeable to that known and received Rule in Art that Universals give Essence to their Particulars and Particulars supply their Universals with Existence But to shut up and confine the Universal Church of Christ as it is now spread in the narrow compass of Rome only is ridiculous Nonsence Ecclesia non in parietibus consistit saith St. Jerom in Psal 133. The Church is every where ubi fides vera c. You bring in St. Paul to say Rom. 1.8 that the Roman Faith was preached in all the World But you abuse St. Paul for 't is not said preached nor is it said Roman Faith Their Faith was spoken of as his course was to commend and encourage the faithful in every place St. Paul intending to impart to them some spiritual gift for they were not then established He only commended then the Faith of the Saints then in Rome which they had newly received viz. the Christian Faith never called it the Roman Faith and so much he spake and more of the Faith of other Nations and Persons to whom he wrote and yet never any Nation or Person usurped a Stile was never given them St. Paul Thess 1.8 witnesseth that From the Church of Thessalonica sounded out the Word of the Lord and in every place the Faith of the Thessalonians was spread abroad and were ensamples to all that believe c. ver 7. ibid. which was a true Faith and yet they never nick-named the Universal Christian Church Thessalonian nor did they ever arrogantly and audaciously adopt the Universal Church of Christ as their own Off-spring and Issue or that they only were the Catholick as Rome doth in your Position St. Paul did commend the Faith then in Rome but now 't is changed and not worthy commendation You say that is