The Contrariety of POPERY TO THE Blessed Word of GOD Wherein may be seen that the DOCTRINE and PRACTICE OF THE Church of Rome Are not consistent with the SACRED ORACLES OF THE Old and New Testament Very fit now to be seriously minded by all Good PROTESTANTS when we have such Warnings of the Approach of Popery Written by DIGBY BULL M. A. and late Rector of Sheldon in Warwick-shire LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be Sold by J. Whitlock near Stationers-Hall 1695. I. The Fundamental Doctrine of the Romish Church That the blessed Apostle St. Peter was the Head and Governour of all the Apostles and of all the Church is not consistent with the sacred Scriptures but is flat contrary to them THIS grand Position of the Church of Rome whereupon all their pretended Power and Authority is built is altogether groundless and false and not consistent with the blessed Word of God as we may see by a multitude of places First We may see That the places of Scripture which are urged upon this account have no force at all to prove that St. Peter was the Universal Head and Governour of the Apostles and of the Church Great Matters are spoken of St. Peter but nothing at all that will prove this Matt. 16.18 Saith our blessed Lord to him Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it But this doth not prove that St. Peter was to be the sole Foundation of the Church and it is clear by other places of Scripture that this is not the meaning of this place For in this Similitude wherein the Church is compared to a Building Jesus Christ our blessed Lord is the sole and only Foundation and none can pretend to be a Foundation in such a high manner as he is so And this the Apostle St. Paul hath plainly taught us 1 Cor. 3.11 For other Foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ Here when some were pretending to be of Paul and some of Apollos the Apostle doth positively affirm That Christ Jesus is the Foundation upon which the Christian Church was to be built and neither Paul nor Apollos nor Cephas or Peter are to stand in competition with him in this respect And when the Foundation is attributed to the Apostles they are mentioned together and Christ is called the chief Corner-stone Ephes 2.20 saith St. Paul And are built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone And in St. John's holy Jerusalem the Apostles are all equally concerned Rev. 21.14 And the Wall of the City had twelve Foundations saith he and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. The Apostles we see are all concerned in the Foundation of the Christian Church and it was to be built upon them all as Ministers in this Spiritual Building and in respect of the Doctrine and Foundation of Christ which they laid and St. Peter alone is not the Foundation of the Christian Church And not only St. Peter but others also are mentioned as Pillars of the Church Gal. 2.9 saith St. Paul And when James Cephas and John who seemed to be pillars perceived the grace that was given unto me James and John here are accounted as Pillars of the Church as well as Cephas that is Peter It is plain we see that St. Peter was not appointed to be the sole Foundation of the Christian Church and that nothing can be fairly urged from these words of our Saviour to him to prove him to be the Universal Head of the Church Again our blessed Saviour promiseth to St. Peter the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and power of binding and loosing Mat. 16.19 And I will give unto thee saith he to Peter the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Here we see that very great Power indeed is promised to St. Peter but yet this doth not at all prove him to be the Universal Head over all the Church For this seems not to be an actual Grant of this Power but only a Promise and the actual conferring of this Power doth clear this matter That it was not granted to St. Peter alone but to all the Apostles This may be clearly seen by these places Matt. 18.18 Verily I say unto you saith our Lord whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Here the Power of Binding and Loosing the same Power that St. Peter was to have is as firmly ratified and confirmed to all the Apostles as it is to St. Peter and he could pretend to no Power above his fellow Apostles And after our Saviour's Resurrection immediately before his ascension to Heaven when he most solemnly invested the Apostles with this Power he equally gave it to them all Joh. 20.21 23. Then said Jesus to them again Peace be unto you As my Father hath sent me even so send I you And when he had said this he breathed on them and said unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Here we see this Power is actually and solemnly settled upon them all And the Commission is large bearing a correspondence with that which God the Father gave him As my Father hath sent me even so send I you in the plural number And the Commission is Universal Whos 's soever sins ye remit This great Power then we see plainly is actually settled upon them all and none hath a greater share of it than his Fellows And when St. Peter said unto our blessed Saviour in behalf of himself and his Fellows Matt. 19 27 28. Behold we have forsaken all and followed thee what shall we have therefore Our Saviour returned this answer And Jesus said unto them Verily I say unto you that ye which have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his Glory ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel And saith he Luke 22.29 30 And I appoint unto you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me That ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Here we see that it is equally granted to them all to sit upon Thrones and to judge the twelve Tribes of Israel And these places are understood to respect the Power that they were to have to govern Christ's Church here upon Earth after his departure to Heaven It is clear then that our blessed Saviour gave and left St. Peter no more Power and Authority than he did the rest of the holy Apostles Again the Care of Christ's Flock is
recommended to St. Peter Joh. 21 15-17 Jesus saith to Simon Peter Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me more than these He saith unto him ye Lord thou knowest that I love thee He saith unto him Feed my Lambs He saith to him again the second time Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me He saith yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee He saith unto him Feed my Sheep And so a third time But this doth not prove that St. Peter had any Power and Authority granted him over the rest of the Apostles by our blessed Saviour And we may see that our blessed Saviour hath recommended the Care of his Church to all the Apostles and commanded them all to preach the Gospel and to baptize Matt. 28 18-20 And Jesus came and spake unto them saying All Power is given unto me in heaven and in earth Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you Here our Saviour tells his Apostles that all Power was given him in Heaven and in Earth and therefore because he had received this full Power he sends them all forth with Power to preach and baptize and grants not this Commission to St. Peter alone And Mar. 16.15 And he said unto them Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel to every Creature The same Commission we see is granted to them all indifferently without any manner of prelation And accordingly they all went about the execution of it ver 20 And they went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them And St. Paul tells us that the Gospel of the Uncircumcision that is of the Gentiles was committed unto him in like manner as the Gospel of the Circumcision that is of the Jews was committed to St. Peter Gal. 2.7 But contrarywise saith St. Paul when they saw that the Gospel of the Uncircumcision was committed unto me as the Gospel of the Circumcision was unto Peter And saith he in the following verse v. 8 For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the Apostleship of the Circumcision the same was mighty in me towards the Gentiles Thus we see that St. Paul had the same Commission to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles that St. Peter had to preach it to the Jews and that God wrought Wonders by him for the Conversion of the Gentiles as he did by St. Peter for the Conversion of the Jews which farther shews that the sole Care of the Church was not committed to St. Peter alone It is manifest then that by these words Feed my Lambs and feed my Sheep no Superiority and Authority is granted to St. Peter over the rest of the Apostles Again St. Peter seems sometimes to be the Mouth of the Apostles and the chief Speaker amongst them But this can argue no Superiority over them because St. James seems in a more eminent manner to do so than he And passeth Sentence in the whole Assembly of the Apostles and Elders when St. Peter himself also was present For in that remarkable Synod at Jerusalem when the Apostles and Elders came together to consider of this matter viz Whether it was needful that the Gentiles should be circumcised after the manner of Moses or not and after St. Peter had declared how God shewed his approbation of them by granting them the gift of the Holy Ghost St. James here seems to be the Chair-man and President of this Assembly and gives the definitive Sentence which was followed by them all Acts 15 13-20 And after they had held their peace James answered saying Men and Brethren hearken unto me Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a People for his Name And to this agree the words of the Prophets Wherefore my sentence is That we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God But that we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of Idols and from fornication and from things strangled and from blood In this eminent manner doth St. James and not St. Peter pass Sentence in this Assembly of the Apostles and Elders And this we see is followed by them all ver 22-29 Then pleased it the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas St. James was President here and chief Speaker in a more eminent manner than ever we read that St. Peter was and it may as fairly be argued that he was Superior in Authority as it may that St. Peter was so Again St. Peter is oft named first in the Catalogues of the Apostles in the Gospels But this can be no good argument to prove that he had a Superiority over them In all Catalogues some one must be named first and for his Age or because he was an active and forward man among the Apostles or for some such reason St. Peter may be first named But to shew that nothing of Superiority can be proved from hence we may see that St. Paul useth no such constant order Gal. 2.9 It is James Cephas and John where Cephas which is another name of Peter is set after James And 1 Cor. 1.12 he nameth Paul and Apollos before him And so 1 Cor. 3.22 This Priority of Order in the Gospels will prove nothing of Superiority that he had over them These are the chief places of Scripture that are urged to prove that St. Peter was the Head and Governor of the Apostles and had Authority over them But any impartial Reader may see that these places will prove nothing at all to this purpose parallel places shewing as much concerning the rest of the Apostles Secondly We may see by other places in the Gospels that St. Peter was not made the Head and Governor of all the Apostles and of all the Church and that none of them was to be such a Head and Governor of all the rest It was not St. Peter but St. John that was the beloved Disciple above the rest and whom our blessed Lord favoured most and admitted to a greater familiarity than the rest And if any was to have been set over the rest it may seem probable that our blessed Saviour would have bestowed that Honour and Dignity upon his beloved Disciple Joh. 21.7 That Disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter And Joh. 13.23 24. Now there was leaning on Jesus bosom one of his Disciples whom Jesus loved Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake St. John is the beloved Disciple as we may see by the end of his Gospel And St. Peter himself had recourse to him desiring him to ask our Lord concerning this matter when he was fearful to ask him himself And when our blessed Lord was upon the Cross he recommended his Mother to St. John's Care and not to
17.3 And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother his mother said I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the Lord from my hand for my son to make a graven image and a molten Image now therefore I will restore it unto thee yet he restored the money unto his mother and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the founder who made thereof a graven Image and a molten Image and they were in the house of Micah From hence it doth appear that they intended to serve the Lord by these Images Jeroboam pretended by his Calves also to worship and serve the Lord as we may see 1 King 12.28 Whereupon the King took counsel and made two Calves of gold and said unto them It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem behold thy Gods O Israel which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt From hence it doth appear that he pretended to worship and serve the same God by his Idolatrous Calves that was worshipped at Jerusalem and the same God that brought them up out of the Land of Egypt And yet he is branded with infamy for his practice herein and called Jeroboam the Son of Nebat who made Israel to sin 2 King 10.29 And his House and Family were totally consumed upon this account 1 King 13.34 And this thing became sin unto the House of Jeroboam even to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the earth And 1 King 14.7 His pretending to serve and worship the true God hereby did not at all excuse his Idolatry but notwithstanding this his Calves are called other Gods and the judgment of God came upon his House for his wickedness herein And it doth appear that the very Heathens by their Images and Idols did design to worship the supreme God as the Apostle sheweth Rom. 1.22 23. Professing themselves to be wise saith he they became fools And changed the Glory of the uncorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible man and to birds and fourfooted beasts and creeping things From hence we may see that they originally at the first intended to worship the supreme and incorruptible God by these Images of men and beasts and used them as Substitutes and Representations of him in Religious Worship And Rabshakeh also pretended that the Altars that Hezekiah destroyed were for the Service of the supreme God 2 King 18.22 But if ye say unto me saith he we trust in the Lord our God Is not that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem Hence we may see that he pretended that these altars and high places were for the worship and service of the Great God above that was the God of Israel The old Idolaters both Israelites and Heathens pretended as much we see for their Image-worship as the Papists now can do and yet we see that they are both condemned in the Word of God We are to make no Images or Similitudes and Likenesses of Man or Beast or Crucifixes to worship the Great Jehovah thereby or his blessed Son or the Glorious Trinity For this would be Idolatry like the Heathenish Idolatry and flat against the Commands of God And the worshipping of the Images of the Saints is a more base and vile kind of Idolatry and a more wicked thing because they themselves are not the true Objects of our Worship And the more to shew that no Images or Similitudes are to be used in the Worship of God we may see that when Moses made the Tabernacle for his Worship and Service the Mercy-seat was to be left vacant and empty and to be filled with no Image or Similitude but only such Sparks of Glory as God himself was pleased to exhibit there Exod. 25.17 And if God been to be worshipped by any Image or Similitude we may be sure that one should have been placed in this peculiar Seat of his But there was to be none and hereby are we taught that none is to be made for Religious uses And Moses warneth the People that they should not corrupt themselves by making a graven Image or any Similitude upon this account and enforceth his Charge to them with this reason because they had seen no Similitude of God when he spake to them from Mount Sinai Deut. 4.15 Take ye therefore saith he good heed unto your selves for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire Lest ye Corrupt your selves and make you a graven Image the Similitude of any figure the Likeness of male or female the Likeness of any beast that is on the earth the Likeness of any winged fowl that flyeth in the air the Likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground the Likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth Here it is plainly shewed that no Images or Similitudes whatsoever are to be made as Mediums to Worship Almighty God by And we may see that this would be very injurious to him and a great derogation from his exceeding great Glory and Majesty and tend much to the debasing of Him in our minds to make dead and senseless Images to personate him which are much more vile and mean than our selves This is as St. Paul saith the changing the Truth of God into a Lye Rom. 1.25 For how can he be represented by a dead and senseless Image who so far exceeds all the understanding and apprehension of Man Our Saviour hath told us that God is a Spirit Joh. 4.24 He is a most Glorious Spiritual Being that cannot perish and decay but is an Everlasting and an Ever-living God And how can be then be represented by a Material and corruptible Image that must return to destruction and dust at the last This is the way to beget mean and low thoughts of Almighty God in our minds and such we ought not to have of him as the Apostle sheweth Acts 17 29 Forasmuch then as we are the off-spring of God saith he we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone graven by art or man's device God is of such a vast Immensity and Infinity that is not to be exprest nor conceived by us Thus saith the Lord Isa 66.1 the Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my footstool Where is the house that ye build unto me And where is the place of my rest And Jer. 23.24 Do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord And so dreadful was his Majesty upon Mount Sinai that the Israelites cryed out that they should be all struck dead with it if the Lord spake any more to them Exod. 20.19 Deut. 5.25 And how then shall he be represented in any meet way by dead stocks and stones and so mean and base a thing as an Image is