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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

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St. Peter's and why not St. Paul's Faith was not his as good and the other Apostles the same that St. Peter taught Was there no true Faith but what came from Rome and 't is yet a question whether St. Peter was ever there Rome could never yet make it appear Was all the Doctrine of the other Apostles invalid Was not their power equal Matth. 28.19 20. and 18.18 Joh. 20.22 23. 'T is most sure one was not above another as before is proved Christs Word was delivered to all to Preach from which our very greatest Adversary is forced to confess Summa Potestas Ecclesiastica non solum data est Petro sed etiam aliis Apostolis Bellarm. li. de Ro. Pont. ca. 1. all are Supreme Then they who pretend to be St. Peter's Successors have not Supreme Ecclesiastical Power any more than the Successors of the other Apostles for St. August Tract 50. in St. Jo. saith Si hoc Petro tantum dictum est non facit hoc Ecclesia The Keys were given to St. Peter and all the rest in a Figure of the Church as one saith to whose power and to whose use they were given not to one to Lord it over the rest It shall not be so with you c. as before And St. Augustin de Agon Chri. ca. 30. Petrus Personam Ecclesiae Catholicae sustinet huic datae sunt Claves quum Petro datae so the Power is in the Catholick Church not any single Person as is evident by the practise of the Primitive Church many hundred years after Christ when was no Universal Bishop as before is proved to St. Gregory's time St. Peter's Faith not his Person is the Rock against which c. for afterwards to his Person Christ said Get thee behind me Satan c. And a Temptation did too much prevail on him when he most horribly fell in a personal and shameful denial of his Master which cost him many bitter Tears Epiphanius li. 2. Heres 59. tells us 't is his Faith Super hanc Petram solidae Fidei edificabo Ecclesiam meam So St. Greg. Nyssen also Haec sides Ecclesiae fundamentum est de Trin. adver Judaeos The same Interpretation gives St. Hilar. li. de Trin. Super hanc igitur confessionis Petram Ecclesiae edificatio est And this Faith the whole Catholick Church hath which is the Rock against which Hell Gates shall not prevail to cause the Church to fail fundamentally If any were supreme why not the beloved Disciple to whom it was never said Get thee behind me Satan and who never denyed his Master Or St. Paul though none of the twelve yet an Apostle for whom there is more colour for He had the Right Hand of Fellowship given him Gal. 2.9 And he himself owned expresly an Authority 1 Cor. 7.17 And so ordain I in all Churches In all Churches in the Roman as well as other if Rome was then a Church Sollicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum The Care of all the Churches he saith 2 Cor. 11.28 And where was St. Peter's Supremacy yea where was his Infallibility when St. Paul rebuked and opposed him to his face in that He walked not uprightly according to the Truth of the Gospel Gal. 11.3.4 And where was his Supremacy when he was sent on Errands by the Church viz. by the other Apostles Acts 11.3 4. and Acts 15.13 And how can St. Peter's pretended Successors claim a Supremacy that St. Peter had not himself If any succeeded our Lord in the Principality of the Church Epiphanius twice tells you it is St. James the Lords Brother Ille primus Episcopalem Cathedram cepit quum ei ante caeteros omnes suum in terris Thronum Dominus tradidisset Epiphan l. 3. Haeres 78. Page 103. You go on and say What Faith the Romans had then the very same they have at this present c. Not so neither for Rome was a right Church and is now a wrong Their Faith is changed at least what Faith they have now they had not then the true Church then and many hundred years after knew not your present Errors and Superstitions not your prayer in the Church in an unknown Tongue as St. Paul witnesseth 1 Cor. 14. The Church owned no supreme Prelate no Pope above his fellows usurping a power to depose Princes no worshipping of Images no invocation of Saints no adoration of the Bread in Sacrament no breaking of Christs Institution in the Eucharist giving the holy Sacrament but in one kind no Purgatory no Decretal Epistles and Canons against Scripture to be believed as Scripture No Doctrine of Devils c. Tim. 4.1 2 3. St. Augustin whose memory is honoured through the whole Christian world in all Churches was of the true Catholick Church no man will deny and yet he was no Romanist in Opinion for he was in the separation of the Affrick Church from Rome with many other Bishops and died therein Ergo 't is possible to be of the true Catholick Church and yet out of the Roman We are taught by St. August de Bap. con Don. ca. 4. Evident Scripture before all things must take place for it is as your own man Stapleton confesseth Relict con 4. q. Ar. 3. the Foundation and Pillar of Faith Scripturam Fundamentum esse Columnam Fidei fatemur Then I shall not easily be led away from the Foundation by the subtle tradition of men seeing St. Paul gives more warning Coloss 2.8 Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain Deceit after the Tradition of men Now what my Faith is I have told you in the beginning of my first Paper which I take to be the Faith of the present Church of England I embrace the Faith which the Apostles delivered I believe the holy Scripture and the Creeds and these in the sence of the ancient Primitive Church I submit in all humility to the four great General Councils so much magnified throughout Christendom their Determinations and Interpretations and I do believe all points of Doctrine generally received as fundamental in the Church of Christ This I confess and subscribe to and seeing I so do you are bound in charity to believe me for you have all the proof that can be had or that ever Man or Church required Now shew me where I do depart from the Foundation and yet I am no Papist or shew me if you can where the Church of England doth fail in any one point fundamental in the Faith We do not Hominis consuetudinem sequi sed Dei veritatem as St. Cypr. l. 2. Epist 3. teacheth for Consuetudo sine veritate vetustas est Erroris ibid. We are bid to go to the Law and the Testimony The Word is a Light unto our Feet and Lanthorn to our Paths we are taught to Search the Scripture which is able to make the man of God perfect saith St. Paul It was proclaimed from Heaven by God the Father first at Jordan then at Mount Tabor This is my
well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him and to hear him is Life And I know They committed two Evils that forsook the Fountain of Living Waters to hew out to themselves Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no water Jer. 2.13 That Episcopal and Kingly Government are inseparable in England and the Establishment of both are Jure Divino WE have in the late Tragical Revolutions been too severely taught that no Project of Government either in Church or State Episcopacy excluded is consistent with England's happiness and that Episcopacy and Monarchy are inseparable and the only props of this Nations Peace we by the same cruel Experience have been made sensible whereby it appears that 't is England's great Interest to uphold both for her safety and that the one cannot subsist without the other was well understood by that second Solomon King James of blessed memory from whom we have the Maxim in his Basil Do. Sublato Episcopo tollitur Rex no Bishop no King And no Faction or Profession though nick-naming themselves Protestants deviating from the Principles in Doctrine and Practise in Worship from the present Church of England can stand with Monarchy A right Protestant of the English Church protests not only against the errors of Rome but against all Schism and errors of every Sect and against all Doctrine not agreeing with the Primitive Profession and Practise of the antient Church of Christ There are sorts of People that are ever clamorous and designing to Reform the Reformed and even to amend Reformation it self chiefly plotting a great alteration which is more than a Reformation of Church Government by removal of Bishops from the Government but these are enemies to good Reformation for no good Reformer ever held Episcopacy unlawful the Order doth emanare ab Apostolis The Government is of Divine Right of which Christ himself the Great High-Priest Heb. 4. v. 14. and Bishop laid the Foundation was Bishop over all and the Apostles were Ministers After him every Apostle had his Charge many of them a Diocess and was Overseer that is Bishop over many Churches and they left this way of Government a Pattern for all Posterity to follow So it is manifest that Church-Government by Bishops is as old and universally practised as Christian Religion and Christian Faith was received in England soon after the Crucifixion of our Saviour and the Government of the Church by Bishops entred with it as well it ought for there was no other Government Order or Constitution in the Primitive Church Apostles Angels Bishops Patriarchs c. are Synonima one Office under several Denominations St. Paul an Apostle not of men neither by man but by God was a great Apostle or Bishop Timothy had a Jurisdiction over the Ephesians and was ordained Bishop Tim. 3.22 and so was Titus Bishop of Creet and had many Ministers under them Thus entred Episcopacy and that Order of Priesthood to the Government of the Church in the beginning There was an order of Priesthood in the old Law of which the high Priest was chief and there were Priests and Levites so in the new it seemed meet to the Eternal Builder of the Church to leave by the example set by his Apostles an Order and Method of Government therein and this divine Emanation the Universal Church hath in all Ages embraced and this Order best keeps the Presbyters and Clergy in Unity one with another and in an Union of Doctrine and Worship in the Church throughout which otherwise the order of Church-Discipline left to every Presbyter's private fancy to use after his own modelling would greatly hazard the introducing as many Novels may be Schisms and Factions as there are parochial Churches in the Land what a Medly what a Confusion what a Hydra what a Babel what an open Mockery as it were of God would there be throughout the Nation to the scandal thereof so the Church in England would have no appearance no face and constant dress to be known by Strangers would be at a loss for the true English Church finding here a Hydra of many faces not one like another But who and what generation of men are wiser and more holy than the Apostles and Fathers of old to set up a new way of Government of their own contriving in Christ's Church what Power on Earth can abrogate that Government by divine Institution reared and continued by the same right all Ages in the Church of God And what necessity is here of a change or alteration of Government in the Church from that which is Apostolical to that which peradventure may prove Diabolical for what good can be expected by pulling down that which is of Gods setting up and introducing a new we know not what of Man's absolute devising But if perchance any Irregularities have crept in or undue practices contrary to the established Order have been committed in any part of this Government which should call for or minister a Necessity of Reformation surely not unhallowed hands of the prophane Laity who should be governed by the Church and not the Church corrected by them are fit Instruments of this Work especially in a Nation that hath so lately felt the dire Effects and Issues of a popular pretended Reformation and wherein those men have shown to the World what ill Workmen they are Let the people reform their own Manners This reforming part of what is amiss in the Church belongs only to them to whom the Holy Spirit said I will be with you always to the end of the World with the Church i. e. with the Apostles whose personal continuance lasted not in the World and their Successors in the Office of Apostles Bishops Pastors Patriarchs c. in the Church who shall have the assistance of the Holy Spirit for ever As my Father sent me so send I you And as Christ sent them so they sent others so what shall seem meet to the Holy Spirit and to them whom Christ hath sent and through whose word we are to believe in Christ St. Jo. 17.20 the Governours of the Church successively to whom Christ hath promised to be with and in whom only the Jus Divinum remains may reform and alter what they judge convenient for it is of the same power that chang'd the Sabbath from the last to the first day of the week and 't is from and by the same Power and Divine Authority that the Church conveys all the Ordinances Sacraments and Holy things of God to his People from Generation to Generation These Pastors and Governours with whom Christ according to his word is always present to the end of the World may I grant transfer the Government should they deem a necessity into more hands under other names than that of Bishop which note will still be but Episcopacy degenerated into another denomination the Power will be the same not altered but translated from one to many in whom the Supremacy and Jus Divinum will remain In all