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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

all Hereticks converted Nations deprived and restored Bishops called Councils c. that is the true Church But only the Roman is such Ergo only the Roman is the true Church The Major you say is plain because these Privileges belong to the Authority of the Mother-Church which is Matrix Radix omnium Ecclesiarum I answer you should first have proved her to be the Mother-Church Radix c. before you exercise or can claim the Authority of a Mother I would fain know what Church is the Mother of the Roman or is Rome it self Motherless for I deny her to be the Mother of the universal Church of God yet do agree that those Privileges you mention do belong to the Authority of the Catholick Church but 't is an insolent and intolerable usurpation of the Rights and Privileges of the Universal Church for any particular Church to confine all the Catholick Privileges to her particular self I am sure she hath not this power from Christ to judge and condemn her Sisters for she is not Matrix Radix omnium Ecclesiarum as you say there were elder than she therefore she at best but a Daughter Church and Sister to others Jerusalem if any particular was it as was prophesied of old Mic. 4.2 and fulfilled Luke 24.47 and so Theodoret lib. 5. Hist Eccl. cap. 9. tells us Ecclesia Hierosolymitana quae aliarum omnium Mater And Men were first called Christians not at Rome but at Antioch Acts. 11.26 St. Gregory Nazian saith The Church of Caesaria was Mater prope omnium Ecclesiarum meaning of neighbouring Churches not of the whole Catholick Church Et Constantinopolitana Ecclesia dicitur omnium aliarum caput so in that sense and no other Rome may be called Head of those Churches in her Patriarchat Every particular Church that teacheth the Catholick Doctrine may be called Catholick as a Member of the universal and so was the particular Roman whilst it held all things true concerning the Faith but never was she Mater Radix omnium Ecclesiarum for the Universal Church hath no particular or locall Root of its being Jerusalem as I said before if any was it Or if you will have a particular Root of the Catholick Church 't is in the East not in the West at Rome se praecisam esse a Radice orientalium Ecclesiurum c. St. August Epist 170 But the Head Root Matrix Fountaine c. of Rome and all other particular Churches is the Catholick Church and her Unity and to break her Uunity by usurping a Power or Priority which Christ never gave is at the least abominable if not certainly damnable 't is against a command too The Text is clear There was a strife among the Apostles which should be greatest St. Luke 22.14 Christ answered them The Princes and Rulers exercise Dominion c. but it shall not be so with you He that will be greatest c. St Matt. 20.26 There is no Priority much less Superiority given to Churches National Tertullian tells us Omnes Primae omnes Apostolicae dum unam omnes probant unitatem de praescript advers Haeret. cap. 20. Porro unam esse primam Apostolicam ex qua reliquae hanc nulli loco affigit B. Rhenanus therefore not at Rome And it is to be observed that Tertullian long since numbering the then Apostolical Churches reckons Rome last of them Tertull. ibid. cap. 32. and Pamelius lately puts Rome after others cap. 21. num 129. what you speak out of St. Augustin In Ecclesia Romana semper viguit Apostolicae Cathedrae Principatus that in Rome there did always flourish the Principality of an Apostolick Chair in relation to the West and South parts of the Church all the other four Apostolical Chairs being in the East doth not give Rome nor the Pope thereof power to exercise this Principality beyond his Limits out of his own Patriarchate over the whole Church of Christ for in the same Epistle of St. August Epist 162. Melciades then Bishop of Rome had leave granted him to hear a matter of the Donatists adjudged by the African Bishops and other Bishops by the Emperour were sent Judges to determine with him for if he had done it without leave the Epistle tells us it had been an usurpation seeing ad cujus curam c. ibid. it belonged to the Emperours care and charge and that he is to give an account to God for it Yea a Pope himself saith 'tis Antichristian to be stiled universal Bishop St. Greg. l. 4. Epist 78 monstrous and blasphemous Absit a cordibus Christianorum Nomen illud Blasphemiae ibid. Epist 76 and further St. Greg. Epist 83. In isto scelesto vocabulo consentire nihil aliud est quam fidem perdere So the Roman was not then universal Bishop had no power over Patriarchs and National Bishops no Monarch over the whole militant Church for near six hundred years after Christ and Britain in those times was never subject to the See of Rome for it had a Primate of its own Et a Patriarcha non datur Appellatio saith the Civil Law from whom lies no Appeal Now then the general power of anathematizing Hereticks depriving Schismaticks restoring Orthodox Bishops c belong to the Catholick Church Militant and her Authority in general Councils lawfully by her called and constituted and that the Catholick Church is our Mother no man will deny that accounts God to be his Father But this Holy Catholick Church mentioned in the Apostle's Creed is not the Church of Rome nor any other particular Church on Earth The Holy Catholick Church there spoken of contains not only the whole militant Church on Earth but the whole Triumphant alive in Heaven for so St. August Euch. cap. 56. Ecclesia hic tota accipienda est non solum ex parte quae peregrinatur in terris c. verùm etiam ex illa quae in Caelis And who converted Nations originally Did not Christ send out his Apostles and seventy Disciples at another time and then after sent many more were not then Apostles Apostolick men and the general Church they that converted and confuted Nations and planted the Church of Christ in the World Now this Holy Catholick Church before ever Rome was a Church is Matrix Radix omnium Ecclesiarum of Rome as well as other The Catholick Church was ever one and the same Church viz. the Church of God spread over the whole World and as before described by St. August Rome could never be it for if Rome a particular Church can be now the Catholick Church then by the same Rule if it be not out of Rule some other particular Church before it was the Catholick Church and how came that to lose it and Rome to get it that it is now as you say translated to Rome and doth it not follow by the same rule that Rome also may transire in non Ecclesiam pass way in no Church for what Patent or holy Charter

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

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

this the Church loseth not her Right But to take away the Government by Bishops from the Church without her Authority or Consent is to cut off great part of her self and to deprive her of much of her Being And for Lay-men to encroach upon her Government and force it from her is to rifle her of her Divine Right devolved to her as aforesaid The Authority came not from the Laity so they have nothing to do therewith and no Authority to disturb it For who can touch the Ark of God though in their Judgment it should seem to totter and be guiltless when Uzziah's indiscreet Zeal was so severely punished and what misery did such misguided popular Zeal lately bring on this Nation in rudely medling with God's Ark the Church and pulling down that Government and those Governours they should Religiously have obeyed And if Uzzah's fault whose fervent Zeal was to uphold not overthrow the Ark was followed with so great destruction on his body what punishment may they from Divine Justice expect who through Malice Avarice and Ambition seek to destroy the Government and Authority of the ancient Church of God Think not then Oh thou perverse Enemy of the Apostolical Government of Gods Church that your expectation of a change in this Age can have any foundation that they who enact just Laws can propose unjust things to be enacted that any one Member of the whole Community any one of the Representatives of us Lay-men in this Lay-Parliament will adventure to lay violent hands on the Church of Christ by endeavouring to pull down her Governours from their Seat to lay her desolate to bid defiance to the Spouse of Christ and so make War again against the Soul of the Lords anoynted for rothing can pass into a Law but by Royal Assent and what unhallowed Lip dare offer at a motion savouring of abolishing that radieated Government which his Majesty not only by his Education and choice hath received and following the Wisdom and Piety of his Forefathers and Predecessors hath approved and confirmed as most Catholick and Sacred but obliged by solemn and sacred Tie of an Oath at his Coronation to preserve and maintain with all the Legal Rights of the Church Who can be so impious to lay a snare for his precious Soul or so vile to imagine to prevail in endeavouring to wheadle him to so great a Transgression as the horrid sin of Perjury and to betray his Mother the Church to be worried again by her inveterate Enemies and so consequently himself at last to be at the discretion and mercy of the same Gang who have been as ready to unhinge the State as unsettle the Church and do assuredly expect the one from the other that 't is more than likely the old Design is now a new on foot for every stroke that hurts the Church doth wound the State It would be strange and savour much of Satanism if any should advise a Son from inheriting his Fathers Virtues to set at nought the Holy Counsel of so great a Saint in Heaven not to observe the pious Injunctions and Admonitions of a Religious King and Father whose dying Speeches as if he had bequeathed his Piety and Religion his Zeal and Honour for the Church to be a Portion for his Children and a Glory to the Crown in his Successor obliged the Prince of Wales our present Sovereign by a sweet invitation of Reason and Righteousness to stand firm to the Religion in which he was educated amongst his admirable Instructions divine Admonitions and Advices he saith Above all I would have you as I hope you are already well grounded and settled in your Religion The best Profession of which I have esteemed that of the Church of England in which you have been Educated Yet I would have your Judgment and Reason now Seal to that Sacred Bond which Education hath written that it may be judicially your own Religion and not other men's Custom or Tradition which you profess In this I charge you to persevere as coming nearest to God's Word for Doctrine and to the primitive examples for Government And in another place he adds I do require and intreat you as your Father and your King that you never suffer your heart to receive the least check against or disaffection from the true Religion established in the Church of England I tell you I have tried it and after much search and many Disputes have concluded it to be the best in the World not only in the Community as Christian but also in the special notion as Reformed keeping the middle way between the pomp of superstitions Tyranny and the meanness of fantastick Anarchy Now behold Oh ye Enemies of the Reformed Church of England yea all the World behold the Profession of this pure Religion is confirmed to be the truest on Earth by the most signal and Authentick Proof under Heaven a Proof that bears Majesty yea Divinity in it 't is descended from on High Kings are Gods on Earth The King the most Sacred of Kings hath tried it and 't is the Honour of a King to search out a Matter Prov. 25.2 God's Vicegerent made it the great Business and work of his Life to search for Truth and pure Profession of Religion and in the controverting confounded all the Arguments and Argumentators against God's Church to their Amazement and Confusion He in the Decision would not part with one jot of Truth to betray or oppress the Church His Righteousness he held fast and would not let it go Job 26.6 for when he was in the cruel hands of his implacable Enemies oven a Captive at their dispofal at New-Castle far from the Aid of good Men or Books to assist and comfort him at this disadvantage as if God had delivered him as he did Job to be buffeted by Satan and winnowed their great Champion of their new Gospel Dr. H. the deputed Tempter of the Synod and Commons House furnished with all the ensnaring Arguments Sedition and Treason could invent was sent to captivate the Soul of his Soveraign and ruffle him out of his Faith thereby to lay a stone for their new Babel but met with such Divine and convincing Reasons from the King who so concisely and sweetly answered every point of their long studied and tedious Sophisms as overcame the Giant and all his Host of sophistrated Arguments that returning in high discontent to those who sent him in great discomposure of Spirit furiously cryed out Never man spake as the King spake and argued as the King argued he is able to confound ye all c. and being enraged that he was vanquished fell into a Conflict of Spirit and not long after finished his days Kings represent God are Children of the Most High Sit upon Gods Throne the King hath tryed it and where was there ever or can be found on earth a Prince for Piety Religion and Wisdom his equal or one like him and who can be more concern'd for