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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	church_n	holy_a	time_n	2,975	5	3.4034	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43788	The grand apostacy of the church of Rome, from her primitive purity and integrity with a vindication of the Church of England, in her separation from her, and the hazard of salvation in communion with her : discoursed in a sermon preached at St. Mary le Bow, London on Sunday the 28th of December, 1679 / by John Hill.	Hill, John, d. 1709.	1680 (1680)	Wing H1996; ESTC R12819	28,385	79

't is in it self I need go no farther than their Book of holy Ceremonies for this which tells us not onely what their rude Ignorants do but what their holy Fathers have done This teacheth them to put confidence in Beads Medals and Roses hallowed Swords and Spells of the Gospel Agnus Dei's and such-like idle Bables ascribing to them divine Vertue yea so much as is due to the Son of God himself and his precious Bloud Pope Vrban the fifth sent three Agnus Dei's to the Emperour with these Verses Balsamus munda Cera cum Chrismatis unda Conficiunt Agnum quod munus do tibi magnum Fulgura de Coelo c. Balsam pure Wax and Chrysms liquor clear Make up this pretious Lamb I send thee here All Lightning it expels and each ill Spright Remedies Sin and makes the Heart contrite And so he goes on in his Blasphemy Even as the Bloud of Christ for us shed c. And lest you may imagine this to be the Conceit of some phantastical Pope hear out of the same Book of holy Ceremonies the very words that every Pope doth use to pray in their blessing the water which serves for that Agnus Dei viz. That thou wouldst vouchsafe O Lord to bless these things which we are now about to pour into this vessel of water prepared to thy glory so as by the worship and honour of them we may have our sins done away our blemishes wiped off and thereby may obtain pardon and receive grace so that with thy Saints and elect children we may merit everlasting life Amen Can there be greater Superstition Magick or Blasphemy and all this practised by the very Heads of that Church Hence the poor Laity are hoodwinkt in a forced Ignorance who live no less without Scripture than if there were none at all They forbid Spiritual food as Poyson fetch God Book into the Inquisition and thereby cheat the Vulgar with nothing but shews of Holiness in Pilgrimages Processions Offerings Holy Water Latine Service Images Tapers Vestments Altars Crosses and a thousand such like fit onely for children and fools robbing them in the mean time of the sound and plain helps of Piety and Devotion More particularly confider it under these Circumstances 1. That it hath made wicked men Saints and Saints Gods nay the modern Canonization hath made those saints that were scarce men And we have their own Confessions That the most notorious sinners have leapt into their Kalendar and once Sainted they have the honour of Altars Temples Invocations and some of them in a stile fit onely for their Maker 2. A Religion that professeth to be a Bawd to Sin whilst in practice it tolerates open Stews and prefers Fornication in some ●ise● before honourable Matrimony and gently blancheth over the breaches of the Commandments with the name of Venials and favourable titles of Dimmution daring to affirm That venial sins are no hindrance to a mans Integrity and Perfection 3. A Religion that indeed deserves not the name of Religion the Ape and Mimick of it a very outside of Christianity at best a meer formality of Devotion all whose Prayers Fastings Pilgrimages c. are no other than a going to Hell in more pomp and state For look into their Churches there you will see idle Apishness in the most solemn works The poor Laity in the mean while returning empty of all sound Edification and only full of confused intentions yet are they taught to think this Sacrifice of Fools to be meritorious From thence look into their houses and closets there you will see such a trade of careless and lazie Holiness that there is but little difference between the Image and the Suppliant Piety it self being lulled asleep with their heartless and sleepy Vespers And if you step a little farther and cast your eyes into the melancholy Cells of some austere Recluses there you may finde perhaps an Hair-cloath a Whip an Hurdle or the Rope about the waste But where in all this is true Mortification A pious Protestant takes more pains with his Heart in a day than a superstitious Papist doth with his Skin in a year the one indeed whips himself but the other denies himself the draws Bloud from his Flesh the other from his Lusts And therefore if you look into the whole Course of the Roman Catholick life you shall finde the Commandments of God professedly broken besides the ordinary practice of Idolatry and frequencie of Oaths Men whose sinful rebellions are ever and anon smoaking against Heaven dare meet God in his loudest Thunder and venture on Damnation in its most terrible form so that God can no where display the Ensignes of his Power but these audacious wretches hang out their Flags of defiance And this brings me to the second thing how blasphemous a Religion this is in respect of God and Christ Of God and that as 1. it teacheth men to worship Stocks and Stones with the same honour that is due to their Creator Hence they worship God under the Image of an Old man Christ under the Image of a Lamb the Holy Ghost under the resemblance of a Dove And Cajeran doth confess That they draw the Images by the Trinity not onely to shew but to adore and worship them Now lest this should appear to her simple Clients how palpably opposite it is to the second Commandment they have cunningly left it out as a needless Illustration in all their Catechisms and Prayer-books of the Vulgar 2. As it asserts the Priests Judicial Power in pardoning sins and absolving sinners and openly allows and tolerates the buying of Pardons and Indulgences from them So that now Purgatorie can have no rich men in it but fools and friendless Devils are tormented here yet men can command Devils and Money can command men 3. As it advandeth Nature to a co-partnership with God in our Justification and Salvation and idly puffs her up into a conceit of her ability to keep more Laws than ever God made And for this requires no other Faith than may be sound in the Devils themselves who besides a confused apprehension can assent unto the truth of God revealed And Popery requires no more 4. As it relies on the Infallibility of those whom they grant to have been and may be monstrous in their lives and dispositions most of their Popes having been the most monstrous notorious wretches that ever the Earth groaned under O that it were rid of the burdend ‑ How many of these Heirs of St. Peter if their own Records deceive us not have by Bribes Whores and Devils dimb'd into that Chair ‑ yet for any to say that those men who are confessed to have given their Souls to the Devil that they might be Popes can erre whilst they are such is Heresie worthy a Stake and Hell Thus of its Blasphemy in respect of God II. In respect of Christ and that these four ways 1. In overthrowing the Perfection of Christs Humanity while they give unto it

crush in pieces all the Kings and Kingdoms of the Earth He may as Bosius saith depose Kings for just causes and without any cause also It belongs to him saith Sunders to pronounce Kings Hereticks to declare their Subjects exempt from Allegiance and that they ought to be deposed if they will not Blade it for Christ that is for the Popes Tyranny and Lust And this is not onely matter of their Faith but Fact 2. Not onely in the Supremacy but also in the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper for at first the people received it under both kinds for the space of a thousand years And saith Myraldus The Roman Order commanded the Wine to be conserated that the People might fully communicate And the antient Liturgies of their own Church do tell us that the People received the Wine as well as the Bread Nay Cajetan as eminent a Member as ever their Church boasted of confesseth that the Custom endured a long time in the Church even until their so-much-admired Council of Constance forbad it and then the Romanists altered their minde 3. Her defection hath been most notorious in that monstrous Tenet of Transubstantiation a Doctrine lately brought in and made matter of Faith by Innocent the third in the Lateran Council within these four hundred years before which time no man was obliged to believe it but all men were left to their own liberties whereas now 't is accounted Heresie to deny it and worthy of Bonds the Inquisition a Stake and Hell 4. In the Worship of Images for at first that Church admitted of no Image at all either painted or carved no not the Image of Christ himself saith Erasmus to be set up in Churches And when they began to be used the Church of Rome her self forbad any Worship to be given to them as appears by Gregory's Epistles to Severus And Polydore a great admirer of the Romish Church confesseth that all the Fathers condemned the Worship of Images for fear of Idolatry And when the Nicene Council brought them in for ornament even then they denied them Worship 5. In the great Article of Justification the most eminent Pillars of their Church having denied Justification by Works as Thomas Aquinas and others yet the Council of Trent varied from them and thrust in mans inherent Righteousness as the formal cause of his Justification Now a Church that hath made these Defections and hath introduced such horrid Errours should be separated from Come out of her my people which leads me to the consideration of the various Causes of this Apostacy which may be referred either to 1. Her Pride and Ambition 'T is well known what arrogance that Church became guilty of when Tertullian in his time complained de Insolentia Cleri Romani And Luther calls them Silk and Sattin Divines to whose proud Spirits the poor and contemptible way of Christ could not comport In that Assertion of theirs how do they extol their Priesthood Creatura paruit Joshuae at Presbyteris Creator Sol illi at his Deus quotiescunque verba sacra pronuntiat The Creature obeyed Joshua but the Creator doth the Priests the Sun yielded to him but to these as often as they pronounce the words of Consecration doth God yield On this conceit it is that they degrade all Temporal Princes those Vmbratiles Dii making them stand bare-foot at their great Bishops gate hold his Stirrup yea their own Crowns at his courtesie exempting all their Ecclesiastical Subjects from their Jurisdiction and all the rest from their Allegiance 2. Fraud and Perfidiousness the Romanists had fully learned that Regnandi Causa all Oaths were to be violated How grosly were the Pope and his Adherents taken in forging some Canons of the Council of Nice for their preheminent Dignity And being conscious of their own falshood still continue to deprave all Authors that might give in Evidence against them outfacing all antient Truths and foisting in Gibeonish witnesses of their own forging and leave nothing unattempted against Heaven or Earth that might advance their Faction Take a view of her carriage to those that diffent from her How hath she abused all that opposed her charging Wickliffe with Blasphemy Luther to have had his Advice from the Devil Queen Elizabeth's Episcopal Jurisdiction and secret Fruitfulness our Bishops to have been consecrated in Taverns oun casting the Crust of the Sacramental Bread to Dogs With a thousand more of this nature maliciously raised and defended against Knowledge and Conscience for the disgrace of those that diffent from them 3. Covetousness For if you look on all their Opinions about Indulgences Private Masses Auricular Confession you will find love to Money the cause of them all Hence the humour of that Church was well hinted to us in the answer of a Priest to his Friend who asking him why he would not Absolve a Penitent without a great sum of Money replyed They get Heaven by us and we must get Money by them 4. Neglect of Scripture And this hath see open a flood-gate whereby all the world was drowned in Errours For take the Eyes out of the Body the Sun out of the Firmament the Compass from the Ship and what can follow but darkness blackness and confusion Therefore they wish that there had never been Scripture and say That the Church could have done well enough with Traditions onely They call the Bible that Book which hath made all the stirs in the world and say That all the Faith a man can have by it is meerly humane and no more O! the great patience of God that bears such Blasphemies from these Monsters of Men 5. Nourishing of sin Of which this Church hath been guilty two several ways 1. By her common practice of encouraging those who had been censured in the Eastern Churches for foul Miscarriages to appeal to her and she would Absolve them and whenever she did inflict Ecclesiastical Censures they were in a great part Pecuniary and meerly to the macerating of the Body no ways to the saving of the Soul which occasioned us to tell them that peccata raduntur non eradicantur and Heathen-like they did vitia abscondere non abscindere by this Penance there was something done about sin nothing done against sin it being like Sampsons Hair cut off yet because the Roots remained they sprung up to their full strength again 2. By the suitableness of her Doctrine to the carnal and sensual part of man Particularly 1. That Doctrine of extenuating original sin making motions to sin unconsented to no sin at all That a man hath power to keep the Commandments That to love God binds onely at some times That actual inadvertency in holy Duties doth not hinder the Fruit of them That Prayers said in Latine though we do not understand them are very acceptable unto God c. 2. That Doctrine of advancing the pride of Nature which tells her that she can merit her own Glory without being much beholding to Gods Mercy that