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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A76227 A winding-sheet for popery. By Richard Baxter, Catholick. Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1657 (1657) Wing B1454; Thomason E1602_5; ESTC R208914 13,418 15

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his If Christ be so tender of every particular sheep in his flock that he laid down his life for them and knows them by name and none shall take them out of his hand and he that toucheth them doth touch the apple of his eye John 10.3 15 27 28. Zech. 2.8 how then will he take it at the Papists hands that would rob him of the greatest part But blessed be God that judgeth not as they Reason 3. Herein also they are guilty of most inhumane and unreasonable cruelty in presuming to damn the far greatest part of the Church of Christ If you are so straightly charged as to a particular man Judge not that you be not judged Mat. 7.1 2. And so sharply taken up Rom. 14.4 Who art thou that judgest another mans servant to his own master he standeth or falleth What then are they like to hear that will judge to damnation the most and the best of the Church of God Perhaps the ignorant of them may say that All of them are not so uncharitable this is but some I answer If thou be not of this mind thou art not a Papist For this is essential to that which they call the Romm Catholick Faith to believe that the Catholick Church is only those that are subject to the Pope as the Vicar of Christ and Governor of the whole and that out of this Church thus headed by the Pope there is no salvation This is the soul of Popery even as we believe that out of the true Universal Church that 's headed by Christ only there 's no salyation And me thinks if thou have but the heart of a man much more of a Christian in thy breast thou shouldst not easily believe so bloody uncharitable a Doctrine as that all the Christian world are damned save your selves Dost thou believe this at thy heart If not thou art not of the Roman faith And if thou do thou hast little Christian Chanty and thy deceivers have almost taught thee to cast away the reason and the bowels of a man Reason 4. And what a Proud and arrogant way is this for a defiled piece of ●he Catholick Church to say We are the whole As they in Isa 65.5 Which say Stand by thy self come not near to me for I am holyer then thou To say You are all damned Hereticks save we and we only are the Church such horrible Pride doth not animate the Church and Cause of Christ Reason 5. And all this is done by them against the very tenor of the Gospel and Covenant of Christ as if it were not enough for them to contradict the Scripture in smaller matters unless they gainsay the very Promise of life and the Charter of the Saints and the foundation of our hopes For it is the scope of this Gospel that Whosoever believeth in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life John 3.15 16 18. 1.12 John 17.20 21 22 24. Acts 8.37 13.39 16.31 Rom. 3.22 4.11 24. 10.9 Gal. 3.22 2 Thes 1.10 John 16.27 20.29 Heb. 4.3 Mar. 16.16 Acts 5.14 John 3.36 5.24 6.35 40 47. 7.38 11.25 26. 12.46 Acts 10.43 Rom. 3.26 9.33 1 Pet. 2.6 1 Joh. 5.1 5 10. John 14.21 1 John 4.7 An hundred texts might easily be cited where God doth make the most peremptory promises that all that believe in Christ and love him and hope in him shall be saved And yet as if it were in defiance of the Gospel the Papists make it an Article of their Faith that no man shall be saved that becomes not a subject of the Pope of Rome Let him believe in Christ and love Christ and hope in Christ never so much let him believe in the Father Son and Holy Ghost yet can he not be saved if he believe not in the Pope No grace will save him no degree of holiness will save him that believeth not in the Pope or at least none have saving Grace that believe not in him Wonderful that it should be possible for Christians for men to be thus besotted what must become of all those Christians that live many thousand miles from him and scarce ever heard of his name and know not whether he be a man or a woman or whether there be such a place as Rome in the world Must they therefore be all damned as being out of the Church Why then would not Christ have once mentioned to us this Article of our Faith Why would he never put it in the Scripture He that obeyeth not the Pope or Roman Church shall be damned Why was it never in the Churches Creed I believe in the Pope or Church of Rome as well as I believe the Holy Catholick Church Reason 6. Moreover the Papists cause is plainly carnal being all resolved into a carnal interest and maintained by it The main question between us is Whether the Pope must govern all the Christian world and all persons must obey him upon pain of damnation And what is this but to exalt a worm and lay the Kingdom of Christ upon his shoulders If the question were Whether we should be Holy or prophane obey Christ or disobey him we would be ashamed to be behind them But when all this stir is to set up one City to be the Mistress of the world and one man to be the head of the Church and this without Christ and against him what can we think but that Ambition makes this Lucifer mad Reason 7. Moreover the way of Popery is against Christianity and shaketh the very foundation of it and tempteth the world to infidelity by building their faith upon an uncertain ground yea on a ground that is certainly false For according to the Papists we cannot know the Christian Doctrine to be true nor Scripture to be the Word of God but on the authority of the Pope or Church And it s as clear as the light that no man can know that the Pope or Roman Church hath any such authority till they know the Doctrine of Christ to be true by which they claim it nor then neither Who can tell that the Pope or Church of Rome is to be credited more then any other Church or person till he find some such thing in the Word of God which is not there And if they do find it there they cannot believe it because they receive it not on the authority of the Church So that if you will be a Papist you must hold that the Doctrine of Faith is not to be received but on the authority of the Roman Church and yet that the authority of the Roman Church cannot be known but by the Doctrine of Faith as some say Or else we must stay till they prove it by Miracles as the Apostles did as others say Reason 8. Moreover this Cause and this Church is a novelty and late invention a thing unknown to the Primitive Church and therefore it cannot be of God And yet they are so shameless as to