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cause_n	great_a	matter_n	see_v	3,060	5	3.1155	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01372	A briefe treatise against the priesthood & sacrifice of the Church of Rome wherein the simple may perceiue their intollerable impietie, usurping that office and action, which euer appertaine to Christ onely / by G.G.	G. G.	1584 (1584)	STC 11493.5; ESTC S2680	22,365	64

neither was his death then of full and sufficient price True it is that although we are by his one oblation fully and perfectly discharged for euer before God from the guiltines of our sinnes yet we are not in the full possession of this benefite nor shall not be vntill the last day for then shall his enimies be made his footestoole The diuell sinne ●●●th are these enimies which he hath ouercome that they cannot raigne ouer vs but yet wee must in the meane time wresile with them not therefore esteeming the power of Christs death to be the lesse because they be not alreadie vtterly abolished as the wicked vnbeléeuing Papistes do and therefore set vp trashe of their own to destroy sinne but waiting for that appointed time when the full power of his death shall appear● in the meane time staying by faith resting our selues on that one sacrifice once offred To conclude then hath not the mightie spirite of God power to apply vnto vs the vertue of that bloud but such sillie vermin as the Popish priests must help The holy ghost calling vpon vs and teaching vs to applie these benefites willeth vs to draw neere with a true heart with full assurance of faith Hebr. 10. ver 22. we come vnto him with the heart after a spirituall manner because all thinges in him are spiritual we are did to approch to lay hold of him by faith for wee can not either with the hande or with the mouth And seeing there is not so much as one sentence in all the booke of God which speaketh of any application of his death any other way it must néedes be concluded againe that they may bée as good priestes as the priestes of Baal and no better and that when they hold vp their idol Christ is not betweene their fingers Let vs go forward It shal yet be more manifest by the words of the holie Ghost that this sacrifice of the Masse is so farre from being the sacrifice of the Newe Testament that it doth flatly go against it For he saith as concerning Christ that he did not offer himselfe often as the high Priest went yerely into the holie place with other bloud Hebr. 9. ver 25. and then in the next verse he giueth a reason namely that then he should haue suffred often since the beginning of the world This sentence is verie mightie against the Papistes because it driueth them from all their shiftes and leaueth them naked and destitute but the force of it wil not appeare vnlesse we looke vpō what principles it is grounded to proue that if Christ should haue offered himselfe often then must he also haue suffered death often since the beginning of the world Among the which this offreth it selfe as the first to be considered that all the holie fathers the Patriarches and Prophets from the beginning coulde haue no entrance vnto God but by remission of sinnes and that whereas otherwise they had the dore shut against them by this they were restored into fauour and receiued For it cannot be denyed but that by nature they were sinners as we be and that God cannot receiue sinners Being therefore out of controuersie that they obteined life it must néedes followe that they had pardon for if either there had béene no sin or no pardon to be graunted what necessitie could there be of a sacrifice The seconde principle without which the reason of the Apostle cannot stande is this that there can be no remission but onely by the sacrifice of Christ for if any other sacrifice or any other way or meane might obtaine it then were ther not a necessitie why he shoulde often suffer For although ther were a necessitie of remission of sinnes vnlesse all should be damned yet he might be set free from the same necessitie of offring himselfe séeing there were other wayes to obtaine it but the holie Ghost standeth vppon this as a marter not to bee doubted of that neither there is nor neuer hath béene any thing able to destroy sinne or to take away the ●uiltines of it by making satisfaction but onely the sacrifice of the sonne of God For howsoeuer the idolatrous Innvels do ascribe vnto many things they power of purging and satisfying for sin●● yet the holie word of God and those which beléeue it do giue that glorie only vnto Christ and euen as his great glorie wherein he hathne fellow The third thing without which an exe●ption might be iustly taken against the●●resaid reason is this that there co●●● be no oblation of Christ but he must suffer death for when he sayeth he should not offer him selfe often he addeth this cause that then he should haue s●●●●ed often It were an easie matter ●● the offring of Christ were any thing a●●●lable without suffring death to say there were no necessitie wherefore ●ee should suffer often seeing he might bee offred and not be slaine But this is strengthened by that which goeth before in the same Chapter where hee hath shewed that the testament is confirmed when men are dead because it is of no force while the testator liueth and so he is the mediator of the Newe Testament but yet through death Wherefore also the former testament in which there were but the shadowes and paterne of heauenly thinges was ratified by death as it is prooued by this that it was not dedicated without bloud For when Moses had read the lawe vnto the people he tooke the bloud of calues and Goates with water and purple Woll and Hyssop he sprinkled both the booke and the people saying this is the blould of the Testament which god hath commaunded vnto you Likewise also he sprinkled the Tabernacle and all the ministring vessels with bloud and almost all things sayeth he by the law are purged with bloud and without shedding of bloud there is no remission Here is then a manifest reason wherfore Christ could not be offred often but he must then also dye often euen because the testament is of no force without the death of the testator Here is further shewed wherefore it cannot be auailable without death that is to say there is no remission of sinnes without shedding of bloud Christ therefore could not be offred oftē vnlesse it should be to no purpose which is most absurde but his bloud must be often shed Then if the Papistes will vpholde and maintaine that their sacrifice is auailable to purge away sinne and that it is a sacrifice propitiatorie for the quicke the dead as they doe impudently affirme Let them also confesse that they murther againe the sonne of God and so shead his bloud For if they will stande to this that theirs is an vnbloudie sacrifice and though they offer him yet they do not slay him and yet withall do challenge the power therby to purge sinne let them knowe that they goe directly against the spirite of God which sayeth there is no remission without shedding of bloud In this therefore they are after

vestments as the Cope the Surplesse the Amisse and other such holie and priestly robes carnall Was the Altar in the Temple carnall and all the ministring vessels that did belong thereto and are not the Altars of these carnall Were Aarons incense and oblations carnall and are not the oblations of these and all their incense and other things carnall Those former could not stande with the Priesthood of the new Testament because they were in substance carnall howe then shall these latter which are as carnall as they Tell vs O ye Baalamites of the Romish order wherefore your order should in any respect be called the order of Melchis●dech seeing it is as contrarie vnto it as was that of Aaron The order of Melchisedech is gathered out of the description of Moses to be without any annoynting with oyle without garments for the ministration without Tabernacle without Altar without sacrifice without any earthly thing And why because his order is spirituall and therefore all things thereto belonging must be spirituall it is eternall and full of endles power and therfore nothing which appertaineth to the execution there of must be transitorie weake For shall an earthly temple an Altar of stone garments of silke or of any corruptible thing be fit to be ioyned with that priesthood which is euerlasting There is no doubt but that euery thing for the execution of the office must be agreeable vnto the nature of the Priesthood it selfe and therefore as there is nothing mentioned in Melchisedech that is carnall so also we sée that our Lorde Iesus Christ a Priest after that order hath executed that function without any such thinges consecrated thereunto How shall the Papistes then which haue their priesthood executed altogether in such things as be transitorie challenge to be of that order with our sauiour wherein as the Priesthood is heauenly and eternall so are all things there to belonging But peraduenture ye will say Melchisedech was a Priest and he offred sacrifices to God as other Priests at that time Wherefore should it then be gathered that there was no carnall thing in substance belonging to the execution of his function He had an Altar he had beastes to offer and no doubt did offer I aunswere that albeit Melchisedech did execute the Priestes office after the manner of other Priests yet that is nothing to the purpose For the order of his Priesthood is gathered out of that description of Moses in which there is no mention of such things We are not to doubt but that he had father and mother that he was borne as an other man and also had an ende of his dayes Neuerthelesse because those things are left out he is brought in as one which neuer had beginning that neuer had ende but continueth a priest for euer In like sort howsoeuer at any time he executed the office of a priest as others did yet because there is no such thing expressed that which is expressed is that wherein he is likened vnto the sonne of God it is saide that he was a priest after another order and that there was nothing carnal in his priesthood Therefore we are to conclude that the priesthood of the new testament hauing nothing in it that is carnall the priesthood of the Papacie being consisting altogether of things carnall and such as were also the inuentions of men it must néedes followe that they are not priestes of any testament of God but the priestes of Antichrist Further let it be considered that a Priest must arise after the order of Melchisedech that shall so continue for euer For the eternall sonne of God was resembled by Melchisedech in that he is brought in without any beginning The continuance also of his office for euer in that there is nothing saide of his death nor of any that did succéede him This then being manifest what impudent wretches are those which being mortall men that haue an ende dare so blasphemously boast that they be Priests after the order of Melchisedech how shall they euer be able to answere vnto this The Priest of the New Testament is after the order of Melchisedech that is to say a Priest for euer without beginning without end without any to succéede him Their priesthood hath a beginning it hath an ende they haue those that do succéed one after another If this be a materiall point in that order of Priesthood which Christ shoulde be after as none vnlesse his forehead be of brasse dare denie that it should be for euer What a childishnes were it for any man to thinke that the priesthood of the Papacie is the same when it doth faile in that which is essentiall For they die and come to an ende Are not these contrarie the one to the other to continue a Priest for euer as Melchisedech in figure and Christ in déede and to be Priestes for certaine yeares and then to cease by reason of death Are not then the Priestes made at Ro●● contrary to this order yea as contrary as light is vnto darknes or as heauen is vnto hell And must it not still followe that séeing they be no Priestes of the olde Testament nor can not be Priestes of the New vnto the which their order is cōtrary that their priesthood may be as good as the priesthood of Baal and better it cannot be For if it be not of God is it not then of the diuel Let all true Christians therefore behold with detestation this hellish sacrilege of the Romish bishop who being a priest after the diuels order yet sayeth he is after the order of Melchisedech Moreouer it is to be noted which the holy Ghost sayeth Hebr. 7. ver 26. that such an high Priest it became vs to haue as was holie harmelesse vnspotted separate from sinners and made higher than the heauens This setteth foorth the puritie and also the high dignitie which of necessitie are required in that Priest that shal deale in our cause to bring vs to God For if he were a sinner himself how should he come vnto God If he were spotted with any vncleannes how should he purchase fauour for others seeing he should himself be out of fauour If he were vnholie how should he sanctifie and make holie those whome he doeth present vnto God In like sort it is to be weighed how great that man must be of necessitie that is to enter euē vnto the throne of glorie and there abide as one able to saue all that come vnto God by him For thus he must be made higher than the heauens and aboue all creatures in the heauens For albeit the holy and blessed Angels be separate from sinners and be also about the throne of God yet no one of them hath this glorie to be made higher than the heauens none of them then can haue the honour of the Priesthood to obtaine pardon of sinnes for the Church that glorie and power being reserued only to the sonne who is farre aboue