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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30059	The contrariety of popery to the blessed word of God wherein may be seen that the doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome are not consistent with the sacred oracles of the Old and New Testament ... / written by Digby Bull ...	Bull, Digby.	1695 (1695)	Wing B5410; ESTC R8749	67,944	72

of our Saviour and the Apostle XI The Practice of the Romish Church in respect of Marriages is not agreeable to the Word of God First The prohibiting the Marriage of Clergy-men is not agreeable to the Word of God The Word of God alloweth them to marry as well as other men if they see good cause for it and it is great Tyranny and an evil thing to deny them this Liberty The Law of God allowed the Priests and even the High Priests to marry as we may see Lev. 21.7 and in several other places They shall not take a wife that is a whore or profane neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband for he is holy unto his God And ver 13 And he shall take a wife in her virginity The Priests might marry notwithstanding God accounted them holy to himself and would not suffer them to profane themselves in many other respects wherein the Common People might profane themselves And we see that Aaron and his Sons were married men and yet were the High Priests of the Jews and that they married as they saw good observing only the limitations of the Law of God And the Gospel doth allow all men liberty to marry that see good cause for it And it doth require that those should marry that have not the gift of continency and cannot well otherwise keep themselves chast but it tolerates no whoredom at all 1 Cor. 7.2 saith St. Paul Nevertheless to avoid fornication let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband Here is no exception but all may marry that see need for it And saith the Apostle Heb. 13.4 Marriage is honourable in all and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge And St. Paul doth plainly shew that Bishops and Deacons might be married men 1 Tim. 3.2 A Bishop then said he must be blameless the husband of one wife He that had not married one Wife and put her away and married another as the Jews sometimes did but had married but one Wife he might be a Bishop And so might the Deacons be married men as we may see ver 8 And St. Paul alloweth Bishops and Elders to be married men in his Instructions to Tit. 1.5 And it doth appear that St. Peter the Apostle was a married man mention being made of his Wives Mother Matt. 8.14 Mar. 1.30 1 Cor. 9.5 And the Apostle tells us that it is better to marry than to burn 1 Cor. 7.9 But if they cannot contain let them marry for it is better to marry than to burn Such as are in danger to be tempted to wickedness are not only allowed but advised to marry and keep themselves pure and not to fall to Whoredom And the Apostle sheweth that the forbidding of Marriage is a sinful and evil thing 1 Tim. 4.1 Now the Spirit speaketh expresly saith he that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of Devils Forbidding to marry This is one thing that these sinful men would do And hereby we see that it is an unlawful thing to prohibit marriage and to keep any Order of men from their liberty herein which God hath granted to all The Practice of the Romish Church is not agreeable to the sacred Scriptures in not suffering the Clergy to marry To prohibit Marriage and to tolerate Whoredom is flat contrary to the sacred Word of God Secondly The Romish Church doth tolerate Incestuous Marriages and the Popes do grant Dispensations for such Marriages as are forbidden by the Word of God God hath forbidden all Incestuous Marriages in the Book of Leviticus and told us what persons we are to marry Lev. 18.5 None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him to uncover their nakedness I am the Lord. And the several degrees of persons that we are not to approach to are mentioned in this Chapter and in the twentieth Chapter of this Book And here we may see that the marrying a Brother's Wife is unlawful Lev. 18.16 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife it is thy brother's nakedness And Lev. 20.21 And if a man shall take his brother's wife it shall be an unclean thing And John Baptist told Herod that it was not lawful for him to have his Brother's Wife Matt. 14.3 For Herod saith St. Matthew had laid hold on John and bound him and put him in prison for Herodias sake his brother Philip's wife For John said unto him It is not lawful for thee to have her But notwithstanding these plain and positive Commands of God the Popes at their pleasure will grant Dispensations for the marrying of such persons as are here forbidden and for marrying a Brother's Wife Thirdly The Practice of the Romish Church in dissolving of lawful Marriages is not agreeable to the Word of God When a Marriage is lawfully contracted and duely solemnized it is not to be dissolved but only upon the account of Fornication This is our Saviour's determination in this Matter Matt. 5.31 It hath been said whosoever shall put away his wife let him give her a writing of divorcement But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife saving for the cause of fornication causeth her to commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery And Matt. 19.3 The Pharisees came unto him tempting him and saying unto him Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause And he answered and said unto them Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female And said for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh What therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder And again Mar. 10.8 And they twain shall be one flesh so then they are no more twain but one flesh What therefore God hath joined together let no man put asunder This we see is a sacred Knot and a work that God hath done when it is lawfully done according to his order and not to be dissolved by man except in the case of Fornication And saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 7.10 11. And unto the married I command yet not I but the Lord Let not the wife be separated from her husband But and if she be separated let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband and let not the husband put away his wife Christians are not to put away their Wives but were even to keep their Heathen Wives if they would live with them and not leave their Husbands because they were Christians But notwithstanding Marriage is so sacred a thing and we are commanded not to dissolve it yet the Church of Rome doth dissolve the Marriage of all Priests and we see that the Marriage of the Clergy is as lawful as the Marriage of other men This we

cause Jews Turks and Pagans to cry out against it when they see such inhumane Cruelty and merciless Murders committed by the Professors of it Such bloody Spectacles are of a very moving and frightful nature and very distastful and odious to all men that have any sense of humanity left in them and the ready way to make them abhor the Christian Religion when they see such as call themselves Christians to act like the worst of men And for this must they one day answer And a sad thing it is to see that such as call themselves Christians should now be the greatest Enemies of the Christian Church and put men to death in a merciless manner purely for Points of Conscience where the poor Sufferers have Truth and the Gospel of Christ on their side By what hath been said it is clear enough that the bloody Cruelty of the Romish Church is not at all agreeable to the Gospel of Christ but flat contrary to it By these particulars without going any farther we may see that Popery is not at all consistent with the sacred Scriptures and the Gospel of the blessed Jesus but quite another Religion directly contrary to it even in the Fundamentals of it For in the Christian Religion we are taught that Christ is the Head of the Church and are positively commanded to call no one Father and Master in such a high manner and to admit no Competitor with him But in Popery the Pope is the Head of the Church And tho' he pretends to be Christ's Vicar yet in truth and reality he is no such thing but acteth like a supreme Lord of the Church himself and will admit of the Christian Law and the Commands of the Gospel no farther than they suit with his humor and pleasure or interest and at his own will and pleasure doth over-rule them and herein doth take upon him a Power above our blessed Lord. And by these Papers it is plain that the Members of the Romish Church live in an open and notorious violation of the Christian Law and the Commands of the Gospel They call themselves Christians but in truth and reality they are not Christians but men of another Religion quite different from Christianity and may be called Papists in opposition and contradistinction to Christians For as we Christians do own Christ for our Head and profess our selves to be his Disciples and look upon his Laws and Commands as sacred and to be kept inviolable and do engage to take care to keep them So do they own the Pope for their supreme Head and are his Disciples and do set up his Laws and Commands that are ratified by his Authority as supreme and above the Laws and Commands of Christ and look upon themselves as obliged to keep them inviolable and take more care to keep them than the Laws of Christ The Romish Church notwithstanding its outward profession of Christianity yet in reality is not to be looked upon as any part of the true Christian Church but as a People of another new Religion And there is no doubt to me but that the Papists are the Gentiles spoken of Rev. 11.2 and that the time is now at hand that they shall tread the holy City the true Church of Christ under foot forty and two months And that the Popedom and Romish Church is the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless Pit that shall make War with the Witnesses of God and overcome them And that those names of Sodom Egypt and Babylon the Great do belong to Rome and the Romish Church And the Learned and Reverend Archbishop Usher Dr. More and Dr. Barrow do not say much less Archbishop Usher 's Predictions Dr. More 's Antidote against Idolatry Dr. Barrows 's Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy And we may see that Divine Providence hath afforded as great a Cloud of Witnesses against Popery in these latter ages of the World as it hath against the Pagan Idolatries in the Primitive times of Christianity And I suppose upon a fair examination it will appear that far more have died Martyrs here in Europe in testifying the Truth against Popery than have died Martyrs in the time of the Pagan Emperors in testifying the Truth in opposition to Pagan Idolatry And when these things are fairly considered I cannot see but that Christians heretofore might with as much safety to their Souls turn to Pagan Idolatry as Protestants may now turn to Popery The glorious Martyrs that have suffered in the Popish Persecutions are as high a Testimony against Popery as any that can be found I believe against Pagan Idolatry And for my part I do not see how Protestants that turn to Popery can be saved or how Papists that wilfully continue therein when they see and consider these things can be saved and escape eternal Destruction How far God may extend Mercy over and above the declarations of the Gospel in pitying the ignorance and infirmities of some is an Arcanum that we cannot look into and belongs not to us to open But as to the declarations of the Gospel there is certainly no hope of Salvation to be had in the Romish Church as it is now corrupted And if any one thinks that I strain the Cord too far and would have me to remember to keep within the bounds of Charity I return him this answer That I am in Charity with all the World as I hope and desire the Good and Well-being of all men both here and hereafter And that I think it far greater Charity to deal plainly and sincerely in a matter of such weight and moment than to use any deceitful and treacherous Flattery to the deluding of mens precious and immortal Souls and to give them any just cause to curse me hereafter when they are wrapt up in Eternal Wo and Misery I believe St. Paul and St. John were men full of true Christian Charity and yet they positively declare that those that commit such sins as they enumerate and reckon up are not like to be saved but to be eternally damned if they do not repent in time And seeing the Romish Church is so notoriously guilty of many of those very sins there is no cause that any good Body should be offended at me for asserting That there is no hope of Salvation to be had in that Church and for being willing to save both Protestants and Papists by endeavouring to keep the one Party from falling to such a corrupt and sinful Religion and to draw the other from it And our Church in effect declareth as much as I do For in Athanasius's Creed we have these Words Which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly And our Church having made this a part of her publick Liturgy hereby doth shew that this is her sense and that this was the sense and judgment of the Primitive times And seeing the Romish Church doth not keep the Catholick Faith whole and undefiled as it it clear enough by these Papers therefore our Church doth declare that the Papists and Members of the Popish Church are like-to perish everlastingly if they do not repent in time To conclude then seeing Popery is so notorious a violation of the blessed Word of God and there are such plain declarations in the sacred Scriptures against it seeing no less than Eternal Death is threatned to the things that are constantly practised therein and the Professors of it are accounted no better than Gentiles in the Revelation of St. John seeing God hath set a whole Cloud of Witnesses and Martyrs to give testimony against it by resisting unto Blood and by chusing rather to be burnt to death in the fire than to turn to it From hence we may well be assured of the sinfulness of this Religion and that it is at the hazard of our Lives and Souls if we turn to it There is no halting in this case for if we turn to it we go presumptuously upon Destruction Let us then be wise betimes and not trifle with Eternity and run wilfully into the Lake of everlasting fire Let us not by a little Terror of men be driven to it and so bring the Curse and Wrath of Almighty God upon our selves But seeing we are warned of its coming before hand let us do what we can to prepare our selves against it that we may not be born away with the violence of it when it cometh Let us reform and amend our sinful lives and be in a readiness to dye if God should call us to give farther testimony against it and let us then call upon him for his blessed Assistance and go cheerfully to the Stake rather than to turn to so sinful a Religion wherein we are like to perish to all Eternity And I desire that all well minded Papists would seriously consider what is said here and lay it to heart and not hearken to deluding Priests and Jesuits I hope and am fully persuaded that Mercy doth yet wait upon them and that if they will now return from Popery and become good Christians and live according to the Precepts and Commands of the Gospel they may preserve their Souls and that God will pass by their Provocations hitherto But if they do not now repent and return I doubt it will go very sore with the Papists of these Kingdoms For as I am confident and well assured that Popery is at hand and will prevail here for a time so am I also confident that after the 42 Months Rev. 11.2 are expired it will be driven out again and then I fear that the Wrath of God will fall very heavy both upon Papists and upon such Protestants as turn to Popery It is very probable that there may be some Bloodshed at its entrance but I expect that the great Slaughter and Destruction of men will be when it is driven out again You may peruse The Watch-man's-Voice and the Letter of a Protestant Clergy-man c. I have no more but my hearty Prayer That Almighty God of his great Mercy and Goodness would have mercy upon the whole Kingdom and turn us all from our own sinful ways into the path of Life and preserve us safe unto his eternal and blessed Kingdom for his dear Son Christ Jesus's sake Amen FINIS