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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A30394 The mystery of iniquity unvailed in a discourse wherein is held forth the opposition of the doctrine, worship, and practices of the Roman Church to the nature, designs and characters of the Christian faith / by Gilbert Burnet ... Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715. 1673 (1673) Wing B5838; ESTC R35459 60,599 169

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any attempt upon that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free he changeth the authority of the Church into a tyrannical Yoke much more if all the new articles of belief and rules for practice be imposed under the severest certificats But here we are to consider that all these things which that Church hath imposed on all of her Communion for which we withdrew from her are additions to our faith for in this we mainly differ from that Church that whatever we acknowledge they acknowledge likewise but with a great many additions we believe the Scriptures are a rule for Christians and they believe the same but they add traditions and the authority of the Church to the Scriptures We believe that God is to be worshipped spiritually they believe the same but add that he may be worshipped by Images and sensible Figures We believe Christ to be the Mediator betwixt God and Man they believe the same but add to this the intercession of Saints We hold that God and Christ are to be worshipped they hold the same but add Saints and Angels to our worship We believe Heaven and Hell to be the several States of the future life they believe the same but add Purgatory betwixt them to the day of Judgment We believe Baptism and the Lords Supper to be the Sacraments of the new Covenant they believe the same but add five more We believe Christ is spiritually and really present in the Lords Supper this they believe but add the unconceivable Tenent of his corporal presence In a word it might be instanced in many other particulars how they have driven us from their Communion by their additions to the truth and sincerity of the Gospel which they have adulterated by their Inventions and not only have they imposed all these things but thundered out Anathema's on all that question them and have so wreathed all their fopperies with that main and fundamental article of their belief of the infallibility of their Church that it is impossible to hope for their recovery till they renounce that Principle which is so dear to them For if their Church be infallible then in no matter of faith or practice can she decree amiss and therefore the lawfulness and sanctity of all her decrees must be maintained with an equal vigor and zeal for if in one of them she step aside her infallibility is for ever gone And by this we may see to how little purpose it is to treat of accomodating matters with that Church since there is no possibility of our union with them without we turn over entirely to them since they cannot part with one of their errors without they first renounce that which is the dearest of them all to wit the unerring authority of their Church How cruel then is that Church which addeth the severe sanction of an Anathema to all her decrees even about the most trifling matters and about things that are by their Confession of their own natures indifferent And a consectary to this is that cruel opinion they hold that none can be saved out of their Communion pretending there is no Salvation without the true Church which they restrict to these who are under the obedience of the Roman Bishop and this is what they usually frighten all with But it is to be considered what the true notion of the Church is that so we may see through this frightful Vizar The Church then is a Society of Christians united in the same faith for worshipping of God jointly And another definition of a Church cannot be proved from Scripture for the Church being called the Body of Christ its union with him as its head is held forth by the Apostle in these words Col. 2. 19. The head Christ from whom the whole body by joints and bonds having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God From which words we see what constitutes a man a member of the true Church which is first his union to Christ as his head together with a dependance on him for growth and nutriture and next his being knit to all others who are thus united to Christ which is first the inward union of divine Charity by which he loves all who cleave to Christ as their head and next his associating himself with them in outward visible acts of worship which every Christian is bound to do with all that worship God in Spirit and truth But if a Society of Christians do visibly swerve from Christ in many great and signal contradictions to the honour due to his Person and to the obedience due to his Laws and do grossly adulterate the worship so that communion cannot be had with that Church without departing from the head Christ then it can be no departing from the Church to adhere to Christ and his true worship and to separate from the corruptions are brought in upon the Christian religion If then it appear that the Church of Rome hath departed from the truth and simplicity of the Gospel in so many great and main points these who attempted the reforming her to her first purity and finding that not to be hoped for did unite among themselves for serving and worshiping God aright cannot be charged with separation from the true Church But by that cruel Tenent of theirs they breed up all their Children in the greatest uncharitableness imaginable condemning all who cannot believe all their strange Doctrines or concur in their unhallowed worship Thus they are the Schismatiques who have departed from the true Church and who force from their Communion all who adhere to it but this cruelty rests not in uncharitable censures but hath extended it self to as much bloody and barbarous rage as ever sprung from Hell for all the cruelty of the heathen Persecuters cannot match the practices of that Whore that hath been so often drunk with the blood of the Saints and of the Martyrs of Iesus What enraged cruelty appeared against the poor Waldenses for the separating from their Corruption how many of all Sexes and Ages were cruelly butchered down by the procurement of the Rulers of that Church and because the Albigenses lived under the protection of Princes that favoured them how did the Popes depose their Princes and instigate other ambitious invaders to seize on their dominions which to effectuate a Croissade was proclaimed that had been formerly practised against the Enemies of the Christian Faith and heaven was promised to such as went against these poor innocents whereupon they were killed by thousands without all mercy Never was there any who had the zeal or honesty in these dark ages to witness against the apostacy of the Church but the Pope and Clergy used all means to get his zeal rewarded with a faggot And when the time of reformation came with what rage and spite did the Pope by his Letters and Legates instigate all the Princes of Europe to cruelty against them but as these things were not done in corners so