Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	authority_n	believe_v	infallibility_n	2,951	5	11.3667	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33548	Jacob's vow, or, Man's felicity and duty in two parts / by John Cockburn ...	Cockburn, John, 1652-1729.	1696 (1696)	Wing C4813; ESTC R10808	214,296	486

c. farther from the Papists Doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mass it follows that our LORD'S Priest hood is not Eternal or peculiar to himself as the Scripture teacheth particularly Heb. 7. Seing many succeed him in the Office Nay it may be inferred by good consequence that Men are preferrable to IESUS CHRIST Himself for the Priest is alwayes preferrable to the Sacrifice and therefore if their Priests are impowred to offer up Iesus Christ they must be esteem'd better then he None was worthy to offer that saerifice which taketh away sin but such an high Priest as was holy harmless undefiled separat from sinners and made higher then the Heavens Heb 7. 26. Wherefore as none could be the sacrifice but IESUS so none other could be the Priest to offer that Sacrifice both the Sacrifice and Priest are one which makes the Opinions of the Papists concerning a sacrifice of the Mass impious and blasphemous It would require a particular Treatise to set forth the corruptions of the Church of Rome in this part of their Worship as the Priest partaking alone the offering it for such are dead the celebrating it in honour of Saints c. And therefore if there were no more but this alone 't were too much to make People leave the communion of that Church But Lastly besides these Impieties mentioned whereof every one is actually guilty who joine in the Worship of the Church of Rome there be a great many other errours abuses and corruptions taught and practised in that Church which all they who keep her Communion must necessarly be reckoned guilty of For as joyning in Worship is a sign of holding Communion so thereby persons testify their belief of and assent to all which that Church with whom they hold Communion teacheth and practiseth as necessary to Salvation Now seeing the Church of Rome requireth all under pain of damnation to believe the infallibility of their Church the Supremacy of the Pope Purgatory Auricular Confession Pennances Indulgences the Insufficiency of Scripture the equal Authority of Unwritten Traditions the unlawfulnesse of Clergy Mens Marrying the necessity of observing Dayes Meats c. Without particular dispensations from the Pope who arrogates to himself a power of rescinding both Humane and Divine Laws these and many more Falseshoods and Absurdities are enjoyned by the Roman Church as Articles of Faith and as necessary to Salvation and therefore who keep communion with her do ipso facto approve of all her Errours and Abominations and must be thought to exclude from Salvation those who refuse to submit thereto for she doth so It will not availe any to say that in their Private judgement they are otherwise perswaded neither have made any expresse Verbal Acknowledgement to the contrary seeing they do that which necessarly import the same Men give their assent by their Actions as well as by their Words and what we cannot approve in our Hearts we ought not to approve by our Profession or Practice Hypocrisy in Religion is damnable and they are Hypocrits who professe what they do not beleive The belief of the Heart and confession with the mouth should not be disjoined neither ought we by our Actions to countenance what we judge false and abominable This I thought fit to say because it is a trick used to gain persons to the Roman Communion if otherwise they cannot be induced to pass them a formal abjuration of the Protestant Doctrine or an expresse consent to all the Tenets of that Church But such would do well to remember and consider that they do the one and the other really and upon the matter as much as if they gave more expresse Declarations I shall conclude with these words of Scripture which certainly are as applicable to the Church of Rome as ever they were or will be to any Come out from among them and be ye separate saith the LORD and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the LORD Almighty 2 Cor 6. 17 18. And again Come out of her my People that ye be not partakers of her Sins and that ye receive not of her Plagues For her sins have reached unto Heaven and GOD hath remembred her Iniquities Rev 18. 4. 5. CHAP. IV. Of the last Words of JACOB'S Vow The Question about the Churches Right to Tithes waved but the taking them away is shewed to be Sacriledge Every Particular Person oweth to GOD a part of his Estate The Proportion considered and some Motives pressing Charity and Alm's-Giving are proposed THat GOD is to be Worshipped and Adored that there should be Endeavours to please Him will be readily acknowledged by All This is the very Dictate of Natural Conscience and who have no Sense thereof nor own any Obligation thereto must needs be very Profligate and Debauched And though it cannot be denyed but that there are such Monsters of Wickedness who have no Fear of GOD before their eyes yet it must be confessed also that the Generality of Mankind as they profess and believe in GOD so they seem to wish and be desirous of His Favour and Good wil. It is not then gross Atheism and Infidelit●… which damnes and undoes the greatest part of the World but the Rock upon which Men split most is Hypocrisie and the want of sincerity in serving GOD. They would please him and are content to do something in order to it but yet have not a Heart to ply all that is requisite thus they will observe the smaller and lesser part of the Law but in the mean time slip over what is more Weighty and of Greater Moment they are very ready and willing to pay that Service which is cheap and easie and which puts them neither to great pains nor much cost but what imports and includes either they are averse to and shrink from Some will be very Religious whilst it is counted Religion to hear the Word of GOD to read it and talk of it to pray and to frequent the outward Ordinances of the Gospel but when they are told of denying themselves of taking up the Cross of Mortifying the body Subduing lust Bridling their passions and particularly of distributing their goods to the poor then they discover the Naughtiness Hollowness of their Heart how much they mock GOD and deceive themselves for they look upon these as hard sayings and cannot digest them but with the Young Man in the Gospel they turn away sad and sorrowful Such will seem sometimes to contend earnestly for Heaven but yet they keep a fast hold of the Earth they seem very zealous for the service of GOD so long as it costs them nothing but when Chargeable Expensive Duties are required then they find out many Shifts Excuses they either pretend the non-necessity of them or their own inability and when none of these can be pretended they still delay and put off till another time

the more easily keept up but nothing may occasion more the vilifying thereof then the allowing them Liberty to use it as they do the most Despicable food It is said that GOD commanded the Israelites to eat what was usuallie adored in Egypt that the Egyptians thereby might be undeceived in their Opinion of the Deity of these things And if it may convince one that a thing is no God when he sees it eaten by another how much more may he be reasoned out of that Belief when he is accustomed to eat it himself For as the Heathen Oratour speaks is any man so mad as to believe that which he eats to be God The Church of Rome therefore should either let go the Doctrine of Transubstantiation or they should abolish the Custome of Feeding upon what they say and profess to believe to be changed into the Body of their LORD for these two seems not to agree well together There can be nothing more brutish then to adore what they eat and to eat what they adore whereby they make themselves and their Religion lyable to the greatest contempt and Derision A proof of which we have in that known speech of Averoes the Arabian Philosopher I have travelled says he over the World and have found diverse Sects but so sottish a Sect or Law I never found as is the Sect of the Christians Because with their own Teeth they devour their God whom they Worship By these Instances which we have adduced the Idolatry of the Church of Rome doth clearly appear it is evident that that Church both teacheth to adore as GOD what is not GOD and also alloweth to have Compartners in the Worship of the True GOD Which we have the longer insisted on both because it was pertinent to our subject and also seasonable to the times when Rome is likelie to be so active by its Emissaries to re-establish its Authority among us and that so many fair and plausible things are pretended for the inclining Men to embrace its principles and practices but whatever specious pretncees be used we may see by what hath been said that there is all reason to avoid the communion of that Church whose communion cannot be keept without drawing on our selves the guilt of Idolatry and the having accession thereto in others Now that we may draw to a Conclusion of this Section seing the Knowledge and Worship of the True GOD is so necessary and that all Worship is in vain which is not particularly directed to Him what matter of Thankfulness have we that our Lot hath been in these Times and in these places where we may so easily come to the Knowledge of the true GOD and what way to find acceptance in his sight If we had been born in former Times or in many other Places of the World we might have remained for ever without the true knowledge of GOD and so without all Hopes of true Felicity It was once matter of Praise to a Poor-man when he passed by a Toad or some other Venemous Creature that GOD had made him a Man and not so Vile a Beast But truly it should stir up greater Thankfulness in us that GOD hath not left us to wander after the Foolish and Ignorant Devices of our own Hearts nor to be involved into the Idolatrous Abominations of such as know not GOD which should have Deformed and Debased our Natures and rendred us more ugly and loathsome in the sight of GOD then such Vile creatures are in our sight Blessed be GOD who hath sent us the Light of the Gospel which hath dispelled the Darkness of Heathenish superstition and Idolatry and drawn us from the Service of those who by Nature are no gods which could have been no wayes Profitable to us but many wayes Hurtfull This is a Blessing for which we can never be enough Thankfull and if we have a right Sense thereof we will value it above all Blessings Many Heathens and Infidels indeed enjoy a Pleasanter soil their Countrey perhaps affoords them rich Mines of Gold and Silver and aboundance of Wines and Spices which we want But yet we have no reason to envy them upon that account or to think them happier then we seing we have that which brings us better then a Temporal Happiness even Eternal Life for this is Life Eternal that they might know thee the only true GOD and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent Iohn 17 3. Now if we look upon this Knowledge of the true GOD as any Happiness let us Praise and Highly esteem it and testifie the same first by taking a care to get and to keep this Knowledge for they slight and despise a thing who are careless of it and readie to prefer any other thing to it It might have been expected that there should have been no need of exhorting People to seek after the knowledge of GOD but that ere this time every one both Old and Young Great and Small would have abundantly known Him seing we have so many good Occasions of acquiring this Knowledge But alas the contrary is very much to be seen our knowledge of God is not answerable to the means of instruction we have amongst us some can give so little account of what is known of God either by Nature or Revelation that one might imagine they had been alwayes tedder'd in the deserts of Arabia and not bred up in the green Pastures of Brittain There is generally gross ignorance of God and little desire to know him every thing even the most trifling shufles aside and diverts from the knowledge of GOD and all things are hotly pursued except this which though People will not avow it yet do speak out a contempt and undervaluing thereof The Prophet tells us that God had a controversie with Israel because there was not knowledge of God in the Land Hos 4 1. and surely we have reason to think that his controversie with us will be no lesse seeing besides our lake of this knowledge we do but despise it in that we neither much desire it nor endeavour after it God hath given clear manifestations of himself but some will not believe them and others are careless to be acquainted with them loving darkness rather then light which in Truth is to love their Mi●…ery rather then their Happiness For certainly this inner darkness of the Mind will bring on outer and Eternall darkness who are without the knowledge of God here shall be debarred His presence hereafter especially considering that their ignorance is wilfull and without excuse 2ly As we ought to shew our regard for and estimation of the True GOD by taking care to get and maintain the same so likewise by walking worthy of it in studying to Glorifie Him whom we thus profess to know otherwayes we shall but make our guilt and condemnation the greater It will not avail us much to profess GOD with our Mouths if we deny him by our works to acknowledge him with our tongues but not with