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A67317
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A Christian warning-piece for all true Protestants by way of Christian counsel and advice to the King's most excellent Majesty, and all his good Protestant subjects, founded forth out of the written word of God : wherein is clearly shewed ... / by Thomas Wall.
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Wall, Thomas.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing W476; ESTC R34705
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36,250
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36
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who by agreement with Adonikam's name is said to be a God standing up or exalting himself above all that is called God meaning above Christ by his assuming into the Office of Christ to give Laws or Directions in Worship which only belongeth to Christ the Prophet like unto Moses so was he faithful in all his House Heb. 3. 2. Now as in the Mystical Body of Christ's Church * 1 Cor. 12. 14. 27. many Members make one Body or ‖ Eph. 3. 15. Family all honouring Christ the †Col. 1. 18. Head of the Body as Children do a Father and serve God in Worship by his Direction and Appointment are therefore of the number ‖ Acts 1. 25. of his Name called Christians * Acts 11. 26. Isa 65. 15. do grow up in him unto a perfect Man unto the Measure and Stature of the Fulness of Christ Ephes 4. 13 15. Even so as the false Church is an Harlot the Man of Sin the Pope being Head their Lord and Law-giver in Worship consisting of many Members which serve and worship by his Directions are joyned to that Harlot †1 Cor. 6. 15. together with her Head the Pope all make one Body or Man ‖ 2 Thess 2. 3 4. of Sin so are they of the number of his * Rev. 13. 18. Name as Children to their Reverend Father in God making one Family with him as the Sons of Adonikam 666 made one Family to their Father and thus the number of the Beast is the number of a Man by this borrowed speech 666. So that in some respects the Beast may be likened to the Image Nebuchadnezzar saw Dan. 2. 31. The Pope with his Triple Crown who is proclaimed for a Vice-God †Lib. Benedictus printed at Bonenia Anno. 1608. Hen. Ains Animad pag. 100. the Invincible Monarch of of the Common-wealth and vehement Conserver of the Popish Omnipotency he is the Head of Gold the Cardinals and Prelates are next to him as Brests and Arms of Silver the other Belly-god Clergy is the strong brazen Panch the Lay-People are as Legs and Feet of Iron and Clay which carry and bear up the Bulk and the unclean ‖ Rev. 16. 13 14. 2 Thess 2. 9. spirit of Satan giveth life and effectual operation to the Beast and to be a member of this their Body and Church the Papists themselves * Bellarm. de Eccles l. 3. c. 2. profess that there is not any inward Vertue required so then there is no need of the Spirit of God to join the Limbs of the Beast together Moreover that these Popes are Beasts note farther what Henry Ainsworth saith to John Ainsworth the Papist Their Vows of Chastity being but to defile themselves with vile Sodomy Adultery and Fornication So that the six thousand Childrens Heads found Murdered in Pope Gregory's Fish-pond made him reverse his own wicked Decree in restraining the Clergy from their Wives And again saith John Traper in his Treasure of Holy Truths Pag. 153. That Pope Leo the 10th admiring the huge masses of Money which he had raked together by Fraud and Wile said to Cardinal Bembus See what a deal of Wealth we have got by this Rable of Christ And when the same Bembus brought a place of Scripture to comfort him lying on his Death-bed Away saith he with these Bawbles speaking concerning Christ Moreover saith John Napier aforesaid on his Paraphrase of the Revelation Pag. 58. proved out of the Papists own Authors That of Popes thirteen were Adulterers three were common Brothellers four were Incestuous Persons eleven were poisoned with Sodomy seven were Whoremongers and Inventers of Brothel-Houses finally one was a Whore and died being delivered of a Bastard in open Procession Now surely on those People God hath sent strong Delusions that believe that these sinful wicked Popes can pardon Sins and give power to his Priests so to do upon a false ground gathered from Christ's Words to Peter Matth. 16. 19. Whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven When this Power belongeth not to one Man but when any obstinate Sinner is cast out of a true Church and upon his repentance he is received in again as it is written to the whole Church To whom ye forgive any thing saith the Apostle Paul †2 Cor. 2. 10. I forgive So that this Power is not given to one Man but to every true Church of Christ in God's Order and Manner aforesaid But how is it possible that either the Popes or the whole Church of Rome can forgive Sins when the present Church of Rome cannot be proved a true Church no nor in all likelihood the Natural Posterity of the Saints in S. Paul's time First Considering the many Changes in the Roman State so that * Rev. 6. 14 15. Heaven departed as a Scrowl when it is rouled together and every Mountain and Island were moved out of their places Kings and Captains fled and hid themselves So great was the Judgment of God on the Roman Power for Murdering the Lord Jesus and after Persecuting him in his Members As for particulars Alaricus with his Goths in the Year of Christ 414 took * Hierony in Epist See Henry Ainsw Animad p. 102 the many Authors quoted to prove it and spoiled Rome in burning it Forty four Years after Gensericus with his Vandals took and spoiled it so that Rome for a time remained without Inhabitants Some Years after did Odoacer with another Company invade Italy and Conquered Rome and put the Emperour to flight made himself King Then Theodoricus with the Ostrogoths took it and after him again Bellisarius with his Army wan it But above all Totilus King of the Goths in the Year of our Lord 546 after all the former Invasions did overthrow Rome quite cast down the Walls burnt the Houses and made it so Desolate that there remained in it neither Man nor Woman These Turmoils in Rome within a few Years and the possessing of that Land by Foreigners as the Goths mixing themselves with the People degenerated into the name of Italians afterwards the †Blond l. 2. d. 2. Fascic temp f 66. Saracens killed innumerable People in Rome and Italy All which may teach us how unpossible it is that the present Church of Rome is so much as the Natural Stock of the Saints in Paul's time which if they were can be no better than the Ishmalites and Edomites the natural stock of Abraham could be justified to be the Church of God then as Rome now or the Amorites and Jebusites * Josh 10. 1. in Jerusalem because †Gen. 14. 18. Melchisedeck Priest of the most High God with his faithful company lived there five or six hundred Years before as well as the Romish Church be now pleaded for because above 1600 Years ago a true Church once lived there Now let all Protestants
of all yet none can believe and obey but the Elect whom God giveth †2 Tim. 2. 25. Repentance to and to them only the Word is the savour of Life unto them that are saved by Faith in Christ Jesus Yet the Preacher knowing not who are the Elect doth apply the Word as generally calling all Persons to believe and obey in his Message As saith the Lord to Paul when he sent him to Corinth I have much People in this City So Act. 18. 10. John 10. 20. not all for they could not all believe because they were not all Christ's Sheep as it is written All Men have not Faith 2 Thess 3. 2. For these and the like errors in Faith and corruption in Worship which were too tedious here to refute about the state of Infant-Baptism and the Seventh-day Sabbath of the gross mistake in them that deny the one and keep the other largely handled by me not long since printed in a Book intituled Ancient Truth Revived Wherein is also in 22 Articles every true Protestant's Faith inserted the State of a true Church and how every Ordinance and by whom and in what Order they were performed in the Primitive Churches containing six Sheets of Paper unto which I refer the Reader is one cause why God hath not before this destroyed the false Ecclesiastical power of the Romish Babylon because as the Sins of God's People of old were the cause why old Babylon was not sooner destroyed even so is it See and read Jer. 25. now That as then God did first give his own People a Cup to drink and then Shishack did drink after them So Judgment must first begin at the House * 1 Pet. 4. 17. of God unless there be a speedy Repentance Else surely the time is come as that Servant of God Mr. Beal hath noted on Rev. 20. in his Book called The Image of both Churches That when the 1000 Years of the Beast's Raign was expired Satan the common Adversary of Man shall be loosed out of his dark Prison and set at large by the sufferance of God Mans wickedness deserving no other strongly deluding the Unbelievers for their unbelief-sake to deceive the Universal People of the World through the operation of Errors He shall cause them to give credance to Lyes that they may be damned for refusing the Truth So that the abomination of Desolation shall be set up in the holy Place meaning in the Heart where Christ by faith should dwell to the utter destruction of Faith Which People of him thus deluded is called in a mystery Gog and Magog that is as much as to say Covered and Off-covered For both the grand Captains of them depending doth these two words comprehend the one covering the Devil with many false Religions meaning Loe here is Christ and loe there is Christ the other in his sort following the same wicked consent these two Tyrants the Romish Pope and Mahomet with the whole generation of like Spirits with them mark that have gathered themselves together against God and his Christ to destroy the whole face of Christianity Now the woful experience of the beginning of these things is seen among us so that our Condition looketh too like the state of the Jews When Titus Vespasian the Roman Emperor came and besieged Jerusalem the Jews by reason of their many Errors were divided into sundry * Mark 12. 13 18. Sects and their dividing in Faith divided them in Heart that they destroyed one another So the words of Christ were fulfilled on them that despised his Counsel as it is written Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation Mat. 12. 25. How then doth it behove all Protestants to be by Christ's Words warned with speed to examine whether they be in the Faith of God's Elect * Tit. 1. 1. Heb. 11. and worship God by Christ's †Rev. 14. directions only that there be no dividing in Judgment and so not in Heart considering what * In his Book called the Card and Compass of Life presented to Prince Charles the first one hath noted That the Jews affirm the first Blood split in the World was by reason of the differences in Judgment among Brethren for so all that bear the name of Protestants ought to be in these words Cain was so possessed with Covetousness that he believed there was no Life after this But Abel believed there was after this Life a reward for the Good and punishment for the VVicked in which Contention Cain slew Abel So that Cain was of the Wicked one For to Persecute Imprison or kill any one for Conscience sake is a work †1 John 3. 12. Rev. 2. 10. of the Devil and a Wo is pronounced against them As it is written Wo to them that follow the way of * Jude ver 11. Cain they shall perish So that Protestants may be ashamed to own that evil Spirit to force Men to believe when it is written That it is God shall †Gen. 9. 27. perswade Japhat to dwell in the Tents of Shem. Therefore to force Men to believe or practise in things Divine before God giveth them Faith is but to make a Church of Hypocrites whose Sacrifice is * Prov. 15. 8. Abomination to the Lord as their Father Cain's was Now if any Protestant should be offended like * Amos chap 7. Amaziah the Priest of Bethel with this Christian Warning-piece as he was with the Prophet Amos's Warning to King Jeroboam and his People and say The Land cannot bear these words against the Inventions of Men in the Worship of God charge me as Amaziah did Amos the Prophet with Conspiracy against the King when but for declaring the only means then from the immediate Mouth of the Lord to preserve the King and the Nation as this is from the mediate written Word of God to preserve our King and the Nations from the Judgments threatned I say if we like them will regard no Christan Counsel all Scripture being written for our Admonition then in all likelihood the Judgments threatned on them will fall upon us that God will darken * Amos chap. 8. the Earth in a clear day by sending a Famine in the Land not of Bread nor thirst for Water but of hearing the Words of the Lord. For by reason of so many false Teachers in Judah their Silver became †Isa 1 22. dross their Wine was mixt with Water and they were fed with * Jer. 23. 28. Chaff instead of Wheat As is now seen by woful experience whilst God's Word is not truly Taught but corrupted with Errors under the colour of Christianity with Lo here is Christ and lo there as they said of old The Temple of the ‖ Jer. 7. 4. Lord the Temple of the Lord are these Nevertheless they were told Thy Prophets †Lam. 2. 14. have seen vain and foolish things for thee for they have not