Selected quad for the lemma: church_n
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A48824
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Papists no Catholicks, and popery no Christianity
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Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing L2688; ESTC R20529
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17,492
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16
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PAPISTS NO CATHOLICKS AND POPERY NO Christianity H B LONDON Printed for the AUTHOR 1677. Imprimatur G. JANE R.P.D. Hen. Episc. Lond. à sac dom Jan. 10. 1676 7. TO THE Christian Reader THe Council of Trent confirmed by the Pope is the Chief Oracle of the Church of Rome From it she receives all Doctrines necessary to be believed unto Salvation Romish Catholiques hold it for a principle That whatsoever is delivered therein for Doctrine is an Article of Faith and must stedfastly be believed upon pain of Damnation He that doth not is pronounced an Heretick and is made liable to their supposed Curse What little reason there is that Papists should yield such blind obedience to that Council may appear by this plain and true Testimony which was given thereunto by a Bishop an eminent member of that Church and Council who was present thereat which is as followeth ANDREAS DVDITHIVS Bishop of Quinquecclesisiae and Embassador in the Council of Trent for Maximilian II. Emperor In an Epistle to the said Emperor wherein he delivers his Judgment about granting the Cup to the Laity and the Marriage of Priests writes thus of the Council of Trent WHat good could be done in that Council where voices were taken by number not by weight If argument if reason might have prevailed if we had had some and those not many to take part with us though we should have been but a few yet had we overthrown the great forces of our Adversaries But when all stood upon number wherein we were much inferior we could not get the better the Pope was able to set an hundred of his against every one of ours And if an hundred were not sufficient he could upon a sudden have created a thousand to succour them that were ready to faint and perish Therefore we might see every day hungry and needy Bishops and those for the most part beardless yonkers and wastfully riotous come in flocks to Trent hired to give their voices according to the Popes humour unlearned indeed and foolish but of good use to him for their audaciousness and impudency When these fellows were joined to the Popes old flatterers then Iniquity got the upper hand and triumphed neither could any thing be decreed but according to their liking who thought it the highest point of Religion to defend the power and riot of the Pope There was in the Council a grave and learned man who could not endure this indignity but the Council by terror threatning and baiting him as one that was 〈◊〉 good Catholick drew him to yield to that which he did no way like of In a word things are brought to that pass by their dishonesty who came thither prepared and made for the nonce that it seemed to be a Council not of Bishops but of Puppies not of Men but of Images who as it is reported of Daedalus statues were moved not by their own but by other mens nerves and muscles Those hireling Bishops most of them were like Country Bag-pipes which must have breath blown into them before they can sound The Holy Ghost had nothing to do with that Conventicle all things were argued by humane policy which was wholly employed in maintaining the immoderate and indeed most shameless Lordship and Domination of the Popes From thence were Answers looked and waited for as it were from the Oracles of Delphos or Dodona From thence the Holy Ghost who as they brag is President of their Council was sent shut up in the Carriers budgets and packs who a thing worthy to be laught at when the waters were up as it falls out many times was fain to stay till they were down again before he could repair to the Council By this it came to pass that the Spirit was not carried upon the waters as in Genesis but along beside the waters O monstrous and incredible madness nothing that the Bishops as it were the body of the Church resolved of could be of any force unless it came first from the Pope as the head of the body The Popish Faith is Pius Quartus his Creed at Trent so that we may justly demand of Papists where was their Religion before Trent which was since Luther HATH not the Church of Rome the Lords Prayer Yes except the Doxology Wherein doth she differ from the Reformed Church in that great Duty of Prayer The Reformed Church placeth the virtue of Prayer in Faith grounded upon the Promise of God But the Romish Religion confines the virtue of Prayer to several repetitions of the same words by count and in a Language the people understand not And that if one Pater Noster or Ave Maria be neglected once and the prescribed number be not fully compleated then all the merit of that Prayer is lost Which is as scandalously opposite as if it were done in a meer despight against the express order of the great Apostle St. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians especially from the 13. to the 17. verse Whereas their own Aquinas and Lyra both confess that the common Service of the Church in the Primitive times was in the common Language and the Christians of Dalmatia Habassia Armenia Muscovia Russia and the Reformed parts of Christendom have the service of God in their vulgar tongue Hath not the Church of Rome the Creed Yes But their Popes have besides at Trent coined a great number of new Articles of Faith the Author to the Preface to Bishop Jewels works and Doctor Sharp's Looking-glass for the Pope page 271. reduces them to 12. and published by Pius Quartus with straight charge to be received of all men upon peril of Salvation Nor doth the Pope only dare to make and impose new Articles of Faith upon the People but most impiously to detract from and alter the very X Commandments of the Lord Jehovah Witness their Decalogue so often published by the Church of Rome which is as follows 1. I am the Lord thy God thou shalt have no other Gods but me 2. Thou shalt not take the name of God in vain 3. Remember to sanctifie the Sabbath day 4. Honour thy Father and Mother 5. Thou shalt not kill 6. Thou shalt not commit adultery 7. Thou shalt not steal 8. Thou shalt not bear false witness 9. Thou shalt not desire thy neighbours wife 10. Thou shalt not desire thy neighbours goods Wherein the second Commandement is not only left out as it is usually in their Psalm-books and Catechisms because it perfectly condemns their Idolatry But they divide the tenth Commandement into two whereas the holy Ghost foreseeing the Abominations of Antichrist in the last days was pleased by way of anticipation to place Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours house before that of Thy neighbours wife in Exodus and in the fifth of Deuteronomy in the tenth Commandement thereto place thy neighbours wife first before thy neighbours house so that the Bibles printed among themselves will
resemblances of things in Heaven and bow down to them and worship them beside they make Images of God himself and represent him both in carved work and painting which are used in their Churches and are received almost everywhere as Bellarmin confesseth in lib. 2. of Images c. 8. And is not this contrary to this Law which God himself uttered with his own mouth and wrote with his own finger Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them and also contrary to what God expressly forbids in Deut. 4. and Isay chap. 40. And this they audaciously do notwithstanding the penalty that is added to such Vid. Confounded be all they that worship carved Images Psalm 97. 7. Fourthly The Romish Church commands under pretence of Religion on certain days to abstain from certain meats and forbids Marriage to Priests and thus directly opposes St. Paul and expresly teaches what this great Apostle calls a doctrine of devils Col. 2. 2 Cor. 10. 2 Tim. 4. 1 2 3. Fifthly The Popish Church professes to believe that Jesus Christ is on earth in respect of his humane nature which is contrary to what he himself saith in St. John ch 18. 16. and contrary to the express words of St. Peter Acts 3. That the Heaven must receive him until the times of the restitution of all things Sixthly The Romish Church teaches that Christ is offered often in the Sacrament of the Ma's which directly contradicts the Apostle who expresly saith and without exception That he is not offered often Seventhly Papists teach the Mass is an unbloody sacrifice and yet propitiatory for the remission of the sins of the quick and dead which directly opposeth the Apostle who saith in express words without shedding of blood there is no remission And where there is remission of sins there is no more offering for sin but in the sacrifice which Jesus Christ offered to God on the Cross there is remission of sin therefore there is no more offering for sin and consequently it is false that the Mass is an offering for sin and a propitiatory sacrifice Eighthly Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Institution of his holy Supper presents the Cup to all those to whom he had distributed the bread saying to them Drink ye all of this c. But the Church of Rome forbids the people the use of the Cup of the Lord and therefore directly and formally opposeth our Lord Christ and his Apostle St. Paul who ordains in express words Let a man examine himself and so let him drink of that Cup. Papists believe and teach that the Souls of those that dye in the Lord are tormented after this life in a fire which they call Purgatory which is directly contrary to the Holy Ghost who declares in express terms that Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them and against the express words of the book of Wisdom which was Canonized by Trent Council The souls of the just are in the hand of God and no torment shall touch them The Popish Church ordains a prodigious number of Festivals against the express clause of that Law which the Soveraign Law-giver hath given Six days shalt thou labour whence we argue thus Whosoever forbids people to work six days of the week on pain of a mortal sin doth manifestly set himself above God who expresly permits us to work six days But the Pope and his Prelates do forbid people to work six days of the week on pain of a mortal sin Therefore the Pope and his Prelates do manifestly set themselves above God Papists say that the works of regenerate men are Christs works in them not their own and as Christs they save and so are saved by Christs merits Whereas St. Paul saith we are not saved by such works as God hath ordained regenerate men should walk in Eph. 2.10 And St. Paul opposeth all works done in matter of Justification and Salvation to the Grace of Christ Rom. 11.6 Phil. 3.8 Rom. 3. 27. This their finest web being so clearly cut in sunder by those plain texts they grosly dare avouch and teach that a man is saved by works and can merit the eternal felicity of Heaven and degrees of glory and bliss and thus directly fight against the doctrine of the Son of God and of his blessed Apostles Luke 17. When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do And Ephes. 2. By grace ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast And in Rom. 6.11 The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And if it be by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then it is no more of grace otherwise work is no more work And thus Papists works become not only unprofitable unto them but plainly damnable yea and blasphemous because they ruinate the very foundation of our faith and make frustrate the all and alone sufficient sacrifice of our Redemption viz. the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Shall we then call those Catholiques or think such men believe in Christ and are Christians indeed when St. Ambrose saith Non videtur ab his exhiberi fides Christo à quibus evacuatur passio ejus atque distrahitur It seems not that such men do believe in Christ who go about to frustrate and distract his passion Obj. Is not then a Papist a true Christian Ans. No. Qua◠Papist But as a thief is a true man in regard of his essence as he is a creature indued with reason but not a true man in regard of his honesty or goodness So the Popish Church is a true Church in regard of the essence of a Church as a Church is a company which profess Christ and are baptized but it is a false Church in respect of its heretical doctrine Obj. But can a man belong to the visible Church of Christ and to the Synagogue of Satan Ans. They maybe of the visible Church in regard of some part of their outward profession who in regard of their inward disposition of mind and of their external conversation yea and of the greatest part of their outward profession also are hateful unto God and execrable in the eyes of the founder part of the visible Church of Christ. So may a legion of devils incarnated if they will profess the name of Christ and be admitted by the Baptism of Christ may be of the visible Church so was Judas an Apostle and a traytor too but the more wretched because an