Selected quad for the lemma: church_n
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A50367
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A true copy of a letter written by N. Machiavill in defence of himself and his religion translated from an original copy.
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Neville, Henry, 1620-1694.; Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527. Works. English. 1675.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing M141; ESTC R4918
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22,326
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35
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the appointment of the Apostle and by the Principles of Christianity to be obeyed and submitted to in things wherein the Fundamental Laws of the Government give them power though they were Iews or Gentiles If I should tell you by what Texts in Scripture the Popes claim the Powers before mentioned it would stir up your laughter and prove too light for so serious a matter yet because possibly you may never have heard so much of this Subject before I shall instance in a few They tell you therefore that the Jurisdiction they pretend over the Church and the Power of pardoning Sins comes from Christ to St. Peter and from him to them Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church I will give thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven what ye bind this is spoken to all the Apostles on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and what ye bind c. From these three Texts ridiculously apply'd comes this great Tree which hath with its Branches overspread the whole Earth and killed all the good and wholsome Plants growing upon it The first Text will never by any Man of Sense be understood to say more than that the Preaching Suffering and Ministry of Peter was like to be a great Foundation and Pillar of the Doctrine of Christ the two other Texts as also another spoken by our Saviour to all his Apostles Whose Sins ye remit they are remitted and whose Sins ye retain they are retained are by all the Primitive Fathers Interpreted in this manner Wheresoever you shall effectually Preach the Gospel you shall carry with you Grace and Remission of Sins to them which shall follow your Instructions but the People who shall not have these joyful tidings communicated by you to them shall remain in darkness and in their Sins but if any will contest that by some of these last Texts that Evangelical Excommunication which was afterward brought into the Church by the Apostles was here pre-signified by our great Master how unlike were those Censures to thos◠〈◊〉 thunder'd out as he calls it by the Pope These were 〈◊〉 Edification and not Destruction to afflict the Flesh for the Salvation of the Soul that Apostolical Ordinance was pronounced for some notorious Scandal or Apostacy from the Faith and first decreed by the Church that is the whole Congregation present and then denounced by the Pastor and reached only to debar such Person from partaking of the Communion or Fellowship of that Church 'till Repentance should re-admit him but was followed by no other prosecution or chastisement as is now Practised But suppose all these Texts had been as they would have them how does this make for the Successors of St. Peter or the rest Or how can this prove the Bishops of Rome to have right to such Succession But I make haste from this Subject and shall urge but one Text more which is The Spiritual Man judgeth all Men but is himself judged of none From whence is inferred by the Canonists that first the Pope is the Spiritual Man and then that he is to be Judge of all the World and last that he is never to be liable to any Judgment himself whereas it is obvious to the meanest Understanding that St. Paul in this Text means to distinguish between a Person inspired with the Spirit of God and one remaining in the state of Nature which latter he says cannot judge of those Heavenly Gifts and Graces as he explains himself when he says The natural Man cannot discern the things of the Spirit because they are foolishness unto him To take my leave of this matter wholly out of the way of my Studies I shall beg of you Messieur Zenobio and of Messieur Giulio and the rest of our Society to read over carefully the New Testament and then to see what ground there is for Purgatory by which all the Wealth and Greatness hath accrew'd to these Men what colour for the Idolatrous Worship of Saints and their Images and particularly for speaking in their Hymns and Prayers to a piece of Wood the Cross I mean Salve Lignum c. and then fac nos dignos beneficiorum Christi as you may read in that Office what colour or rather what excuse for that horrid unchristian and barbarous Engine called the Inquisition brought in by the Command and Authority of the Pope the Inventer of which Peter a Dominican Fryer having been slain amongst the Albigesi as he well deserved is now Canoniz'd for a Saint and stiled San Pietro Martire In the dreadful Prisons of this Inquisition many Faithful and Pious Christians to say nothing of honest Moral Moors or Mahometans are tormented and famisht or if they out-live their Sufferings burnt publickly to death and that only for differing in Religion from the Pope without having any Crime or the least Misdemeanor prov'd or alledged against them and this is inflicted upon these poor Creatures by those who profess to believe the Scripture which tells us that Faith is the gift of God without whose special illumination no Man can obtain it and therefore is not in Reason or Humanity to be punished for wanting it And Christ himself hath so clearly decided that point in bidding us let the Tares and the Wheat grow together 'till the Harvest that I shall never make any difficulty to call him Antichrist who shall use the least Persecution whatsoever against any differing in Matters of Faith from himself whether the person so diffenting be Heretick Iew Gentile or Mahometan Next I beseech you to observe in reading that Holy Book though Christian Fasts are doubtless of Divine Right what ground there is for enjoyning Fish to be eaten at least Flesh to be abstained from for one full third part of the year by which they put the Poor to great hardship who not having Purses to buy wholsome Fish are subjected to all the Miseries and Diseases incident to a bad and unhealthful Diet whilst the Rich and chiefly themselves and their Cardinals exceed Lucullus in their Luxury of Oysters Turbots tender Crabs and a Lake Fish not known here brought some hundreds of miles to feed their gluttony upon these penitential days of abstinence from Beef and Pork It may be it will lie in the way of those who observe this to inquire what St. Paul means when he says that in the latter days some shall depart from the Faith forbidding to Marry and commanding to abstain from Meats which God hath Created to be received with thanksgiving But all these things and many other abuses brought in by these perverters of Christianity will I hope e're long be inquired into by some of the Disciples of that bold Fryer who the very same year in which I prophesied that the Scourge of the Church was not far off began to thunder against their Indulgences and since hath question'd many Tenents long received and impos'd upon the World I shall conclude this Discourse after I have said a word of the