Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A36016
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The mystery of iniquity anatomized by William Dillingham.
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Dillingham, William, 1617?-1689.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing D1483; ESTC R24295
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19,111
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24
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in publick that they may with the more ease injoy it in a Corner fugit and Salices To slake which immortal Thirst after Rices the Veins of all Europe must be sucked and those of India come swimming in though at second hand to make that affluence and Euphrates of Gold and Silver which might be a sufficient Supply for Babylon the Great It would be a Labour worth a good deal but to reckon up all the several Streams which empty themselves into this great Channel But I shall name only some few of them 1st It might be foreseen that a great Revenue might be raised by a voluntary Benevolence from Princes and other great Men of the World who would be glad to bestow some of their Wealth at parting with the World that they might thereby make some Amends for the Sins by which they got it and purchase to themselves an Elbow-Chair in Heaven which they could believe to be feasible by seeing the Porter St. Peter or hisSuccessor who kept the Keys Yea a Pretence to a Donation would in tract of time create a kind of Title by Custom and Prescription especially of as much as they could get and keep Possession of and when this way would reach no further it might be pieced out by taking what would not be given and this might be effected by many ways and means As for Instance by Sale of Red-hats to such Princes as had a mind to prefer a Friend or provide themselves of a Proctor also by sale of other Court-Offices By Sainting of some when any Nation desired to worship their own Country-man and Acquaintance that he might more naturally superintend their particular Concernments By setting up a Purgatory to cast Men into a Sweat that they might be well paid for rubbing of them dry again by a Pardon fringed with a Multitude of Masses by making Penal Laws on purpose to be dispensed with at greater rates By Sale of Ecclesiastical Benefices in their own bestowing which they might charge with annual Pensions and then release at five Years purchase and exacting Fees of all other Benefices as First-Fruits Tenths and other Perquisites from the smaller sort but from Bishopricks for their Palls Investitures c. an unknown Sum might come in from all Countries as also for Vacancies of Collegiate Churches and Abbies and many more too tedious to be recited By such ways and means were the Triumvirate of Pride Lust and Covetousness to be provided for But for the perfecting of the Mystery of Iniquity and the making it work more effectually there were a couple more of Ingredients to be added which are indeed the very Cremor Tartari the Systole and Diastole of the Devil's Heart and the necessary Instruments of his Polity Fraud and Cruelty And as himself was a Lier and Murderer from the beginning so these two Characters of Antiquity could not be spared to make the Mystery look like its Author There are two principal Lineaments of the Image of God which the Gospel came to repair in Man Truth and Love that so he might be renewed after the Image of him that created him who is called Truth and cannot lie and also Love which two things are especially recommended in Scripture as the main Characters of an Evangelical Spirit and Conversation and therefore Satan could not make his Mystery enough Antichristian unless he should extirpate these two out of his Common-Wealth by implanting their Contraries Fraud and Cruelty in the Minds of all his cordial Subjects but especially those who should have the Management of his Kingdom and Affairs The First whereof was indispensibly necessary for carrying on the Mystery both for keeping it secret and trapanning Men into Principles and Practices so directly contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospel and that under a Pretence of complying with it And therefore the Apostle tells us aforehand That the coming of the wicked One should be after the working of Satan with lying Wonders and all Deceivableness of Vnrighteousness 2 Thess 2.8 9. Speaking Lies in Hyprocrisy 1 Tim. 4.2 being a seducing Spirit The Mystery of Iniquity was to be carried on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through the Hypocrisy of Liars who being Liars should pretend to Truth and therefore so long as they made use of her Garment they were to have no further regard to her self either in Thought Word or Deed but having feared Consciences to give up themselves to believe what they once knew to be false and to spare no Lies nor false Oaths Circumventions Treacheries nor Treasons having first persuaded themselves that nothing can be Sin which is serviceable to their Holy Designs In Pursuance whereof fabulous Legends new Doctrines and new Articles of Faith were to be minted and digged up out of that dark and bottomless Pit of Tradition and varnished over with a seeming Gloss of wrested Scripture Councils were to be packed true Authors corrupted and false ones suborned And to warrant all there should be an Order of Men instituted who by their disputacious Subtilty should duel all Opposers and spin out Truth into so fine a Thread that few Eyes should be able to discern what colour it was of and then weave it into a Cobweb-Lawn or Spiders Web rarefying Faith into vain Speculations and snarling the plain Truth into a thousand Perplexities till it can neither be believed nor understood And as for Cruelty thereby they should fight Satan's Quarrel with the Seed of the Woman and gratify their own Principle which he should infuse into them of Hatred and Revenge And seeing the Mystery of Iniquity was to be carried on against all Right and Reason it was like to meet with opposition enough from others who would adhere to such Principles and therefore all those soft and foolish Principles of Love Pity and Humanity were to be thrown over-board and all the Methods and Modes of Cruelty were to be devised and made use of for the tormenting and destruction of all such as should either oppose or not comply with the great Silver Diana and the Golden Image which Satan should set up for himself to be worshipped by who having great Wrath against the Woman shall make War against the Remnant of her Seed which keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ Rev. 12.17 chap. 16.6 chap. 17.6 chap. 18.24 Thus have we briefly seen how Satan hath contrived his Mystery of Iniquity so that it should not only dethrone Jesus Christ from his Worship and supplant him in all his Offices but also gratify and uphold Sin and Corruption which he came to save us from and heal us of and thereby revive his Kingdom in Mystery and Masquerade and destroy Millions of precious Souls to all Eternity But now perhaps it will not be amiss to take a short and particular View of several Doctrines of our Christian Faith and Ordinances of Christ and observe how subtily the old Serpent contrived to pervert them that he might make them subservient to the