Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	aaron_n	account_n	holy_a	28	3	4.5803	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30338	A discourse wherein is held forth the opposition of the doctrine, worship, and practices of the Roman church to the nature, designs and characters of the Christian faith by Gilbert Burnet.; Mystery of iniquity unveiled	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1688 (1688)	Wing B5779; ESTC R7432	58,858	73

part of the Scriptures are the Writings of the Old Testament And yet these were communicated to all of that Dispensation who were commanded by Christ to search them and who did educate their Children in them continuing that Holy care to a high degree even to this Day Now except it be said that it is sitter all be kept under Darkness in the new Dispensation than was in the Old no account can be given for the Zeal is used in any Church to keep their Children in such ignorance and yet this is a part of the distinguishing Characters of the new Dispensation from the Old that Light hath appeared in it Now all may know how guilty those of Rome are in this What pains are taken to detract from the Authority of the Scriptures how they quarrel sometimes its Darkness sometimes its Ambiguousness sometimes the genuineness of its Originals and always complain of its being too much perused and therefore let as little of it be put in vulgar Tongues as can be read it publickly in an unknown Tongue and permit no private Person the use of it without allowance from his Confessor Of which tho in some places the Reformation hath made them more liberal yet where there is no hazard of that they betray their aversion for the Scriptures too palpably in all their Writings and Discourses But now to pursue my Design more closely I must call to mind the first Branch of the Christian Religion which teacheth how God is to be worshipped in a pure and spiritual Way and see how far this is contradicted And here I must consider the Idolatry of the Gentiles which was of two kinds The one was when the True God was worshipped in a false manner The other was when Divine Adoration was offered to those who were no Gods. Of the first I shall reckon two kinds the first was when an Image or Figure was erected for representing the Deity to the Senses and adoration offered to God through it In which case though perhaps the Herd did formally worship the Image yet their Philosophers declared they meant these only for exciting the Senses and Imagination and not for being worshipped much less that the Deity should be conceived like unto them as we find both in Celsus Julian and Maximus Tyrius Now this form of Adoration is contrary both to the Divine Essence and Command For God must either be conceived like such an Image or not If like to it then a great indignity is done the Divine Nature greater than if a Toad or Worm were set out as the Image of a King to have civil Reverence paid to it since he is of his own Essence Incomprehensible and Invisible and so hath no Shape or Figure In a word it abases our thoughts of God when we figure him to our selves But if we conceive God not like such an Image then why is it used except to be a Snare to the Vulgar who will be ready to think God like unto it And certain it is that whatever the more refined or abstracted Wits may conceive of these Images yet the Vulgar offer up their Adorations directly to them and conceive God to be like unto them This Worship is also contrary to the Divine Precept who made it one of the Ten Commandments which himself delivered to his People Exod. 20.4 That no graven Image nor Likeness should be made to be worshipped And the reason given shews the Law was perpetual for God is ever jealous of the Glory due to him Now what kindness those of Rome have to this Command may be guessed by their striking it out of their Catechisms as if it were only an Appendix of the first But if we read the whole Old Testament it will furnish us with large discoveries of God's Displeasure at this kind of Worship to which the Jews were so inclinable but God would not give his Praise to graven Images Isa 42.8 Now here it is to be remembred that the Jewish Dispensation was low and carnal when compared to that to which we are called If then this Worship was not allowed of to them it is much less to be allowed of among Christians Another part of the false Worship of the Heathens was that they believed the Deity and Divine Power was by mystical and magical ways affixed to some Bodies as the Sun or Stars are or to some Temples and to some Ancilia and Palladia which they believed came down from Heaven Acts 19.35 to which they held God to be present and adherent and therefore worshipped them And of kin to this was the Israelites their worshipping the Calf in the Wilderness Exod. 32. for it is clear they looked on it as their God who had brought them out of Egypt therefore could not possibly be adoring the Egyptian God that was an Ox but the Feast that was to Jehovah and the Psalm 106. vers 20. that says they changed their Glory into the similitude of an Ox do shew that they worshipped the True God though in a false manner Neither is it to be imagined that Aaron the Prophet and Saint of the Lord though very guilty in this Matter could for all that be so criminal as to make a false God But the most satisfying account of his Fault is that when he saw God in the Mount Exod. 24.10 God appeared in that Figure that was afterwards in the most Holy Place which was to be framed after the Pattern seen in the Mount. And if so then God appeared between the Cherubims now the Figure of a Cherub was the same with that of a Calf in its hinder parts Ezek. 1.7 And if we compare vers 10. of that Chap. with Ezek. 10.14 what in the first place is called the Face of an Ox is in the second called the Face of a Cherub which tells us clearly what was the Figure of the Cherub And therefore Aaron seeing the People desired a sensible Symbol of God's Presence among them he made choice of that he had seen in the Mount about the Divine Glory and yet all that did not excuse his Fault in the sight of God. In like manner after the Tabernacle and Temple were set up wherein were the Cherubims when Jeroboam revolted he set up Calves 1 King. 12.28 29. as is probable upon the same account but no doubt continued in all Points the Worship of the True God as it was at Jerusalem as might be proved from many Particulars but the Sin wherewith he made Israel to sin was the worshipping of the True God by a false Symbol The like account is to be given of the Idolatry of Gideon's Ephod Judg. 8.27 And of the worshipping the Brazen Serpent 2 King. 18.4 where certainly the True God was adored and yet the People went a whoring from him in that Worship And here the Title of Whoredom given to Idolatry so often in the Old Testament is to be considered the importance whereof is that God by covenanting with his People is married to them

said by Grotius to have been butchered on the account of Religion And in his Son Philip's time the D. of Alva did in a short time cut down Thirty six thousand Nor need I tell the cruelties were practised in France for about fourty years together nor of that treacherous Massacre wherein there was an equal mixture of perfidy and cruelty which for all that was entertained at Rome with great joy and applauses It will be also needless to tell of their cruelty in England in Queen Mary's days which was chiefly managed by the Churchmen And many are yet alive who remember what enraged cruelty appeared in our Neighbour-Island against all of our Religion which did not only flow from the fury of an oppressed People but they were trained encouraged and warranted to it by their Priests and the Nuntio who came afterwards among them discovered who was the spring of all their motions Shall I to this add all the private assassinations committed on that account which were not only practised but justified I might here congest many instances Brother murdering Brother on the account of Religion Neither is Clement a Dominican his murdering Henry the third nor Chastlets attempt nor Ravillac 's fact on Henry the fourth forgotten Q. Elizabeths life is full of these attempts and the blackest of them all was the Gunpowder Treason All which are to be charged on that Church because the Doctrine of murdering Heretick Princes was taught licensed printed and yet not condemned in it From these hints we may guess how much of the lowly meek and charitable Spirit is to be found with them But should I to this add the horrid cruelties exercised in these Massacres I should be almost past belief had I not undeniable Historians for verifying it but the mildest of them being to be burned alive we may guess what the more savage have done by their tortures and lingering Deaths Next shall I mention their Courts of Inquisition which have been among them in the hands of Churchmen from the days of their pretended Saint Dominick whose Order have been the great Instruments of the cruelties of that Church and whose procedure being tied to no forms of equity or justice is as unjust as unmerciful persons being haled to their black Courts upon bare suspitions or secret Informations without leading of proofs against them are by Torture examined not only of their own opinions but of all that are known to them whose Testimony tho drawn from them by cruel Torture will bring the same Tortures on all they delate neither is there any mercy for any whom this Court declares Heretick but the Civil Magistrate must condemn them to the fire Now what man that considers the meekness of Christ and the Evangelical Spirit can think that Church the Spouse of Christ that hath rioted it with such savage rage against thousands of persons for no other crime but because they adhered firmly to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and would not consent or concur with these signal and palpable corruptions with which they have adulterated it But as from the constitution of their Church we see their deformity from the Gospel-rule so we will next consider their Church-men and we shall find how far they have strayed from the first Original Church-men ought to be the Guides and Pastors of Souls Now how little of this there is among them we will soon be resolved in What do the Popes about the feeding of Souls When do they preach the Gospel or dispense the Sacraments Alas it were below the height of his Holiness to stoop to such mean Offices Does any vestige of a Church-man remain in that Court and do they not directly rule in the Spirit of the Lords of the Gentiles And in this the Cardinals Bishops and Abbots do to their proportion imitate their most Holy Father abandoning wholly the work of the Gospel as if they bore an empty title or at most were only bound to say Mass on some greater Holy-days but in all other things do avowedly cast off the care of their Flocks Shall I here tell of the relaxation of all the ancient rules about the offices and duty of Church-men which these latter ages have invented and mention how children are made Bishops how they allow of Pluralities Non-residencies Unions Commendams Gratia expectativa's with a great many more corruptions which are every day authorised and granted at Rome and so zealous were they for these that they strugled hard against the honest attempts of some at Trent who would have had residence declared of Divine right and got it tho with much ado to be laid aside And thus it is that the Bishops and Abbots among them do for most part relinquish their Charges to live at the Courts of Princes and insinuate themselves upon all affairs and offices And swarms of them go to Rome gaping for preferment there I deny not but even these late ages have produced great men among them who seem to have designed the reviving of the Ancient Discipline both among the Clergy and the People but as these instances are rare so they were hated and persecuted at Rome for their Zeal Witness the condemning of Arnolds Book of frequent Communion and the severity Jansenius and the Abbot of St. Cyran with their followers have met with And thus whatever individuals that Church may have produced yet the corruptions I have hinted are notoriously publickly and generally practised in it and no where so avowedly as at the Court of Rome But to compence this defect of the Superior Clergy they have swarms of the inferior ranks every where both secular and regular who seem to mind the care of souls very seriously But not to reflect again upon any thing hath been hitherto said of their bad conduct of souls I shall now only take notice of the Authority they pretend to as if the People were bound blindly to follow their Confessors direction as the voice of God which clearly makes them the servants of men and subjects them to the heaviest yoke which is most directly contrary to the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free And what a rack to souls have they made Confession and what an Engine to get into the secrets of all the World and to bring mankind under their subjection is obvious enough to any that considers it And to enforce it the more as they teach it simply necessary to Salvation so the authority they made the World believe the Priests were vested with for pardoning sin together with their easie Pardons and slight Penances did root it deep in the hearts of all of that Communion But I go next to examine the Sacraments of which so much being said already little remains to be added By their dividing the Cup from the Bread they destroy Christs Institution and so make it no Sacrament and the hearing of Mass without communicating tho it make up the greatest part of their worship yet is purely a service of their own devising