Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	blood_n	drink_v	whore_n	1,518	5	10.5538	5	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

which we withdrew from her are additions to our faith for in this we mainly differ from that Church that whatever we acknowled they acknowledg likewise but with a great many additions We believe the Scriptures are a rule for Christians and they believe the same but they add Traditions and the authority of the Church to the Scriptures We believe that God is to be worshipped spiritually they believe the same but add that he may be worshipped by images and sensible Figures We believe Christ to be the Mediator betwixt God and Man they believe the same but add to this the intercession of Saints We hold that God and Christ are to be worshipped they hold the same but add Saints and Angels to their worship We believe Heaven and Hell to be the several States of the future life they believe the same but add Purgatory betwixt them to the day of Judgment We believe Baptism and the Lords Supper to be the Sacraments of the new Covenant they believe the same but add five more We believe Christ is spiritually and really present in the Lords Supper this they believe but add the unconceivable Tenent of his corporal presence In a word it might be instanced in many other particulars how they have driven us from their Communion by their additions to the truth and sincerity of the Gospel which they have adulterated by their Inventions and not only have they imposed all these things but thundered out Anathema's on all that question them and have so wreathed all their fopperies with that main and fundamental article of their belief of the infallibility of their Church that it is impossible to hope for their recovery till they renounce that Principle which is so dear to them For if their Church be infallible then in no matter of faith or practice can she decree amiss and therefore the lawfulness and sanctity of all her Decrees must be maintained with an equal vigor and zeal for if in one of them she step aside her infallibility is for ever gone And by this we may see to how little purpose it is to treat of accomodating matters with that Church since there is no possibility of our Union with them without we turn over entirely to them For they cannot part with one of their errors without they first renounce that which is the dearest of them all to wit the unerring authority of their Church How cruel then is that Church which addeth the severe sanction of an Anathema to all her decrees even about the most trifling matters and about things that are by their Confession of their own natures indifferent And a consectary to this is that cruel opinion they hold that none can be saved out of their Communion pretending there is no Salvation without the true Church which they restrict to those who are under the obedience of the Roman Bishop and this is what they usually frighten all with But it is to be considered what the true notion of the Church is that so we may see through this frightful Vizar The Church then is a Society of Christians united in the same faith for worshipping of God jointly And another definition of a Church cannot be proved from Scripture for the Church being called the Body of Christ its union with him as its Head is held forth by the Apostle in these words Col. 2.19 The head Christ from whom the whole body by joints and bonds having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God. From which words we see what constitutes a man a member of the true Church which is first his union to Christ as his head together with a dependance on him for growth and nutriture and next his being knit to all others who are thus united to Christ which is first the inward union of divine charity by which he loves all who cleave to Christ as their Head and next his associating himself with them in outward visible acts of worship which every Christian is bound to do with all that worship God in Spirit and Truth But if a Society of Christians do visibly swerve from Christ in many great and signal contradictions to the honour due to his Person and to the obedience due to his Laws and do grosly adulterate the worship so that communion cannot be had with that Church without departing from the Head Christ then it can be no departing from the Church to adhere to Christ and his true worship and to separate from the corruptions which are brought in upon the Christian Religion If then it appear that the Church of Rome hath departed from the truth and simplicity of the Gospel in so many great and main points those who attempted the reforming her to her first Purity and finding that not to be hoped for did unite among themselves for serving and worshipping God aright cannot be charged with separation from the true Church But by that cruel Tenent of theirs they breed up all their Children in the greatest uncharitableness imaginable condemning all who cannot believe their strange Doctrines or concur in their unhallowed worsh p. Thus they are the Schismaticks who have departed from the true Church and who force from their Communion all who adhere to it but this cruelty rests not in uncharitable censures but hath extended it self to as much bloody and barbarous rage as ever sprung from Hell for all the cruelty of the heathen Persecutors cannot match the practises of that Whore that hath been so often drunk with the blood of the Saints and of the Martyrs of Jesus What enraged cruelty appeared against the poor Waldenses for the separating from their Corruptions How many of all Sexes and Ages were cruelly butchered down by the procurement of the Rulers of that Church and because the Albigenses lived under the protection of Princes that favoured them how did the Popes depose their Princes and instigate other ambitious invaders to seize on their dominions Which to effectuate a Croissade was proclaimed that had been formerly practised against the Enemies of the Christian Faith and Heaven was promised to such as went against these poor innocents whereupon they were killed by thousands without all mercy Never was there any who had the zeal or honesty in these dark ages to witness against the apostacy of the Church but the Pope and Clergy used all means to get his zeal rewarded with a Faggot And when the time of Reformation came with what rage and spite did the Pope by his Letters and Legates instigate all the Princes of Europe to cruelty against them But as these things were not done in corners so they are still so fresh in our remembrance by the copious accounts we have of them that I need not tell what Arts the Popes and other Ecclesiasticks used to set all Germany on fire upon this account Nor need I tell the cruelty was exercised in the Netherlands in Charles the Fifth his time in which more than an hundred thousand are

the Nature of Religion it being a thing sutable to the Powers of the Soul shews that a Man must have a conviction of the truth of it on his Mind and that he cannot be bound in contradiction to his own apprehensions to receive any Opinions meerly upon the testimony of others If to confirm all this I should add all can be brought from History for proving General Councils to have erred in Matters of Faith or that Popes have been Hereticks or that they have been anathematized as such by other Popes and General Councils I should be too tedious But in end how shall the Vulgar know the Definitions of Councils or the Decrees of Popes Or must they be blindly determined by the Priest's Assertion Certainly this were to expose them to the greatest Hazards since they are not suffered to found their Faith upon the Scriptures Nor doth the Church reveal her Doctrines to them so that their Faith must be resolved upon the bare Testimony of a Priest who is perhaps both ignorant and licentious And by this we may judg to what a pass the Souls of the People are brought by this Doctrine In a word We are not the Servants of Men nor bound to their Authority for none can be a Judg but where he hath Power both to try and to coerce Now none but God can either search our Hearts or change them for as no Humane Power can know our Thoughts so neither can it turn them which are not in our own Power much less in the Power of others therefore our Consciences can and must only fall within God's Jurisdiction And since the renovation of the Image of God consists in Knowledg and Religion designs an union of our Souls to Divine Truth that we may freely converse with it it will follow that all these Pretences of absolute Authority and Infallibility in Teaching are contrary to Christ's Prophetick Office who came to reveal the Father to us The second of Jesus Christ's Offices was the Priestly without which the former had never been effectual for had we known never so perfectly the Will of God without a method had been laid down for reconciling Sinners to him it was in vain to think of Religion since nothing Sinners could do was able to appease God or expiate Sin but this was fully done by the Sacrifice of that Lamb of God Who became Sin for us and bare our Sins in his own Body in whom we have Redemption even forgiveness of Sin through his Blood 2 Cor. 5.21 1 Pet. 2.24 Ephes 1.7 If then any have derogated from the value of this Satisfaction they have offered the utmost indignity to the highest Love and committed the Crime of the greatest Ingratitude imaginable who would requite the most inconceivable Love with such a Sacrilegious attempt But how guilty are they of this who would set the Merits and Works of Men in an equality with the Blood of God as if by these we were justified or owed our Title to Glory to our own performances whereas we are taught by the Oracles of God that by Grace we are saved that God only hath made the difference betwixt us and others and that he hath freely chosen us in his Son Christ Jesus Ephes 2.5 1 Cor. 4.7 And alas what are we or what is all we do that it can pretend to the lowest degree of God's Acceptance without he freely both help us in it and accept of us for it so that when he rewards us for our Services with Eternal Life he freely crowns his own free Gifts to us For when we consider how great a disproportion there is betwixt our best Services and Eternal Glory when we also remember how all our good Actions flow from the Principles of Divine Grace freely given but withal reflect on the great Defects and Imperfections that hang about our best Performances we will not be able to entertain any thoughts of our meriting ought at the Hands of God. And certainly the deeper Impressions we have either of the Evil of Sin or the Goodness of God we will be further from a capacity of swelling big in our own Thoughts or of claiming any thing on the pretensions of Justice or Debt It is true this Doctrine of Merit is so explained by some of that Church that there remains no ground of quarrelling it except for the Terms sake which is indeed odious and improper though early used by the Ancients in an innocent sense But many of that Church acknowledg there there can be no Obligation on God by our Works but that which his own Promise binds upon him which none who believe the Truth of the Promises of the Gospel can question yet still we must remember that we owe all to the Love of Jesus and nothing to our selves which as it is the Matter of the Hallelujahs of glorified Saints so should be the Subject of our daily Acknowledgments wherefore we must abominate every thing that may seem to detract from this But alas were all this Zeal many of that Communion own for Merits and good Works meant for the advancing a Holy and Spiritual Life it would carry a good Apology with it and its noble Design would very much qualify the severity of its Censure but when these good Works which for so many Ages were highly magnified were the building of Churches the enriching of Abbeys Pilgrimages and other trifling and voluntary pieces of Will-worship advanced for the Secular Interests of the Church what shall be said of all that pains was used by the Monks for advancing them but that they were willing to sell the value of the Blood and Merits of Christ for advancing their own secular Interests and devised Practices Alas how far are these from that Holiness and Sanctity which must qualify us for the Kingdom of God and the Inheritance of the Saints And to end this Matter let me add one thing which is most evident to all who have observed the Methods of the Directors of Consciences in that Church that with whatever Distinctions this Matter be varnished over among them yet the Vulgar do really imagine they buy and sell with Almighty God by their undergoing these Laws of the Church and Penances imposed by their Confessor Which as it nourisheth the Life of Pride and Self-love so it detracts from the value they ought to set on the Blood of Christ as their only Title to Heaven and Glory And to this I must add that distinction of the temporary and eternal Punishments Sin deserves The latter whereof they acknowledg are removed by the Blood of Christ but the former must be expiated by our selves either by Sufferings in this Life or those we must endure in Purgatory unless by the Pope's Charity we be delivered from them Now how contrary this is to the Value we are taught to set on the Blood of Christ all may judg Ephes 2.15 5.27 By Christ Peace is made we are reconciled to God he represents us to the Father without