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A53750 A true and lively representation of popery shewing that popery is only new-modell'd paganism, and perfectly destructive of the great ends and purposes of God in the Gospel. Owen, Thankfull, 1620-1681. 1679 (1679) Wing O830; ESTC R18583 46,596 82

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or shall your Wonder-working Priest give you an entrance into Heaven when the express Declarations of Christ Jesus exclude you thence No wonder that Papists have their Priests in such high esteem and Veneration no marvel they declare they cannot live without them when they are endued with such an Omnipotency as to change the setled order of things to alter the Decrees of Heaven and cancel the fixed Laws of life and death by shutting them out of the presence of God whom Christ Jesus is ready to receive and intromitting others that he has declared shall be for ever banished thence But be not deceived God is not mocked for whatever a man sows that shall he also reap He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting 6. Hitherto in general I have shewed the opposition of the Popish Doctrines to the Grand End and Purpose of God in the Gospel I shall now descend to the particulars afore-mentioned the first of which was this that in order to the replantation of the Divine Nature in the souls of men Almighty God designed the utter extirpation of Idolatry Now though the Church of Rome endeavours by many fine shows and specious pretences to free her self from the imputation of so foul and horrid a Crime yet he that impartially weighs things shall find her no less guilty than was the Pagan World before the coming of Christ And if this do not evidently appear to every candid and ingenious Reader I am well assured that 't is not from the weakness or inconclusiveness of the Arguments but from some partial and preconceived Opinion or some other prejudice his mind labours under and is prepossessed and preingaged withal for this I do confidently affirm that there is no truth of greater usefulness and concernment to Reformed Christendom nor any that can more clearly and irrefragably justifie the necessity of our separation from that Church than this That I may therefore make a clear and demonstrative proof of this Charge which I have laid against the Romish Church I must a little recur to what I have said of the Pagan Idolatry which mainly consisted in these two things 1. In that they worshipped besides one Supreme God other Inferiour Beings not as independent and self-existent but as so many created Deities and these were worshipped by them upon these two accounts either as thinking that the honour done to them redounded to the Supreme or else that they might be their Mediators and Intercessors Orators and Negotiators with him 2. In that they worshipped both the supreme God and likewise their subordinate Deities in Images and Statues This Foundation being laid it will be no difficult task to draw the parallel between the ancient Paganish Idolatry and that now practised in the Church of Rome That the Saints and Angels are worshipped both publickly and privately in the Romish Church needs no other testimony than the daily practice of Papists who express a greater fervour and zeal in their Invocation of the Saints than of God himself so that as a learned Person observes Sir Edwin Sands Europ Spec. for one prayer to God they put up ten to the Virgin Mary Nay so mad are they after this extravagant humour that Cassander ingeniously confesses that some and those no bad men have made choice of some certain Saints as their Patrons and place their trust and confidence in their Merits and Intercessions more than in the Merits of Christ Cassand Consult do Invoc Sanct. and so laying aside the Mediation of Christ they have substituted the Saints and especially the Virgin Mary in his room And hence Cardinal Hosius is not ashamed to say We ought to believe in the Saints They build Temples and Altars to the Saints and prostrate themselves with the most humble devotion before their Images They swear by the Saints not only in their common speech but in their more solemn Oaths and to them they direct their Vows likewise Now upon the same accounts that the Pagans worshipped their inferiour Deities do the Papists adore and worship the Saints and Angels 1. Because the honour done to them redounds to God himself It is for the Majesty and Grandeur of the supreme God to have a multitude of inferiour Deities under him says Plotinus It is not only suitable with the bountiful and noble disposition of God not to grant many graces and favours but by the Intercession of the Saints but likewise for his glory that the world should know this Answer to certain Questions propounded by King James says Fisher the Jesuit which he further illustrates by this similitude because says he 't is impossible to honour and praise the Boughs without honouring and praising the Root therefore when the Saints and Angels are invocated and adored it is for the honour of the supreme God the Root and Spring of all things 2. They make them Mediators and Intercessors between God and them which was the office and imployment of the Mediae Potestates or middle Deities of the Heathen and the ground or reason of this is given by S. Austin because they excel us Mortals in Merits De Civ Dei lib. 8. c. 22. And that the Papists urge the Merits of their Saints is evident from divers of their publick forms of prayer The Saints are in high grace and favour with God and for this reason we poor Mortals implore their Intercession say the Romanists as we make use of a Courtier to deliver a Petition to an Earthly Prince After this manner Celsus argues when he would perswade the Christians to the worship of Daemons that they ought to seek their favour as the Ministers of the Great God To whom Origen replies Origen contr Celsum l. 8. that the Christians allow indeed an honour and reverence to the blessed Angels as Gods Ministers in a sound sense but they are taught to give Religious Worship only to God and to his Son his Word and Image by whom they offer up their Supplications to God the Lord of all beseeching him who is the Propitiation for our sins that he would be pleased as our High-Priest to offer up our Prayers and Sacrifices and Intercessions to the great God And again God alone is to be adored and our Prayers are only to be offered to the only begotten Word of God the First-born of every Creature who as our High-Priest offers our Supplications to his God and our God to his Father and the Father of all those that live according to his Word But if the favour of many be to be sought for we learn from the Scriptures that thousand thousands minister unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him who afford their friendly assistance to those that humbly invoke the Supreme God and earnestly contend after Salvation disdaining not to be officious to them that worship the same God with themselves For as the