A VINDICATION OF THE True Christian RELIGION In Opposition to the Abominations of POPERY IN A SERMON Upon Ezek. 21. 24 25 26 27. Being the Text appointed by the Pope for Master Whitebread one of the Popish Conspirators to preach upon the accomplishing of their Wicked Design for taking away the Life of his Most Sacred Majesty Wherein the King the Church together with his Majesties Laws Constitutions and true Protestant Subjects of England are clearly Justified and the Pope the Church and Popish Faction of Rome are justly charged to be guilty of the like Dreadful Curse in the New as hath been denounc'd against Revolted Israel in the Old Testament By J. Thomas Rect. of S. Nicholas Preached at Cardiffe Before the Bayliffs and Aldermen there Feb. 2. 1678 9. London Printed for Isaac Cleave at the Star next to Serjeants-Inn in Chancery-Lane 1679. Imprimatur W. JANE EZEK XXI 24 25 26 27. 24. Therefore thus saith the Lord because you have made your iniquity to be remembred in that your transgressions be discovered so that in all your doings your sins do appear because I say that ye are come to remembrance ye shall be taken with the hand 25. And thou prophane wicked Prince of Israel whose day is come when iniquity shall have an end 26. Thus saith the Lord God remove the Diadem and take away the Crown this shall not be the same exalt him that is low and abase him that is high 27. I will overturn overturn overturn it and it shall be no more until he comes whose right it is and I will give it him I Thought it not unseasonable being desir'd to explain this Text which as it is credibly reported was intended by the Popish Faction to Consummate and Cloak the horrible malice of their Bloody Conspiracy against the Life of his most Sacred Majesty but conceiv'd it useful and necessary to apply it to whom most properly it appertains as well for the justifying of his Royal Person and Satisfaction of all honest Protestants as also for the Reproof and Conviction of our Adversaries I shall proceed to handle this Text with all humility of mind faithful love to Truth and due regard to the Testimonies of the Holy Scriptures with the sense of the first General Councils and the Doctrine of the Fathers in the first five or six hundred years after Christ whereby you may evidently perceive and be fully satisfied that the King and Church of England who hold the true Apostolick Faith and bind themselves by Mutual Oaths to uphold and maintain the same are not sentenced with the dreadful Curse of God as was denounced against Judah and Jerusalem but that the Antichristian Pope of Rome that Man of Sin now of a long time reveal'd with all his bloody and Idolatrous Train the Ignatian Tribe have their Judgment denounc'd in the New Testament which lingreth not and their Damnation slumbereth not I observe with S. Augustine not the Monk that all Holy Writ is so tempered by the Holy Ghost that quod alibi obscurius alibi clarius explicitur one portion of Scripture explains another and that is acknowledged by all the Orthodox to be the most certain and undoubted Exposition Wherefore that this Text may be rightly understood the Matter therein contained must for it requires it be consulted of in our Bibles in the following particulars I. The Time when this Prophecy was declar'd II. The Causes wherefore this Prophecy was declar'd III. The Event being a dreadful Curse denounced Wherein observe 1. The Authority Thus saith the Lord. 2. The Charge Thou wicked and prophane 3. The Parties Prince and People 4. The Confusion I 'll overturn c. 5. The Duration Until he comes IV. The Promise annex'd Wherein observe 1. The Kingdom of Christ promised He comes 2. His Claim Whose right it is 3. Divine Institution I will give it him Of all these in order by Gods assistance with Inferences from and Application to the whole matter I shall conclude with the uses proper for our selves to make of it And first of the Time when 1. The Time when this Prophecy was made is easily known when we look upon Ezek. 1. 1 2 3. where the Prophet gives the World to understand expresly the Year the Month and the Day the Word of the Lord came unto him Now saith he it came to pass c. in the fourth month in the fifth day of the month which was the fifth year of King Jehoiakin's Captivity the Word of the Lord came unto Ezekiel the Priest in the Land of the Caldeans c. Compare this with 2 Kin. 24. 15 16 17. verses and there you shall find that this King Jehoiakin the King of Judah was carried away to Babylon in the eighth year of his Reign and the King of Babylon made Mattaniah his Fathers Brother King in his stead and changed his name to Zedekiah insomuch that by these places of Scripture it evidently appears that Ezekiel began to prophecy much upon the midst of King Zedekiah's Reign for he reigned eleven years For by that you see that the fifth of Jehoiakin's Captivity must be the fifth of Zedekiah's Reign The Text calls this time Iniquitas Termini by an Enallage for Terminus Iniquitatis when Iniquity shall have an end that is now is the time come that all the revolt and back-slidings of Judah and Jerusalem by Idolatry Blood-shed and Prophaneness is come to remembrance and it shall now end in Zedekiah's days who shall with the people be carried Captive unto Babylon 2. The Causes wherefore this Sentence was denounc'd are twofold the first is the provocations of the people moving and incensing Gods wrath against them and to this relates the first verse of the Text which saith you have made your iniquity to be remembred and in the 23. verse next before the Text it is said But he will call to remembrance the iniquity which according to the Original may be well translated Hereby you call to remembrance that is by this contempt and disdain which you cast upon my Word in the mouth of my Prophet which seemeth to you as a false divination ver 23. you do provoke me to call to remembrance all your wickedness and the iniquity of your forefathers for this obduration of heart against my Messenger and breach of Allegiance to the King of Babylon shews what you are ver 24. So that in all your doings your sins do appear because I say that you are come to remembrance that is by this your hardness of heart and contempt of the Prophets Doctrine you force me saith the Lord to remember your Idolatry Bloodshed Prophaneness and Apostasies in all kinds all which the Prophet sets down in the next Chapter Ezek. 22. 2. The second Cause here mentioned is God provoked and expressed in these words Ye shall be taken with the hand which seems as if it were the Instrumental Cause but indeed the King of Babylon was the Instrumental Cause of their Captivity to
their call c. and the King heard thereof he was wroth and sent forth his Armies and destroyed those Murtherers and burnt up their City It is strange to see with what a scornful state the proud ambitious Usurper of the Chair of Peter would trample upon the Necks of all his Brethren and how he looks from aloft upon the honest Protestants reproving him he looks upon them far below him and with supercilious looks despiseth them for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Thus he and all his Train of the Scarlet Conclave the Cardinals with the sly Jesuite thinking themselves righteous despising others as the Spirit of God rebuketh them Luc. 18. 9. do aggravate their former Revolt and Apostacy this thousand years standing and call all to remembrance that at last they shall through the fire of Gods wrath hereby incens'd be taken with the hand as the Text speaks But as for the meekness and humility of the Church of England and our readiness to condescend and submit to the Truth let the World be our Witness as learned Bishop Jewel declares it If any learned man of our Adversaries or of all the learned that be alive be able to bring any one sufficient Sentence or Testimony out of any old Doctor or Father or out of any old General Council or out of the holy Scriptures of God or any one Example of the Primitive Church whereby it may be clearly and plainly proved that there was any private Mass or that the Bishop of Rome was delegated for Universal and Supreme Head of the Catholick Church with Invocation upon Saints worshipping of Images and buying of Indulgences and Pardons or that the Roman Church was accounted and call'd the Universal and Catholick Church or any thing own'd as Transubstantiation at that time for the space of six hundred years after Christ we are content to yield and to subscribe otherwise we hold our selves strictly obliged to retain the Religion and Faith of Christ which we do now profess and as it is now by our Laws established Inference the third from God provoked Ye shall be taken with the hand Idolatry Bloodshed Oppression Prophaneness and Blasphemy are the crying sins that provoke God safest and hasten his unavoidable Judgments soonest In Ezek. 22. 3. The City maketh Idols against her self to defile her self Idolatry is an open defiance to the Deity therefore abhorr'd of God above other sins and call'd by Gods Spirit the Abomination and therefore it is said in the Text v. 24. Because you have made your iniquity to be remembred this was so odious that it was the cause that made other sins to be remembred and for Bloodshed and Idolatry being put together it is expresly declar'd by the Prophet Chap. 22. 4. that they have hasten'd their destruction And thou hast become saith he guilty in thy blood which thou hast shed and hast defiled thy self with thine Idols which thou hast made and thou hast caused thy days to draw near And as to their oppression prophaneness and blasphemy it is declared in Ezek. 22. to be so notorious and palpable that God blew the fire of his wrath to consume them Their sins did testifie against them the way of peace they knew not truth was fallen in their streets and equity could not enter and Esay crys out that he wondred there was no Intercessor Es 59. 16. Esay Jeremy and Ezekiel spend their breath and their books in declaring the falling away of these people from God and his worship insomuch that at last you see the fierce anger wrath and indignation of God fell upon them in this King Zedekiah's time 4. Inference from the Charge Thou wicked and prophane Prince is this It is such as revolt from the Faith despising holy things and fall to the practises of the Heathen World that the Scriptures call wicked and prophane and never charge any so that keep the true Faith and Worship of God These people were justly charged and their Prince also as wicked and prophane and that for these Reasons 1. They had forsaken the Lord and his Law which is declar'd by good King Josiah in 2 King 22. 13. Our Fathers hearken'd not unto the words of this Book meaning the Book of the Law found by Hilkiah in the House of the Lord to do according to all that is written concerning us And this falling away from Gods Law the Scripture calls Fornication comparing these people of Israel to sordid men Ezek. 16. 15. Thou playedst the Harlot and pourest out thy fornications on every one that passed by 2. They despis'd the holy things of the Lord Manasseh built Altars for Baal in the House of the Lord and set a graven Image of the Grove which he had made in the House of which the Lord had said In this House will I put my Name for ever Therefore doth Ezek. Chap. 22. 8. cry out against them Thou hast despised my holy things and hast prophaned my Sabbaths And ver 26. Her Priests have violated my Law and prophaned my holy things I am prophaned among them 3. These people were justly called wicked and prophane for they follow'd the Idolatrous practises of the Heathen World Zedekiah did as Jehoiakin had done and Jehoiakin as Jehoiakin his Predecessor and he did as Jehoahaz and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his Fathers Manasseh and Ahab had done Now Manasseh built up the High-places rear'd up Altars for Baal made a Grove and worshipped the Sun and the Moon and the Planets and all the Host of Heaven 4. They delivered their Children to pass through the fire to Moloch at Topheth and shed Innocent blood And behold saith the Prophet the Princes of Israel every one were in thee to their power to shed innocent blood like ravening Wolves to destroy Souls for dishonest gain Ezek. 22. 27. These Abominations were grounds enough to charge them as the Prophet doth here Thou wicked and prophane And besides all these there did Oppression and Usury Lewdness and Uncleanness reign in the highest degree amongst them Now having seen who the Scriptures call wicked c. in the Old Testament it lies upon us to know who are so charged also in the New Testament and for what and that appears plainly 2 Thes 2. 7 8 10. S. Paul tells you He who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way and then shall that wicked be revealed i. e. He that letteth and opposeth Christs Doctrine and Kingdom is that wicked one which in his appointed time shall be reveal'd and in the 10th verse he gives the reason why he calls him wicked Because they received not the love of the Truth This is much like that of Queen Esther spoken concerning Haman who had conspir'd to destroy all the Inheritance of God the Generation of the Jews This Adversary and Enemy is that wicked Haman So in Eph. 6. 12. we find that the Church of Christ
depose the King or to dispose of his Kingdoms his present Majesty Charles the II. being the 26th that successively in the right Line from the Conquerour have reign'd absolute Kings of England c. Now I will shew you by way of Application who have fallen off from the Faith under the New Testament and that plainly and particularly in what points and then you may judge whether the like Curse as was so dreadfully denounced against Israel may not be also hanging over their heads and pointing at their doors being palpably guilty of the lille Charge The Church of Rome Canonizing as de fide a new Doctrine contrary to the Catholick Faith for the first five or six hundred years after Christ is become a false Church or the Church of Antichrist which is no part of the true Church of Christ but an Imposthume or a bad humour in the body and no part of the body I mean the true Spiritual and Mystical Body of Christ And as the ten Tribes of Israel fell off from the Worship of God and ador'd the Golden Calfs made by Jeroboam and turn'd Bethel the House of God into Bethaven a House of Iniquity so have Papists turn'd the Roman Church which was once a pure flourishing Church to a corrupt Den of Thieves And yet it is granted by judicious Protestants that some may possibly be saved though with great hazard that are in Communion with her and groan under the lewd and Antichristian Doctrines and Practices impos'd by her as necessary to Salvation which overthrow the Fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith although held by themselves and are contrary point-blank to the Catholick Faith once delivered to the Saints particularly these following 1. The Church of Rome hold and affirm the Pope to be Universal and Supreme Head of the Catholick Church Caput totius Ecclesiae Militantis Universal Father of the Church the only Dispenser of Apostolick Benedictions thus dignified he Lords it over all the Clergy upon Earth Our Creed composed by the Apostles teacheth us to believe first in God the Father c. and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord and the Nicene Creed explains it I believe in one God c. and in one Lord Jesus Christ The Scripture explains this plainly in the 4th of Eph. 15. Speaking the truth in love grow up into him in all things which is the Head even Christ By which it appears we have no Universal Head for the Church Militant but our Lord Jesus Christ 2. The Church of Rome is held by them to be the Catholick Church contrary to our Belief in our Creed which saith I believe in the holy Catholick Church and explain'd in the Nicene Creed I believe in one Catholick and Apostolick Church All the Elect of God that ever have been now are or ever shall be in the world comprehending all particular Churches which were before the Roman Church and were in the same time that she flourished in other Provinces in Asia and Europe and now are separated from her making up one Catholick Church the Mystical Body of Christ 3. The Doctrine of the Popes Infallibility that he cannot Err and that his Authority confirm'd by Councils is greater and more certain than the Scriptures doth fly in the face of all the Foundation of our Faith for we take as the holy Catholick Church hath ever done the holy Scriptures for the only certain Rule of our Faith and Practice from which we own no higher Authority to appeal unto no though an Angel did preach things contrary to the Scriptures they are to us an Anathema he the Pope can dispence they say against Paul and Peter that is controul and wrest the sense of the Scriptures written by Paul and Peter yea against the Old and New Testament he can plenitudine potestatis as much as God This Doctrine you will find often boasted of in their Canons and Decretals 4. The Church of Rome doth plainly and point-blank oppose and overthrow the Catholick Faith concerning the Remission of sins The Apostles in the Creed as all the New Testament most amply and largely explaineth teach us to believe the forgiveness of sins and the Roman Church doth set it up on quite other terms by proposing that gift I mean the forgiveness of sins to be sold by the Pope and his Priests if any will be so fondly blind as to buy in the vile Market of Indulgences so in a word the Catholick Faith is to believe the forgiveness of sins and the Doctrine of Popery is to sell and buy it 5. The Popish Faction overthrow and utterly confound by their new Doctrine and Practice the Faith and Practice of the Catholick Church in Prayer Our Saviour Christ himself taught us to pray after this manner c. directing our Petitions to God the Father by the help of the Holy Ghost in the Name and by the Mediation of God the Son so are all Prayers made in the Old and New Testament But the Papists call upon Saints and Angels and because they believe it for it is a prevailing Argument with them that the Kingdom of Heaven is divided into two parts the Kingdom of Mercy to the blessed Virgin c. but the Kingdom of Justice to Christ they pray more for mercy unto Mary than unto God through Christ 6. They contradict and oppose the Christian Faith in the first six hundred years by the most unreasonable Point to be impos'd for matter of belief as ever any man can hear of Transubstantiation come out of the Council of Lateran under Pope Innocentius the III. He who contended with John King of England They believe that the Bread and the Wine in the Lords Supper after Consecration is substantially and materially changed contrary to our Natural Sense Seeing Tasting and Feeling and we believe it that they are Signs and Symbols of a Spiritual Food and refection which our Souls receive from Christs Body and Blood which was given for us These things being considered every Christian man will say that it was piously done of all the Reformers Luther in Germany Jerome in Prague Valdus in France Wickliffe Bilney and Tindal in England to separate from this Apostate Church lest they should be partakers of her sins and afterwards receive of her Plagues Rev. 18. 4. Hos 4. 15. 1 Cor. 10. 14. whose judgment now of a long time lingreth not and her damnation slumbereth not Rev. 13. Let him that understandeth count the number of the Beast There 's a set time appointed for his Judgment mention'd in 2 Thes 2. 7. until he be taken out of the way as it is in the Text until he comes Let any serious unbyass'd spirited man weigh these Points and Scriptures before-recited and he will soon resolve himself how tottering the See of Rome is and how miserable the honour of the Ignatian Tribe is who brag if they had not been Rome had not been the Angel had long since said It is fallen it is fallen Use 1.