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A59790 An answer to the request to Protestants, to produce plain Scriptures directly authorizing these tenets Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707. 1687 (1687) Wing S3264; ESTC R16978 12,957 22

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the Intercessions of Christ and his Prayers to God only desiring some Blessings of God as he does of his Frinds on Earth The sum of what we teach about this matter is this That we must worship none but God and therefore must not pray to Saints and Angels as our Saviour teaches Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve That there is but one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus and therefore we must not make more Mediators to our selves nor put our trust in the Intercession of Saints and Angels Thus far we have plain Scripture proof And then we think common Sense teaches us the rest That it is an Injury to an only Mediator to set up other Mediators with him That good Men on Earth are not Mediators but Supplicants which is no encroachment of Christ's Mediatorship and that Saints in Heaven according to the Church of Rome pray as Mediators and Intercestors who appear in the Presence of God for us and this is not reconcilable with Christ's only Mediatorship in Heaven XII Honouring the Cross the Reliques and Representations of our Lord and his Saints with that degree of Reverence as we do the Gospels commonly kiss'd and sworn by Altar and other Sacred Utensils is Idolatry A. This is a very reasonable Request to require us to prove that by Scriture which we do not believe Papists indeed would excuse that Worship which they pay to the Cross to Reliques and Images by saying that it is no more than that Reverence which we allow to the Gospels and Religious Utensils which is no more than an external Respect but do those who charge them with Idolatry in worshipping the Cross and Reliques and Images charge them only with giving some external Respects to them or with giving them formal acts of Worship and Adoration As both the Decrees of their Councils and the visible Practice of their Church proves And if he would have this proved to be Idolatry he may meet with some Protestants who will be ready to oblige him XIII The Pope is Antichrist A. This indeed has been affirmed by some Protestants but is no Article of our Church and therefore we are not bound to prove it but when we have a mind to it No man ever pretended that there is any such Proposition in Scripture as that the Pope of Rome is Antichrist but some think that the Characters of Antichrist and the Man of Sin are much more applicable to him than the Universal Headship and Infallibility XIV Every Prayer us'd in Divine Offices must be in a Language vulgar and intelligible to every Auditor A. Why he should put us upon proving this from Scripture I cannot tell when he knows that St. Paul has a whole Chapter to prove it 1 Cor. 14. unless he has some reserve in expressing it by every Prayer For that indeed St. Paul does not say in Words but his Reason saies it For if the Reason he assigns against Prayers in an unknown Tongue extend to all Prayers then it proves that every publick Prayer should be in a Language understood by the People But what is this to the Church of Rome who has all publick Offices in an unknown Tongue Yes if they could prove it lawful ever to pray in an unknown Tongue they would presently prove it lawful always to do so and thus St. Pauls discourse against praying in an unknown Tongue is confuted for want of saying that we must never pray in an unknown Tongue But whether it be not more reasonable to conclude from St. Pauls discourse against praying in an unknown Tongue that we must never do so than from his not saying that we must never pray in an unknown Tongue that we may always do so let any man judg who has not renounced his own understanding XV. A Company of Christians voluntarily separating from all other Christian Societies condemning their Doctrines and Rites destitute also of any visible Correspondence with them in the Eucharist in any Religious Assemblies or Solemn Devotions can notwithstanding this perverse intire and manifest Separation be a mystical Member of Christ in Catholick Unity and a Charitable Part of the Catholick Church A. If he applies this to us it is manifestly false for tho' we do not communicate with the Church of Rome in her corrupt Worship yet there are many Christian Churches with which we can and do communicate and separate our selves no farther from any society of Christians than they separate themselves from the Primitive and Apostolick Churches But to gratifie him Suppose that all the Communions of Christendom were corrupted in their Worship so that we could not safely communicate with any one of them but our own yet if the Church of England be a true Apostolick Church in Faith and Worship and Government and separates from others only upon account of such corruptions as will justifie such a separation what should hinder her from being a mystical member of Christ in Catholick unity and a charitable part of the Catholick Church The true Apostolick Faith and Worship does certainly make us the mystical members of Christ's Body or else I desire to know what does Catholick Vnity is not violated by a just separation and dangerous corruptions in Faith and Worship are a just cause of separation Come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you 2 Cor. 6. 17. and where there are such corruptions so fatal and dangerous to mens souls how far soever such corruptions have spread it is a greater act of charity to separate than to communicate with them as it is greater charity to reprove men for their sins and forsake their company than to joyn with them in a wicked confederacy This is the true state of the case and this we can prove either from the express words of Scripture or from easie and necessary consequences and this shows that it is possible that a company of Christians not voluntarily but necessarily separating from all other Christian Societies condemning their corrupt Doctrines and Rites destitute also of any visible correspondence with them in the Eucharist in any Religious Assemblies or solemn Devotions upon account of such corruptions can notwithstanding this not perverse but just and necessary separation be a mystical member of Christ in Catholick unity and a charitablt part of the Catholick Church which is not meerly the present Church of one age but the whole Church from the times of Christ and his Apostles to the end of the world For could we suppose at any time all the Communions of Christendom to be corrupt but one that one uncorrupt Church must forsake the communion of all others and yet it would be a member of Christ and a charitable part of the Catholick Church unless it be only numbers not the purity of Faith and Worship which makes the Catholick Church XVI The whole Clergy of the Catholick Church may apostatize from Fundamental Truth and Holiness whilst part of a National Laity may preserve both discover the Clergies Defection and depriving them heap to Themselves Teachers of their own sending and instruction A. What he intends by this I cannot well guess I suppose he would have his Readers believe that the whole Clergy of the Christian world did at the time of the Reformation maintain the Doctrines of the Church of