Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	answer_v	bishop_n	pope_n	2,914	5	6.2551	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31512	A vindication of the true Episcopal religion as it was planted and set forth by our Saviour Christ ... / by W.C., student in divinity.	W. C., Student in divinity.	1681 (1681)	Wing C173A; ESTC R15221	10,285	16

Ireland This was an inhumane Persecution such as the very Heathen would abhor They rebelled agains their King ripped up their Women with Child and slew their Husdands at their own door The next Persecution was against the King and the Church of England by the Nonconformists especially the Presbyterians for they first broke the Unity of the Church of England and caused a Rebellion in Scotland by raising an Army against King Charles the First one of the best Kings that ever Reigned in the World about the year 1640. and after pursued the Rebellion and raised an Army in England and fought against the King himself and killed many of his Loyal Subjects and pursued their King until they had brought him to the Block This Persecution was against the Church as well as the King they murdered the Archishop of Canterbury and Dr. Huet and deposed the Bishops of all their Spiritual Employments and then they fell to Sacriledge to robbing of the Church abolished the Common Service Book and sold the Bishops Lands and most of the Church-lands and put down the Discipline of the Church as much as they could imitating the Papists in many things committing Rebellion Murder Treason Sacrilege and Perjury pretending as the Papists do now all was for the Glory of God and for the Reformation of the Church Episcopal Religion was ordained by Christ and his Apostles who ordained the first twelve Bishops and after the Apostles gave order for the placing of Bishops in many Churches for the well ordering of the Church Joseph of Arimathea Disciple of Christ one that buried him planted our Church of England according to the purest way which hath continued for above 1600 years a true Church for the most part as many Historians write notwithstanding much Persecution by the Heathen and the Antichristians and yet they have enjoyed and kept up this Church in some corners of this Land till a Change of Government hath hapned and the Governours have been converted by it and have defended it from evil Men. Now I beseech you all the good People of England from the King to the beggar to take especial notice of the Persecution of this innocent Church of England which is the truest mark of a true Church You see how Satan by the Heathen and by the Papists and by the Nonconformist hath persecuted it to the utmost of his power yet God of his Mercy and Providence hath defended it against all the fury of the Enemies Therefore all good People of England comfort your selves and. serve God in this Church with rejoycing and praising God for preserving and defending this Church against all his Enemies Wherefore you may be assured as Gamaliel told the Jews this work is of God and it cannot be overthrown for saith he if it be of themselves it will conic to nought but if it be of God you cannot overthrthrow it lest you be found Fighters against God Charles the First sealed it with his Royal Blood the twelve Bishops and Doctors sealed this Church by Fire and Blood in Queen Maries Reign The Blood of the Martyrs is the seed and seal of a true Church I shall now speak something of the Church of Rome which was planted by St. Paul as most Historians write because he commends it in I Rom. in these words I thank God thy Faith is spoken of throughout the whole World and so it continued a true Church for near 600 years having above Gixty Bishops whereof Linus was the first whom St. Paul speaks of in his Epistles All those Bishops were godly Men being subject to the Civil Magistrate Pelagius the Second in his days perceiving that Maurice the Emperour went about to make and establish an Universal Bishop very much opposed it and decreed That no Bishop no not the Bishop of Rome himself ought to be called the Vniversal Bishop and Bishop Gregory his Successor writeth That none of his Predecessors ever consented to use so prosane a Title And also the said Gregory writeth to the Bishop of Constantinople who was willing to take that Title upon him What wilt thou answer to Christ the Head of the Vniversal Church that thus goest about by the Name of Vniversal Bishop to make all his Members subject to thee Whom dost thou imitate in so perverse a Name but Lucifer that would have been singular alone above all his fellow Angels Sabinianus succeeded Gregory and after him Boniface the Third who obtained of Phocas the Emperor as afterwards is set down That the Bishop of Rome should be called the Head of the Church Since which time the Pope hath been called the Prince of Priests and Supreme Head of the Vniversal Church Titles due only to Christ himself the Great Bishop of our Souls Cedrenus setteth forth Phocas to be a Wine-bibber given to Women a bloody Man fierce without Mercy cruel of Manners an Heretick and Theophylact Simocatta describeth him after this manner A Caledonian Tyrant covered with Iron in a manner barbarous of the Generation of the Cyclops a Centaur in Purple most petulant whose chief strife was for the Kingdom of Drunkenness A fit Man to be Antichrist's Midwife to bring him into the World The Authority of the former Bishops extended no farther than unto Matters of Religion they were subject to the Emperours some of them created by him as Paget affirms in his History of the sundry sorts of Churches and denied the Popes Supremacy with their Superstitious Worship introduced by Boniface the Third by calling Councils of a few Italian Bishops and turning out many good Bishops which would not consent to their creating of Sin And some they murdered as Paget affirms because they withstood their wicked Decrees especially in the Council of Trent who enacted a Canon That the Traditions of the Church of Rome must be honoured and embraced with the like honour and reverence as the Holy Scriptures are honoured In this Council their first Sin they created and decreed was for Image-Worship contrary to the Second Commandment 2. Invocation of Saints contrary to the Practice of the Church the Examples of Holy Men and to the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures 3. The Propitiatory Sacrifice in the Mass which derogateth from Christs Sacrifice once offered for us 4. Communion in One Kind directly against Christs Precept in the Institution St. Paul saith Col. 1.18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which they have not seen vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind In this Council they also decreed That all Bishops and Ministers must teach the People to worship Saints Images and Angels contrary to the Doctrine of the Apostles and of St. John the Divine in Rev. 19. who saith I fell at the Angels feet to worship him and he said unto me See thou do it not I am thy fellow-servant and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus Worship God Here good People take notice their Decrees are

quite against the Word of God They command Angel worship and the Angel tells John See thou do it not I am thy fellow-servant worship God St. Paul tells the Thessalonians 2 Thess 2.3 Let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling awry first and that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God and so on and then at ver 12. he concludes with these words For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness The Mystery of Iniquity began to work in the time of Gregory the Great the second Bishop of Rome before Boniface the first Antichristian Bishop The said Gregory writing to the Bishop of Constantinople sharply reprehends him in the words before quoted and he saith also Whosoever shall call himself Universal Bishop or desire so to be called in the pride of his heart is the fore-runner of Antichrist I may by no means omit again to remember you what St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians in the place before cited from ver 1. to 12. of that Chapter upon which St. Austin in his Book de Civitate Dei hath these words This Scripture saith he doubtless is meant of Antichrist And again Truly saith he I am utterly ignorant what others Conjectures are hereof but I will not be silent Some say St. Paul spake of the state of Rome and would not be plainer lest he should incur a slander that he wished Romes Empine an evil Fortune The same Father hath given his opinion That these Words He that withholdeth shall let till he be taken out of the way and then the wicked man shall be revealed are meant of Antichrist No man doubteth saith he that this may not unfitly be understood of Rome As if he had said He that now reigneth shall reign until he be taken away This may be meant of those good Emperors that should be taken away by death and then that wicked Man was revealed Phocas the Emperour of Rome who was the Father of Antichrist and created Boniface the Third Bishop of Rome an Universal Bishop of the Christian World He opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God I shall give you a Definition of the God here spoken of Temporal and Spiritual and first of the Temporal God Moses in one of his Books speaking of the Temporal Gods says I have said you are Gods but you shall die like Men ye Princes shall fall like others Here God is pleased to call Emperors Kings and Princes Gods because they execute Gods Will upon Earth Here the Man of Sin exalteth himself above the Temporal Gods in placing and displacing them at his pleasure he maketh them believe that he can put them into the state of Damnation or absolve them at his pleasure whereas for the first 600 years more than sixty Bishops were subject to their Emperours and Kings and many of them Ordained and Instituted by their Order till Boniface the Third and Phocas that wicked Emperour Again He exalteth himself above the great God of Heaven and Earth Christ refused to be called Good and told them There was none good but God but the Man of Sin the Pope thinks it not a sufficient Honour to be called Good or Holy but Most Holy a Title due to none but the Great God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Here in this very Particular he exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped Again He is so uncharitable as shews he is nothing of a true Christian for he will Excommunicate the Reformed Churches from the highest to the lowest tho he never knew any of them nor their Doctrine or Manners and does his endeavour to send them to Hell tho we know his Power is nothing against our Church Whereas the Great God saith As I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of a sinner but that all should come to repent and be saved And the said Pope the Man of Sin hath Excommunicated all God's Vicegerents of this Land from Queen Elizabeth to our gracious King that now is Here the Luciserian Bishop shews how he exalts himself above all that is called God in Excommunicating Gods Vicegerents when no doubt but many of them may belong to the Election written in the Lambs Book of Life before the Foundation of the World Here the Man of Sin toucheth the Wisdom of the Godhead in putting into the state of Damnation those whom God hath elected for saith the Apostle Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect It is God that justifieth In this he exalteth himself above all that is called God so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God But you will say That the Temple of God was at Jerusalem St. Austustine in his Book de Civitate Dei gives you his Judgment in that In Templum Deum saith he In some Temple of God And he adds It could not be meant of the Temple at Jerusalem because Titus Vespasian had destroyed and sacked it so that there was not left one stone upon another which was not thrown down nor of an Heathenish Idols Temple for that was no Temple of God but he must sit in some Christian Temple which may not unfitly be applied to Rome So he Now St. Augustine and many of the Learned do conclude That St. Paul meant this of that great Cathedral St. Peters Church in Rome which may not unfitly be called the Temple of God because for the first 600 years after Christ Religion did slow plentifully from thence into many Parts of the World as St. Paul speaks in Rom. 1. that their faith was spoken of thorow the whole world And there was Constantine the first Christian Emperour converted to the Faith in whose Reign Arius broached his Heresie in Africa whereof when Constantine heard he said There was no true serving of God without Vnity and Love and thereupon he made a Decree and Sealed it with his own Seal in these VVords I straightly charge and command more than 300 Bishops that you go into Africa and summon Arius and examine his Doctrine whether it be according to the Word of God or no and if not to brand him for an Heretick that it proceed no further as Eusebins saith in his Ecclesiastical History VVhere was St. Peter's Successor the Pope of Rome when Constantine executed his Ecclesiastical Power which Authority has been claimed and exercised by the Bishop of Rome but since Phocas the Emperour and Boniface the Third who was made by that wicked