Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	faith_n	pope_n	3,103	5	6.3417	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B03480	Four tracts. I. A short discourse about divorce and its causes, fornication and adultery. II. A charge to judges, juries and witnesses concerning oaths. III. About infant baptism. IV. A letter to a lady, who hath forsaken [t]he Protestant religion for the Romish. / By J. Gailhard, Gent.	Gailhard, J. (Jean)	1699 (1699)	Wing G121A; ESTC R202025	118,480	174

Sess 13. But to come close the Romish Society we charge it with Idolatry and Superstition 't is a Religion Bloody Damnable Trayterous Blind and Blasphemous and Madam I go upon sure grounds for I well know their Doctrines having Read them in their chief Authors and by way of Discourse and Disputes with their Priests c. and as for their Practices I have been long enough at Rome among them and in other Places to observe them I come to prove the Charge first their Religion is Idolatrous because it gives the Creature the Dead and Images the Honour due to God alone the Images and Wafer-God of Papists are Dumb Idols as well as those of the Heathens Their distinction of Latreia and Douleia is idle and frivolous for in (n) Rev. 22. Scripture the Servants of God which adore him are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Paul calls himself (o) Rom. 1.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Servant of Jesus Christ and in Rev. 19.10 the word there to adore is not derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but these things I must not trouble you with Now to Pray to Saints to the Dead to Adore the Wafer to Worship Images is not all this to give the Creature the Worship due to God alone and is it not to pay Relicks Divine Worship as to fall down kneel before and kiss them to go in Pilgrimage to their Shrines and Sepulchres and to expect help from them Secondly 'T is a Superstitious Religion upon the account of innumerable vain Fopperies in their Devotions wherein they place Religion as the Virgins Milk Peter's Beard Christopher's Tooth the Head Rib Arm Finger c. of such a Saint such things Rome is full of and hardly any of their Churches but hath some such things to shew What are their Holy-Water Salt Spittle Holy-Oil Beads Whippings Fish-days Nunneries Pilgrimages Baptising of Bells Fonts Crossing themselves c. Now let us look into their Rituals and by their Practices judge of their Belief and we shall find whole Almanacks full of Saints of their own making I dare say of some who never were in the World and of others who perhaps are now Tormented in Hell they have many more Saints than there are Days in the Year To these they pay the same Ceremonies in the self-same words attended with the same bowings and kneelings as they do to God himself Farthermore they directly to them offer their Prayers Consecrate Churches appoint Holy-days and make Vows to them which are but Creatures now Dead and lying in their Dust and Ashes if this be not Superstition and Idolatry I cannot tell what is so Thirdly 'T is a Bloody Religion witness their many Massacres of the Waldenses Albigenses and others their Bartholomew-Eves in France Cruelties in Ireland and in so many other parts of Europe their Principles and Canons of some of their Councils their Inquisitions and Congregations de Propaganda fide are well known Fourthly That Religion is Damnable for it overthrows the very Foundation of Christianity for their Transubstantiation destroys the Truth of Christ's Human Nature their Expiatory Sacrifice or the Mass his only Sacrifice for Sin offered once for all their Doctrine of Merits his Merits the multitude of Mediators among them makes void the only Mediator between God and Men the Man Jesus Christ their Sacrificing Priest overthrows Christ's Priestly Office as their Traditions do his Prophetical so is the great Article of the Forgiveness of sins and free Justification through Gods Grace in Jesus Christ by their Doctrines of Merits Pardons Indulgences Treasures of the Church and Works of Will-Worship Fifthly 'T is Blind which is plainly made out by their Doctrines of blind Obedience and implicit Faith according to them 't is enough for one to be a good Christian to believe what the Church believes tho' he knows not what the Church doth believe Sixthly 'T is a Treacherous Religion for they teach That the Pope may Depose Kings and lawfully Absolve Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance Lastly we charge it to be Blasphemous because the peculiar Excellencies of Divine Majesty and the Prerogatives of our Lord Jesus Christ it ascribes to the Virgin Mary whose Psalter by Bonaventura doth contain abundance of Blasphemies for all the Glorious things in the Book of Psalms spoken of the Son of God they blasphemously apply it to the Blessed Virgin who is but a Creature and that which is proper to him they give not only to the Virgin but also to multiply their Idolatry to other Creatures both dead and alive as to their Popes to whom and to their Priests they attribute a power to forgive Sins which is a downright Blasphemy for who can forgive sins but God alone Mark 2.7 Now I come to the second part of the Non-succession and shew that Peter was no Bishop of Rome or else he had been a Non-Resident and he never was at Rome herein to be ingenuous we shall say we have no positive proofs but next to that we have that which is as good neither can they with true and good Authority shew that ever he was there though they make use of Legends and spurious things and those who hold the Affirmative ought to prove it though they which are for the Negative should not yet we hope to demonstrate he never was Bishop in Rome After our Saviours Ascension Peter for several Years together continued in the Land of Judea and thereabouts for in the Book of the Acts we read of him in Chapters 1 2 3 4 5 6. tho' in this not particularly named but contained under the Name of the twelve 8 9 10 11 12. when having by the Angel been miraculously delivered out of Prison he left Jerusalem where we find him again in chap. 15. for he was present at the Synod or Council where Luke who followed Paul and in the rest of his Book gives an account of Pauls progress in Preaching the Gospel leaues him Now the Council was held in the 15th year after Christ's Resurrection and the 48th after his Birth till which time we cannot find he at all stirred out of Judea except when he was in Antioch where when for fear of the Jews he withdrew himself from the Gentiles Gal. 2.12 Now let us compare times Paul was Converted in the year of our Lord 35. and two years after his Ascension when going to Damascus out of which City he was by night let down by a Wall in a Basket Acts 9.25 thence he went to Jerusalem v. 26 27. and was by Barnabas brought to the Apostles he speaks of another Journey which (a) Gal. 1.18 three years after he took to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him fifteen days and in the 2 Chap. v. 1. he saith how fourteen years after he went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas at which time he also met there with Peter v. 9. and not long after at Antioch v. 11. It were

2. c. 15. and Index lib. prohibit Res 4. forbid people to read it tho' in several places of the Old and New Testaments there be an express command to read it which for brevity sake I shall not quote only in my way I shall take notice of an Interpretation of the words in Psalm 91.13 Thou shalt tread upon the Lyon and Adder the young Lyon and Dragon shalt thou trample under feet a Prophesy relating to our Lord and Saviour yet Pope Alexander the III. whilst he in the Porch of St. Marks Church in Verice was with his Foot treading upon the Neck of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa caused the words to be pronounced with a loud Voice to which the Emperor as bad an Interpreter as the proud Pope was of Scripture answered non tibi sed Petro this was not said to thee but to Peter whereunto the reply was Et mihi Petro to me and to Peter Before this Holy Word they prefer or at least make of an equal Authority their Traditions their own ●nventions and Forgeries For Madam give me eave to say That the Church of Rome is a great Impostor and hath been proved such by several Divines both Forreigners and our own yet Bellarmin in the same Book and Cardinal du Perron against Tilenus are for Traditions contrary to so many places of Scripture whereof some are quoted in the Margin (d) Deut. 12.32 Exod. 25.40 What things soever I command you observe to do it thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it and St. Paul saith (e) Gal. 1.8 9. If any man preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have precahed let him be accursed the word in the Original signifies besides what we have Preached there ought to be no dimunition addition or alteration But Madam to avoid prolixity which I see an enumeration of many of their Errors would unavoidably engage me in I shall in few words say their forbidding at certain times to eat some sorts of Meats when Gods Word in so many places speaks against it and that as well as the prohibition for Priests to Marry is called (f) 1 Tim. 4.1 2. Heb. 13.4 Doctrine of Devils when the Apostle calls Marriage Honourable and the Bed undefil'd How dare they to command that which God hath forbidden or to forbid that which God hath instituted approved and commanded Pope Pius the II. was so sensible of the unreasonableness of this as to say that if Priests for good cause had been forbidden to Marry for a better they should now Marry (g) Matt. 8.14 We Read in the Word how Peter whom they so much pretend to follow * Act. 21.8 9. and others among the Apostles and Evangelists were Married After this what shall we say of Campeggio † 1 Cor. 9.5 one of the Pope's Legates at the Council of Trent who openly maintained there that 't is better for a Priest to keep a Whore than to Marry Their Mediators of Intercession are an Injury to the Lord Jesus The Error of Transubstantiation is contrary to Scripture Sense and Reason and attended with Idolatry And now Madam I shall be more plain than I was once meerly out of respect for you when as you may remember a Pragmatical Priest at Table vexed some Body whom you know and with a Brazen Face denied the Romanists to Worship Images and other Creatures for 't is known how all your Priests are downright Idolaters first they make their Wafer God for saith one of them (h) Gab. Biel. Can. Miss 4. He who Created me without me is now Created by me I say the Priest first makes his God then falls down and Worships it and at last Eats it up Is not this as great an Idolatry as can be to Worship a Creature of his own making The place where our Saviour speaks of false Christs is remarkable (g) Matt. 24.23 26. If any man shall say unto you lo here is Christ or there believe it not or behold he is in the secret chambers or little places which they have above their Altars where under Lock and Key they keep their Idol God believe it not What manner of God is the Wafer God of Papists of one or few minutes standing which by the pronouncing of five Latin Words tho' in the Text there be but four This is my Body is as it were by a Magical Vertue changed into the substance of Christ's Body and so with them becomes God and as such is by them adored What a poor Idol God is this which cannot preserve it self from being eaten up by Dogs Rats Mice Spiders and the like Vermin and if it doth but slip out of the Priests Hand when he holds it is like Dagon before the Ark broken in pieces And the Priest when such an accident happens as it doth sometimes in the Street with a Rope about his Neck to shew how for his Idolatry he deserves to be Hanged doth scrape up the Crumbs with the Dirt when it happens to fall into 't and lays it up Of this Wafer-God may well be said what Elijah in a mocking way said of Baal He is a God who is either talking or pursuing or he is in a journey or he sleepeth and must be awaked For let the Popish Priests as well as Baal's cry from Morning till Evening as loud as they can there shall be no Voice nor any to Answer because the Wafer-God is as much a Dumb Idol as Baal's Image was 1 King 18.26 27. Upon this matter of the Wafer-God I must not omit taking notice of a thing which gives their Transubstantiation and Corporal Eating of Christ's Body a deadly blow and that with a Weapon of their own for in a French Translation of the Bible Printed in Antwerp by Martin L'Empereur in 1534 with Charles V. his License Dated Brussels the 21st of November 1533 in the 6th Chap. of John's Gospel over against these words Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood ye have no life in you There is a Marginal Note in these words To eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood is to believe in him whereby their pretended Corporal Manducation is quite overthrown and it perfectly agrees with the Doctrine of all Reform'd Churches As to the taking away the Cup from the People in the Sacrament 't is positively contrary to what our Saviour said (k) Matt. 26.27 Drink ye all of it and one of the Evangelists observes how they all drank of it and the Canon of the Council of Constance against it doth them more harm than good for in the Preface they own thus Licet Christus instituerit c. that is (l) Mar. 14.23 Tho' Christ instituted and gave after Supper the Sacrament in both kinds to his Disciples and tho' in the Primitive Church it was Administred in the like manner yet the Council for certain reasons doth command that the Sacrament be otherwise Administred