Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BS2096.A1 1701 .P3

An Advertifement. móre than I, I find little more than a believing that to be the fenfe ofthe Revelation,which thofe good men fay it is whom they molt value. Some will defire yet to knowmore ofmy own Opinion : And I will freely tell it them: I. I am much perfwaded, by impartial confiderationof theText, that the Roman Impe rial Power, as the Upholder of Heathen Wortip of Devils, Idols, and themfelves, and as Captivaters of the Church of yews and Gentiles, was the firft Beati, and that Rome in that refpe& was Babylon, and the Whore that made all Nations drunk with her pompous Idolatry. And the whole Current of the Book feemeth plainly to drive at this ; but many of the fubordinate particularsI underitand nor. II. Whetherthe Papacy be another Beal! or Whore there meant, and the Tett mean two firß Beafls, and two ti-hares, or theSimilitude, notwithßanding fomany Diflìmilitudes, and Six hundred, or Seven hundred, or a Thoufand years interruption, make thefè two one ; or whether it be .ilatiebrif that is the Beall, I willneither affirmnor deny, but fee no Evi- dence to prove the Affirmative. III.- What myJudgment is ofPopery, the Reader may fully fee, s. In one Sheet enume- rating its Errors. 2. In a Book mild, The Safe Religion. 1. In another call'd, AKey for Cathólicks. 4. In two of the trueCatholick Church againß yohnfon, alias Torrel. s. In one call'd, The Chrifiian Religioncertain without Popery. 6. In one call'd, Full and eafe Sats- fabtloa, which as the True Religion. 7. One calla, naked Popery. If theft fatisfie not the Cenfurer's Zeal, him that is ignorant, be ignorant ; and he that is wrathful, be fo (till. IV. I do judge of Poperyby the knowledge ofits particular Errors and Sini, and not by the Revelations, or any thing which I underfand not. If the Pope be the great Anti- thrift, which I neither deny nor affirm, becaufe I know not, (as Ì have long ago con- fefs`d ) I think that it is formally, as he is by claim the ViceChrifl, Vicarios C hrïfti, and claimeth an Z'niverfal Soveragsty Ecclefiaflical over the whole Church on' Earth, (and not over a Nation only) and that he began with that Claim, to which his nr:ny Corruptions are joyñd to make up a Bodyof Iniquity : Were there no more to be laid againft that Church' than., 1. this Claim of Vsiverfd Government. 2. And the cherifhing of Ignorance, by forbidding the rending of the Scripture in a known Tongue without Licenfe, and La- tine Prayers and Service, and an ignorant Clergy. 1. And the Inhumane DoCleine of Tranfubftanfiation. 4. And the vile Corruptions ofmuch of God's Worthip, i. And their horrid Bloodguiltinefs, by which they do uphold their Kingdom call'd a Church. I take thole Popes and Papifts who own all this to be liable, before God, to greater Punithment than the Beaf and Falfe Prophet menrion'd in the Revelations, it beingfarworld to fin thus under the Name of Chriltians, and Chrift's Vicar, and holy Bifhops, than as In. fidels and Heathens, to whom (as to Sodom) it (hall be eafier in the Day ofJudgment than for there. V. Therefore Ì judge that a Confederacy or Coalition with the Church of Rome, in any of there Sins, or in the very formof a Church headed by a pretended Vnsverfal Hoad or Soveraign, is to be abhorr'd by all found Chriftians : And I am glad that this Kingdom is fworn againß all Foreign7urifdilfion, Civil orEcdefaaltical ; tho' Union and Concordwith all Foreign Churches mutt be as far kept as we are able, not partaking of their Sins. But I have long ago (in my Key for Cancolicks) propos'd the definable terms (not for a Coalition, but) for neighbosrly Peace, that we may live in Love and quietnefs, and notas thofe that ßi11 take themfelves bound to deßroy each other. VI. On there Grounds I judge of Perfens according to their Perfossal Guilt, and not by thegeneral Name of Ppills. I abhor shore that are wicked, and that own the 'forefaid Wickednefs,- but not all that are call'd Roman Catholicks, that live in the fear of God, and in Charity. I will try Uncertaintiesby Certainties, and not deny Fundamentals in Oppo- fition to Mens By-Opinions. Iam certain that I muß love a Chriftian, as lach, and that as much as in me heds I mutt live peaceably with all men, and avoid all unnecefiàry Divi- floe, Wrath and Hatred; and T -am lure that Blfad are the Peacemakers, for ( what- ever.Errour calleth them) they (hall be call'd the Children of God : I am five, that I mutt (unnecefkaily)fheak Evil of no man ; and that flanderiog and falle accuing are Diabolical Works and that the Wifdom is from beneath, which caufettt Envy and Strife ; and, in a word, that L- O 4 E is Chrift's Work and Charaiher, and H- A- TR E D the Deyil's : But I ana not litre that the Church aflame bath thefe woo or r sea years

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