(4) tended power and authority of the Church. It hath laid whole Countreys defolate with fire and fword, turning Cities into allies and Villages into a wildernefs, by the deftrudion of their Inhabitants. It was the Church which killed, mur- thered and burnt innumerable holy Perlons, for no other reafon in the world , but becaufe they would not fubmit their Souls, Confciences and Practices unto her commands, and be fubjedt unto her in all things: Nor was there any other Church confpicuoully vifible in all thefe parts of the world ; nor was it efteemed lawful once to think, that this was not the true Church, or that there was or could be any other: For men to believe that this Church-State wasfrom Heaven , is for them to believe that cruelty , bloodíhed , murther, the deft.ruc`tion of mankind efpecially of the bell, the wild/ and the moll holy among them, is the only way to Heaven. 4. The fecular worldly interefl of multitudes lying in this prefumptzve Church and the Rate of it, they preferred and exalted it above allthat is calledGod, andmade the great eft Idol of it, that ever was in the world : For it was the faith and profeffion of it, that its authority over the Souls and Confciences of men, isabove the.Authority of the Scrip- ture fo that they have no Authority towards us, unlefs it be given unto them by this Church, and that we neither can nor need believe them to be the Word of God, unlefs they inform us and command us fo to do. This ufurpation of Divine Honour in putting itfelf and its Authority above that of the Scripture or Word of God, difcoversfull well whence it was. In like manner thofe who atlumed it unto them- felves to be the Church, without any other Right, Title or Pretence unto it, have exaltedone amongft them and with him themfelves in their feveral capacities, above all Empe- rors, Kings and Princes, Nationsand People, trampling on themat their pleafure. Is this Church-State from Heaven LI Is
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