They will all tell you that we must Love God above all, and our Neighbours as our Selves; but to fight against his Word and Worship and Servants, is but an ill expression of their Love to God: And seeking their destruction, because they will not Sin, is an ill expression of Love to their Neighbours. When men, judge of Good and Evil, as Satan Teacheth them, and as selfish ⟨p. 8⟩Pride and Worldly interest incline them, what wonder if such Love have murdered 30000 or 40000 at once in France and 200000 in Ireland, and have filled the Christian World with Religious Blood? Read but the doleful Histories of Church Contentions for 1300 years, the Stories of their Wars and mutual Persecutions, the Streams of Blood that have been shed in East and West, the inquisitions and bloody Laws still kept up, and all this as Good Works, and done in Love, and you would think that the Sacred Roman Hierarchy did Believe that Christ hath put down the Legal Sacrificing of Beasts, that he might instead of it have the blood of men; and that he who requireth his Disciples to lay down their lives for him, would have a Priesthood kept up to Sacrifice their lives to him, that will not wilfully break his Laws. And all this is but as Christ foretold us, that his Servants should be killed as a piece of Service to God. No wonder if such men offer God a ludicrous mimical sort of Service, and Worship him in vain by heartless lip-labour, according to the Traditions of men, when they dare Sacrifice Saints to the Lord of Saints, and quiet their Consciences by calling them such as they are themselves. But to the honour of Goodness, and the shame of Sin, to show that they sin against the Light of Nature it self, they put the Name of Evil upon Good, before they dare openly oppose and persecute it; and they put the Names of Good upon Evil before they dare defend and justify it.
They will all tell you that we must Love God above all, and our Neighbours as our Selves; but to fight against his Word and Worship and Servants, is but an ill expression of their Love to God: And seeking their destruction, because they will not Sin, is an ill expression of Love to their Neighbours. When men, judge of Good and Evil, as Satan Teacheth them, and as selfish ⟨p. 8⟩Pride and Worldly interest incline them, what wonder if such Love have murdered 30000 or 40000 at once in France and 200000 in Ireland, and have filled the Christian World with Religious Blood? Read but the doleful Histories of Church Contentions for 1300 years, the Stories of their Wars and mutual Persecutions, the Streams of Blood that have been shed in East and West, the inquisitions and bloody Laws still kept up, and all this as Good Works, and done in Love, and you would think that the Sacred Roman Hierarchy did Believe that Christ hath put down the Legal Sacrificing of Beasts, that he might instead of it have the blood of men; and that he who requireth his Disciples to lay down their lives for him, would have a Priesthood kept up to Sacrifice their lives to him, that will not wilfully break his Laws. And all this is but as Christ foretold us, that his Servants should be kill'd as a piece of Service to God. No wonder if such men offer God a ludicrous mimical sort of Service, and Worship him in vain by heartless lip-labour, according to the Traditions of men, when they dare Sacrifice Saints to the Lord of Saints, and quiet their Consciences by calling them such as they are themselves. But to the honour of Goodness, and the shame of Sin, to shew that they sin against the Light of Nature it self, they put the Name of Evil upon Good, before they dare openly oppose and persecute it; and they put the Names of Good upon Evil before they dare defend and justifie it.
