A34679:720
An exposition upon the thirteenth chapter of the Revelation by that reverend and eminent…
An exposition upon the thirteenth chapter of the Revelation by that reverend and eminent servant of the Lord, Mr. John Cotton ... ; taken from his mouth in short-writing, and some part of it corrected by himself soon after the preaching thereof ; and all of it since viewed over by a friend to him ... wherein some mistakes were amended, but nothing of the sense altered.
London: printed for Tim. Smart, 1656
Title page typeset from the transcription.
AN EXPOSITION Upon the thirteenth Chapter of the REVELATION. › Part
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
So then, see the danger of such Constitutions, it was wrought by the Bishop of Rome, and lives by life from him, the life of the Law of God breaths not in the pulses of it; any that know them, know how far they be from the pattern of the Scripture, how ridiculous they be to such as discern the state of them; You see also what mighty power they have, that all civill States have been contented to deliver such to fire and sword, whom they have delivered up as Heretics: They soon loose the protection of the Civill State, if they loose the favour of imaginary Churches; well doth he call them images, they are images of the Pope, and images which God forbids, and the inventions of the sons of men; Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image, in the second Commandment: You shall make no Images of Officers, nor Government, nor worship, but that which Christ himself hath set up.
So then, see the danger of such Constitutions, it was wrought by the Bishop of Rome, and lives by life from him, the life of the Law of God breaths not in the pulses of it; any that know them, know how far they be from the pattern of the Scripture, how ridiculous they be to such as discern the state of them; You see also what mighty power they have, that all civill States have been contented to deliver such to fire and sword, whom they have delivered up as Hereticks: They soon loose the protection of the Civill State, if they loose the favour of imaginary Churches; well doth he call them images, they are images of the Pope, and images which God forbids, and the inventions of the sonnes of men; Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven Image, in the second Commandement: You shall make no Images of Officers, nor Government, nor worship, but that which Christ himselfe hath set up.
Fifthly,1 it lets us see how dangerous it is, to annex civill penalties, ipso facto, upon such as are cast out of the Church; an usual thing in Popish Churches, or in the Images of such. First, they suspend them from the Sacrament, but then it comes with an Excommunication, no man must buy nor sell, he hath refused to honour the image of the Beast: It is dangerous to bring in civill Authority immediately upon Church-censure: A warning to us here, that if men be excommunicated, not to deny them civill Commerce, or to say such as stand out excommunicated so long, shall no longer enjoy the privileges of the State: The Church may cut them off from fellowship with it self, there may be just reason so to do; they may discover such hypocrisy as may make them unfit for the Church, but yet they may not altogether be unfit for the Common-wealth.