A51839:207
XVIII sermons on the second chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians containing…
XVIII sermons on the second chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians containing the description, rise, growth, and fall of Antichrist : with divers cautions and arguments to establish Christians against the apostasy of the Church of Rome : very necessary for these times / by that late reverend and learned divine, Thomas Manton ...XVIII sermons on the second chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians containing the description, rise, growth, and fall of Antichrist : with divers cautions and arguments to establish Christians against the apostacy of the Church of Rome : very necessary for these times / by that late reverend and learned divine, Thomas Manton ...
London: printed by J.D. for J. Robinson, 1679
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.
2. As to Judgment. It is an exercising an Authority no less than Divine. So to take upon him to absolve man from his duty to God, or the penalty which sin hath made his due. The one is done by Dispensations, the other by Indulgences. And therefore whoever by Dispensations, antiquates and dispenses with the Laws of God, himself is thus guilty: As dispensing with marrying the Brothers Wife. Nay, one of the Popes dispensed with one ⟨p. 94⟩that took his own Sister to Wife. I do not allege this so much for the particular facts, but to show the power which they challenged to be inherent in themselves. Bellarmine, saith Christ, hath given Peter and his Successors, a power faciendi peccatum non peccatum, to make a sin, to be no sin; and again, If the Pope should err in forbidding Virtues, and commanding Vices: the Church were bound to believe Vices to be good, and Virtues to be evil; which certainly, is to set man in the place of God. 2. As to Indulgences, as to pretend to give Pardons for sin for so many years; a thing that God himself never did; to pardon the sin before it was committed; that is, to give a licence to sin. So for the highest crimes to absolve men, upon a little attrition, or trouble about the sin, to do all this and more than this, as of right, is to sit in the Church of God as God.
2. As to Judgment. It is an exercising an Authority no less than Divine. So to take upon him to absolve man from his duty to God, or the penalty which sin hath made his due. The one is done by Dispensations, the other by Indulgences. And therefore whoever by Dispensations, antiquates and dispenses with the Laws of God, himself is thus guilty: As dispensing with marrying the Brothers Wife. Nay, one of the Popes dispensed with one ⟨p. 94⟩that took his own Sister to Wife. I do not alledge this so much for the particula• facts, but to shew the power which they challenged to be inherent in themselves. Bellarmine, saith Christ, hath given Peter and his Successors, a power faciendi peccatum non peccatum, to make a sin, to be no sin; and again, If the Pope should err in forbidding Vertues, and commanding Vices: the Church were bound to believe Vices to be good, and Vertues to be evil; which certainly, is to set man in the place of God. 2. As to Indulgences, as to pretend to give Pardons for sin for so many years; a thing that God himself never did; to pardon the sin before it was committed; that is, to give a licence to sin. So for the highest crimes to absolve men, upon a little attrition, or trouble about the sin, to do all this and more than this, as of right, is to sit in the Church of God as God.