Popery condemned by scripture and the fathers - End Time Deception

142 POPERY CONDEMNED BY
son to charge her with superstition and idolatry.
Israel appear to have been guilty of " some'*
superstitious idolatry ; and yet God acknowledged
their relation to him as a Church, " My
** people^^^ says he, " ask counsel at their
" stocks .... They sacrifice upon the tops of
'•
the mountains, and burn incense upon the
*'
hills*,*'
But the R.'s second question is still more insignificant.
" If the Church,'* says he, " be
" the Assembly of the Saints, why do you sepa-
*'
rate yourselves from it " Let him bethink himself
whether Protestants separated themselves,
or were unjustly cast out of the Romish Church.
When our ancestors discovered the abominations
that were practised under the mask of religion,
ought they to have quieted their consciences
with the consideration, that it was the Church
who did them They saw it their duty to attempt
a removal of them ; and they took the
regular steps for this purpose.
But the Church
of Rome justified her pollutions, by treating
then> as the rulers of the Jews did the first
disciples
of Christ ; and our ancestors only imitated
the conduct of the latter when cast out of
the synagogue. It is the Church of Rome,
therefore, that is chargeable with schism. Our
ancestors were expelled from her communion,
solely fQr an adherence to the truths of religion;
* Hos. Iv. 12. iq.
and