Popery condemned by scripture and the fathers - End Time Deception

SCRIPTURE AND THE FATHERS, 244
" bidding to marry, and coramrinding to ab-
" stain from meats, which God hath created to
" be received with thanksgiving." Whether
these be applicable
to the bishops of Rome, let
the R. judge. The celibacy of the clergy is
one of the principal devices for
the aggrandizement
of that See. It has therefore been strenuously
enjoined as an important precept of religion
; as if the extinction of the human race
were highly gratifying to God. Nor is the
other precept of the man of sin less appropriate.
The Church of Rome, like a skilful shepherd,
has been aware how much the health of the
simple flock depends upon the nature of their
food ;
and therefore she has taken their feasting
and fasting under her own direction. Bv ionoexperience
she has found, that restricting them
to certain kinds of provender upon particular
days produces a vast imiprovement of both the
flesh and the wool,
and fully repays for any extra
labour which it occasions. Like other persons
occupied in the pastoral life, she is a great
observer of the influence of days upon the qualities
of food ; and having often seen that what
is good and nourishing to-day, will to-morrow
produce the rot and other deadly distempers,
she has commanded to abstain from meats, a-
greeably, no doubt, to the direction of scripture,
" Every creature of God is good, and
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nothing to be refused,"
The