THE GRAND APOSTACY OF The Church of Rome From her Primitive Purity and Integrity WITH A VINDICATION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND In her SEPARATION from Her AND The hazard of Salvation in Communion with Her Discoursed in a SERMON Preached at St. Mary le Bow London On Sunday the 28th of December 1679. By JOHN HILL Rector of St. Mabyn in the County of Cornwall LONDON Printed for Samuel Heyrick at Greys-Inne-gate in Holborn 1680. Rev. 18. vers 4. Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues c. I Am not ignorant how much revelation is necessary to understand this book of the Revelation and that Interpreters themselves need interpretation It was the modest and ingenuous Confession of the learned Arias Montanus That after thirty years studying the Scriptures with the help of the most Judicious Expositors yet he understood onely two or three Chapters of this Book and hence was wont to say That the Expositors were as difficult to be understood as the Text there being many Comments that may be more properly termed Obscurities than Expositions on the Revelation Yet though some things are laid down mystically in abstruse terms to exercise the Judgment of the wisest yet others are more familiarly expressed to succour the infirmity of the weakest Some indeed are such Depths wherein Elephants may swim but there are others such Shallows wherein Lambs may wade My Text is one of those through which an ordinary Ingenuity may wade neither are the words cloathed with those difficulties which are originally incident to other places of this book The preceding Chapter gives you a description of that Mother of Fornications the Whore of Babylon as she was represented to the Apostle in a Vision In the 16th verse he foretels her ruine and propounds the method of Gods severity therein in the certainty suddenness and inevitability of her destruction And in my Text cautions all Gods people to avoid her sins lest they smart by her punishment to come out of her idolatries lest they be wrapt up in her destruction In the words you have two things considerable 1. A Command Come out of her i. e. out of Babylon 2. The ground and reason thereof and that is twofold 1. lest ye be partakers of her sins 2. of her plagues The words need not much explication and I love not to make Truths plain in themselves difficult by my obscure handling of them It was the unhappiness of the School-men to ravel and ensnarl the plainest truths of the Gospel with their nice distinctions and perplexed abstruse notions wherein as Quintilian Orators Multa loquuntur sed nihil dicunt which otherwise might be wound off by an ordinary Understanding But what Explication they need you shall have in this short Paraphrase Come out of her Exite ex illâ mi popule 'T is not to be so much understood of a bodily departure in regard of a cohabitation and Presence as of a spiritual separation in respect of Faith and Religion Come out of her Judgment and Doctrine her Faith and Worship The words seem to be taken out of Jer. 51.6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon and deliver every man his soul be not cut off in her iniquity And Jer. 50.8 Remove out of the midst of Babylon and go forth And Isai 48.20 Go forth of Babylon flee from her i. e. depart from her Communion Recedite recedite as Junius and Tremellius read the words depart quickly come not near this Pesthouse as you would avoid Infection My people i.e. By singular care respect and affection my people by special favour and covenant you that have owned my Name professed Religion in the power and purity of it O go out of her defile not your garments by Babylon's Idolatries for if you touch her you will pollute your selves Out of her i. e. Babylon We finde particular mention of three Babylons in History 1. Babylon of Assyria standing on the River Euphrates where was the confusion of Languages and where the Jews were in Captivity which place is taxed in Scripture for Idolatry and other Heaven-daring Iniquities 2. Babylon in Egypt standing on the River Nilus and for distinction called Babylon Aegyptiorum thought to be aimed at by St. Peter 1 Epist 5.13 vers Out of the ruines of this arose that great City Cayr 3. Babylon mystical whereof Babylon of Assyria was a type and this is Rome which though the great Favourers of that corrupt Church have endeavour'd to cast all obscurities imaginable on this Interpretation yet without the least shadow of scruple is here to be understood and the Whore of Babylon is by all circumstances that State or Regiment of a People that were then the Inhabitants of Rome or did belong thereto But of this more anon That ye be not partakers of her sins Contract not her guilt which you may do by contriving for her complying with or conniving at her Idolatries Though you act not with them yet if you like love and approve of her Villanies 't is enough to make you partakers with her That you receive not of her plagues Ne in eâdem involvemini ruinâ lest you be involved in the same destruction For there are three things in every sin 1. There is actus qui transit 2. Macula quae manet And 3. Poena quae debetur The act is transient but yet reflects guilt and guilt bindes over to punishment And hence in the Original sin and punishment have one and the same name to note to us that where sin is in the Premises there destruction will be in the Conclusion From the words thus explained there result these four Doctrinal Conclusions 1. That Christians must be very careful lest they communicate with idolatrous persons 2. That those persons of all others who have owned and professed the Name of God asserted his Cause and born testimony to his Truth should be most careful of defiling themselves with idolatrous practices 3. That the Idolatry practised in the Church of Rome is a sufficient ground for our separation from her 4. That to partake of a peoples fin is to be involved in that peoples ruine I shall wrap up all these in this one Proposition That it must be the great care of all Christians who would not run the hazard of their Eternal Salvation to come out of Babylon to separate themselves from the Faith and Religion of the present Church of Rome In the prosecution whereof I shall do these three things 1. I shall shew that Babylon here is meant of Rome 2. What defection this mystical Babylon hath made from her Primitive Purity and Integrity 3. The Grounds of our Separation together with the impossibility of a Reconciliation For the first that Babylon here is meant of Rome is most excellently done to my hand both by Ancient and Modern Writers So that to say any thing after them were but to light a Candle to the
't is in it self I need go no farther than their Book of holy Ceremonies for this which tells us not onely what their rude Ignorants do but what their holy Fathers have done This teacheth them to put confidence in Beads Medals and Roses hallowed Swords and Spells of the Gospel Agnus Dei's and such-like idle Bables ascribing to them divine Vertue yea so much as is due to the Son of God himself and his precious Bloud Pope Vrban the fifth sent three Agnus Dei's to the Emperour with these Verses Balsamus munda Cera cum Chrismatis unda Conficiunt Agnum quod munus do tibi magnum Fulgura de Coelo c. Balsam pure Wax and Chrysms liquor clear Make up this pretious Lamb I send thee here All Lightning it expels and each ill Spright Remedies Sin and makes the Heart contrite And so he goes on in his Blasphemy Even as the Bloud of Christ for us shed c. And lest you may imagine this to be the Conceit of some phantastical Pope hear out of the same Book of holy Ceremonies the very words that every Pope doth use to pray in their blessing the water which serves for that Agnus Dei viz. That thou wouldst vouchsafe O Lord to bless these things which we are now about to pour into this vessel of water prepared to thy glory so as by the worship and honour of them we may have our sins done away our blemishes wiped off and thereby may obtain pardon and receive grace so that with thy Saints and elect children we may merit everlasting life Amen Can there be greater Superstition Magick or Blasphemy and all this practised by the very Heads of that Church Hence the poor Laity are hoodwinkt in a forced Ignorance who live no less without Scripture than if there were none at all They forbid Spiritual food as Poyson fetch God Book into the Inquisition and thereby cheat the Vulgar with nothing but shews of Holiness in Pilgrimages Processions Offerings Holy Water Latine Service Images Tapers Vestments Altars Crosses and a thousand such like fit onely for children and fools robbing them in the mean time of the sound and plain helps of Piety and Devotion More particularly confider it under these Circumstances 1. That it hath made wicked men Saints and Saints Gods nay the modern Canonization hath made those saints that were scarce men And we have their own Confessions That the most notorious sinners have leapt into their Kalendar and once Sainted they have the honour of Altars Temples Invocations and some of them in a stile fit onely for their Maker 2. A Religion that professeth to be a Bawd to Sin whilst in practice it tolerates open Stews and prefers Fornication in some â—iseâ— before honourable Matrimony and gently blancheth over the breaches of the Commandments with the name of Venials and favourable titles of Dimmution daring to affirm That venial sins are no hindrance to a mans Integrity and Perfection 3. A Religion that indeed deserves not the name of Religion the Ape and Mimick of it a very outside of Christianity at best a meer formality of Devotion all whose Prayers Fastings Pilgrimages c. are no other than a going to Hell in more pomp and state For look into their Churches there you will see idle Apishness in the most solemn works The poor Laity in the mean while returning empty of all sound Edification and only full of confused intentions yet are they taught to think this Sacrifice of Fools to be meritorious From thence look into their houses and closets there you will see such a trade of careless and lazie Holiness that there is but little difference between the Image and the Suppliant Piety it self being lulled asleep with their heartless and sleepy Vespers And if you step a little farther and cast your eyes into the melancholy Cells of some austere Recluses there you may finde perhaps an Hair-cloath a Whip an Hurdle or the Rope about the waste But where in all this is true Mortification A pious Protestant takes more pains with his Heart in a day than a superstitious Papist doth with his Skin in a year the one indeed whips himself but the other denies himself the draws Bloud from his Flesh the other from his Lusts And therefore if you look into the whole Course of the Roman Catholick life you shall finde the Commandments of God professedly broken besides the ordinary practice of Idolatry and frequencie of Oaths Men whose sinful rebellions are ever and anon smoaking against Heaven dare meet God in his loudest Thunder and venture on Damnation in its most terrible form so that God can no where display the Ensignes of his Power but these audacious wretches hang out their Flags of defiance And this brings me to the second thing how blasphemous a Religion this is in respect of God and Christ Of God and that as 1. it teacheth men to worship Stocks and Stones with the same honour that is due to their Creator Hence they worship God under the Image of an Old man Christ under the Image of a Lamb the Holy Ghost under the resemblance of a Dove And Cajeran doth confess That they draw the Images by the Trinity not onely to shew but to adore and worship them Now lest this should appear to her simple Clients how palpably opposite it is to the second Commandment they have cunningly left it out as a needless Illustration in all their Catechisms and Prayer-books of the Vulgar 2. As it asserts the Priests Judicial Power in pardoning sins and absolving sinners and openly allows and tolerates the buying of Pardons and Indulgences from them So that now Purgatorie can have no rich men in it but fools and friendless Devils are tormented here yet men can command Devils and Money can command men 3. As it advandeth Nature to a co-partnership with God in our Justification and Salvation and idly puffs her up into a conceit of her ability to keep more Laws than ever God made And for this requires no other Faith than may be sound in the Devils themselves who besides a confused apprehension can assent unto the truth of God revealed And Popery requires no more 4. As it relies on the Infallibility of those whom they grant to have been and may be monstrous in their lives and dispositions most of their Popes having been the most monstrous notorious wretches that ever the Earth groaned under O that it were rid of the burdend ‑ How many of these Heirs of St. Peter if their own Records deceive us not have by Bribes Whores and Devils dimb'd into that Chair ‑ yet for any to say that those men who are confessed to have given their Souls to the Devil that they might be Popes can erre whilst they are such is Heresie worthy a Stake and Hell Thus of its Blasphemy in respect of God II. In respect of Christ and that these four ways 1. In overthrowing the Perfection of Christs Humanity while they give unto it
crush in pieces all the Kings and Kingdoms of the Earth He may as Bosius saith depose Kings for just causes and without any cause also It belongs to him saith Sunders to pronounce Kings Hereticks to declare their Subjects exempt from Allegiance and that they ought to be deposed if they will not Blade it for Christ that is for the Popes Tyranny and Lust And this is not onely matter of their Faith but Fact 2. Not onely in the Supremacy but also in the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper for at first the people received it under both kinds for the space of a thousand years And saith Myraldus The Roman Order commanded the Wine to be conserated that the People might fully communicate And the antient Liturgies of their own Church do tell us that the People received the Wine as well as the Bread Nay Cajetan as eminent a Member as ever their Church boasted of confesseth that the Custom endured a long time in the Church even until their so-much-admired Council of Constance forbad it and then the Romanists altered their minde 3. Her defection hath been most notorious in that monstrous Tenet of Transubstantiation a Doctrine lately brought in and made matter of Faith by Innocent the third in the Lateran Council within these four hundred years before which time no man was obliged to believe it but all men were left to their own liberties whereas now 't is accounted Heresie to deny it and worthy of Bonds the Inquisition a Stake and Hell 4. In the Worship of Images for at first that Church admitted of no Image at all either painted or carved no not the Image of Christ himself saith Erasmus to be set up in Churches And when they began to be used the Church of Rome her self forbad any Worship to be given to them as appears by Gregory's Epistles to Severus And Polydore a great admirer of the Romish Church confesseth that all the Fathers condemned the Worship of Images for fear of Idolatry And when the Nicene Council brought them in for ornament even then they denied them Worship 5. In the great Article of Justification the most eminent Pillars of their Church having denied Justification by Works as Thomas Aquinas and others yet the Council of Trent varied from them and thrust in mans inherent Righteousness as the formal cause of his Justification Now a Church that hath made these Defections and hath introduced such horrid Errours should be separated from Come out of her my people which leads me to the consideration of the various Causes of this Apostacy which may be referred either to 1. Her Pride and Ambition 'T is well known what arrogance that Church became guilty of when Tertullian in his time complained de Insolentia Cleri Romani And Luther calls them Silk and Sattin Divines to whose proud Spirits the poor and contemptible way of Christ could not comport In that Assertion of theirs how do they extol their Priesthood Creatura paruit Joshuae at Presbyteris Creator Sol illi at his Deus quotiescunque verba sacra pronuntiat The Creature obeyed Joshua but the Creator doth the Priests the Sun yielded to him but to these as often as they pronounce the words of Consecration doth God yield On this conceit it is that they degrade all Temporal Princes those Vmbratiles Dii making them stand bare-foot at their great Bishops gate hold his Stirrup yea their own Crowns at his courtesie exempting all their Ecclesiastical Subjects from their Jurisdiction and all the rest from their Allegiance 2. Fraud and Perfidiousness the Romanists had fully learned that Regnandi Causa all Oaths were to be violated How grosly were the Pope and his Adherents taken in forging some Canons of the Council of Nice for their preheminent Dignity And being conscious of their own falshood still continue to deprave all Authors that might give in Evidence against them outfacing all antient Truths and foisting in Gibeonish witnesses of their own forging and leave nothing unattempted against Heaven or Earth that might advance their Faction Take a view of her carriage to those that diffent from her How hath she abused all that opposed her charging Wickliffe with Blasphemy Luther to have had his Advice from the Devil Queen Elizabeth's Episcopal Jurisdiction and secret Fruitfulness our Bishops to have been consecrated in Taverns oun casting the Crust of the Sacramental Bread to Dogs With a thousand more of this nature maliciously raised and defended against Knowledge and Conscience for the disgrace of those that diffent from them 3. Covetousness For if you look on all their Opinions about Indulgences Private Masses Auricular Confession you will find love to Money the cause of them all Hence the humour of that Church was well hinted to us in the answer of a Priest to his Friend who asking him why he would not Absolve a Penitent without a great sum of Money replyed They get Heaven by us and we must get Money by them 4. Neglect of Scripture And this hath see open a flood-gate whereby all the world was drowned in Errours For take the Eyes out of the Body the Sun out of the Firmament the Compass from the Ship and what can follow but darkness blackness and confusion Therefore they wish that there had never been Scripture and say That the Church could have done well enough with Traditions onely They call the Bible that Book which hath made all the stirs in the world and say That all the Faith a man can have by it is meerly humane and no more O! the great patience of God that bears such Blasphemies from these Monsters of Men 5. Nourishing of sin Of which this Church hath been guilty two several ways 1. By her common practice of encouraging those who had been censured in the Eastern Churches for foul Miscarriages to appeal to her and she would Absolve them and whenever she did inflict Ecclesiastical Censures they were in a great part Pecuniary and meerly to the macerating of the Body no ways to the saving of the Soul which occasioned us to tell them that peccata raduntur non eradicantur and Heathen-like they did vitia abscondere non abscindere by this Penance there was something done about sin nothing done against sin it being like Sampsons Hair cut off yet because the Roots remained they sprung up to their full strength again 2. By the suitableness of her Doctrine to the carnal and sensual part of man Particularly 1. That Doctrine of extenuating original sin making motions to sin unconsented to no sin at all That a man hath power to keep the Commandments That to love God binds onely at some times That actual inadvertency in holy Duties doth not hinder the Fruit of them That Prayers said in Latine though we do not understand them are very acceptable unto God c. 2. That Doctrine of advancing the pride of Nature which tells her that she can merit her own Glory without being much beholding to Gods Mercy that
to Lord it over Scriptures Fathers Councils Church and all the World What possibility is there that the Kingdoms of the world should be subject unto him What probability that Images should be worshipped Our Works merit Heaven That the body of Christ should be in a thousand places at one time That the Priest hath Judicial Power to forgive sins That the Saints in Heaven should be Mediators for us to God He that will but indifferently compare these shall finde them manifestly repugnant not onely to the Principles of Religion but offer violence to the Law of Nature 4. Consider farther that in this Church the most horrid Cruelties are not onely tolerated and approved but rewarded and accounted meritorious It teacheth Equivocation to murder Kings to undermine States and to blow up Parliaments it dispenseth with Murder Incest Sodomy and all this accounted Licitum Solenne From hence proceeds such Conspiracies against our King such Plots against our Church and State 't is not Religion they strive for but Soveraignty and this they will have or they will make all Protestant Nations their Shambles and swim to it through Oceans of Blood and they will this way if others fail reduce the Consciences of Subjects and the Crowns and Scepters of Princes to their Devotion This brands them with the Indelible Characters of the Ministers of Antichrist who being but Priests and confined to their Books having no other Commission than to go and preach the Gospel should thus creep into Thrones filling the world with Anarchy and Confusion and those whose Souls they should win to God by ministring the Word and Sacraments their Bloud they sacrifice to the Devil by stirring them up to Treason and Rebellion perswading them that they shall be Canoniz'd at Rome though they be hang'd at Tyburn and be glorious Saints in Heaven though they died great Rogues and Rebels on Earth These things duely considered in general will tell you that there is hazard not onely of Temporal Safety but of Eternal Salvation in our Communion with such a Church and therefore Come out of her c. This will the better appear if you consider secondly and more particularly this one Argument drawn from the Religion it self practised in that Church And this I will consider two ways 1. As the Jesuits have painted and adorned it 2. As 't is stript naked of all those adventitious Ornaments First As they have painted it and thereby recommended it to the view of their ignorant admirers We read of strange things of certain Painters how admirably they cast and shadowed their works but the skilfullest Painters that ever were are the Jesuits and School-men the workmen of the Church of Rome not the famous Zeuxis or antient Polignotus or Phidias did ever bestow such pains on their Images as these have done on their Idol the Papacie They have made choice of the most exquisite devices that all the Heresies in the world could afford to put the same into their Religion No Policy in Machiavel no Sophistry in Aristotle or Eloquence in Tully but they have contrived it into their Image and save Truth and Sincerity there is nothing wanting The Evangelical Prophet Isai 44.11 c. sets down a lively description of this matter whereby deriding the folly of the Gentiles he fitly shews us the Idolatry of Rome and the manner how the Idol-Religion thereof was framed and set on foot For at the first you see it was but a rude Block rough-hewn by bungling Workmen that were not their Crafts-masters till the Smith Carpenter and Painter came every one in his place and shewed his skill This is ingeniously applied by a very learned man of our own to the Church of Rome 1. The Canonists like Black-smiths blew with the Bellows of their Decrees and heated and hammered it in the Coals of the Popes Constitutions These were Gratian Pope John Gregory and Boniface with their Apprentices that served them Hostiensis Innocent Panormitane and others of that black and smutty Profession Secondly The Carpenters that took it in hand were the Fryars and School-men These stretched their line of Method over it planed it with Distinctions where it was rough and by their Logick and Philosophy brought it into better shape and form These were T. Aquinas Scotus Bonaventure Alexander Hales and others Having thus gotten an handsome shape and fashion the Council of Lateran polished it over again gave it Joynts to stand upon The Councils of Constance and Basil altered the fashion of it in some particular parts for Senensis and Cusanus thought the head stood too high above the shoulders and would have it bowed down a little lower At last they brought it to Trent to the hands of their best Workmen who moulded it à capite ad calcem and set it up again when the worms had well-nigh consumed it Since which came in the third sort of Workmen viz. Thirdly The Painters i. e. the Jesuits and there is no colour which they have not tried to render it beautiful Some with Varnish and Plaister stop up the cracks and Bellarmine was happily born to do them this service Others as Baronius and Surius cast a shadow over it with other colours Sextus Senensis and Possevine brag of the Workmanship flatter the Workmen and extol the Idol And thus at last they have polished their Idol and set it before the Lord's Ark And by this means they have attracted the eyes and hearts of their deluded followers insomuch that all that worship not this Image must into the fiery Furnace and be offered as a Sacrifice to the fury of their Romish Moloch Now that which they are so fond of in this Religion is its suitableness to their sensual interests and affections the greatest part of which easeth them from taking any pains in spiritual things As for Example They must serve God but there be ways to dispence and turn the Spiritual Service into a Corporal which is much easier Sinners must have Gods pardon or they cannot be saved but the dispensation hereof is committed with the Keys to Christs Vicar who hath power to release them by the Sacraments of the Altar and Penance Hence the Pope hath mens Consciences at his devotion into which he slides under the pretence of being St. Peter's Successor then blindes their eyes by taking away the Scriptures and stops their ears by perswading them to hear none but himself And hereby thousands are betrayed into the hands of Eternal Ruine This is the first thing shewn viz. that part of their Religion as set forth with Romish Glosses and Varnishes I am next to shew it you in its native Complexion as stript naked of all adventitious Ornaments and then you will easily perceive it to be the most monstrous and ridiculous the most bloudy and blasphemous Religion in the whole world 1. Ridiculous in it self 2. Blasphemous towards God and Christ 3. Bloudy to all that have and do oppose her I. The most ridiculous Religion as