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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04191	A treatise containing the originall of vnbeliefe, misbeliefe, or misperswasions concerning the veritie, vnitie, and attributes of the Deitie with directions for rectifying our beliefe or knowledge in the fore-mentioned points. By Thomas Iackson Dr. in Divinitie, vicar of Saint Nicholas Church in the famous towne of New-castle vpon Tine, and late fellow of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford.; Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed. Book 5	Jackson, Thomas, 1579-1640.	1625 (1625)	STC 14316; ESTC S107490	279,406	488

cannot be Thirdly the Saints in heaven are happie glorious the sonnes of God Gods by participation because they are confirmed in their estate and are not subject to change or Apostasie to both which all in this life having their blisse and glory rather in spe than in re are in his judgement still obnoxious From these resolutions wee thus infer If promises then the prayers which we make to Saints haue greater affinity with the prayers which we make to God than with our request to living men that they would pray for vs. To speake properly we pray men we doe not vse to pray vnto them But as vnto God so vnto Saints men of the Romane Churches catechizing vse to pray that solemnly because they hold them Gods by participation Now as we might not worship our redeemer Cultu latriae with divine worship vnlesse we were by faith assured that he were truely God so admitting the invocation or worshipping of true Saints Cultu Duliae were warranted by the word of God yet might we not worship any with this kinde of worship without like certaintie of faith that they are Gods by participation or heires of glory Had this great Clerke beene mindfull in his third booke concerning the worshipping of Saints of what he had said before in the first he would in wisedome haue concealed these conclusions Or if he had in the first booke foreseene the necessitie of this resolution concerning vows shame would haue made him disclaime the practise of praying though privately vnto vncanonized Saints whose lawfulnesse he there maintains by the same plea that Sir Thomas More vsed Oramus viuentes etiamsi nesciamus esse Sanctos cur non defunctos quando maiori ratione confidimus esse sanctos We pray living men to pray for vs albeit we know them not to be Saints and why not men deceased whom we may on better reasons hope to be Saints though this we may not doe in publicke Letanies and sacred Service Now they may not invocate such Saints in publicke Liturgies because the Church hath forbidden it otherwise Nazianzens Prosopopaeia in his Panegyricke to Basil or Athanasius might haue beene a sufficient warrant to haue conceived a publicke hymne in the same forme But as I said we pray living men to pray for vs as we are readie to doe for them we pray not vnto them we giue no solemne testimony of their sanctitie whose sinceritie we mistrust though this were lesse sacrilegious and dishonourable vnto God then praying vnto them whom we know not to be Saints albeit to pray vnto knowne Saints were no sacriledge For what preposterous partialitie is this that God must manifest his right to supreme honour by his workes of creation and providence that our Saviour which died for vs must plead his title to the like by miracles whilest he lived by his resurrection from the dead and glorious ascension into heaven and yet men that were subiect to the same passions as we our selues are must be worshipped after death with such worship as is more like to the honour which wee owe to God than any respect or reverence which is due to the best man living and all this without any evidence of their sanctitie or just proofe of their right vnto such obsequies 3. The infinite extent of this Idolatry with suspicious Saints in times past is so well prosecuted by many that it needs no long declaration No Iesuite will take the defence of the Churches practise vpon him For reformation of such palpable abuses as no distinction can salue all of them pleade a necessitie of having Saints canoniz●d that is of having their supposed incorporation into the Church triumphant authentickly published and their worship authorised by the Church whose testimony may ground certainty of faith Bellarmine tells vs a story out of Sulpitius of one that was worshipped for a Martyr whose soule notwithstanding made his appearance before St Martin who suspected the service as vnlawfull because not warranted by tradition of antiquitie and ingenuously confessed that it was the danmed ghost of a certaine robber which had beene sentenced to violent death by course of law And Pope Alexander the third checkt some of his time nor were they altogether without blame for adoring one as an holy Martyr which had beene slaine in a drunken fray But graunting this story of St Martin to be true vnlesse there be some authentike judges to determine which are true revelations which not the doctrine of praying to Saints being indefinitely allowed it is altogether as likly that many theeues might be worshipped vpon false or pretended revelations as that the worship of one theefe should be recald by revelatiō made to St Martin Hath the Pope then passed this infallible censure vpon all the revelations that haue beene in this case pretended or taken other order to secure the world from all possibility of imposture If he haue we would desire to be acquainted with his determinations In the meane time we will enquire first whether the disease without some soveraigne medicine be not alike dangerous in Rome-Christian as it was in Rome-Heathen Secondly whether the medicine pretended by Rome-Christian be applyed according to her owne prescriptions Thirdly whether so applied it be not more deadly than the disease CHAPTER XXXVIII Rome-Christian as vaine and foolish in making imaginary Saints as Rome-Heathen in making false Gods 1. THe solemne worship of locall Saints did either first begin or multiplie its first beginnings throughout these parts of the world with the inundation of Barbarians as the Reader may gather out of Gregorie of Towers and Beda c. Nor would I deny that many of these late converted Paynims prayers to God though conceived out of an opinion of the Saints mediations were often heard as the auncient Romanes though their devotion were clad with Idolatry as bones with flesh were often rewarded with such temporall blessings as God in justice denyed to other Idolaters lesse devout in their kinde The Carthaginians might haue sacrificed vnto Fortune for victory or vnto stormes and tempests in their distresse with worse successe than some Romane Generalls did because their respect or esteeme of divine power providence indefinitely considered was not so good So might those prayers of the French Kings tendred vnto St Martin be sometimes better heard than the prayers which their enemies made vnto their Gods All this notwithstanding being granted the decrees of solemne honour to their Images might be as Idolatrous as Rome-Heathens erection of Temples vnto fortune or stormes In opposition to Atheisme or irreligion God vsually accepts devotiō though tainted with superstition And vnto this case I will reduce those prayers which that devout Virgin whose chastitie Cyprian before he was a Saint sought to expugne by helpe of magicke presented to the Virgin Marie in extremitie of conflict with foule lustes That prayers thus made out of ignorance whether to Saints or false Gods haue sometimes found successe is to be

conceived and he confessed to be this That the Angell did foretell Iohn Baptist should be borne at that very instant in which the Ferneseede at other times invisible did fall intimating further as farre as I could then perceiue That this Saint of God had some extraordinary vertue from the time or circumstance of his birth So faire a colour had his Instructor by profession a Mathematician by practise a Conjuret cast vpon this superstitious and vngodly experiment as the most part of Magicall ceremonies or observances pretend their warrant from some resemblances of sacred actiōs or from circumstances of miraculous cures wrought by our Saviour his Prophets or Apostles Many instances to this purpose are to my remembrance gathered by Delrius This vpon mine owne knowledge and observation I can relate of two sent more than a mile after the Sun-setting to fetch South-running water with a strict Injunction not to salute any either going or comming no not their dearest friends if they should chance to meete them as by chance they did Such silence had well beseemed them in Gods Temple but in this case was the sacrifice of fooles an offering vp of their tongues and lips vnto the service of Divells yet colourable amongst the credulous by Elishaes instructions given to Gehazie when he sent him to cure the Shunamites childe albeit these literally import rather hast than hope of good speed by their observance All the hidden vertues of the forementioned seed invisible saue onely to the superstitious I now remember not nor were some of them fit to be related But the rarer or stranger efficacy it or other hearbe or seede may be conceived to haue the more eagerly are they sought after by the needie or distressed in body especially Extreame misery or distressefull penury occasioned by course of nature not by violence is by nature credulous and apt to breede a good conceipt in the simple of any thing that is publickly disliked or disallowed by the learned And credulitie matching with eagerness of desire brings forth vaine hope or stubborne confidence without any iust externall occasion to beget it as some females are fruitlessely fertile without the male And hopes enlarged or augmented are forthwith in trauell of action and long after practises for their accomplishment although it be to offer solemne sacrifice to infernall powers whose sacraments are the oftener and more zealously frequented because such grace or good lucke as by divine permission ensues vpon their celebration is alwayes conferred ex opere operato No strict examination of the communicants conscience no patient expectation of Gods providence from which as from a yoake burdensome to flesh and bloud they exempt all that put confidence in them is required vnto their efficacy If they faile in operation the present dammage or bodily danger is not great onely so much labour lost and speedinesse of resolution or quicke manifestation of fatall doome be it good or bad naturally excites men beset with feare or hope to attempt the triall of such experiments as are prescribed them The Heathen Plinie well obserues Magicall vanities or observances to haue drawn their first lineaments from Physicke creeping into mens opinions vnder faire shewes and sweete promises of health much desired by all but proffered by Magicians in extraordinary measure and by meanes more sacred than medicines sensible and thus lastly to haue fastned their throne throughout all ages by a triple bond by weaving Religion and Mathematicall Arts into their warpe which was first spunne from Physicke This opportunitie of associating Mathematicall sciences was easily gained from that inbred desire which all men haue of foreknowing things concerning themselues and from a prenotion that the foreknowledge of them is from heaven 8. The greater soveraigntie these curious Arts had gotten in the Easterne Nations the more they commend the maiestie of Christs new erected kingdome which could so suddenly put them downe and cause the contemplators of such grand mysteries to sacrifice their bookes and labours to the simplicitie of the Gospell It may be want either of leisure well to examine or of capacitie to conceiue or perhaps of present memory to recall exactly what I conceived of some Paracelsian writings when I read them makes me yet strongly jealous lest as one Devill more than the Players had dressed is said to haue appeared vpon the Stage so some spirit more than naturall doth sometimes insinuate himselfe into their curious extractions of spirits and pretended search of medicines metaphysicall In Paracelsus himselfe though I vnderstood not all yet some passages I am certaine are so plainely impious that no man which vnderstandes the principles of Christian Religion will vndertake to make any orthodoxall construction of them Besides the suspiciousnesse of their matter the character of many of their writings ministred more iust occasion for vs to thinke that one and the same spirit did breath in their Riddles and in heathen Oracles than the congruitie of Averroes and Mahomets stile did vnto Ludcuicus Vives to avouch that he which lik'd well the writings of the one could not much mislike the others Alkaran As their pretended mysteries are vsually covered with the same veile of ambiguitie and obscuritie wherein seducing heathenish Oracles were enwrapt so the evasions to salue their Authors credit when successe no way answeres the expectation are as obvious Either the right meaning of the Rule was mis-taken or else there was some defect in the practise That Paracelsus and his followers are schismaticall Physicians is too well knowne vnlesse Galene and Hippocrates be not so orthodoxall as the world accounts them But how iustly Paracelsus and his followers are charged by Erastus with the Arrian heresie and with other doctrines of devills with superstitious charmes and magicke spells either vnknowne vnto the ancient Heathen or detested by the more ingenuous sort of them I leaue it to their censure which haue better leisure and opportunitie to examine greater experience and deeper judgement to debate the controversie betwixt them onely this perhaps I might in charitie wish that as no man may minister ordinary Physicke vnto others without licence so none might be admitted to reade their speculations or try the truth of their professed mysteries without publicke approbation not onely of their sufficiency in learning but of their sinceritie in Religion For certainly great are the temptations wherevnto this new or late revived Philosophie exposeth wits yong especially or addicted to curiositie so great as they cannot be prevented or resisted but onely by mindes throughly grounded in the orthodoxall faith Hyperbolicall force or pretended vertue assigned by them to their medicines and the magnifiecence of the end proposed naturally inspires indefatigable alacritie in seeking or trying meanes possible to effect it And curiositie of long and eager search not satisfied will at length be ready to claspe with practices superstitiously curious rather than fayle Such of their principles as are approueable perhaps more to be

ratifies the Wise mans observation in Rome-heathen and Lampridius in Rome-Christian Whether we begin our accompt from the Law of Nature amongst the Nations or from the promulgation of the Gospell Images were not from the beginning Wisedome 14. ver 12. But after the Church which during the time of her infancy had kept her virginitie vnspotted began in her full age to play the harlot in vowing in praying in erecting Altars and Temples to Saints the instinct of her impurity did lead her to vse Images as secular wantons doe lascivious pictures for provoking lust They were rather the fewell than the beginning or first kindling of Rome-Christians spirituall whoredome Her down-fall into these dregs of Idolatrie or soule acts of more than brutish bestialitie was the iust reward of her wantonnesse with the Saints after shee had beene betrothed to Christ That which shee falsely pretends for her excuse is vsually true of secular adulterers or adulteresses These for the most part delight in pictures for their prototypons sake with whose liue beautie they haue beene taken And yet many deprived of their Minions reall presence by death or other separation haue been so besotted with doting loue of their resemblances as to loath the company of their lawfull Consorts Howbeit no vnchast doting lover did ever tye his fancie with so many loueknotts vnto his Mistris picture as the Romanist doth his soule and spirit vnto the Images which he adores The maine bond is Religion it selfe the lesser cordes are kissing bowing kneeling imbracements and powring forth his very heart before them Besides all these he suffers this peculiar disadvantage in respect of secular doteards these cōmonly haue seene their feature whose true resemblances they ioy in the Romanist never had any acquaintance by sight or other sense with the persons of those Saints vnto whose Images he makes all this loue but frames these materiall and visible representations of them out of his owne braine or fancie These and the like circumstances were they duely examined by the rules of true Philosophie or knowne experiment how quickly the pursuite of ordinary meanes doth in most cases alienate our desires from the end vnto which we seeke to be directed by them it would appeare to be without the compasse of any morall possibilitie that the Images which these men make their visible spokesmen vnto the Saints should not play false with both parties and betroth the soules of doating suiters vnto themselues or rather vnto the devill whose stales indeede they are 2. But what if some honestly minded vnderstanding Papist should solemnely sweare vnto me that he loues S. Peter not his Image or S. Peter himselfe much better than the Image which he loues onely for his sake shall not his religious oath be taken before any mans coniecture concerning his owne affections Can any search his heart better than his owne spirit can I will in charitie beleeue that he speakes and sweares as he verily thinkes and is perswaded But if out of like Christian charitie though not towards me yet towards himselfe he will giue me leaue to vnsold some practique fallacies with which his sceptique Catechizers seldome meddle I shall giue him iust reason to mistrust his owne thoughts or perswasions as altogether groundlesse and vncapable of any solid truth Can the most devout Franciscan or Benedictine conceipt either the truth or fervency of his loue vnto S. Francis or S. Bennet more strongly than the latter Iewes did the integrity of their zeale to Moses For that Moses sake which they had made vnto themselues they would haue died with greater patience than a Fryer could suffer imprisonment for S. Francis But from the true Moses and his doctrine no Heathen vnder the Sunne were so farre alienated in affection as were his successors in place and kinsmen according to the flesh the sonnes of Aaron and Levi. To haue enstamped their soules and affections with his true and liuely Image whereto alone so great loue might be safely tendered the onely way had beene to haue layd his sacred rules vnto their hearts to haue worshipped God in spirit and in truth as he did Quite contrary they fastned their proud affections vnto that false picture or Image of Moses which had surprised their humorous fancies before they had seriously consulted their hearts or examined their imaginations by the rules of his doctrine 3. And whether wee speake of Adultery carnall or spirituall the first acts of both are alwayes committed within vs betweene the fancie or imagination and the corrupt humor which sets it a working every predominant humor or corruption of the heart delights to haue its picture drawne in the braine The fancie is as a shop of devises to adorne it and so adorned it growes mad with loue of its owne representation as Narcissus did with his shadowe Thus corruption of heart and humorous fancie pollute each other before they can be polluted by any externall consort whose vse is onely to accomplish the delight conceived or to confirme this internall combination betweene the heart and the braine and this service every visible or sensible object well suited to delightfull fancies succesfully performes As imagine the Iewes might haue had some gaudie picture of Moses in the Temple wherevnto they might haue made daily profession of their loue by kissing kneeling and other like tokens which the Romanists vse vnto the reliques and Images of every supposed Saint how would this practise haue fortified their foolish imaginations every kisse bestowed vpon his picture would haue beene as a wedding ring or visible sacrament for confirming the internall league betweene their corrupt affections humorous fancies But Image-worship was a brood of impietie so base and vgly that the devill durst not so much as mention the match betweene it and the latter Synagogue though he haue espoused the moderne Romish Church vnto it Howbeit so inevitable are his entisements vnlesse we abandon all familiaritie with his visible baites when we come to doe our homage to God he hath stollen away the Iewes hearts from God and his servant Moses by drawing them to such dalliance with the booke of the Law as the Papists vse with the pictures of Saints Kissing and solemne adoration of Moses his writings vpon no other occasion than for testification of their allegiance to God by reverencing them are held no acts of wantonnesse no whorish tricks by the faithlesse Synagogue And to speake the truth her protestations of chast and loyall loue to God and his servant Moses will sway more with every indifferent arbitrator than any oath or other assurance which the Romish church can make of her fidelitie to Christ or sincere respect to those Saints whose liuelesse Images shee adores with no lesse devotion than the Iew doth the dead letter of the Law For though no protestation may be taken against a fact yet the fact is more apparantly idolatrous in the Romanist in as much as bowing down to carved Images kissing or worshipping

institutions is to giue satisfaction vnto men in cases wherein no asseveration will be taken for sufficient such as is solemnly and deliberatly conceived and vttered as it were in the sight and presence of him whom we acknowledge to be the searcher of all hearts the supreame judge of all controversies and the avenger of all falshood and wrong And for this reason solemne oaths are not to be administred by any but by those whom he termes gods These just occasions or necessity of taking oaths presupposed the generall resolution or publicke iniunction to sweare onely by the name of the true and everliving God is an honour to him because we hereby professe our selues to be only his servants and him to be the cleare fountaine of truth the severe avenger of all falshood in deede word or thought But his honour would be no whit lesse if the vse or necessitie of oaths amongst men were none as in case every mans yea or nay were as good as his affirmatiue or negatiue oath much better than his bond But taking men as they are to confirme every word vttered or promise made by them with a solemne oath would be a prophanation of his name by whom they sweare although they sweare or promise nothing but the truth For it is one thing to sweare the truth another to sweare in truth and judgement This can never be performed without due observance of the end and occasion why oaths were instituted 3. Far otherwise it is in supplications and thanksgivings the more often and solemnly we prayse God or pray vnto him the more we honour him because these are direct and immediate acts of his service not instituted to giue satisfaction vnto men but onely to glorifie his name and to better our owne soules Besides this difference in the subiects wherein they are vsed the vse and end of Images in Romish devotions is altogether different from the vse or end of the booke in administration of oaths The image is vsed by them as the meane or messenger for transporting devotions or religious affections vnto God or the Saints whose honour is principally and expresly aymed at in their vnwildie ejaculations before stockes and stones yet so as the image is in their intentions a true sharer with the prototypon in such honour We vse the booke onely as a complement of the civill act whereby we giue satisfaction vnto men or as a visible remembrancer partly to by-standers or spectators whose eyes by this meanes may become as true witnesses as their eares that such protestations haue beene made partly vnto him that makes them who will be more wary and circumspect what he avoucheth and protesteth when he perceiues his speeches must be sealed with such remarkable circumstances as they cannot but be often recalled to his owne and others memory To the same end men of honourable place or calling vse to lay their hands vpon their hearts when they take a solemne oath yet no man will thinke that they intend hereby to honour themselues or to share with him by whose name they sweare although we grant oaths so taken to be true and proper acts of Religion or Gods service 4. Nor doe such as sweare or at least are thought to sweare by ordinary or obvious creatures as by this bread by this light intend the transmission of any peculiar honour by them to the creator Nor can such attestatiōs though in some cases for ought I conceiue not vnlawfull be in any case or vpon any occasions more proper acts of divine worship or service than other asseverations of truth are from which they differ not in nature but onely in degree of seriousnes or vehemencie There is in all men by nature a pronesse or desire to make them vpon provocation or mistrust which naturall pronesse may perhaps by religious discretion be severed from that corruption of nature wherewith even oaths expresly conceived in Gods name are often polluted Though the forme be not alwayes so expresse the intent and meaning of such attestations may for the most part be the same with that which Iosuah vsed cap. 24. ver 27. And Iosuah wrote these words in the booke of the Law of God and tooke a great stone and pitched it there vnder an Oake that was in the Sanctuarie of the Lord. And Iosuah said vnto the people Behold this stone shall be a witnesse vnto vs for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he hath spoken with vs it shall be therefore a witnesse against you lest you deny your God 5. Againe it will be graunted but by a few of our writers though Vasques take it for vnquestionable that Iacob did truely worship the stone but God alone presente lapide as some of his sect perswade themselues they honour God in the Images presence not the Image Of many expositions to this purpose I might make better vse against Bellarmine Sacroboscus than I can against Vasques who hath drawne the controversie about Image-worship to such a strait and narrow issue that by pinching him too hard or too hastily in these passages we may giue him opportunity to brush vs of or occasion him to stand at bay Whereas if wee giue him leaue to take his own course through them he will quickly run himselfe so far out of breath that we may easily overtake him on plain ground or driue him into that net out of which there is no possibility of evasion Be it granted then to this end and no farther that Iacob did not onely adore God praesente lapide but salute or adore the stone withall in such a manner as Vasques would haue Images worshipped together with their prototypons will it hence follow that such as frame their devotions by Vasques his rule doe not transgresse the law of God doe not remoue the bounds of the ancient or commit no more Idolatrie than Iacob did Their pretended warrant from this instance rather proues that the devill wrought the Romish Church vnto Idolatry by the same fallacy which seduced the Heathens rude Pagans or vncatechized Christians vnto sorcery For what professor of magicall secrets at this day is there which cannot which doth not pretend the like examples of Patriarkes or Prophets for their superstitious practises As Satan is Gods ape so Idolatry and sorcery the two principall parts of his service haue their originall for the most part from an apish imitation of some sacred actions rites or ceremonies vsed by Gods servants He is a counterfeit Lord and his professed or domesticke servants must be cloathed in such liveries as may beare some counterfeit colour of Saints garments The reason why most men slide more easily and farther into these two sinnes than into any other without all suspition of any danger oftimes with presumption of doing well may be gathered partly from the propertie of mans nature assigned by the Philosopher partly from the Apostles character of the naturall man Qui non percipit quae sunt spiritûs