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A12324
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The vanitie & downe-fall of superstitious Popish ceremonies, or, A sermon preached in the cathedrall church of Durham by one Mr. Peter Smart, a præbend there, July 27. 1628 : containing not onely an historicall relation of all those severall Popish ceremonies and practises which Mr. Iohn Cosens hath lately brought into the said cathedrall church: but likewise a punctuall confutation of them; especially of erecting altars, and cringing to them, (a practise much in vse of late) and of praying towards the east.
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Smart, Peter, 1569-1652?
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1628
(1628)
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STC 22640.3; ESTC S2885
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22,911
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48
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blasphemy vttered lately by a young man in the presence of his Lord and many learned men I had rather goe forty miles to a good service then two miles to a Sermon Os durum And what meant he by a good service his meaning was manifest where goodly Babylonish robes were worne imbroydered with images Where he might heare a delicate noise of singers with Shakebuts and Cornets and Organs and if it were possible all kinde of Musicke vsed at the dedication of Nabuchodonosors golden Image To such a dainty service of heavenly Harmony the singular devotion and hot zeale of this holy man would carry him over hills and dales through fire and water rather forty miles then two miles to a Sermon How think you was not this a profane witlesse gracelesse Antichristian saying which preferreth piping and singing before Gods ordinance of preaching Yet learned Aretius that famous Helvetian Divine sticks not to say In Papatu cantus Ecclesiastiasticus omnia pessundat adeo vt pro doctrina perpetua regnat Musica In the Popes Kingdome Church chaunting marrs all insomuch as in stead of the perpetuall sounding of Gods holy word in the hearts of the faithfull the sound of musicall melody rings in their eares and raignes in their mindes they are so tickled nay ravished with the delight thereof But what say by him who accusing our fathers not long since said when they banished Popery by taking away the Masse that they tooke away all religion and the whole service of God they called it a reformation saith he but it was indeed a deformation whereby Gods service was disordered and mard But now the case is altered for of late yeares religion hath beene begun prettily well to be restored againe in this Church and by the boldnesse of resolute and couragious officers way is made for reducing of the Masse For before we had Ministers as the Scripture calls them we had Communion tables we had Sacraments but now we haue Priests and Sacrifices and Altars with much Altar furniture and many Massing implements Nay what want we haue not all religion againe For if religion consist in Altar-ducking Cope-wearing Organ-playing piping and singing Crossing of chushions and kissing of clouts oft starting vp and squatting downe nodding of heads and whirling about till their noses stand Eastward Setting Basons on the Altar Candlesticks and Crucifixes burning Waxe-candles in excessiue number when and where there is no vse of Lights And that which is worst of all guilding of Angels and garnishing of Images and setting them vp aloft whereas Lactantius saith procul dubio ibi nulla est religio vbi sunt Simulacra without doubt there is no religion in that Church where Images are placed If I say religion consist in these and such like superstitious vanities ceremoniall fooleries apish toyes and popish trinckets we had never more religion then now And though our Leiturgy be not in Latine yet order is taken by confusâ—dnesse of voices some squeaking some blating some roaring and thundering with a multitude of melodious instruments that the greatest part of the service is no better vnderstood then if it were in Hebrew or Irish Nay the Sacrament it selfe is turned well neare into a theatricall stage play that when mens minds should be occupied about heavenly meditations of Christs bitter death and passion of their owne sinnes of faith and repentance of the ioyes of heaven and the torments of hell At that very season very vnseasonably their eares are possest with pleasant tunes and their eyes fed with pompous spectacles of glistering pictures and histrionicall gestures representing vnto vs Apollo's solemnities in his Temple at Delos which the Poet describeth in his fourth of his Aeneiods Instauratque charos mistique Altaria circum Cretesque Dryopesque fremunt pictique Agathyrsi Our young Apollo repaireth the quire and sets it out gayly with strange Babylonish ornaments the hallowed Priests daunce about the Altar making pretty sport and fyne pastime with trippings and turnings and crossings and crouchings while Cretes Dryopesque pictique Agathyrsi Choristers and singing-men and parti-coloured Cope-wearers fremunt they shout and cry and make most sweet Apollinian harmony Are these ceremonies fit for the holy Communion Doe this saith Christ in remembrance of mee Can these paltry toyes bring to our memory Christ and his blood-shedding Did Christ minister the Sacrament in such manner to his Disciples at his last Supper Was there an Altar in the chamber where he supt Did Christ put on a Cope laden with Images Or did he change his garments saith Hamingius Apage ineptias fie vpon fopperies and superstitious vanities I hate them A decent Cope is commanded by our Canons to be vsed sometimes onely at the Communion Whether a stately Cope a sumptuous Cope a Cope imbroydered with Idols of silver gold and pearle a mock-Cope a scornfull Cope vsed a long time at Masse and May-games as some of ours were Whether I say such a Cope be a decent Cope fit for the Lords table iudge ye beloved And if you condemn them as you cannot chuse if you be good Christians how dare ye communicate with vs in our superstitious vanities Haue you not Churches at home in your owne Parishes not yet polluted with Idols and Communion tables not yet changed into Altars Where you may receiue with comfort the holy Communion without such All-a-flantara in plaine and simple manner as our Saviour ordeined and the primitiue Church practised till Antichrist arose and mightily prevailed against the truth Stay at home in the name of God till things be amended and reduced to the state and forme they were in our lesse ceremonious and more preaching Bishops time Duck no more to our Altar when you come in and goe out I assure it is an Idol a damnable Idol as it is vsed Remember Gods commandement Thou shalt not make to thy selfe the likenesse of any thing in heaven aboue or in the earth beneath thou shall not bow downe to them nor worship them How dare you disobey God nay mock God as the Priest doth who stands at the Altar in a Cope and there reades with a loud voice Thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them and as soone as he hath done reading as when he began to reade he turnes him about bowes downe againe and worships the Altar Is not this derision of God and mockery Be not deceived saith Paul Theos ou mucteresetai God is not God will not be mocked Beleeue not those Balaams which lay stumbling blocks in your way to make you fall into spirituall fornication telling you when you bow to the Altar you worship God not the Altar for so answer all popish and heathenish Idolaters Tell me this Is not that woman a whore who yeelds her body to an adulterer though she say her minde is chaste she keeps her heart true to her husband So say I They are whores and whoremongers they commit spirituall fornication who bow their bodies before that Idol the Altar
dicitur id quod reprobat Christ being truth must needes hate vanity because vanity consists in falshood for what a man hates that he reiects Esau was a reprobate reiected of God because God hated him As we reade in the first of Malachy Iacob haue I loved but Esau haue I hated yet herein we may not imitate God in hating any man vnder pretence that we thinke him a reprobate We may not presume to enter into Gods iudgements and giue sentence of election or reprobation vpon any Because we know not he that now stands whether he may fall and he that hath fallen whether he may rise againe and stand Therefore in that respect we must hate none we must loue our enemies and all As our Saviour saith in the 5. of Matth. Yee haue heard that it hath beene said of ould Loue thy neighbour and haâ—e thine enemy but I say vnto you Loue your enemies And St. Iohn saith 1. Epist 3. chap. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death And againe He that hateth his brother walketh in darknesse And yet a gaine He that hateth his brother is a manslayer Was David a manslayer did he walke in darknesse and abide in death because he hated them that hold of superstitious vanities No verily for he hated not their persons but their iniquities their evill workes and affections he did wish their amendment and saluation taking God for an example of whom thus he speaketh in his 5. Psal Thou art not a God that loveth wickednesse thou hatest all them that worke vanity Yet he saith else where Thou ô Lord savest both man and beast how excellent is thy mercy ô God Which appeareth in that he maketh his Sunne to shine and his raigne to fall vpon iust and vniust And as St. Paul saith he would haue all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth Therefore he loveth the man though he hate their manners their naughtinesse and vanities So must we do as the Prophet Amos bidds vs in his 5. ch 15. v. Hate the evill and leue the good we must not simply hate nor simply loue because no man is so absolutely evill but he hath some goodnes nor so absolutely good but he hath some badnes As our Saviour saith There is none good but God How then they that holde of superstitious vanities must we not hate them Not their persons which may perhaps haue some sparkes some tincture of goodnesse but their badnesse is to be hated and themselues quatenus so farre forth as they invent and maintaine superstitious vanities opposite to Gods Law which they ought to loue As David professeth in his 119. Psal 113. vers I hate vaine inventions but thy law doe I loue So must we loue Gods law which forbiddeth idolatry and hate vaine inventions and the inventours of vanities when they would insnare and intangle vs with their fraudulent impostures to seduce and allure vs to their superstitious and idol services So farre forth we must hate them though they be never so neere and deare vnto vs As our Saviour teacheth vs Luke 14. 26. verse If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother brother and sister wife and children he can not be my Disciple That is he that casts not off all affections and desires which draw him from God to the world from Christ to Antichrist So then it is no impiety to hate our carnall and naturall friends when they become our ghostly enemies hindering Gods glory and our salvation Neither must we hate them secretly hold our tongues and let them alone As the Prophet Hoses saith Ephraim is turned after Idols Let him alone that is trouble not your selues with him he is incorrigible In a desperate case Let him alone let him perish in his sins But we must indeavour to amend our Ephraimites hoping to reclaime them from their Idols after which of late they haue hastily turned But if they proue stubborne and stifnecked then must we cry aloud and proclaime their folly we must discover their blindnesse and nakednesse to the world we must persecute them with fire and sword fire of zeale and sword of Gods word having the lawes of God and the King on our side As it is said in the 17. Apoc. 16. ver The 10 Hornes that is the 10. Nations shall hate the Whore of Babylon the Church of Rome and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eate her flesh and burne her with fire But what are those vaine superstitions the holders whereof ought to be hated Some thinke Magicall arts are meant thereby to which saith Pliny Orientales populi ad insaniam usque addicti sunt The Easterne people ranne mad after Magick which Gods Law vtterly condemnes But the superstitious vanities in my text are more generall Vanitiy of vanities saith Salomon all is vanity beside the feare of God and keeping of his commandements Those vanities saith a learned interpreter are humane traditions superstitious Ceremonies which vndermine and over throw both the Law and the Gospell after which Ceremonies Orientales our East-worshippers runne made in a manner And what are Ceremonies are all vaine are all superstitious God forbid Many are tolerable A few necessary Most are ridiculous And some abominable Indeed in the beginning when the law was first published it pleased Almighty God to traine vp the people of Israell vnder a multitude of Ceremonies to keepe them in exercise and helpe their infirmity By the externall observation of which he would accustome them to his spirituall worship and nurture them in his feare and obedience till the comming of Christ who was the end the complement the consummation of Ceremonies For when Christ had appeared who was the truth and substance the Shadowes departed neither would he burden his Church with traditions and rudiments any longer Onely to preserue the memory of his benefits he ordeined two Sacraments left to his Church liberty to make Lawes and Canons for order and comelinesse agreeable to his word For Ceremoniarum anima saith one est verbum Dei The life and soule of every Ceremony is the word of God without which it is dead and damned But Popes and papall Prelates not content with that simplicity which pleased the Apostles and primitiue Church would needes adde Ceremony to Ceremony increasing their number in infinitum till they had heapt vp a world of Ceremonies which they adorn'd with worldly splendor and bravery Adeo vt Gentes Iudeos externi cultus superstitione Christiani vicerint saith Szegedine Insomuch as Christians haue surpassed both Iewes and Gentiles in the superstition of externall worship Which malady or plague rather of the Church began then to prevaile saith he Quando relicto verbo Dei mundana sapientia administrari caepit religio Christi When the government of Christs religion began to be managed nay mard and mangled with worldly wisdome Gods word being abandoned For now saith he not one among a thousand can be content