he cry'd out Wo be to you that build up the Sepulchres of the Prophets like to those that shew them Like to the Heathen to every Saint they allot his proper charge to one with Neptune they share the Command of the Seas and power of Deliverance from the dangers thereof to another with Jupiter to have the Dominion of Thunder to another with Vulcan to controul the Fire to another they pray with Ceres for seasonable and plentiful Harvests to another with Bacchus they give the Charge of their Vintages and Vines The Women also have their Deities from whom as from Lucina they beg for Children and the cure of Barrenness and another by whose Power they either Appease or Revenge themselves upon their Angry Husbands Others there are to whom they give the priviledge of recovering and finding Lost Goods Neither is there any Disease which has not its peculiar Physitian among the Saints Which is the reason that Physitians do not get so much as Lawyers there being no sort of Action though never so just that ever could boast of a Saint for its Patron 'T is true the Papists aver That as the Soul in every Member Displayes a several Act and every Act as it is variously dispos'd receives a distinct Power as the Eye to see the Ears to hear So Christ in his Mystical Body of which he is the Soul by his several Saints as Members accommodated to the same Body doth Administer and Distribute the several gifts of his Grace to the Inferiour Creatures and that to every Saint is allotted a particular operation for the dispersing of several Graces according to the variety of Graces given to each Man But this Conjecture as being one of Agrippa's Vanities for which there is no ground in Scripture we cannot reckon among the Vanities of Science but as a peculiar Invention of his own CHAP. LVIII Of Temples NOW as concerning Temples there was nothing wherein the Superstition of the Gentiles was more eminent who to every Deity were very curious in Building particular Temples after whose Example the Christians afterwards Dedicated their Temples to particular Saints Yet there were many Nations that never made use of any Temples and Xerxes is reported to have burnt all the Temples throughout Asia at the perswasion of his Magicians believing it to be an Impious thing to enclose the Gods in Walls But of these Temples Zeno Citicus Disputed formerly in these Words To build Churches and Temples saith he it is no way necessary for nothing ought to be accompted Sacred by Right nothing to be esteemed Holy which men themselves Build Among the Persians of old there were no Temples Neither was there among the Hebrews from their first beginning but only one Temple Dedicated to Divine use which was Built by Solomon of which however it is thus written in Isaias Thus saith the Lord The Heaven is my seat the Earth the footstool for my feet what is this house which thou buildest for me And Stephen the Protomartyr adds Salomon built a House but the most High Inhabits not in places made with Hands And Paul the Apostle saith to the Athenians God dwells not in Temples made with hands for being the Lord of Heaven and Earth he is not serv'd by mens hands who wants not their help However he teaches that Humane Nature even Men themselves Holy Pious Religious Devout to God are the most acceptable Temples to God as he Asserts writing to the Corinthians Ye are the Temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you the Temple of God is holy so ought you to be Moreover Origen writing against Celsus confesses That at the first beginning of Christian Religion and long after Christs Suffering there were no Churches Built Confirming by many Arguments that among Christians they avail neither to the right Worship of God nor to the Honour of true Religion Therefore faith Lactantius Temples are not to be made to God of Stones piled up to an immense height but there is a place to be reserv'd in the Heart of every Man where his Thoughts ought to retire when they are taken up in Religious Exercise Not Temples made with hands th' Almighty hold Just men are the true Temples made of Gold And Christ sends his Adorers not into the Temple not into the Synagogues but into their private Closets to Pray And we read that he himself did many times appear with the Multitude in the Cities in the Temple in the Synagogue when he made his Sermons but he went into the Mountain to Pray where he spent the Night in Prayer However the Church that does nothing but by the Inspiration of the Spirit of God when the Christian Religion began to increase and that Sinners entred into the Temple with the Godly the weak with the strong in Faith and as they entred the Ark of Noe the Clean with the Unclean did then Ordain certain Temples Chappels Churches and separated Places free from Prophane business wherein the Word of God might be Publickly Preached to the Multitude and the Sacraments might be more decently and orderly Administred which have since been held by the Christians in most Venerable Esteem and being guarded with the Immunities of several Princes have encreased to such a vast Number augmented with the Addition of Monasteries Abbies and the like that it is very necessary that many of them should be cut off as superfluous and unnecessary Members And here we cannot be unmindful of another Enormity which is the superbity of Building wherein vast sums of Alms and sacred Money is expended which as we have observ'd before would be more fitly and honestly employ'd in the maintenance of the true poor of Christ the true Temples and resemblances of God many times ready to perish for hunger thirst cold labour sickness and want CHAP. LIX Of Holy-days HOly-days both among the Gentiles as among the Jews were always in great estimation who did all at certain times of the year and upon certain days set apart several Holy-days for Divine worship upon several occasions as if it were lawful to be more religious or more ungodly at one time than another or that it were the pleasure of God to be worshipped more at one time than another which St. Paul objects to the Galatians as a shame writing to them afthis manner Ye observe days and months and times and years I fear I have labour'd for you in vain and without a cause Concerning which when he admonishes the Colossians he commands them in these words Let no man judge you for meat or drink upon a Holy-day or of the New-moon or of the Sabbath which are members of future things For to true and perfect Christians there is no difference of days who are always feasling and pleasing themselves in God always keeping a perpetual Sabbath as Isaiah prophesi'd to the Fathers of the Jews The time shall come that their Sabbath shall be taken away and when the Saviour comes there shall be a
though the Author or first Founder of a most absurd Religion and the Jews yet persisting in their folly believe their Messiah yet to come Among us Christians several Popes several Councils several Bishops have prescrib'd several Varieties and Forms of Worship differing among themselves either touching the manner of the Ceremonies Meats lawful Fasts Vestments Publick Ornaments or else about Clerical Promotions and Tithes But one thing overcomes the admiration of Wonder it self to see how these Ambitious men think to climb Heaven by the same wayes that Lucifer fell from it Neither do all these Laws and Rules of Religion lean upon any other Foundation than the meer Opinions and Pleasure of their Founders Consider from the Beginning of the World how many there were how many there are several Inventions of Religion how many Ceremonies how many Heresies how many Opinions how many Decrees how many Canons yet cannot Religion lead men in so many Ages to the right Path of Faith without the Word of God which being once made Flesh and Triumphing over his Enemies on the Cross Temples and dols were thrown down and the Powers of Numens and Oracles ceas'd The Voice of Pytho's gone that seldom â—rr'd Apollo too so many Ages heard Is now in silence lock't Tby Service done to thine own Country go Return to thine own Altars down below For no sooner the Word of God came to shine in the World by the manifestation of the Gospel but all the Gods of the Heathen being as it were Thunder-struck fell to Destruction according to the saying of Christ in Luke I saw Satan falling from Heaven like Lightning How far this concerns Faith Theology and the Decrees of the Canonists we shall discourse hereafter For now we are only treating of Religion so far as to those Mysteries contained therein which concern the benefits of the Priest or that suffice to render the outward face of the Commonwealth sumptuous with Images Statues Temples Phanes Chappels Dignities Pomp and Riches of the Ministers and Ecclesiastical Officers of which I have Disputed at large in my Dispute upon the Theological Decrees held by me at Collen in the Year 1510 and therefore I shall the more briefly pass them over now yet show you that among those things which were set apart for the decency of Worship and most proper for the safety of Mens Souls not a little of the Tare of Vanity and Destructive Superstition has been mix'd CHAP. LVII Of Images THe worship of Images has not been antiently by all people admitted For the Jews as Josephus relates after they had been so often chastized and indeed at first the most strict observers of the Law did abhor nothing more than the making of Images For the commands of God delivered by Moses did utterly prohibit the use of Images either in Temples or in any other place And Eusebius testifies that among the people call'd Seres the adoration of Images was by Law absolutely forbidden Neither do we read either in Clement or Plutarch that for so Numa had decreed there was any Image to be seen or that was spoken of for above a hundred and seventy years after the building of the City Which also St. Austin alleadges out of Varro whose words most clearly witness that there was no Image or Idol in the City for one hundred and sixty years and that afterwards it came to pass that by reason of the Multitude of Images and Idols the Worship of the Gods was not only neglected but had in contempt The Persians also as Herodotus and Strabo Witness never suffered Images among them On the otherside in the honour of Idols there were none more Superstitious and dotingly stupid than the Aegyptians from whence that Impiety as from a corrupted Fountain over-ran other Nations which Superstitious Customes and false Religion of the Heathens when the same People became to be Converted to the Christian Faith did not a little contaminate the Purity of our Religion introducing Idols and Images into our Church together with many Barren Pomps and Ceremonies of which there was nothing thought of among the Ancient and Primitive Christians Nor can it be imagin'd how strongly and superstitiously Idolatry is riveted into the Minds of the Unlearned Multitude by the means of Images the idle Priests among the Catholicks conniving thereat as reaping not a little benefit thereby 'T is true they endeavour to defend themselves by the help of St. Gregories Words who saith That Images are the Books of the Vulgar whereby the Memory of things is by them the more easily retain'd so that by these they who cannot read may yet be taught and by the sight thereof be drawn to the Contemplation of God However these are but the humane Comments and Suppositions of Palliating St. Gregory and though that good Man might in some sort approve of the Images themselves yet it cannot be thought that he did any way allow the Worship thereof For it is no part of our duty to learn from the Forbidden Book of Images but from the Book of God which is the Scripture He therefore who desires to know God let him not endeavour to obtain that Knowledge from the handy-work of Painters and Statuaries but according to the Direction of St. John Let him search the Scriptures what testimony they give concerning him And they who cannot read let them hear the Word of the same Scripture where St. Paul pronounces That Faith comes by hearing and what Christ in another place â—aith My Sheep know my Voice As also what in another place he avers No man can come to him unless the Father draw him and no man cometh to the Father but by Christ himself Why then do we take the Glory from God giving it to Pictures and Images as if they could draw us to the Knowledge of the most Divine Being To this we may add the vain and immoderate Worship of idle Reliques We confess That the Reliques of the Saints are Holy and that they thall one day shine with the Glories of Eternity Yet to give them Adoration as to the Reilquâ—s of Dâ—ities that hear our Prayers is a most stupid piece of Fascination Lest therefore we fall into Idolatry and Superstition it is the safest way for us not to fix our Faith upon visible things But the Covetous Generation of the Romish Clergy greedy after gain raising matter to â—eed their Avarice not only out of Wood and Stones but also from the Bones of the Dead and Reliques of the Saints make them the Instruments of their Rapine and Extortion They shew the Sepulchres of the Saints they expose the Reliques of Martyrs which no man must so much as touch or kiss but for mony They adorn their Pictures set out their Festivals with great Pomp and State they extol 'um for Saints advance the Fame of their Miracles utterly disagreeing in their Lives and Conversations from the Lives and Examples of those whom they praise These were the Men to whom our Saviour spoke when
perpetual Sabbath and perpetual New-moons However for the sake of the common people and the more illiterate part of the Church the Holy Fathers did institute Holy-days that they might have liberty and vacancie to come and hear the Word and to celebrate Divine Worship and for receiving the Sacraments yet so that the Church should not be subservient to the days but that the days should be subservient to the Church Therefore did the Fathers ordain certain Holy-days wherein the common people were exhorted to abstain from worldly business and bodily labour whereby they might be the more free to serve God the more at leisure to pray and think upon Divine matters to be present at Service and Sermons and to tend such other Duties as might most directly tend to their Salvation But that same perverter of Equity that destroyer of all Order and Decencie that author of all Evil the Devil endeavouring to pull down whatever the Holy Ghost sets up hath neer demolish'd this Tower of Beauty also While we behold the greatest part of Christians not converting this Holy leisure of Holy-days to the exercises of Prayer or hearing the Word of God but spending their pretious time in the corruption of all good Manners Dancing Stage-playes lewd Songs idle Sports and Games Drinking Feasting Visiting and in all worldly and Carnal works quite opposite to Spiritual As Tertullian speaks of the solemn Feasts of the Caesars They were wont saith he to make a great stir to bring forth into the publick street their Fires and their Chorus's to junket in the High-way to make a Tavern of the whole City to pour Wine down one anothers throats by violence then to run headlong to do all manner of mischief and to please themselves in all manner of filthy Lust. Are we not therefore deservedly to be condemn'd who celebrate the Festivals of Christ and his Saints after such a lewd fashion I confess we do not finde many Heretical Disputes concerning Holy-days omitting the madness and Blasphemy of the Manichaeans and the pestiferous opinions of the Cataphrygians yet had they like to have occasion'd a great breach in the Church when Victor the Pope excommunicated all the Eastern and Southern Churches for not keeping Easter-day according to the direction of the Western Decrees who notwithstanding was notably resisted among others by Polycrates Bishop of Asia Ireneus also Bishop of Lions though he observ'd Easter-day as was commanded by Victor yet with great freedom undertook to chide the Pope for that he had contrary to the Example of his Predecessors as a disturber of the Peace lopp'd off so many Limbs of the Church not for any Errour in point of Faith but onely for disagreeing in point of Ceremony from the Church of Rome 'T is true there have been many decrees of Popes and Councils to confirm and settle the observation of Easter-day and many Ecclesiastick Computations have been made for the better finding out of the true day And yet to this very hour they could never find out a certain day or that was Universally observ'd through the whole World at one and the same time A very worthy business indeed that for the humour of one obstinate Pope the whole Church should suffer Shipwrack CHAP. LX. Of Ceremonies OF the Members of Religion the Pomp of Rites and Ceremonies in Habits in Vessels in Lights in Bells in Organs in Singing in Perfumes in Postures in Pictures in the choice of Meats and Fasts and the like have been receiv'd and approv'd with great Adoration and Veneration by the Multitude especially Papistical who understand no more than what they see with their Eyes Numa Pompilius first Instituted Ceremonies among the Romans thereby to invite a rude and fierce People that had obtain'd a Kingdom by Violence and Rapine to Piety Truth Justice and Religion such were the Ancylia and Palladium the Sacred Pledges of the Empires Safety the double-Fronted Janus Arbiter of Peace and War The Fire of Vesta over which a she Flamin did continually Watch The Year also divided into Twelve Months with the variety of Good and Evil Days The Sacerdotal Dignity divided into Pontifexes and Augurs their various Ceremonies of Sacrifices Supplications Shews Processions Temples of which the greatest part as Eusebius testifies has been Translated into our Religion But God himself who delights not in Flesh and Humane Signes contemns and despises these Carnal and Exteriour Ceremonies For he is not to be Worship'd with Corporal Actions Eye-pleasing Works or Carnal Adoration but in Spirit and Truth by Christ Jesus For he looks upon the Faith considering the inward Thoughts and Intentions of Men the searcher of Hearts that sees the very Secrets of the Soul Therefore those Carnal and outward Ceremonies no way advance us toward God with whom there is nothing acceptable but Faith in Jesus Christ with a perfect imitation of his Charity and an unshaken hope in his Salvation and Reward This is the true Worship spotless from all Contamination of External and Carnal Ceremonies wherein St. John instructing us saith That God is a Spirit and to be worship'd in Spirit and Truth This some of the Ethnick Philosophers were not ignorant of therefore Plato forbid that any Ceremonies should be used in the Worship of the most high God For there is nothing wanting to him who is all things himself only it is requisite that we should adore him by returning our thanks to him for all things Neither have we any thing more grateful to return to God than Praise Glory and Thanks Neither will it serve for an Objection to insist upon the Sacrifices Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaical Law as if God had taken delight in them For God brought them not out of Aegypt to offer up Sacrifices and Incense to him but that forgetting the Idolatry of the Aegyptians they might hear the Voice of God and obey him in Faith and Truth to the obâ—aining of their Salvation Now the reason that Moses Instituted Sacrifices and Ceremonies among them was that he bare with their Infirmities and yielded to the hardness of their Hearts indulging a small Error to recal them from things more unlawful directing their Sacrifices to God and not to Devils For those things were not principally Instituted but by consequence neither could that Law oblige them otherwise than as it was approv'd by the people Therefore Moses when he produc'd the Laws of Ceremonies he collected the suffrages of the Elders and the people whereby to render them more pliable to his commands Therefore might that Law be chang'd according to the alteration of times and manners and was at last totally abrogated but the Law of God delivered in the Tables of Stone that is perpetual For so God spake by Jeremiah Why do ye offer to me Frankincense of Saba and Cynamon fetch'd from a far Country Your Holocauâ—ts and your Sacrifices have not pleased me And again by the same Prophet Thus saith the Lord Put your burnt offerings to your sacrifice
and at last the most Potent Rome This Art writ with much more Blood than the Laws of Draco teaches ye how advantageously and neatly to order a Battle to Assail the Enemy to use Stratagems to move Vigorously forward to Retreat to maintain a Shock to strike to purpose to avoid the stroaks to handle nimbly all manner of Arms to pursue when to leave Pursuing when to Pursue far when not too far when to fall to the Spoil to rally make good Breaches defend Forts and Towns It teaches ye also how to prepare and Rig out great Navies build Castles fortifie Towns place fit Garrisons to Encamp cast Trenches Mine Countermine make Engines Assault Ramplers provide Provision necessary for the Army to place and avoid Ambushments and the like also to Besiege Cities plant Batteries advance the Trenches dig down the Walls shake down the Towers scale Walls to burn and demolish Towns and Castles to spoil Temples plunder Cities depopulate Countries abolish Laws adulterate Matrons vitiate Widdows ravish Virgins to Wound take Prisoners Captivate and Kill So that the whole Art studies nothing else but the subversion of Mankind transforming Men into Beasts and Monsters So that War is nothing but a general Homicide and Robbery by mutual Consent Neither are Soldiers other than stipendiary Theeves arm'd to the subversion of the Commonwealth Now the Events of War being always uncertain and that Fortune not Skill affords Victory to what purpose serve all the Stratagems Ambuscades and Rules of War Yet the Divine Plato praises this Art Teaches it to his Scholars and commands them to be enroll'd as soon as fit for service and the Famous Cyrus affirm'd That War was as necessary as Agriculture Nay St. Austin and St. Bernard Catholick Doctors of the Church have approved thereof neither do the Pontifical Decretals at all impugne it though Christ and his Apostles teach quite another Doctrine So that contrary to the Doctrine of Christ it has obtain'd no small Honour in the Church by reason of the many Orders of Holy Soldiers all whose Religion consists in Blood Slaughter Rapine and Pyracy under pretence of defending and enlarging the Christian Faith as if the Intention of Christ had been to spread his Gospel not by Preaching but by force of Arms not by Confession and simpleness of Heart but by Menaces and high Threats of Ruine and Destruction strength of Arms Slaughter and Massacres of Mankind Nor is it enough for these Soldiers to bear their Arms against the Turks Saracens and Pagans unless they Fight also for Christians against Christians War and Warfare have begot many Bishops and it is not seldome that they Fight stiffly for the Popedome which made the Holy Bishop of Camora Affirm That seldom any Pope ascends the Chair without the Blood of the Saints and it is call'd constancy of Martrydome in those that dye Fighting desperately for the Papal Seat Concerning the Art of War Zenophon Zenocrates Onozander Cato Censorius Cornelius Celsus Iginius Vegetius Frontinus Helianus Modestus and many of the Ancients among the Moderns Volturius Nicholas the Florentine James Earl of Porcia and some few others These are great Doctors in the Art but Speculative and therefore not so dangerous as the Practisers Now as to the Titles Dignities and Degrees of the Scholars there are neither Batchelors Masters nor Doctors Neither are they as they are vulgarly to be call'd Emperors Dukes Earls Marquesses Knights Captains Centurions Lieutenants Ensignes names begotten by injury and Ambition but Thieves House-breakers Robbers Murderers Sacrilegious Fencers Adulterers Panders Whoremongers Traitors Gamesters Blasphemers Parricides Incendiaries Pirates and Tyrants All which who ever would express in one Word let him call 'um Soldiers that is to say the most barbarous dregs of Wicked Men whom their own wicked Natures and Desires carry headlong to all Villany among whom the Name of Dignity and Liberty takes the freedome to commit all sorts of Enormity and Cruelty seeking all occasions of Mischief looking upon Innocency to be a kind of likeness of Death all of 'um being one body of their Father the Devil Like the Leviathan of whom thus speaketh Job They are a body Arm'd with scales like strong shields and which is sure Seal'd One is set to another that no wind can come between them One is set to another they stick together that they cannot be sundred Job 41. They assist one another and are assembled together against the Lord and against his Christ Psa. 2 Neither are Purple Chains of Gold Garlands Crowns the Ensignes of War but wounded breasts and bodies deformed with scarrs An Exercise which is never perform'd but with the ruine and mischief of many the destruction of Good Manners Laws and Piety diametrically at Enmity with Christ with Happiness with Peace with Charity with Innocency and Patience The Rewards thereof are Glory got by the Effusion of humane Blood Enlargement of Dominion out of a greedy desire of Rule and Possession obtain'd with the Damnation of many Souls For seeing that Victory is the End whereat all War drives no man can be a Conqueror but he must be a Murtherer neither can any one be overcome but he must wickedly Perish Therefore the Death of Souldiers is the most desperate sin writing but a bad Epitaph upon their Graves They that kill are wicked though the War be just For Souldiers consider not the justness of the War but what Plunder and Booty they shall get from those that they kill If there are any who are justly slain yet they that claim Honour by doing the Fact make themselves but a kind of Butchers or Hangmen who while the Laws are so strict against Thieves Incendiaries Robbers Homicides and Murtherers yet presume under the Title and Pretence of being Warriors to be accompted Noble and Virtuous CHAP. LXXX Of Nobility THus we find the Original of Nobility to spring from War a Dignity obtain'd by Butchery out of the blood and slaughter of the Enemy and adorn'd with Ensigns of Publick Honour This was the reason of so many sorts of Crowns among the Romans Civil Mural Obsidional Naval so many Military largesses of Bracelets Spears Trappings Chains Rings Statues and Images from whence the Pedegrees of Nobility took their first rise Among the Carthaginians they had so many Rings given 'um as they had been present in Fights the Iberians rais'd about the Sepulchre of the Dead so many Obelisques as he had slain Enemies Among the Scythians at their Publick Festivals it was Lawful for none to receive the Cup that was openly carried about but they who had slain an Adversary Among the Macedonians there was a Law That he that had not slain an Enemy should be girt with a Headstal or Capistrum in deâ—ision of his Cowardise Among the Germans no man was to Marry a Wife till he had brought the Head of a slain Enemy before the King And many times the Indignity which many Persons have thought has been put upon 'um in not being rewarded
as upon the Equity and Justice of the Judge CHAP. XCII Of the Canon-Law FRom the Civil flow'd the Canon or Pontificial Law which may to some seem a most holy Constitution so ingeniously does it hide and mask the precepts of Avarice and rules of Rapine under the pretences of Piety though it contain very few Decrees that regard either Religion the Worship of God oâ— the Ceremonies of the Sacraments I forbear to make it out that some are altogether repugnant to the Word of God all the rest are meer matters of Strife Contention Pride Pomp and Gain and onely Edicts of the Popes not contented with those already made by Holy men and Fathers unless they may adde new Decrees Chaffie extravagancies so that there is no end or limit of their Canons which onely proceed from the Pride and Ambition of the Popes whose Arrogancie has grown so bold as to command the Angels to rob Hell and lay violent hands upon the souls of the Dead tyrannizing over the Law of God with their Interpretations Declarations and Disputations left any thing should be wanting or diminisht from the fulness of their power Did not Pope Clement in a Bull which is kept to this day at Vienna and several other places command the Angel to free the soul of one that was going to Rome for Indulgences and dying by the way immediately out of Purgatory and carry him to Heaven adding It is our pleasure that the pains of hell be no farther inflicted on him granting also power to those that were signed with the Cross at their own pleasures to take three or four souls out of Purgatory Which erroneous and intolerable Boldness if I may not call it Heresie the Parisian School then utterly condemn'd and reprov'd repenting perhaps that they did not report that hyperbolical Zeal of Clement as a Fable that the Story might live rather than die seeing that for all their affirming or denying there is nothing of injury done to the Authority of the Pope whose Canons and Decrees have so pinion'd Theologie that the most Contentious Divine dares neither dispute or think contrary to the Popes Canons without leave and pardon as Martial says of Rusus What Rusus says Rusus has leave for all Although he laugh weep hold his tongue or braul He sups drinks asks denies yet still the brute Has your good leave without your leave he 's mute Out of these Canons also and Decrees we finde the Patrimony of Christ to be Kingdoms Donations Foundations Wealth and large Possessions and that the Priesthood of Christ is Soveraign power and Command that the Sword of Christ is Temporal Jurisdiction that the Rock on which the Church is founded is the Pope that the Bishops are not onely the Ministers but Heads of the Church that the Goods of the Church are not Evangelical Doctrine Constancy of Faith and contempt of the World but Taxes Tythes Oblations Collections Purple Mitres Gold Silver Gems Mannors and Money The power of the Pope is to wage War dissolve Leagues absolve Princes from their Oathes Subjects from their Obedience and to make the house of Prayer a den of Thieves Well therefore may the Pope depose Bishops who can give away other mens rights commit Simony dispense with his Oath and no man be able to say to him Why dost thou so Well may he for other weighty reasons dispense with all the New Testament and send above a third part of the souls of the faithful to hell But the Office of Bishops is not now-a-days to preach the Word but to confer Orders dedicate Temples baptize Bells consecrate Altars and Chalices bless Vestments and Images But they who are more ambitious than these if leaving those things to be performed by I know not what mean and titular Bishops they can procure themselves to be sent Kings Ambassadours to be their Chief Ministers of State or to attend upon the Queen such great causes may excuse um from serving God in the Temples if they can serve the King well at Court Out of the â—me Fountains arise those Equivocations and Shifts to avoid Simony in selling and buying Benefices daily in use or for whatever other Monopolies or Markets are made of Pardons Indulgences Dispensations and the like whereby they set a price upon remission of sins which God has so freely granted and have found out a way to gain by the very pains of Hell From this Law they borrow that feigned Donation of Constantine which is quite contrary to the Word of God seeing that neither Caesar can give away his own Right nor the Clergie usurp that which is Caesars To these we may adde so many ravenous Decrees under the known Titles of Indulgencies of Bulls of Confessions of Testaments of Dispensations of Priviledges of Elections of Dignities of Prebendaries of Religious houses of Sacred houses of The place of Judicature of Immunities of Judgements and the like Lastly the whole Canon-law is of all the most inconstant more various than Proteus more changeable than a Chameleon more full of perplexity than the Gordian-knot So that the Christian-Religion by the Institution of Christ intended to put an end to Ceremonies is now more clogg'd with Ceremonies than the Jewish Religion of old the weight whereof makes the easie and sweet Yoke of Christ more heavie and burthensome than that of the Law while Christians are compell'd to live more according to the Prescriptions of the Canon-law than the Rules of the Gospel To say truth the Learning of both Laws is wholly busied about frail empty and prophane matters Bargains and Quarrels of the common people about Murthers Thefts Robberies Pyracies Factions Conspiracies and Treasons Perjuries Knaveries of Scribes Abuses of Lawyers Corruptions of Judges whereby Widows are ruin'd Orphans destroyed the Poor oppressed the Innocent condemned and as it is said in Juvenal The Crows are pardon'd and the Doves condemn'd Thus blinde men run themselves into mischiefs which they thought to avoid by the assistance of the Canons and Pontifical Decretals because they are no Laws or Canons ordained by God or for the honour of God but onely invented by the corrupt Wit of men for Gain and the supply of covetous desires CHAP. XCIII Of Advocates THere is another Practice of the Law which they call the Art of Pleading of which they would pretend a very great Necessity an ancient but most deceitful Calling onely set out with the gaudy Trimming of Perswasion which is nothing else but to know how by Perswasion to over-rule the Judge and to turn him and winde him at pleasure to know how by false Interpretations and Comments to wrest or avoid the Law or prolong the Suit so to cite and repeat Decrees to pervert Equity and alter the sence of the Law and the intention of the Legislator in which Art there is nothing sooner prevails than Bauling and Confidence and he is accounted the best Advocate who intices most the people to go to Law putting um in hopes of recovering great
matters and stirs them up by wicked and mischievous advice who hunts out for Causes and who is the greatest Scolder and Brauler to make the things which are just and true seem doubtful and unjust and by such Weapons as those to chase and overthrow Justice with whom Justice is nothing else but publike Gain and the Judge that sits upon the Bench is forc'd to confirm what Money makes appear just Nay they expose those things which are not even privations of things and Silence it self seeing that as none will speak but for Gain there 's none will hold his tongue but for Reward after the example of Demosthenes who when he askt Aristodemus a Compipiler of Fables what Fees he had got for Pleading answered A Talent But I replyed Demosthenes have got more to hold my tongue So that the tongue of a Lawyer unless fast bound in Silver chains is very mischievous and pernicious CHAP. XCIV Of the Calling of Publike Notaries AMong these Publike Notaries are to be reckon'd whose Injuries Falsities and Mischiefs continually by them wrought all are bound to endure while they pretend to have their credit license and authority from the Apostolike and Imperial power Among whom they are to be accounted the chiefest who know best how to trouble the Court perplex Causes counterfeit Wills and Deeds to abuse and deceive their Clyents and if need be to forswear themselves venturing at any Roguery rather than be outdone in plotting and contriving Cheats Scandals Quirks Tricks Quillets Treacheries Scylla's and Charybdis's by any other person whatsoever There is no Notary can frame an Instrument from whence there may not be some cause of Quarrel pickt out if any person have a minde to contest for there will be some way or other found out either to finde out a defect in the Writing or to invalidate the faith of the publike Notary These they call the Helps of the Law which they teach the Contentious how to flie to and lay hold of These are the effects of their Watching and Labour wherewith with they soften the rigour of the Law when they finde their Clyents willing to contend for he shall have so much Law as he can by his power maintain the Law averring that we cannot be equal to those that are more potent than we are CHAP. XCV Of the Study of the Law TO this those vast Gyants have relation who contrary to the Edict of Justinian have begot so many innumerable Volumes of Comments Glosses and Expositions every one differing in their Interpretation Besides this they have gathered together such Storms of Opinions so many Woods of dark and subtil Counsels and Cautions wherewith the Iniquity of Advocates is furnished as if Truth did not consist more in Reason than in confused Testimonies rak'd together out of such a monstrous heap of Opiniasters among whom there is so much Dissention so much Discord that he that knows not how to differ from another to contradict the Sayings and Opinions of others call in question the justice of Adjudged Cases and to wrest good Laws to their own Humours and Interests is not to be thought Learned among um Thus is the Study of the Law made a deceitful Net and Gin of Iniquity these are the Crafts and these the Arts by which the whole Christian world is governed the Foundations of Empires and Kingdoms and out of these Knaves are chosen Presidents of Parliaments Senators and several great Officers of Popes and Princes as if wicked Advocates would prove just Judges when they came to be the Heads of the Nation These like the Titans to Jove become formidable to their Princes themselves Out of these come the swag-belly'd Secretaries and Purple Chancellors of Emperours and Kings who govern all affairs of State dispose of all Favours Gifts Benefits Offices Dignities and Patents of the prince who sell all Right and Justice all Law Equity and Honesty and compel others to purchase of them According to whose will such and such are to be Allies such Enemies to the Prince with whom sometimes they joyn in Leagues sometimes make War according to their pleasures And being rais'd from the lowest degree of Poverty and meanness of condition to so high a pitch of Dignity meerly by prostituting their Tongues at length they grow so bold and audacious that without calling to answer without order of Council they will convict and condemn men and many times alter forms of Government they themselves growing fat with Thievery and Robbery CHAP. XCVI Of the Inquisition HEre we must not omit the order of Predicants Inquisitors after Hereticks whose power when it ought to be founded upon the holy Scriptures yet they derive it all from the Canon-Law and Pontifical Decrees as if it were impossible the Pope should erre leaving the Scripture as a dead letter and onely the shadow of Truth and reject it as the Buckler and defence of Hereticks Neither do they receive the Traditions of the ancient Fathers and Doctors because they may both deceive and be deceived but pretending that the Roman Church cannot erre of which the Pope is the Head and therefore the Authority of his Court is the Rule of their Faith enquiring no further in their examinations than whether men believe in the Church of Rome which if any person refractory do grant then quoth they the Church condemns such or such a Proposition as heretical scandalous and offensive to pious ears and then compel the person to revoke and recant his Errour If the offender continue to justifie himself by Reason or Scripture or both straight with great clamour and mouthing they interrupt him telling him he is not before the Chair of Doctors or a Convocation of Scholars but a Tribunal of Judges he is not to dispute there but to answer directly whether he will stand to or abide the Decree of the Church or renounce his Opinion if not they shew him Faggots and Fire saying Hereticks are to be convinced with Faggot and Fire not with Scripture and Arguments and so compel a man not convicted of any perverse obstinacie contrary to his Conscience to abjure those things which if he deny they deliver him over to the Secular power as a deserter of the Church to be burnt saying with the Apostle Remove the evil thing from among you In ancient times such was the lenity and meckness of the Church that they neither punisht those that relaps'd into Judaism nor Blasphemies and Berengarius revolting to a most damnable Heresie was not onely not put to death but continued in his Archdeaconship But now if a man slip into the least Errour 't is much more than his life is worth and he shall be thrown into the Fire by these Inquisitors for a trifle Perhaps it is now convenient for the Church to use such severe chastisement for fear of losing its innate piety Sometimes Hereticks are Inquisitors after Hereticks which was the occasion of the Decree which Clement made But Inquisitors ought not to hold dark
Arguments and talk in wrangling Syllogisms with Hereticks but to labour to convince them by the Word of God then to determine the matter according to the Decrees and Canons of the Church and either to reduce him to the Orthodox Faith or pronounce him a Hereticks for he is no Heretick who is not obstinate nor is he a favourer of Hereticks who seeks to defend an innocent person condemned of Heresie left he should be deliver'd up by these cruel and ravenous Inquisitors to be butchered without a cause And although it be expresly provided in the Law that the Inquisitors shall have no power of Examining nor any Jurisdiction over any suspition defence or favour of Heresie which is not a Heresie manifestly exprest and absolutely already condemn'd yet these bloudy Vultures going beyond the Priviledges and Commission of their Office against all right and contrary to the Canons themselves take upon them to meddle with ordinary things arrogating and usurping the power of Popes in those things which are not Heretical but onely Scandalous or offensive to the ear most cruelly raging against the poor Country-women whom being once accused of Witchcraft and condemned without the examination of any lawful Judge they expose to most strange and unheard-of Torments till having extorted from them what they least thought to confess they finde matter to proceed upon to condemnation and then they think they do the Office of Inquisitors truly when they never leave the business off till the poor woman be burnt or else have so far gilded the Inquisitors hand until he take pitie of her as sufficiently purg'd for an Inquisitor may alter the punishment from penal into pecuniary and convert it to the use of the Office by which there is not a little Money to be got and some of these poor creatures are forc'd to pay them an annual Stipend for fear of being harass'd to Torment And when the Goods of Hereticks are confiscated then the Inquisitor gets no small matter The very accusation or highest suspicion of Heresie nay the very Citation of the Inquisitor is enough to bring a womans credit in question which is not to be salved without money given to the Inquisitor which is no small gain Thus while I was in Millain several Inquisitors did torment many honest Matrons some of very good Quality and privately milk very large sums from the poor affrighted and terrified women till at length their Cheating being discovered they were severely handled by the Gentry hardly escaping Fire and Sword When I was President of the Commonwealth in the Citie of Mediomatricum I had a very great Contest with an Inquisitor who being a loose fellow had hal'd a poor Country-woman into his Slaughter-house being a place of disrepute and all for a very slight Accusation not so much to Examine her as to Crucifie her This woman when I undertook to defend her Cause and found and had made it evident that there was nothing of Proof to make out the Crime the Inquisitor made answer that there was one proof not to be question'd That her mother many years ago was burnt for a Witch Which Article when I shew'd how impertinent it was and that it was not for the Law to condemn one for the fact of another presently he lest he should have seemed to have talkt out of Reason before produces this Argument That therefore it was so and the Proof good because Witches were wont to devote their children to the devil as also because they are wont to Conceive by lying with the devil and therefore there is an inherent Guiltiness in the Off-spring Wicked Father said I is this thy way of Theologie Are these the Fictions for which thou harriest silly women to Torture are these the Sophisms with which thou condemnest Hereticks Thou thy self in my opinion art far worse than Faustus or Donatus Grant it were as thou sayst dost thou not hereby abrogate the grace of Baptism if for the impiety of a Parent the Off-spring should be the devils due And if it were true that Incubi did generate yet was never any one of that opinion so infatuated as to think those Spirits did mingle any thing of their own nature with the suffoced seed But I tell thee upon the true grounds of Faith and by the true natures of our Humanities we are all one mass of sin and eternal malediction sons of perdition sons of the devil sons of the wrath of God and heirs of hell but by the grace of Baptism Satan is cast out of us and we are made new creatures in Jesus Christ from whom no man can be separated but by his own sin for far is it from truth that he should suffer for another mans sin Seest thou not now how invalid thy most sufficient Proof is how vain in Law and indeed how absolutely Heretical it is The cruel Hypocrite grew very wroth against me and threatned to sue me as a favourer of Hereticks However I persisted in defence of the poor creature and at length by the power of the Law I delivered her out of the Lions mouth and the bloudy Monk stood rebuk'd and sham'd before um all and ever after infamous for his Cruelty and the Accusers of the poor woman in the Capitol of the Church of Metz whose Subjects they were were very considerably Fin'd CHAP. XCVII Of Scholastick Theologie IT remains that we discourse concerning Theologie I shall pass by the Theologie of the Gentiles mentioned in Orpheus Musaeus and Hesiod which all men acknowledge to be Poetical and fictitious and which Lactantius and Eusebius and many other eminent Doctors of the Christians have convinced by most strenuous Arguments Nor shall we speak of the Religion of Plato or the rest of the Philosophers whom we have already shew'd to be the teachers of nothing but Errour But we shall here discourse concerning the Christian Religion This onely depends upon the faith of its Doctors seeing that it can fall under no Art or Science And first of Scholastick Divinity a certain Hodge-podge or Mixture of Divine Precepts and Philosophical Reasons looking like a Centaur written after a new manner far different from the antient way of delivery diffus'd into little Questions and subtil Syllogisms without any Elegancie of speech and which has brought not a little profit to the Church in the convincing of Hereticks The first Authors whereof and who were most excellent therein were Thomas Aquinas Albertus sirnamed the Great and many other famous men besides Johannes Scotus a most subtil and acute Writer though a little more given to Contention Hence Scholastick Theologie sell into Sophisms while those newer Theosophists and as it were Sutlers of the Word of God never worthy of the title of Divines but for their money of so sublime a Studie and Contemplation made a meer Logomachie wandring from School to School starting little Questions framing Opinions forcing the Scriptures inducing a strange sence with intricate words and more nimble to ventilate
by the wit and help of Man Wine Oyl Bread and Cloth and other works of Nature are compleated by humane Arts so the Divine Oracles delivered to us obscure and hidden are to be explained by Interpretation not by the force of our own Wit or Invention but by the help of the Spirit who distributes his good things as he pleases and where he pleases making some Prophets and some Interpreters Therefore this Interpretative Divinity consists not in Compounding Dividing Defining after the manner of the Peripateticks neither of which belong to God who neither can be defined divided or compounded but leads to Knowledge by another way which is indifferent between this and Prophetical vision which is a kinde of discovery of the Truth to our purifi'd Intellect as a Key to a Lock and this as it is the most covetous of all Truth so it is the most susceptible of what things are to be understood and is therefore called Possible Intellect wherewith though we do not discover by a full light what the Prophets mean and those who beheld the Divine things themselves yet there is a door open to us that from the conformity of the Truth perceived to our Intellect and by the Light which illustrates us out of those open windows we gain more certainty than from the appearing Demonstrations Definitions Divisions and Compositions and we read and understand not with our outward eyes and ears but with our better senses and extract the Truth flowing from the sacred Scriptures which the other delivered in dark sayings and mysterious sentences and thereby see what is hidden from the wise and great Philosophers yet apprehend them not with so much certainty as that all perplexity may be removed And whereas there is a manifold Truth conceal'd in sacred Scripture holy men have gone about to try various and manifold Expositions of the same For some gently walking along the back of the Letter and expounding one place by another and one letter by another and making out the sence by the Order Etymologie and Propriety and Force of the signification of the words hunt out the truth of Scripture which is therefore call'd Literal Exposition Others refer all things written to the business of the Soul and works of Justice whose Expositions are therefore call'd Moral Others remit them by various Tropes and Figures to the Mysteries of the Church whose Exposition is call'd Tropological Others given to Contemplation refer all things to the Myitery of Celestia glory and this Exposition is call'd Anagogick And these are the four most usual sorts of Exposition besides which there are two more of which the one refers all things to vicissitude of Times Mutations of Kingdoms and Ages therefore call'd Typick Wherein among the Ancients Cyril Methodius and Joachim Abbas did most exel of Modern Authors Jeremy Savanarola of Ferrara The other enquires into the nature and qualities of the Universe the Sensible world and of the whole Fabrick of the World and Nature which Exposition is therefore call'd Physical or Natural wherein Rabbi Simeon ben Joachim excell'd who wrote a very large Volume upon Leviticus wherein discoursing of the natures of all things he shews how Moses according to the congruencie of the threefold World and nature of things ordain'd the Ark the Tabernacle the Vessels Garments Rites Sacrifices and other Mysteries for the appeasing and worshipping God Which Exposition the Cabalists follow especially those who treat of Beresith or the Creation For they who discoursing concerning the Judgement-seat of God by Numbers Figures Revolutions Symbolical reasons refers all things to the first Arch-type search for the Anagogical sence And these are the six most famous Senses or Meanings of the holy Scripture all whose Expositors or Interpreters are by a general word call'd Divines among whom we finde Dionysius Origen Polycarpus Eusebius Tertullian Ireneus Nazianzene Chrysostome Athanasius Basil Damascene Lactantins Cyprian Jerome Austin Ambrose Gregory Ruffinus Leo Cassianus Barnardus Anselm and many other holy Fathers which those ancient times brought forth and some of later years as Thomas Albertus Bonaventure Egidius Henricus Gandavensis Gerson and many others But now seeing that all these Interpretative Divines are but men they are subject to humane frailties sometimes they erre sometimes they write things contrary or repugnant sometimes they differ from one another in many things they are deceiv'd all of um not discerning all things for onely the Holy Ghost has the perfect knowledge of Divine things who distributes to all men according to a certain measure reserving many things to himself that we may be always learning of him for as S. Paul saith All of us know and preach by art onely Therefore all this Interpretative Theologie consists onely in liberty of speech and is a Knowledge separate from Scripture whereby every one has the liberty to abound in his own sence according to those various Expositions recited before which S. Paul in one word calls Mysteries or speaking of Mysteries when the Spirit speaks Mysteries whence Dionysius calls this Significative Theologie treated of by those holy Doctors in several Volumes Nor are we to believe all that they say seeing that many hold very Erroneous Opinions of Faith which are exploded by the Church as we may instance in Papias Bishop of Hierapolis Victorinus Pictoviensis Irenoeus Lugdunensis Cyprian Origen and Tertullian and many others who have err'd in the Faith and whose Tenets have been condemned as Heretical though they themselves are among the Canoniz'd Saints But this requires a deeper spirit of consideration to judge and discern which is not of men nor of flesh and bloud but granted from above by the Father of lights For no man can utter any thing rightly of God but by the light which comes from himself which light is the Word by whom all things were made and who illuminates every man coming into this world giving them power to become the sons of God whoever shall receive and believe Neither is there any who can declare the things of God but his own Word for who besides can know the minde of God or whoever was made of his council but the Son of God being the Word of the Father But of this we shall discourse no farther till we have perfected the next Chapter of Prophetick Theologie CHAP. XCIX of Prophetick Theologie AS Prophecie is the speech of the Prophets so is Theologie nothing but the Tradition of the Divines or men discoursing with God However not every one that can remember or repeat a Prophecie or interpret the meaning thereof is presently a Prophet but he that in divine things is endued with the knowledge of Piety Vertue and Sanctity who discourseth with God and meditates upon his Law day and night For so S. John Author of the Apocalypse in the Letters of Dionysius call'd The Divine testifies from holy Writing to whom the Truth it self has said He that hears you hears me and he that despises you despises me Which words are not