and none of us so bold as once to open it or read on it and instead thereof to spread us abroad these goodly carven and gilten Books to teach us such good and godly Lessons IV. Concerning the right use of Churches and the gross abuses of them under Popery And have not the Christians of late dayes and even in our dayes also in like manner provoked the Displeasure and Indignation of Almighty God partly because they have profaned and defiled their Churches with Heathenish and Jewish abuses with Images and Idols with numbers of Altars too too superstitiously and intollerably abused with gross abusing and filthy corrupting of the Lord 's Holy Super the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood with an infinite number p. 131. of Toyes and Trifles of their own devices to make a goodly outward shew and to deface the plain simple and sincere Religion of Christ Jesus Partly they resort to the Church like Hypocrites full of all Iniquity and sinful Life having a vain and dangerous fancy and perswasion that if they come to the Church besprinkle them with Holy Water hear a Mass and be bless'd with the Chalice though they understand not one word of the whole Service nor feel one motion of Repentance in their Hearts all is well all is sure Fie upon such mocking and blaspheming of God's holy Ordinance Churches were made for another purpose that is to resort thither and to serve God truly there to learn his blessed Will there to call upon his mighty Name there to use the holy Sacraments there to travel how to be in Charity with thy Neighbour there to have thy poor and needy Neighbour in remembrance from thence to depart better and more godly than thou cameest thither What Dens of Thieves the Churches of England have been made by the blasphemous buying and selling the p. 80. most precious Body and Blood of Christ in the Mass as the World was made to believe at Dirigies at Month's Minds at Trentals in Abbeys and Chantries besides other horrible abuses God holy Name be blessed for ever which we now see and understand All these Abominations they that supply the room of Christ have cleansed and purged the Churches of England of taking away all such fulsomness and filthiness as through blind Devotion and Ignorance hath crept into the Church these many hundred years Wherefore O ye good Christian people ye dearly beloved in Christ Jesus ye that glory not in worldly and vain Religion in phantastical adorning and decking but rejoyce in heart to see the Glory of God truly set forth and the Churches restored to their ancient and godly use render your hearty thanks to the goodness of Almighty God who hath in our dayes stirred up the hearts not only of his godly Preachers and Ministers but also of his faithful and most Christian Magistrates and Governours to bring such godly things to pass V. Concerning Prayer in an unknown Tongue First St. Paul to the Corinthians saith Let all be done to edifying which cannot be unless common Prayers p. 137. and Administration of Sacraments be in a tongue known to the people For saith St. Paul He that speaketh in a tongue unknown shall be to the bearers an Alien which in a Christian Congregation is a great Absurdity As touching the times before the coming of Christ there was never man yet that would affirm that either the people of God or other had their Prayers and Administration of the Sacraments or Sacrifices in a tongue that they themselves understood not As for p. 138. the time since Christ till that usurped Power of Rome began to spread it self and to enforce all the Nations of Europe to have the Romish Language in admiration it appeareth by the consent of the most ancient and learned Writers that there was no strange or unknown Tongue used in the Congregation of Christians St. Austin writing upon the eighteenth Psalm saith what this should be we ought to understand that we may sing with reason of man and not with chattering p. 139. of Birds For Owls Popinjayes Ravens Pyes and other such like Birds are taught by men to prate they know not what but to sing with understanding is given by Gods Holy Will to the nature of man Let us therefore conclude with God and all good mens Assent that no Common-Prayer or Sacraments ought to be Ministred in a Tongue that is not understood p. â—… of the Hearers VI. Against Invocation of Saints or Angels and that Prayer ought to be made and directed to God alone But that the truth hereof may the better appear even to them that be most simple and unlearned let p. 114. us consider What Prayer is St. Austin calleth it a lifting up of the the mind to God Isidorus saith that it is an affection of the heart and not a labour of the Lips Now then is there any Angel any Virgin any Patriarch or Prophet among the Dead that can understand or know the meaning of the heart The Scripture saith It is God that searcheth the heart and the reins and that he only knoweth the hearts of the children of men as for the Saints they have so little knowledge of the secrets of the heart that many of the Ancient Fathers greatly doubt whether they know any thing at all that is commonly done on earth And albeit some think they do yet St. Augustine a Doctor of great authority and also antiquity hath this opinion of them that they know no more what we do on earth than we know what they do in Heaven For proof whereof he alledgeth the words of Isaiah the Prophet where it is said Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel knoweth us not Esa 63. Thus you see That the authority both of the Scripture and also of Augustine doth not permit that we should pray unto them O that all men would studiously read and search the Scriptures then should they not be drowned in Ignorance but should easily perceive the p. 115. Truth as well of this point of Doctrine as of all the rest For there doth the Holy Ghost plainly teach us that Christ is our onely Mediatour and Intercessor with God and that we must not seek and run to another Let us not therefore any thing mistrust Gods goodness Let us not fear to come before the Throne of his Mercy let us not seek the aid and help of Saints but p. 117. let us come boldly our selves nothing doubting but God for Christs sake in whom he is well pleased will hear us without a spokes-man VII Against the Doctrine of Merit But this saying That we be justified by Faith only freely and without works is spoken for to take away clearly all merit of our works as being unable to deserve our Justification at God hands and thereby most plainly to express the weakness of man and the goodness of God the imperfectness of our own works and the most abundant Grace of
THE Church of England As by LAW Established Being the very DOCTRINE and express Words of the HOMILIES against POPERY The thirty fifth Article of the Church of England The second Book of Homilies doth contain a godly and wholsome Doctrine and necessary for these Times as doth the former Book of Homilies which were set forth in time of Edward VI. And therefore we judge them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understood of the people And to this the whole Clergy of England have willingly and ex animo subscribed for above this hundred and twenty years unto this very day Homily for Witsunday concerning the Coming down of the Holy Ghost in the likeness of cloven Tongues p. 207. So that if any man be a dumb Christian not professing his Faith openly but cloaking and colouring himself for fear of danger in time to come he giveth men occasion justly and with good Conscience to doubt lest he have not the Grace of the Holy Ghost within him because he is tongue-ty'd and cannot speak Vol. 1. p. 50. For whosoever forsaketh the Truth for love or displeasure of any man or for lucre and profit to himself doth forsake Christ and with Judas betray him I. That Ignorance is the Mother of Popery BY Ignorance the Jewish Clergy induced the common people to ask the delivery of Barabbas the seditious Murderer and to sue for the cruel Crucifying of our Saviour Christ for that he rebuked the Ambition Superstition and other Vices of the High Priests and Clergy p. 313. London Edition Aº 1623. For as our Saviour Christ testifieth that those that Crucified him wist not what they did so doth the holy Apostle St. Paul say If they had known if they had not been ignorant they would never have Crucified the Lord of Glory But they knew not what they did Our Saviour Christ himself also foreshewed that it should come to pass by Ignorance that those who should persecute and murder his true Apostles and Disciples should think they did God acceptable Sacrifice and good Service as it is also verified even at this day And in this Ignorance have the Bishops of Rome kept the people of God especially the common sort by no means so much as by withdrawing of the Word of God from them and by keeping it under the Vail of an unknown strange Tongue For as it served the ambitious humour of the Bishops of Rome to compel all Nations to use the natural Language of the City of Rome where they were Bishops which shewed a certain acknowledging of Subjection unto them So yet served it much more their crafty purpose thereby to keep all people so blind that they not knowing what they prayed what they believed nor what they were commanded by God might take all their Commandments for God's For as they would not suffer the Holy Scriptures or Church-Service to be used or had in any other Tongue than the Latin so were very few even of the most simple people taught the Lord's Prayer the Articles of the Faith and the ten Commandments otherwise than in Latin which they understood not By which universal Ignorance all men were ready to believe whatsoever they said and to do whatsoever they commanded II. The pretended Reasons for denying the People the free use of the Holy Scriptures The great Utility and Profit that Christian Men and Women may take if they will by hearing and reading the Holy Scriptures no Heart can sufficiently conceive p. 143 much less is my Tongue able with words to express wherefore Satan our enemy seeing the Scriptures to be the very means and right way to bring the people to the true knowledge of God and that Christian Religion is greatly furthered by diligent hearing and reading of them he also percieving what an hindrance and let they be to him and his Kingdom doth what he can to drive the reading of them out of God's Church And for that end he hath alwayes stirred up in one place or other cruel Tyrants sharp Persecutors and extream Enemies unto God and his infallible Truth to pull with violence the Holy Bibles out of the peoples hands and have most spightfully destroyed and consumed the same to ashes in the Fire pretending most untruly that the much hearing and reading of Gods Word is the cause of Heresie carnal Liberty and the Subversion of all good Orders But the knowledge of God and of our selves is so far from being an occasion of Evil that it is the readiest yea the only means to bridle carnal Liberty and to kill all our fleshly affections And the ordinary way to attain this knowledge is with diligence to hear and read the Holy Scriptures III. Concerning the singular Profitableness of Lay-men's Books which with them do supply the place of the Holy Scriptures For what Lessons of Contempt of Riches and Vanity of this World can such books so besmeared with Gold set with precious Stones covered with Silks teach What Lessons of Soberness and Chastity can our p. â—3 Women learn of those pictur'd Scriptures with their nice Apparel and wanton looks But away for shame with these colour'd Cloaks of Idolatry of the Books and Scriptures of Images and Pictures to teach Idiots nay to make Idiots and stark fools and Beasts of Christians Do men I pray you when they have the same Books at home with them run on Pilgrimage to seek like Books at Rome Compostella or Jerusalem to be taught of them when they have the same Books at home Do men reverence some Books and despise and set light by others of the same sort Do men kneel before their Books light Candle at Noon-time burn Incense offer up Gold and Silver and other Gifts to their Books do men either feign or believe Miracles to be wrought by their Books I am sure that the new Testament of our Saviour Jesus Christ containing the Word of Life is a more lively express and true Image of our Saviour than all carved graven molten and painted Images in the World be and yet none of all these things be done to that Book or Scripture of the Gospel of our Saviour which be done to Images and pictures the Books and Scriptures of Lay-men and Idiots as they call them Wherefore call them what they list it is most evident by their deeds that they make of them no other Books nor Scripture than such as teach most filthy and horrible Idolatry as the users of such Books daily prove by continual practising the same O Books and Scriptures in the which the Devilish School-master Satan hath penn'd the lewd Lessons of wicked Idolatry for his dastardly Disciples and Schollars to behold read and learn to God's most high dishonour and their most horrible Damnation Have not we been much bound think you to those which should have taught us the Truth out of God's Book and his holy Scripture that they have shut up that Book and Scripture from us
our Saviour Christ Vol. 1. p. 16. and therefore wholly to ascribe the Merit and deserving of our Justification unto Christ only and his most precious blood shedding This Faith the Holy Scripture teacheth us this is the strong Rock and Foundation of Christian Religion this Doctrine all old and Ancient Authors of Christs Church do approve this Doctrine advanceth and setteth forth the true Glory of Christ and beateth down the vain Glory of Man this whosoever denyeth is not to be accounted for a Christian Man nor for a setter forth of Christs Glory but for an Adversary to Christ and his Gospel and for a setter forth of mens vain glory VIII Concerning Religious Orders as they call themselves or Pharisaical Sects by Antichrist invented as the Homily calls them and concerning their Merits and works of Supererogation Sects and feigned Religions were never the fortieth part So many among the Jews nor more Superstitiously and ungodly abused than of late days they have been among us Which Sects and Religions had so many hypocritical and feigned works in their State of Religion as they arrogantly named it That their Lamps as they said ran always over able to satisfie not only for their own Sins l. 1. p. 36. but also for all other their benefactors Brothers and Sisters of Religion as most ungodlily and craftily they had perswaded the multitude of Ignorant People keeping in divers places as it were Marts or Markets of Merits being full of their Holy Reliques Images Shrines and works of overflowing abundance ready to be sold And all things which they had were called Holy Holy Cowles Holy Girdles Holy Pardons Beads Holy Shoes Holy Rules and all full of Holiness But to pass over the innumerable Superstitiousness that hath been in strange-Apparel in Silence in Dormitory in Cloyster in Chapter in choice of Meats and Drinks and in such like things let us consider what Enormities and Abuses have been in the three chief principal Points which they called the three Essentials or three chief Foundations of Religion That is to say Obedience Chastity and wilful Poverty First under pretence or Colour of Obedience to their Father in Religion which Obedience they made themselves they were made free by their Rule and Canons from the Obedience of their natural Father and Mother and from the Obedience of Emperour and King and all Temporal Power whom of very duty by Gods Laws they were bound to obey And so the profession of their obedience not due was a forsaking of their due obedience And how their profession of Chastity was kept it is more honesty to pass over in silence and let the World judge of that which is well known than with unchast words by expressing of their unchast Life to offend chast and godly Ears And as for their wilful poverty it was such that when in Possessions Jewels Plate and Riches they were equal or above Merchants Gentlemen Barons Earls and Dukes yet by this subtil Sophistical term Proprium in Commune That is to say Proper in Common they mocked the World perswading that notwithstanding all their Possessions and Riches yet they kept their Vow and were in wilful Poverty IX That the Mass is a gross Idolatrous and mummish Abuse of the Lord's Supper But before all other things this we must be sure of p. 198. especially that this Supper be in such wise done and ministred as our Lord and Saviour did and commanded to be done as his holy Apostles used it and the good Fathers in the primitive Church frequented it We must then take heed lest of the memory it be made a Sacrifice lest of a Communion it be made a private eating lest of two parts we have but one lest applying it for the dead we lose the fruit that be alive Let us rather in these matters follow the Advice of Cyprian in the like cases that is cleave fast to the first beginning hold fast the Lord's Tradition do that in the Lord's Commemoration which he himself did he himself commanded and his Apostles confirmed This caution or foresight if we use then may we see those things that be requisite in the worthy Receiver whereof this was the first that we have a right understanding of the thing it self For what hath been the cause of the ruine of God's Religion but the ignorance hereof What hath been p. 99. the cause of this gross Idolatry but the ignorance hereof What hath been the cause of this mummish Massing but the ignorance hereof X. What kind of Power the Pope's is and that therefore we ought not to submit to it Therefore let us all fear the most detestable vice of Rebellion ever knowing and remembring that he that resisteth or withstandeth Common Authority resisteth or withstandeth God and his Ordinance Vol. 1. p. 76. as it may be proved by many other more places of the Holy Scripture And here let us take heed that we understand not these or such other like places which so straightly command Obedience to Superiours and so straightly punished Rebellion and Disobedience to the same to be meant in any condition of the pretended or coloured Power of the Bishop of Rome For truly the Scripture of God alloweth no such usurped power full of Enormities Abusions and Blasphemies XI That the Papists worship a vast number of false Gods And for that Idolatry standeth chiefly in the mind p. 46. it shall in this part first be proved that our Image maintainers have had and have the same Opinions and Judgment of Saints whose Images they have made and worshipped as the Gentiles Idolaters had of their Gods What I pray you be such Saints with us to whom we Attribute the defence of certain Countreys but Dij tutelares of the Gentiles Idolaters What be such Saints to whom the safeguard of certian Cities are appointed but Dij Presides with the Gentiles Idolaters What be such Saints to whom contrary to the use of the Primitive Church Temples and Churches be builded and Altars erected but Dij Patroni of the Gentiles Idolaters Oenomaus and Hisiodus shew that in their time there were thirty thousand Gods I think we had no fewer Saints to whom we gave the honour due to God Every Artificer and Profession hath his special Saint as a peculiar God As for example Scholars have Saint Nicholas and St. Gregory Painters St. Luke neither p. 47. lack Souldiers their Mars nor Lovers their Venus amongst Christians All diseases have their special Saints as Gods the curers of them The Pox Saint Roch the falling Evil St. Cornelis The Toothach St. Appolin c. Neither do Beasts and Cattle lack their Gods with us for St. Loy is the Horse-leach and St. Anthony the Swineheard c. These things are not written to any reproach of the Saints themselves who were the true Servants of God and did give all honour to him taking none unto themselves and are blessed Souls with God but against our foolishness and wickedness