bowelles of our Churches What that I may pleade example For Clodis Tarcinensis wrote a verie great volume of the verie same argument Ionas Anielianens de cultu Imag. lib. 1. Bonauentu Vulcanius in epist ad Ordin Belgic I meane against the verie hauing of Crosses and Images in the Church and Nilus Suziceus no lesse then 120. chapters in an argument of the same kinde to wit about the leauen Hauing thus aduertised touching the purpose of my writing I come to satisfie some of them who thinke I should not haue written at all And of these Censors I obserue foure sortes The first sorte doe iudge all contending about Ceremonies to bee no better then vayne disputing such as the Apostle doeth forbid I aske Are not Ceremonies matters of faith Yea certainly They are indeed matters of faith and therefore not vaine but necessarie to be knowne and discerned by vs. 1 Tim. 6.5 That we may not guesse but clearely vnderstande how they are all established or condemned by Gods word Howbeit were they but thinges indifferent as indeed they are not in Gods worshipp yet must they not specially in this vse be done in faith or can there any faith be of them that is not grounded on the word which is the only word of faith It is sufficient if the scripture be not against them True but as Tertullian of olde If the scripture doeth not permit them it doeth forbid them and sine lege contralegem as in Policie lib. de Corâ— milit Thom. Mor ton Apolog pa. 2. lib. 1. cap. 4â— Idem p. 420 â—eza Annot. in 1. Cor. 11 10. 1 Cor. 11.7.14.16.34 so in Diuinitie are both one In deed if not viua ratio out of the word yet manifesta aequitas alwayes is euer needfull to the very circumstances of Gods seruice as for lawfulnes so for expedience expedience I say and the same not onely generall according to the perpetuall circumstances which cleaue to their kinde but also speciall according to the occasionall circumstances that occurre in their particular practise So much is manifest by Paule who proueth the Expedience of the vayle a ciuill custome in the Church of Corinth by reasons drawen from the lawe of God and Nature before he forbiddeth coÌ„tending against it and putteth ouer the ordering of other circumstances of celebrating Gods publique worship in that Church till by oculata experientia he had seene their estate and weighed what was most conuenient What wheÌ„ this course is not obserued Why men are set to eate their meate without salt saieth Hierome when they are commaunded any thing that hath no relishe from the worde and to builde without haye and stubble like Israel in Egypt when they bee not allowed some warrant out of the Scripture which only can combine the matter of the worke make the frame of the building sure But Augustine will haue vs followe a Synode of a Church etiam latente veritate What and will he haue vs followe it too without vsing the meanes that may bring the trueth to light No but here he requireth euen certa documenta lib. de peccat merit remiss ca 36 Fascâ—cul rer expetend artic 18. folio 129. in 1 Cor. Homil. 13. Rom. 14.5 out of the worde to the commaundements of the Church euen as Iohn Wiclephe taught since his time We must take nothing from the Prelates which is not clarè euen clarè demonstrated by the scriptures Chrysostome giueth a reason hereof Our cogitation halteth when the worde wanteth which halting is sinne because we are bounde to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a full perswasion euen in indifferent things and all And in this Controuersie of the Ceremonies the trueth is not latens I trust this verie Discourse will shewe there is not onely no reason to conforme but also reason strong and euident against Conformitie at the least I doubt not but it wil cleare vs from that stomacke and stubburnes wherewith we are vniustly burthened as bearing vs witnes we are the men that keepe the olde rule Non est a consuetudine recedendum facile nisirationi aduersetur Augusti de Mufic lib. 2. cap. 8. Tertull. de veland virg Digest lib. 1 Ticul 3. cap. 39. Tho. Aqui. sum p. 2. q. 92. art 3. for which wee protest according to the auncient tenor Nullam respicimmus consuetudinem quam damnare non possumus and therevpon call at the Tribunall for that olde sentence Quod non ratione introductum est sed ex errore primum deinde consuetudine obtectum est in alijs similibus non obtincat in the Schooles for that Decision Theologicall For asmuch as the law Diume proceedeth from the will of God the Humane onely from the wil of man vsus authoritati cedat prauum vsum lex ratio vincat The second sorte of our Censors though they mislike not all sticking at Ceremonies yet all standing they condemne against an Order once established in a Church What and haue we then liued to the time to heare Sion speake in Sorbons language No further reason must be sought then a Synodes owne authoritie that which the wiser sort of Papistes them selues condemne nicol Clau. collat de Concil Cyril Hierosol ca. 4. Mat. 23.8 Sure to beleeue any or each simpliciter dicent vpon his bare worde is to sett vp a Maister on earth to no small preiudice of our Maister in heauen whom we are onely in this maner to beleeue It is also to inthrall the Church to a seruitude Babylomeall if not worser for so much as some childrè of Babell her self refuse to bowe downe their neckes to this yoake as we see by Alphonsui Alphons de Cast cont haeres lib. 1. cap. 7. Martin Luther li. cont papat Nicol. Clau. disputat de Concil Miserrima seruitus est saith he iurare in alicuius verba Magistri I omitt to obiect here yea so much to inquire whether the Synode that made this order sate as Iudges in their owne case which is against the lawe of Nature whether they assumed an Immunitie to them selues to haue al accusing of them reputed schisme which is our exception against the Concill of Trident. whether they came resolute against Reformation and fully bent to make such Decrees as best might strengthen their owne estates whereby the Concill of Pisa once barred and shut out the Holy Ghost from their assemblie whether the name of the house it self knew not of many Canons made as at the second Councell of Ephesus many subscribed to what they knew not Last of all whether some Canons were only read as at the Diet. of Augusta the Jnterim was proposed only by the ChauÌ„celour of Charles the fifth so thought sufficiently ratified although the States and Peeres there present neuer gaue their voyce to it The Inquisition of these things and other the like I say I omitt This is the answere I rely on the Reformation we seeke Zepper de polit
the crosse seeing we vse him to receaue into the Church e Bellar. ibid etiamsi Sacramenta vetera non efficiebant gratiā iustificantē camen introducebant in populū dei at nemo potest determinare aliquid ad introducendū incertā rempublicā nisi qui author est illius legis reipublicae Secondly euen in the time of the old law whē signes reigned none were lawful which were not shewed in the patterne of the mount the letter of which cōmandement then the equity now keepeth out all signes deuised by man which are not found in the pattern of the word The signes which now mā deviseth it keepeth out the more strōgly because they obscure the Gospel for nothing ought to be adūbrated now in the cleer light therof say f Ioh. Brent in confess Witenberg cap. vlt. Ioh. Caluin instit li. 4. ca. 10. sect 14. our writers So that we thus plead against the oyle the oyle the crosse are twins of one birth g Athanas oratio 2. cont Arrian Christus transsadit in nos vnctionem spiritus absque tali Ceremonia Again h Euseb hist li. 1. ca. 4. Christianinon vnguntur amplius per typos imagines fed per ipsas nudas virtutes l August aduers Iudeos ca. 4. Christus mutanit vnctionē carnalē in spiritualē No ceremonie in Baptisme like to the oyle it goeth beyond all the rest in this that the smell of it affecting the sense m Brisson de spectacul pag. 189. 192. it striketh adeeper force impressiō into the mind If therfore it must vanish away and the oile spirituall be only left much more the sign of the crosse must be taken away the crosse spiritual be left only behind which is faith in Ch. Iesus crucified patiēce to beare his crosse Wheras it was an ancient custom n Ducant de rit li. 2. ca. 55. sect 14 saith a papist to wash the feet before Bapt. the Church is now contented with the thing signified only which is internal preparatiō why should not we be then contented with the thing signified of the Crosse in consideration that God hath not abolished his own signs in this time of the Gospel to giue o D. Fulke ag Saund. of imag Ioh. Dearing in Heb. lect 2 mā leaue to set vp others in their roomes Thus August p August de doctrin Christian lib. 3 ca. 8. Christiana libertas cos quos invenit sub signis vtilibus interpretatis signis quibus subditi erant ad cas res quarūilla signa sunt eleuauit Is it not a singular benefit to be taught clearly without signes which to vnderstand some Oros Apollo had need stil be present with vs to expoūd thē what shal the people of Egipt doe with the Hierogliphicall letters of their priests which are significatiue plain letters q Ioh. Bohem Auban lib. 1. cap. 5. are best for thē wherby to write So was it a benefit for the people of the East that the Emperor r Anton. Gubert Costan Polyhistor cap. 9. abolisht the significatiue writing of the law by Notae which serued for Compendiū bringing ina plain maner of writing with out any such signes So was it a s Genebrard li. 2. ann mundi 1791. benefit for Philosophers that Aristot abolisht the figures numbers of the Platonickes Pythagorians reducing lodgike into such an Art as proued an instrument of plaines in teaching So was it a benefit last of all that t Socrat. hist lib. 6 ca. 3. Sozom. li. 8. ca. 2. Diodorus Tarsensis Chrysost schoolm brought in a simple literal meaning of the Scripturs abolishing mystical significatiōs What then very bad seruice do our Opposites to the Church to make way to a new seruitude of signes to be by man devised against our own u Homil. for Whitsōtyd pag. 2. law which proueth at large against all signes which the papists haue brought into Bapt. that no signes now should burthē the church saue those which the L. hath left which are not burthensom I end with one of our writers w Ioh Keynold confer cap. 8. diuis 4. p. 521. To deuise new signes is to set the Church to schoole againe after the Iewish maner This Iewish fashion how intollerable now it is an other telleth x Chemit exam p. 2. rit de rit Quod vero praetendunt c. wheras they pretend that many things may be godly profitably signified admonished taught by those rites which are added be mē to that it may be answerd that figurs are proper to the old Testa Look what things Christ will haue taught admonished in the new those things he wil haue proposed and deliuerd not in shadows but in the light of his word we haue a promise frō him for the efficacy of the word but none for the efficacy of figurs deuised by men But such rites as he would haue added to his word those he hath ordained himselfe #Sect 26. Though the devising of new signes corrupt the simplicitie of Sacraments ordained by Christ yet it hindreth not but something is left to the Church concerning circumstances as time place order c. THirdly the deuising of newe signes corrupteth the simplicitie of the Sacraments which are perfectly ordained by Christ What then is there nothing left to the Church Yes the disposing of the a Zepper de politia eccles c. 12 circumstances of Gods seruice as time place order of doing with the like and of the particulers of those things which the word commandeth in generall as the profession and preaching of faith repentance at Baptisme the applying of the element with praiers fit beyond which there must nothing bee added as one of our Writers saith who after he had rehearst all these b Zanch. in ephes 6. lect de bapt ca. 7. hoc est primum rituum genus saith he quod necessarium est solum sufficit Indeed when Christ said hoc c Theodor. Baeza epi. 8 facite he tyed his church to his owne signes and to them onely as one thus sheweth d Chemnit examp p. 2. de rit p. 37 Mat. 19.8 1 Cor. 11.23 Cumfilius Dei sacramenta ita instituerit vt ea certis à se institutis ritibus praeceperit administrari valde ardua est quaestioan hominibus permissum sit alios praeterea quocunque praetextu superaddere Fourthly aske the Fathers of the primatiue Church whether any signes were vsed in their dayes besides them which the Lord ordained For it sufficeth against euery vpstart signe that ab initio non fuit sic because nothing must be receiued in a Sacrament but that which the Lord ordained as Paul wrote once to Corinth it was xxvj yeres after the assention that he thus wrote Wherby it appeareth e Bulling de orig error lib. 2. ca. 5. Neijs quidem vnquam venisse in memtem auctiorem ritum Ecclesijs profuturum Now
came greatly short of them according to the beaten proverbe pauci filij p Clemens Alexand l. stromat in initio patribus similes Papias was one of Iohns hearers yet the error of the Chiliastes sprang from him He gaue cause of error saith the storie to many Ecclesiasticall men q Euseb histor l. 4. c. 36. quia ad eius antiquitatem respexerunt If it be not safe to beleeue an Apostles hearer for his antiquitie then much lesse the crosses Fathers who drewe neare to r Hieron Hieromes time when the church drewe neare to her lees and when the s Augu. epi. burthensomnes of the ceremonies made the estate of the Christians worse then that of the Iewes I am told that t Herman Hamelman de tradit col 460.461.50 Bugenholgius vpon Ionas collecteth the historie of the ceremonies shewing how they corrupted the church of God by litle litle even from the Apostles dayes that in the age of the crosses rising cōmon corruption was growne to some height To him accordeth one at u Calfh art 4. fol. 96. home I knowe right well that within the 200. yeeres after Christ there were crept into the church many idle ceremonies and the simplicitie of Christes ordinance was refused Each man as hee had eyther credit or authoritie presumed of him selfe to adde somewhat to Ch. his institution and the flesh delighting in her owne devises deliuered the same with as strait a charge as if Christ him self had taken order for it But see we some perticulars There began in this mixtage aboue mentioned the w Author l. de duplic Mattyr Ap. Cypri Rabban l. 1. c. 27. Dionis Ecclesiastic Hierar c. 2 exufflation of the baptized looking towards the West into the Divells face There began in this age the x Cypri epist 7. Ambros de Sacrā l. 1. c. 5. consecration of the Font with oyle and crosse There began in this age the y Cypri epi. Author de vnction Chrismat ap eund oyle in baptisme without the which none was thought to be well baptized There began in this age the reserving of the bread in the Sacrament the eating of it at home in private There began here about the a Cypri in epist ad Quintin exorcisme the b Tertul. de coron milit offering and praying for the dead z Tertul. ad vxor l. 2. c Idem cont Psychic Fasting on certayne dayes with opinion of necessitie and satisfaction The Bishoppes d Euseb hist l 7. c. 17. throne through the pride of Samosatenus and the seedes of e Otho Frifingens l. 4 c 5. Monkerie through the example of Paulus Thaebeus Anthony following proved they say the first Maister that gaue rules for that kinde of life So then amongest what weedes the crosse grew vp and in what a dounged soyle of many other superstitions so shall we admire the lesse to see him in f Rabban de institut cleric c. 27 Rabbanus dayes waited vpon with salt spittle tapers and divers such like of which the surplice it self is one Of this one writeth how it was lately brought in by the Pope primis temporibus g Walafrid Strab. de reb ecclesiastic c. 24. saith he communi vestimento induti missas agebant sicut hactenus quidem Orientalium facere perhibentur Stephanus a. constituit Sacerdotes Levitas vestibus sanctis in vsu quotidiano non vti nisi in Ecclesia tātum Statutum est in Ecclesia Bracarensi ne Sacerdos sine orario celebret missam addiderunt in vestibus sacris alij alia vel ad imitationem eorum quibus veteres vtebantur Sacerdotes vel ad mysticae significationis expressionem #Sect 9. The third Exception against the Antiquitie of the Crosse THE third exception which we haue against the antiquitie of the Crosse bendeth against the persons of them who either begott it or bred it or preferred it in the church Ptolomie is said to haue killed the workemen of the image of Diana or secretly to haue made them away that so the image might be esteemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an image that came downe from Iupiter In like maner the authours of the crosse and the first devisers of it haue ben concealed as much as might be that so it selfe might seeme to come from Christ Drawe we them out of their corners wherein they lye hidde will they be founde such as Vincentius Lyrinensis doth prescribe when he giveth the church this rule we must only depend vpon those Fathers which are knowme to haue continued evermore both in the fayth and in the communion of the Catholique Church Now the Fathers of the crosse cannot abide this tryall For the begetters of this signe were the Valentinian heretiques who a Epiphan herel wrested the same scriptures to it and gaue it the same effectiue power the papistes do nowe as these wordes doe witnesse b Irenae l. 1. c. 1. Ventilabrum illud Christi Crucem interpretatur esse quae scilicet consumit materialia omnia quemadmodum paleas ignis immundat autem eos qui salvantur sicut ventilabrum triticum Let nowe the patrones of the crosse goe and boast of the antiquitie of it who if they be not papistes must needes be ashamed to see their antiquitie ascribe such a power vnto it as they must condemne wrest those Scriptures for it which they must confute and send it out of such a wombe as the memorie whereof they must abhorre And in case they can harden their foreheades to all this good leaue haue they to confront their owne Fathers in the fayth who boldly c D. Fulke ag Bristo motiuc 46 p. 124. say and affirme that the Divell did in Valentinus as well sowe the seedes of Idolatrie to the Crosse as he sowed in Carpocrates the seede of idolatrie to images In the iugling of Marcus making the wine to shewe like bloud the seede of Transubstantiation and in Tacianus last of all the seede of popishe single life and of their superstitious abstayning from fleshe But whether this be so or no sure enough it is that this heretique was the firste that vsed this signe or made any d Idem cont Rhem. Luk 24. sect 5. account thereof because wee heare no newes at all of it vntill we come to him and his secte in any auncient or authenticall Writer even as our e D. Willet de cruc ar 3 D Fulke ag Saund. of imag c. 13. p. 625. and in reioynd ag Mart. art 1 137. art 4.161 art 5 177. Writers tell vs. Secondly as Valentinus begatt the Crosse so was it Montanus that firste gaue it credit among Christians not onely for common vse but also for religious in the Church as all our f Magdebu centur 3. c 10. in Tertul Herm◠Hamelmā de tradit in apēd ad p. 1. Ioh. Dearing in epi. ad Heb lect 2. Ioh. Crispin chronolo in Sever. Imper. W.