〈◊〉 as * Ch. 9. Esay describes him that is to say the Father of his Church As it is written concerning the Logos or Eternal Word That As many as received him power is given unto them to become the sons of God which are born not of bloud John 1. 12. nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God According as our Saviour speaks to Nicodemus That which is born of the flesh is John 3. 6. flesh but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit It is therefore the Spirit of Christ whereby we are begotten into a new creature If any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his 3. But this Spirit of Christ is also the Spirit of God the Father and therefore our new creation or Regeneration is also attributed to him For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works And Ephes. 2 10. S. Peter in his first Epistle Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Ch. 1. v. 3. Jesus Christ who hath begotten us again or regenerated us c. But after in the same chapter he again brings the Eternal Word as a sharer in Vers. 23. this action of Paternity Being born not of corruptible seed but incorruptible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per sermonem viventem Dei in aeternum permanentem though it may be also rendred per sermonem Dei viventis in aeternum permanentis and thus may refer either to God the Father or to the Eternal Logos As I conceive that may also in S. John He that is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed that is the Spirit of Truth which is from the Father 1 Ep. 3. 9. and the Son remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Wherefore as Christ is said to be Head of all Principalities and Powers though God the Father be also rightly so styled and Christ is likewise said to be the Head of the Church though no man can deny but that God is so also for he that is an Husband to his Church is also ipso facto the Head of her So Christ in like manner may rightly be termed the Father of his Church although that be the ordinary appellation of the First Hypostasis of the holy Trinity And therefore there being such a real respect of Paternity betwixt Christ and his Church laid in this so remarkable ground of Regeneration by his Spirit into a new Creature I thought it both allowable and usefull to take notice thereof and adde this fifth Title to the rest there being most hainous sins committable against Christ in this respect also 4. That Christ is our King Priest Prophet and our God are Truths so generally acknowledged and so exceeding plain that I need produce no proof either of the things themselves or of the fitness of the Phrase 5. The other general branch of the Positive Scope of the Gospel is The spreading and propagating the exciting and nourishing the Divine Life in the members of Christ to the best of their capacities In which Divine Life is comprized Faith in God and a Belief of a Reward of righteousness in the other World as also those three excellent Evangelical Graces Humility Charity and Purity That these make up the grand Scope of the Gospel I think any one will be sufficiently satisfied by what I have written in my Explanation of the Mystery of Godliness 6. Now from hence it will follow with evidence and certitude plainly Mathematical That such a Mystery as in effect is a real counterplot and undermining as well of the Privative as Positive Scope of the Gospel of Christ in the above-named particulars that is to say That Mystery that in stead of ridding the world of Idols pollutes the Church with multifarious Idolatry instead of easing of the Church of the burthen of Judaical ceremonies fills it with a number of superfluous Rites either Judaical Pagan or pretendedly Christian That Mystery that makes Christ a King without power and laws a Prophet without prediction or instruction that sets up corrivalls with him in Heaven and on Earth for both his High-Priesthood and Divinity and eludes or prevents the inchoation or growth of the New birth by mischievous devices and practices That Mystery that naturally tends to the superinducing upon the world Atheism and Infidelity by magisterially obtruding upon mens belief the acknowledgement of such things as are not only useless to be believed but impossible to be and lastly That Mystery that is the Mother of Pride the Nurse of Uncleanness the School of barbarous Injustice and bloudy Cruelty This Mystery I say that is so horrid and Diabolical and so Antipodal to both the Person and Spirit of Christ and to all the Christian Graces provided there be but found a colour for these gross enormities as if they tended to the honour of Christ and the good of his Church must needs be that famed Mystery of Iniquity and the very body of Antichristianism with the distinct Limbs and Articulations thereof 7. Whose Image I having exhibited to your sight in this contracted Draught I shall now endeavour more fully and amply to set it before your eyes pursuing the parts I have enumerated in a more particular manner and in such a method as will carry along with it a reflexion upon the universal nature of the Mystery of Iniquity as it is opposite in a general respect to the Mystery of Godliness that is to say As those more comprehensive members of the Mystery of Godliness were A venerable Obscurity A communicable Intelligibleness Demonstrable Truth and desirable Usefulness so I shall trace along as I goe in every one of the above-mentioned Particulars of the Mystery of Iniquity these three general Depravations or Malignities as namely in opposition to the Truth in the Mystery of Godliness gross and palpable Falseness in stead of Usefulness intolerable Mischievousness and in stead of that venerable Obscurity joyned with Intelligibleness the unwholesome and abhorred fogs of a worse then Aegyptian darkness wherein harbours nothing but deceitfull Sophistry and self-seeking Fraud 8. In brief therefore the Falseness the Fraud and the Mischief shall be the points of inquisition upon every particular member of this Mystery of Antichristianism whose Idea when we have fully set out and demonstrated to be such we shall then proceed further to enquire Where it is actually to be found and by virtue of the said Idea to clear our own Church that is guiltless from the unjust suspicions and aspersions of malicious or inconsiderate spirits that either misrepresent or misapprehend things and so pass unrightfull censures upon what is at least allowable if not praise-worthy 9. He that is the Searcher of hearts and the Enlightner of our eyes so purge all our Hearts from partiality and Hypocrisie and so clear our Understandings that what shall be penned down with truth and sinceritie may be
Images kneel before them hold up their hands before them set up Candles burn Incense before them offer up gold and silver unto them hang up ships crutches chains men and women of wax before them attributing health and safeguard the gifts of God to them or the Saints whom they represent as they rather would have it who I say can doubt but that our Image-maintainers agreeing in all Idolatrous Opinions outward Rites and Ceremonies with the Gentile Idolaters agree also with them in committing most abominable Idolatry Truly for my part I must confess I do not at all doubt of it and therefore from such passages as these and several other of the like nature scattered up and down in this excellent Homily of our Church concerning Idolatry and Images do think it an easie Task to prove such a state of the Church as is here described to be the very Image of the Beast foretold in Apoc. 13. 14. the Apocalyps as any man may discern out of my foregoing Discourse But I will give my self the trouble of transcribing one or two more passages as that upon that famous Act of the good King Hezekias in breaking a-pieces the Brazen Serpent when once abused to Idolatry though set up by the special commandment of God and so mysterious a Figure of our Saviour himself How think you saith she would that godly Prince if he were now living handle our Idols set up against God's commandment directly and being Figures of nothing but folly and for Fools to gaze on till they become as wise as the blocks themselves they stare on and so fall down like dared Larks in that gaze and being themselves alive worship a dead stock and stone gold or silver and so become Idolaters abominable and cursed before the living God 6. And again Now concerning excessive decking of Images and Idols with painting gilding adorning with precious vestures pearl and stone what is it else but for the farther provocation and enticement to spiritual Fornication to deck spiritual Harlots most costly and wantonly Which the Idolatrous Church understands well enough For she being indeed not onely an Harlot as the Scripture calleth her but also a foul filthy and withered Harlot for she is indeed of ancient years and understanding her lack of nature and true beauty and great loathsomness which of her self she hath doth after the custome of such Harlots paint herself and deck and tire herself with gold pearl stone and all kinde of precious Jewels that she shining with the outward beauty and glory of them may please the foolish phantasy of fond Lovers and so entice them to spiritual Fornication with her Where it is most manifest that the Church of England doth and that with truth and judgement intimate that that apostatized Church of Rome is prefigured in the Type of the Whore of Babylon accordingly as I have above demonstrated in this present Treatise And answerable to this just Censure is that which we may reade in the following Page Surely the Prophet Daniel in the eleventh Chapter declareth such sumptuous decking of Images with gold silver and precious stones to be a token of Antichrist's Kingdome Wherein undoubtedly allusion is made to those words of the Prophet And a God whom his Fathers knew not shall he Dan. 11. 3â—… honour with gold and silver and with precious stones and pleasant things which is consonant to that sense we have * Ch. 10. above delivered of that Prophecy And as touching that ordinary pretence for Images that they are the Lay-mens Books she doth roundly rebuke the Sophistry of so fond a Plea But away for shame with those coloured 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 by them Do men light Candles at Noon-day to their Books Do they burn incense offer up gold and silver and other gifts to them And a little after Wherefore call them what they list it is most evident by their deeds that they make of them no other Books nor Scriptures then such as teach most filthy and horrible Idolatry as the Users of such Books daily prove by continually practising the same O Books and Scriptures in the which the devillish School-master Satan hath penned the leud Lessons of wicked Idolatry for his dastardly Disciples the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Apocalyps and Scholars to behold reade and learn to God's most high dishonour and their most horrible damnation And at last she winding up towards a Conclusion determines thus True Religion then and pleasing to God standeth not in making setting up painting gilding clothing and decking of dumb and dead Images which be but great Puppets and Babies for old fools in dotage and wicked Idolatry to dally and play with nor in kissing of them capping kneeling offering to them incensing of them setting up candles hanging up legs arms or whole bodies of wax before them or praying and asking of them or the Saints things belonging onely to God to give But all these things be vain and abominable and most damnable before God all such not onely bestowing their money and labour in vain but with their pains and cost purchasing to themselves God's wrath and utter indignation and everlasting damnation both of body and Soul And a little after Wherefore God's horrible wrath and our most dreadful danger cannot be avoided without the destruction and utter abolishing of Images and Idols out of the Church and Temple of God Which to accomplish God put in the minds of all Christian Princes Amen Thus freely zealously and judiciously does our Church of England condemn the Roman Religion of gross Idolatry in all those Points which I have nominated in my Idea nor has she left or appointed any Usage or Ceremony that bears any similitude or has any affinity with that hainous Crime So clear is she from this First part of Antichristianism which is the polluting of the Church of Christ with a Pagan-like Idolatry 7. And now concerning that Second part of Antichristianism opposite to the Second Privative end of the Gospel which was the Removal of that Yoke of Judaical Institutes and Ceremonies in lieu whereof Antichrist brings in an heap and lurry of Superstitious Opinions Rites and Ordinances which prove a load more intolerable not onely then the Law of Moses but the Tyranny of Aegypt itself I demand has not the Church of England by the appointment of the Royall Power of the Nation freed us from this miserable bondage Whose patience is now set on the Tenter-hooks by attending of dumb shows or â—…ish Masses as they are rightly called in our Book of Homilies wherein the Unintelligibleness of the Tongue administers no life nor devotion to the hearer Whose limbs are now tired out with
man upon earth may dispense with one tittle thereof But for authorizing Interpretations Opinions and the Rites and Ceremonies of Religious Worship either this is in a Christian Prince's power and not in the Priest's or else his Kingdome and safe administration thereof is not in his power For all these things according to the Eternal Law of Nature and of Reason are to be in the hand of him that is Supreme Governour and it is a contradiction to his Supremacy if it be not so For he that holds the rains of the Souls of men rules their whole Persons and the strongest rains are those of Religion And therefore if any Power distinct from the Kingly pretend to the right of ordering the affairs of Religion farther then his allowance and liking that Power is really the King and the King himself a precarious Power to be blown about and blown out of his Throne by the false breath of these pretenders to the Headship of the Church as often and as violently as they please Wherefore as the plain and confessed Law of Christ is immutable so what is doubtful and merely Ritual is to have its interpretation change or continuance at the judgement and discretion of every Christian Prince who has most justly and necessarily the power of accommodating such things to the peace composure and prosperity of his Kingdome Nor have the Ecclesiastick Powers any right in an immutable and essential manner to affix to the Christian Religion any thing that is not expresly and declaredly comprised therein according to the Divine Authority of the Scriptures For it is an high wrong to that Religion which is to be Everlasting and Universal to be bound and fettered with either Rites or Opinions that are but Temporary or Topical or that the Errours and Mistakes of dark Antiquity should become as a Law of the Medes and Persians to more serious and clear-sighted Posterity or what was fetched up upon some transitory emergency that all the importunities and necessities of after-Affairs of the Church or any parts thereof should not be able to conjure it down again for the making the Gospel more freely to run and be glorified 7. And therefore most apertly and judiciously has our Church declared in her Homily of Fasting That God's Church ought not neither may it be tied to any order now made or hereafter to be made and devised by the authority of Man but that it may lawfully for just causes alter change or mitigate those Ecclesiastical Decrees and Orders yea recede wholly from them and break them when they tend either to Superstition or to Impiety when they draw the people from God rather then work any edification in them And in the Book of Articles she again plainly asserts That it is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places Article 34. one or utterly alike for at all times they have been diverse and may be changed according to the diversity of Countries Times and mens manners so that nothing be ordain'd against God's Word And lastly in the close of that Article Every Particular or National Church hath authority to ordain change and abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by Mans authority so that all things be done to edifying Which Affairs of so dispensable and changeable a nature if they could be ordered by a power distinct from and independent of the Supreme Power of any Christian Nation and affecting and relishing a private Interest of their own what wilde commotions and confusions might they cause in a Christian State while they gore and spurre up the Ass to goe that way where he sees the Angel of the Lord with a drawn sword to drive him back Wherefore it is most safe and just that in all preter-Essentials to Christian Religion the Supreme Magistrate in every Christian Nation have the allowing or disapproving of them and that no Rites nor Opinions pass into Decrees but by his Authority that the Priesthood may not be able as they ought to be so faithful to their Prince as not to be willing to teach or decree any thing against his Interest whose Subjects they are or against the Safety Peace and Prosperity of the whole State of which they are but part and therefore ought to have no power to doe any thing independently of the Prince who is the Common Father of his whole Countrey and whose Interest is the good and welfare of all Who therefore must needs be the Head of the Church over all Causes and Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil as our Church does plainly acknowledge that vital Influence may indifferently flow from him into all the members of his Dominions But this is a point that might have been more seasonably deferr'd till we came to the Antichristian Opposition to the first branch of the Divine Life which is Humility and which the superlative Pride of the Papal Supremacy does so apparently affront But that there is not the least smutt of Antichristianism in Episcopacy itself I have already abundantly evinced 8. Now concerning those Oppositions that be made against Faith the Root of the Divine Life our Church is so plainly free from them as any one may perceive that pleases but to recount them that it is enough merely to intimate so much Onely I cannot let go this seasonable opportunity of triumphing in her behalf in that she is so throughly reformed from that notorious though subtle and slim piece of Antichristianism I mean that Self-ended Policy in those Doctrines and Practices which are so many in the Church of Rome and so profitable and yet Our Heavendirected Reformation has perfectly refined us and cleansed us from them all The consideration whereof must needs make our Mother the Church of England look very lovely and amiable to every ingenuous and discerning eye who cannot but bless God for that due judgment and faithfulness which he put into our Royal and Reverend Reformers and must be a great satisfaction to every honest Priest or Minister of our Church that he neither feeds himself nor the people with Lies after the manner of the Roman Priesthood nor puts one morsell of bread into his mouth filched from the Laiety by fraud and imposture and that as he labours in the Gospel so he lives by the Gospel and not by Figments and cunningly-devised Fables 9. Those Oppositions also against that Divine Grace of Humility which are specified in the ninth tenth and eleventh Chapters that our Church is cleared from them it is more apparent to any one that considers them then that I need give my self the trouble of particularly making it out The Pope's Supremacy is not onely declared against but sworn against as is very just and right And though there be peculiar Habits for Clergy-men yet as I have noted above our Church does professedly declare there is no Holiness in any such things but that they are for decency and distinction And distinction betwixt Laiety and Clergy is as
Christ is the rescinding so many Souls from the body of the Church as are persuaded to entertain it Whence it is manifest that Idolatry is as it were a Gangrene in the body of Christ and eats so much away from it as it seizes upon 9. But this is not the sole Mischief of this kind done to the Church by Idolatry viz. The streightning the extent thereof by the divulsion of those that were her true members but as considerable as this is The prevention or hinderance from making them members that otherwise might be persuaded thereto For it is very visible that letting in of Idolatry into the Church of Christ will for ever while it there continues exclude both Jew and Turk out of it who are deservedly so great abhorrers of Idolatry To say nothing of the Idolatrous Heathens themselves to whom it would be ridiculous to preach as the Apostles did to turn from dumb Idols to serve the living God whenas they might easily see aforehand that it would be but the turning from their wonted Idols to the serving of new ones It is a fearfull thing therefore to profess the Church Catholick and yet by introduction of Idolatry to streighten it at home and hinder the propagation of it abroad by such horrible Scandals 10. Which is not only a Mischief to the Church herself in curbing her growth and eclipsing her glory but a sad disaster to the whole World which is the the last evil issuing therefrom it being to them the most certain pledge of everlasting happiness to become members of the Catholick Church of Christ of which there is little hope in either Jew Turk or Heathen that are consciencious while this stumbling-block is in their way and that they cannot profess Christianity without the allowance and practice of Idolatry Which in my apprehension ought to be reputed a very sad calamity upon Earth Thus we have seen a competent Description of the First main Limb of Antichristianism namely Idolatry brought into the Church of Christ under pretence of honour to him and the Saints with a discovery of the Falseness and Unwarrantableness of that Doctrine and Practice and the gross Fraud and grand Mischiefs that accompany it CHAP. XVII 1. That a multitude of slight Observances may amount to an intolerable burthen 2. That no Religious observance can be slight while it has an obligation upon the Conscience 3. Though this general estimate of the burthen of Superstition from obligation of Conscience and multitude of Observances might suffice yet he will adde a more particular Draught of this Limb of Antichristianism 4. Of Anointings and of the Multiplicity of Sacerdotal Ornaments 5. The pretence and Self-endedness in these Ornaments and Anointings 6. The Mischief arising from these kind of Ceremonies to Priest and People 7. A more full description of their Publick Service 8. That respect to the Priest is better sought and more certainly found in the Power of Life and Doctrine then in any Histrionical Pomp 9. Which is so unsatisfactory to the serious that it may hazzard their departure 10. The Opinion of a miraculous power in religious Vestments 11. The Falseness and Fraud of this Opinion 12. The ill consequence thereof 1. THE next Limb of Antichristianism is The burthening and entangling mens minds with Scrupulosities in either unnecessary or hurtfull Observances and Opinions laying an equal or greater yoke on Believers by reason of the Multitude of these Rites and Superstitious conceits then Judaism it self did upon the people of the Jews and thereby frustrating that End of Christ's coming which was To put a period to such burthen some and unprofitable Ordinances and to conciliate to himself a Church that should worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth Which Burthensomness as I have already intimated may arise merely from the multitude of these Ceremonies though the things may seem slight considered singly and in themselves as Feathers that are singly light may by their number grow heavier then a masse of Lead And what a man may sometime doe out of Idleness or wantonness to wit stoop to take up a straw or to divide clay or dirt into Squares or Oblongs yet to be kept close to this task how little different is it from that vile Aegyptian bondage of being condemned to the perpetual making of bricks or gathering of stubble 2. Besides that every toy to which there is once a Religious obligation girds hard with those that are serious and consciencious And such followers Christ expects and therefore neither he nor his Apostles would burthen them with any thing but what was necessary But we are exhorted rather to stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ has Gal. 5. 1. made us free and not to suffer our selves to be brought under the bondage of any servile and unprofitable burthens of Superstition And our Saviour Christ rebuking the Pharisees tells them plainly that they worshipped God in vain while they taught for Doctrines the commandments Mark 7. of men Forasmuch as laying aside the Commandments of God they held the Traditions of men as the washing of pots and cups and brazen vessels and the like Wherefore if our Saviour Christ was so tender in the behalf of his Disciples that he would not have them superstitiously ensnared no not in so commendable and easy an observance as the washing of the hands ever before they did eat certainly it is utterly against his mind to have his followers intangled and enthralled in an innumerable multitude of less usefull Ceremonies Which be their natures what they will yet if by their numerosity they equallize the burthen of the Judaical Rites this general estimate is sufficient to discover it to be no inconsiderable Limb of Antichristianism in what Church soever such an enormity shall appear 3. Which I speak not as if I found it beyond my skill to pourtray this Limb of Antichristianism more articulately with stronger sinews and more full and solid muscles Such a draught therefore of Ritual Ordinances and Dogmatical Observances I will now draw as I dare appeal to any indifferent judge whether it will not prove an eminent part of that Mystery that opposes and defeats the purposed Ends of the coming of Christ into the world which assuredly were to free his followers from Sin and Superstitious slavery 4. And truly observing how tender and carefull our Saviour is in keeping off the least taint of Superstition from his Disciples about washings and eatings of meat and how expresly he affirms to them in that excellent parable That nothing that enters into a man defiles the man it will be Mark 7. easy thence to infer that much less any thing that hangs upon him or is about him can Sanctifie or make him holy Whence in the first place though I do not lay the greatest stress on it If we should suppose the Christian Priests to heap to themselves several sorts of Consecrated Garments for greater Ornament and Sanctimonie insomuch that every Priest's
into it of frighting away the destroying Angel but was merely a present Sign as also a Type of the sprinkling of the Bloud of Christ who as a Lamb without spot was to be sacrificed in future ages for the sins of the world Nor were the Water and Ashes of the Heifer mingled together with any Exorcism or Enchantment that we reade of in Scripture Nor did Elisha charm the Salt before he cast it into the Waters to heal them but he used it as a circumstance onely or sign in the healing of them which Ceremonies Christianity has nothing to doe withall nor is there any reason to bring in any more of the ancient Types or Figures then are already made use of by his choice who was unerrable The ground therefore of such usages is none at all but the pretence to such power as this so strangely and marvellously to enchant things to such mighty uses would make much for the honour of the Priest who cannot but hereby seem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very great and adorable person to the credulous people and these Exorcized commodities would be ready mony with as many as had belief in them But the worst is Faith and Temperance would be look'd less after and Pots of Holy-water and enchanted Lambs of Wax would stop those inward living springs of the Spirit of God in the Heart and help to extinguish that sense of Innocency then which there is not a greater Tower of defence to a believing Christian against all the fiery and thundring Artillery of the Prince of the Air. 6. These be the most gross and fundamental Superstitions that look like Magick or Sorcery which yet might be derived and deduced into various uses and practices as in the Visitation of the Sick in Extreme Unction in Funerals or Burials in Christenings Churchings and Marriages where Holy-water Exorcized Oil and Candles might be frequently made use of and some of them truly not without some considerable trouble as in Anointing the Sick their Eyes Ears Noses Mouths and Hands nay their Feet and the Reins of their Back the latter whereof may cause troublesome contests betwixt natural Modesty and Religious zeal in those that have a penitent sense of the transgressions of those parts The conjuring the Devil also out of the Infant that is to be baptized would seem a frightful thing to the Infant himself if he understood in what an ill plight the Priest supposes him while he makes three Exsufflations upon his face and uses an Exorcistical form for the ejecting of the foul Fiend who is imagined very saucily presumptuous to take such timely possession of him to whom he could not but see that Christ Jesus had apparently a better right as being the off-spring of them who were already his the Child being born of Christian Parents But here may come in also beside other Ceremonies the use of the Holy Oil for the anointing him on the fore-head and breast the putting upon him white Vestments and into his hand an holy Candle And which is more holy then any Oil or Candle the Priest's own Spittle is also to sanctifie his Ears and Nostrils by a gentle smearing thereof on those places And lastly that all may be sound and wholesome the holy Salt may also be put into the mouth of the Child that his words when he can speak may be the more savoury Thus may the use of the first consecrated Elements you see go far and make the Christian Sacrament of Baptism exceed in Ceremonie the Judaical nay their Circumcision it self whenas the use of that one Element of Water were sufficient and One dipping as significant of the Unity of the Godhead as Three are of the Trinity Yet such large and prolix Shadows might Christianity cast when the Sun of Righteousness grows towards his setting in the Church 7. And it is much if something might not appear affrightful to the Women in this approching darkness For though it be a gay thing for the Priest to be thought to have so much power over the Stygian Fiend as to Exorcize him out of the Infant yet it may be a sad consideration with some melancholick women laden with Superstition to think they are never brought to bed but they are delivered of a Devil and Child at once and that if their Child should die before Baptism the Devil having got bodily possession of him will certainly carry him thither where the greatest affection of a Mother dares not so much as desire to give him a visit Which indeed would argue the necessity of speedy Baptism to the height but withall depress the afflicted mind of the melancholick Mother with unspeakable anxiety The Delinition also of the Infant 's Ears and Nostrils with the Spittle of the Priest may sometimes strike harshly upon the spirits of the more delicate but it makes much for the opinion of his Sanctity whose spumeous excrement is of so sacred a virtue and will gain also the prayers of all the women in the Town that he may ever be an hail and sound man 8. But it were very unequal if the Load of Superstition should be lay'd wholy upon tender Infancy and our first entrance into this world Surely that severe Goddess will make them feel her weight also in some measure who are in a way of departing out of it And truly that Ceremonie of Extreme Unction that pretends to make the passage more glib to a man not Superstitious would make it more rough and troublesome The ripping up their Breast also by that sharp tool of necessitated Confession and then an over-reaching Satisfaction excited to the advantage of this or that holy Order or the uses of the Church will easily distract the mind of the dying penitent betwixt the care of his own Soul and the provision for his dear Wife and Posterity But frequent aspersions of Holy-water shall be his dilute comfort and he shall have before his eyes so long as he enjoys the light Assistants more cold and dead then those that have lien four days in the grave the Image suppose of Christ on the Cross another of the Virgin Mary and a third of the Saint to whom he had particularly devoted himself where he may if he will salute the Virgin 's Idol in the very words in which the Angel Gabriel once did her But if he would lay aside complements and speak the truth he might take up the complaint of Job touching these liveless companions Miserable Comforters are ye all However in the Interim what the frequent sprinkling of Holy-water can doe and making Crosses on his breast and forehead or the urging upon him the belief of every tittle the Church has defined to be true the Soul now so near her departure being more quick-sighted in those abstruse Mysteries or the promise of Prayers and Oblations when he is in the other State shall not be wanting for the ease of his Soul which in his breathing of it out if he should commend into the
shadows of the Truth if they be that Such a constitution of things as this does plainly discover it self to be Antichristian and to oppose that Title of Christ which styles him The Truth Without are Rev. 22 15. Murtherers and Sorcerers and every one that loveth and maketh a Lie That is not so remarkably spoken in the Apocalyps for nothing And it is worth the noting also in * Chap. 8. Daniel that Antiochus who is generally look'd upon as a Type of Antichrist is said to cast down the Truth to the ground 3. The next Title is The Light which is a figurative Title and signifies Wisedom and Knowledge and indeed upon the matter is but a symbolical expression of the former For Truth and true Wisedom are one and the same thing but in that it irradiates and informs the minds of others it is more especially called Light And Christ is so called both in that he enlightens every man that comes into the world according to his Divine nature and in that he was the Light of the Gentiles and the Glory of his people Israel in his exteriour Personal manifestation to the world Wherefore to endeavour to keep the people in a worse then Aegyptian darkness under pretence of raising their devotion to God when the plot is to have them wholy at their own devotion and to abuse them and mislead them as they please it were plainly to Antichristianize against this Second Title of Christ The Light and to defeat the End of his coming into the World which was to be a Light to lighten the Gentiles and to Isa. 42. 6. bring them that sit in darkness out of the Prison-house And Christ has entailed this Title also upon his true followers and Successours Ye are Matt. 5. 14. the Light of the World What then are they that are not onely not shining Lights themselves but industrious abettors and promoters of darkness and ignorance and diligent hinderers of any true light that may be let into the Church from others 4. The Third Title of Christ is The Life as it is written in S. John's Gospel In him was the life and the life was the light of men Which life I conceive S. Paul describes very savourly when he saith That the Kingdom of Heaven is not meat nor drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Christianity therefore is a dispensation of inward life flowing out into all laudable and usefull actions not a Babel of confused and intangling Opinions and unprofitable Observances a heap of Ceremonies and Conceits but a steddy abode in God who is Love and will teach us and inable us from an inward sense of Life to love him with all our hearts and all our souls and our Neighbour as our selves which is the most eminent fulfilling of the whole Law Wherefore instead of this holy dispensation of the Spirit and Life if there were introduced a rigid adherence to empty Opinions and unedifying Observations of multifarious Ceremonies this would be an Antichristian Trespass against this Third Title of Christ while we thus substitute insipid Theories and dead Formalities in the place of the Power and Life of Godliness 5. The Fourth Title is The mighty God and the Divinity of Christ is an acknowledged Article of our Faith and so choice a Prerogative of his Person that whatsoever does derogate from this infringe or weaken it cannot but be deemed considerably Antichristian Such therefore must be the building of Temples and Altars the burning of Incense and religious Invocations and Prayers to Saints or Angels Nay though there were no Prayers put up to them the solemnly reposing the Reliques of Saints in any Church or Chappel and making them therewith the Patrons or Tutelar Genii as it were of such a City or Province were no less then Idolatry and a Superstition much like that of the ancient Pagans in their Telesms and Palladiums and their Dii Tutelares whose presence they conceited to be detained by these superstitious Ceremonies and so made them Patrons and Protectours of their Cities and Countries Wherefore if the Christians by religiously reposing the Reliques of this or that Saint in this or that City should be so superstitiously conceited as to repose a Trust in the Aide of these Saints from Pestilence from War from Thunder from Earthquakes or the like believing them powerfull and benigne Protectours of the Place this undoubtedly were a kind of Religious worship done to them and could not be less then the sin of Idolatry For all such Faith and Repose upon any particular invisible Power is Idolatrous as well as Invocation because it as well supposes in that particular invisible Power what is onely proper to God For there is no certainty of the Presence and consequently of the Assistence of an invisible Power in any one place unless the nature of that Power be to be in all places at once And therefore he that puts his Trust for Aid and Assistence in such a sort as I have described in a particular invisible Power makes that invisible Power Omnipresent or Omniscient which are the incommunicable Attributes of God and thereby commits Idolatry as I have above more fully argued in the like case 6. The mere trusting therefore in Saints as Patrons and Protectours of such and such Places as well as the building of Altars burning of Incense to them or invoking them derogates from the onely-assured Patronage and powerfull Divinity of our Blessed Saviour For by these Divine honours we equallizing such Patrons or Mediatours as these to the onely-begotten Son of God make him less then he is and but like them that is to say make him unlike himself obscure the peculiarity of his Divinity and disclaim his Godhead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the * Coloss. 2. Apostle speaks letting go our true Head and putting our selves under another Chieftain For there is onely one that is capable of this Divine honour which therefore if we give to any other we act the part of that Antichrist who is defined by the denying the Father and the Son 1 John 2 22. For the Father and the Son are one Such an arguing as this God seems to implie in his expostulation with the Israelites in the wilderness O ye house of Israel have ye offered to me Victimes and Sacrifices by the space of forty years in the Wilderness Yea ye Acts 7. took up the Tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your God Remphan c. The sense of which assuredly is this That though the Israelites did sacrifice as they thought or did pretend their usual sacrifices to God according to the Law of Moses during their abode in the wilderness yet because they served and acknowledged other Gods besides him he infers and that truly and justly even according to the humane Faculties that they really did not serve him at all that is did not acknowledge him to be what he was the onely true God And
which theme having spoken sufficiently in my Description of the Second Limb of Antichristianism it was enough to mention it onely here CHAP. X. 1. The wicked Method of raising the Power of this Supreme Pastour to this height a demonstration of the excess of Ambition 2. His blasphemous usurpation or acceptation of the Divine Titles 3. His barbarous insultation over Excommunicated Kings and Emperours 4. The excess of Homage done to him by the greatest Personages 5. His exalting himself above God in point of Jurisdiction 6. His elation of himself above him in point of Honour or Precedency 7. Other Instances of that kind of Pride 8. His exaltation of himself above God even in the very House of God literally so called 1. WE have already wrought up this Image of Antichristianism in the power of One particular Priest or Patriarch so high as that by hook or by crook he has wriggled himself into the pretence if not possession of Absolute Sovereignty over all the Potentates of Christendom Which being acquired by such wicked means it must needs be that a more then Hellish Fire of Ambition lies at the bottom which will betray it self yet more fully in these visible flames namely Certain exorbitant Titles and Prerogatives this Son of Pride is adorned with His barbarous insultations over subdued Princes and Emperours and the extravagant Homages and Services done to his person in publick Solemnities 2. As for example What can be more blasphemously Antichristian then to suffer himself to be decked with the spoils of the Divine Attributes To be styled Our Lord God Optimum Maximum Supremum Numen in terris A God on Earth A visible Deity To have declared that his Tribunal and that of God is all one That his Power is absolute That what he does he does as God and not as Man and That all must submit to his Decree as being infallible That he is all and above all That he has the disposing of Kingdoms can pull down one and set up another That he can doe all that God can doe clave noâ—… errante That he can change the nature of things make something of nothing make Injustice Justice and Wrong Right That all Laws are in his breast That he can dispense with the Canons of the Apostles and with the New Testament it self That he is the Cause of Causes That it is Sacrilege to doubt of his Power That he has a Dominion over Angels Purgatory and Hell That he is the Monarch of the world and exceeds the Imperial Majesty as much as the Sun does the Moon and That he is to be adored by all the Potentates of the Earth This is one blazing Eruption out of this infernal Aetna of Luciferian Ambition 3. The second was his haughty Insultation over Excommunicated and subdued Princes As for example It were most salvagely Antichristian for this Triumphant Patriarch after Excommunication and submission to his power thereupon to make one Emperour to wait some days together bare-foot and clad in Canvass with his Empress for Absolution at his gate and that in the midst of winter to make him resign his Imperial Ornaments and after all this to depose him and give his Empire to another To make another prostrate himself publickly in the Church and in this prostration to set his foot on the Emperour's neck as if he were crushing an Adder or Snake To crown another not with his hands but with his feet and then with the same feet to kick the Crown from off the Emperour's head To make one Prince resign his Crown and live some days as a private person and then upon condition of becoming a Vassal to his High-priestship to permit him to receive it again at his Legat's hands lowly kneeling at his feet To make another by way of penance to go creeping along his Holy-Highnesse's Palace upon his hands and knees with a Collar about his neck like a Dog To whip another stark naked in an open Cathedral every Monk or Religious person bestowing some number of lashes on him Certainly such gross usage as this of Emperours Kings and Princes cannot but be the Indication of a Pride and Elation of mind plainly Diabolical 4. But what speak we of Penances when we may draw so odious a Draught out of ordinary expected Homages and Observances We will therefore suppose that according to the known Ceremonies of this Sacerdotal Court when his Holy-Highness Universal Head of the Church will be something still higher by getting on Horse-back that the Emperour or King that is present must of duty hold his Stirrup as he gets up or if his will is upon some occasion to be transported in a Chair of State that the Emperour and King are to submit their neck to the yoke and take up this stately Man in his Chair on their shoulders When this grand Prelate also goeth to dinner the Emperour or King there present must have the honour imposed upon them to serve him with Water and a Towel to wash his anointed hands For which service they shall be permitted to sit down at Table after attendance till the first Course be served The Emperour's place also in an Oecumenical Council shall be at this High-priest's feet like a good son of Gamaliel And finally wheresoever this Oecumenical Patriarch goes the people shall fall down on their knees or if they doe not that Worship willingly and glibly be knock'd down upon them by his rigid Guard those grim extorters of the Adoration of this Idol 5. This tenour of Ceremonies will plainly place this High-priest many degrees higher then the Princes of the Earth be they Kings or Emperours or what other Potentates soever But we will now draw a stroke or two of such an Elation or Haughtiness of spirit in point of Ceremonie and Precedency as may make him justly seem to affect a Sovereignty above that of God himself Of which Affectation we have given substantial Examples as touching Power in that he was supposed to cancel the Laws of God and to substitute in their place some gainful Decrees of his own Which is a perfect exalting himself above God in point of Authority and real Jurisdiction 6. And for point of good Manners and Ceremony If we should imagine that those things which himself and his adherents give the highest Religious Worship to were yet cast lower then this Supreme Prelate were it not to take precedency of the most High God As for example if the Cross which they judge Latria due to were cast so low as this High-priest's feet were not he then higher then what the highest kind of Divine honour is due to But this you will say perhaps will but make him equal with God But the Host or consecrated Bread is already supposed to be esteemed by this Pseudo-Christian Church the very Body of Christ or his corporeal Person that is to say that where this is Christ true God is truly and corporeally present in his own Person as truly and really as
as it will defile them who joyn with them in publick worship But there is yet another sense of Woman not Political but more Physical and Cabbalistical and that is The life sense and relish of this Body This is a Woman that we must have a special care of being polluted by through over-passionately closing with any of her suggestions or over-deeply sympathizing with or resenting of those pleasures she would allure us by and so desix our desire upon her For not Idolatry onely but all other Enormities arise in us from the listening to the false counsel of this domestick Eve 14. Worship That Worship or Adoration may be an Iconism of Subjection is plain from the nature of the Ceremonie it self the bowing of the Body being a fit Symbol of submitting the Mind and Will to his power to whom we doe this homage And that it does signifie thus in the Hebrew Idiom is manifest from several Instances But the very Symbol it self is explained Gen. 37. where the Sheafs of Joseph's brethren are said to make obeisance to Joseph's Sheaf that is to worship Joseph's Sheaf 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Your Sheafs worshipped my Sheaf Whereupon his Brethren presently interpreting the Dream say unto him Shalt thou indeed reign over us or Shalt thou indeed have dominion over us that is to say Shall we be your Subjects or fall under your Dominion So Esa. 45. 14. speaking of the subjection of the Aethiopians and Sabeans to King Cyrus They shall come after thee saith he in chains they shall come over and they shall fall down unto thee The Greek has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They shall worship thee All which signifie submission and subjection to his Sovereignty I will onely adde one place more Gen. 27. the blessing of Isaac upon Jacob Let people serve thee and Nations bow down to thee be lord over thy brethren let thy mother's sons bow down to thee The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in both places and signifies obedience or subjection at large as is manifest But suppose it had not that general signification of it self but only denoted that part of the duty of subjection which is Worship or Incurvation it might notwithstanding signifie thus largely Stylo Prophetico by a Diorismus World See Heaven and Earth 15. These be the chief Icastick terms that occur in the Prophetick style which if they haply prove more in number then we shall have use for in this Discourse yet I account my pains not improper in reference to what I have had occasion to treat of in my Mystery of Godliness besides their desireable usefulness at large for understanding the chief Visions and Prophecies in Scripture And I hope I have made it appear partly by this Alphabet of Iconisms and partly by my Explication of those preceding Prophetick Schemes That it is as easie a thing to render a Prophecy or Vision out of this Prophetick style into ordinary language as it is to interpret one language by another and That the difficulty of understanding Prophecies is in a manner no greater when once a man has taken notice of the settled meaning of the peculiar Icasâ—…s therein then if they had been penn'd down in the vulgar speech in which there are as frequent Homonymies of words as here there are of Iconisms and That therefore it need be no reproach to any one that he endeavours to understand the Prophecies of Scripture more then the Histories thereof Prophecy being nothing else but an Anticipatory History and when once fulfilled as plain an History as that which was never prophesied of 16. We will onely annex a few Rules concerning the Preference of one Interpretation of Prophecy before another and then conclude The first Rule That Interpretation that keeps close to the approved Examples and Analogie of the Prophetick style is to be preferred before such as are framed at pleasure according to the private phancy of the Interpreter The ground of this Rule is this That besides that it is safer to follow an approved Example then to be destitute thereof and wholly lean upon a mans private sense the very style of the Prophets being as it were a peculiar language or dialect there is a necessity of understanding things according to the meaning of their dialect or language and not according to what it would sound in our own Which is as fond and ridiculous as if an English-man in hearing of Latin spoken where the word Fur is occasionally brought in should think the Furre of an Alderman's Gown were meant or at the sounding of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek should let his fancy presently fall into the dripping-pan And yet as absonous and incongruous is it to interpret the Iconisms of the Prophets according to what conceits are either vulgar or peculiar to our selves As if because Vices and Vertues are painted out in the figure of Women or Beasts we should therefore apply that meaning to the Prophetick style whenas they always signifie a Body Politick even in that very Scheme where abstract Inscriptions are upon them as Zech. 5. 7. where the Woman in the Epha is said to be Wickedness By which Woman notwithstanding Vatablus understands the Ten Tribes revolted to Idolatry and other Interpreters expound it to the same purpose And so to interpret Hail of hardness of heart is like the interpreting of Latin or Greek by what they sound nearest in English This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks and quite to forget where we are or what we are about The second Rule That Interpretation that keeps one tenour of sense of the same words in one and the same Vision especially is to be preferred before that which varies backward and forward and takes the same word in as many different senses as it occurs in different places of the Vision To be in many tales is accounted an infallible sign of a false story and to vary the Interpretation of the same word in one and the same Vision without any account or reason is as great a demonstration of fraud and forcedness in the Interpretation and that the Interpreter was biassed by some design or interest and that he has done violence to the Text for his own advantage As for example If one should interpret that Iconism of a Beast one while to signifie a Kingdom or Empire another while some single Person of that Empire and then again some grand Vice thereof were not this a mere botch in comparison of interpreting this Beast of such a Kingdom or Body Politick in every place of the Vision I might instance in other such like shufflings but this one intimation shall suffice The third Rule That Interpretation that does concern the affairs of Religion and the Church of God and is of the greatest use and serviceableness to us is a more likely Interpretation and to be preferred before that which less respects us but seems to make the Spirit of God to have predicted things with little or
Various ways of the improving this gainful persuasion 6. The unspeakable honour that seems to accrue to the Priest from this stupendious miracle 7. That it seems to give him a just claim to exemption from Civil jurisdiction and saves him the labour of endeavouring after Truth and Sanctity 8. That their Pretences for Idolatry though they be weak yet their Self-ends therein are palpable 51 CHAP. XVI 1. That Idolatry is the highest and most peculiar injury that can be committed against God 2. That giving Religious honour to Saints or Angels is really a reproaching them and blaspheming them 3. The exceeding great Mischief done to the Soul of man by Idolatry 4. That Idolatry turns men into bloudy Wolves and Bears 5. And is the Mother and Nurse of the foulest impurities 6. That it is the source of all manner of wickedness and eternal death to the Idolater 7. The great Mischiefs it doth to the Church of Christ. 8. How the Church is lessened by Idolatry at home 9. And the spreading thereof hindred abroad 10. And consequently the whole World injured thereby 55 CHAP. XVII 1. That a multitude of slight Observances may amount to an intolerable burthen 2. That no Religious observance can be slight while it has an obligation upon the Conscience 3. Though this general estimate of the burthen of Superstition from obligation of Conscience and multitude of Observances might suffice yet he will adde a more particular Draught of this Limme of Antichristianism 4. Of Anointings and of the Multiplicity of Sacerdotal Ornaments 5. The pretence and Self-endedness in these Ornaments and Anointings 6. The Mischief arising from these kind of Ceremonies to Priest and People 7. A more full description of their publick Service 8. That respect to the Priest is better sought and more certainly found in the Power of Life and Doctrine then in any Histrionical Pomp 9. Which is so unsatisfactory to the serious that it may hazard their departure 10. The Opinion of a miraculous power in Religious Vestments 11. The Falseness and Fraud of this Opinion 12. The ill consequence thereof 59 CHAP. XVIII 1. Of the Enchanting or Exorcizing of Water Oil Salt Wax-candles c. with a general intimation of the Mischief thereof 2. Of the Exorcizing of a Golden Rose and Lamb of Wax 3. That the using of the Name of the true God in these Exorcisms does not hinder but that they may be properly termed Enchantments 4. Other Instances of their being Charmers and Magicians With an Anticipation of an Objection 5. The Falshood Fraud and Mischief of these Exorcisms 6. The derivation or distribution of these Exorcized Elements into several Superstitious uses 7. Of the supposal of the Infant 's being possess'd and of Baptismal Spittle 8. Of Extreme Unction and other Superstitious practices upon the dying man 9. As also upon his Corps laid out 10. The Fraud and Mischief of these practices .. 65 CHAP. XIX 1. The burthen of Spiritual Cognation and excessive Numerosity of Holy-days 2. Perpetual abstinence from Flesh in some Religious Orders The Fraud and Mischief thereof 3. The burthen of vowed Coelibate 4. The more dangerous purposes thereof 5. The ordinary services done by the Monasticks to this Antichristian power we describe 6. That its establishment is much corroborated by the Interest of Monasteries 7. And enriched by being Heir to all professours of Coelibate 8. The great Mischiefs of Coelibate 9. Of Flagellation 10. The ineffectualness thereof Hypocrisie of the Penitent salvage Pride of his Church and the Mischiefs resulting therefrom 11. Of Pilgrimages and Jubilees 12. An enumeration of several other Antichristian Austerities 70 CHAP. XX. 1. The Burthen of afflictive Opinions 2. The distracting puzzles of a Soul intangled with multifarious Superstitions and Conceits 3. The illaqueations of Religious Vows 4. Intanglements arising from a Superstitious trust in certain surmised virtues in the Mass. 5. Vexatious Scrupulosities concerning the Intention of the Priest in administring the Sacraments 75 CHAP. XXI 1. Of the necessity of Anniversary Confession 2. Of Sacerdotal Absolution 3. What is meant by Binding and Loosing and to what manner of persons Remission of sins is committed 4. Erasmus his gloss upon that Text of S. John 5. As also Hugo Grotius his whence Auricular Confession and Absolution prove groundless 6. A voluntary Confession and in general useful in the Church in some circumstances and in order to particular Absolution from the Priest 7. As also a more particular Confession if voluntary 8. The Self-ends of this Church in exacting so punctual a Confession from men 9 10. The slavery and Mischief of such kind of Confessions 11. The infinite vexation to the consciencious and ingenuous from the obtruding upon them incredible and impossible Opinions 78 CHAP. XXII 1. The dreadful Figment of Purgatory 2. That by this affrightful Fable the whole Moles of Superstition hitherto described is made infinitely more weighty and burthensome 3. The Antichristian Doctrine of Christ his Satisfaction reaching onely to the freeing us from the Guilt of sin not the Punishment 4. The multifarious drudgery and slavery this Doctrine and that Figment of Purgatory casts men into 5. A confutation of the said Doctrine and Figment 6. That it is impossible that the sincerely-minded in this life should find either Hell or Purgatory in the other 7. That there is no ground for this Antichristian Purgatory in either Scripture or Fathers 8 The gross Fraud and grand Mischief of this Fiction 9. The conclusion of the description of this second Limme of Antichristianism 82 BOOK II. CHAP. I. 1. The Positive Ends of the Gospel which the rest of the Limms of Antichristianism do oppose 2. That to lay claim to a Right of Infallible Interpretation of the Laws of Christ is a supplanting of his Kingly Office 3. An instance of that danger in the Glosses of the Pharisees 4. Several places of Scripture alledged to prove the Church Infallible 5. The first general Answer to these Allegations by demanding whether the Promise of Infallibility be to the Whole Church or to Part. 6. The second by demanding whether the Promise be Absolute or Conditional 7. A third That the Promise cannot be Universal touching all Objects that may be considered 8. A particular Answer to the first place of Scripture 9. An Answer to the second and third 10. Infallibility a Promise onely to the first Founders of the Christian Church 11. What the meaning of The pillar and ground of truth 12. A farther exposition of that passage of Paul to Timothy 13. That if understood of the Universal Church it may be meant onely of it in the Apostles times 14. And that the like may be said of the last Allegation 87 CHAP. II. 1. That the safe conveyance of the Apostolick Writings down to us by the Church does not infer her Infallibility 2. That the Plainness of Scripture in points necessary to Salvation takes away the want of an Infallible Judge 3. That the Scripture not pointing to
therein For we traffick not in Legendary Lies and false Miracles against the Sacred Title of Truth nor desire to keep the people ignorant of the Scriptures and to hold them in darkness against the Sacred Title of Light nor trespass against the Sacred Title of Life by making our Religion consist of dumb shows and heaps of dead Rites and Ceremonies nor derogate from the Divinity of Christ by giving Religious worship to Saints and Angels nor offend against his Paternity by making his Children a company of stocks and stones and by taking away the judgement of discretion from them and forcing them to believe as the Church believes right or wrong with Scripture or against it and are so farre from injuring the life of any Child of God by any captious and wicked Sanction that we profess nothing requisite to Salvation but what is plain in Scripture as appears from what has been already produced out of the Articles of the Church Which alone will also vindicate her from any imputation of the following points of Antichristianism against the Peace of Christ's Kingdome And for absolving Princes from their Oaths what Church unless that of Rome ever pretended to so blasphemous a Power 4. The next Antichristian Opposition and which occurrs in the next Chapter is that against the Divine Life in general Such as Idolatry and all manner of Superstition dumb Shows speaking in an unknown Tongue substituting silly Penances instead of real Repentance and Amendment of life all which our Church is so plainly and professedly against in her Articles and Homilies every-where and so acknowledgedly that I will not give my self the trouble of Citation Some not so well minded may peradventure be over-inclinable to imagine the Episcopal Office and Revenues to have a greater propinquity with that Hypothesis at the end of this Chapter then any indifferent man can possibly judge For he must be very ignorant of the Constitution of Christendome that does not plainly discern that in that Hypothesis it is the Papal Hierarchy that is perstringed and adumbrated which is done again more fully and particularly in the ninth and tenth Chapters For for my own part though I do not know the accurate values of the several Bishopricks of this Nation yet considering the largeness of their Dioceses and the great burthen as well of care as expensiveness in conscientiously executing the Function truly I cannot imagine them so great but that the weight of the Office will weigh down every-where the value of the Revenue and we reade in the Gospel that * Luk. 10. 7. the work-man is worthy of his hire And concerning the Office and Dignity itself it cannot sink into my minde that that Order of the Church which was instituted and in practice in those Ages thereof which were Symmetral can with any face or conscience be judged Antichristian And that the Church was Symmetral for about four hundred years after Christ is a demonstrable Consectary from my Joint-Exposition and that Joint-Exposition so convincingly evident that no Interpretation of any Scripture can be more 5. Whence I cannot but wonder that any true Son of the Church of England should be so shie of the Apocalyps or so fearful of it that they durst not touch it without a pair of Mittens of Grotius his making for fear it should bite them that is to say unless it be unfolded or rather folded up in Grotius his fond and groundless Explications For there is not any Book in the World that makes more for the establishment of the Crown and Church of England then this Holy Book of the Apocalyps if rightly and solidly understood A thing which that wise and sagacious Prince King James of blessed memory had discovered betimes and accordingly made use of it against the Usurpations of the Church of Rome And truly I finde nothing in the Apocalyps though the style seems Mysterious and Aenigmatical but what is very rational and look upon it as the most faithful and Philosophical writing that ever was penned A tast whereof we have in that Catalogue of the evil characters of them that are excluded the Holy City wherein bloudy and inhumane Zeal as also vain and imposturous Superstition is so plainly perstringed The former in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Murtherers the latter in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Sorcerers Exorcists or Enchanters and lying Legendists and in fearful intimidated spirits that are superstitiously inclined to submit to the delusions and lies of such shameless Deceivers These doth our faithful Redeemer of Souls who deals bonâ fide with Man-kinde to rescue their abused minds from the Tyranny and burthen of Superstition note with a mark of Infamy and Condemnation So fast a friend is the Lord Jesus to Humanity to Equity to Truth and Reason 6. And not to insist upon those passages of the Apocalyptick Visions that imply it which are more then one or two either there is the greatest Equity and Reason in the world that every Christian Prince should next under Christ be Supreme Head over all that part of his Church over which he is King or Sovereign over Clergy as well as Laiety in Causes Ecclesiastical as well as Civil and that not any Papal or Presbyterian Power should be above him as our English Episcopacy does most justly and professedly submit unto him For why should any Clergy-men expect of a Prince who has received like precious Faith with themselves to fall in his Power by becoming a Christian Which is as unjust as it were ridiculous to phansy that every proper man should be bound to remit so much of his natural stature as would make him goe lower then the Priest that baptized him For Christianity does not take away Nature nor Power but rightly employs it Could any of the Pagan Emperours think you have been brought over to the Christian Faith if the Bishop of Rome would have laid claim to the Headship of the Empire so farre as it became the Church of Christ or would they not have suspected the preaching the Kingdome of Heaven a trick of the Priests to make themselves Lords of the Earth No certainly a Prince once become Christian that is a Believer and Professour of the Apostolick Faith comprised in the Word of God in those plain and generally-confessed Points of our Religion is a Person so Sacred that nothing can mount above him for Headship in his own Dominions For the anointing of the Spirit whereby we believe to Salvation is infinitely more holy then any external Sacerdotal oil whatsoever Why may not then so sacred a Fountain be the Head and Influencer of the whole Church Or whether is Christ greater as he is Priest or King of Saints Or who had the preeminence in the Polity of the Jews the Kings or High-Priests of Israel And was not that Polity a Type or Figure of the Church of Christ The plain Law of Christ is indeed immutable and it ought to be so no