multitude of people that have received the Romish Faith and their Church say they hath replenished the greatest part of the world They would prove this by the Propagation of the Church in the Apostles time in Tertullian Irenaeus Hierom Augustine yea and afterward in Gregories days yea and now also besides many great Countries in Europe they have their Church in India America and the unknown parts of the world saith Bellarmine But the truth is not always to be measured by the judgment or opinion of the multitude The greatest part is not the best Christ calleth his Flock a little Flock Besides the Papists have nothing to do with the Church that was propagated in the Apostles time nor for the space of five or six hundred years after Christ and the most of their Errours are more lately sprung up than so The Popes Jurisdiction in Europe is much diminished And for the Indians and Americans it is well known what cruelty the Spaniards used to win that simple people to Christ as Benzo the Italian hath related it and there are few or none of their Popish Catholicks in those Countries but of their own brood that have been sent thither Universality unless it be joyned with verity is no sufficient note of the Church saith Mr. Fox Of Succession THey boast much of the long and perpetual Succession of their Popes from the Apostles for the space of these 1500 years and more condemning all Churches which cannot shew the like order of Succession But the Bishops of the Churches of Antioch and Rome and Alexandria boast themselves to be Successors of Saint Peter and yet are dissenting and separate in Communion The Bishops of Constantinople fetch their Succession from the Apostle Saint Andrew as Nicephorus goeth about to prove in the eighth Book of his Chronology Chapter 6. yet these Bishops by the Judgment of the Roman Church are Schismaticks and Hereticks Whence it appears that the Succession of Chairs cannot be a fit mark for the true Church since it is found in Heretical Churches In the Papal See some Schisms have been and divers times many Popes together excommunicating one another and reciprocally calling one another Antichrist and of those Antichrists the worst commonly overcame So according to the very Canons of the Roman Church factions and corruptions in the creation of Popes have frequently made their election void and therefore have broken the thread of that Succession Of Unity THe Papists boast much of Unity Flac. Ilyric but it is without ground of truth and yet they have many Dissentions Illyricus hath written a Book to the purpose concerning the several Sects and Divisions amongst them The Scotists and Thomists differ about meritum condigni congrui about Original sin in the Virgin Mary about a solemn Vow and a single life Great Differences there are between their Canonists and School-men Albertus Pius dissented from Cajetan Thomas from Lombard Scotus from Aquinas Occam from Scotu Alliancenses from Occam The first Nicene Council allowed Priests Marriage and the Communion in both kinds The Councils of Basil and Constance forbad the Laity the use of the Cup the same Councils decreed likewise that the Pope should be subject to General Councils Many Antipopes have there been at one and the same time Much also might be said of the great Diversity of their Monks and Friers in their Food Habits Shaving and the like Various are their Opinions likewise touching the Controversie of the Sacrament The Papists are very Schismatical engrossing the Title of Catholicks whereby they would imply both truth of Doctrine and universality of Consent to be found only with them but as one well observeth upon no better grounds than the Turks arrogate the Title of Mussulmannâ— that is Crocks Hypâ—â—â— Orthodox and Iâ—annâ— that is at Unity It is not their number that excuseth them from Schism no more than the revolt of the ten Tribes from the house of David could make the two Tribes that clave to it guilty of that rent and themselves to be innocent Unity must be in the truth else the saying of Nazianzen will take place Better is Discord bringing Light Greg. Nazianz Orat 1. de â—â—ace Than Vnity without all right Though Popery appear to have in it Unity yet the same is Vanity and Antichristianity and not in Christs Faith and Verity Of the Power of working Miracles BEllarmine doth greatly upbraid our Church for the defect of Miracles saying Hereticos non potuisse extorquere Miracula neque à Deo neque à Diabolo that Hereticks meaning the Protestants do neither extort Miracles from God nor from the Devil But do they take a pride that the Devil is forward in advancing their Cause and so backward to do us any kindness we will rest content with such Miracles as our Saviour and the Apostles wrought at the propagating of the Gospel but when we dissent from Christs Doctrine we will cast about for new Miracles I. A Miracle is a marvelous The pretended Miracles of Saint Francis reported by Vincentius Antâ—rine Bâ—naventure and Suâ—ius are more than marvelous sensible real Work above the vertue of natural causes wrought for good ends especially for the promoting of Gods Glory and Mans Salvation It is a work of wonder Act. 2.22 Luk. 8.25 Act. 7.30 31. So it is said of Simon Magus he continued with Philip and wondered beholding the Miracles and Signs which were done Îξίστατο he was transported beyond himself with admiration It is true many things may cause wonder which are not miraculous as 1. Other great Works 2. False and seeming Miracles wrought by the power and subtilty of Satan But here I speak of such Works as afford just cause of wonder such Works as deserve admiration from the wisest of men false Miracles are wonders in shew only II. True Miracles are sensible Works apparent to some or other of the Senses and therefore that pretended Popish Miracle of Transubstantiation is but an absurd fancy a thing denied by the Senses the Smell the Taste the Eye all with one consent say it is Bread and Wine and not Flesh and Blood When our Saviour turned Water into Wine there was a sensible change it had the colour and taste of Wine and that so evident that the Governour of the Feast preferred it above any they had drunk before When Melancton was a young Scholar at the University he heard one Lempus a Popish Doctor who would take upon him to draw a Picture of Transubstantiation and so to present a shadow of it to the Eye though it were invisible yea and impossible in it self but Melancton though he was then but a youth instead of wondering at the supposed Miracle admired the dotage and sottishness of the Doctor III. A Miracle is a true and real Work false Miracles are deceitful appearances many Popish Miracles are meer cheats of some lewd persons couzening tricks of deceitful men or wonders of lying spirits IV. True Miracles are above
Ignorance excuseth sins committed without knowing them and even those which are committed afterwards and that there are properly no sins of ignorance according to the Jesuits 16. The Papists teach that the whole Law of God may in this life be fulfilled by the Regenerate and and that some do keep it perfectly 17. That we may fulfil the Commandements of God and of the Church not only without intention but with an intent contrary and altogether criminal 18. The Jesuits enhaunse and debase as they please the Goods of this world which are the usual object or matter of sin and so nourish vice and dispense with the Law of God 19. They have found out a kind of necessity which dispenseth with the Law of God that necessity makes that lawful which is not lawful by the Law 20. That though God as a Sovereign and absolute Lord might make him suffer an eternal pain who did disobey him in a slight matter yet he could not do it as a Judg because in this quality he is obliged to proportion the punishment to the fault which is not greater than the matter of the disobedience 21. Bellar. de Justif l. 4. c. 10. Greg. Valen Tom. 1. They teach that it is not only possible for men to keep the Law of God in this life but to do more than is prescribed or commanded and that these works do make men perfect and that men of their abundance may allot unto others such works of supererogation 22. That good works are not only necessary to Salvation necessitate praesentiae because they must necessarily be present and we cannot be without thems but necessitate efficientiae they are necessary as efficient causes together with Faith of our Salvation 23. Vid. Cepaâ—in vit Gonzagaeâ— l. 3. c. 2. That a just man in his good works doth not sin but that their works are truly just without any spot or blemish of sin 24. Andrad Orth. Expl. l. 6. They hold that eternal life is bestowed for the merit of Works that Christ did merit for His not only Pardon of all faults and Grace to do all good Works but also that their Works should be meritorious of life everlasting Bayus merit operum l 3. c. 9. They make two kinds of merit meritum de congruo merit of congruity such are the preparative Works before Justification as were the Prayers and Alms-deeds of Cornelius Act. 10. which though they be not simply meritorious ex debito Justitiae by the due debt of Justice yet say they of Congruity they deserve at Gods hands because he doth gratiously accept them The other kind they call meritum de condigno merit of Condignity when the reward is justly due by debt 25. That there is a first and second Justification 26. That the Virgin Mary was without sin that she was conceived and born without original sin and lived and died without actual sin 27. Bernardini de Busti Mariale Par. 3 Serm. 3 That the Virgin Mary during the time of Christs Passion and from his Ascension into Heaven was the sole Queen Mistress and Instructer of his Church on Earth That he assumed her into Heaven Soul and Body Baronius Spondanus Fabrit Destruct Vitior fourteen years after his own Ascension as Baronius Spondanus and others testifie though they contradict each other therein both in the manner time circumstances and reality of her assumption of which there is little or no mention in any old Ecclesiastical Historians or Fathers of the Church 28. Bernard Serm. de Assumpt beatae Mariae Mich. Lochi main Serm. 6. Suraez Tom. 2. Disp 54. Sect. 6. They assert that Christ hath assumed her Soul and Body into Heaven and placed her therein far above all Orders of Saints or Angels even at his own right hand in the very Throne of the Trinity and they vow obedience to her 29. They assert that Mary vowed Virginity before the Angel Gabriel came to her with his Message They also say that the Church was in her alone when Christ died 30. That there is a place Rhem Annot. in Matt. 12. Sect. 6. commonly called Purgatory into which some of the Redeemed go after this Life as in a Prison-house where the Souls which were not fully purged in this life are there purged and cleansed by fire before they can be received into Heaven Vid John Verons Hunting of Purgatory 31. They have devised and imagined in their wandring conceit four infernal and subterrestrial places Hell Purgatory Limbus Infantium where Children remain dying without Baptism and Limbus Patrum where they say the Fathers were before Christs coming These places they distinguish three ways 1. By the situation Hell is lowest Purgatory is next Limbus Infantium in the third place Limbus Patrum uppermost 2. They differ say they in measure of punishment some of them have poenam damni poenam sensus a double punishment both of loss in that they are excluded Heaven and of pain also as Hell and Purgatory The other two Limbi are but dungeons of darkness only where they suffer no other smart or pain but are only absent from God 3. They differ in time and continuance say they Hell and the Dungeon of Children shall remain for ever but Purgatory and the Dungeon of the Fathers are temporal The one that is Limbus Patrum is many years ago dissolved and Purgatory also shall cease say they at the coming of Christ This then is their opinion that the Patriarchs and Prophets before Christs coming were not in Heaven but were kept in an infernal place of darkness yet without pain and were delivered by Christs descending into Hell 32. Bellarm. l 4. de Pontif. c. 13. That the Pope is Christs Deputy Vice-gerent and Vicar-General upon earth to whom and to whose Successors we should all give place and yield obedience 33. That the Pope cannot err Here see their shifting distinctions The Pope may err in Manners say they not in Faith alone by himself not in a Council in his Chamber not in his Consistory by way of Conference not of Conclusion in a private Letter not in a Decretal Epistle in his Palace not in the Pulpit which last is truest for he never cometh there But he that erreth in Judgment must of necessity err in his Determinations Many of the Popes have erred greatly Pope Marcellinus was an Idolater and offered Sacrifice to Jupiter and was forced by the Council of Sessa to recant it where there were three hundred Bishops assembled Liberius fell into Arrianism as Athanasius testifieth The like did Pope Foelix as Saint Hierom writeth Vide Willet Controv. 4. Pope Honorius was a Monothelite holding Christ had but one Will and so but one Nature for the which he was condemned in three General Councils Innocent the first made both Baptism and the Eucharist necessary for the Salvation of Infants the latter of these was condemned by the Council of Trent Pope Stephen the sixth abolished all the
in the Sacrifice of the Mass the better to discern the Body of Christ There are other Ceremonies Bâ—llâ—m l. 2 de Missa c. 14 15. which they observe and use in the very action it self and celebration of the Mass as the diverse Gestures of the Priest to lift up his Eies and cast them down again and so lift them up the second and the third time sometimes to cast abroad his hands to close them again to warble with his fingers to bow to bend to duck to turn on this side Concil Trid. Sess 22 Can. 7 and on that now on the right hand again on the left to sigh to smite upon his breast to lift up the Chalice and shew it to the people and set it down again as also the dividing of the Host into three parts which signifies three parts of the Church in Heaven in Earth in Purgatory the rinsing of part thereof in Wine and eating of part dry the washing of his fingers before Consecration kissing of the Altar the Patten the Book the Paxe sprinkling of holy Water censing of Odours crossing the Chalice the Bread their Mouth Breast and Face which sign of the Cross they make above twenty times during one Mass Add also unto these their tedious and irksom Songs the rude noise and unedifying sound of strange Instruments and the whole course of their Mass-Musick set forth in a strange Language and endited to the honour of Saints Sledian doth briefly describe this fink of Ceremonies speaking of the tumult that was raised at Strasburg Sleidan Hâ—st lib 21 because of the Mass There was saith he a great concourse of men especially of the youth for in his time it was to them a rare spectacle and there not heard of before that many with shaven Crowns cloathed after a new fashion should sing together such things as no man understood that Candies and Torches should burn as the saying is at noon-day that smoak and perfumes should be raised up with frankincense that the Priest with his attendants should stand at the Altar pronounce words in an uncouth Language use divers bowings and gestures bend downward with his hands close shut one while fling abroad another while pull back his arms ever and anon turn himself one while cry aloud another while mutter over some things with great silence cast his eyes on high look groveling to the ground stand in no one place turn himself now to the right part now to the left part of the Altar wagg with the fingers breath upon the Chalice and lift it up on high and after set down in certain places name sometimes the living sometimes the dead break unleavened Bread and dip it in the Chalice strike his breast with his first sigh make as though he slept with his eyes shut awake again eat one part of the Bread and drink up the other whole with the Wine lest any drop should be left wash his hands shew to the people with his back toward them and his hand stretched out the gilded Patten move the same to his forehead and breast kiss one while the Altar another while an Image enclosed in some matter or mettal Thus He. 14. They say they have the form of their Mass by Tradition from the Apostles and that by Masses Souls are delivered out of Purgatory Many Errours and Blasphemies that are to be found in the Canon of the Mass as touching the Matter collected by Doctor Andrew Willet 1. THe Priest saith We pray thee accept these gifts these holy and unspotted sacrifices Thus he maketh Bread and Wine the Sacrifices of the Gospel 2. The Priest speaking of the Bread and Wine thus saith Which we offer unto thee for thy holy Catholick Church and again afterwards Which we offer for the Redemption of our Souls What great blasphemy is this to offer Bread and Wine for the Redemption of the Church for the which Christ in great love offered himself up and so make his death of no force 3. The Rubrick of the Mass willeth that the Priest should pray for his own Bishop only and for himself and his special friends but Charity would that he should pray for all Bishops Pastors and Ministers and Christ biddeth us not only pray for our friends but also for our enemies 4. The Priest prayeth first for the Pope then for his own Bishop lastly for the King but Saint Paul would have Prayers made first of all for all men but especially for Kings 1 Tim. 2.2 The Papists in their Mass and other Praiers prefer the Pope before their Prince and acknowledg him to be their Pope and Bishop 5. The Priest saith worshipping the memorial of the Virgin but Christ instituted the Sacrament to be kept in remembrance of himself and not of her 6. By whose merits and praiers namely the Saints grant we may be defended but Saint John saith if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous 7. In the second Prajer of the Canon they pray by vertue of the Oblation of Bread and Wine to be delivered from eternal damnation for as yet the elements are not consecrated 8. We beseech thee saith the Priest to receive this Oblation which we beseech thee in all things to make blessed Here the Priest is made a Mediator between Christ and his Father desiring God to sanctifie the Body and Blood of his Son Thus beginneth the third Praier of the Canon 9. Who the next day before he suffered but the Scripture saith the same night For this is my Body Here they have put in enim of their own and left out Quod pro vobis datur which is given for you Such is their boldness that they are not ashamed to change the words of our Saviour Christ 10. Take ye c. Why then doth the Priest take it alone seeing Christ appointed it to be taken of many 11. Eat ye c. Why then do they hang it up in a Pixe seeing Christ would have it eaten 12. Drink ye all of this Why then doth the Priest drink it alone seeing by Christs institution all are to drink of it 13. He saith further in the fourth Prayer The holy Bread of eternal life which vouchsafe thou with a pleasant countenance to behold Whereas the Bread of eternal life is Christ himself if this be He how dare they presume to offer him up to his Father Diverse other things there are of like sort 14. Afterward the Priest praieth Command thou this to be brought by the hands of thy holy Angel unto the high Altar in Heaven What an absurd thing is this that he should desire that to be carried into Heaven which he eateh and devoureth And if this be the Body of Christ what need the help of an Angel to carry it up to Heaven Is not Christ able to lift up his own Body 15. As many of us as shall receive thy Sons Body and Blood And yet for the most part none receive but the
of God The Pope and his Clergy propound themselves two ends for the celebration of the Mass and the ordinary Service in the Latin tongue The first is to keep the people in ignorance and use them to believe without knowing to follow their leaders blind-fold and to obey without enquiring They were afraid that even the Latin should be too intelligible and therefore they would have the principal parts of the Mass to be said with such a low murmur that the voice of the Priest cannot be heard The second end was to plant the marks and Standard of the Popes Empire among the Nations which he had conquered The simple people believe that their Religion must be Roman as well as the Tongue which is used in Religion and that both Christian Faith and the Language come from the same place But the chief cause why the Pope will not have the Mass to be understood by all is that the Mass contains many things which would either instruct or offend the people Of praying for the Dead THeir Opinion is that the Praiers of the Living are neither available for the Saints in Heaven for they need them not nor for the damned in Hell for they cannot be helped but only for the Souls tormented in Purgatory who do find great ease say they by the Praiers of the Living Of the Canonizing of Saints THe Canonizing of Saints is nothing else but the publick Determination and Sentence of the Church whereby some that are dead are judged to be Saints and worthy of Honour and Worship as to be praied unto Temples and Altars to be set up in their names Holy-days to be appointed for them and their Reliques to be adored And thus say they it is lawful profitable and expedient for the Church to canonize Saints This was the Popes own invention eight hundred years after Christ at the least set abroach and continued in Policy for the confirmation of certain idolatrous Superstitions which he laboured thereby to advance and now are made the seven Points wherein the Canonization consisteth fetting the new Saints in the Calendar with red Letters Who gave the Pope that priviledg to be infallible in that Judgment for our Adversaries themselves acknowledg they may be mistaken how many Factions and Sollicitations are used in the Court of Rome by Princes and States that a man of their Countrey or City be canonized And at what vast expences have they been to purchase it The City of Barcelona and the whole Country of Catelona spent many thousand pounds in the canonizing Raimond de Pennafort a Dominican Frier The Jesuits spent ten millions for the Canonization of their two twins Ignatius Loiola and Francis Xavier whom they call the East-India Apostle The Book of sacred Cerimonies doth acknowledg that the Pope sometimes was constrained in some sort to canonize a man against his opinion and therefore made a Protestation By that Protestation he thought to discharge his Conscience The words whereby the Pope canonizeth a Saint are these The manner of canonizing a Saint In the authority of God Almighty Father Son and Holy Ghost and of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and in our own we decree and define that N. of good memory is a Saint and must be put into the List of Saints c. But before the pronouncing of that Sentence the Cause is pleaded in the Consistory and an Advocate presents himself who represents the Reasons why such a one ought to be sainted The Apostles were not so sainted nor their Disciples nor those Fathers who were called Saints as Ireneus Cyprian Basil Hierome Augustine as a learned Divine noteth It happens saith he to some poor Saints for whom the dignity of Saints is begged in the Court of Rome to be cast in their suit and they cannot be Saints in Heaven because men on earth were not favourable to them Sometimes the degree of Beati is obtained for them which is a middle degree and an expectation of Saint-ship By this means Popes will give their Servants to be worshipped by the Nations of Christendom whch new Saints are far more honoured than the Patriarchs and Prophets for in the Roman Church it fareth with Saints as with Clothes the newest are the best and most esteemed Of Invocation of the Saints THe Papists maintain the Doctrine of Angel-worship of Invocation of Saints and of the Virgin Mary and canonized Saints calling especially upon the Virgin Mary They usually carve pourtray paint the Statue of the Virgin and represent her by them to the Eyes and Thoughts when they pray unto her in all their Offices Primers Psalters Rosaries Missals Breviaries Books of Devotion Churches Chappels Monasteries Altars of our Lady especially on all their publick Festivals dedicated to her Honour in greatest state crowned with a Crown of Glory as the Empress Queen Lady of Heaven Earth and all Creatures in them In their publick Liturgy they have a Letany whereby they pray 1. To her 2. To the Arch-Angels and Angels 3. To Patriarchs and Prophets 4. To the Apostles and Evangelists 5. To the Martyrs 6. To Fathers and Doctors 7. To Popes and Confessors 8. To Monks and Eremites 9. To all the Saints Virgins and Widows that they would joyn together to make Intercession for them And to these Saints they have their set Holy-days to them they burn Tapers perform Masses and Trentals each have their sundry Collects Hymns Praiers and Oblations each have their sundry Offices designed them Some are over particular Towns and Cities some over Trades and particular Professions same are over Diseases some have the special gift of bestowing Arts and Sciences Now what is this but to forsake the Fountain of living Waters and to hew out broken Cisterns that can hold no Water as the Lord complaineth in a like case The rise of all this was from a preposterous admiration of Saints departed or I may say of some of them they were rather Devils incarnate and from the perverse opinion of those who make no difference between civil Praier to Men living and religious Praier to Saints departed which Errour hath been maintained and heightened by the great ambition and avarice of the Popish Clergy so that now the French Proverb is not without ground 〈◊〉 or ne â—ognâ—ist Dieu plus â—ntre les Saints God cannot be known among so many Saints Thus have they jumbled together God and his Saints in a promiscuous manner of worship Saint Peter tells them to whom he writes that he will endeavour that they may be able after his decease to have these things always in remembrance â—hem in 2 Pet. 1 2 Pet. 1.15 Whence the Rhemists those Popish Corrupters rather than Interpreters of the holy Scripture take upon them to tell us if we will be so sottish as to believe them And they say it was this that the meant to pray for them and as in his life-time he meant to further their Salvation by instructing them so after his death
Rome was Heathenish Gratian a meek and religious Emperour who was slain by the men of Maximus the Tyrant is the first of the Christian Emperours that refused to be called Pontifex Maximus holding that Title which his Predecessors though Christians had born to be unsutable with a Christian Prince as derived from the Pagans and relishing of Paganism yet soon after the Bishops of Rome suffered themselves to be called so and took up that which an Emperour had rejected as a learned man well noteth 3. Secrat l. 3. ca. 23. The Popish fashion of swearing by Saints is but an imitation of the Pagans Superstition who used to swear by their Gods as Libanius doth oftentimes in his Books swear by Hercules Bacchus Asclepius The Heathens were of opinion that their swearing by their Idols was a token of their serving of them And it is a common thing for the Papists to swear by the Virgin Mary and by the rest of the Saints They set the Virgin in Gods seat as though it belonged to her to judg the world It is horrible treachery to swear by the Virgin Mary or by any other creature The Pagans had also divers Rites belonging to thâ—ir superstition 1. The Heathen for Devotion-sake made shadows about their Altars in plashing of Trees to make places dark that when men entred into them they might be moved to a kind of aw and fearfulness So it is among the Papists if a place be darksome it seemeth to them to carry some Majesty in it and the simple sort are as it were amazed when they come into a Cave and where the Windows be dimmed with red or blew Glass mens Eyes dazzle at it and simple folk feel a kind of motion in themselves which makes them afraid and astonished and to their seeming it is good to stir them up to Devotion thinking it is a reverencing of God whereas indeed it is stark foolishness 2. The Pagans assigned particular Offices to each of their Gods one governed the Sea another ruled in Hell one took care of the Corn another of Women with Child and every Land or Country had his Titular God or Goddess Juno was the Patroness of Carthage Venus of Paphos and Pallas of Athens The Church of Romc hath transported these Titles to the deceased Saints hath given to every one their Office St. Margaret Patroness of Child-bed Women did succeed the Goddess Lacina St. Nicholas who is invocated by Navigators did succeed Castor and Pollux St. Eustache succeedeth the hunting Diana St. Christopher succeeds Hercules Jupiter Pluvius hath given the Rain unto Genivieve Ceres hath given over the Corn unto S. John and S. Paul Esculapius gives Medicine unto S. Cosm Bacchus the Vines unto St. Vrban Mercurius the Oxen to Pelagius And every Kingdom Town and City hath its titular Saint St. Mark is the Patron and Protectour of Venice St. James of Spain St. Dennis of France Saint Martin of Germany St. George of England c. 3. The Canonization of Saints is an imitation of the Pagan Apotheoses that is Deifications or making of Gods whereby a man is made one of the Gods by the authority of men And the Senate of Cardinals hath the right of Apotheoses or Canonizations and to admit whom they please into the list of the Saints of Paradise The Preface of the second Book of the sacred Ceremonies calleth the Canonization of Saints of the Papacy Divorum nostrorum Apotheosis the Deification or Apotheose of our Saints 4. The Church of Rome hath borrowed from the Pagans the Equipage and Ornament of her Images They gave a Key to Janus as the Church of Rome gives to Saint Peter They represented Jupiter Hammond with horns as Moses is now pictured The Genâ—i or Houshold-Gods had a Dog with them so hath the Popish Saint Hubert Vulcan of old had an Hammer so hath Saint Eloy now Hercules had a Club so hath St. Christopher Before the Pagans Images Wax-lights were lighted and Incense was burnt which is done still to the Images of Saints in the Church of Rome A custom much derided by Tertullian Arnobius and Lactantius Of burning of Incense it was so common a custom among the Gentiles as that Julian the Apostate that he might cunningly bind the Christians to the same ordained that when any man came to him according to the custom to receive any gifts at his hands they should burn Incense before him whereupon some notable Christians having understanding of his purposed intent came and brought them back again unto him that they might not be polluted About the year 800. Pope Leo the third ordained it should be used in the Mass Then for Tapers Wax-Candles and Lights in the Churches this Ceremony took its passage from the Gentiles to the Christians in the time of S. Hierome that is more than 400 years after the death of Christ And Vigilantius Pastor of Barcelona wrote against the same complaining of it that he should see the superstition of the Pagans drawn into Religion and fetched from the Gods of Paganism to be bestowed on the Christian Martyrs 5. Their Doctrine of Purgatory and satisfaction after this life came from the Heathen Plato in his Dialogue of the Soul saith those that live indifferently well come to that Lake and there dwell and being purged and having born the pains of their iniquities they are released Virgil followeth him speaking thus of the Souls of Purgatory Aliae panduntur inanes Suspensae ad ventos aliis sub gurgite vasto Infectum cluitur scelus aut exuritur Igni Virgil. Aeneid 6. Hence Purgatory arose As for the purgation of Souls at the Wind or in the Water Pope Gregory the first teacheth it in the fourth Book of his Dialogues where there are many apparitions of Souls saying that they are in Purgatory in the Wind or in the Water or in hot Bathes for the Purgatory in a subterranean fire was not yet invented The Paynims divided man into two parts taking the Body for one and the Soul for the other Again after that the Soul was separated from the Body they divided it into three parts The same that went down into those places called they called Inferos or Inferna they called Manes comprehending thereby all that which now-adays they call the Hell of the damned Limbus and Purgatory Then there remained the Spirit and that which they called Vmbram that is a shadow As touching the Body and the Spirit they were not of opinion that any of them did ever come again into this world or that they were ever seen after that a man was once dead and buried for they did well see that the Body did turn again into dust and into ashes And as for the Spirit they were of opinion that it went up again into Heaven from whence it had its original and there did abide And as for that which they called the shadow because it had no true bodily substance they said it did vanish away suddenly as smoak when