Mass pag. 51 Of their manifold Errours concerning the Church How the Papists devise many notes whereby their Church is described pag. 53 Of Antiquity pag. 71 Of Universality pag. 76 Of Succession pag. 79 Of Unity pag. 80 Of the Power of working Miracles pag. 82 Of the Gift of Prophecy pag. 87 Of Prosperity pag. 89 XX Errours concerning the Members of the Church the Clergy and Laity pag. 97 XI Errours concerning justifying Faith pag. 102 XXX Errours concerning Repentance which they call Penance pag. 104 Five kinds of Indulgences a sixfold profit of them pag. 113 Of the Disposition required to be in those that receive Indulgences shewed in Six things pag. 116 How the Papists hold that Indulgences are profitable for the Dead shewed in Seven things pag. 117 XI Errours concerning Fasting pag. 119 Of their dispensing with Fasts pag. 123 XVII Errours concerning Oaths and Vows pag. 127 XII Errours concerning Marriage Of their divers Rites and Ceremonies in Marriage pag. 131 VII Errours touching Extream Unction Of the Rite and Ceremony used by the Priest therein pag. 135 VI Errours concerning their Sacrament of Order pag. 137 VII Errours concerning Confirmation Their manner of administring the Sacrament pag. 139 Of their Corruptions in Worship pag. 144 Of their Latin Service pag. 145 Of praying for the Dead pag. 148 Of the Canonizing of Saints and the manner of Canonization pag. 149 Of Invocation of Saints of the several persons that are invocated in their Litany pag. 152 Of their Distinction of the two kinds of Worship Latria and Dulia 155 Of Image-Worship of the manner of Worship they give to Images Of the manner of making and way of Consecration of Images 157 Of the Image of the Cross 160 Of Reliques XII errours and abuses noted in the Papists by Chemnitius with divers other things 163 Of the Vigils annexed to Festival-days 172 Of their Wax-Candles and Tapers 173 Of their Holy Water 175 Of their Pilgrimages 177 Of the Agreement between Paganism and Popery shewed in Three and Twenty particulars 181 Of the Papists imitating the Jews and Pharisees shewed in Ten particulars 205 How the Church of Rome now varieth from the old Church of Rome shewed in Twenty particulars and how the Doctrine of Saint Peter and Saint Paul is contrary to the Doctrine of the present Church of Rome THE ANATOMY OF POPERY CHAP. I. THat all men may take a full view of the Papacy and see how it hath encroached upon Heaven and Earth let us consider the Fraud that hath been used by the See of Rome by bringing in Corruptions in matter of Doctrine and Worship Popery is not a single Heresie like that of â—utyâ—hes Arius or Nestorius but a System of Heresies and a common sink of abominable Errours and therefore called Ἀπστασία a general revolt Their Errours about the Scripture are 1. Vid. Turnb Tetrag c. 2. That the Church doth regulate the Scripture and is not regulated by it so making the Church the Rule of Faith That the holy Scriptures are not the only and whole Rule of our Faith and Life in all matters necessary to Salvation 2. That the Church hath Authority to alter as well the things contained in holy Scripture as those that are delivered in the Church by Apostolical Tradition yea the Papists affirm that it is in the power of the Church to alter that which God commandeth in Scripture that is to make Commandements contrary to Gods Commandements And they are divided in the main viz. what this Church is which is the infallible Judg Bâ—xters Sate Religion whether it be the present Church or the former Church whether it be the Pope only at least in case of difference between him and his Council or whether it be a general Council although the Pope agree not as the French and Venetians say yea whether it be the Clergy only or the Laity also that are this Church 3. Bellarm. l. 3. c. 3. They also assert that it is lawful to allegorize Scripture both in the Old and New Testament 4. Ecchii Enchirid. loc de authorit Eccles Pigg l 1. de Hierarch â—ccl s That the Pope is the supreme Judg of all Controversies and that the Scripture hath no authority in respect of us but what is granted to it by the Church For adding some Books to the Scripture which were not from the beginning The Papists being bold upon the Decree of the Council of Trent will that among these the Books of Tobit Judeth Wisdom Ecclesiasticus the first and second of Macchabees should be Canonical likewise the Additions to Esther Baruch with the Epistle of Jeremiah and the Additions to Daniel these they call δευτεÏοκανονικοὶ Canonical in a second degree 5. Stapl. tâ—n l. 3 c. 36 That the Canon of Scripture is imperfect wanting many Divine Revelations therefore some Books have been received as Canonical at one time and not at another some some have been received as Canonical in some Churches not in other Vid. Downham 6. They prefer the Faith and Judgment of the Church of Rome which they say is the internal Scripture written by the hand of God in the heart of the Church before the holy Scripture 7. Bellarm. de verb. Dei l. 1. c. 2. That unwritten Traditions are to be equally believed and to have as great authority as the Scripture that Traditions which they call the unwritten Word are the Rule of Faith 8. They contend that the Customes and unwritten Opinions of the Church of Rome are most certain Apostolical Traditions 9. Blondel Dalaeus They number the Popes Decretal Epistles with the holy Scriptures when yet it is most cleerly proved by Blondel in a just Volume that abundance of them are forgeries and Dalaeus proves it particularly of the Clementines 10. Wide Downham Catal. They say it is Heresie for any to say that it is not altogether in the power of the Church or Pope to appoint Articles of Faith 11. That the Scripture is not sufficient for the refuting of all Heresies as if there were any Heresiebut what is against Scripture 12. Id ibid. That the Church is ancienter than the Scripture that is than the Word of God which is now written because it is ancienter than the writing of it as if it were not the same Word of God which was first delivered by voice that is now in writing 13. That it is not necessary nor convenient for the common People to read the Scriptures but rather dangerous and hurtful 14. That the translating of the Scriptures into vulgar Languages is the fountain of Heresies and they that do it deserve ill of Christian Religion 15. That the Hebrew Copy of the Old Testament the Greek of the New Testament is not authentical 16. Bâ—llaâ—me de verbo Dei l. 3. That the Scriptures are very obscure and hard to be understood even in things necessary 17. That it belongeth not to all the faithful to search into the meaning
Priest and when the people do communicate the Wine they have not 21. Remember O Lord the Souls of thy Servants which rest in the sleep of peace and grant them a place of refreshing and rest Here they pray for the dead and the Praier also is contrary to it self for first he saith they rest in peace and yet afterward praieth for their refreshing Thus beginneth the fifth Praier of the Canon 22. Deliver us by the blessed intercession of the Virgin What then is become of Christs Mediation and Intercession who ever liveth to make Intercession for us Hebr. 7.25 23. Let this mingling together of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ be unto me salvation of Mind and Body Then is not Christs Blood shed upon the Cross the full sufficient and perfect Salvation of Mankind if there be another Salvation beside And if it be the very Body and Blood of Christ how can they be mingled together seeing the very Body and Blood of Christ cannot be divided 24. Grant me so worthily to take this Body and Blood that I may merit to receive forgiveness of sins O sinful man how canst thou merit to receive that which is Christs only gift 27. Let the Priest bow himself to the Host saying I worship thee I glorifie thee I praise thee What monstrous Idolatry is this thus to worship a piece of Bread 28. Let us worship the sign of the Cross What I pray you will not these Idolaters worship 29. Respect not my sins but the Faith of the Church By this reason one may be profited by anothers Faith which is contrary to the Scripture The just shall live by his Faith by his own and not anothers Rom. 1.17 I shall pass by diverse other Errours and come to the last 30. In the end of the Mass according to the use of Sarum there is annexed the from of blessing or consecrating the Paschal Lamb with this Praier Vouchsafe to sanctifie this Paschal Lamb that as many of thy people as do cat thereof may be replenished with all heavenly Benediction c. What gross Superstition is this that they should still retain the use of the Paschal Lamb which cannot be but to the great derogation of the true Paschal Lamb Christ Jesus that the Body being come the shadow should be still retained Other Errours in the manner of celebrating Mass 1. ALl is done and said in the Latin tongue not understood of the people and often not of the Priest himself which is not to edification 2. They use many irksome tedious and frivolous repetitions of the same words as Benedicamus Domino is sung ten several times together and Ite missa est is sung thirteen several times with long and tedious notes 3. The Priest is charged in the Rubrick to say divers Praiers privatim secretly to himself as that Praier Deliver us from all evil past present and to come c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lamb of God that takest away â—he sins of the world These and many other words must be pronounced secretly to himself contrary to Saint Paul who would have Praiers so said that they may be understood and thereunto Amen answered by the people 1 Cor. 14.16 4. The Priest is taught by the Rubeick to make thirty several Crosses at the least upon the Bread the Cup the Altar his Forehead but no such crossing is to be found in Christs Institution which they profess to follow 5. Their Gesture in saying of Mass is so changeable so ridiculous so affected that a man would think a Plaier were coming forth upon the Stage when the Priest addresseth himself to the Mass nay Rossius was not so full of action as the Massing-Priest is of gesture varying and changing it at least forty or fifty times during the celebration of the Mass Their Errours concerning the Church 5. THey assert that the Catholick Church is always visible Canis c. de fide symb art 18. and not seen only unto the members of the Church but notoriously known to the whole world neither do they mean any particular Church so to have been visible but the universal Catholick Church which they define to be a visible Congregation of all faithful men 2. Bellarm. lib. 3. de Eccles That the Catholick Church is no other than the Roman or that which the Roman Pope is over Bellarmine defining the Church makes this one part of the definition to be subject unto the Bishop of Romes Jurisdiction and therefore they conclude that they are out of the Church and no better than Hereticks that do not acknowledg the Pope to be their chief Pastor So they make the Roman Faith and Catholick to be all one 3. That the Catholick Church cannot possibly err not only in matters absolutely necessary to Salvation but not in any thing which it imposeth or commandeth whether it be contained in the Word of God or not yea that it cannot err in those things which beside the Word of God are commanded But because the Papists endeavour to invest the Popes and the Roman Church with an infallible Perfection Dr. Du Moulins Auswer to Card. Perron for King James it will be expedient to shew by invincible proofs that the Roman Church hath erred and doth err I shall therefore only produce the Errours approved by their Popes and Councils as the learned Doctor Du Moulin in his answer to Cardinal Du Perron hath set them down In the year of our Lord 787 a Council was assembled which the Roman Church approveth and reckoneth among the universal Councils there sate the Legates of Pope Adrian who wrote a Book purposely for the defence of that Council 1. In the seventh action that Council commandeth the Adoration of Images upon pain of Anathema in these words We hold that the Images of the glorious Angels and of all Saints must be adored and saluted but as for him that hath not the will so to do but staggereth and is doubtful about the adoration of the venerable Images this holy and venerable Synod doth anathematize him In the fourth Action of the same Synod these words are found Images are of equal worth with the Gospels and the venerable Cross And in the same place the Image is greater than the Word and the Praier In the fifth Action the Council declareth that Angels are corporal that there may be a ground for making Images of Angels The same Council to prove the Adoration of Images corrupteth the Scripture in diverse places In the year 869. a Council was held at Constantinople which our Adversaries call the eighth General Council The third Canon of that Council is in these words We decree that the sacred Image of Jesus Christ be adored with the same honour as the Book of the holy Gospels and the Figure of the precious Cross In the year of our Lord 1059. Pope Nicholas the second assembled a Council against Berengarius where it was declared that the Bread and Wine which is put upon the
These few Proofs drawn out of the most authentick Rules of the Roman Church will be a pattern more than sufficient to shew to any man that is not resolved to lose himself and that seeks instruction that the Roman Church can err 4. Our Adversaries do devise many Notes whereby their Church is descried Driedo and P. a Soto would have three Hosius four Sanders six Michael Medina ten Cunerus twelve Bellarmine fifteen Socolovius twenty Doctor Favour chap. 4. one the true and oldest Antiquity But there are seven principal which they do most stand upon Antiquity Vniversality Succession Vnity the Power of Miracles the Gift of Prophecy Prosperity Of Antiquity THe Papists make great brags of the long continuance of their Church yea that they can shew the descent of their Church from Adam but they must come short of our Saviour Christ and the Apostles times by five or six hundred years for the most of the Opinions which they now hold The Romanists adulterate Antiquity because it is a Pearl of greatest price but a skilful Lapidary can soon espy the Alchymy it seemeth Gold yet is but brandished Brass it seems a Ruby one of the Stones in Aarons rich array or a Foundation of New Jerusalem where is no counterfeit but it is only a polished Garnet it beareth resemblance of a Diamond but it is digged out of Saint Vincents Rock as good as a Saint Martins Chain So many things are offered by the Papists for Antiquity which upon trial prove meer Novelty worse Vanity a plain Nullity The Roman Church in this point is intolerable for she boasteth of Antiquity but will not suffer the truth of her Doctrine to be examined she will have us to judg of the Truth by Antiquity whereas we ought to judg of Antiquity by the Truth and by Conformity to the Word of God which is the first Antiquity Anno 420. Zosimus Bishop of Rome challenged a prerogative above other Churches that it might be lawful to make appeals from other Churches to that See and to set the better colour upon it he falsly alleadged a Decree of the Nicene Council but there was no such thing found there wherefore it was decreed in the Council of Carthage at that time that none should appeal to Rome Boniface the third purchased of the wicked Emperour Phocas the Title of Universal Bishop Transubstantiation was first concluded against Berengarius anno 1062. under Pope Leo the ninth but not publickly enacted before anno 1216. under Innocentius the third The Dominick Friers were brought in at the same time Auricular Confession was brought in the year before under the same Pope Telesphorus brought in their Lenton Fast Calixtus instituted the four Ember Fasts Hyginus brought in Chrism It is easie to shew by whom every piece of their blasphemous Mass hath been patched together Marriage was first prohibited by Pope Nicholas the second Alexander the second Gregory the seventh The Communion in one kind forged urged and decreed in the Council of Constance not much above two hundred years agone The Church of Rome boasteth of Antiquity and yet as one saith brings new things every day she makes a shew of some old patched Clothes to make the world believe that she comes from far as the Gibeonites did but let a man examine her Doctrine by pieces he shall find she comes not from very far and almost all is new It cannot be proved that the antient Church in many ages after the Apostles excluded the people from the Cup or kept them from reading the holy Scripture or made Pictures of the Trinity or yielded veneration to the Images of Saints or call'd the Virgin Mary the Queen of Heaven or made mention of the Roman indulgences or of the power of the Pope to depose Kings and fetch Souls out of Purgatory c. In a word saith old Doctor Du Moulin as it is now another Doctrine so it is another Church because it is another Religion That true Antiquity is not of our Adversaries side 1. The Greek Church testifieth for the Grecians affirm that their Church is the Mother of the Roman Church and hath born the first prerogative in the orthodoxal verity The Syrians boast themselves to be the first Christians in the world because that St. Peter had his Seat seven year at Antioch before ever he went to Rome 2. The Eastern and Southern Churches do give the priority and priviledg of Antiquity unto the Church of Antioch before Rome Symmachus a Pagan Symmach writing to the Christian Emperours Valens Theodosius and Arcadius he desireth them to have a reverence for the Pagan Religion by reasonÌ„ of her Antiquity If saith he the length of time gives authority to Religion we must keep Faith to so many Ages and follow our Fathers who have so happily followed theirs Then he personates the old Pagan Rome thus speaking to the Emperours Good Princes Fathers of your Countrey respect my years unto which the pious Ceremonies have brought me permit me to use the Ceremonies of my Ancestors This Religion hath subjected the World unto my Laws these holy Services have beaten back Hannibal from the Wails and the Senones from the Capitol Have I been preserved unto this time that I should be rebuked in mine old age The Correction of old age comes too late and is injurious What could Ambrose and Prudentius answer who confuted that Epistle but that the Law of God is more antient than Numa Pompilius the Author of those Ceremonies and that all is new which is not from the beginning and that Errour cannot be authorized by the number of years Our Fathers received it of their Fathers August saith Cresconius sed errantes ab errantibus saith Saint Augustine Of Universality THe Papists say their Church is universal both in respect of time person and place it hath always been in the world and hath flourished in all Countries and Nations ergo it is the true Church That it is universal they first prove by the name of Catholick But if the name Catholick were an unchangeable mark or natural property of any real Church it should be of the Greek Church or Nation unto which the name of Catholick is prime and natural If the real property answering to this name had belonged to the Romish Church the Holy Ghost would have expressed it by a Roman Name and have called the Roman Church the Universal Church at least the Romanists should have called themselves Universals not Catholicks as the learned Doctor Jackson noteth It is easie to consider the vanity of this Assertion Jackâ—on de Eccl. that a Name should be an unseparable property proceeding of the nature of any reality But the Name of a Christian is a more honourable Title than the Name of Catholicks for this was used in the Apostles time Act. 11.26 and by the Apostles themselves allowed but it is not certain that the Name Catholick came from the Apostles Secondly they prove their Universality by 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
when he was in Heaven he would help them by his Praiers And upon this rotten foundation they lay on loads of hay and stubble upon this Popish abuse and mis-construction of the holy Scripture they would build not only the Saints praying for us but also our praying to the Saints the former as being directly grounded upon this Text and the second as a consequent of the former Of their Distinction of the two kinds of Worship Latria and Dulia THat kind of Worship which is proper to God they say See The Bee-hive of the Romish Church ch 7. is fitly expressed by the Greek word λατÏεία The other word δουλεία is taken for all kind of Service both of God and men so that the Religious worship which is called λατÏεία is to be only given to God the other called δουλεια may be attributed to Angels and Saints saith Bellarmine The Papists say they make not Gods of Saints because they worship them with a lower degree of worship than is Latria or the worship proper to God viz. they worship the Saints with Dulia the Virgin Mary with Hypordulia a super-service The learned David Pareus to disprove this distinction between λατÏεία and δουλεία Pareus Dub. 9. in â— 2. ad Rom. hath taken pains to shew the use of these words in the Scriptures first that the worship of God is ofner signified by δυλεια than by λατÏεία The first is found 39 times so used in the Old Testament the other about 30 times as he hath summed and set down the places Secondly he sheweth that the word Latria is given to the Creatures as in ten several places it is found Thou shalt not do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any servile work Thirdly the worshipping of Images is forbidden under the term Latria 34 times in the Old Testament and more in the New Rom. 1.23 and 23 times under the other term Dulia There is but one kind of Religious worship and that due unto God and no Religious worship is to be given to any Creature no not that inferiour kind which they make less than the Divine This of the Papists is the same as was that of the Heathen who as Plato witnesseth did worship one God that is Jupiter for the chiefest God the rest they called lesser Gods and worshipped them with a lower degree of worship Of Image-worship 1. THe Papists assert that there is great difference between an Image and an Idol Ἐικων an Image say they is the true similitude of a thing á¼Î¹Î´Ï‰Î»Î¿Î½ doth represent that which is not as were the Idols of Venus Minerva c. But an Idol is that Image which is set up with an intent to be worshipped An Image is a general name as well to unlawful Pictures set up for Idolatry as lawful which have but a civil use 2. They affirm that it is lawful to express the Trinity by Pictures as God like an old man and with the World in his hand Christ as he walked upon the Earth the Holy Ghost in the likeness of a Dove the Angels with Wings and these Pictures say they are very meet and profitable to be set up in Churches 3. That Images are to be reverenced and worshipped say they so it be not with the Divine Honour due unto God 4. They affirm that Images may not only be set up in Churches but that they are no where better placed than there 5. As to the manner of Worship that is to be given to Images Bellarminâ— saith 1. That Images though they are not properly to be worshipped with Divine Honour neither is it safe so to teach in the hearing of the People yet improperly they may have the same worship which properly belongeth to the Saint whose Image it is 2. There is a Religious Worship properly due unto Images as they are considered in themselves and not only as they represent another thing After Images crept into the Church the Clergy receivâ—d great profit thereby for the advancemâ—nt of this new Doctrine new Saints were canonized new Holy-days appointed new Prayers and Services devised new Chappels erected and consecrated Pope Leo the fourth appointed sundry Holy days 6. Touching making of Images Image-makers before they made an Image were wont to go to the Priest and shrive themselves as clean as if they should then die and take penance and make some Vow of Fasting or Praying or Pilgrimage praying also to the Priest to pray for him that he might have Grace to make a fair and devout Image In the Pontifical the peculiar form of consecrating Images and Crosses doth shew the same They paint the Image of our Lady all in Gold Silver broidered Hair c. 7. Order was also taken how Images should be consecrated as first with Exorcism of Water and Salt then with Praier afterwards with censing kissing anointing and other Ceremonies When the Rood in Saint Pauls Church was erected Bishop Bonner being in his Robes with his Prebends about him the Rood was laid upon the Pavement Then the Bishop with others sung divers Praiers to the Rood that being done they forthwith anointed the Rood with Oil in divers places after the anointing they crept to the Rood kissed it then they took the said Rood weighed him up and set him in his place All the while this was doing the whole Quire sung Te Deum and they rung the Bells Of the Image of the Cross THe Papists say that the Wood of the Cross both the whole and every piece thereof is worthy of great Worship and Reverence They give Divine Worship to it they pray and burn Incense it is visited in Pilgrimages and honoured with Festival days as Inventio Crucis on May 3. and Exaltatio Crucis on Septemb. 14. In the Adoration of the Image of the Cross the errour is palpable for in the Roman Church upon Passion-Sunday they speak thus to the Image of the Wood of the Cross Crux ave spes unica c. I salute thee O Cross our only hope in this time of the Passion encrease righteousness to the Godly and give pardon to the Guilty thou hast been alone worthy to bear the price of the world And a little after Thou faithful Cross the only noble among Trees And in another Hymn Thou blessed Cross out of whose arms the price of the world did hang. Can any without great impiety speak unto Wood and call it our hope and ask of it encrease of Grace and remission of sins In the Missal of Sarum no less solemnity is used in carrying of the Cross than if Christ himself were present there is such curtfying kneeling kissing attendance of Priests bowing of the whole Quire until the chiefest Clerks proceed barefoot to the Adoration Then it is carried through the midst of the Quire and with great reverence laid upon the high Altar Then they sing Hymns and Praises unto it and adore it Crucem tuam adorâ—mus Domine thy Cross O Lord do we adore c. There were so many pieces of
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
any body came near it and and would have touched it And therefore they named it Vmbra because it was but a salse representation like unto the shadow of a Body They said that it did remain about the Graves and upon the Earth where it was to wander and to appear unto men So say the Papists though the Bodies of men may be corrupted in the Grave and brought into ashes so that they cannot come out of it before the day of the general Resurrection except it be by Miracle yet it is otherwise of the Souls for they be immortal and go not down into the Grave as the Bodies do therefore they may come again and appear unto men on earth and to converse with them But some of the Heathen have derided at these toys Cicero Tuscul quaest l. 1. Cicero where he makes mention of the Lake Avernus saith they will that these Images and Visions should speak which thing cannot be done without Tongue Mouth Throat without the force and shape or figure of Lungs and Ribs Chrysost de Lazarâ— Divite Chrysostom saith well ne quaeramus audire à mortuis quae multo clarissimè nos docent sacrae Scripturae let us not seek to hear those things from the dead which the holy Scriptures do teach us most plainly 6. Macrob. in somnscipio l. 2. Singing and Musick was also used in the Funerals of the Paynims of which Macrobius speaketh Pythagoras and Plato speak of the Musick and Harmony of the Heavens proceeding from the continual moving of the heavenly Sphears or Circles And Plato and they that held opinion with him that the Souls were immortal did think that they had their off-spring and original from Heaven and that they were come down from thence to inhabit and dwell in the Bodies of men whereupon Macrobius saith that it was established by the Laws and Statutes of many Countries that they should follow the dead unto their Graves with good Musick and Singing for the Paynims did believe that the Souls after they were separated from the Bodies did return to the original of the sweet Musick and Harmony that is into Heaven 7. Before Bells were invented the Pagans used Trumpets which they consecrated by washings and purifications and the day of that Ceremony was called Tubilustrium as Ovid tells us that is the purifying and hallowing of Trumpets And because they were wont to use them in Funerals they were wont to purifie and hallow them at the Feast of Minerva called Quinquatria and at a certain Feast of Vulcan as Festus Pompeius and Varro do testifie they did in a manner the like with them as the Pope who baptizeth Agnus Dei's and Bells also are baptized in the name of the sacred Trinity and they have a God-father and a God-mother that give them a Name Thus wickedly do they blaspheme the holy Institution and Ordinance of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who hath ordained Baptism for a Seal of his faithful Congregation and People 8 The Pagans applied Reliques to women with Child they used to gird their Belly about with Rollers made before the Idols much like the women in the Abby of St. German at Paris girding themselves with the Girdle of S. Margaret 9. Many popish Monks place merit in going barefoot The superstitious had an holy-day in which they went barefoot which S. Jerome in his first book against Jovinian calleth Nudipedalia of which Juvenal speaketh Observant ubi festa mero pede Sabbata Regis Juvenal 10. The Papists are full of begging Friers Such there were among the Pagans among whom the Priests of the Syrians Goddess Ovid. Fâ—â—sti l. 4. and those of Cybâ—le went about begging from Town to Town bearing sacks where they put the Provision that was given them An exact description hereof you may find in the fourth book of Ovids Fasti and in the eighth book of the Milesia of Apulcius 11. The spittle used in Baptism by the Roman Church is derived from the Pagans who made use of spittle for a preservative and expiation as Persius saith 12. The Indians had Gardens of Herbs and sweet Trees with Roses and Flowers for the Altars and this is also the Church of Rome's custome and superstition to trim and deck their Saints and Altars with Garlands and Crowns of Roses and other Flowers The Pagans cloathed their Images as the Papists do The history of Dionysius the Tyrant is known who eased the Images of their golden heavy cloakes and gave them other cloaks of Cloath saying those of Cloath were both lighter warmer The Indians had 2000 Gods whose Images stood highest in the Temple upon the Altars They were made of stone in full proportion as bigg as a Giant They were covered with a lawn called Nacar they were beset with divers Pearls pretious Stones and pieces of Gold wrought like Birds Beasts Fishes Flowers adorned with Emeraulds Turquies Chalcedons and other little fine Stones so that when the Lawn was taken away the Images seemed very beautiful to behold So doth the Church of Rome deck and adorn their idol-Idol-saints as the Heathens did their chiefest Gods called Vitzilopuchtli and Tezcatilipuca They cover their wooden and stony Statues of Saints and of the Virgin Mary with fine lawn-shirts and hide them with Curtains of cloth of Gold and enrich them with costly and pretious jewels and Diamonds not considering that they are the work of their own hands 13. In Mexico and without the great Temple and over against the principal door thereof a stones cast distant stood a Charnel house only of dead-mens heads Prisoners in War and sacrificed with the knife This Monument was made like unto a Theatre more large than broad wrought of lime and stone Gages Hist of the West-Indies with ascending steps in the Walls whereof was graffed between stone and stone a skull with the teeth outward At the feet and head of this Theatre were two Towers made only of Lime and Skulls the Teeth outward which having no other stuffe in the Wall seemed a strange sight So the Romish Church makes much of their dead mens skulls and rotten bones laying them up in their Church-yard under some arches made for that purpose in their Church-Walls 14. At the Consecration of an Heathenish Idol a certain vessel of water was blessed with many words and ceremonies and that water was preserved very religiously at the foot of the Altar for to consecrate the King when he should be crowned and also to bless any Captain General when he should be elected for the Wars with only giving him a draught of that water Justin Martyr saith that the Gentiles when they enter into their Temples do sprinkle themselves with water and then they go and offer sacrifice to their Gods And Hippocrates saith in going in we sprinkle our selves with this water to the end that we may be made clean from our sins And is not this practised in the Roman Church They had also among the Gentiles
Acts of Foronosus his Predecessor John the ninth disannulled all the Acts of Stephen and Sergius the third all the Acts that Formosus had done and so that which John had done and approved the Acts of Stephen some of these must err In the 1408. in the Council of Pisa consisting of 1000 Divines and Lawyers two Popes were deposed at once viz. Gregory the eleventh and Benedict the thirteenth the Tenour of whose Deprivation calleth them Schismaticks Hereticks departed from the Faith scandalizing the whole Church unworthy the Papacy cut off from the Church And whereas Benedict continued Pope still for all this a second Council holden at Constance deposed him again commanding all men to esteem him as an Heretick and Schismatick John Gerson testifieth of Pope John the two and twentieth that he held that the Souls of just men separated from their Bodies do not see God nor rejoyce with him till the day of Judgment This was a publick Errour of his for he taught it publickly and commanded it to be held by all men But for this Errour of his he was condemned before the French King by the Divines of the University of Paris and made to recant it with Sound of Trumpet And Alphonsus a Castro saith that he saw a Decretal Epistle of Pope Celestine wherein he publickly erred in matter of Marriage Pope Pius the fourth decreed that it should be lawful for him to allow degrees of Marriage forbidden in Leviticus and to forbid what God allowed Eastern Bishops and antient Fathers have sharply reproved the Bishop of Rome as namely Polycrates the Bishop of Ephesus and as Irenaeus the Bishop of Lions did Victor for his rash proceeding against the Eastern Churches Antient Councils have withstood the Pope as that of Chalcedon wherein were six hundred and thirty Bishops withstanding Leo in the Question of Supremacy The sixth Council of Carthage of two hundred seventeen Bishops resisted three Popes one after another in that they would do contrary to the Council of Nice These judged that Popes may err Such have been made Popes that any wise man may think might err Some have been unlettered Ideots no Grammarians that could hardly write their Names in Latin some Lay-men as Constantius the second and Bennet the eighth and very Boys for age Bennet the ninth a Child of ten years old John the twelfth a Bastard a mad Lad about eighteen years old and one Woman as Pope Joan of whom Mantuan that elegant Poet writeth thus Hic pendebat adhuc sexum mentita virilem Faemina cui triplici Phrygiam diademate Mitram Extollebat apex c. lib. 3. Here did as yet in shew a Man a Woman sit Whose Head a costly Crown did fit Some Popes have been Blasphemers Dishonorers of Parents Sorcerers Adulterers Covetous breakers of Promises Pope Alexander the sixth upon Festival days gave himself to hear Plautus his Comedies and to be present at other Pâ—ays Pope Paul the third poisoned his Mother and his Nephew that the whole Inheritance of the Farnesians might come unto him 34. That Saint Peter was Prince of the Apostles and had a Primacy of power and authority above all the Apostles They assert that Saint Peter was Head of the Church that Saint Peter was the only Vicar of Christ here on earth Their Errours concerning the Sacraments in general 1. Rhem. Act. 22. Sect. 1. THat much is to be attributed to the bare outward Work that the Sacraments do confer Grace ex opere operato 2. That the Sacraments are not Seals of the Promises or Covenant of God nor instituted to confirm the Promise 3. That Circumcision was a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith only to Abraham 4. Vide Bp. Downham Catal. That Grace is contained in the Sacraments as in a vessel nay that the Sacraments are Physical instrumental causes of Grace and that they do work holiness by the power put into them by God as the heat of the fire is the cause of the burning of the Wood. 5. Bellarm. cap. 27. That there is necessarily required the intention of the Administrator to the truth of the Sacrament at least of doing what the Church doth 6. Vide Rhem. Aâ—mot in 2 Cor. 1 That in the Sacraments of Baptism Confirmation and Order there is imprinted in the Soul by God a character or certain spiritual and indelible sign or mark so that they cannot be reiterated In the other Sacraments viz. according to the Popish account there is only an ornament or dress imprinted instead of a mark or character 7. That the Observation of the Ceremonies which they use in the Administration of Sacraments though invented by themselves through will-worship is meritorious and part of Divine Worship 8. They add five Sacraments to the other two instituted by Christ Concil Trid. Sâ—ss 7. Can. 1. viz. Confirmation Penance Orders Extreme Unction And say they if any of these are not truly and properly Sacraments Rhem. Annot. Apoc 1. Sect. 3. or that they are not of Christs Institution let him be anathema or accursed Their Arguments are 1. The number of seven is mystical prophetical perfect The Prophet commanded Naaman to wash himself seven times The Altar must be cleansed seven days Exod. 29.37 So in the Apocalypse seven Churches seven Angels seven Stars seven Candlesticks seven Thunders c. And why not also seven Sacraments saith Bellarmine 2. Man hath seven Wounds to be healed ergo there ought to be seven Sacraments as Remedies against the same Baptism say they is a remedy against Original sin Penance against Actual sin Bellarm. l. 2. c. 26. Extreme Unction against the Reliques of sin Confirmation against infirmity of Faith the Eucharist against Malice Orders against Ignorance Their Errours concerning Baptism 1. Bellarm. lib. 1. de Baptism THey define Baptism to be a Sacrament of Regeneration by Water in the Word that is not which signifieth and sealeth unto us our Regeneration and assureth us of Remission of sins but actually justifieth and regenerateth us 2. Bellar. de Baptismâ— lib. 1. c. 3. They affirm that this form of Baptism to baptize in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost is not fully concluded out of Scripture but delivered by Tradition for say they the Command of Christ to baptize in the name of the Trinity may be understood thus to baptize them into the Faith of the Trinity or by the authority of the Trinity 3. They affirm that Baptism is simply necessary to Salvation by Gods appointment Concil Trid. Sâ—ss 7. can 7. so that all which die unbaptized unless the want of Baptism be recompensed either by Martyrdom or Penance must needs perish and be deprived of eternal Life 4. They grant power to baptize Bellarm. c. 7. not only to any rank of men but even to Women in case of necessity they grant this also to Lay men and Pagans in like case 5. They affirm that the Baptism of Infants is grounded upon Tradition and
Idolatry while that they adore a piece of Bread with the worship of Latria which is only due to God It was decreed in the Council of Trent that the Eucharist should be adored with the highest degree of worship which is proper to God 23. In honour of this breaden God they celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi of the Body of Christ 24. Vide Bâ—yne Vind. at Frequent corporal apparitions of Christ in their Hostia's in form of a little Infant Lamb raw Flesh Blood are asserted in Popish Legends to evidence the truth of their Transubstantiation though meer Fables diabolical delusions or impious frauds of Popish Priests 25. The taking away the Cup was decreed in the Council of Constance yet after that the Council of Basil granted the use of the Cup to the Bohemians Bellarm. lib. 3. de Euchar. cap. 2. This taking away the Cup from the People may seem a small matter for it is done but once every year at which time the Sacrament is given to the People for in all the rest of the Masses which are continual and daily they deprive both the People and the Clergy that do not consecrate it of both kinds For in private Masses it is held forth to be seen by the People and Clergy and to be adored not to be received but only by the Priest that makes it who is as themselves speak the Maker of his Maker 26. They assert that the Body of the Lord cannot be rightly taken but of those that fast and that Christians ought to eat nothing before they communicate unless in a case of great necessity 27. They bind the people only once in a year to receive the Communion viz. at Easter-time and take it to be fully sufficient for them so to do Concil Trident. Sess 13. Can. 9. 27. Rhem. Annot. 1 Cor. 11 Sect. 16. The wicked say they do in the Sacrament eat the true Flesh of Christ and drink his Blood though they be infidels and ill livers 28. The Papists teach an Oral and Capernaitical Manducation of the Flesh of Christ for they say that the Body of Christ in the Eucharist is really and sensually touched broken and eaten 29. The Elements in the Sacrament being once consecrated whether they be received or not at that instant Tâ—ident â—â—oncil â—â—ss 13. â—â—n 47. but be reserved and kept in Boxes and Pixes and other vessels of the Church for days weeks months to be carried solemnly to those that are sick and to be applied to other uses are still they say the very Body and Blood of Christ 30. They give the Eucharist to Infants presently after Baptism Their Errours concerning the Mass 1. THere are diverse opinions among them concerning the Original of this Name Some say Hugo de S. Vict. it is called Missa the Mass quia oblatio preces ad Deum mittantur because Oblation and Prayers are sent to God others because an Angel is sent of God to be assistant at the Mass some of the Hebrew word Missath Deut. 16. Dr. Willet Cont. 13. which signifies an Oblation or Gift some ex missis donariis symbolis of the Gifts and offerings sent or put in before the Communion But what beginning soever it had they do now generally take the Mass for that solemn action whereby the Sacrament is made a Sacrifice and offered up to God for they have converted the Sacrament of the Eucharist by which God communicates Christ to us into a real Sacrifice in which they do offer up Christ to God 2. The Table they do convert into an Altar and the Administrator of the Sacrament into a Priest after the order of Melchisedeck whose Office it is to sacrifice Christ again and offer him to his Father 3. They say that this new sacrificing is required that Christs Body may begin to be an Oblation 4. That Christ did once offer up himself for us upon the Cross in the Mass often by the hands of the Priests 5. Christ say they at his last Supper did offer up his own Body and Blood in Sacrifice under the forms of Bread and Wine to God his Father and at the same instant made his Apostles and their Successors Priests to offer up his Body in the Sacrament In the Eucharist say they there is a true Sacrifice of the very Body and Blood of Christ offered up to God by the hands of the Priest in the forms of Bread and Wine 6. Every Mass-Priest offering Christ to God the Father prays God to accept of that Sacrifice and to command that it may be carried by the hands of an Angel unto the high Altar of God and therefore they make the Priest Mediator between God and Christ 7. The Priest in offering the Sacrifice to God for others is a Mediator between God and the Men for whom he celebrates the Mass 8. They have wrested the Mass from the end of a Communion to infinite other affairs and altogether from the purpose hence have arisen many kinds of Masses as 1. The Mass of the Crown of Thorns 2. The Mass of the three Nails Enchirid. Controv. by L. O. 3. The Mass of the Fore-skin of Christ 4. The Mass for Sea-faring men 5. The Mass for Travellers on horse-back or on foot 6. The Mass for Women great with child 7. The Mass for Women in travel of Child-birth 8. The Mass for Women that be barren 9. The Mass for those that be sick of a quartan or tertian Ague and others of the like sort 9. They assert that the Sacrifice of the Mass which they say is without Blood is truly propitiatory for the living and for the dead 10. They blasphemously affirm that it is a Sacrifice propitiatory that is available to obtain ex opere operato by the very work wrought remission and pardon of all their sins 11. They affirm that Mass may be said and offered for all the living yea for Pagans and Infidels for men absent as well as present that the Sacrifice of the Mass is available for the dead which are in Purgatory and that Mass may be rightly said in the remembrance and for the honour of Saints with Invocation of them also in the Prayers of the Church 12. They say it is not necessary that the Mass should be said or done in the vulgar or familiar speech but for the greater reverence to be kept in the Latin tongue they say it is more convenient and that the words of Consecration should not be uttered in a loud and audible but in a soft and low voice 13. Rhem. 1 Cor. 11 Sect. 18 Some ceremonies go before the celebration of the Mass and they are of such things as they have always in a readiness for that impious service Such are the Vestments and apparel of the Priest the Albe Chesil Stole Dalmatick with such other Altar Altar-Clothes Corporasses Pixes Paxes Dishes Platters Candlesticks Censers Water-pots all these and the like trumpery say they ought to be used
Altar after Consecration is not only the Sacrament but also the true Body of our Lord Jesus Christ And that not only the Sacrament but the Body of the Lord is sensually and in truth handled by the hands of the Priest broken and bruised by the teeth of the faithful In the year 1076. Pope Gregory the seventh called a Council to Rome where among many Articles these three Points were resolved and determined That there is no other name under Heaven but that of the Pope That no Book is Canonical without the Popes Authority That all Kings must kiss the Popes Feet The first point attributes unto the Pope that which is attributed unto Jesus Christ alone exclusively to all others Act. 4.12 The second declareth that the Gospels and the Books of the Prophets and Apostles are not to be received unless the Pope approve them by his authority The third attributeth unto the Pope an honour which Jesus Christ and his Apostles never asked or looked for but they have been subject to Emperours have paid them tribute and have appeared before their Judicial Seat neither did they ever give their Feet to any man to kiss In the year 1215. Pope Innocent the third assembled a Council at Rome in the Lateran Church where it was thus resolved If the Temporal Lord care not to satisfie within the year let it be made known to the Soveraign Prelate that from that time he declare his Subjects absolved from his subjection and expose his Country to be seized upon by Catholicks that they may extermine Hereticks In that decision of the Council there are sour pernicious errours as my Author observâ—th 1. The first is an usurpation of the Pope approved by the Council whereby he disposeth of the Temporals of Princes as if the disposition of them belonged to him and divesteth them of their Lands and Dominions without the authority of Gods Word and without any example of the antient Church 2. The second Errour is that it makes ecclesiastical censures which are spiritual corrections to become temporal punishments as if a Priest to lay a penance upon a sinner would cut his Purse or rob him of his Cloak or put him out of his house 3. The third Errour is that this Canon absolveth Subjects from the Oath of Allegiance which they have sworn to their natural Prince and teacheth them to be perfidious and dissoyal with a good Conscience though against the Word of God which saith Thou shalt perform unto the Lord thine Oaths Matt. 5.33 though it were to thine hurt Psal 15.4 And against the Rules and Examples of the Apostles who have commanded Christians to pay tribute and to be subject to Princes and higher Powers although Princes were Pagans and persecutors in those days Rom. 13.1 2. 1 Pet. 2.13.14 4. The fourth Errour is that in the same Council they preach murther and massacre and set on the people to extermine those whom they call Hereticks which is not only against the Law of God but against that of Nations for even Pagan Princes never permitted their Subjects to fall upon their fellow-citizens and massacre them As for recovering the holy Land at the end of that Council there is a Papal Bull but with approbation of the Council There a Commandment is made to all that belonged to the Croisado to meet in Sicily to begin that journey in July to perswade the people to undertake that voyage the Pope by the Councils autority speaks thus To all that will bear that labour in their own persons and at their charges we grant full remission of their sins of which they shall have contrition and repentance and in the Retribution of the Righteous we promise them in Paradise an Augmentation of eternal Salvation What was that Pope and what that Council that could promise to Souldiers a degree in Paradise above the common sort especially seeing the Pope and his Prelates were not themselves sure that they should never go into Hell But let us hear the rest But to them that will not go in that voyage in their own persons but only shall send fit men according to their means we give full remission of their sins Finally the same Bull with approbation of the Council denounceth to all that will refuse and not care for this Commandment that they shall answer him in the last day of Judgment before the terrible Judg. As if the Pope must then be an Assessour of the Judg or as if he must condemn sinners in the day of Judgment In the year of our Lord 1300. Pope Boniface the eighth instituted the Jubilee every hundredth year in which they that come to Rome for their great pardons should get full more full and most full remission of sins That liberality is fetched from the Churches Treasury wherein the Pope lays up the overplus of the satisfactions of Jesus Christ and the Saints of which Treasure the Pope is the Keeper and the Steward converting them into a payment saith the forementioned Author for those that visit the Roman Stations The following Popes being moved with a fatherly compassion to the people have brought the Jubilee first to every fiftieth year and then to every twentieth year It cannot be said what a Mass of Wealth that Jubilee brings to the Pope and to the Inhabitants of Rome by the Offerings and the Sojournings of Strangers that then flock to Rome from all parts The Satisfaction of Jesus Christ being sufficiâ—nt for the sins of the whole world it is an outrage offered to him when to his sufferings other satisfactions are added as that of Saints and Monks to satisfie the Justice of God for the pain due to our sins By this means they will have God to take two payments for one debt But their second payment is sufficient seeing no man can satisfie for the sins of another and we learn of the Apostle that every man shall bear his own burden Besides those Saints and Monks whose satisfactions the Pope will apply unto others were sinners and had need that Christ should satisfie for them so far they were from satisfying for others and for those for whom Christ hath fully satisfied I pass by the palpable Errour whereby it is pretended that the Saints have suffered more pains than their sins deserved since there is no man be he never so holy but stands in need that God forgive him his sins No man but deserveth eternal death if God deal with him according to the rigour of his Justice The same Pope Boniface the eighth attributeth to himself the Power over the Temporal and Spiritual of all the world which he proveth by Texts of Scripture rarely applied We are taught saith he by the words of the Gospel that unto the Power of the Church two Swords are belonging the Spiritual and the Temporal for the Apostles having said here be two Swords that is here in the Church the Lord did not answer the Apostles it is too much but it is enough Certainly he that
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
the vertue of natural causes false Miracles may seem to the weakness of men to be above the power of Creatures but are not so many of them are effected by natural means though in a secret and cunning way others of them are delusions of the Senses Satan cannot work the least Miracle by the power of his word No power of the Devil can raise the dead to life which is a work simply above the power of Creatures This Christ did with a word Mark 5.41 42. V. The ends for which Divine Miracles are wrought are always good chiefly for the promoting of Gods Glory and Mans Salvation So the Miracles wrought by the power of Christ tended to declare him to be the Son of God the Saviour of the World that men might receive him and believe in him to Salvation to prove and confirm the heavenly Doctrine of the Scripture to seal the truth of the Gospel to confirm the Minds of men in this assurance that the way of holy worship commanded in Scripture is appointed by the Lord himself by whose Almighty Power these Miracles are wrought but the lying wonders among the Papists wrought by the cunning and power of Satan are for evil and cursed ends like their Anthor to draw people from the truth to confirm them in Errours in Superstition praying for the dead and to the dead worshipping of Images establishing Monkish dreams of Purgatory and the like forgeries and absurdities Miracles are neither necessary nor perpetual in the Church If any bring in a new Doctrine it behoveth him to do Miracles But we of whom Miracles are demanded bring no new Doctrine Of the Gift of Prophecy THis the Papists hold also to be a perpetual mark whereby to know the Church for they say that the true Church of God wanteth not those which are endued with the spirit of Prophecy and they tell us that in every age there hath flourished some Prophet in their Church And for this they produce a few forged examples of Saint Bernard and Saint Francis a Popish Saint and the Founder of the superstitious Order of the Franciscans and of such others It is true there have lived some among them in their Church which in those days were counted Prophets and Prophetesses as Hildegardis anno 1146. likewise Bridget Catharine Senensis whom Bellarmine reckoneth up among others that wrought Miracles But concerning these a learned man answereth as the Jesuit doth for Sibilla a Prophetess among the Heathen that she prophecied as touching such matters as should fall out to the Church for a testimony of the Faith of the Christians and so to be counted herein a Prophetess of the Church rather than of the Heathen So if those three above-named were Prophetesses they were of our Church and not theirs for they prophecied of the decay of their Church and raising up of ours The Devil deluded many Popish Monks with strange Raptures and Visions though in their nature far different from those mentioned in the holy Scripture For Saint Paul in his Revelations was caught up into the third Heaven whereas most Monks with a contrary motion were carried into Hell and Purgatory and there saw apparitions of strange Torments Fuller in Vita Hildegaâ—d Also Saint Johus Revelation forbids all addition to the Bible under heavy penalties their Visions are commonly on purpose to piece out the holy Scripture and to establish such Superstitions as have no footing in Gods Word as a judicious Divine of ours hath well noted We read of a notable Popish Prophetess in King Henry the eighths daies Elizabeth Barton a Nun commonly called the holy Maid of Kent who being instructed by the Friers seigned as though she had many Revelations she prophecied that if the King proceeded in his Divorce then in question between him and Queen Catharine that he should not be King one year no not one month but he lived almost twenty years after that and this Prophetess worthily suffered for her demerits with all her accomplices Of Prosperity which the Papists make another Mark of the tâ—ue Church NOw see how unlike the condition of the false Church of Rome is to the condition of Saint Peter and the true Church of Christ Saint Peter reckoneth upon suffering persecution and death for the Gospel of Christ this he had from the mouth of Christ himself after his Resurrection and so we see that the Church of Christ is not exempted from the Cross by the Victory of Christ or by his Resurrection from the dead But wherein doth the Church of Rome which pretendeth it self to be Saint Peters Bishoprick and Diocess and its Bishop to be its Successor glory In a flourishing Church-Monarchy sufficient to make Kings Princes Emperours to wait at their Gates to hold the Popes Stirrup lead his Horse lay their Necks under his Feet kiss his Foot sufficient to depose Kings and Emperours sufficient to kill with Fire and Sword those that oppose their Decrees and Inventions though not convinced of any on Errour by the Word of God rightly understood And in this estate they bragg that their Church hath continued many hundred years without any interruption Could the true Church of Christ ever say so much in any age May not the Church say as Saint Paul of himself Bonds and imprisonment abide me poverty contempt from the world I am made a spectacle to Angels to the world and to men This true Kings Daughter is all glorious with in her Beauty consisteth in inward spiritual Graces not in Purple and Scarlet Gold and precious Stones The truth is the Popish Church glorieth in her shame and that which she boasteth of is a good argument to prove that she is not the true Church and Spouse of Christ who do talk so much of the Cross and make so much of the sign of the Cross as the Pope and his Followers But who do less bear the Cross of Christ than they they lay it upon others backs with great cruelty and violence even themselves that instead of being a suffering Church it is a persecuting Church instead of giving its Blood for the Truth it doth so outragiously spill the Blood of others that it should make any one that is not fearfully blinded to renounce it and to come out of her as an accursed Babylon a Cage of unclean Birds Are not the Popish cruelties registred as it were in Letters of Blood consult our Book of Martyrs what banishing excommunicating cursing imprisoning racking reviling drawing beheading hanging burning famishing tormenting divers ways sometimes of single persons sometimes of Towâ—â—… and Cities sometimes by the common Executioner sometimes by great Armies as may be instanced in the Waldenses and Albigenses somewhat more anciently of later times in Germany France Italy Spain England Scotland Ireland The scarlet-Whore seemeth as it were to have surfeited on the Blood of the Saints our Country hath been polluted with horrible Murthers until the Reign of King Henry the seventh for the space of three
hundred years we were never exempted from civil Wars Here many of our sacred Kings have been deposed and murthered by their near Blood and Kindred how much innocent Blood was shed for the space of five years in Queen Marys days and how many Popish Conspiraces were there in Queen Elizabeths days And this addeth exceedingly to his wickedness that the Pope pretendeth to be a common Father of Christians and the Vicar or Deputy of Christ and under this mask acteth so mischievously against Christ and Christians Other Errours are of the Papists concerning the Church That there are no Catholicks but those of the Roman Church That he is a Catholick who believes all that the Roman Church delivereth whether it be written in the Bible or not That there is no Salvation out of the Roman Church That the sincere preaching of the Gospel and lawful administration of the Sacraments Bp. Downham Caâ—al are not a certain note of the Church That to acknowledg the Roman Pope and to be under him as the Vicar of Christ the only Pastor the Head of the whole Church is a note of the true Church That the particular Roman Church is the Mother Mistress and Lady of all Churches yea the Mother of Faith That the Roman Church did obtain this Primacy from our Lord and Saviour himself That the Roman Church hath power of judging all neither is it lawful for any to judg her Judgment That the Roman Church as it cannot err much less can it fail That there is no sure ground for the authority of the Scriptures but the infallible testimony of their Pope and Catholick Roman Church But the true Church must be discerned by the Scripture and not the Scripture by the Church unless a man would in the dark seek to find out the candle by the candlestick whereas he should rather seek out the candlestick by the light of the candle for the Church is as the candlestick and the Scripture as the light or candle Finally the Papists assert that we are to be subject to the Church without limitation So when in the maintenance of their Opinions they are beaten off from the Scripture they fly to the Church and make use of its authority which is with them in effect the Pope whom they make the Head of the Church and whose Sentence among them giveth all force and authority to that which the Church is said to define Howsoever the Church doth but signifie such a Society as consisteth of Men and Women and therefore set the Pope aside to be absolutely subject to the Church what is it but to be the Servants of Men which Saint Paul forbiddeth and presseth his Prohibition with an argument drawn from the precious Blood of Christ the price of our Redemption And therefore when once Cochlaeus a Champion of Popish Superstition speaking for the gross Idolatry of worshipping Images used this reason Quod Mater Ecclesia hâc in parte audienda esset cui hoc visum fuisset that our Mother the Church herein is to be obeyed whose pleasure it is that Images should be worshiped Brentius a learned Divine is said to have answered Quid si Pater diversum praecipiat what if our Father forbid it no Command of our Mother the Church on Earth can bear us out if our Father which is in Heaven speak the contrary And therefore in yielding obedience to the Church we must except our duty to God and obey her no farther than her commands are allowed by him much more must we reject the tyrannical and presumptuous Mandates of the Whore of Babylon pretending her self to be the Spouse of Christ wanting that authority which belongeth to the Church and yet still challenging far more than the Churches right A great misery of so many millions of poor wretched souls it is to be thus enslaved and a most cursed practice it is of those who go about to bring them again into such Antichristian bondage who now are out of Babylon But among all other Papists how desperately wicked are the Jesuits and how slavish swearing absolute obedience to the General of their Society binding themselves by Oath to do whatsoever he commandeth them Vide Gages Survay of 〈◊〉 Wâ—st Indies without exception though it be to murther Kings and blow up Parliaments with Gunpowder and any such like villanies Of the Members of the Church THe Members of the Church considered severally are The Clergy The Laity Their Errours are 1. That to make a Member of the Catholick Church Bp. Downham Caâ—â—aâ— there is not required Grace or any internal vertue but a profession of Faith is sufficient 2. That the Clergy are not held under civil Laws by any coactive but only directive Bond that is that the Clergy are not subject to the civil Magistrate 3. That Clergy-men are not bound to keep and observe the positive Laws of Princes if they be contrary to the Canons of the Church neither ought they to be cited before the civil Magistrate for any cause or to be judged by him It is absurd saith Bellarmine that the sheep should judg the Shepherd 4. That the goods of the Clergy both ecclesiastical and secular are free from the Tribute and Taxe of secular Princes 5. That the election of Bishops dependeth upon the Pope and that they all receive Jurisdiction from the Pope 6. That single life is always joyned to holy Orders by divine right that Marriage in the Clergy is a greater sin than Whoredom 7. That men are to be prepared for holy Orders by the first shaving 8. That the Clergy-men of the first Order are Priests properly so called which they say are instituted to offer an external and real Sacrifice 9. That preaching is not necessary to the Priesthood and in the Roman Church the greatest part of Priests do not preach They must have some other Charge or Commission besides the Priesthood for to be Preachers 10. There is that which they call Irregularity that which hinders a man from being capable of the holy Orders or performing the Functions belonging thereunto after they have received them Ignorance maketh not a man uncapable of holy Orders Some of their Bishops could not read 〈…〉 l. 1. c. 61. but they give them a co-adjutor for they hold that a man may serve God by an Attorney Yea they confer the sacred Orders upon Infants in the Cradle as Cardinal Tolet the Jesuit teacheth No man can receive nor exercise the Priesthood that hath any notable defect in his Body especially if he hath lost one of the Fingers wherewith they handle the Host That man is irregular also that hath had two Wives An Hermophrodite is not irregular provided that the virile Sexe do prevail as Emanuel Sa in his Aphorisms teacheth Item that man is irregular that hath cut off a member from any other man An Heretick also though converted is uncapable of Orders his Children likewise and his Childrens Children yet in this nevertheless the Pope gives
mortal sins whether they be committed in mind heart will and cogitations only or in word and work with all the necessary circumstances and differences of the same 16. That this sacramental Confession as they call it must be made secretly to the Priest 17. That every Christian ought once in a year to present himself when he is come to years of discretion to the Priest and to make his confession to him viz. in time of Lent 18. This order and custom of Confession they hold to be a divine Ordinance no humane Tradition 19. That every one is to confess to his own Parish Priest 20 By this means Confessors will fearch into the secrets of the Marriage-bed Benedict Câ—nf s Toâ—et de Instituâ— Sacâ—rd Navaâ— Sanchez Burchaâ—d and enquire of things which ought not to be named under colour of examining the Consciences they play with libidinous interrogations and teach all kinds of vices you shall find there a thousand sorts of charms philters vices against Nature and meretricious tricks under colour of awaking benummed Consciences and bringing them to Confession Who so will understand some of that impure Science let him read the Book of Benedicts Confessions Cardinal Tolet of the Institution of Priests Navarrus Sanchez the Roman Penitential and the Decree of Burchard Bishop of Wormes By the same Confessions Priests discover the secrets of Kings know their weaknesses and learn their intentions of which they inform the Pope 21. By the same Confessions the Popes have usurped a power over the Temporals of Kings and over their persons imposing satisfactory Penances upon them after Confession and not granting them absolution but upon conditions burdensome to their Crowns and ignominious to their persons I pass by the sordid trick of taking twelve pence for a Confession It seems they hold it unreasonable that a man should forgive sins for nothing 22. Du Moulin One of the great abuses in this point is that the Papists put Confession among meritorious Works as if a Murtherer deserved recompences for freely confessing his crime By that reckoning it will prove an useful and a salutary course to commit a multitude of sins to get multitudes of merits by confessing them 23. It is also a rule of these Doctors that a sinner may confess part of his sins to one Confessor and part to another and so have from each of them a demi-absolution 24. They assert that it is not a sufficient satisfaction to believe that Christ hath abundantly satisfied for us neither yet is it enough to amend and correct our lives but God must also be satisfied for our sins by the punishment and chastisement of our selves as by affliction laid upon us by God or penance enjoined by God or by Praier Fasting Alms-deeds which we do take up for our selves 25. That satisfactory Works are not only profitable to the sufferers themselves but also for other their fellow-members in Christ and one may bear the burden and discharge the debt of another 26. Not only amendment and ceasing to sin or Repentance in heart before God is always enough to obtain full reconcilement but there must be outward penalty correction and chastisement besides 27. That Praier Fasting Alms are those satisfactory Works whereby we do satisfie God for the temporal punishment due to sin and besides these there are other Works which we are not bound unto as whipping beating of the body and the like 28. Three ways they say God is satisfied 1. By bearing patiently the punishment that God layeth upon us 2. By assuming voluntarily the laborious and painful works of penance 3. In willing undergoing the Sentence of the Priest in his penal injunctions 29. The satisfactory and meritorious Works of the Saints which do abound being communicable and applicable to the faithful that want are the very ground of the Indulgences and Pardons of the Church and the very treasure thereof and to be dispensed according to every mans need by the Pastors of the Church Here many blasphemies and untruths are couched together 1. That a mans penalties may be greater than his sins and so his abounding may supply another mans want 2. That the Church Governours may dispense the merits of one to another They say the contrary themselves that the abounding passions of the Saints are applicable to others by the sufferers intention Rhem. 1. Colos 2.2 Then not by the Churches dispensation 3. It is a great blasphemy that one may be holpen by anothers merits and it doth derogate from the truth of Christ whose only merits are the treasure of the Church And what a presumption is this that they dare to match the sufferings of Christ and of the Saints together 30. That by the censure of the Church imposed upon offenders they do not only satisfie the Church but God also and so consequently the Indulgence of the Church doth set them free from the guilt of the punishment of sin both before God and Men. Of the divers Kinds of Indulgences and the Profit of them BEllarmine rehearseth five kinds of Indulgences and justifieth them all 1. That there is an Indulgence of forty days which is a release of the penance which was to be done forty days 2. There is an Indulgence of the third or fourth part of their sins that is of the punishment due for so much of their sins 3. An Indulgence plenary was for the whole punishment and sometime Indulgences are granted for ten or twenty thousand years Tâ—en so many blasphemies and other sins as are by some committed every moment deserve many thousand years penance which notwithstanding by the sharpness of Purgatory-pain may be satisfied for in three or four hundred years 4. Indulgences are granted to some in their life-time to some in the point of death 5. Some are temporary for a time as limited to daies and years same are perpetual which are tied to places Churches Altars or to things moveable as to Rosaries Holy-grains c. 1. They hold that Indulgences are profitable to all whosoever not only to notorious and publick offenders but even to those that are tending to perfection 2. That the power of granting Indulgences doth rest only in the Pope as the Successor of Peter to whom Christ said Whatsoever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven Matth. 16.19 2. That plenary Indulgences can only be granted by the Pope neither by Cardinals whose Indulgences exceed not an hundred daies neither by Bishops or Metropolitans who can grant Indulgences but for one year in the Dedication of Churches and for forty daies at other times nor yet by General Councils 3. Bishops receive this power to give Indulgences not immediately from God but from the Pope from whom also they receive their Jurisdiction and this is an argument thereof because the Pope may make void Indulgences granted by Bishops but so-can he not Orders or Sacraments ministred by them 4. That Parish-Pastors have no power to give Indulgences but by Commission from the Pope
the Cross dispersed in several places as they pretend that as Erasmus writes Erasmus if they were all laid together in one place they would load a Ship Some write that the Cross was found by Helena the Empress and that she left the greater part thereof at Jerusalem and the other part she sent to her Son Constantine the Emperour If there had belonged unto the Church any Religious care of it the Apostles doubtless would have procured the safe keeping thereof and not have suffered the Church to want it 325 years and it had been an easier suit for Joseph and Nicodemus to beg the Cross than the Body of Jesus Moreover if the Cross were to be adored yet who knows which is it and where it is to be found and so one might worship a common piece of Wood for the Wood of the Cross But if the right Cross were to be had ought it not to be served as Hezekiah served the Brazen-Serpent when the people began to make an Idol of it Damascen would have the Spear the Nails the Cave the Sepulchre the Maunger the place it self Golgotha and all things that touched Christs Body to be adored as well as the Wood of the Cross The Wood of the Cross then being forged in so many places how can worship be yielded unto it without great Idolatry Of Reliques THe Fathers that lived neerest Christ were freest from worshipping Reliques But the Romish Church aboundeth in this kind Chemnit Chemnitius hath noted twelve Errours and Abuses of the Papists concerning Reliques 1. That the Bodies Ashes or Bones of the Saints are to be taken out of their Graves and to be placed upon some high place as upon the high Altar or some other visible place and to be dressed with Gold Silver Silk c. 2. That those Reliques ought to be carried in publick Processions and Prayers and to be shewed and offered for Christian people to see touch and kiss 3. That such Reliques are to be approved by the Pope and that approbation is to be by canonizing them 4. That it is a singular and meritorious worship of God if the people to obtain help by it shall touch kiss or walk before with an adoring mind and gesture or shall do reverence to these Reliques by Candles Silk-coverings Garlands or other the like Ornaments 5. That the Grace and Power of God which they say is in them or present by them is to be sought for in these Reliques and that they are made partakers of it who do touch them or behold them 6. That it is an acceptable Sacrifice to God to offer up precious gifts to these Reliques 7. Many Indulgences for sin are promised to such as touch and kiss them c. 8. That our Prayer is the better worthier and more acceptable to God if it be done by or before the Saints Reliques by whose merits we may obtain help And therefore in our necessities we must make Vows and take Pilgrimages unto those places where the Reliques of Saints are held to be that we may call upon them for their help 9. That it adds much to the Holiness of the Sacrament of the Eucharist if the Saints Reliques are set enclosed upon the Altar nay that the Altar is consecrated by their touching it 10. That the Saints Reliques may be lawfully laid over one or carried about ones Neck in devotion and Faith to God and the Saints whose Reliques they are 11. And places among the Papists are full of uncertain counterfeit and false Reliques to which without difference the same veneration and honour is given They say that at Beavois there is one of Saint Christophers Teeth so great that a dozen such Teeth would fill the mouth of an Oven In Rome in St. John de Laterans Church they pretend they have in their keeping the Foreskin of Jesus Christ In the Church which is in the Park of Wood at Vincennes they have some of the Powder of St. Martins Cloak and one of Jesus Christs sucking Teeth At Courchiverny near unto Bloys they keep Josephs Hemme at the sound of his Breathing when he hewed timber Pilgrims that come from Galicia bring Feathers of Hens that are of the race of that Cock which crowed when St. Peter denied Jesus Christ Baronius makes mention of a Lock of the Hair of Saint Peters Beard which did Miracles although saith he those that do sit in his throne seek to overthrow it by evil manners And these Reliques are kept so many ages and never corrupt They say that the Virgin Marys Milk hath continued 1600 years and never was sowr And yet the Hosts that are called Jesus Christ become mouldy in a few days At Chartres they have the Virgin Marys Smock which was brought from Constantinople into France by Charles the bald as they say that kept it But Charles the bald was never in Constantinople and in the Virgin Marys time they wore no Smocks which was the reason they used so many Baths to wash the Sweat from their Bodies Richard Earl of Cornwal Brother to King Henry the third and King of the Romans brought as was pretended some of our Saviours Blood into England and builded the Abbey of Hales for the keeping of that Relique King Henry the third carried a Viol of Christs Blood between his two eyes barefoot in a Beggers habit in procession from St. Pauls Church to Westminster where it was preached esteemed to be reserved and adored as Christs very Blood though a gross imposture And such was the Ignorance and Superstition of that age that the King Prelats Clergy and generality of the people received and really adored it as Christs very Blood wherewith they were redeemed And not only then viz. anno 1247. but the next ensuing years by the Kings special Summons all Fairs or Sales of Wares in London and else-where were on that day prohibited viz. on St. Edwards day to draw multitudes of people to Westminster to adore this false Relique and enrich the Abbot Monks and Inhabitants by the Profits of this Fair which undid many Merchants resorting to it with their Ware as Matthew Paris there present doth relate 12. Oaths among the Papists are taken by touching the Saints Reliques The Catechism of the Council of Trent in the exposition of the third Commandment approveth the custom to swear by the Reliques of Saints Now to swear by any thing is to take it for a witness of the uprightness of our heart and for a revenge in case of perjury which belongs only to God whose Commandment in Deut. 6. runs thus Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and shalt serve him and swear by his Name It is a frivolous excuse to say that to swear by Reliques is to swear by God which hath sanctified them Also when they speak to those Reliques worshipping them they say things unto them which are agreeable unto God When they say God preserve thee Fuller Hâ—st of the holy War â—assander hath observed a
corruptions about Relicks viz. a superstitious confidence in the worship of true Relicks and a sacrilegious forging of false Relicks triumphant Wood they speak not to God which is not Wood Or if men speak to any thing in honour of God they must always understand that which is spoken to it Richard the first King of England redeemed from the Turks in Palestine a Chest full of holy Reliques which they had gotten at the taking of Jerusalem so great as four men could scarce carry any away And though saith my Author some know no more than Esops Cock how to prize these Pearls let them learn the true value of them from the Roman Jewellers First they must carefully distinguish between publick and private Reliques In private ones some forgery may be suspected lest quid be put for quo which made Saint Augustine put in that wary Parenthesis Si tamen Martyrum if so be they be the Reliques of Martyrs But as for publick ones approved by the Pope and kept in Churches such no doubt as these of King Richards were Oh let no Christian be such an infidel saith my Author as to stagger at the truth thereof If any object that the Head of the same Saint is shewed at several places the whole answer is by a Synechdoche that a part is put for the whole As for the common exception against the Cross that so many several pieces thereof are shewn which put together would break the back of Simon of Cyrene to bear them it is answered saith he Distrahitur non diminuitur and like the Loaves in the Gospel it is miraculously multiplied in the dividing If all these fail Baronius hath a Rasor that shaveth all scruple clear away Baron annal Eâ—cl in an 1226. For saith he Quicquid sit fides purgat facinuâ— So that he that worshippeth the false Reliques of a true Saint God takes his good intention in good part though he adore the hand of Esau for the hand of Jacob. But enough of these fooleries Now as for those true Reliques or Remembrances of the Saints they are not those which the Papists do so magnifie and superstitiously reverence not their old shooes not pieces of bones and the like but their holy instructions and examples which should be had in remembrance for our furtherance in the way of Godliness after their death And as for the Bones of Saints and such kind of Reliques of them I shall conclude with the words of King James If I had any such saith he that I were assured were members of their Bodies I would honourably bury them and not give them the reward of condemned mens members Premonit p. 9. which are ordained to be deprived of burial but for worshipping them or Images I must account it Idolatry Of the Vigils and night-watches annexed to festival-dayes THe Papists were wont upon Saints Eeves to give themselves to fasting and watching But their night-vigils or watches they do not now so strictly observe because of the great abuses which did grow thereupon yet they have not altogether left them for they have their nocturns or mid night mattens and their prime hours in the Morning It is true the Christians in time of persecution had their antelucanos hymnos their early Songs and Hymns before day-light they met together to worship God before the Sun arose because they could not assemble together in safety in the day-time But that is no reason why the Church now should use Vigils or Nocturns seeing we now have free exercise of religion in the day-time saith Dr. Willet no more than St. Pauls example is to be urged that prayed by the Rivers side with the people and there preached unto them because in idolatrous Cities they could have no places of meeting that therefore we now ought to do the like having Churches and Oratories to assemble in How well they kept their Vigils may appear by that Decree of Innocentius Decret Greg. lib. 3. tit 41. ca. 9. we speak it with grief that certain not only inferiour Priests but Prelats spend the time in eating and drinking till midnight c. Of their Wax-Candles and Tapers THey have another superstitious custom to set up Wax-Candles and Taper-light before Images and upon the Altar to carry them about in procession and even at mid-day and high-noon And Bellarmine would authorize this custom by the continual burning of the Lamps day and night as he saith in the Tabernacle among the Jews But the Lamps among the Jews who abounded in Types and Ceremonies were lighted in the evening and so burned all night for those that kept the Watch in the Temple 2 Chron. 13.1 and in the morning again they were put out 1 Sam. 3.3 And St. Hierome upon those words Before the Lamp of God went out thus writeth Intelligi oportet antequam lux diurna fieret it must be understood before it was day when the Lamp was put out Tertullian speaks against this use of Gentilism in burning Candles by day Let them set up Lights daily which have no Light saith he the testimony or sign of Darkness well agreeth unto them This then having been taken up by the Heathen is worse to be liked of than if it had been a Jewish Ceremony for it is a less fault to play the Jews than the Heathen The ancient Eliberine Synod in Spain misliking the superstitious use of Candle-light by day decreed thus It seemeth good unto us that Candles should not be lighted in Church-yards by day Pope Zosymus ordained Beacons Reliques of Rome that the Paschal Taper should be hallowed on Easter even and set up in every Parish Church and also that a fire should be made in every Church on that day and hallowed Again that the Paschal should be lighted with the flame of that fire and all other Candles in the Church Of their Holy Water POpe Alexander the first they say ordained Water mingled with Salt to be hallowed and afterwards to be sprinkled upon the people to put away their sins and to make them pure and holy He also commanded that it should be kept in Churches and in Houses to chase away Devils and wicked Spirits not only out of houses where men dwell but also out of the hearts of the faithful as though Faith and the Devil could dwell together in one heart The words of Pope Alexanders Canon are these we bless the Water mingled with Salt for this purpose that all that be sprinkled therewith may be made holy and pure which thing we command all Priests likewise to do For saith he if the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkled made holy and cleansed the people from venial sins much more Water sprinkled with Salt and hallowed with holy Prayers doth sanctifie make holy and cleanse the people from venial sins And if the Salt being sprinkled by Elizeus the barrenness of the Water was healed how much more Salt being hallowed by Godly Prayers takes away the barrenness of such as appertain to man
and sanctifieth and purgeth them that are defiled and multiplieth such Goods as we have need of and turneth away all the deceits of the Devil and defendeth men from all wicked fancies Are not the Scriptures here well applied doth not this Ceremony turn Christ out of Office with all his works and merits Gulielmus Durandus saith that the holy Water hath deserved to have of God so great vertue that as outwardly it washeth the Body from filthiness so it inwardly cleanseth the Soul from sin O intolerable blasphemy When men sprinkle themselves with this Water in the Church-Porch before they enter into the Church they are taught and commanded to say Aqua benedicta sit mihi salus vita c. let the blessed Water be unto me health and life grant me O Lord by this creature of the sprinkling of Water health of mind wholeness of body defence of health safeguard of hope strengthening of faith now and in time to come Of Pilgrimages 1. THe Papists hold that Pilgrimages made to Rome and to Jerusalem and the holy Land as they call it and to the memories of the Saints in other places to ask and obtain their help are godly and religious and to be much used of Christians 2. Large Indulgences were promised to Pilgrims especially to visit St. Peter and St. Paul the Apostles Pope Anacletus excommunicated cursed and pronounced all such guilty of Sacriledg as should hinder any man to go on Pilgrimage or to visit the Sepulchres of Saints Pope Calixtus ordained that whosoever spoileth robbeth or hurteth any such as go in pilgrimage to Rome or to any other holy places of Saints the same should be excommunicated and accursed 3. â—reg â—â—â—â—en Some desired to worship in that place where Christs feet had walked Some superstitiously attributed more sanctity to that place than to any other Gregory Nyssen hath a whole oration of this matter against those who go in pilgrimage to Jerusalem This going in pilgrimage is in a manner to deny the coming of Christ for if Christ be come there is no more difference in regard of holiness between one ground and another Whether it were then or not now I am sure it is a fond superstition for any to ask as Naaman the Syrian did for two burthens of earth out of that Country as more holy than any other dust 2 Reg. 5.17 Such idle vagaries do the Papists make to some other special places where perhaps the Devil hath obtained leave to work some jugling feats and lying miracles Then presently the Saint his name is up and well is he that can spare time and money for a visitation of a sensless stock Yea many a Saint as good as he or she shall be passed by with little more than a good morrow while the heat of their blind devotion carrieth them on to this selected one Yea now and then the same Saint shall have little courtesie at their hands if they meet any where but at his Manner-house as it were Saint James at Compostella is taken for a better man than when they find him other where Such brutish follies the Holy Ghost himself disdaineth with an heavenly scorn as appeareth by Elijahs mocking of Baals Priests and Isaiahs character of the blind Idolater The Writer of the History of the Holy War tells us Fuller Suppl of the Hist of thâ— Holy War that besides those that went many were either driven or fled to the Holy Land Those were driven who having committed some horrible sin in Europe had this penance imposed on them to travel to Jerusalem to expiate their faults Many a Whore was sent thither to find her Virginity many a Murtherer was enjoyned to fight in the Holy War to wash off the guilt of Christian blood by shedding the blood of Turks The like was in all other offences Now God forbid saith my Author we should condemn them if truly penitents for impious But we find that many of them reverted to their former wickedness Others fled thither who having supererogated the Gallows in their own Countries by their several misdemeanours to avoid the stroke of Justice protected themselves under this voyage and coming to Palestine so profited in those Eastern Schools of Vices that they learned to be more artificially wicked Thus He. Of the Agreement between Paganism and Popery NOw let me shew how the Papists in their Religion have borrowed many things from the Pagans I will here insert them as I find them in the Writings of divers Learned Men. I. The Heathen had their Pilgrimages The Heathen were wont to go on Pilgrimage to such an Idol So do the Papists they go many of them on Pilgrimage to our Lady of Lauretto to St. Michael to St. James to visit the Holy Sepulchre and the Holy Hand-kerchief which is a Relique in Rome wherein they say the Picture of Christ's Face is after it was wiped therewith But concerning Pilgrimages I have spoken in the former Section II. The Heathen made great Feasts and kept a great number of solemn Holy Dayes in honour of their Idols And have not the Papists brought in many Holy Dayes instead of the solemn Feasts of the Heathen Calvin speaking against this Superstition Calvin Serm in Dâ—ut 12. in one of his Sermons upon Deuteronomy saith men will say we must not now do as the Heathens did for that were a serving of the Devil But every Parish will have a Church-Holy-day to Play to Dance and to feed in till they burst again and all in the Honour of God Besides this every one had his Patron whom he worshipped and said they these things are not done any more in Honour of the Idols but in Honour of St. Martin And let them Dance and play the Drunkards all is well enough so it be done in Honour of God and his Saints 1. Twelftide was an Imitation of the Saturnales in which the Servants were Masters And the Lord of Misrule in Christmas is also a trace of the Saturnales at that time of the Year 2. Ashwednesday falls much upon the same time as the Day of Purifications and Propitiations for the Dead in the Pagan Rome which was upon the Eighteenth of February 3. As for Candlemas Rhenanus acknowledgeth that Candlemas is an imitation of the Februal Ceremonies of the Romans and the Insolencies of Shrovetide came from the Bacchanales 4. The Rogations and Processions about the field of Corn have succeeded to the Processions called Ambarvalia 5. The Heathens were wont to keep an Holy-day which they called the Feast of all Spirits And the Papists change the word and have the Feast of All-Souls III. The Heathens had a Temple which they called the Temple of all their gods The Papists call such a Temple the Church of All-hallowes the Church of all-All-Saints and they added a Church Holy-Day unto it IV. The Heathen had their Sacrifices to their gods And the Papists have their Masses set up in the room of them The Pagans had
a peculiar form of sanctifying it dipping therein as Athenaeus tells us a firebrand taken off from the Altar whereupon they offered their Sacrifices So likewise have they a peculiar manner of making this exorcising the salt first then the water and after that both of them being mixed together which being done both the Papists and the Gentiles do think that it purgeth away sins Of the Papists imitating the Jews and Pharisees in many things 1. THe Pharisees boasted of Moses's Chair as the Church of Rome doth of that of S. Peter and of an imaginary succession 2. The Pharisees were strict maintainers of Traditions and unwritten Word as the Papists are These were strict burdens they laid upon the people Matth. 15.4 They perswaded the people that these Traditions were as necessary as the Scriptures The Jewish Rabbines affirm that during the forty days that Moses was in the Mount Sinai to learn the Law Almighty God taught him in the day-time Sepher Thorah the Book of the Law and by night for want of Candle-light the Law not written or orales Traditiones oral Traditions which they call Simanim and the Thorah without this they say is imperfect And this as well as the Law written Chemnit haâ—mâ—n Eâ—aâ—g ca. 79. they say was delivered by God himself to Moses by Moses to Joshua by Joshua to the Elders of Israel by them to the Prophets from the Prophets to a great Council whose Register and chief Notary they say was Esdras the Scribe who as they affirm committed many of them to writing and gathered them into seventy two Books which they kept till their City and Temple was destroyed and themselves dispersed Afterwards one Rabbi Judas Ben-Simon an holy man as they say having saved that Book gathered the Sum of it into one Book whence afterwards all the Talmudists and Cabbalists took their ground The Papists borrow their esteem of unwritten vanities and traditions from the Jews they tell us they have many things by Tradition from the Apostles themselves who taught them viva voce when they bring never a word out of the Scriptures for the confirmation of them 3. The Scribes taught that children might neglect their duty to their Parents under pretence of a religious Corban that is that whosoever should be liberal toward their Treasury in the Temple and offer freely with this protestation that he meant it not only for his own good but also for his Parents should herein sufficiently discharge his duty to his Parents and owe them no other Service so that by this means it may seem they provided well for their own purses and exempted Children from those duties towards their Parents which the Commandment of God tyed them to perform So do the Papists allow Children to give their Means to Monasteries though their Parents starve for want of maintainance 4. The Jews boasted of the Temple of the Lord crying up the Temple of the Lord and in the meantime profaned it by an evil life Jer. 7. The carnal Jews were much affected with pomp in matters of Religion and many of them men of dissolute lives So it is among the Romanists in those Cities and Countries wherein is most wickedness of life there is also most cost in the Temples and most publick superstitious worshipping of God and the Saints What stately Churches Chappels and Cloisters are in Rome what Fastings what Processions what appearances of Devotion and yet on the other side what Whoredomes Sodomies and Profanations are committed in it so that it was the saying of a certain Frier that there were more Atheists in Rome than in any other City in the world But no where doth sin and wickedness so abound as in Mexico and yet no such people in the world toward the Church and Clergy who in their life-time strive to exceed one another in their gifts to the Cloisters Nuns and Friers some erecting Altars to their best devoted Saints worth many thousand Duckets others presenting Crowns of Gold to the Virgin Mary others Lamps others Gold-chains others building Cloisters at their own charge others repairing them others at their death leaving to them two or three thousand Duckets for an annual Stipend 5. The Jews boasted that their Prophets and Priests could not err saying Jerem. 18.18 The Law shall not err from the Priest and the Council from the antient This is also the boasting of the Church of Rome that the Pope as Pope cannot fall into errour and that the Church of Rome cannot err 6. The Pharisees used vain repetitions in Prayer after the manner of the Heathen thinking to be heard for their much speaking for which our Saviour taxeth them Mat. 6.7 repeating the same things over and over again not out of affection but out of affectation The same doth the Church of Rome repeating the same Prayers while they turn their Beads and binding themselves to a certain number of reiterated words The Pharisees preached Justification by the Works of the Law and the Jews were forestalled with that Doctrine which made S. Paul so careful to confute that Errour in the Epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians establishing Justification by Faith without the Works of the Law In this the Papists agree with them teaching Justification by Works 8. Our Saviour taxeth the Scribes and Pharisees for their Hypocrisie They pretended great love to the antient Prophets Matt. 23.29 whom their fore-fathers had persecuted and slain and to shew this they used both words and actions They professed that if they had lived in the days of their fore-fathers they would not have joyned with them in their persecution and murther of the Prophets They bestowed cost in adorning the Sepulchres wherein they were entombed But now in the mean-time they hated to death and bitterly opposed Christ then living among them to whom all those Prophets bear witness Thus may you see in the Papists their bitter hatred against the Preachers of the Gospel together with their pretended love to the ancient Doctors their proud conceit of Merit with their glorious outward Performances their gross Idolatry covered under a shew of much reverence to the Saints 9. The Jews were most strict in matters of smallest moment they would pay Tythe of Mint Annis and Cummin but neglected the weightier matters of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faith Math. 23.23 So doth the Church of Rome exactly observe distinction of meats and amuse the people about a thousand petty Ceremonies of Candles Pilgrimages Crossings c. and let Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost stand by unsaluted yet therein doth the Kingdome of God consist Thus the superstitious Priests among the Jews made no scruple to hire a Traitor to suborn false Witnesses to Apprehend to Bind to Smite to Scourge to Blaspheme to Condemn the Innocent Lamb of God and to Crucifie the Lord of glory yet made great Conscience not to step over the Threshold into the Judgment-Hall of an Heathen-Judg lest forsooth they should be defiled
denieth the temporal Sword to be in Saint Peters power doth not regard well the Word of the Lord who said Put up thy Sword into thy Scabbard And to prove that the Temporal of Princes is subject unto the Pope he alledgeth Jer. 1.10 See I have this day set thee over thee Nations and over Kingdoms And he will have that meant of the Ecclesiastical that is the Papal Power which he saith cannot be judged of by any because Saint Paul said The spiritual man judgeth of all things yet he himself is judged of no man Finally he concludes thus Whosoever then resisteth that Power ordained by God resisteth the Ordinance of God c. whereforewe declare say define and pronounce that it is of necessity to salvation to be subject to the Roman Prelate That venerable Pope hath found a proof of his Primacy in the first words of the Bible God in the beginning made heaven and earth These are Laws and Papal Ordinances pronounced with all the forms and inserted into the body of the Pontifical Decrees which to excuse from Errour one must want both conscience and common sense Anno 14.14 a Council was held at Constance to reform the Church in that Council three contending Popes were deposed of whom John the XXII was one for 71 Crimes among others for publickly denying the immortality of the Soul and maintaining that there was neither Paradise nor Hell To that Council J. Husse and Jerome of Prague were invited to defend their cause a safe conduct of the Emperour Sigismond was given them and Faith was sworn unto them that no harm should be done unto them But after some form of Disputation they were seized on and burnt alive And because the Emperour made a scruple to break his Faith the Council declared unto him that he was not bound to keep Faith with Hereticks for which purpose a Canon was made in this form This holy Council declareth that the safe conduct given to Hereticks or defamed for Heresie by the Emperour Kings and other secular Princes thinking thereby to turn them from their Errours with what Bond soever they be bound brings no prejudice to the Catholick Faith or to the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Neither can put any hindrance but that it may be lawful for a competent and Ecclesiastical Judg notwithstanding the foresaid safe conduct to make inquisition of the Errours of such persons and duly to proceed against them as much as Justice shall require if they obstinately refuse to renounce their Errours although they be come to the place of Judgment trusting to that safe conduct declaring that he that made that promise remains not obliged by it after he hath done that which lieth in him The same Council in the fifteenth Session makes an enumeration of the Errours of John Husse The nineteenth Errour for which he is condemned is for saying that the Popes and the Bishops Pardons avail nothing That Council declareth that the Popes Pardons serve a sinner although God hath not pardoned him which is putting the Pope above God since he pardoneth those that have offended God without Gods pardon and since the Popes pardons are in force though God approve them not The same Council takes away from the people the Communion of the Cup. They add that although Jesus Christ did after Supper institute the Sacrament under the two kinds yet the custom of giving to the people one kind only which is the Bread must be held for a Law and those that say the contrary must be driven away as Hereticks and grievously punished by the Inquisitors of heretical perversity In the year 1423. Martin the fifth held a Council at Siena where the same Indulgence was granted to them that would fall upon the Hereticks as to them that go to defend the holy Land Thus Remission of sins and Salvation is proposed as a reward of cruelty and popular fury as if the Pope had said because thou art a murtherer and a wicked man thou shalt have eternal life In the year 1440. the Council of Florence assembled by the authority of Pope Eugenius the fourth defineth and declareth in the last Session that the Roman Church can add to the Symbol and that the Pope hath the primacy over the whole world In the end of the last Lateran Council you have a thundering Bull against Luther who then began to preach there thirty nine Heresies are reckoned the seventh whereof is that the best penitence of all is a new life which yet is a choice sentence of the spirit of God Rev. 2.4 The twenty sixth Heresie of Luther mentioned in that Bull is this assertion It is certain that it is not at all in the power of the Church Pope to make Articles of Faith If this be an Heresie we may expect other Articles of Faith from the Pope and Christian Religion is not yet perfected since other Articles of the Christian Faith may be added such as we know not and such as the Apostles have never taught either by Word or Writing At last the Council of Trent came which having begun in the year of our Lord 1545 lasted 18 years In the fourth Session it was decreed that unwritten Traditions must be received with the same affection of piety and reverence as the holy Scripture That is that the Invocation of Saints the Distinction of Meats the Adoration of Relicks the Honour yielded unto Images the Consecration of Agnus Dei's and of blessed Beads together with many other things must be received with the like Piety Faith and Reverence as the Law of God and the Doctrine of our Redemption in Christ Jesus contained in the holy Scriptures The same Council cannot be excused of Errour for pronouncing in Session the fifth that the Concupiscence forbidden in the Law is no sin The same Council cannot be excused of Errour for decreeing that the Latin vulgar Version of the Bible should be the only authentical thereby authorizing a thousand depravations of the true original Text which are Hebrew and Greek yet since the time of the Council of Trent several Popes have caused that vulgar Version to be revised and have altered many things in it Salmeron the Jesuite endeavoreth to excuse that Decree of the Council speaking thus The holy Synod would oblige us to embrace that Latin Edition and follow it in all things yet not absolutely but upon condition that it be cleansed and re-purged from the Vices and Errours which are crept into it The same Council of Trent hath devised a crafty by-way to prohibit the reading of Scripture unto the people and many Prelates and Doctors in that Council were named and appointed to make an Index or List of Books the reading whereof must be prohibited Now the very first of these prohibited Books is the holy Scripture of which they say in the fourth of those Rules they have set before that Index that the reading of the Bible in the Language of the Country being indifferently permitted brings more harm than benefit