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A33073 The Church of England as by law established being the very doctrine and express words of the homilies against popery.; Certain sermons or homilies appointed to be read in churches. Selections. 1685 (1685) Wing C4191; ESTC R43032 10,456 4

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THE Church of England As by LAW Established Being the very DOCTRINE and express Words of the HOMILIES against POPERY The thirty fifth Article of the Church of England The second Book of Homilies doth contain a godly and wholsome Doctrine and necessary for these Times as doth the former Book of Homilies which were set forth in time of Edward VI. And therefore we judge them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understood of the people And to this the whole Clergy of England have willingly and ex animo subscribed for above this hundred and twenty years unto this very day Homily for Witsunday concerning the Coming down of the Holy Ghost in the likeness of cloven Tongues p. 207. So that if any man be a dumb Christian not professing his Faith openly but cloaking and colouring himself for fear of danger in time to come he giveth men occasion justly and with good Conscience to doubt lest he have not the Grace of the Holy Ghost within him because he is tongue-ty'd and cannot speak Vol. 1. p. 50. For whosoever forsaketh the Truth for love or displeasure of any man or for lucre and profit to himself doth forsake Christ and with Judas betray him I. That Ignorance is the Mother of Popery BY Ignorance the Jewish Clergy induced the common people to ask the delivery of Barabbas the seditious Murderer and to sue for the cruel Crucifying of our Saviour Christ for that he rebuked the Ambition Superstition and other Vices of the High Priests and Clergy p. 313. London Edition Aº 1623. For as our Saviour Christ testifieth that those that Crucified him wist not what they did so doth the holy Apostle St. Paul say If they had known if they had not been ignorant they would never have Crucified the Lord of Glory But they knew not what they did Our Saviour Christ himself also foreshewed that it should come to pass by Ignorance that those who should persecute and murder his true Apostles and Disciples should think they did God acceptable Sacrifice and good Service as it is also verified even at this day And in this Ignorance have the Bishops of Rome kept the people of God especially the common sort by no means so much as by withdrawing of the Word of God from them and by keeping it under the Vail of an unknown strange Tongue For as it served the ambitious humour of the Bishops of Rome to compel all Nations to use the natural Language of the City of Rome where they were Bishops which shewed a certain acknowledging of Subjection unto them So yet served it much more their crafty purpose thereby to keep all people so blind that they not knowing what they prayed what they believed nor what they were commanded by God might take all their Commandments for God's For as they would not suffer the Holy Scriptures or Church-Service to be used or had in any other Tongue than the Latin so were very few even of the most simple people taught the Lord's Prayer the Articles of the Faith and the ten Commandments otherwise than in Latin which they understood not By which universal Ignorance all men were ready to believe whatsoever they said and to do whatsoever they commanded II. The pretended Reasons for denying the People the free use of the Holy Scriptures The great Utility and Profit that Christian Men and Women may take if they will by hearing and reading the Holy Scriptures no Heart can sufficiently conceive p. 143 much less is my Tongue able with words to express wherefore Satan our enemy seeing the Scriptures to be the very means and right way to bring the people to the true knowledge of God and that Christian Religion is greatly furthered by diligent hearing and reading of them he also percieving what an hindrance and let they be to him and his Kingdom doth what he can to drive the reading of them out of God's Church And for that end he hath alwayes stirred up in one place or other cruel Tyrants sharp Persecutors and extream Enemies unto God and his infallible Truth to pull with violence the Holy Bibles out of the peoples hands and have most spightfully destroyed and consumed the same to ashes in the Fire pretending most untruly that the much hearing and reading of Gods Word is the cause of Heresie carnal Liberty and the Subversion of all good Orders But the knowledge of God and of our selves is so far from being an occasion of Evil that it is the readiest yea the only means to bridle carnal Liberty and to kill all our fleshly affections And the ordinary way to attain this knowledge is with diligence to hear and read the Holy Scriptures III. Concerning the singular Profitableness of Lay-men's Books which with them do supply the place of the Holy Scriptures For what Lessons of Contempt of Riches and Vanity of this World can such books so besmeared with Gold set with precious Stones covered with Silks teach What Lessons of Soberness and Chastity can our p. ●3 Women learn of those pictur'd Scriptures with their nice Apparel and wanton looks But away for shame with these colour'd Cloaks of Idolatry of the Books and Scriptures of Images and Pictures to teach Idiots nay to make Idiots and stark fools and Beasts of Christians Do men I pray you when they have the same Books at home with them run on Pilgrimage to seek like Books at Rome Compostella or Jerusalem to be taught of them when they have the same Books at home Do men reverence some Books and despise and set light by others of the same sort Do men kneel before their Books light Candle at Noon-time burn Incense offer up Gold and Silver and other Gifts to their Books do men either feign or believe Miracles to be wrought by their Books I am sure that the new Testament of our Saviour Jesus Christ containing the Word of Life is a more lively express and true Image of our Saviour than all carved graven molten and painted Images in the World be and yet none of all these things be done to that Book or Scripture of the Gospel of our Saviour which be done to Images and pictures the Books and Scriptures of Lay-men and Idiots as they call them Wherefore call them what they list it is most evident by their deeds that they make of them no other Books nor Scripture than such as teach most filthy and horrible Idolatry as the users of such Books daily prove by continual practising the same O Books and Scriptures in the which the Devilish School-master Satan hath penn'd the lewd Lessons of wicked Idolatry for his dastardly Disciples and Schollars to behold read and learn to God's most high dishonour and their most horrible Damnation Have not we been much bound think you to those which should have taught us the Truth out of God's Book and his holy Scripture that they have shut up that Book and Scripture from us
making of the true Servants of God false Gods by attributing to them the power which is Gods and due to him only And for that we have such Opinions of the power and ready help of Saints all our Legends Hymns Sequences and Masses did contain Stories Lauds and Praises of p. 48. them and Prayers to them yea and Sermons also altogether of them and to their praises Gods word being clean laid aside And this we do altogether agreeable to the Saints as did the Gentile Idolaters to their false Gods For these Opinions which men have had of mortal persons were they never so holy the old most godly and learned Christians have written against the feigned Gods of the Gentiles and Christian Princes have destroyed their Images who if they were now living would doubtless likewise both write against our false Opinions of Saints and also destroy their Images For it is evident that our Image maintainers have the same Opinion of Saints which the Gentiles had of their false Gods and thereby are moved to make them Images as the Gentiles did XII Concerning Popish Reliques But in this they pass the folly and wickedness of the Gentiles that they honour and worship the Reliques and Bones of our Saints which prove that they be mortal men and dead and therefore no Gods to be worshipped which the Gentiles would never confess of their Gods for very shame But the Reliques we must Kiss and Offer to especially on Relique-Sunday p. 53. And while we offer that we should not be weary or repent us of our Cost the Musick and Minstrelsie goeth merrily all the Offertory time with praising and calling upon those Saints whose Reliques be then in presence yea and the water also wherein those Reliques have been dipped must with great reverence be reserved as very holy and effectual Is this agreeable to Chrysostome who writeth thus of Reliques Do not regard the Ashes of Saints Bodies nor the Reliques of their Flesh and Bones consumed with time But open the Eyes of thy faith and behold them cloathed with heavenly vertue and the Grace of the Holy Ghost and shining with the brightness of the heavenly Light But our Idolaters found too much advantage of Reliques and Relique water to follow St. Chrysostome's Council And because Reliques were so gainful few places were there but they had Reliques provided for them And for more plenty of Reliques some one Saint had many Heads one in one place and another in another place some had six Arms and Twenty six Fingers And whereas our Lord bare his Cross alone if all the pieces of the Reliques thereof were gathered together the greatest Ship in England would scarcely bear them and yet the greatest part of it they say doth yet remain in the hands of the Infidels for the which they pray in their Beads bidding that they may get it also into their hands for such godly use and purpose And not only the Bones of the Saints but every thing appertaining to them was an holy Relique In some place they offer a Sword in some the Scabbard in some a Shoe in some a Saddle that had been set upon some holy Horse in some the Coals wherewith St. Lawrence was roasted in some the Tail of the Ass which our Lord Jesus Christ sate on to be kissed and offered unto for a Relique For rather than they would lack a Relique they would offer you a Horse bone instead of a Virgins Arm or the Tail of the Ass to be kissed and offered unto for Reliques O wicked Impudent and most shameless men the devisers of these things O silly foolish and dastardly Daws and more beastly than the Ass whose Tail they kissed that believe such things Now God be merciful to such silly Christians who by the fraud and falsehood of those which should have taught them the way of truth and life have been made not only more wicked than the Gentile Idolaters but also no wiser than Asses Horses and Mules which have no understanding XIII Concerning Image Worship True Religion then and pleasing of God standeth not in Making Settting up Painting Gilding Cloathing p. 74. and Decking of dumb and dead Images which be but great Puppets and Babies for old fools in Doatage and wicked Idolatry to dally and play with nor in Kissing of them Caping Kneeling Offering to them incensing of them seting up of Candles hanging up Legs Arms or whole Bodies of wax before them or Praying and asking of them or of Saints things only belonging to God to give But all these things be vain and abominable and most damnable before God For ye have heard evidently proved in these Homilies against Idolatry by Gods Word the Doctors of the Church Ecclesiastical Histories Reason and Experience that Images have been and be worshiped and so Idolatry committed to them by infinite multitudes to the great Offence of Gods Majesty and danger of infinite Souls and that Idolatry cannot possibly be seperated from Images set up in Churches and Temples p. 75. gilded and decked gloriously and that therefore our Images be indeed very Idols and so all the Prohibitions Laws Curses Threatnings of horrible Plagues as well temporal as eternal contained in the holy Scriptures concerning Idols and the Makers and Maintainers and Worshippers of them appertain also to our Images set up in Churches and Temples and to the Makers Maintainers and Worshippers of them and all those Names of Abomination which Gods Word in the holy Scriptures giveth to the Idols of the Gentiles appertain to our Images being Idols like to them and having like Idolatry committed unto them XIV What Vse the Church of Rome makes of her gay Imagery Now concerning excessive decking of Images and Idols with Painting Gilding Adorning with precious Vestures Pearl and Stone what is it else but for the further provocation and enticement to spiritual fornication to deck spiritual Harlots most costly and wantonly p. 69. which the Idolatrous Church understandeth well enough For she being indeed not only a Harlot as the Scripture calleth her but also a foul filthy old withered Harlot for she is indeed of ancient years and understanding her lack of nature and true Beauty and great loathsomness which of her self she hath doth after the custome of such Harlots Paint her self and Deck and Attire her self with Gold Pearl Stone and all kind of precious Jewels that she shining with the outward Beauty and glory of them may please the foolish fancy of fond Lovers and so entice them to spiritual Fornication with her who if they saw her I will not say naked but in simple Apparel would abhor her as the foulest and filthiest Harlot that ever was seen according as appeareth by the description of the garnishing of the great Strumpet of all Strumpets the Mother of Whoredome set forth by Saint John in his ch 17. Revelation who by her glory provoked the Princes of the earth to commit Whoredom with her XV. Concerning the opening of Shop and publick seting up of Images It is the Office of Godly Magistrates likewise to avoid Images and Idols out of Churches and Temples as spiritual Harlots out of suspected places for p. 62 63 the avoiding of Idolatry which is spiritual Fornication And as he were the Enemy of all Honesty that should bring Strumpets and Harlots out of their secret corners into the publique Market place there freely to dwell and practice their filthy Merchandize so is he the Enemy of the true worshiping of God that bringeth Idols and Images into the Temple and Church the House of God there openly to be worshiped and to rob the Jealous God of his Honour who will not give it to any other nor his glory to carved Images who is as much forsaken and the bond of love between man and him as much broken by Idolatry which is spiritual Fornication as is the knot and bond of Marriage broken by carnal Fornication Let all this be taken as a Lye if the Word of God inforce it not to be true Cursed be the man saith God in Deuteronomy that maketh a carved or molten Image and placeth it in a secret corner and all the people shall say Amen Thus saith God for at that time no man durst have or Worship Images openly but in corners only and the whole World being the great Temple of God he that in any corner thereof robbeth God of his glory and giveth it to Stocks and Stones is pronounced by Gods Word Accursed Now he that will bring these spiritual Harlots out of their lurking corners into publick Churches and Temples that spiritual Fornication may there openly of all men and women without shame be committed with them no doubt that person is Cursed of God and twice Cursed and all good and godly Men and Women will say Amen and their Amen will take effect also FINIS LONDON Printed for Sam. Thomason 1685.