the Sacrament when Christ invisibly is present but also when it is placed upon the Altar and there a Sacramentum Eucharistiae non servatur apud nos in templis ut fit hic apud Europaeos Christoph Licanatus Aethiopum legatus apud Hotting Hist Eccl. Sac. 16. p. 44. vide Damian à Goes de Moribus Aethiop p. 506. reserved in the Pyx and when it is carryed in Procession The Eastern Churches have no such custom of placing it upon the Altar in a little Box or carrying it in b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Metroph Critopulus Pomp to be adored by the people now in these adorations performed to the reserved Hosts consisteth more especially and plainly the Idolatry of Roman Votaries § VIII But 2. If by the Christian world R. H. and others do understand all Christians without exception declaring for and practising those things which we esteem Idolatrous we say that no such Idolatry hath been admitted by the whole Church of Christ but if they understand only the greater part of Prelates or the most numerous part of Christians and say as R. H. doth Cuid di c. 2. c. 5. §. 63. n. 2. that they must be reputed as the whole I Answer that Idolatry may in this sense prevail over the Christian Church as formerly it did over the Church of Israel and Judah For as in the days of Elias there was so great Apostacy as that the Prophet said I only am left alone and yet God had his Church preserved in those 7000 who bewed not their knees to Baal so may it also be in the Church of Christ there may be an Apostacy so great as to prevail on the most numerous party in each Christian Church and yet there may remain besides those numerous Churches and Persons we have reckoned up even many thousands of the Roman Church who did not in their hearts believe or in their practices submit to their Idolatry The Roman Doctors as well as Antient Fathers do acknowledg that this hath been the state of Christians and that it shall be so again they do acknowledg that when Arianism prevailed thus it was Act. 6. p. 409. the second Nicene Council informs us that Arius Aetius Eunomius Eudoxius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and others were the men by whom the Devil brought again into the Christian world that Idol-worship which had been rooted out and that through the as2istance of the Emperors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. the disease grew strong and prevalent so that all principalities contended for it saith the Latine were over-powered by it saith the Greek and when almost all the world had joyned themselves to the prevailing part God raised up St. Basil as an Elias under Ahab to support the Priesthood which dfter a manner was now fallen This is the relation of that great Apostacy made by Gregory Nyssen who lived in these times and approved by the Second Nicene Council and more particularly by the Author of the answer to the Constantinopolitan Synod v. Whitbies Ans to Cressie ch 9. §. 21. p. 118. and the truth of this assertion hath been proved already from the clear testimonies of Nazianzen Basil Vincentius Lyrinensis and divers others to whom add that of Athanasius who compares the Pious and Orthodox in his time to Elias and the Prophets Ep ad Solit. vitam agentes hid by Obadiah in a Cave and who tells us that where there were any Orthodox persons they did either thrust themselves into the Dens and Caverns of the Earth or solitarily wander in the Deserts Gaide disc 2. ch 2. §. 26. n. 2. Ibid. §. 27. n. 3. Now let the indifferent Reader judg whether from such sayings we find no ground to affirm that Arianism at any time had infected or pessessed a major part of Christianity as R. H. confidently saith and whether when these things were spoken no question could be made but that the major part of the Prelates of the Vniversal Church professed the Catholick Faith I am sure the words of the forementioned Fathers by no means will admit of such a sense and therefore R. H. thought fit not to produce them but to spend a long Harangue full of intolerable faults in confutation of their testimonies under the Covert of confuting Protestants Moreover it is the judgment both of the Fathers and of Roman Catholicks that when the reign of Antichrist prevails Ep. 71. p. 864. the Church will be reduced to the like Estate St. Basil considering the wonderful prevalency of Arianism crys out hath the Lord quite deserted his Church is it the last hour and doth the defection now take place by which the Son of perdition is to be revealed In Sophon c. 2. St. Jerom saith however it may seem at the first view absurd he that considereth that of the Apostle in the latter days there shall be perillous times c. and that of Christ when the Son of man cometh shall he find Faith upon the earth will not wonder at the extreme desolations of the Church Chap. xviii 18. which by the reign of Antichrist will be brought to solitude Theophylact on that of Luke shall he find Faith on the earth speaks thus the Lord asketh the question because then there shall hardly be found any Faithful Op. imperf in Matt. Hom. 49. for so greatly will the Son of perdition prevail as to seduce if it were possible the very Elect And St. Chrysostom adds that the sacrifice of Christians will be destroyed by Antichrist Christians will fly to the Deserts none being left either to enter into the Church or offer an Oblation to God Ep. 80. ad Hesyc p. 236. P. 219. Edit Colon. A. P. 1603. Add to this that Prophetick testimony of St. Austin that in the time of Antichrist the Church shall not appear being eclipsed by the persecutions of ungodly men and that of Ephraim Syrus or whosoever is the Author of that Tract which bears his name that men should ask whether the Gospel be continued upon earth and answer should be returned in the negative v. Hieron in locum And thus that place in Daniel Ch. ix 27. He shall cause the Sacrifice and the Oblations to cease is expounded by Hilary and by Hippolytus and by Apollmarius of the time of Antichrist And in this the Fathers are followed by whole Troops of Papists in the times of Antichrist saith Pererius there shall be no sacrifice in publick places In Dan. p. 888. Non quod omnes sunta fide catholicâ sicut exponunt aliqui recessuri sed quam major pars credentium discedel à fide De Pontifi Rom. l. 3. c. 7. neither shall any publick honor be given to it the Holy Fathers tell us saith the same Pererius that then all Christians shall be either Martyes or Apostates or shall lie concealed like wild beasts in Dens and Solitudes Lyra upon the Thessal ii
because they seemed to be pleased with the blood and fat of beasts he very honestly confesseth that Heathens might plausibly object the like against the God of Israel Contra Julian l. 4. p. 125. D. because he also did require such Sacrifices to be offered to him The very same objection is taken notice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril contra Jul. l. 1. p. 9. A. and answered by Cyril of Alexandria Again the Fathers frequently object unto the Heathens that diversity of Sects and of opinions which was to be found among their Philosophers but then they spare not to acknowledge that this objection may be retorted against them and then proceed to give what answer they think fit unto it And when Tertullian had argued that the Heathen Gods must be unjust Hot utique in Deum vestrum repercutere est Apol. c. 41. if they by reason of the faults of Christians were induced to hurt their own Votaries he adds that Heathens might retort this argument upon the Christians God and then proceeds to vindicate his God from that objection And yet if in his days the Romish Sacramental God had by all Christians been acknowledged and adored not only this particular but almost all that he and the forementioned Fathers had offered against the Heathen Deities might have been evidently retorted as we have seen already on the Christians God Why therefore did they not confess ingenuously in all those cases hoc in Deum nostrum repercutere est that they might be retorted on the Christians God and spend some time in vindication of their Sacramental God from these retorts § XIV 3. From what hath been discoursed Gorol II. we have as great assurance as sense and reason and the concurrent judgment of mankind can tender that the Host cannot be truly God and consequently that the Trent Council doth oblige all Christians as much as in them lyes to worship that as God which is not truly so and that the Members of the Roman Church are guilty of Idolatry by giving to it that worship which is due to God alone This charge I know doth very much afflict the Romanists because they clearly see that if it be made good against them our Church is justified in her refusal of communion with them seeing without consenting to and frequent practice of Idolatry we cannot be admitted to communion with them whence it will naturally follow that their Church must be as truly guilty of a wretched Schism as Jeroboam and his ten tribes were and consequently that the Major part of the Western Church may be Schismaticks by virtue of these impositions and that no persons separating on the account of the Idolatry required by the Church of Rome from the external communion of that Church can incur the guilt of Schism that the Roman and other Western Churches united with it and the supposed head thereof St. Peter's imaginary Successor is not that true Church-guide to which we are obliged to submit that a reformation may be lawful against the definitions of that Church that abuses in Doctrine and practice may be reformed by a National Church against and then much more without that Authority that National Churches and Councils are not absolutely subject to Patriarchal Hence doth it plainly follow that the doctrine of Transubstantiation the Sacrifice of the Mass the half Communion must be false hence also it is evident that we cannot safely acquiesce in the judgment of the Major part of our Church Governours concerning either the sense of Scripture the Doctrine of the ancient Church or the consent of Fathers or any article of faith defined by them nor safely practise all they do impose and consequently we may rest assured they are not infallible and therefore that there is no necessity for preservation of the Church from Sects and Heresies that they should be infallible nor is there any promise of an infallible assistance in their definitions in the Holy Scripture nor can it possibly be necessary to Salvation to believe the determinations of those Councils which by the Romanists are styled general Hence also it is evident that there can lye upon us no obligation to believe or yield assent to any Doctrines defined by them and consequently that this submission is not the only means of suppressing Heresies and Sects that to dissent from any Doctrine received or defined by them can be no mark of Heresie that there may be great hazard to the vulgar in adhering to the decisions of that Church that a right judgment may be assured that these Church Governours have erred in making this decision that Christians without this infallibility may be sufficiently secure in points of faith that certainty from sense and reason may rationally be pleaded for some Doctrines against the definitions of that Church and her supposed General Councils that all that R. H. hath said for confirmation of any of these propositions must be false And lastly that if a Church committing and teaching Idolatry is no true member of the Catholick Church the Church of Rome must cease to be so CHAP. III. The Contents The objections of the Romanists against the charge of Idolatry are considered and answered as 1. The Objection that the Prophets have foretold that all Idolatry should be extirpated by the preaching of Christ and his Apostles is answered § I. Obj. 2. That if the Church of Rome be guilty o Idolatry then the whole Church of Christ for many Ages before Luther must be charged with the same guilt answered first in general § II. In particular by shewing 1. That Image Worship was not then received in the greatest part of the Western and in some part of the Eastern Church § III. 2. That the worship of Saints departed with mental prayer or upon supposition of their acquaintance with the secret desires of the supplicant was then no article of faith in the Western Church nor is it yet received in the Eastern Church as such § IV. 3. That many in the Western Churches did not then and that the Eastern Churches do not yet give Latria to the Host § V. That this practice is no necessary consequent of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation nor is it necessary that they who do maintain a Doctrine must practise every thing which follows from it ibid. A large account of the Greek Mass § VI. A full answer to all that R. H. offers from that Mass to prove the Host is worshipped with Latria by the Greeks § VII In the times of Arianism Idolatry prevailed over the major part of the Church Catholick and both the Fathers and the Romish Doctors teach that in the time of Antichrist it will prevail much more § VIII § I THESE being therefore unavoidably the consequences of this crime of which they are accused not only by the Church of England but all other Protestants they do with all their wit and subtilty endeavour to demonstrate the falseness of this accusation and muster
up whatsoever they are able to produce and plead for their excuse And therefore whatsoever of this nature I have met with in their writings I will impartially consider and then shall leave it to the judgment of the discerning Reader to determine whether that which they offer in their own defence doth carry in it any weight proportionable to what we have discoursed here and other treatises have offered to justifie this accusation of the Church of England Object 1 And 1. It is objected that the Scripture doth inform us and the Prophets have foretold us that all Idolatry should be extirpated by the preaching of Christ and his Apostles and that his Kingdom was always to continue and therefore that the Church of Christ could not apostatize so far as to enjoyn and allow the belief and practice of Idolatry If Doctor Stilling fleet will not deny saith T. G. what God hath promised by the Prophet Zachary Behold P. 125. the days come and I will destroy the names of Idols from off the earth and the memory of them shall be no more and this not for four or five hundred years but to the end of the world for the Kingdom of Christ is to continue always let him give glory to God and acknowledge his charge of Idolatry to be false and that Christ hath done what he promised to do that is to deliver us from all Idolatry Answer 1 Now to this slender Argument I answer that the same Prophets have informed us that God did promise to put his laws into the hearts of Christians Jer. xxxi 33. Esa xi 9. Esa lx 21. that they should never depart from him that the knowledge of the Lord should cover the earth as the waters cover the Sea that the people of Zion should be all righteous Let then T. G. give glory to God acknowledge that the Church of Rome which by their own confessions and upon evident proof from all the writers of these Ages was over-run by ignorance and barbarity and overwhelmed with wickedness during the 10 11 12 13. Centuries was not the Church of Christ or else confess the vanity of his own inference Moreover the same Prophets have informed us that the preaching of the Gospel should have this influence upon the world that they should beat their swords into plow-shares Mich. iv 3. Hos xi 18. Esa xi 9. and their spears into pruning books that Nation shall not lift up a sword against Nation neither shall they learn war any more that he would remove the bow the sword and the battle out of the earth and would make them to lye down in safety and that they should not hurt or destroy in all his holy mountain Let then T. G. give glory to God and acknowledg that Rome Christian which hath been the cause of more wars and shed more blood than even Rome Heathen did is very unlike to be Christs holy mountain or else confess the weakness of what he thus infers from this passage of the Prophet Zachary Let him charge God with the failure of his promise or confess that all these places do only shew that the Doctrine of the Gospel doth naturally tend to work these blessed effects in all that cordially embrace it though through the perverseness lusts the superstition and corrupt interests of men it be far otherwise and then he hath an answer to this slender scruple viz. that what he cites from Zachary doth not affirm that after the coming of our Saviour there should be no Idolatry amongst professors of Christianity but only that his Doctrine had a signal tendence to the extirpation of it did not the wickedness and superstition of men deserted by God and given up to the delusions of the Devil incline them to the practice of it 3. The words of Zachary do only say that God would cot off Idols out of the Land of Judah not out of the whole earth he doth not say that God would cut off all Idols but only the names of those Idols which they formerly had worshipped in which sense in was admirably true for after their return from Babylon they superstitiously abstained from that Idolatry which they had formerly committed And 4. This objection may be as speciously urged by the Arian Idolaters and the whole Heathen world as by the Roman Church for since the words of Zachary as they are rendred by T. G. contain a promise that God would cut off the names of Idols from the earth it doth as much assure us that after the coming of our Saviour and after the promulgation of his Gospel through the world there should remain no Idols nor any worship of Idols in the whole surface of the earth as that there should remain no Idols amongst those who do profess the Christian Faith § II If the Church of of Rom. R. H. disc p. 75. say they be guilty of Idolatry in worshipping the Host or Images or praying to departed Saints then the whole Church of Christ for many Ages before Luther must have been guilty of Idolatry for the same practices say they for which we do affirm the Church of Rome to be Idolatrous are and for many Ages were used in the Eastern Church Answ That the same practices on the account of which we do affirm the Church of Rome is guilty of Idolatry are and for many Ages before Luther were used in the whole Church of Christ can never be made good by Roman Catholicks in answer therefore to this whole Argument it is sufficient barely to deny what they precariously do assert in this particular and call upon them to prove that which they do with so much confidence affirm by some more cogent and effectual medium than the pretended silence of Historians touching such persons as did not comply with this Idolatry For 1. There is no necessity that all who did not inwardly believe these Doctrines should outwardly declare so much when they considered that they were likely to do themselves the greatest mischief by a free declaration of their minds and the Church but little good by reason of the prevalency of these errors Multa hujusmodi propter nonnullarum vel sanctarum vel turbulentarum personarumscandala liberius improbare non audeo Epist ad Januar. p. 372. Dementie est tibi pernitiem accersere si nulli prosis Apud Hotting Hist Eccl. Sect. 16. Part. 2. p. 29. Vid. etiam p. 24 25. and the blind Zeal of many for them For if St. Austin in his days found reason to complain that some corruptions had so generally obtained that though he judged they ought to be redressed yet as he tells us he durst not freely disapprove them it is no wonder that in these latter times of wretched ignorance and looseness men should be more shy of reprehending those corruptions which in their judgments they disliked concluding with Erasmus that it was madness though they were convinced as he saith he was that it was very good that some
Athenaeum 1.7 p. 299. As therefore Anaxandrides said to the Aegyptians I can have no agreement which you because of the great difference there is betwixt our customs and those which do obtain among you for whereas you do worship Oxen I Sacrifice them to the Gods an Eel is by you honoured as a great God by me 't is eaten as delicious meat So may we say unto the Romanists We can have no communion with you because you worship that as a great God which we do eat and what you Sacrifice at least in your imagination we think most worthy to be worshipped and therefore 't will be ever far from us to Sacrifice it Gen. xliii 32. Vide Ainsw in locum 'T was an Abomination to the Aegyptians to eat bread with the Hebrews because the Hebrews did cat those Cattle which the Aegyptians worshipped saith the Chaldee Parpahrase And Moses would depart from Aegypt before he Sacrificed to his God Exod. viii 26. left he should Sacrifice to the Lord the abominations of the Aegyptians before their eyes i.e. the beasts which the Aegyptians worshiped and therefore did abhor to kill or to see killed for Sacrifice We therefore who also do abhor as all the Antient Fathers did to see that Sacrificed and caten which we adore as God cannot eat of this Sacred bread with those of Rane but must first fly from Babylon as it is Prophesied the Church should do before we do commemorate that Sacrifice which they repeat § VI 3. The substance of the Sacrament being Christ truly God and man according to the Doctrin of the Roman Church whatsoever truly is affirmed of or doth belong unto the substance of the Sacrament must also be truly affirmed of our Blessed Lord. Now if we do compare those things which are delivered in their Liturgy and most Authentick Records touching the Host with what the light of Nature teacheth and what the Scriptures and the Holy Fathers have delivered in derision of the Heathen Gods which shall soon find that what the Scriptures and the Holy Fathers have offered to expose the HeathenGods to the contempt and indignation of their foolish votaries L. 5. p. 160. doth more emphatieally expose that Host which by the Papists is worshipt as a true God to the derision of mankind And truly as Arnobius saith in a like case and on like ground so say I here had the malicious Jew or the vilest Infidel designed to put affronts upon our dearest Lord I know not by what method they could have done it more effectually since the disguises which the Romanists have put upon him do certainly expose him almost to all the scoffs which have or can be cast upon the worst of Idols nor did the Jews or Herod load him with half the ignominy which is now cast upon him by the doctrine and worship of the Roman Church § VII And to begin with those considerations which the Prophet Esa doth suggest Chap. xlvi 1. To preserve the Captive Jews from paying homage to Bel and other Babylonish Idols he informs them that the Priests bear them on their shoulders they carry them and set them in their places and where they are thus placed they stand and remove not front it Remember this salth he and shew your selves men Chap. x. 5. Bar. vi 3 4. They must needs be born because they cannot go saith Jeremy be not afraid of them In his Epistle to the Captive Jews the first thing he informs them of is this that when they come to Babylon they shall see their Gods of Silver Gold Wood born upon shoulders which the Nations fear beware therefore saith he that you be not afraid of them when you see the multitude behind them and before them worshiping them and Verse 26 27. they are born saith he upon shoulders whereby N. B. they declare to men that they are nothing worth They also that serve them are ashamed for if they fall to the ground at any time Wisd xiii 16. they cannot rise up again of themselves The Author of the Book of Wisdom saith that the Artificer when he hath made his Idol sets it in a Wall and makes it fast with Iron for be provideth for it that it might not fall knowing that it was unable to help it self On this account saith he they are more to be blamed than they who worshipped the lights of Heaven who yet are not to be excused or pardoned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contra Gent. p. 17. The Heathen Gods saith Athanasius have no power to stand or sit but must remain in the same posture which the Artificer hath given them and therefore do afford no Argument or Character of their Divinity Ibid. p. 16. What pardon can they hope for who place their confidence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in things unmoveable Sermon 10. ad Graecos p. 144. and worship them for the true God saith the same Father They cannot stand being not fastened with pins and if they be not born by others neither can they go so Theodoret. They are so rude and stupid saith St. Cyril that they carry up and down their Gods upon their shoulders they see they are unable to move and are carried whither the bearer pleaseth and yet they pray unto them Cyril in Es 1.4 p. 629 630. whereas saith he what help canst thou expect from them whom thou perceivest to be void of sense and motion but theu art as senslefs as they and fallen into the most extreme stupidity And to the like effect speak almost all the Fathers who write in confutation of the Heathen Deities And yet these things do perfectly agree as well unto the Roman Catholicks bon Dieu as to those Idols which the Heathens worshipped for the Trent Council hath determined that upon a Declarat praeterea Sancta Synodus piè religiosè admodum in Dei Ecclesiam indactum fuisse hunc morem ut singulis annis peculiari quodam festo die praecelsum hcc venerabile Sacramentum singulari venerations as solemnitate celeoraretur utque in processionibus reverenter honorisicè illud per vias loca pablica circumferetur Sess 13. Cap. 5. Corpus Christi day this Host i. e. the Roman God should be carried in Precession through publick ways and places at which times he is born upon their shoulders or their arms and he must needs be born because he cannot go and when they come unto their tabernacula quietis where their God must rest he standeth in the place in which they set him and is not able to remove from thence They also have determined b Porrò deferri ipsam sacram Eacharistiam ad infirmes have usum diligenter in Ecclesiis conservaâ—i cum summà aequitate ratione conjunctumist Quare sancts haec Synodus retinendum omnino salatarem hune necessarium morem statuit Sess 13. Cap. 6. ut neque decidere neque è pixide excati