of the Scripture 18. That the certain Interpretation of the Scripture is not to be gathered out of the Scripture 19. They make seven Principles of the Christian Doctrine which are all grounded in the Authority of the See and Pope of Rome Their Errours concerning God and Christ 1. SOme hold that the Son and Spirit are not God of them selves 2. Ex Chamieâ— They deny the infallible certainty of Divine Providence 3. * Of this see the Writings between Doctor Hammond and Mr. Jeanes They deny that the Soul of Christ did increase in Wisdom 4. They deny that the Soul of Christ did suffer torments for mankind any otherwise than by way of sympathy with his Body 5. They deny him to be the only Head of the Church 6. They say that he is Mediator only according to his humane Nature 7. Tho. part 3. quaest 83. That the Blood of Christ is not necessary to wash away Sins but that they may be done away by holy Water knocking the Breast and other ridiculous means 8. They seem to give unto Christ a santastical Body that neither consisteth of dimensions nor occupieth a place which when he was born did not open the Womb of his Mother and when he arose did penetrate the Stone of the Sepulchre and when he instituted his Supper lay hid under the species of Bread and Wine 9 They deny Christ to be the only Mediator of Intercession but joyn with him Angels and Saints 10. They deny Christ to be the only Prophet whose voice only must be heard spiritual King and Priest of the New Testament But they make the Pope the chief Prophet and Pastor King and Monarch and Priest whence it followeth that the Pope is not only opposed to Christ as his Adversary but as his Rival 11. That the unchangeable Priesthood of Christ the Eternal Priest is made Eternal by the Succession of other sacrificing Priests which they make 12. That Christ who is God over all blessed for ever did merit for himself though he was both Viator Comprehensor in Termino extra Terminum and in the days of his flesh did possess all desired happiness and saw God face to face while he lived here 13 The Jesuits say that Jesus Christ might have sinned might have been subject to vices might have fallen into errour and folly 14. That Christs Merits are not the only meritorious cause of Salvation 15. Fevard p. 430. That the Fear and Agony of Christ proceeded not from any feeling of Gods wrath or indignation but he only shewed the affection of humane sense fearing Death 16. They are so bold as to appoint the place where Christ shall appear in the day of Judgment namely in the East 17. That the Son of Man shall appear with the sign of the Cross born before him Then shall the sign of the Son of Man appear in Heaven Matth. 24.30 that is say they the Sign of the Cross 18. They deny that God alone is to be worshipped and do communicate Divine Worship to certain Creatures 19 That God necessarily gives Grace to him that doth his best 20. Some Jesuits assert that we satisfie the Love we owe to God by loving him three or four times in our life And others that we may pass over our whole life without any thought of loving him and yet be saved after all this 21. That God might give Grace and Glory to men because of the honest actions of natural Vertues though they had not of themselves any relation to Grace or Glory which are of a supernatural order That is to say that God could save men by actions purely natural and so that man could deliver himself from sin and misery without having need of Jesus Christ and that by consequence his active and passive obedience were superfluous and exacted from him without any necessity Their Errours concerning Man 1. Ecc. Chamier THat every thing against the Law is not sin 2. That Concupiscence and the first motions thereof be no sins nor have the nature of sin 3. That all Sins are not in their own nature mortal Menric Sâ—m Mâ—â—â— lib. 4. cap. 20. that Sin is called mortal because it brings Death upon the Soul that is say they it depriveth it of Gods Grace That some Sins are in their own nature venial and do not deserve eternal punishment 4. That by every mortal sin Grace is lost 5. The Divinity of the Jesuits maintains Aversions against our Neighbour it allows us to wish and do him hurt and even to kill him though it be for temporal concerns and also when we are assured that by killing him we damn him 6. They cherish Pride and Vain-glory in all sorts of persons even in the most holy actions and according to their Divinity it is almost impossible to sin mortally by Pride or Vain-glory. 7. Their Doctrine gives all sorts of liberty to the Senses and justifies in a manner all sorts of Pleasure which it can taste 8. That Discourses even of filthy things though they proceed from curiosity and levity do not go beyond a venial sin and that to speak of filthy things for the pleasure that is taken in those Discourses without having a design to pass on to dishonest actions is but a venial sin 9. Escohar Filliut 〈◊〉 Lessius Layman Zanch 〈◊〉 The Jesuits authorize all sorts of ways to get Wealth and dispense with restitution of what is procured by the most unjust and infamous ways They teach that Christians may take Usury of the Turk Cornel a laipde in Deut. 23.19 10. They teach that if a man be drunk or doing any thing with a formal design to provide for his health all the the evils that happen in consequence thereof are to be esteemed as coming by accident that it is no sin to eat and drink ones fill without necessity for pleasure only provided that it do not prejudice ones health 11. The Jesuits allow of Magick and Witchcraft and say that they are not superstitious who heal the sick by Charms composed of Psalms and other Prayers and who by stroking and Prayers heal them of incurable Diseases 12. The Jesuits teach-several ways of mocking God men without punishment Jesuits Morals and without sin in promising that which they never intend to do and not doing that which they have promised although they are obliged thereunto by Vow and by Oath They have found out an expedient to deceive the world to take a salfe Oath even before a Judg without perjury 13. Equivocation and mental reservation Mason of 〈…〉 that mystery of iniquity and Quintessence of impudence is maintained at this day both in Press and Pulpit by the Popish Doctors though it be far from Christian simplicity and the Doctrine of God which requireth that men speak the truth from the heart 14. According to these Jesuits there is scarcely any habitual sin and that custom of sinning may make a man uncapable of sinning 15. That
a Dispensation Item a wilful Murtherer in which rank they are not placed that disclose an Heretick to the Inquisition for to put him to death nor those that carry wood for to burn him nor that man that gives a woman a Potion to drink for to kill a Child in her Womb as the same Jesuit there teacheth A married man is not admitted to any Order but he that whoreth or keeps at home a Concubine or more may be a Priest and perform the Functions belonging thereunto as Pope Innocent the third doth define in the Title de Bigamis And thereupon the Gloss of the Doctors addeth Whoredom hath more priviledge here than Chastity Vide the Jâ—usâ—â—s Morals yea a notorious Buggerer or Sodomite is not irregular or uncapable of holy Orders and may sing Mass as Navarrus teacheth who was the Popes Penitential and the most learned of all the Canonists 11. They hold that the Priests and all Spiritual persons ought to be rich because Saint Paul saith a Bishop must be given to Hospitality 12. That no Priest is to be deprived for Fornication 13. That Christians may be distinguished by divers Names and separated into various Professions of different Religions 14. That those Professions are the state of perfection 15. That publick exercises of Religion ought to be in an unknown Language 16. That private exercises are performed that way also in a more holy manner 17. That Kings enjoy their Kingdoms by the Popes favour 18. That the Pope hath right to give and take away and translate Kingdoms 19. That the Roman Church hath Cardinals for Sides-men to the Pope upon whom the universal Church is turned as upon hinges 20. That these are to be joined with the Pope in the Government of the universal Church and that those whether they be Bishops or Presbyters or Deacons are not only to be preferred before other Bishops Archbishops Primates Patriarchs but to be equalled even with Kings Their Errours concerning Justifying Faith 1. THat Faith hath its proper seat and place only in the understanding not in the heart and affection and that it is not an assurance or considence of the heart 2. That Faith is but a bare assent of the Mind without knowledg or understanding of that whereunto it assenteth That there is an implicit Faith which is the Faith of simple men who although they are not able to give good reason of their Belief yet it is enough for them to say they are Catholick-men and that they will live and die in that Faith which the Catholick Church doth teach Now this implicit Faith which they say is sufficient for common Catholicks is nothing else but to believe as the Church believeth though they know nothing themselves particularly 3. That it is not the property of Faith specially to apply to every Believer the Promises of God in Christ for this they boldly call presumption but generally to believe whatsoever is contained in Gods Word to be true 4. They affirm that an historical Faith a Faith of working Miracles and that Faith which justifieth are all one in substance That the Faith of Miracles differeth only from justifying Faith in an accidental quality of more fervour devotion and confident trust yea the Rhemists are more absurd that Faith say they which Saint James calls a dead Faith is notwithstanding a true Faith and the same which is called the Catholick Faith 5. That true justifying Faith may be separated from Love and other Christian vertues 6. That Faith doth not justifie as an Instrument in apprehending the Righteousness of Christ but as a proper and true cause it actually justifyeth by the dignity worthiness and meritorious work thereof 7. That Works are more principal than Faith in the matter of Justification 8. That we are said to be justified by Faith because Faith is the beginning only the foundation and root of Justification 9. That men are not justified by the only imputation of Christs Righteousness or by the Remission of sins or that we are not formally justified by the Righteousness of Christ 10. That our particular Salvation is not to be believed by Faith 11. That a man may fall away from the Faith which once truly he had and be altogether deprived of the state of Grace so that he may justly be counted among the Reprobates Their Errours concerning Repentance 1. THat Repentance which they call Penance is a Sacrament properly so called 2. That Repentance in the New-Testament is another thing from that Testament is another thing from that which it was in the old and also that in the New Testament which is after Baptism is another thing from that which is before 3. That these three are the true and proper parts of Penance Contrition Confession to the Priest and Satisfaction to God for our sins 4. Contrition which otherwise neither ought nor can be excluded from Repentance is required by our Adversaries not simply in Repentance but they teach that sins are blotted out and satisfied for by Contrition 5. They appoint a certain measure to Contrition and do teach that unless it be sufficient there is no Remission of sins granted 6. In reckoning the parts of Repentance they omit Faith and take away as it were the soul and life of true Repentance 7. That Repentance goeth before Justification by Faith and that it is a way rather unto Faith and Justification in the Remission of sins 8. That Contrition which is joined with an inward terrour of the Mind and proceedeth from the sight of our sins doth not appertain to the Law but to the Gospel 9. Some Papists affirm that in Contrition it is not necessary to have a formal that is a resolute and express purpose of newness of life but that this is always included in the detesting of sin which implicit or inclusive purpose is sufficient 10. They teach that Contrition ought to be perfect because it must proceed from the love of God which is the most perfect kind of love 11. They affirm that Contrition is a necessary means unto Justification and they make Contrition as a part of satisfaction for our sins so a cause of Justification and Remission of sins not only in disposing and preparing us thereunto but in that thereby we verily obtain and deserve Remission of our sins 12. Sâ— t li 4. 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 17. Contrition they say is not necessary for venial or small offences neither is a man bound thereunto Some think that a general Confession sufficeth for mortal sins which a man understandeth not 13. That there is a kind of Contrition that proceedeth only from the fear of punishment when a man leaveth to sin not for any love to God but only for fear of Hell 14. That it is necessary to Justification that sins all and every one as far as may be be confessed to the Priest as to a Judg. 15. That none can rightly seek for absolution at the Priests hands unless they confess particularly at least all their
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
or their Bishop because they are the Princes of the people of God to whom it belongeth to distribute the common Goods of the Church 5. That the power of Order is not necessary to give Indulgences but the power of Jurisdiction only and therefore the Pope or Bishop may grant Indulgences though they be not in Orders 6. Neither is this power of Indulgences lost by any deadly sin Of the Disposition required to be in them that receive Indulgences 1. THe Papists say that Indulgences Dâ— Willet Controv. may be granted to a sinner and for such works as are done while he is in the state of sin as if a sinful man do contribute toward the recovering of Jerusalem 2. Yet a man cannot perceive the fruit of such Indulgences unless he be in the state of Grace 3. If the good work enjoyned to be done be accompanied or joyned with venial sin it hindereth the fruit of Indulgence 4. That he that will receive benefit by these Indulgences must confess and be truly penitent 5. He cannot enjoy the Indulgence that doth not perform all the works that are enjoyned 6. That Indulgences may be profitable to those that will not though they can satisfie for themselves but do rest in the satisfaction of others How the Papists hold that Indulgences are profitable for the dead 1. THat the Praiers of the living and other works by way of impetration profit the dead ergo the same works being also satisfactory do also benefit them by way of satisfaction 2. That the faithful departed make one Body and one Church with the faithful living therefore say they the satisfactions of the living may be applied to the dead 3. As to the manner how Indulgences are applied to the dead some of them affirm that the Pope may judicially absolve the Souls in Purgatory and that they do belong unto his Jâ—â—â—â—diction and so he may extend 〈◊〉 indulgences to them as unto the living Some say that Indulgenâ—â—◠〈◊〉 profitable to the dead after 〈◊〉 â—â—â—ner of the suffrage of the Câ—â—â—â—â— as the Praiers of it do 〈◊〉 by way of merit impetration satisfaction so Indulgences are granted to the dead as they are satisfactory and so after the manner of a suffrage as it is satisfactory Some of them think that Indulgences do profit the dead of condignity and worthiness 4. They hold that Bishops and other inferiour Prelates cannot apply Indulgences to the dead but only the Pope 5. That Indulgences directly belong to the living indirectly to the dead no otherwise than as the living do perform the works enjoyned for the dead 6. That Indulgences do not profit the dead in common otherwise than as they rejoice one for anothers good but only those Souls are delivered thereby to whom they are particularly intended 7. That the Pope may release unto a man living the pain of Purgatory which otherwise he were subject unto But when the Papists have cast up their accounts they shall find that neither Purgatory nor Pardons will serve their turn their summa totalis will be Christ crucified As for Indulgences and Popes Pardons the antient Councils were never of Council with them the old Fathers never favoured nor so much as savoured them Their Errours concerning Fasting VVE are so far from condemning of Fasting which is so often recommended in Scripture and joyned with Praier that as Praier sanctifieth the Fast so the Fast may add heat unto Praier and bring down the insolency of the Flesh Sobriety preserveth Chastity bridleth Lust and is a help to Watchfulness Our complaint of the Roman Church about Fasting is 1. That she hath changed Fasting into a distinction of Meats They place their Fasts not in Sobriety or Temperance in Meat and Drink neither in a total abstaining from all Meat and Drink for a certain time which was used of the Antients but in abstinence from Flesh and white Meats 2. They put Fasting among Merits and Satisfactions of an exercise of Humility making an occasion of Pride 3. The Pope hath taken this occasion to raise his Empire to set a Rule to the Markets to the Kitchins to the Bellies reserving to himself the authority to dispence having to that effect multiplied Fasting-days to that number that they are more than one quarter of the year taking upon him to give Laws to the universal Church whereas in old time Bishops gave Orders every one in his Diocess without any dependance upon the Prelat of Rome as Doctor Du Moulin noteth 4. That of sins against Gods Law as Fornication Stealing and Lying the least Priests can give the Absolution but eating a bit of Flesh in the holy Week is a sin for which a man is sent to the Bishop or to the Penitentiary And they account that man to commit a more heinous crime who should taste Flesh upon the days forbidden than he that should be taken in Adultery or other wickedness And in Italy and Spain men are in greater danger for tasting Flesh upon the days inhibited than for committing capital crimes 5. In the Roman Church he that hath eaten his belly full of Fish is accounted to have fasted but he that for want of other meat hath eaten a little Flesh is thought to have violated the Fast 6. They lay a strait Yoke upon mens shoulders charging them under pain of damnation to keep their Fasting-days making it deadly sin yea Heresie to transgress them as one Lawrence Staple was persecuted anno 1531 because in Lent having no Fish he did eat Butter and Cheese 7. There are many Mockeries in their Popish Lent-fast 1. They permit most delicate Fishes to be eaten which are more dainty than any Veal or Mutton such as are Pikes Trouts Salmonds Gudgeons Lampreys Oysters c. These use to be Dainties many times in the more costly Banquets of rich men perhaps of Noble Personages The use of these and the drinking of choice Wines are a fit means forsooth to tame the Flesh 2. And that these Hypocrites may seem to fast till evening they sing their Even-song at Dinner-time that afterward they may freely banquet and take their repast as if God did not know the hour of the day but by their Service and Singing 3. In the evening they make a Collation so they call it with divers delicate Sawees Confections Spices Almonds and Wine and in the mean time they bear the World in hand that they fast notably 8. In the Roman Church one man fasteth for another as if a Judg ought to release a Fellon because his Brother hath not dined as a learned man noteth 9. That the Penances of Fasting imposed on a sinner are redeemed with Money and that corporal pains are changed into pecuniary 10. That this opens a wide Gate unto Traffique so far that the Book called the Taxation of the Apostolical Chancery puts a certain price to the Letters of such Dispensations in these Words That a Lay-man may not be obliged to fast upon the days to which he is
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