THE ANATOMY OF POPERY OR A Catalogue of Popish Errours in Doctrine and Corruptions in Worship Together with The AGREEMENT between Paganism Pharisaism and Popery Nostrae Regulae noster sunt Decalogus imò Decalogo praestantiores quoniam illic mandata hîc consilia Jac. Crusius Jesuita in Hossem ca 5. LONDON Printed by Tho. Milbouâ—â— for Tho. Passenger at the Tâ—â—ee Bibles on London-Bridge 1673. To the much honoured Sir FRANCIS POPHAM of Littlecott in the County of Wilts Knight of the Honourable Order of the Bath To Sr. Thomas Dolman of Shaw in the County of Berks Knight and and to William Ashe of Heitesbury in the County of Wilts Esquire the Author wisheth an encrease of all Heavenly blessings Honoured Sirs GRreat was the goodness of God after our Saviours Resurrection and Ascension that he sent down cloven Tongues from Heaven like as fire upon his Apostles which was a visible sign of those invisible â—ifts of the Spirit poured down abundantly upon them for the service of the Church and the enlightening of the World with the knowledg of Salvation by Jesus Christ and that even after the Nations of the Earth had so many Ages sate in darkness and in the shadow of death a dark Cloud of Barbarous Heathenish errours and superstitions having over-spread the face of the whole Earth insomuch that wicked Men and Women Adulterers and Adulteresses Stocks Stones and other Creatures were mistaken for Gods and Goddesses The times of this Ignorance as the Apostle calls them Act. 17.30 were woful but then let us see the goodness of the Lord who restored the light in so plentiful a manner that as that Cloud which Elijah's Servant saw at the first rise up like a man's hand had in short time over-spread the Heavens so that little Lamp which at first being put into the hand of Adam gave light to his House and Family became now like the Sun in the Firmament and shined to all Nations the knowledg of God being plentifully dispersed all abroad as the Sun-beams diffused through the whole body of the ayr But then again that evil Angel of the bottomless pit sent out a smoak in the Ages following which darkened the face of the Heavens and the light of the Church The Devil raised up divers Instruments not only open and notorious Hereticks but those of all others most dangerous who closely promoted the mystery of Iniquity never ceasing their secret workings until they had lifted up Antichrist into his Chair of Pestilence and by degrees corrupted the simplicity of the Truth darkning the knowledg of Christ with corrupt traditions errours contrary to the Faith defaceing the glory of Christ his full satisfaction and perfect merit with their own merit and works of supererogation and pretended Treasury of the Church joyning with Christ other Mediators and finding other ways to Heaven which the Holy Ghost never taught the Gospel of Christ never mentioned So that we may as truly say of them as of the Heathens Professing themselves Wise they became Fools Foolishly bragging of an infallibility nailed to their Popes Chair that it was impossible for him to erre or be deceived they fell into gross and monstrous errours and led many thousands away by their strong delusions to destruction who had pleasure in Vnrighteousness and received not the love of the truth that they might be saved The Romanists have used abundance of lyes and cunningly devised fables for the maintenance of their Tenets and the defence of their supposed truths as also for the defacing and blemishing of the undoubted truth of God They used not only fabulous specches but also fabulous actions too viz. lying wonders How many false miracles have they hatched for the defence of their Religion their Purgatory Praying for the Dead Invocation of Saints Transubstantiation Worshipping of Images c Would not these much trouble many weak minds had not the spirit of God expresly foretold that this should be the practice of Antichrist that man of sin whose coming should be with signes and lying wonders and all deceiveableness of unrighteousness in them that perish 2 Thes 2. So that that which they make use of to prove their Religion by when they want proofs in the Word of God we are taught by the word to make use of as a proof that their Pope is the very Antichrist and they the followers of the Beast What shameful lyes do they bring also to prove their Tenets that are in Controversie How do they abuse Scripture and as much as in them lyeth put lies into the mouth of the holy spirit of truth for the maintenance of their false doctrine for what is it else when men will wickedly go about to make the Scripture speak that which the Spirit who endited it never meant wilfully perverting plain Texts of the Word to serve their base ends and to confirm those falshoods which they have learned from the Father of lyes On the other side how many wicked Tales have they devised to suppress deface the Truth That edious lye concerning Luthers death and that of Beza's death and falling from the Truth to Popery cast abroad in his life-time which himself lived to confute to their shame what doth it but shew by what Spirit they are led what shameful lyes have they devised against many other special Instruments of God's Glory They hope it seemeth that some will be found so foolish as to believe their loudest lies yea do not many of them maintain lying as lawful for defence of Religion that Faith is not to be kept with those whom they call Hereticks and that Equivocation a more cleanly kind of lying is lawful insomuch that when Tresham one of the Powder-Traitors in articulo mortis lying on his Death-bed in the Tower denied by solemn Oath what he knew to be most true to save the life and credit of Garnet the Superiour of the English Jesuits and a man of great account among them and when the thing was proved manifestly and Garnet was asked what he thought of his case he said he knew not unless Equivocation might excuse him But if their doctrine be true it cannot want truth to defend it if false as it is all the lyes in Hell will not hold it up against the power of Truth no more than the darkness which silleth the ayr at night can resist the Sun-beams at his rising for as darkness is but a shadow and so cannot withstand the light so lyes are but shadows and fancies there is nothing selid in them and they are not able to resist the power of truth which is divine and cometh down from the Father of Lights and God of Truth Worthy Sirs P It is lamentable to consider what the Pope of Rome and his Clergy in this Land did heretofore practise upon the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation suffering them to live in Ignorance whereby they might not boggle at any looseness or wickedness of life that so the Clergy might afterward
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
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
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
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