the apostolical chair." Again: the pope's Decretal Epistles are expressly reckoned among canonical scriptures: Inter quas sanè illæ sint, quas apostolica sedes habere, et ab ea alii meruerunt accipere Epistolas : * "Among which surely those Epistles are to be, which the apostolical seat receives, and which others have deserved to receive from thence." Further the violation of canons,-they state it to be blasphemy and a sin against the Holy Ghost. Nay, as to some discipline and the ancient institution of Christian religion, tanta reverentia apicem apostolica sedis omnes suspiciunt, ut magis, &c., ab ore præcessoris ejus quàm a sacris paginis, &c., expetant, &c. : "with such reverence do all look up to the pinnacle of the apostolical seat, that they rather receive from the mouth. of his predecessor than from the holy scriptures." So that the matter may well be reduced to the edict of the Jesuits at Dole, mentioned by Sir Edwin Sandys: "Having thus effectually deprived the people of the holy scriptures; to avoid all further contests and troubles in religion, forbid any talk of God, either in good sort or bad."§ Thus we must bid adieu to holy scriptures, and, as one says, "embrace their holy trumperies." "For if any man desire to know which is the true church, how should he know it but only by the scripture?" (AUTHOR Operis imperfecti in Matth. hom. 49.) (2.) They take away the cup in the Lord's supper from the Christian people. And that with a non-obstante ["notwithstanding"]: Licet Christus post cœnam instituerit, &c.: "Although Christ did after supper ordain, and administer to his disciples, in both the elements of bread and wine, this venerable sacrament;" tamen hoc non obstante, "yet, nevertheless, the authority of sacred canons, the laudable and approved custom of the church, hath kept and doth keep," &c.: et habenda est pro lege; || they "pass it into a law," to communicate in one kind; and pronounce such to be dealt with as heretics, that oppose this new law, made in defiance of Christ and the primitive church. What a church is this, that puts a bar to Christ! Pray resolve how blessed and obedient a spouse this is. ** (3.) Though our blessed Lord and his apostles commend marriage, as the institution of God and honourable among all; (Matt. xix. 5, 6; 1 Cor. vii. 2; 1 Tim. iii. 2; Heb. xiii. 4;) and the forbidding of it [is] repulsed, as the "doctrine of devils :" (1 Tim. iv. 1,3 :) yet there is sounder advice, it seems, to be found in the canon-law: "Priests' marriage is not forbidden by the authority of law or gospel or of the apostles;" ecclesiastica tamen lege penitùs interdicitur,¶"yet by ecclesiastical law it is utterly forbidden." And they may commit fornication, and not be deposed; and their Gloss gives this satisfying reason: Quia hodie fragiliora sunt corpora nostra quàm olim erant: ++ "Because our bodies are now-adays more frail than they were of old." And though to take a second wife secundum præceptum apostoli est, "that is but according to the precept of the apostle;" secundùm veritatis autem rationem verè fornicatio est, "yet, according to the account of truth, verily it is fornication." • Dist. xix. cap. 6, col. 107. + Caus. xxv. quæst. i. cap. 5, col. 1897. ↑ Dist. xl. cap. 6, col. 259. § Sir EDWIN SANDYS'S "Survey of Religion in the West," p. 231. Concil. Constant. sess. xiii. fol. 515; Cabilon. ii. col. 1921. col. 2084. • Dist. lxxxii. cap. 5, col. 530. Caus. xxvi. quæst. ii. cap. 1, tt Caus. xxxi. quæst. i. cap. 9, Sed dum, permittente Deo, publicè et licenter committitur, fit honesta fornicatio: "But when it is publicly committed, and with licence,* by the permission of God, it becomes honest fornication." And for adultery, it is counted among "the lesser crimes :" De adulteriis verò, et aliis criminibus quæ sunt minora, † a bishop may dispense with his clerks. More of the like stuff may be read in Pelagius's rescript to the bishop of Florence; and reason rendered: Quia corpora ipsa hominum defecerunt : § "Because the very bodies of men are grown weak." And if a clerk embrace a woman, it is to be expounded to bless her.|| But for these and the like cases the "Tax of the apostolical Chancery" gives the richest reasons; where any thing is dispensed with for money: "A book wherein," saith Espencæus, ¶ "thou mayest learn more wickedness than in all the summists and summaries of all vices;" set forth in the days of pope Leo X., who made that infamous reply to cardinal Bembus : Quantum nobis ac nostro cœtui profuit ea de Christo fabula, satis est seculis omnibus notum : ** « 'It is known well enough to all ages, how much that fable of Christ hath benefited us and our society." Well might the abbot of Ursperg cry out, Gaude, mater nostra, Roma, &c. : ++"Rejoice, O Rome, our mother; for the cataracts of treasures are opened in the earth, that rivers of money may flow in to thee! Rejoice over the iniquity of the sons of men; for thou receivest the price for a recompence of such great wickedness!" (4.) For prohibition of meats.-Whereas the apostle tells us, "Whatever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience' sake;” (1 Cor. x. 25;) and, “Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink." (Col. ii. 16.) For "God hath created them to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth; and nothing to be refused." (1 Tim. iv. 3, 4.) Such as believe in God, and are acquainted with the truth of his holy word, make no scruple, as those [do] who "speak lies in hypocrisy, and are seducing spirits." (Verses 1, 2.) But the canon-law commands fastings, as a tenth part of time consecrated to God out of the whole year; ‡‡ and against our eating of flesh assigns a pregnant citation out of the apostle : Bonum est vinum non bibere, et carnes non comedere :§§ "It is good not to drink wine, nor to eat flesh.” But the connexed words are left out, which refer to offence in the primitive times. But I shall not further touch this point, their precepts and practices stand opposite to the holy scriptures. But how wholesome to the body to appoint their grand fasts and abstinence from flesh in the spring, let Fuchsius, a learned physician, be judge, out of Soranus and Hippocrates: Quòd verno tempore minimè sit jejunandum: "We ought least of all to fast in the spring-time." And after he hath urged his argument, he closes: Romanum pontificem non solùm esse Antichristum, SeThat the Roman bishop is not only Antichrist, in stating a doc• Licenter-quia pœnam temporalem non patiebantur: "Because they suffered not temporal punishment."--Gloss. ibid. "With respect to adultery and other minor crimes." -EDIT. Decretal. lib. ii. De Judic. cap. 4, col. 523. § Dist. xxxiv. cap. 7, col. 225. Caus. xi. quæst. iii. cap. 14, col. 1223. ESPENC. in Tit. cap. i. digr. 2, p. 67, edit. Paris. 1568; and the Centum Gravamina in Fasciculo Rerum expetend. 178. RANCHINUS's "Review of Trent," p. 79; VALERIA "Of the Lives of the Popes," p. 150, out of PAULUS JOVIUS. tt Ursperg. Chron. p. 235, Argentor. 1609. ‡‡ Decret. pars iii. De Consecr. dist. v. cap. 16, col. 2671. §§ Dist. xxxv. cap. 2, col. 231. FUCHSII Instit. Medicin. lib. ii. sect. ii. cap. 9. trine contrary to Christ; but antiatrum, 'contrary to physicians;' to appoint a fast then and forbid flesh, when, they have unanimously taught, we ought to eat more largely and abstain from fish." But it became the Man of Perdition not only to destroy our souls, but our bodies also, by his decrees; and our purses also: (imitating Peter in fishing for money at the Sea of Galilee : Matt. xvii. 27 :) we must buy of him leave at that time to eat milk and the like viands. But, to finish this paragraph of such a society as add to, subtract from, dispense with, and over-rule the laws of God, what should all the sober and pious judge, but what the scripture hath prophetically deciphered them to be, and what the church of England hath determined concerning them? *—that since they have forsaken and daily do forsake the commandments of God, to erect and set up their own constitutions; we may well conclude, according to the rule of Augustine, that the bishops of Rome and their adherents are not the true church of Christ ; much less, then, to be taken as chief heads and rulers of the same. "Whosoever," saith he, "do dissent from the scriptures concerning the head, although they be found in all places where the church is appointed, yet are they not in the church." A plain place, concluding directly against the church of Rome. INQUIRY II. Is that the true church of Christ, that pollutes the worship of God by idolatry? (2 Cor. vi. 16.)-Why is this sin so often called "whoredom " in scripture? Does not whoredom dissolve the bonds of marriage, by our Lord's 's own determination? Did not the Lord give up the ancient Israel and Judah, and disavow them from being his spouse, under the name of two notable whores,-Aholah and Aholibah? (Ezek. xxiii. 4.) And if we rightly consider the Revelation, we find also this to be the very cause why the name of "whore" is branded upon the forehead of a certain congregation that was to appear in the world after the dissolution of Rome imperial. And therefore God sent the Saracens and Turks against them, with stings both in head and tail, both in the east and west: but yet they repented not of their idols, &c. (Rev. ix. 20, 21.) This is that generation which lays stumbling-blocks both before Turks, Jews, and Heathens. For haste, I will instance but in a few. Among the four great offences and scandals which the Grand Seignior told the German ambassador, he took at the Roman religion, one was, that they made their God in the church; another, that they ate him in the eucharist. What would he have said, had he heard of the emperor Henry VII.'s being poisoned out of the sacrament-cup, by a Guelph of the pope's faction; ‡ or, as Dr. Donne expresses it more earnestly, "To poison their God, that they might poison their emperor?" § But how greatly the Turks are incensed against idols, the Alcoran almost every where discovers; and Hottinger, Sandys, and others. || As for the Jews, how greatly they are scandalized, we may observe even in elder times; when the second council of Nice was fain to give a "Homilies of the Church of England," in the second part of the Sermon for WhitSunday, 4to. fol. 229, B. "Count Serini's Character," p. 107. Ursperg. p. 267; NAUCLERUS, p. 991. § DONNE'S "Pseudomartyr," p. 91. ran, cap. 10, 11, 13, 16, &c.; HOTTINGER, the same, p. 60; SANDYS, p. 54. Paralip. || Alco solemn, though a sorry, answer to them: Ovτws pobepos ó λoyos ó evtEIλαμevos Top Iopanλ, &c.: "Verily, it was a terrible word, giving command to Israel not to make any carved image," &c.; "and yet afterward to command Moses to make cherubims, yet not as gods, but for re-memoration only," &c.* Not to observe at present how they shift off the second commandment, as if belonging to Israel only; nor what they further reply about the framing of images, not to be ultimate objects of worship, but only commemorative helps of devotion: that which I would principally take notice of is, that even then, at the first solemn and judicial publication of image-doctrine, how greatly the Jews were provoked and offended; who were so exact in the abhorrency of images, that they counted it unlawful to look up to an image in civil use, and forbade the very art of painters and statuaries; † nay, so nice and curious, that they scruple to pluck out a thorn out of their feet, or gather up money casually fallen, lest they should seem to stoop down in respect to any image in such a place. And as to the present indelible continuance of the same hatred, Sir Edwin Sandys hath given a large account : § and how they call Popish churches, because of the worship of images in them, ¬, "the houses of idolatry," or filthinesses," with some remarkable observations out of their authors, may be seen in the learned Hoornbeeck's treatise "against the Jews." || 66 As to the Pagans or Heathens, I might enlarge; but I shall only refer to a story of the Americans: who, being vexed at the burning [of] their wooden god by Mr. Gage, replied, that they knew it was a piece of wood, and of itself could not speak; but seeing it had spoken, (as they were all witnesses,) this was a miracle whereby they ought to be guided: and they did verily believe that God was in that piece of wood, which, since the speech made by it, was more than ordinary wood, having God himself in it; and therefore deserved more offerings and adorations than those saints (that is, of the Spaniards) in the church, who did never speak unto people. And to this may be annexed (since it touches upon saint-worship) what Sancta Clara insinuates as a reason why there is no precept under the gospel for invocation of saints; namely, "Lest the converted Gentiles should believe that they were again reduced to the worship of men;" (terrigenarum ;) "and, according to their old custom, should adore saints, not as patrons, but as gods." ** To conclude this point: since God hath so severely forbidden the worshipping of his Divine Majesty by statues, pictures, sculptures, or images, and in all ages given ample evidences of his wrath against such worshippers; since the true Christian religion, by means of such titular and nominal pretenders to it, is greatly vilified and obstructed in its progress, as to the sincere conversion both of Turks, Jews, and Heathens; we may easily discern where that dangerous society resides, that commits fornication with stocks and stones; termed by the church of England, in her excellent and zealous homilies against idolatry, "a foul, filthy, old, in the West." Idem, p. 41. Synodus Septima, act. iv. p. 556, tom. iii. BINI1; et DALLEUS De Imag. p. 68. ↑ HOTTINGERI Jur. Hebr. p. 336. "View of Religion HOORNBEECK Cont. Judæos, prolegom. p. 17; and the learned L, TGAGE'S" Survey of the WestSANCTA CLARA, Deus, Natura, Gratia, p. 323, De Invoc. SARSON, in his Roman. Cultús Nullitas, p. 15. Sanct. VOL. VI. withered harlot," &c.; "that, understanding her lack of natural and true beauty, and great loathsomeness which of herself she hath, doth, after the custom of such harlots, paint herself, and deck and tire [attire] herself with gold, pearl, stone, and all kind of precious jewels." * INQUIRY III. Is that the true church of Christ, that, out of her own invention, intermixed with Jewish and heathenish customs, (as might be specified out of Blondus, Polydore Virgil, and others,) hath patched up a pompous worship, and bottomed now upon that grand fundamental of the Pope's authority; which (as it is said of Jeroboam's) is "devised of their own hearts; (1 Kings xii. 33;) and in comparison to the institutions of Christ, and scriptural, apostolical, primitive practice, is as it were but a novelty and of yesterday ?—As to which, the history of the church in most things gives us a precise account of their particular rise and genealogy. In the rest, we may evidently prove by the primitive administrations that then they were not, and afterward find when they were, in use and practice; though the exact moment of their intrusion be not determinable, since they did, sensim sine sensu, secretly" creep in, by the subtle artifice of some, and the sequacious temper of others; and likewise, that the barbarous times of the Goths and Vandals, making fearful havoc of learning and the rare monuments of antiquity, have destroyed many records. But, however, there are great heaps of rubbish and soil, that might easily be scented up to their original stable. Let us but instance in a few. The use of fine linen, prayers in odd numbers, sanctuaries, wax-candles, worship toward the east, ember-days, consecrations, and the Bacchanalia and other feasts turned into the present festivities, —their origin, and [that of] multitudes of others, may be observed out of Polydore,† Innocent III., Durandus's Rationale, and Durantius De Ritibus, Rupertus Tuitiensis, Gavantus, Gratian, Ivo, Blondus, and many others. Give me leave a little to enlarge upon one constitution of the greatest moment, because it is a fundamental amongst them; namely, the decree of the Lateran council under Leo X.: whereby the pope's authority was fully settled, and whence he became exalted above a council, and infallible, and to be adored; as it is in the Caremoniale Romanum, lib. i. p. 51; et lib. iii. p. 286. And it is this: Solum Romanum pontificem pro tempore existentem, tanquam auctoritatem super omnia concilia habentem, &c., manifestè constat : § "It clearly appears," &c., "that the Roman bishop solely, for the time being, as having authority over all councils." And then, p. 121: Cùm de necessitate salutis existat, omnes Christi fideles Romano pontifici subesse: "It is necessary to salvation, that all Christ's faithful ones should be subject to the Roman bishop." This was determined [on] the 14 Kal. Jan. 1516, [December 18th,] within the compass of the same year wherein Luther began to assault them, as may be observed out of Scultetus's "Annals." || Whence we may note what "Homilies of the Church of England," in the third part of the Sermon "against the Peril of Idolatry," fol. 75, B. POLYDORUS VIRGILIUS, Bas. 1532. 1 INNOCENT. § BINII Concil. tom. iv. part ii. Concil. Lateran. SCULTETI Annales, ad annum 1516. III. De Altari, Lips. 1534, &c. |