reproach and obloqâ—y did commonly attend those whose faults were thus displayed to the open view of the whole World they therefore ordered that Delinquents should in the first place consult their Pastor who cognoscing upon the nature of the offence should consider whether it were convenient to declare the same in publick or only to mention it in general without specification of the crime it self There were many also who out of shame shun'd publick confession It came to pass likewise about the Year 260. that when as such as had abandoned themselves to the Apostacy which fell out under the Persecution stir'd up by Decius required to be re-admitted into the Church there were many who withstood their reception alledging that they were not longer capable of re-admission into Her and under that pretence many did separate themselves which made way to the Schisme of the Novatians It was therefore found expedient for avoiding of scandal accrewing to many from publick confessions to change the same into private ones and to that purpose it was decreed that out of their many Pastors they should choose one of a good Conversation a prudent Person and capable of a secret to whom that charge should be committed from thence came the Penitentiaries Howbeit this change happened only at the beginning in the Greek Church for the Western Church retained the Custome of publick confession until the time of Leo Bishop of Rome about the Year 450. Finally whereas publick confession was only of more notorious and enormous Crimes the same being once changed into particular they began to recommend it to practice exhorting the People to confess their very least escapes and defects from the beam to the mote and that more frequently then they were well able to do Now this confession was not of Divine Right nor did Antiquity ever believe it to be such for afterwards to wit about the Year 396. upon occasion of a scandal arising from it it was abolished by Nectorius Bishop of Constantinople that which he would never have attempted had they believed that it was of Divine Institution Neither did it consist in a scrupulous enumeration of all thoughts words and actions which might be accounted faulty for in the Church of Constantinople which was one of the most populous amongst them there was of the whole Clergy but one only Person whose charge it was to receive Confessions which had not been sufficient for so great a multitude had every one been obliged to repair to confession and to render a particular account of all his actions It was not therefore judged needful for obtaining of remission of sin but useful for instruction of the ignorant for consolation to the afflicted for reforming of sinners for resolving of such difficulties as might ripen into a case of Conscience and lastly for counsel to the perplexed Authors of the same Age make mention also of certain Virgins who consecrated themselves to God whereof this is the original The then reigning Persecutions obliged Christians to involve themselves as little as might be in the affairs of the World Now for as much as the liberty of that Profession is frequently fetter'd and infringed with the incumbrances which attend a married state there were many Virgins who with the concurrent advice and consent of their Parents resolved to live in perpetual continency and to joyn themselves with greater strictness then ordinary to Jesus Christ They presented themselves therefore to the Church who with Solemn Prayer recommended them to God and the care of the Poor to them whom they were to succour in their sickness and relieve in their necessities for it was unto such deeds of charity that they devoted themselves But as touching the Vow of Celibacy it was in their own liberty to relinquish that condition when ever it seemed good to them and in case they conceived that they could serve God with greater integrity in a state of Marriage than in that of Virginity the Vows of Continency also were not as yet esteem'd irrevocable We have said that they carried the Eucharist to the Sick and that they administred the same afterwards even to little Children but for as much as those either through infirmity of Body or through tenderness of years could not conveniently receive the Cup they therefore sometimes dipped the Bread in the Wine that so they might receive the whole Sacrament entire for the People both Men and Women did promiscuously communicate under both Signes Now albeit this expedient of soaking or dipping the Bread in the Wine was never practised but in such extraordinary cases yet notwithstanding many affected to make it a general custome introducing it into the ordinary communion of the Church of which usage some Tracts were continued in after time as we shall shew in its proper place Anno 300. c. ABout the Year 300. and afterwards there were many Ceremonies introduced Persecution continued even til then Now behold Emperours who submit their Scepters to Christ's Sheep-hook and throw their Crowns at the Foot of his Cross The Church sprung out of the Ashes of her own Children as yet of a sanguine complexion is received into savour with the great Constantine and hence forth reposing her self under the shade of his Lawrel doth as it were renew her youth she is removed from the Wilderness into Cities from Caves into Palaces from Deserts into Churches and from poverty into plenty and pompous abundance This prosperous change produced divers effects People repaired to the Church in crowdes But yet the simplicity of Christianity did dis-relish many who had still before their Eyes the pomp and magnificence of Paganisme they therefore judg'd it necessary to re-attire Religion with the more splendid and ornamental Ceremonies to the end that through the splendour of her Ornaments she might become the more august and acceptable and like as they had done formerly in compliance with Jews and Gentiles whose only talk was of Sacrifices our Christians gave the Supper the Title of Sacrifice and the Table the Name of Altar Howbeit the Language used then was not meant in that sense which was put upon it afterwards for when ever they mention the Altar they understand the Table which was placed in the midst of the Assembly whereupon they laid the Offerings that were presented by the Faithfull And thus they explain themselves when they speak of the Eucharist Now one of the first occupations that Christians under their respite from persecution busied themselves in was this The Bodies of many of their Martyrs were buried in the wide open Fields or else exposed to the High-ways and their Graves covered with filth and nastiness they began therefore to drag their Bodies out of the places where they were interred and to transport them into Cities in order to a more honourable Sepulture which transportation was performed with some solemnity the whole Church assisting thereat with Singing of Psalms the Coffin covered with a rich Cloath after
A HISTORY OF ANTIENT CEREMONIES CONTAINING An Account â—f their Rise and Growth their first Entrance into the Church and their gradual Advancement to Superstition therein Written originally in French but now for general information and benefit faithfully translated into English The Second Impression Corrected the first being 1668. Mark 7. v. 7 8 9. In vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men for laying aside the Commandment of God ye hold the Tradition of men c. He said likewise unto them Full well do ye frustrate the Commandment of God that ye may keep your own Tradition London Printed in the Year 1669. THE TRANSLATOR to the READER THe Degeneracy of the Church Christian Reader from that Faith which was by the Apostles delivered to the Saints by Christ himself to the Apostles and by God the Father to Christ is matter of sad and serious but seasonable speculation The Primitive Church was by reason of her more immediate Conjunction with the Sun of Righteousness a burning and shining Light but alas How is the Noble Vine become a Degenerate Plant yielding instead of the Clusters of Canaan the wild Grapes of Gomorrah What Tares have there been sown in God's Enclosure What Chaff mixt with his Wheat What store of Wood Hay and Stubble in stead of Gold Silver and precious Stones in his Sanctuary How is Christs Body Mystical become an Ichabod This burning and shining Light becoming successively ever after the first Century and Age of the Church for the space of fourteen hundred years downwards either 1. decayed and remitted cool'd or clouded the Light of Truth eclipsed with its common Bushel Ignorance the heat of Zeal rebated into its ordinary Quench-coal sinful Neutrality and Luke-warmness Or 2. divided and that with no lesse cruelty towards Christs Mystical Body than was used towards the Baptist's natural one she frequently shining when she did not burn or else burning when she did not shine Light and Heat Truth and Zeal very rarely concurring both together at least in any eminent degree in her declining state so that either her Faith was dead being without works the fruits of Zeal or else her Zeal blind being without Knowledge one degree of Faith she Sampson-like losing both sight and life in the Temple of Idols Or 3. and lastly which is worst of all depraved Light and Truth with Error and Heresie Heaâ— and Zeal with the strange Fire of Idoâ—latry and Superstition Jewish-Pagan Rites and Ceremonies the truest Marks of the False Church of Rome many or most of which my self have been an Eye-witness and Spectator of abroad both the one and the other gradually introduced into the Church and vigorously propagated even to an Universal Corruption in matter both of Doctrine and Worship therein especially since the Rise and during the Reign of Antichrist who hath not failed to joyn the Serpent with the Dragon Policy with Cruelty for that end for which very reason our Retreat and Secession from that Adulterous Church should be to speak with St. Jerome a thousand times the dearer and more precious to us and may we in conformity to a higher Oracle never say a Confederacy to her more except upon God's own terms of Accommodation Let her return unto thee but return not thou unto her till that blessed day of power whereon the jealous God zealous for his Truth and Worship raised up and animated those famous Champion-Worthies Luther and Calvin with their fellow-Reformers Wisdom's Advocates as well as Children unto a rescuing of the Truth holden so long in unrighteousness and an earnest contest for the above-named Faith which was once delivered to the Saints dictated by God's own Spirit recorded in his Word and by a continued series succession of his Servants Professors under both Testaments ever since the War was first commenced between the two Seeds without interruption owned and maintained professed preserved propagated and through his good Providence Truth 's chief Guardian happily transmitted and conveyed to us at last God having never left himself without a Witness of his Truth in the Church more then of his Power in the World which they polished and refined and for the hand of the Lord was with them recovered to a considerable degree of primitive light and lustre resolving all into original Authority the Law and the Testimony Howbeit our Adversaries of the Romish Church do ignorantly or insolently charge the Reformed Religion with Enthusiastick Novelty as being of an hundred and fifty years date and of yester-day calculating its Rise by its Resurrection the Sun-rising by a Sun-shine as if its Reformers were its Authours and they Founders where they were only Repairers Whereas themselves do in the mean time like the Gibeonites under colour of the rags and tatters of their superstitious Ceremonies and the dry and mouldy Bread of their corrupt Doctrines pretend to be come from far as if the Antient of Dayes were the Parent of their novel and spurious Brat but we who have consulted the mouth of the Eternal God have not so learned Christ being informed and ascertained by the only Infallible One that how specious plausible to flesh and blood soever their Religion be it being ever as I have observed fuller of carnal and meritricious Allurement than of Argument yet from the beginning it was not so Now Reader being that this ensuing Treatise dedicated under its first Edition by its Anonymus but judicious and sober learned Author to King Charles the First of blessed Memory and under the last with Additions by another very good hand to King Charles the Second our present Soveraign comprehendeth a brief Historical Account of the whole more especially of the Rise and Growth of Church-Rites and Ceremonies their first Introduction into the Church and their gradual propagation and advancement to Superstition in it of the witnesses of Truth all along that dark and tedious Interval of about fourteen hundred years under the greatest Defection Superstition and Torrid Zone of Antichristian Persecution namely Fathers Councils Confessors Martyrs and other pious Zealots and Votaries valiant for the Truth all which died in the Faith and many of them for it the Names and successful Endeavours of the first Reformers those Trees of Righteousness whereby the Waters of the Sanctuary imbittered with Romish Wormwood Revel 8. 11. were sweetned and many other particulars specified in the useful and fruitful Preface prefixed to the Treatise from which I have onely lopt off what I judged to be more luxuriant and superfluous at the beginning of it to which I refer thee so that what is contained in the Writings of Fathers and other Church-Histories as those of Sozomen Eusebius Epiphanius the Magdenburgian Centuriators c. at large is here represented by way of short Compend and Breviary I therefore conceiving the Translation of the same into our Vernacular Tongue a thing more recreative than laborious to be well worthy of my more spare-hours and the perusal thereof
of thine have accordingly effected the same not doubting but that this light Manual may prove amongst us like the Manna amongst the Jews grateful to every palate but what is tainted and fore-stalled with the Babylonish Cup Yet for the better prevention of mistakes and mis-apprehensions which might happily arise from anything herein related or asserted let it suffice and remember that I am not Author but Translator only save in a few explicatory verbal Additions either noted with an Asterism in the Margent or else included within a Parenthesis in the body of the Treatise Tho. Douglas The PREFACE AS touching the benefit dear Reader which may accrue from what is presented to thee in this Treatise and the Additions made thereunto by a person desirous of thy welfare If so be that God hath vouchsafed thee deliverance from Superstition and Error by perusal hereof thou shalt be confirmed in the profession of the Truth but in case thou art still envassalled under the Yoke of Popery thou shalt hereby be given to understand how far thou art enslaved in that bondage thou shalt see that the opiniative adherence of the Jews to Legal Ordinances the invincible Obstinacy of Pagans in pursuit of their superstitious Ceremonies the vain-curious arrogancy of their Philosophers who have affected at the same time to embrace Christianity and to profound by Humane Reason the more sublime Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven and to discourse the same according to their own carnal sense and apprehension have been the persons that laid the Foundation of external Pomp and of those many Heresies which have molested and do still molest the Church of God Add hereunto that proportionably to the encrease of Ignorance and Barbarism through the inundation of Goths and Vandals and I know not what other Barbarous Nations who quite destroyed all good Literature and the constitution of that savage People wholly consisting either of Pagans or Arrians there ensued hereupon a horrid Medley in Religion But which is yet matter of greater wonder during the time that those Barbarians made havock of the Roman Empire and sack'd it in the West the Bishop of Rome to the end that he might proselyte and bring over to himself the former to wit the Pagans permitted them to intermingle many of their own Superstions with Christianity content that they should only change the names of their false Deities into those of the blessed Apostles or those of the Martyrs or Confessors of the Truth it being ever proper to Error readily to entertain what-ever hath any resemblance or affinity with it self and forasmuch as that Pagan People had an extream Veneration for their Prelates this Bishop who had already attain'd to a great sway partly because of the dignity of the City wherein he had his residence as being esteemed the Head of the Empire and partly in regard of the Title of ARCH-BISHOP acquired in the time of Constantine the Great that he might more firmly keep the hold that he had got assumed to himself not only the proud-swelling Title of Pope but likewise that nothing might be wanting to the accomplishment of Prophetick Predictions his Habits of Purple and Scarlet and Ornaments of Gold and Pearl by the relation of Cardinal Baronius himself Clouis the first Christian King sent a Crown of Gold to Pope Hormisda an 514. and ever from that time forwards their Ambition became illimited the conjuncture of Times the impotency and weakness of the Western Emperours and their own particular Civil Interests having greatly contributed to the erection of Papal Authority And for this reason did that Parracide Phocas who murdered the Emperour Mauritius whereupon he usurped the Empire so frankly conferre upon Boniface III. the title of Oecumenick or Universal Bishop to the end that he might maintain his Authority in Italy by recommendation of this same Ecclesiastical Power which was held with the people by reason of their gross Ignorance and Superstition in marvellous esteem This Pope hereby declaring that he made but slight account of the saying of Gregory the Great his Predecessor mentioned in this Treatise namely That He who should assume to himself the title of Universal Bishop should be the Fore-runner of Antichrist that that name of Blasphemy saith he elsewhere ought to be far from the heart of Christians which robs those who possesse the Priesthood of the honour of the same when another doth vainly affect to challenge it to himself that if we be accessary to the maintaining hereof we by so doing corrupt the Faith of the whole Church because as he adds if there be one only Bishop called Universal the whole Church must needs be ruined in the ruine of that one Universal But the Popes were never tardy in closing with offered advantages nor in engrossing of them upon such fair emergent opportunities their Interests being as hath been observed interwoven and twisted with those of Secular Princes Such was the liberality of Pepin and of the Emperour Charles the Great who upon other considerations bestowed upon them the Lieutenancy of Ravenna and the City of Rome that they were in process of time by them effectually promoted to Temporal Monarchies and Principalities In this so horrible a confusion the title of Archbishop which was given to none but those of Rome Constantinople Alexandria Antioch and Jerusalem as will appear hereafter was assumed by the Bishops of the Metropolitan Cities as succeeding therein to the Pagan Arch-Priests like-as Inferiour Bishops to to their Priests aswell in this that they wore after their example a white Mitre enriched with Gold and Pearl as in that they conform'd to them in the exercise of an exorbitant Power for we blame not herein a lawful and well regulated Title nor yet an external Badge of dignity in the Heads of Order so it be free from worldly pomp and vanity and onely used as matter of Order and Decency according to which the Apostle exhorts that all things be done in the Church But contrariwise so far were they from containing of themselves there that nothing might be wanting to a total depravation their shaven and unmarried Priests have affected to imitate those of the Goddess Cybelleo or those of the Goddess Jeses the Religious have in a manner succeeded the Vestal Virgins their holy Water to the Lustral and it is not improbable that their Purgatory according to the description which those of the Romish Church give us of it hath been likewise devised according to the model of that described by Virgil in the 6th Book of his Aeneides and to the great disparagement of the Christian Religion which we cannot mention without extream condolency have the Images of Saints been substituted in the room of Pagan Idols which in imitation of them they array with sumptuous apparel crown with garlands kiss offer incense to present with Tapers and burning Lamps and after the same example carry about upon their shoulders Insomuch that in stead of
demolishing of the Pantheon they have repaired it under another name and so far are they from christianizing of Pagans that they have paganized Christians It were an easie matter might we here expatiate to make those things more fully and exactly to appear as likewise how that many even great and learned persons in the Church of Rome do unanimously accord in the case and having lost all shame do glory in this same Mymmick and Apish substitution but what hath been said may suffice as it were by the way plainly enough to discover them Like-as Pagan Idolatry and Superstition hath been the cause of such a prodigious extravagancy we might likewise with no small probability assert that the Followers of Marcion Arrius Nestorius Eutiches and other Hereticks who marr'd or destroyed the Orthodox Doctrine concerning the Humanity of Jesus Christ were the Authors or Abettors of Transubstantiation and those that made way for the entrance of that gross opinion which is a stone of stumbling both to Jews and Mahometans and the main obstacle that forestalls their closure with the Truth of the Gospel witness on that behalf the famous Averrhoes who said He never found any Religion more absurd than that of those who pretend to make their own God and then to eat him This is the reason why thenceforth taking up a resolution he cryes out I would sooner chuse to die and that my soul might be with the Philosophers than to have any communion with the Christian Communion Whereunto may well be added what is reported by Seiur de Boulaye le Goux in his Travels namely that himself and his companions all Christians being by the Turks immur'd in some certain Prison in Natolia suffered many affronts and injuries from them who unto the rest super added this as the severest of all that they were the Disciples and Worshippers of Mange Dieu the Breaden God These many tumultuary Revolutions and fearful Disturbances that befel the Church which shall be noted hereafter should not notwithstanding scandalize the Faithful this being no other than what was foretold and we know what that dreadful Comination of our Lord is touching the removing of the Candlestick out of his place in those Churches which did not continue in their first works and that of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans whom considering as proselyted from Gentilisme and upon that account calling them the Branches of a wild Olive-tree who were transplanted and ingraffed into the genuine and true Olive namely JESUS CHRIST descended of the Jews according to the flesh in whom all the Promises were made to the Fathers He declares unto them that in case they should through supercilious pride and ambition magnifie and over-advance themselves above the native branches who for their sakes were broken off they might justly expect the like entertainment and non-indulgence But that which is yet more considerable is the grand Apostacy and defection which the Spirit of God has advertised us should happen under the manifestation of the Man of Sin having been pleased in divers places to notifie to us both the time of his Rise and the place of his Residence the colour of his Apparel the number of his Name the nature of his Doctrine even to the very least Circumstances which may any wise tend to a particular designation of him to the end that he might be discerned when exhibited and fellowship with him shunned as being of all things in the world the most pestilential St. Paul informs us that in his time the Mystery of Iniquity should begin to work and that that which should hinder his manifestation should be the then prevailing Power in the Earth upon whose ruines the Kingdom of Antichrist should be erected And it is very probable that this was the main Reason why the primitive Christians ever were so importunate in their prayers to God for the preservation of the Roman Empire as wisely foreseeing that the destruction and overthrow thereof would produce a lamentable revolution in the Church and the revelation of that Man of Sin whereof without all doubt they had some previous advertisement given them by the Apostle â—â—r in the same Chapter where that Propâ—ecy is contained he bespeaks them thus Yâ— know what withholdeth c. and remember you not that when I was yet with you I told ye these things Where out of a holy prudence he expresseth himself in a covert manner left otherwise he might expose himself to the rancour and malice both of Potentates and People who were already but too much fomented and incensed into an opposition to the Faithful This is the very perswasion of the Antient Doctours of the Church touching this matter some of whose Testimonies in regard of the importance of the subject and for justification of our own sense therein we shall here subjoyn Tertullian answering to a Question by himself propounded in the case What else is this saith he than the Roman Empire whose Apostate-party dispersing themselves into ten several Kingdoms shall gain Followers to Antichrist and then shall that Wicked be revealed St. Jerome expresseth himself thus Antichrist shall not appeaâ— till the Roman Empire be destroyed and the Nations revolt from it that which St. Paul durst not speak openly for fear lest by so doing he might have accelerated upon the Church a Persecution which was then but newly hatched St. Chrysostome gives the same reason for it For saith he as long as the dread of that great Empire shall continue no person will with his good will submit himself to Antichrist but when that shall be once overthrown he shall possess himself of the vacant Empire and usurp Dominion over both God and man Furthermore That is well worthy of our consideration which the beloved Disciple of our Lord teacheth us in his first general Epistle namely that in the last time for thus he describes the Gospel-Oeconomy since we ought not to expect any other in which they had learn't that Antich should appear there were already many Antichrists and such in effect were Ebion and Cerinthus who taught that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God nor co-essential with the Father those would have destroyed his Divinity and he who should by way of eminency bear the name of Antichrist being as the same Apostle teacheth guided by the very self-same spirit of impiety and error should endeavour what in him lies the ruine of the truth of his Humanity the glory of his Royalty the dignity of his Priesthood and the excellency of his Prophecy and indeed what less can be said of him who is represented to us as the person that should oppose himself to all that is called God or is worshipped and that even to the being seated in the Temple of God that is to say according as all the Fathers do interpret it the Church of Christ which may give us to understand according to the dialect of Holy Scripture that he
shall therein preside and exercise a Soveraign and Absolute Dominion demeaning himself as if he were God But let us see how the great and famous Lights of Antiquity have expressed themselves in reference hereunto behold how S. Chrysostom speaks in the Temple of God not that which is in Jerusalem but in the Temple of the Churches And Theodoret more particularly The Apostle calls the Temple of God the Churches wherein Antichrist shall possess himself of the first and chief place commanding that he be therein acknowledged for a God But S. Augustin instrusts us herein yet farther Shall his seat be saith he upon the ruines of the Temple of Solomon or rather shall it not be in the Church for the Apostle would never have called the Temple of God the Temple of a Devil and therfore some conceive Antichrist to be a Prince with a great company of attendants and judge that it were more proper to pronounce in the Latin as it is in the Greek into the Temple of God and not in the Temple of God in that he shal be seated as if himself were the Temple of God himself the Church What will this be other then to expel our Lord Jesus Christ his Chair and to deny that he is come in the flesh to be King and Head of the Church to vilify his Priesthood and to deride his sacred Doctrine with a no less then Diabolical Impudency This moreover should be a sign of his coming namely that ten Kings shall begin to reign at the same time having all one and the same Counsel and shall give their Power and Authority to the Apocalyptick Beast which is represented to us drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus and in all probability it is not without some special import that the Holy Ghost doth so plainly distinguish the Witnesses of the Truth into two Bands but that we are to understand by the one those whose blood was shed under the Pagan Emperours by the other those whose blood should be in like manner spilt and poured out under the Tyranical Reign of the grand Enemy of Jesus Christ. His Residence is also noted to be in the great City scituated upon seven Mountains which in St. John's time reigned over the Kings of the Earth which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified in the person of his members and spiritual Babylon which God exhorts his People to come out of lest being partakers of her sins they might likewise receive of her plagues We are informed also that that great Whore should be arrayed with Purple and Scarlet and deck'd with Gold and precious stones having upon her head a name written MYSTERY whereby is insinuated to us that there should be nothing in her but what is altogether secret and mysterious or at least pretended to be such The number of his name 666. is another Riddle in the Mystery of Iniquity which we leave to be read by any that list to undertake it whatever the interpretation of it be whether what Irenaeus others gather from the numeral value and signification of the Greek Characters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latine or somewhat else Finally This Mother of Fornications is represented to us having in her hand a Golden Cup full of Abominations and filthiness of her Fornication for our further instruction namely that she should propound and obtrude such Doctrines as carried with them some outward decorum a gilded and specious outside and of such an enchanting quality and influence as that all the Kings and People in the Earth shall run after her to drink of this her envenomed Cup And that which obliegeth us to stand more strictly upon our guard is Jesus Christ's prediction that many should come in his Name and say Lo here is Christ or lo there is Christ but that we should not believe it that those Impostors should aspire to teach in his Name and make ostentation of their extraordinary gifts mock-miracles and Exorcisms in casting out of Devils by his Authority to whom notwithstanding he should infallibly say to their everlasting confusion in that great day whereon he is to judg the quick and the dead I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity But behold an Advertisement well-worthy of our most serious consideration which the Spirit of God hath given us in these terms Now the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith giving themselves up to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils speaking lies in hypocrisie having their consciences cauterized forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created for them which believe and know the Truth to be received with thanksgiving Henceforth a Believer should be greatly deficient to his duty should he not narrowly examine all those Circumstances and Marks of that grand Apostacy and Defection whereof God hath given so accurate and exact an enumeration and arm himself with matter both of Caution â—nd Confidence where-ever he shall chance to meet with them resolving to shun the company of all that bear those Marks in their foreheads or bear any cursed conformity thereunto Christians as many of you as embrace the Faith of a stranger if ye belong indeed to the Flock of the Lord Jesus hearken to the Voice of that good Shepherd and know that his Prophetick Spirit hath not declared those things unto us in vain take occasion from hence to glorifie God who hath made known unto us his Counsels in his Word wherein whatsoever is contained was written for our instruction that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope There be who conceal the truth of those Oracles of God fomenting in you malicious prejudices against such as do in strictness adhere thereunto They tell you that the Word of the living God is no more than a dead letter whereas it is no less than the very Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth that it is obscure notwithstanding what the Royal Prophet hath taught us namely that it is a lamp to our feet and a light unto our paths and that Man after God's own heart hath employed the greatest part of his Divine Hymns in magnifying of those Celestial Rayes and that Admirable Splendour which is universally refulgent in all its parts They presume moreover to taxit of Imperfection and Insufficiency notwithstanding those glorious surpassing Elogies given it by the great Apostle of the Gentiles S. Paul namely that it is inspired of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction and for Instruction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect and thorowly furnished to every good workâ— They alledge that it is not the common peoples part to reade it albeit our Lord Jesus Christ hath said in express terms Search diligently the Scriptures
Supper nor of Images in Temples nor of an Vniversal Bishop in the Church nor of Souls in Purgatory nor of a Queen in Heaven Then the Spouse of Christ in all her more glorious apparel had no greater Ornament then that she was without Ornament and the mystical Jerusalem instead of glittering with pompous Ceremonies shone with purity of Doctrine and sanctity of Life But when once God had received up into a higher Orb of glory those great Luminaries which did illustrate and besparkle the Firmament of his Church the sacred Band of the Apostles once removed out of this lower World and the Generation which had the honour to be the eternal Wisdoms immediate Ear-witnesses dislodg'd of their secular Mansion then was there a Door opened to Humane Inventions for those who succeeded them in that work though they retained the same Foundation yet did in stead of Gold Silver and precious Stones build with Wood Hay and Stubble Howbeit the Disease grew not so soon to that extremity which it afterwards acquired this so universal and prodigious an alteration was not brought to pass in an instant nor yet by one only Instrument the current of many Ages the Introduction of new terms the Pomp of Paganisme the weakness of Opponents the ignoranee of the People the connivance of their Teachers the suppression of religious Books worldly prudence and superstitious zeal did with a kind of emulation contribute hereunto erecting by little and little that Tower of Babel even to the very Pinnacle of iniquity and like as in Nebuchadnezar's Statue the head was of gold the arms and breast of silver the thighs of brass and the legs and feet of iron and earth even so when we reflect upon the Visage of the ancient Church it appears to have been altogether pure as Gold but according as we descend to subsequent Ages we may perceive therein a plain palpable declension and degeneracy until at last we arrive at an Age of Iron and stuff quite different from the first This Innovation was commenced from things which might have been judg'd in and of themselves matters purely indifferent had not the sequel prov'd fatal and pernicious they having been advanced from an indifferency to superstition for they were for the most part usefull observances for the time then being but in after times ill explained and worse applyed They made their first entrance into the Church in the second Century or Age thereof that is to say about the hundred and tenth year of our Redemption Those of them who are the most remarkable do here ensue all related according to the order of time respectively wherein they had their rise Anno 110. c. IT being customary with the Jews when ever they made their solemn appearances before God always to carry along with them some present or other in their hands especially of the fruits of the Earth in token of homage acknowledgment the ancient Christians wherof a great part was descended of the Jews followed that example insomuch that at their publick Assemblies every one brought along with him a certain quantity of Bread and Wine or of the first fruits thereof in corn grains or grapes which were sanctified and consecrated to God by prayer afterwards of this same Bread and Wine they apportion'd one part for the Communion of the holy Supper another was eaten in common for the Agapes or Love-feasts were continued after the Days of the Apostles and the Surplusage was either distributed amongst the poor or else did of proper right appertain to Ecclesiastick Persons Those presents testified the devotion of the givers insomuch that this charity beginning by degrees to wax cold the Doctors exclaim'd and severely inveighed against the rich in that though themselves brought nothing with them yet they were not ashamed to eat their share of what was contributed by the poorer sort Now the gifts thus presented by the People were called Offerings From thence it came to pass also that the Eucharist was sometimes called a Sacrifice or an Oblation not expiatory but gratulatory only for the Fathers of that Age say that They offered to God the first fruits of his Creatures which words cannot be understood of the Body of Jesus Christ howbeit they served for a pretence afterwards for changing of the Supper into a real Sacrifice Amongst the other Innovations of those times we should likewise recount the mixture of Water with Wine in the Eucharist a practice which was never authorized either by the Sacramental Institution nor yet by Apostolick Ordinance It might nevertheless have been tolerated as a matter of indifferency but at this day it is reckoned amongst things necessary There was another custome foisted in at the same time for they judged it advisable to carry the Eucharist to such as were not present in the Assembly more especially to the sick likewise in case any Bishop or any other Person of Quality being a stranger had arrived at their Cities they presented them with some of the Sacramental Bread and Wine congratulating them by that symbol of Fraternal communion It was also an usual thing with them when publick Prayers were ended to kiss one another interchangeably with a holy kiss in token of peace and brotherhood After that they proceeded to levy censures against those who prayer ended did frustrate themselves of this same kiss of peace which was amongst them a signal of Reconciliation but is at this day changed into a ridiculous Ceremony There were at the same time divers Fasts introduced not under the notion of any Ordinance or necessary observance nor yet by way of distinction of Meats blood excepted and things strangled the use oâ— which was prohibited for a time but oâ—â— of custome only and that proceeding noâ— from the publick Authority of the Church but from the simplicity of private persons for in case any had made distinction oâ— meats for conscience-sake forbearing thâ— use of Flesh and Wine and thus prejudiced their health by immoderate fasting or would have had the Church tyed to particular Laws and prescription of the times duration and forms of fasting Antiquity without all peradventure would have suppressed such as appears by the instance of that Arch-heretick Montanus whom it condemned for attempting in like manner to stifle and infringe Christian liberty It was the custome of most Churches at that time to hold their Assemblies upon Wednesdays Fridays in order to the celebration of the Sacraments and publick Prayer and that they might be the better prepared for due attendance thereupon they gave themselves to fasting upon those days this they did not that they believed fasting to be essential to holiness for they rejected the Fast of the Sabbath-Day which yet was the prime day of their religious exercises But there was an anniversary Fast which they celebrated before the Feast of Easter whence the Quadragetimal time proceeded and it is of importance to know what
c. should thereupon be incapable of any Ecclesiastick charge or office Now those prejudications were transfer'd from particular Synods to that general one of Nice wherein it was debated whether it were convenient to oblige Church-men to abstinency from marriage most votes carried it in the affirmative but Paphnutius a Person of great renown and a sufferer for the Gospel one who was never married standing up opposed that determination judging according to Scripture that marriage is honourable in all His opinion prevailed and was approved of by the whole Assembly which yet decreed that such as were received already into the number of the Clergy being as yet unmarried should not marry at all This Decree was not founded upon any Law but upon custome only and that not universally received for after this Council many famous Bishops married St. Hilary Gregory Nyssene Gregory Nazianzen the Father of St. Basil the great and a great many more Ecclesiasticks were married during their Episcopacy howbeit there be many who so much magnify Celibacy as that they obtrude it for a thing necessary Anno 350. c. IF we proceed a little further we shall meet with a new tearm in the Latine Church whereof yet the sense hath been changed The Sermon being finished they celebrated the Eucharist But now there were three sorts of Persons who were not permitted to be present at that action namely the Catechumenes who were not as yet sufficiently instructed in the mysteries of Religion the Penitents who were not as yet received into the peace of the Church and Daimoniacks such as were possessed with Devils Sermon ended the Deacon intimated to all such that it behoved them to withdraw dismissing them in these tearms Ite missa est which word being only valedictory signified the Conge or solemn leave taken of them and was no wise understood in that sense which is at this day put upon it In succeeding Ages all the publick Exercises of the Church were called Massâ—s because they were all concluded with an Orison immediatly following upon the â—issa that is to say the Conge or Valediction Anno 370. c. YEt was not this tearm so dangerous as the new Rhetorick which they begun soon after to display The Church celebrated the memorial of the Saints by a simple recital of their virtues and by exhorting of every one to an imitation thereof To those Panegyricks they added the Ornaments of Language the great Orators with whom the Chairs were then well furnished producing what ever the Rules of Eloquence to them suggested Thus about the Year 370. in the Commemoration of the Martyrs they began to use Prosopopeias and Apostrophees one of them declaims in this manner Hear yee People yee that live already and yee that are as yet unborn hear likewise thou Soul of great Constantine if so be there be any sense in thee c. for saith he I am constrained to bespeak him just as if he were present and as if he were one of the Auditory The same Author in the second Oration which he makes upon the same subject directs his Speech to the Soul of Julian the Apostate which yet he believed to be in Hell There is then a vast difference between those oratorions Apostrophees and the Invocation of Saints a Figure of Rhetorick and an act of worship and yet was this strain of Oratory a prelude to a gross ensuing abuse for after this example did the ignorant People begin by little and little to address their requests to Saints departed as if their rude dialect or meaning had been to them intelligible But we must remark that neither then nor for a long time after was the Invocation of Saints practised in the Church but on the contrary this superstitious Brat hatcht by the cacozealous fervour of a few private Persons was condemned as illegitimate by the Doctors of that age who teach that the Saints are indeed advanced to true honour and rest in glory but yet ought not to be by us magnified beyond what is convenient that the Sacred Virgin was never intended for an object of adoration but that the luxuriant honour to her ascribed did proceed from some superstitious Females â— silly Women accomplices with such as in Jeremiah's time worshipped the Queen of Heaven that the comparison made by those who urge the example of Kings to whom addresses are usually made by the intervention of Courtiers or Officers is altogether impertinent like as some Hereticks of those times especially in the Province of Phrygia had their recourse to God by the mediation of Angels having amongst them the Oratories of St. Michael this Invocation of Angels was also condemned of Heresie by the Council of â—â—aodicea held about the year 368. In those times many Persons what through curiosity what through zeal resorted to the places where the more eminent Martyrs were inter'd for we have seen how carefull the Church was in collecting of their Bones yea in transporting them from remote places and disposing of them to magnificent Sepulchres It was a meer natural affection that prompted every one with a curious desire to see those Bodies which were sometime the Temples of the holy Ghost this is the reason why St. Chrysostome said I esteem of the City of Rome not because of the Pillars of Marble but because of the Pillars of the Church therein the Bodies of St. Peter supposed to have been there and St. Paul who can afford me at present the favour of being stretched out all along upon the Body of St. Paul Of being nailed to his Sepulchre Of beholding the dust of that Body which bore the marks of the Lord Jesus and that mouth by which Christ himself spoke I covet to see the Sepulchre wherein is inclosed that armour of righteousness that armour of light those members which still live and were dead whilst living I covet to see those Chains those bonds c. The intent then of those visits was that they might be confirmed in the same Faith for which those Martyrs suffered that so they might have part in the same Resurrection and this they besought God for by Prayer poured out over their Sepulchres Now those places became the more famous by reason of a rumour spread that miracles were wrought by their means for Arrianisme being then become very general it is possible that God might at that time have confirmed by miracles the Orthodox Faith Howbeit so it was that this perswasion drew the People to those Sepulchres but Superstition at the same time followed thereupon for then began the belief that there was a kinde of Divine vertue subjected in those Reliques prevalent against the maladies of the Soul as well as those of the Body It was generally believed that the Bodies of the Saints were as so many tutelâ—ry Guardians and Fortresses to the Cities wherein they were kept in so much that every one coveted to have some of them and for
Prayer and thanksgiving for the Church prayed for the believing and unbelieving for Magistrates for friends and foes for present and absent for Penitents for Demoniacks and in general for the whole World Now that they might excite the People to the greater fervency in Prayer the Pastour used this Exhortation Sursum corda Lift up your hearts on high whereunto they gave this only Answer Habemus ad Dominum We yield them to the Lord for in the whole action they invoked none other than God In this age were likewise introduced as we have said Letanies or Rogations first in the Eastern Church and afterwards in the Western the Pestilence at Constantinople and the Earth-quakes at Lyons and adjacent places administring the occasion hereof From thence they were extended upon the like occurrences throughout the whole both East and West now behold the Form of the same They digested into certain Articles the publick calamities and necessities praying for the peace from on high and the salvation of Souls for the prosperity of Gods holy Churches for both Clergy and People for higher Powers and the peace of the whole World for that Province and City for the fruitfulness of the Earth for health for such as were engaged in a journey or voyage for the sick for the imprisoned c. every one of those Articles being pronounced with a loud voice by the Pastour the People answered to each thereof Kyrie Eleison Lord have mercy upon us They afterwards added other clauses but the Invocation of Saints had no place in those Letanies One Peter Gnapheus or Foulon Patriarch of Antioch was the first that foisted the same into the Prayers of the Church about the year 470. And we must note that this Person was corrupted with the Eutychian Heresie for which he was condemn'd by the fifth General Council thus did Superstition which at first was only private become publick at last and the Commemoration of Saints was changed into Invocation insomuch that in stead of addressing their discourse to the living in order to their imitating of the Saints they now direct it to the Saints in the behalf of the living howbeit this same Invocation of Saints was at the beginning used only by the Greeks for the Latine Church received it not till above an hundered and twenty years after as we shall also see in due time and place Anno 490. LEt us conclude this fifth Century with an observation which offered it self about the same time It hath been said that many had at the celebration of the Eucharist introduced the custome of soaked or dipt Bread for the benefit of such as could not use the Cup. This usage was condemned by Julius Bishop of Rome about the year 340. Howbeit in the Church of Rome the Priest doth still dip a moiety of the Hoste in the Wine of the Chalice adding at the same time that this immersion conduceth to eternal life in the receivers This expedient so generally used carries in it a demonstrative evidence that Antiquity gave the Communion under the two species chusing much rather in an exigence wherein they could no better order it to give soak'd or steep'd Bread then to administer the Sacrament under that only species Now about the year 440. the Manichees who held Wine in abomination as the Turks do at this day attempted to introduce the Communion under one only species And whereas there were many in the Church tainted with that heresie they were discerned by this token that they made some hesitation about receiving of the Chalice This superstition was suppressed towards the year 490. by Pope Gelasius who ordained that they should either receive the Sacrament whole and entire or else wholly abstain from and forbear it conformably to what was decreed by Leo his Predecessour who impeached of Sacriledge all those who repulse the Cup of redeeming blood an Ordinance which condemns the mutilation of the Sacrament introduced in after-time by the Romish Church Anno 500. c. WE are now arrived at the year 500. The Historical use of Images was received into Churches which was the only use that Christians applyed them to for above an hundred years after their first introduction but now the People began to degenerate into abuse herein and Images were advanced from contemplation to veneration Many Bishops willing to suppress this Idolatry caused them to be broken into pieces within their several Diocesses but the popular torrent prevailing over their zeal this same abomination inforced by custome was in fine authorized by those whose part it was to reform it but a long time after as we shall shew in its proper place Let us take a view of some innovations which came to pass at the same time Anno 528. AMongst the many other Miracles practised in the Church in the time of the Apostles the anointing of the sick was one by vertue whereof they recovered bodily health Now howbeit the gift of Healing was together with other Miracles become antiquated yet did some Hereticks affect to retain the use of this same Vnction though now vacated of its pristine efficacy addressing it to another end for about the year 180. the Valentinians anointed their sick with Oile when ever they perceived them to be under the approach of death adding thereunto certain Prayers pretending that the same did conduce to soul-salvation This superstition found no entertainment save amongst some certain Hereticks the Church ever having it in detestation But about the year 528. Felix IV. Bishop of Rome instituted extream Vnction which was afterwards amplified with Ceremonies and received in the quality of a Sacrament Now from what source it sprung is no hard matter to determine Anno 535. TOwards the year 535. Agapet I. ordained Processions before Easter Feast for which they give this goodly reason For as much say they as after the Resurrection of our Lord the Angels said to the Women Tell the Disciples that he goeth before you into Galilee Now from this Procession of Easter those of the Sabbath-Days did afterwards proceed Anno 536. VIgilius his Successour ordained that those that celebrated the Mass should direct their Faces towards the East and from thence it came to pass that Altars for the most part were all turned Eastwards To this Vigilius is likewise attributed the Feast of Purification or Candlemass whereof they give this account The Pagans were wont in the beginning of February to celebrate the Feast of Proserpina with burning Tapers now for a diversion from this piece of Pagan-impiety they instituted the same day and the same thing in honour of the Virgin Mary Anno 600. COrruption was now become universal and nothing is henceforth to be seen but horrour we shall only run over the more principal The most notable change that befell Religion came to pass towards the year 600. This time was very dark the Sun of Truth over-clouded and the brightest Stars fell from Heaven Then was
Leo the Second changed this symbole of reconciliation into a superstitious vanity instituting that Plate of Silver or Copper which after Consecration is presented to be kissed And in this very particular one may perceive how much the antient Ceremonies have been either diverted or perverted through successive alterations therein Anno 790. BUt behold the Idolatry which under the vail of darkness was propagated in the Church even to the very Sanctuary Images were only as so many memorative objects in Churches yet did the vulgar begin to exhibit honour to them whereupon disputes were commenced In this difference reasons of State offered themselves which are to be seen in History for upon other accounts are Images pretended in subserviency to their interest The Latines and the Greeks and afterwards the Greeks amongst themselves took occasion from hence of much altercation one while demolishing and breaking down the Images another while re-erecting of them Finally Irene Empress of Constantinople a Pagan both by Nation and Religion a Woman of many notorious enormities assembled a Council at Nice excluding from it the best Doctors and employing menaces violence and all manner of artifice whereby she might compass her design Thus this Conventicle moulded and model'd according to her own mind producing instead of offers of reason nothing but impertinencies in behalf of the Images concluded upon adoration contrary to the judgment of all solid Antiquity and the opposition then generally made to a piece of such palpable impiety For at the same time the Emperour Charles the great converted a Council at Frankefort wherein that of Nice was condemned being declared false and abusive and the Decree touching Images incassated and made null thus was their resolved Adoration suppressed But being that Images were always continued in Churches this Superstition whereunto the People were strongly inclined did at last recover it self and prevail This second Council of Nice was held towards the year 790. Anno 880. POpe Adrian was the first that advised the Canonization of Saints imitating herein the Apotheoses or Consecrations used amongst the Romans under Paganism a thing which till then was unheard of in the Church The Authority of canonizing Saints was afterwards confirmed by Decree as we shall see in its proper place Anno 965. POpe John IV. baptized the great Bell of St. John Lateran in Rome nameing it after his own name Thence came the custome of baptizing Bells and giving them names Anno 1000. c. FRom the time above mentioned till about the year 1000. those corruptions were not only continued but likewise gradually multiplied To the consecration of Churches they added sprinkling of holy Water with a Nose-gay of Hyssop pronouncing these words of the Psalmist Attollite portas c. Lift up your Gates c. the Bishop in the mean time rapping at the Gate with his Pastoral-staff the mingling of the Ashes and Water of the Salt and the Wine of Exorcisme of painted and graven Characters and certain confused Prayers Finally the anniversary Feast of every Church in memory of the day of its dedication And like as the Sacrament of the Eucharist was changed into a Sacrifice even so the Priests which were called to preach the Gospel were then ordained to sacrifice they began to create them with these words Accipe potestatem c. Receive thou power to offer sacrifice to God to celebrate Masses as well for the living as for the dead Anno 1003. POpe John xix instituted the Feast of All-Souls appointing it to be celebrated upon the Morrow after All-Saints Anno 1050. BUt behold the summe of the whole matter That they might defend the Sacrifice which they pretend to offer in the Mass they behoved to deny the whole Essence of the Sacrament and falsify and bely all that ever Antiquity hath believed in the case whose sense and several judgments therein do here ensue S. Ignatius Bishop of Antioch and a Disciple of the Apostles in the 72 d. year of our Lord expresseth himself thus There is one only Flesh of our Lord Jesus and one only blood which was shed for our sins one only Bread also was broken for us and one only Cup was distributed to us Could he possibly make a more manifest opposition between the Body of Christ broken upon the Cross and the Bread broken in the Supper Justin Martyr towards the year 130. Our Christ hath vouchsafed to make and use the Sacramental Bread in Commemoration of his Body formed for such as believe in him for whose sake he became passible the Cup also he ordained to be made and used with thanksgiving in Commemoration of his Blood Ireneus Bishop of Lyons in the year 160. When once the Chalice being fill'd and the Bread being broken hath received the benedictive word of God it becomes the Sacrament of the Blood and Body of Christ whereby the substance of our flesh is augmented and compounded Certainly none can say that our flesh is augmented nor compounded of the real flesh and blood of Christ but only of the substance of the bread which this Father plainly acknowledgeth to continue in the Eucharist even after the Consecration of the same Clemens Alexandrinus in the year 190. Christ took of the Wine and blessed the Wine saying take drink This is my blood the blood of the Vine denominating by way of Allegory the Word which shed his blood for the remission of sins a sacred liquor of joy and gladness c. Now that that which he blessed was true Wine he further sheweth saying to his Disciples I will drink no more of the fruit of the Vine c. This very same reason do we urge to prove that they drank Wine at the Supper Briefly it is remarkable that he disputes against the Encratites who held the drinking of Wine to be unlawfull alledging for their conviction the example of Jesus Christ who drank Wine at the Supper which were a ridiculous Argument if so be Wine had ceased to be Wine after that Christ had drank thereof Tertullian in the year 205. doth thâ—s explain the words of Jesus Christ This is my Body that is to say the Figure of my Body Moreover Jesus Christ called Bread his Body to the end that thou might'st thereby understand that he appointed Bread to be the Figure of his Body Cyril Bishop of Jerusalem in the year 320. declares to us that The Flesh is now absent and that that which we are commanded to tast of is the Figure of his Body and Blood Eusebius Bishop of Cesarea saith that our Lord hath taught us to serve him with Bread as a sign of his Body Gregory Bishop of Nazianze in the year 350. in his second Oration concerning Easter speaketh thus of Sacramental participation We partake indeed of the Christian Pass-over in a Figure albeit more clearly than at the ancient Pass-over for the ancient Pass-over I dare say so was a more obscure figure of a Figure Macairus the
as an Article of Faith In pursuance of this Decree it was ordered that all Churches should be furnished with a Cabinet for a conservatory to lodge and keep the Hoste in whereas formerly what remained after the Communion was either burnt or else given to be eaten by little Children or lastly the Clergy immediatly dispatch't it It was then therefore that the use of Pixes began Anno 1220. 1230. HOnorius III. did for the same reason about the year 1220. institute the adoration of the Hoste and Gregory IX added the little Bell thereby to advertise every one of kneeling About the same time the Chaplets or Pater nosters which were invented by Peter the Hermite as hath been said above were put in use at the recommendation of Dominicus the Founder of the Jacobins who for this very reason passeth for the Author of that goodly piece of devotion Anno 1245. THe Council of Lyons in the year 1245. ordained that Cardinals should wear red-Hats and scarlet-Clokes Anno 1250. NOw Transubstantiation when authorized was attended with this sequel and conclusion ensuing thereupon namely that The Laity ought to rest contented with the Hoste being that the blood of Christ is contained in it as well as in the Chalice But this was not received without debate insomuch that many Churches along time after retained the two species as necessary Nevertheless this rape and retrenchment of the Cup in the Communion of Laicks was afterwards universally extended and finally authorized by Decree as will yet further appear In the mean time that they might in some kind gratify the People they introduced the custome of giving them Wine to wash their mouth withall instead of that portion of the Sacrament which they had most sacrilegiously rob'd them of Anno 1260. THe adoration of the Hoste being introduced Vrban IV. upon the pretended Revelation of a Nun in the Province of Liege instituted the Feast of God with its Octaves and Thomas Aquinas composed the Office Anno 1300. BOniface VIII instituted and celebrated the first Jubilee ordaining that for the future it should be solemnized from one hundred years to another but Clemens VI. reduced it to fifty Gregory XI to thirty three and finally Paul II. to twenty five Anno 1360. ABout the year 1360. began the custome of walking the Hoste and of tarrying it under a Canopy in Procession Those of Pavy were the first practitioners hereof after whose example the same was used all over Christendome Anno 1366. URban V. sent in Lent to Joanna Queen of Sicily a Rose of Gold and made a Decree whereby he ordained the Consecration of the like every year upon the Lent-Sunday called Laetare Anno 1414. BEfore the Council of Constance held in the year 1414. the Communion of the Laicks under one only signe was practised more through Toleration than Authority But that Council enacted a Decree touching the same whose tearmes and tenour full of sacriledge and impiety should strike all true Christians with horrour behold how it was framed Though Christ did after Supper institute and administer to his Disciples the venerable Sacrament under thâ— two signes of bread and wine and in the prâ—mitive Church it was so observed yet thiâ— notwithstanding the custome of the Churcâ— should be held for a Law who hath commanded under pain of excommunication that thosâ— who offend against this Decree by giving thâ— Communion to the People under the two speâ—cies and preach to them the equity of thâ— same be effectually punished and dealt with all as Hereticks by delivering them up tâ— the Secular Power whose assistance shall bâ— employed to that effect This was that very Council who to justify their perjury iâ— the case of John Huss whom contrary tâ— publick Faith they caused to be burnt passed and propagated it for a Maxim that Faith ought not to be kept with Hereticks Anno 1458. POpe Calixtus III. ordained that they should ring a Bell at the Hour oâ— Mid-day like as they did in the Evening for an All-hail to the Virgin Mary to thâ— end that such as were engaged in continual War with the Turks might bâ— assisted by this kind of Devotion Anno 1470. ONe Alane de la Roch of the Order of the Jacobins moved by certain Visions invented the Rosary of the Virgin Mary which was by Sixtus IV. afterwards approved Illimited Superstition had infallibly advanced yet further and it is to be feared had at last quite oppressed and as it were stifled the Christian Religion under the insupportable burden of Ceremonies had not God in his mercy in some sort renewed the Light of his Word by the Preaching and Doctrine of Luther Zuinglius Melancthon Bucer Calvin and many other excellent personages whom his Providence raised up to rescue the same from under that Bushel which did so wofully eclipse it and to disentangle it from the bryars of School-Divinity and from the corrupt Glosses of Decretalists and other Doctors and Assertours of Papal Authority although that even hitherto God who never left himself without a witness aswel in the work of Grace as in that of Nature did from time to time successively stir up faithful Witnesses and Confessours of his Truth who alwayes have withstood the Errours and Novelties introduced into their Religion whence we cannot better conclude this Treatise than by way of succinct representation of the prime Defenders of this same Heavenly Faith Anno 792. IT hath been already observed what their several judgements were untill the seventh Age touching divers points controverted at present between us and those of the Church of Rome and amongst others particularly that of the Eucharist and likewise in the matter of Images unto which Article we shall only add That from the year 792. the Synod of Grenado in Spain did equally condemn both usage and veneration that the Emperour Charles the Great over and above the result of the Council of Frankfort by him assembled caused a Book bearing his own name to be printed in opposition to that abuse and that Claudius Bishop of Turine and many other excellent Doctors did then publish divers Treatises in order to the expugning and subverting of the same Anno 826. WAlfrid Abbot of St. Gal in his Book of Divine Offices doth severely inveigh against superfluous Ceremonies and Images as also against Divine Service in a strange and unknown tongue saying that the Apostles never celebrated the Eucharist with the Canon nor the Offertory nor yet several other pieces which the Greeks and Latines have forged at their own pleasure and that they were contented with the addition only of the Lord's Prayer to the words of Institution But it is a long time ago since Rome attempted to impose her Yoke upon the whole Earth since from the year 723. as is reported by Aventine Gregory II. sent one Winfrid whom he had created Primate and Archbishop of all the Countries on the other side the Rhine to preach inform reform those Churches after the
as the whole Kingdome of Bohemia was through means of their Preaching and Doctrine reduced from obedience to the Pope and the Ceremonies of the Romish Church the Council of Constance required King Wenceslaus to send the said Huss thither to whom the Emperour Sigismond gave very ample Letters of safe-conduct to the end that he might not scruple to surrender himself yet notwithstanding without any regard had thereunto he was within twenty six dayes after his arrival committed to Prison and after an hard and tedious incarceration most unjustly condemned to be burnt alive as an Heretick howbeit he had clearly demonstrated to them the truth of his Doctrine by the Word of God and the pregnant Testimonies of Christian Antiquity in pursuance whereof he maintained that the Church of Rome had departed from the Doctrine of the Apostles in pursuit of the riches and delights of the world hunting after Dominion and Primacy embezeling Church-goods which did of proper right belong tâ— the Poor in pomps and filthy and infamous expences confounding herewith the Ordinances of God or at leastwise guilty of a voluntary and deliberate contempt of the same That the Pope hath no such Authority as he challengeth over the Church and that Indulgences are null That the Bread and the Wine remain untransubstantiated in the Supper and that the Communion should be equally distributed to all under both kinds That there is no such thing as Purgatory That Saints departed ought not to be invoked nor Images worshipped and that all those things with their like appendants have no other foundation than that of the corruption and vanity of a humane spirit But forasmuch as the Truth doth ever purchase hatred from the Wicked as being naturally averse and adverse thereunto this was the cause of that cruel usage which he met withall from his Enemies which he endured with a truly Christian-Constancy rehearsing as he was going to the place of Execution or rather of Triumph diverse verses of the Psalms especially of the 31st and 51st and oftentimes these words taken partly out of the 31st I recommend my spirit into thy hands for thou hast redeemed me Lord Jesus thou God of Truth and as the Executioner was setting fire to the Faggots he said three times with a strong and loud voice Jesus Christ thou Son of the living God have mercy upon me Thus did this holy Martyr finish all his labours resigning his soul to God upon the 6th of July 1415. That other faithful Witness of the Truth Jerome of Prague did likewise seal the same with his blood upon the 30th of May 1416 after many sharp conflicts with his Adversaries whom he confounded and struck dumb with the same weapons namely the Word of God and the Testimonies of the ancient Doctors of the Church being endued with an admirable eloquence and vigour of spirit He encountred death with such an extasie of joy that when-as they began to kindle the Faggots he began to sing Divine Praises with a holy hymn which by the very relation of Aeneas Sylvius who was afterwards Pope called Pius II and of Pogius of Florence who was one of the Spectators he continued in the midst of the flames till that his blisfull soul took wing for Heaven there to bear a part in the harmonious new Song in the presence of its Saviour and the company of Angels and all the Saints and faithfull ones whose tears are all for ever wip'd away in that beatisick Sabbatism of Glory and eternal bliss But what shall we say more for the time would fail us should we instance in all who after those two saithful Witnesses espoused the defence of the same Truth which the greatest part of them have as they before them sealed with their blood We behoved to make mention of that great Assembly of persons at Doway in the year 1421 who held the Doctrine of the Waldenses of whom a great number as is reported by Monstrelet was sacrificed to the flames of William White and Alexander Fabrice English-men who in the year 1429 wrote in the defence of Wickliff's Doctrine which Reynauld Peacock Bishop of Chichester in like manner maintained in the year 1457. We behoved likewise to shew that George Poggebrach King of Bohemia together with his Subjects owned to the day of his death the profession of the Truth against the Determinations of Rome and that the King of Poland stood inclined to its defence Likewise that in the year 1480 John of Vessalia Basil of Groningue Stephen Bralfer and Paul Notary of Tubinge Doctors in Divinity did in like manner in Germany withstand the Doctrine of the Romish-Church for controlling of whose vanity and many corruptions Jerome Savonarole was burnt at Florence in the year 1498 notwithstanding which John Francis Picus Count of Mirandula failed not to write in his behalf and in like manner to reprehend the very same abuses That in the year 1505 Paul Scriptoris did in his Lectures in the University of Tubinge publickly declaim against Transubstantiation And that in the year 1507 Thomas More of Brockford an English-man was burnt at Norwich for preaching against the then prevailing Superstitions of the Church We behoved moreover to produce that goodly Confession presented in the year 1508 to King Vladislaus by the persecuted Waldenses in Hungary which was exactly conformable to that of the Protestant and Reformed Churches And likewise observe all that is recorded by that great Lawyer Charles du Moulin in his History of the French Monarchy on purpose to give the World to understand what reception the Doctrine and Life of those of Cabrieres and Merindol found with King Lewis XII which gave such ample satisfaction to that great Prince as that upon the report therein made to him of the same he swore that they had more goodness and worth in them than himself and all his subjects besides Finally we behov'd in like manner for the honour of that incomparable Monarch to add how that after the example of Philip the Fair one of his Predecessors he quell'd the sauciness and petulancy of Julius II who had excommunicated him having assembled a Council at Pisa in order to the reforming of the Church both in its Head and Members and caused batter the Golden Species with this Inscription PERDAM BABYLONIS NOMEN C A D. I will utterly destroy the name of Babylon and had not injurious Death suddenly snatch'd him away he had undoubtedly put an happy essay to a thorow Reformation But enough of that we being now arrived at Anno 1517. MArtin Luther together with those his Contemporaries whom God raised up for the same work did in this year strike that great blow which did so mightily shake the Papal Power and restore to Soveraign Princes who heretofore trembled under the Censures of Rome that lawful though controll'd Authority which they hold of none but God himself and this was so marvellous that after that time the greatest part of Germany the
Kingdoms of England Scotland Ireland Swedland Denmarke and Norway the most rich and potent Provinces of the Low-Countries the illustrious Cantons of Switzerland a considerable part of France Poland Lithuania Hungary Bohemia Silesia Moravia Austria Transilvania Prussia and Livonia not to reckon those secret and hidden ones who await the time of their Redemption in Italy Spain and other Regions wherein the Light of the Truth hath not as yet scattered the thick Clouds of Popish Darknesse that the greatest part I say of those Kingdoms and Republicks were from that time forward wholly emancipated and disengaged from under the bondage of Papal both Power and Error which amongst many others hath been likewise rejected by a great number of their own authors or abettors sufficient proof that it was the Divine Hand of Omnipotency that gave those signal blows captivating all those thoughts and imaginations under the yoke of his obedience In case our Adversaries alleage 1. That those whom God raised up for this great and glorious work of Reformation were so inconsiderable as that there is no manner of respect due to such abject and inglorious Instruments And 2. being the business which they attempted was of such an extraordinary nature they ought to have wrought Miracles for authorizing of the same It is no hard matter to assoyl those Objections In the first place then for satisfaction to the former We grant indeed that there is but little or nothing at all of excellency in them being considered in and of themselves but if they be eyed with respect to the manutenency of Him who set them to work they are no wise base or contemptible There needs no more but the smart of a silly Insect to quell and confound the pride of Pharoah and extort from him a confession of the Finger of God who that the Power of his Arm and the greatness of his infinite Majesty might become the more obvious and acknowledgeable can at pleasure serve the interests of his Glory upon the most inglorious means even despicable vermine For this reason our Lord Jesus Christ that he might humble and debase the Synagogue confound and baffle the fondness and arrogancy of the Philosophers reduce and defeat the Error and Superstition of Paganism triumph gloriously over the swelling ambition and vanity of the Emperours and cause the whole Earth to bend to the sacred Yock of his Cross would not make use of any of those renowned Worldlings but of poor Fisher-men a Mechanick Tentmaker and an ignominious Publican who yet notwithstanding caught whole Empires and Kingdoms in their Nets assembling the whole World under the Tabernacle of the God of Jacob and making the most obstinate and rebellious Tributaries to his Annointed And after the same method did he proceed in the restauration of the Gospel which he used in the first publication of it as we have seen above where we have noted the marvellous exploits of the chief persons whom he hath imployed in his admirable Conquests Insult therefore no more but rather confess with the Psalmist This is Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Which they also have proclaimed aloud having alwayes in imitation of the Apostles said Such things were not wrought by us but only in the Name and Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ And with the Church in the book of Psalms Not unto us Lord not unto us but unto thy great Name be rendred all the honour and glory With the like facility we answer to the other Objection urged from the defect of Miracles True it is had those good men taught any other doctrine than that of the Gospel in that case it had been requisite that they should have given some visible testimonies of their Calling besides that according to the Apostles caution he ought to be an Anathema though he were an Angel from Heaven whosoever preacheth any other Gospel than what hath been already evangelized He hath likewise taught us that all those extraordinary gifts which the munificent God did so liberally distribute for authorizing of the Truth of Christian Religion in its infancy should cease and become antiquated And our Lord Jesus Christ hath admonished us that whoever should brag or make ostentation hereof should be very Teachers of lies making such a plausible shew of the same as that they should be able if it were possible to deceive the very Elect And yet notwithstanding what more specious or signal ones can any desire than their very subsistence amidst the raging persecution of their enemies when as they were like unto Moses in Egypt in the hands of Pharaoh's Daughter yet such is the Providence of God they never failed to meet with their true Mother who nourished them upon her chast and untainted breasts that is to say some sound Teachers who caused them to suck the sincere Milk of the sound knowledge of God's Word as the Israelites in the Deserts of Arabia they did still feed upon Manna from Heaven and were furnished with vessels of Gold and Silver which they had taken out of the houses of the Egyptians whereof to make sacred Vessels and stately Ornaments for the service and beauty of the Sanctuary If at any time they have with the Prophet Elijah by means of a persecuting Jezebel been constrained to make a Cave their hiding-place the very Ravens turning Purveyours have furnished them with necessary food When as they were like the Prophet Daniel in the Den of Lyons or like his three Fellow-Captives in Babylon in the fiery Furnace they have been in like manner gloriously and miraculously preserved the Son of God being according to his solemn promise made to us in his Gospel ever present with two or three where-ever met together in his Name Finally since they were with a strong hand rescued out of that spiâ—ual captivity what hath not God done â—at continueth he not still to do in their â—half Should our very Enemies their â—nds laid upon their breasts become our â—dges and do us right they should â—ickly acknowledge that had not THIS â—ORK been OF GOD and had not â—r Faith been from Heaven as not being â—ported by Humane means nor as Maâ—metism maintain'd by Blood and Cruelâ— but on the contrary by exasperated â—d implacable Enemies persecuted to the â—most that it had been long ere now utâ—ly subverted and destroyed which yet â—ugre a fierce and open War prosecuted â—ainst it for the space of seven or eight â—ndred years hath been with no less wonâ—r than renown sustained and defended â—e Lord having in performance of his soâ—mn Promises made in his Word never â—t nor forsaken it being ever present for 〈◊〉 succour and relief and wheresoever â—r way lies through the Fire or through â—e Wilderness he will be always with us â—en to the end of the World Surcease then your cavilling about the â—ature of Instrumenâ—s and the quality of â—ose who speak and preach to you True â—deed they
Cardinal Prenestine to Pope Hadrian lest having confessed her Errour and Deviation in one point occasion might happily be from thence administred of examining of the rest and of resolving the same into a reference or Com-promise This is thereason why the Council of Trent instead of redressing Abuses hath indeed confirm'd them all being therein carried-on according to the Popes will and pleasure who was in that Convention both Judge and Party whereupon Monsieur de Lansack one of the French Ambassadours in that Council said very facetiously in a Letter to Monfieur de Lisle Embassadour at Rome that the Pope had sent the Holy-Ghost from Rome to Trent in a Cloakbag the Legats and Council acting or enacting nothing but what he appointed them and albeit several Bishops inclin'd to make some opposition in defence of the Authority of their Character yet this proved ineffectual they having in fine submitted their necks under the Papal-Yoke Though all this succeeded very luckily according to the hearts desire of the Popes of Rome yet notwithstanding from that time forwards they conceived such a disgust and aversion to Councils that they never cared more to propound the assembling of another fearing lest they might set about that happy Reformation which as hath been said was with such importunity desired and so absolutely necessary both in head and members All that they busied themselves about after that was what yet well became them the regulating of the Hoods Hosen and Shooes of Monks the number of whom instead of reducing they contrariwise augmented under the Badges of their Saints Francis Dominicus Ignatius Loyola and some other modern ones insomuch that the whole far from reforming misusages tended only to foment Scandal in such as were acquainted with true Piety those Reverend Fathers having well nigh resolv'd all the Christian Religion and Divine Worship into the practice of numerous Ceremonies and superstitious observances for therein consisteth all their business scrupulously annexing their professed Sanctity to ridiculous Mystical Vestments and foppish fantastical gesticulations and whereas God will be worshiped in Spirit and in Truth they pretend to satisfie him with instead of a true a superficial and instead of a Spiritual a bodily service which the Apostle informs us profiteth little Howbeit to be sure they cloak under their counterfeit humility and devotion an extream and indeed unsufferable pride and vanity as may sufficiently appear by the continual attempts made upon the Ordinaries namely Archbishops Bishops and Curates who undergoe all imaginable difficulties in stoping the currant of the Seraphicks and other Regulars more especially of such as have devoted themselves to the See of Rome and their General or Superiour by so strict a vow that when ever they believe their own Interests to be under debate they ought to acknowledge no other person in the world May the Lord commiserate his Church and put it into the hearts of Christian Kings and Princes to call as the above-named great Emperours Constantine Theodosius and Charles the Great have done before them a religious and free Council wherein all parties abandoning prejudices and animosities might in good earnest give themselves to an enquiry after the Truth in the Word of God which should be hearkened to as the only decisive Oracle whose right it is to determine all Controversies depending between the Church of Rome and those who protest against her Doctrine and that the more obscure passages of the holy Scripture might be expounded by others more clear so as that we might attain to the right understanding of the Scripture by the very Scripture it self according to the practice of the Levits when they instructed the People of God after their return from the Babylonish Captivity that the Ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church and Writers of Ecclesiastical History by whose means we might be informed of the various revolutions and interchanges which have thereâ—n occurred might be likewise received as a subsidiary help for satisfaction to the more obstinate and opiniative and that Kings called of God unto this great work might in concurrence with a privy Council consisting of some of the more Learned and more sober of both parties prudentially weigh the validity of Reasons urged the sincerity of Procedure and the merit of the Cause We should quickly make it to appear that we have a veneration for Episcopal Government and that we are no enemies to order ornanment or decency nor yet to Ceremonies provided the whole be reduced to ancient usage and there be nothing therein derogatory to that Honour and Religious Worship which we owe to God only And as touching the Sacraments if the Word of God may be umpire as without all peradventure it ought to be we should soon likewise condescend upon their number And in conformity to that sacred directory observing our Saviour's practice and that which St. Paul by virtue of his Commandment hath enjoyned us to do in like manner we should take the Bread we should all drink of the Cup of blessing in commemoration of the inestimable Death of our dear Redeemer whose Flesh and Blood is meat and drink indeed whereby we are nourished unto an eternal life We should know without further debate that this Union is wrought by the mediation of his Spirit who uniteth and conjoyneth us to himself after an ineffable but a true and real manner Christ dwelling in our hearts by Faith which is the mouth of our souls by which we feed upon him whereunto the conversion of Bread into Flesh is not at all necessary but the Elevation of Faith unto Heaven its genuine and proper act for as our Lord hath taught us it is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life that is to say they are of a spiritual and vivifick vertue as well in the publication of the Gospel as in the participation of the holy Supper wherein the Bread and the Wine are Signes Gages and Memorials of that which is therein represented to us whose Name they bear as is usual in all Sacraments as also because they are not only significative but likewise exhibitive of the thing signified to the Faithful and worthy Communicant so as shall be shewed streight And certainly this same Real-Presence and Participation may be easily enough conceived without the necessary admission of a Local and gross one for if it must be acknowledged that the Sun whilst bounded within its sphear doth yet communicate warinth life and nourishment and that truly really substantially to Vegetables can any one doubt without Blasphemy that the glorious Body of our Lord and Saviour the true Sun of Righteousness who carrieth health and life in his Divine Rayes is furnished with less vertue than that Globe of fire and light which himself hath enlightned Or that his Humane Nature which he hath united personally to his Divinity cannot by its means mystically unite
this very reason they began to transport them from one place to another The common People spent the Vigils or Wakes in the cemeteries of the Martyrs thither they carried Victuals that they might be thereby sanctified yea they lighted up Tapers in broad Day light in token said they of joy and triumph But we must likewise note that all those were the procedures of private Persons only and no wise approved of by the Church true it is the Bishops were constrained by the prevailing multitude to connive at those abuses whereof yet they acknowledged the enormity This toleration nevertheless did not forestall their utmost endeavour for stopping of that torrent for at the same time both Doctors and Councils condemned those extravagancies prohibited the lighting up of Torches in honour of the Martyrs interdicted Vigils repressed those who carried victuals to their Sepulchres as having derived that custome from Paganisme and taught that the Reliques of Saints ought to be buried and not transported from place to place that the custome of swearing by the Reliques of the Dead was purely Paganish and that many built Sepulchres for Martyrs meerly out of vain frivolous dreams Anno 380. c. THe original of praying for the dead we have seen in the former age come we now to view the growth and progress of the same This custome sprung originally from a natural affection in the surviving was at length received into the Church and in after time continued therein The Emperour Constantine being dead all the People prayed for his Soul but as we have already noted those Prayers were made in a sense quite other than at present for all the Fathers of the first ages were of an opinion which is at this day rejected by the Church of Rome namely that the Souls of the righteous are reserved in a common Receptacle until the Resurrection and upon this supposition they ground their praying for the dead Now for these reasons did the Church pray for them viz. 1. To the end God might please to glorify them in due time hastening their Resurrection 2. To the end the Judge might upon the last day be propitious to them and not deal with them in rigour 3. It is remarkable that they prayed even for the Patriarchs for the Prophets for the Evangelists for the Apostles for the Martyrs yea and for the Virgin Mary whom yet they believed not to be in Purgatory but their end herein was that it might please God to increase their glory whence we must note by the way how far they were from praying to the Saints since that they prayed for them and the truth is antiquity informeth us that one of the main reasons why they prayed for them was that they might by so doing distinguish them from Christ whom none prayeth for but all pray to 4. But which is yet more strange they went so far as to pray for the very damned to the end they might procure for them said they some allay and mitigation of their pain for in as much as misguided zeal is no where bounded they affected to extend their charity even as far as Hell it self being strongly opiniated that the Prayers of the Church in the behalf of the damned might be available for qualifying and asswaging of their torments and rendering of their infernal state more supportable thus did they inconsiderately kindle strange fire upon the Altar and made their censors smoak through the superstitious flames of a preposterous devotion But behold an innovation of a lamentable sequel The primitive Christians had not as yet received any Images this the Pagans upbraided them with as a notorious defect The Church had condemned the Gnosticks famous Hereticks who used Images even that of Christ himself Eusebius saith in his Ecclesiastical History that this usage was derived from Pagans who were accustomed to honour the memory of their Deliverers with Portraits and Images which that they might cloath their Idolatry with a specious pretext they yet further alledged to be as so many Books representing Divine things The Emperour Constantine caused the Image of the good Shepheard to be made but not with any intent of having it placed in a Church The Statue of Daniel in Brass was also erected in the middle of the Market-place of Constantinople The same Historian Eusebius writing to the Emperess Constance tells her that Christ even as he is Man cannot be represented by the Pensil True it is at the same time there was a Statue shewen in Cesarea which they said was that of Jesus Christ erected before that in a private House where the Woman was cured of the bloody flux mentioned in the Gospel was also represented and fron that Statue undoubtedly the Portrait 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ in Nicephorus was drawn and afterwards imitated by Statuarie and Painters Now for as much as Juid◠the Apostate had caused it to be defaced and the Pagans in despight to Christ ha◠broken it into pieces the Christians recollected all the fragments and placed them in the Church But about the year 380. they began to embellish the Churches wherein they assembled with Pictures whereby they represented the sufferings of the Martyrs rendering them more palpable and affective to the beholders as also some Scripture-Histories as Abraham's Sacrifice Christ's Miracles c. And for as much as the Agapes or Feasts of their Assemblies were as yet practised by Christians the objects there presented before their Eyes were of use to preven◠intemperancy We must therefore remark that those Images were only Historical serving for commemoration only not for veneration Likewise that the same were no other than plain Pictures For Statues were not received into Churches till a long time after But briefly that which was most remarkable herein was the opposition then banded up against this novelty there having been even Councils which expresly prohibited the use of Pictures in the Church Moreover such was the Devotion of many even after this innovation that they would not endure any Image in their Churches Epiphanius one of the most famous Men of those times relates this passage that being in a certain Village in Palestine he observed at the Church-entry a painted Cloath having like the Picture of Christ or some Saint upon it Now when that I beheld saith he that they had as it were under colour of Scripture-authority placed the Image of a Man in the Church of Christ I cut that Cloth and councelled them much rather to wrap up the dead Corps of some poor Person therein Anno 386. THe Celibacy of Ecclesiasticks was hitherto used more through private devotion than by vertue of any publick suffrage and determination of the Church But about the Year 386. Syricius Bishop of Rome was the first that did by publick Decree provided there be nothing of forgery in the case prohibit marriage to the Clergy of the Churches within his Jurisdiction
howbeit this was not universally observed for even till the year 950. we finde in the Catalogue of History throughout all the Provinces of Europe a great number of Ecclesiastick Persons married famous Doctors impugning the Law of Celibacy and which is yet more Roman Bishops descended of Ecclesiastical Parents who were married even during their Clerk-ship as was Boniface I. Felix III. and Gelasius I. thus many Ages passed before that this Decree was received Anno 400. c. WE now enter upon that time whereof St. Augustine complained saying that it was so universally stuffed with Ceremonial Observances that the condition of the Jews living under the servile Yoak of the Law was much more supportable than that of Christians under the Gospel as we shall see in good part Howbeit we shall omit divers Rites introduced in the fifth age which were never approved of by the Church of Rome as the burning of the superplus and remainder of the Sacrament after that all had communicated the sending of the Sacrament to new married couples to be by them joyntly received at home in their own Houses the thrusting of the same into the mouth of the dead a most prophane abuse We shall likewise forbear to mention all those innovations which having been commenced before were continued in after time and shall only note the progress of the same and the rise of such as followed thereupon each according to the order of time wherein they began to appear As therfore we have already seen in what respect Primitive Antiquity prayed for the dead in like manner we must know what was the intent of the Vigils which ensued upon that usage It was an ancient custome that as soon as any one had given up the Ghost they called some Ecclesiastick Persons who spent the whole night with the friends of the dead entertaining them with some serious and seasonable discourses grounded upon the Word of God for their instruction and comfort To this purpose they sung also Psalms disposed by way of Antiphonies or Versicles interchangeably answering one another and recommended the departed Soul to God to the end that pardoning its sins he would vouchsafe to preserve it from Hell and eternal Death Judge it in mercy upon the last day and give to its Body a glorious Resurrection but never to the end that he might deliver it out of Purgatory though that be the consequence drawn from thence at this day and indeed the Greek Church Prayeth for the Dead which yet never believed a Purgatory To those Funeral acts another Ceremony was added It was a Pagan custome that their Champions who had won the prize in wrastling were conducted to their Houses with Songs of Triumph and burning Torches in token of honour and congratulation this our Christians applied to their dead as those who after that they had fought the good fight had finished their course and obtained the Crown of Glory They then inter'd them with singing of Psalms by way of thanksgiving to God and consolation to the surviving as also with lighted Tapers in honour of the burial of the deceased for the reason of that Ceremony is thus expressed by S. Chrysostome who lived in the beginning of this Age. Tell me what mean the Lamps lighted up at Funerals Is it not because we accompany the dead as so many magnanimous Champions What mean the Hymns Is it not because we glorify God and render thanks to him for that he hath already crowned the defunct delivering him from all his toile and dolour Is it not for this very end that we sing Psalms and Hymns And why callest thou upon the Priests and Singing-men Is it not for comfort to thy self and for honour to the deceased The formalities observed by the Church in the reception of Penitents were likewise multiplied which in those Days were thus practised When any one who had incur'd excommunication petitioned that he might be released from that censure making protestation of repentance the Bishop who had excommunicated him and twelve Priests with him repaired to the Church-door where the Penitent presenting himself cloathed with Sack-cloath bare-footed with a dejected countenance his head covered with ashes weeping and sighing implored forgiveness and promised amendment of life for the future Then the Bishop taking him by the hand gave him entrance into the Church and admission to the Communion But in case he did again relapse into any crime he was no more capable of admission to Penance but dealt with as one relapsed so as that they never gave him the Sacrament save only at the very point of death Then also were Crosses received into Churches whereas formerly they were only represented upon Money and Military Banners but held only for meer memorials of Christs death and not for objects of adoration for so do the Christians of those times explain themselves therein It is further remarkable that theirs was only the simple form and figure of the Cross and that the Image of the Crucifix was not received into the Church till a long time after Authors of the same age make mention of a custome which was afterwards turned into Superstition As long as the gift of miracles are subjected in the Church she was endowed with an especial vertue of dispossessing and chasing away Devils but this gift being once antiquated and superseded they found no better expedient in the case than to conduct the possessed into the place of publick Assemblies to the end that the Church might pray for and over them and those Prayers frequently obtained deliverance for those poor Demoniacks But they afterwards constituted Exorcists under the notion of an Office to whom they attributed Jurisdiction over Devils empowering them to torment and chase away the same by vertue of their conjurations Now many had hitherto disputed about the state of Souls after death But Origen who lived about the year 230. and who may well be called the Origin of many Errours seems to have been the first that made way or entrance to the belief of Purgatory This Doctor taught that all Men the faithfull as well as the ubelieving shall pass through that Fire which shall consume the World upon the last day after the Resurrection which opinion was embraced by many but condemned by the Church nor can any thing be urged from hence in favour of Purgatory for that whereof Origen spake is not as yet kindled and is in every respect different from that of the Church of Rome But those controversies touching the condition and mansion of Souls departed beginning to multiply about the year 400. some certain Persons corrupted with the fabulous Narratives of Pagans conceited with them that they are purged and refined in some place or other before that ever they be received up into Heaven Those discourses were managed by way of probleme and not in form of a positive assertion and in this sense St. Augustine writes and resolves the whole question