great when the Church of Christ was taking a little breath and did enioy some peace and rest after so many persecutions and martyrdomes of her children beganne to enter therein in great throng and by multitudes But how hauing lately renounced the polluted slauerie of their Gods of Gentilisme of worshipping of images and their feete being as yet foule with the dirt of their Idolatries And that which helped very much to aduance those old ragges was because they began to professe Christian Religion being well ripe in yeares and full of gray haires which was the cause why they could not so suddainely shake off such customes as they had sucked with their mothers milke But behold here the very finall accomplishment of euill fortune to wit the conniuence of the greater part of the Bishops at such errors who not hauing discouered a farre off such daungers as might ensue and follow vpon this lenitie and licence graunted by them some more some lesse according to their humors hauing tolerated these abuses Paganisme tooke its owne place and Gentilisme passed farre aboue that measure which was prescribed by the Oracles of God They thought with themselues that they had laboured much for the aduancement of Christian Religion if at the first they could but onely diuert them from worshipping of their Gods thereafter to send them vnto such Christian Saints as were deceased but this was nothing else but a changing of the name and not of the thing it selfe They ought in the space of so many ages to haue found out some remedie for this disease but in stead of abolishing and reforming of these abuses we see the same daily confirmed yea moreouer a farre greater encrease of this dirt and dregs of the Heathen in lieu of the pure drop of true pietie and Christian simplicitie Euen so farre are we from any hope to see the same reformed sith the lesuits haue vndertaken at a set price to defend those errors and haue published in their writs that Christian religigion may lawfully make vse of the ceremonies of the Gentils which is as much as if one would say that God maketh vse of the Deuils lawes for the weale of his people And thus it is that the Romish Church established by vnreasonable reasons aduanceth in such manner euen vnto this day yea and commaundeth and authoriseth euill customes in place of good lawes and the reliques of Gentilisme in great plentie in stead of the puritie of the Gospell Your opinion was that the spirituall kingdome of Iesus Christ should haue beene gouerned like the Monarchies of this world whose rulers beare with many of their subiects faults to the end that they may haue peace with strangers but it is not so for as touching so farre as directly concerneth the true knowledge of God and of the puritie of his seruice of the estate of the conscience of the nature of Ecclesiasticall gouernment we ought to haue recourse vnto the Canonicall bookes and not vnto popular abuses they are the precepts of faith that ought to be layd open vnto the people and not those preiudicate opinions coloured with deuotion against which the holy Fathers haue foughten so couragiously In the end this little Treatise will declare vnto you how that your religion is borded with those totters and rags of Gentilisme God graunt you the grace to acknowledge the difformitie thereof that you may depart from thence and enter in league with her which is most beautifull to wit the Church wherein we liue which is well pleased with such ornaments as her spouse Christ Iesus our Sauiour hath giuen her to whom be glory and honour for euer Amen THE FIRST CONFORMITIE CHAP. I. Of God YOu cannot denie my Masters that the Pope of Rome is named God The glosse of the Canon law vseth these expresse termes Papa Dominus Deus noster which in truth is a title of blasphemie grounded neuerthelesse vpon antiquity whereof you make so great shew and which you haue placed and ranked among the essentiall markes of your Church It is ancient I confesse sith that more then a thousand and fiue hundred yeares are expired since it was attributed to one of the Popes predecessors euen as being soueraigne Bishop to wit vnto Domitian Emperour of Rome And if that Poet Martiall hath been iustly taxed by one of your Bishops for flaterie and lyes for that hee calleth by the name of God that Tyrant and horrible monster in nature in these words Edictum Domini Deique nostri by what meanes can you free your selues from the like or rather a more rigorous censure sith that he was onely a Gentile and you cloathe your selues with the name of the true Church Those Decrees Decretals Sixties Clementines Extrauagants with other such like your Euangiles should haue beene purged and made cleane both in their Texts and Glosses by those Cardinals to whom this goodly charge was committed by one of your Popes We are still in hope that one day that shal be abolished which many of your selues cannot reade without horrour Your flatterers keepe their course and striue apace among themselues who shall yeeld greatest honour and worship vnto this Popish diuinitie These verses beare witnesse Oraclo vocis mundi moderaris habenas Et meritò in terris diceris esse Deus Stapleton nameth him Supremum planè supremum numen in terris Your Decrees make Constantine the great call him God Steuchus giueth the reason hereof if any reason can be found in so vnreasonable a matter Blondus will haue all Princes to bow downe their knees and worship this Bishop vnto whom also are applyed certaine passages of Scripture which cannot bee spoken of any other then of Christ Iesus How long will it be ere you leaue off your blasphemies The poore Gentiles acknowledged one God and did attribute the chiefe and soueragine gouernement to one onely This was the principall foundation of their olde Religion in so much as concerned the more learned sort among them You in like manner leaue the supreame gouernment of the Empire to the great true God euen as by right it belongeth vnto him But like as the idolatrous Gentiles made seuerall distributions of charges and offices amongst a multitude of fellow-Gods Tutelare Gods and Saints whom they called Diuos So also you haue erected Temples Altars burning of Incense worship bowing of the knees and all other manner of seruice vnto the Virgin Marie vnto the Saints both male and female whom in like manner you call Diuos among whom you distribute the offices of preseruing and helping men in their aduersities What a harmonie I beseech you Those had their greater and meaner Gods assigning to each of them his owne charge his Trade his weapons his daies iourney Varro in his time maketh mention of thirty thousand or thereby And verily you haue gathered together a heape farre greater then that of the ancient
our God And therein Peacocke-like doth iett But in De Croys Conformities You may his errours plainely see Where all his foule deformities To life discou'red fully bee Obiection vnto the former SONNET VVHat the Church of Christ may it be sedus't And can it erre and can't so foully faile When Christ himselfe hath said Deuill nor hell Should haue no powr'e the faith though small t'assaile Answere Know that the church two waies may be cōceiu'd The one aptly to speake doth comprehend None but Gods children such as he elects And seales and gratiously will defend The other doth containe both good and bad Is that you see here in the world belowe Which erres so oft as Sathan it doth heare And by an euill life the same doth showe The first doth neuer erre for shee attends The sweete voice of her spouse to vnderstand The last may euer erre and be deceiu'd For in foule blacke blindnesse she loues to stand To those of the Romish CHVRCH YOu Romane Catholicks who sees this work I' st possible that it you can behould And cannot marke that horrible inchaunt Wherein bewitching Sathan doth you hould If the Apostles those most holy men Should now into the world againe returne Would neuer thinke that Christians you were Because al means might teach you truth you shun I speake and pronounce this not bitterly I speake it with a godly louing zeale Your pietie of which you make such bragges No warrant hath your grieuous sinnes to heale For you in humane merits firme your trust And that 's your anchors-hould and not in him Who sets you free from the eternall death And is the onely ransome for your sinne Antichrist by little and little and by craft And subtill shifts into the Church is slid And in Gods holy Temple now at last He sits in pompe trusting there still to byd It was often foretold that he should come And for our sinnes this reuolt was suffr'ed And that there must of meere necessitie Great and most blind errours be permitted Yea so ordain'd by our most puissant God That his most sacred Church should be opprest For a time in the bonds of Papacie For so long time as he would thinke it best But from these crooked and peruersed wayes Full of dreadfull and most deadly darknesse God hath bin pleased through his great bountie Vs for to draw and eke with peace to blisse Euen so Christ our Lord and Ionas were The figures of Gods Church in these last dayes For one was dead the other prisoner Christ in tombe Ionas in the fish he prayes Lift vp your eyes with speed behould this light Which shines in you and Iesus Christ imbrace By liuely faith cast off those euill Sp'rits Which makes you scorne Gods word to your disgrace Christ is the truth the way and onely life The Churches most deare spouse run then amaine And by a constant faith liue chast to him His company brings comfort that 's your gaine THE PREFACE To those of the Romish CHVRCH MY Masters who would discerne true coyne from that which is adulterated will not content himselfe with looking on the superscription the stamp colour roundnesse thereof but going on a little farther will come to the triall of the substance of the mettall will take the touchstone and draw thereon to examine the goodnesse or insufficiencie thereof Euen so to discerne true Religion from false and to know the Church of Iesus Christ in this confusion of so many that are like thereunto we must not be contented with the iudgement of the Church which you call representatiue but we ought to goe straight on to the onely Scriptures which are the foundation and pillers of the true cause in matters that concerne Religion And if we had stayed there we should not see at this day such horrible confusions in Christendome neither yet this mixture of cockle with good corne and there would remaine nothing but pure wheat in the garnar and store-house of the Church And would to God that some of the auncient Bishops could haue contented themselues with the marches established by the holy Ghost the greatest part of the world should not now be wandering in the auncient pathes and footsteps of Gentilisme against which the Apostles and many other infinite numbers of the most excellent and worthie men haue foughten and obtained the victorie through shedding of their bloud Should not this exquisite ballance square and canon of the Scripture this rule of right and veritie haue beene sufficient to teach vs whatsoeuer belongeth to the whole perfection of our beleefe We ought not to haue beene ignorant of these beautifull markes of antiquitie That there is no other proofe of Christian Religion but by the Scriptures if any controuersie arise where to find the bodie that is to say the Church that it ought not to be sought amongst our words but amongst his words who is the truth and knoweth his bodie to wit Iesus Christ. It was thither that the Bishops should haue led the Gentils to teach them to worship one onely God to make them turne from their old superstitions and idolatrous customes by the violence whereof they haue beene forced to worship their false Gods and creatures and should not haue giuen way to so many things which are so farre from hauing any warrant in the holy Scriptures that they are meerly contradictory thereunto It is after this manner that it hath seemed good vnto the wisedome of man to iest and play with the high and holy mysteries of true Religion It is after this manner that thinking onely to winke at things and that through tolerating of the lesser euill to eschew greater inconuenience this holy spring of Christian pietie hath beene infected by the filthie mud of Paganisme from whence those deludges haue proceeded which haue ouerwhelmed some fundamentall points of our saluation And would to God that those zealous ones without knowledge had taught their Neophytes to thinke it abhomination to suffer themselues to be led away by degrees vnto such things as at first seemed pleasant we should not see at this day such pestilent doctrine neither yet those superstitions and ridiculous ceremonies which haue caused as well in times past as in these dayes so many troubles in Christendome But this is their reward who haue chosen to preferre the Church to the Scripture and man to God as if it were more expedient to find out the head by the proofe and testimony of the members then the members by the testimonie of the head I am exceeding sorie to consider that when the time of appearing before the tribunall seate of God shall come the damned Gentiles shall know their markes and liueries on you and that in great aboundance as this present table of your conformities vnto their fashions and customes shall clearely and faithfully beare record But let vs examine how this filthinesse hath corrupted that beautie that was among you Those poore Gentils liuing vnder the Empire of Constantine the
that all your wicked deedes were wiped away through this onely benefit of aspersion and for your part you haue put it in the place of the bloud of Christ Iesus which you cannot denie And would God that the Poets who were the Diuines of the Gentils might perceiue your superstitions and most of all this false beleife that you haue concerning the vertue of purging water they would not faile to mocke you and one of their Lawyers should haue very good reason to anoint your head with his graue censure euen as you wash the same with water It is not vnknowne to any that among diuerse trades which men vse such as be merchants are commonly accused of lying and periurie I speake onely of the worser sort and such as haue played bankrupt to an vpright conscience but the remedie against those crimes was at hand and there needed but one drop of this water to take away the wound and the scarre thereof both together which was named Mercuriall from the God Mercurie surueyer of the gaine of such as traffiked If they had gone about to touch those things which they accounted sacred they prepared themselues first by sprinkling of this water Seeing therefore this water was ordained for so many vses it was carefully kept and much reuerenced and for this purpose they had two sorts of holy water pots the one great which was made fast at the entrie of their Temples and the other portatiue for the daily vse of their domesticke purifications Is it not the same that is practised among you at this day You couer your selues with the example of Moses who clensed the water with wood and of Eliseus who did in like manner with salt But what difference is there I pray you For that which they did tended to the nourishing of the corporall life and you extend the same to the cleansing of soules And Gregorie the first commanded that he that had slept with his owne wife should not enter into the Church vnlesse he had first washed himselfe with water He sheweth the reason to wit that although mariage be permitted by God yet man cannot enioy the companie of his wife without sinning a little and therefore he ought to purge himselfe Is not this the same that the Pagans had wont to practise in old times CHAP. XXXIIII Of Pilgrimages THe custome of Pilgrimages began onely in the time of Constantine and thereafter through succession of time was refuted by Gregorie of Nysse in a very learned and eloquent Oration which he made vpon that subiect and contained three principall poynts First that Iesus Christ in the fift Chapter of S. Mathew had not placed Pilgrimages among those workes which are the cause of mens saluation Secondly that there was many spirituall dangers in such iourneys and chiefely for women Thirdly that we could find nothing in Ierusalem that was not in our owne countreys sith there are temples euery where These reasons are to a purpose and are grounded vpon the holy Scriptures but our Grand-fathers being come from Paganisme could not cleanse themselues so well but many spottes remained still on them and amongst others this madnesse of trauailing to places that were reputed more holy then others which no doubt the Gentiles haue left to you as an inheritance who before you toyled themselus with these forraigne voyages which they vndertooke through the deuotion and religion that they carried towards the Oracles of Delphos and Iupiter Ammon with other infinite places that were more honoured then others by Gentilisme The Turkes make these pilgrimages after the like manner that you doe and goe to the Mequis with as much zeale as you would goe to Rome Ierusalem Compostella and other parts CHAP. XXXV Of Oathes THe holy spirit willeth if one must sweare that it be by the name of God onely the manner is set downe to vs in the holy word with threatning the transgressors of this law Wherfore then do you sweare by the name vpon the reliques of your Saints and by your Saints themselues The Gentiles did sweare by Iupiter Hercules by the fortune of their Caesars and by the starres Their books are marked all ouer with such doings Haue you not learned this lesson of them And S. Antony vpon whose arme you sweare is he not successor to the Pater Patratus of Rome who had the charge concerning oathes You shall hearken saith the Eternall vnto all things which I haue said vnto you you shall make no mention of the name of other Gods neither shal they be heard out of your mouthes These commandements are repeated in another place and in another hee threatneth to roote out such as sweare by Malchom And are you ignorant that the Christian Religion teacheth vs to sweare in our neede by him who is greater then all men CHAP XXXVI Of Masse-bearers or Beadles IT is true that vniuersities Iustice and Presidiall seates haue by way of honour Masse-bearers of whom the ciuill lawes haue made some mention and the Lawyer Baldus hath not forgotten them But by what reason hath that stollen in among the Preachers and Ministers of the Church which was granted after a ciuill manner vnto the Magistrate who is the Image of God The Vergers walke in their temples with siluer roddes or else gilded with gold The Masse-bearers march before the Masse-priest with their Masses howbeit no liuing soule doth let them to step forward In your procession this charge is committed to some of your Priests to the end that the shew may seeme the more glorious to the company May it not bee that this custome hath proceeded of the Athenians who had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or of the Romanes who had their Viatores fasciferos or lictores that marched before their Kings Dictators Pontifes and vestall Virgins This was a marke of an higher dignity whensoeuer they went abroad and passed through the citie Indeede the Scripture doth attribute those Staffe-bearers vnto Magistrates but not vnto the Apostles This is not the way therefore to serue God in spirit and veritie but to restore againe the pompes and vanities of Gentilisme CHAP. XXXVII Of Praying toward the East and of Canonicall houres in which the Popish-Church placeth Religion KNow you not that the Ceremoniall Law of the Iewes forbad to make any prayers toward the East that they might not bee like vnto the auncient Idolaters For this cause and that they should haue no conformitie with them they were commanded to turne their altars toward the West Numa ordained the very contrary and would needes haue his Priests to make their Prayers being turned towards the b East A ceremony that was obserued not onely in the Sacrifices of their Gods but also in the Deuilish practises of sorcerie and witchcraft The reason why the Pagaris did so and turned themselues alwaies to
him to relie on those that make good cheare and neuer to tast one bit in the meane time Let vs learne therefore by the contrarie that the true faith of Christians is not an indefinite and confused imagination and is not to beleeue by an Atturney but to vnderstand the fundamentall heads of Christian Religion CHAP. XXX Of Feasts TOuching your feasts doe you not say that they are after the imitation of the Iewes which obserued and kept holy the feast of Iudith and of the Machabees that did institute one which Christ Iesus found to be still in request in his time and did celebrate the same But you remarke not that those were instituted to giue thanks vnto God and to put the people in minde of their deliuerie from the plots and conspiracies of their enemies being indifferent and belonging onely to order and not imposed on them as lawes for the necessitie of Gods seruice Your feasts are after an other manner sith they are ordained commaunded and practised to bind the conscience euen as if the necessitie of religion did require such things And why haue you taken away the libertie of the choise of dayes that was in the primitiue Church Moreouer the feasts of the Iewes were ordained onely in the name of God without idolatrie and superstition yours are full thereof and are hallowed in the name of Saints male and female I could amplifie my speech vpon that shamefull controuersie that rose among the Esterne and Westerne Bishops concerning the feast of Easter which had caused a great schisme in the Church if it had not bin preuented by the learned Ireneus Bishop of Lyon against the imprudencie of Victor the thirteenth Bishop of Rome I will be contented onely to admonish you that it should be better to eschew such a multitude of feasts full of superstition and preiudiciall vnto the estate of the Common wealth and to content your selues with that which that great Ignatius writeth who recommended earnestly Sonday onely vnto the Christians which the Councell of Caesarea proued by the holy Scripture whereinto the Sabboth was changed or else if you goe about to celebrate any notable history of our Lord and that it be thought fit and expedient for edification to doe so to continue such feasts till Sonday without relying on the Monday or the new Moone which is to bring in a Christianisme both Iewish and lunaticke CHAP. XXXI Of Tithes THe Tithes that are so seuerely exacted by your Ecclesiastickes they are grounded I confesse vpon Gods law It is true indeed that the Church of Israell the Sacrificers and Leuites who were consecrated vnto the seruice of God were nourished therewith as with Gods portion and due and the poore also maintained For this cause did the Prophet Malachie accuse them of sacriledge that refused to pay the same From this place you borrow the subiect of your Epiphonemes against those that faile in this dutie and that rightly if you did rightly vse them And if your Pastours were lawfull and truly called in the Church we should acknowledge that they in sowing of spirituall things ought to reape carnall things and that as faithfull labourers they were worthie of their wages as the Lord vnder the Law ordained for Leui But seeing the calling of your Doctors is vnlawfull and vncleane they cannot deny that they are much like vnto the Pharifies to wit reauers and like vnto the Iewish Sacrificers deuouring the people like bread which the Prophets reproached vnto them whereas they ought to haue beene contented with their food and apparell And first auarice and them ambition hath pushed your Church representatiue so farre that shee hath vsurped Lordships Kingdomes and Empires yea and after such manner that she hath forgot the care of soules and spirituall affaires CHAP. XXXII Of Iurisdictions LIke as you haue stretched forth your hands vnder the pretence of spirituality vpon Kingdomes and Empires guarding your selues with the donations of Constantine and Lewes the meeke though false and supposed as the most learned through many ages haue remarked so likewise your Ecclesiastickes haue vsurped the laymens inrisdiction and haue drawne vnto them all sorts of laymen euen in Prophane matters And what is their reason It is because the souereigne sacrificer of the Law say they was supreme head ouer the iurisdiction not onely spirituall but temporall also And vpon this brused reede haue they setled this goodly temporall iurisdiction which they haue appropriated to themselues euen aboue all Kings and Potentates of the earth But if they had put on their spectacles right they should haue found in the Scripture that these two iurisdictions were distinguished and committed to seuerall hands the Iudges Princes Kings being the heads ouer the temporall which they ruled and the Sacrificers iudged of things that were cleane or vncleane and of other matters meerely holy and spirituall And if any thing was demaunded at the mouth of the Sacrificers and Leuites it was not in so farre as they were Iudges but that they might learne of them the true vse and meaning of the Law in doubtfull causes CHAP. XXXIII Of Irregularitie IT were to enter into a labyrinth to goe finde out all the ceremonies that are obserued in your degradations And one of your Church-men being degraded by the Bishop is at that same very instant deliuered into the hands of the secular power that he may be cōdemned to die If I shuld aske why the criminall is not iudged by the Ecclesiastickes they will answere me that it is done to shun irregularitie But is not this the same that was practised in the Iewes time who would not enter into Pilates house fearing that they might be defiled and letted from eating of the Passeouer CHAP. XXXIIII Of Vailes and other furniture of the Church WE must returne vnto that which you vse in your Temples That vaile rent asunder at the death of Christ Iesus did shew vnto this wretched people of the Iewes that at this time there is neither sacrifice nor Sacrificer neither altar nor temple And by the renting thereof he would declare that the elect may search euen into the secrets of Gods councell touching their saluation And you not being contented with the signification of so excellent a miracle haue set the vailes vp againe in your Cathedrall and Collegiat Churches chiefly in time of Lent as if the Christian people ought to be letted from beholding of the Sanctuarie that is to say from the knowledge of eternall life through Christ Iesus And in this doe you not patch together againe that vaile which in old times was rent asunder from the toppe to the bottome So many Iewish ceremonies as you haue brought into Christianitie are as many vailes sowed and patched together And say now that you are not like vnto those wretches which in the Apostles time would haue ioyned the vaile together againe by a coniunction of the Gospell with the regall ceremonies and of