denieth the temporal Sword to be in Saint Peters power doth not regard well the Word of the Lord who said Put up thy Sword into thy Scabbard And to prove that the Temporal of Princes is subject unto the Pope he alledgeth Jer. 1.10 See I have this day set thee over thee Nations and over Kingdoms And he will have that meant of the Ecclesiastical that is the Papal Power which he saith cannot be judged of by any because Saint Paul said The spiritual man judgeth of all things yet he himself is judged of no man Finally he concludes thus Whosoever then resisteth that Power ordained by God resisteth the Ordinance of God c. whereforewe declare say define and pronounce that it is of necessity to salvation to be subject to the Roman Prelate That venerable Pope hath found a proof of his Primacy in the first words of the Bible God in the beginning made heaven and earth These are Laws and Papal Ordinances pronounced with all the forms and inserted into the body of the Pontifical Decrees which to excuse from Errour one must want both conscience and common sense Anno 14.14 a Council was held at Constance to reform the Church in that Council three contending Popes were deposed of whom John the XXII was one for 71 Crimes among others for publickly denying the immortality of the Soul and maintaining that there was neither Paradise nor Hell To that Council J. Husse and Jerome of Prague were invited to defend their cause a safe conduct of the Emperour Sigismond was given them and Faith was sworn unto them that no harm should be done unto them But after some form of Disputation they were seized on and burnt alive And because the Emperour made a scruple to break his Faith the Council declared unto him that he was not bound to keep Faith with Hereticks for which purpose a Canon was made in this form This holy Council declareth that the safe conduct given to Hereticks or defamed for Heresie by the Emperour Kings and other secular Princes thinking thereby to turn them from their Errours with what Bond soever they be bound brings no prejudice to the Catholick Faith or to the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Neither can put any hindrance but that it may be lawful for a competent and Ecclesiastical Judg notwithstanding the foresaid safe conduct to make inquisition of the Errours of such persons and duly to proceed against them as much as Justice shall require if they obstinately refuse to renounce their Errours although they be come to the place of Judgment trusting to that safe conduct declaring that he that made that promise remains not obliged by it after he hath done that which lieth in him The same Council in the fifteenth Session makes an enumeration of the Errours of John Husse The nineteenth Errour for which he is condemned is for saying that the Popes and the Bishops Pardons avail nothing That Council declareth that the Popes Pardons serve a sinner although God hath not pardoned him which is putting the Pope above God since he pardoneth those that have offended God without Gods pardon and since the Popes pardons are in force though God approve them not The same Council takes away from the people the Communion of the Cup. They add that although Jesus Christ did after Supper institute the Sacrament under the two kinds yet the custom of giving to the people one kind only which is the Bread must be held for a Law and those that say the contrary must be driven away as Hereticks and grievously punished by the Inquisitors of heretical perversity In the year 1423. Martin the fifth held a Council at Siena where the same Indulgence was granted to them that would fall upon the Hereticks as to them that go to defend the holy Land Thus Remission of sins and Salvation is proposed as a reward of cruelty and popular fury as if the Pope had said because thou art a murtherer and a wicked man thou shalt have eternal life In the year 1440. the Council of Florence assembled by the authority of Pope Eugenius the fourth defineth and declareth in the last Session that the Roman Church can add to the Symbol and that the Pope hath the primacy over the whole world In the end of the last Lateran Council you have a thundering Bull against Luther who then began to preach there thirty nine Heresies are reckoned the seventh whereof is that the best penitence of all is a new life which yet is a choice sentence of the spirit of God Rev. 2.4 The twenty sixth Heresie of Luther mentioned in that Bull is this assertion It is certain that it is not at all in the power of the Church Pope to make Articles of Faith If this be an Heresie we may expect other Articles of Faith from the Pope and Christian Religion is not yet perfected since other Articles of the Christian Faith may be added such as we know not and such as the Apostles have never taught either by Word or Writing At last the Council of Trent came which having begun in the year of our Lord 1545 lasted 18 years In the fourth Session it was decreed that unwritten Traditions must be received with the same affection of piety and reverence as the holy Scripture That is that the Invocation of Saints the Distinction of Meats the Adoration of Relicks the Honour yielded unto Images the Consecration of Agnus Dei's and of blessed Beads together with many other things must be received with the like Piety Faith and Reverence as the Law of God and the Doctrine of our Redemption in Christ Jesus contained in the holy Scriptures The same Council cannot be excused of Errour for pronouncing in Session the fifth that the Concupiscence forbidden in the Law is no sin The same Council cannot be excused of Errour for decreeing that the Latin vulgar Version of the Bible should be the only authentical thereby authorizing a thousand depravations of the true original Text which are Hebrew and Greek yet since the time of the Council of Trent several Popes have caused that vulgar Version to be revised and have altered many things in it Salmeron the Jesuite endeavoreth to excuse that Decree of the Council speaking thus The holy Synod would oblige us to embrace that Latin Edition and follow it in all things yet not absolutely but upon condition that it be cleansed and re-purged from the Vices and Errours which are crept into it The same Council of Trent hath devised a crafty by-way to prohibit the reading of Scripture unto the people and many Prelates and Doctors in that Council were named and appointed to make an Index or List of Books the reading whereof must be prohibited Now the very first of these prohibited Books is the holy Scripture of which they say in the fourth of those Rules they have set before that Index that the reading of the Bible in the Language of the Country being indifferently permitted brings more harm than benefit
THE ANATOMY OF POPERY OR A Catalogue of Popish Errours in Doctrine and Corruptions in Worship Together with The AGREEMENT between Paganism Pharisaism and Popery Nostrae Regulae noster sunt Decalogus imò Decalogo praestantiores quoniam illic mandata hîc consilia Jac. Crusius Jesuita in Hossem ca 5. LONDON Printed by Tho. Milbouâ—â— for Tho. Passenger at the Tâ—â—ee Bibles on London-Bridge 1673. To the much honoured Sir FRANCIS POPHAM of Littlecott in the County of Wilts Knight of the Honourable Order of the Bath To Sr. Thomas Dolman of Shaw in the County of Berks Knight and and to William Ashe of Heitesbury in the County of Wilts Esquire the Author wisheth an encrease of all Heavenly blessings Honoured Sirs GRreat was the goodness of God after our Saviours Resurrection and Ascension that he sent down cloven Tongues from Heaven like as fire upon his Apostles which was a visible sign of those invisible â—ifts of the Spirit poured down abundantly upon them for the service of the Church and the enlightening of the World with the knowledg of Salvation by Jesus Christ and that even after the Nations of the Earth had so many Ages sate in darkness and in the shadow of death a dark Cloud of Barbarous Heathenish errours and superstitions having over-spread the face of the whole Earth insomuch that wicked Men and Women Adulterers and Adulteresses Stocks Stones and other Creatures were mistaken for Gods and Goddesses The times of this Ignorance as the Apostle calls them Act. 17.30 were woful but then let us see the goodness of the Lord who restored the light in so plentiful a manner that as that Cloud which Elijah's Servant saw at the first rise up like a man's hand had in short time over-spread the Heavens so that little Lamp which at first being put into the hand of Adam gave light to his House and Family became now like the Sun in the Firmament and shined to all Nations the knowledg of God being plentifully dispersed all abroad as the Sun-beams diffused through the whole body of the ayr But then again that evil Angel of the bottomless pit sent out a smoak in the Ages following which darkened the face of the Heavens and the light of the Church The Devil raised up divers Instruments not only open and notorious Hereticks but those of all others most dangerous who closely promoted the mystery of Iniquity never ceasing their secret workings until they had lifted up Antichrist into his Chair of Pestilence and by degrees corrupted the simplicity of the Truth darkning the knowledg of Christ with corrupt traditions errours contrary to the Faith defaceing the glory of Christ his full satisfaction and perfect merit with their own merit and works of supererogation and pretended Treasury of the Church joyning with Christ other Mediators and finding other ways to Heaven which the Holy Ghost never taught the Gospel of Christ never mentioned So that we may as truly say of them as of the Heathens Professing themselves Wise they became Fools Foolishly bragging of an infallibility nailed to their Popes Chair that it was impossible for him to erre or be deceived they fell into gross and monstrous errours and led many thousands away by their strong delusions to destruction who had pleasure in Vnrighteousness and received not the love of the truth that they might be saved The Romanists have used abundance of lyes and cunningly devised fables for the maintenance of their Tenets and the defence of their supposed truths as also for the defacing and blemishing of the undoubted truth of God They used not only fabulous specches but also fabulous actions too viz. lying wonders How many false miracles have they hatched for the defence of their Religion their Purgatory Praying for the Dead Invocation of Saints Transubstantiation Worshipping of Images c Would not these much trouble many weak minds had not the spirit of God expresly foretold that this should be the practice of Antichrist that man of sin whose coming should be with signes and lying wonders and all deceiveableness of unrighteousness in them that perish 2 Thes 2. So that that which they make use of to prove their Religion by when they want proofs in the Word of God we are taught by the word to make use of as a proof that their Pope is the very Antichrist and they the followers of the Beast What shameful lyes do they bring also to prove their Tenets that are in Controversie How do they abuse Scripture and as much as in them lyeth put lies into the mouth of the holy spirit of truth for the maintenance of their false doctrine for what is it else when men will wickedly go about to make the Scripture speak that which the Spirit who endited it never meant wilfully perverting plain Texts of the Word to serve their base ends and to confirm those falshoods which they have learned from the Father of lyes On the other side how many wicked Tales have they devised to suppress deface the Truth That edious lye concerning Luthers death and that of Beza's death and falling from the Truth to Popery cast abroad in his life-time which himself lived to confute to their shame what doth it but shew by what Spirit they are led what shameful lyes have they devised against many other special Instruments of God's Glory They hope it seemeth that some will be found so foolish as to believe their loudest lies yea do not many of them maintain lying as lawful for defence of Religion that Faith is not to be kept with those whom they call Hereticks and that Equivocation a more cleanly kind of lying is lawful insomuch that when Tresham one of the Powder-Traitors in articulo mortis lying on his Death-bed in the Tower denied by solemn Oath what he knew to be most true to save the life and credit of Garnet the Superiour of the English Jesuits and a man of great account among them and when the thing was proved manifestly and Garnet was asked what he thought of his case he said he knew not unless Equivocation might excuse him But if their doctrine be true it cannot want truth to defend it if false as it is all the lyes in Hell will not hold it up against the power of Truth no more than the darkness which silleth the ayr at night can resist the Sun-beams at his rising for as darkness is but a shadow and so cannot withstand the light so lyes are but shadows and fancies there is nothing selid in them and they are not able to resist the power of truth which is divine and cometh down from the Father of Lights and God of Truth Worthy Sirs P It is lamentable to consider what the Pope of Rome and his Clergy in this Land did heretofore practise upon the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation suffering them to live in Ignorance whereby they might not boggle at any looseness or wickedness of life that so the Clergy might afterward
Mass pag. 51 Of their manifold Errours concerning the Church How the Papists devise many notes whereby their Church is described pag. 53 Of Antiquity pag. 71 Of Universality pag. 76 Of Succession pag. 79 Of Unity pag. 80 Of the Power of working Miracles pag. 82 Of the Gift of Prophecy pag. 87 Of Prosperity pag. 89 XX Errours concerning the Members of the Church the Clergy and Laity pag. 97 XI Errours concerning justifying Faith pag. 102 XXX Errours concerning Repentance which they call Penance pag. 104 Five kinds of Indulgences a sixfold profit of them pag. 113 Of the Disposition required to be in those that receive Indulgences shewed in Six things pag. 116 How the Papists hold that Indulgences are profitable for the Dead shewed in Seven things pag. 117 XI Errours concerning Fasting pag. 119 Of their dispensing with Fasts pag. 123 XVII Errours concerning Oaths and Vows pag. 127 XII Errours concerning Marriage Of their divers Rites and Ceremonies in Marriage pag. 131 VII Errours touching Extream Unction Of the Rite and Ceremony used by the Priest therein pag. 135 VI Errours concerning their Sacrament of Order pag. 137 VII Errours concerning Confirmation Their manner of administring the Sacrament pag. 139 Of their Corruptions in Worship pag. 144 Of their Latin Service pag. 145 Of praying for the Dead pag. 148 Of the Canonizing of Saints and the manner of Canonization pag. 149 Of Invocation of Saints of the several persons that are invocated in their Litany pag. 152 Of their Distinction of the two kinds of Worship Latria and Dulia 155 Of Image-Worship of the manner of Worship they give to Images Of the manner of making and way of Consecration of Images 157 Of the Image of the Cross 160 Of Reliques XII errours and abuses noted in the Papists by Chemnitius with divers other things 163 Of the Vigils annexed to Festival-days 172 Of their Wax-Candles and Tapers 173 Of their Holy Water 175 Of their Pilgrimages 177 Of the Agreement between Paganism and Popery shewed in Three and Twenty particulars 181 Of the Papists imitating the Jews and Pharisees shewed in Ten particulars 205 How the Church of Rome now varieth from the old Church of Rome shewed in Twenty particulars and how the Doctrine of Saint Peter and Saint Paul is contrary to the Doctrine of the present Church of Rome THE ANATOMY OF POPERY CHAP. I. THat all men may take a full view of the Papacy and see how it hath encroached upon Heaven and Earth let us consider the Fraud that hath been used by the See of Rome by bringing in Corruptions in matter of Doctrine and Worship Popery is not a single Heresie like that of â—utyâ—hes Arius or Nestorius but a System of Heresies and a common sink of abominable Errours and therefore called Ἀπστασία a general revolt Their Errours about the Scripture are 1. Vid. Turnb Tetrag c. 2. That the Church doth regulate the Scripture and is not regulated by it so making the Church the Rule of Faith That the holy Scriptures are not the only and whole Rule of our Faith and Life in all matters necessary to Salvation 2. That the Church hath Authority to alter as well the things contained in holy Scripture as those that are delivered in the Church by Apostolical Tradition yea the Papists affirm that it is in the power of the Church to alter that which God commandeth in Scripture that is to make Commandements contrary to Gods Commandements And they are divided in the main viz. what this Church is which is the infallible Judg Bâ—xters Sate Religion whether it be the present Church or the former Church whether it be the Pope only at least in case of difference between him and his Council or whether it be a general Council although the Pope agree not as the French and Venetians say yea whether it be the Clergy only or the Laity also that are this Church 3. Bellarm. l. 3. c. 3. They also assert that it is lawful to allegorize Scripture both in the Old and New Testament 4. Ecchii Enchirid. loc de authorit Eccles Pigg l 1. de Hierarch â—ccl s That the Pope is the supreme Judg of all Controversies and that the Scripture hath no authority in respect of us but what is granted to it by the Church For adding some Books to the Scripture which were not from the beginning The Papists being bold upon the Decree of the Council of Trent will that among these the Books of Tobit Judeth Wisdom Ecclesiasticus the first and second of Macchabees should be Canonical likewise the Additions to Esther Baruch with the Epistle of Jeremiah and the Additions to Daniel these they call δευτεÏοκανονικοὶ Canonical in a second degree 5. Stapl. tâ—n l. 3 c. 36 That the Canon of Scripture is imperfect wanting many Divine Revelations therefore some Books have been received as Canonical at one time and not at another some some have been received as Canonical in some Churches not in other Vid. Downham 6. They prefer the Faith and Judgment of the Church of Rome which they say is the internal Scripture written by the hand of God in the heart of the Church before the holy Scripture 7. Bellarm. de verb. Dei l. 1. c. 2. That unwritten Traditions are to be equally believed and to have as great authority as the Scripture that Traditions which they call the unwritten Word are the Rule of Faith 8. They contend that the Customes and unwritten Opinions of the Church of Rome are most certain Apostolical Traditions 9. Blondel Dalaeus They number the Popes Decretal Epistles with the holy Scriptures when yet it is most cleerly proved by Blondel in a just Volume that abundance of them are forgeries and Dalaeus proves it particularly of the Clementines 10. Wide Downham Catal. They say it is Heresie for any to say that it is not altogether in the power of the Church or Pope to appoint Articles of Faith 11. That the Scripture is not sufficient for the refuting of all Heresies as if there were any Heresiebut what is against Scripture 12. Id ibid. That the Church is ancienter than the Scripture that is than the Word of God which is now written because it is ancienter than the writing of it as if it were not the same Word of God which was first delivered by voice that is now in writing 13. That it is not necessary nor convenient for the common People to read the Scriptures but rather dangerous and hurtful 14. That the translating of the Scriptures into vulgar Languages is the fountain of Heresies and they that do it deserve ill of Christian Religion 15. That the Hebrew Copy of the Old Testament the Greek of the New Testament is not authentical 16. Bâ—llaâ—me de verbo Dei l. 3. That the Scriptures are very obscure and hard to be understood even in things necessary 17. That it belongeth not to all the faithful to search into the meaning
These few Proofs drawn out of the most authentick Rules of the Roman Church will be a pattern more than sufficient to shew to any man that is not resolved to lose himself and that seeks instruction that the Roman Church can err 4. Our Adversaries do devise many Notes whereby their Church is descried Driedo and P. a Soto would have three Hosius four Sanders six Michael Medina ten Cunerus twelve Bellarmine fifteen Socolovius twenty Doctor Favour chap. 4. one the true and oldest Antiquity But there are seven principal which they do most stand upon Antiquity Vniversality Succession Vnity the Power of Miracles the Gift of Prophecy Prosperity Of Antiquity THe Papists make great brags of the long continuance of their Church yea that they can shew the descent of their Church from Adam but they must come short of our Saviour Christ and the Apostles times by five or six hundred years for the most of the Opinions which they now hold The Romanists adulterate Antiquity because it is a Pearl of greatest price but a skilful Lapidary can soon espy the Alchymy it seemeth Gold yet is but brandished Brass it seems a Ruby one of the Stones in Aarons rich array or a Foundation of New Jerusalem where is no counterfeit but it is only a polished Garnet it beareth resemblance of a Diamond but it is digged out of Saint Vincents Rock as good as a Saint Martins Chain So many things are offered by the Papists for Antiquity which upon trial prove meer Novelty worse Vanity a plain Nullity The Roman Church in this point is intolerable for she boasteth of Antiquity but will not suffer the truth of her Doctrine to be examined she will have us to judg of the Truth by Antiquity whereas we ought to judg of Antiquity by the Truth and by Conformity to the Word of God which is the first Antiquity Anno 420. Zosimus Bishop of Rome challenged a prerogative above other Churches that it might be lawful to make appeals from other Churches to that See and to set the better colour upon it he falsly alleadged a Decree of the Nicene Council but there was no such thing found there wherefore it was decreed in the Council of Carthage at that time that none should appeal to Rome Boniface the third purchased of the wicked Emperour Phocas the Title of Universal Bishop Transubstantiation was first concluded against Berengarius anno 1062. under Pope Leo the ninth but not publickly enacted before anno 1216. under Innocentius the third The Dominick Friers were brought in at the same time Auricular Confession was brought in the year before under the same Pope Telesphorus brought in their Lenton Fast Calixtus instituted the four Ember Fasts Hyginus brought in Chrism It is easie to shew by whom every piece of their blasphemous Mass hath been patched together Marriage was first prohibited by Pope Nicholas the second Alexander the second Gregory the seventh The Communion in one kind forged urged and decreed in the Council of Constance not much above two hundred years agone The Church of Rome boasteth of Antiquity and yet as one saith brings new things every day she makes a shew of some old patched Clothes to make the world believe that she comes from far as the Gibeonites did but let a man examine her Doctrine by pieces he shall find she comes not from very far and almost all is new It cannot be proved that the antient Church in many ages after the Apostles excluded the people from the Cup or kept them from reading the holy Scripture or made Pictures of the Trinity or yielded veneration to the Images of Saints or call'd the Virgin Mary the Queen of Heaven or made mention of the Roman indulgences or of the power of the Pope to depose Kings and fetch Souls out of Purgatory c. In a word saith old Doctor Du Moulin as it is now another Doctrine so it is another Church because it is another Religion That true Antiquity is not of our Adversaries side 1. The Greek Church testifieth for the Grecians affirm that their Church is the Mother of the Roman Church and hath born the first prerogative in the orthodoxal verity The Syrians boast themselves to be the first Christians in the world because that St. Peter had his Seat seven year at Antioch before ever he went to Rome 2. The Eastern and Southern Churches do give the priority and priviledg of Antiquity unto the Church of Antioch before Rome Symmachus a Pagan Symmach writing to the Christian Emperours Valens Theodosius and Arcadius he desireth them to have a reverence for the Pagan Religion by reasonÌ„ of her Antiquity If saith he the length of time gives authority to Religion we must keep Faith to so many Ages and follow our Fathers who have so happily followed theirs Then he personates the old Pagan Rome thus speaking to the Emperours Good Princes Fathers of your Countrey respect my years unto which the pious Ceremonies have brought me permit me to use the Ceremonies of my Ancestors This Religion hath subjected the World unto my Laws these holy Services have beaten back Hannibal from the Wails and the Senones from the Capitol Have I been preserved unto this time that I should be rebuked in mine old age The Correction of old age comes too late and is injurious What could Ambrose and Prudentius answer who confuted that Epistle but that the Law of God is more antient than Numa Pompilius the Author of those Ceremonies and that all is new which is not from the beginning and that Errour cannot be authorized by the number of years Our Fathers received it of their Fathers August saith Cresconius sed errantes ab errantibus saith Saint Augustine Of Universality THe Papists say their Church is universal both in respect of time person and place it hath always been in the world and hath flourished in all Countries and Nations ergo it is the true Church That it is universal they first prove by the name of Catholick But if the name Catholick were an unchangeable mark or natural property of any real Church it should be of the Greek Church or Nation unto which the name of Catholick is prime and natural If the real property answering to this name had belonged to the Romish Church the Holy Ghost would have expressed it by a Roman Name and have called the Roman Church the Universal Church at least the Romanists should have called themselves Universals not Catholicks as the learned Doctor Jackson noteth It is easie to consider the vanity of this Assertion Jackâ—on de Eccl. that a Name should be an unseparable property proceeding of the nature of any reality But the Name of a Christian is a more honourable Title than the Name of Catholicks for this was used in the Apostles time Act. 11.26 and by the Apostles themselves allowed but it is not certain that the Name Catholick came from the Apostles Secondly they prove their Universality by the
corruptions about Relicks viz. a superstitious confidence in the worship of true Relicks and a sacrilegious forging of false Relicks triumphant Wood they speak not to God which is not Wood Or if men speak to any thing in honour of God they must always understand that which is spoken to it Richard the first King of England redeemed from the Turks in Palestine a Chest full of holy Reliques which they had gotten at the taking of Jerusalem so great as four men could scarce carry any away And though saith my Author some know no more than Esops Cock how to prize these Pearls let them learn the true value of them from the Roman Jewellers First they must carefully distinguish between publick and private Reliques In private ones some forgery may be suspected lest quid be put for quo which made Saint Augustine put in that wary Parenthesis Si tamen Martyrum if so be they be the Reliques of Martyrs But as for publick ones approved by the Pope and kept in Churches such no doubt as these of King Richards were Oh let no Christian be such an infidel saith my Author as to stagger at the truth thereof If any object that the Head of the same Saint is shewed at several places the whole answer is by a Synechdoche that a part is put for the whole As for the common exception against the Cross that so many several pieces thereof are shewn which put together would break the back of Simon of Cyrene to bear them it is answered saith he Distrahitur non diminuitur and like the Loaves in the Gospel it is miraculously multiplied in the dividing If all these fail Baronius hath a Rasor that shaveth all scruple clear away Baron annal Eâ—cl in an 1226. For saith he Quicquid sit fides purgat facinuâ— So that he that worshippeth the false Reliques of a true Saint God takes his good intention in good part though he adore the hand of Esau for the hand of Jacob. But enough of these fooleries Now as for those true Reliques or Remembrances of the Saints they are not those which the Papists do so magnifie and superstitiously reverence not their old shooes not pieces of bones and the like but their holy instructions and examples which should be had in remembrance for our furtherance in the way of Godliness after their death And as for the Bones of Saints and such kind of Reliques of them I shall conclude with the words of King James If I had any such saith he that I were assured were members of their Bodies I would honourably bury them and not give them the reward of condemned mens members Premonit p. 9. which are ordained to be deprived of burial but for worshipping them or Images I must account it Idolatry Of the Vigils and night-watches annexed to festival-dayes THe Papists were wont upon Saints Eeves to give themselves to fasting and watching But their night-vigils or watches they do not now so strictly observe because of the great abuses which did grow thereupon yet they have not altogether left them for they have their nocturns or mid night mattens and their prime hours in the Morning It is true the Christians in time of persecution had their antelucanos hymnos their early Songs and Hymns before day-light they met together to worship God before the Sun arose because they could not assemble together in safety in the day-time But that is no reason why the Church now should use Vigils or Nocturns seeing we now have free exercise of religion in the day-time saith Dr. Willet no more than St. Pauls example is to be urged that prayed by the Rivers side with the people and there preached unto them because in idolatrous Cities they could have no places of meeting that therefore we now ought to do the like having Churches and Oratories to assemble in How well they kept their Vigils may appear by that Decree of Innocentius Decret Greg. lib. 3. tit 41. ca. 9. we speak it with grief that certain not only inferiour Priests but Prelats spend the time in eating and drinking till midnight c. Of their Wax-Candles and Tapers THey have another superstitious custom to set up Wax-Candles and Taper-light before Images and upon the Altar to carry them about in procession and even at mid-day and high-noon And Bellarmine would authorize this custom by the continual burning of the Lamps day and night as he saith in the Tabernacle among the Jews But the Lamps among the Jews who abounded in Types and Ceremonies were lighted in the evening and so burned all night for those that kept the Watch in the Temple 2 Chron. 13.1 and in the morning again they were put out 1 Sam. 3.3 And St. Hierome upon those words Before the Lamp of God went out thus writeth Intelligi oportet antequam lux diurna fieret it must be understood before it was day when the Lamp was put out Tertullian speaks against this use of Gentilism in burning Candles by day Let them set up Lights daily which have no Light saith he the testimony or sign of Darkness well agreeth unto them This then having been taken up by the Heathen is worse to be liked of than if it had been a Jewish Ceremony for it is a less fault to play the Jews than the Heathen The ancient Eliberine Synod in Spain misliking the superstitious use of Candle-light by day decreed thus It seemeth good unto us that Candles should not be lighted in Church-yards by day Pope Zosymus ordained Beacons Reliques of Rome that the Paschal Taper should be hallowed on Easter even and set up in every Parish Church and also that a fire should be made in every Church on that day and hallowed Again that the Paschal should be lighted with the flame of that fire and all other Candles in the Church Of their Holy Water POpe Alexander the first they say ordained Water mingled with Salt to be hallowed and afterwards to be sprinkled upon the people to put away their sins and to make them pure and holy He also commanded that it should be kept in Churches and in Houses to chase away Devils and wicked Spirits not only out of houses where men dwell but also out of the hearts of the faithful as though Faith and the Devil could dwell together in one heart The words of Pope Alexanders Canon are these we bless the Water mingled with Salt for this purpose that all that be sprinkled therewith may be made holy and pure which thing we command all Priests likewise to do For saith he if the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkled made holy and cleansed the people from venial sins much more Water sprinkled with Salt and hallowed with holy Prayers doth sanctifie make holy and cleanse the people from venial sins And if the Salt being sprinkled by Elizeus the barrenness of the Water was healed how much more Salt being hallowed by Godly Prayers takes away the barrenness of such as appertain to man