not upon Scripture 6. That the efficacy of Baptism doth not extend it self to the future but only to that which is past 7. That there is in Baptism a silent and implicit Oath of Obedience to the Pope 8. That the laver of Regeneration is not profitable to those that fall after Baptism 9. The Baptism of John say they was of another kind than Christs Baptism was Concil Trid. Sess 8. câ—n 1. neither was it sufficient without Christs Baptism nor had the like force or efficacy as his Baptism had and therefore such as had been baptized of John say they were admitted afterward to Christs Baptism 10. They clog Baptism with many trifling Ceremonies and by mixing therewith their own inventions they have greatly polluted the Holy Sacrament of Baptism For I. Vid. Dr. Willet Controv. de Bapt. Quaest 8. Before Baptism they have devised these toys to be used 1. They do exorcise conjure and exuflate the evil spirit from the party baptized 2. They touch the Ears and Nostrils with Spittle that his Ears may be opened to hear the Word and his Nostrils to discern between the smell of good and evil 3. The Priest signeth his Mouth Eies Ears Nostrils Breast Forehead with the sign of the Crovs that all thereby may be defended 4. Then hallowed Salt is put into his mouth that he may be seasoned with Wisdom and be kept from putrifying in sin 5. The party is then anointed with Oil in his breast that he may be safe from evil suggestions they anoint him also between the shoulders that he may receive strength to bear the Lords burden II. These Ceremonies do accompany Baptism it self 1. The Font and Water therein is consecrated and hallowed in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost 2. He is thrice dipped in the Water to signifie the being of Christ three daies in the Grave III. After Baptism they have this use 1. They anoint the top of the head of him who is newly baptized with holy Chrism or Oile and thereby he is become a Christian 2. Gabr. Biel. l 4. dist 6 quaest 3. Then a white Garment is put upon him to betoken his Regeneration 3. A Vail is put upon his head in token that he is crowned with a Royal Diadem 4. A burning Taper is put into his hand to fulfil that saying in the Gospel Let your Light so shine before men c. 11. They teach that Baptism leaveth nothing in the baptized that hath the nature of sin Their Errours concerning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper or Eucharist 1. THey take away the Name of the Lords Supper and call it the Sacrament of the Altar 2. Vid. Fox Acts and Monum In this Sacrament they teach and urge the corporal presence of the Flesh of Christ as if that Sacrament were instituted to nourish Bodies and not Souls 3. They affirm the Body of Christ to be really in diverse places that it is in Heaven and in the Eucharist all at once 4. They take away the substance in the Sacrament and leave the accidents as if the accidents viz. length breadth figure colour tast were without subject 5. That the Priest by the force of these five words Hoc est enim corpus meum out of the Bread in the Sacrament createth the Body of Christ Bellarm. l 4. de Sacra c. 13 The whispering of those five words the Papists call the Consecration of the Elements and being whispered they presuppose such a secret vertue in the syllables as is able to chase away the substance of the Bread and so say they the Bread and Wine is turned into the substance of the Body and Blood of Christ 6. That these words This is my Body are to be taken literally Bellarm. cap. 9. without any Figure 7. That the Body of Christ is made of the Bread in the Eucharist as Wine was made of Water 8. That the substance of the Bread is consumed and ceaseth to be and yet is not annihilated 9. That the Body of Christ doth remain in the host as long as the accidents of Bread remain uncorrupted 10. Bishop Downham Catal. That as long as the Body of Christ is in the Host it is accompanied with Angels 11. That in the corruption of the Species there is matter substituted by God in that very instant in which those species cease to be in which something else is generated 12. That the Elements of the Sacrament of the Eucharist do not nourish if taken in a great quantity without a divine miracle 13. But as they take away the substance of Bread and Wine and so with that the substance of the Sacrament so they rob the Body of Christ of almost all the essential properties of a true Body by this fiction of Transubstantiation 14. And as they feign the Accidents of Bread in the Sacrament without the substance of it so they must needs feign the substance of Christs Body without the Accidents of it 15. Many do teach that one and the same Body of Christ undivided doth exist upon innumerable Altars and is every where whole 16. That the Body of Christ being in many places at once and yet not in the space between is not discontinued or divided from it self in respect of its proper substance or quantity but only is divided from it self in respect of place 17. That one and the same Body of Christ being in Heaven and on Earth yea in innumerable places on Earth at once is indeed visible and palpable in Heaven but on Earth invisible and beyond all our senses there it is limited and circumscribed here it is unlimited there it hath dimensions here it is free from all dimensions 18. They teach Vide Concil Trid. Sess 21. cap. 2. that the Sacrament is not to be taken in both kinds Some of them confess it is Christs institution that we should take the Sacrament in the two kinds but that the Church hath dispensed from that Commandment for say they it belongeth to the Church to judg what Mysteries of Christ are dispensable and the Church hath the power to use both dispensation and alteration herein Hereby they declare the Church of Rome to be above God since she can change his Laws and correct his Institutions 19. They take away the Communion it self in the Supper the Priest alone devouring all the rest looking on 20. The Priest doth adore the consecrated Host and doth offer it to others by lifting it up to be adored and for the same end they keep it and carry it in solemn procession that it may be publickly adored 21. That the Eucharist when it is carried to the sick is to be adored by all those that meet it those that do adore it are to have Indulgences those that do not adore it are to be counted Hereticks and are to be persecuted with Fire and Sword 22. Trid. Câ—nâ—il S. s◠〈◊〉 6. By this Bread-worship they commit great
of God The Pope and his Clergy propound themselves two ends for the celebration of the Mass and the ordinary Service in the Latin tongue The first is to keep the people in ignorance and use them to believe without knowing to follow their leaders blind-fold and to obey without enquiring They were afraid that even the Latin should be too intelligible and therefore they would have the principal parts of the Mass to be said with such a low murmur that the voice of the Priest cannot be heard The second end was to plant the marks and Standard of the Popes Empire among the Nations which he had conquered The simple people believe that their Religion must be Roman as well as the Tongue which is used in Religion and that both Christian Faith and the Language come from the same place But the chief cause why the Pope will not have the Mass to be understood by all is that the Mass contains many things which would either instruct or offend the people Of praying for the Dead THeir Opinion is that the Praiers of the Living are neither available for the Saints in Heaven for they need them not nor for the damned in Hell for they cannot be helped but only for the Souls tormented in Purgatory who do find great ease say they by the Praiers of the Living Of the Canonizing of Saints THe Canonizing of Saints is nothing else but the publick Determination and Sentence of the Church whereby some that are dead are judged to be Saints and worthy of Honour and Worship as to be praied unto Temples and Altars to be set up in their names Holy-days to be appointed for them and their Reliques to be adored And thus say they it is lawful profitable and expedient for the Church to canonize Saints This was the Popes own invention eight hundred years after Christ at the least set abroach and continued in Policy for the confirmation of certain idolatrous Superstitions which he laboured thereby to advance and now are made the seven Points wherein the Canonization consisteth fetting the new Saints in the Calendar with red Letters Who gave the Pope that priviledg to be infallible in that Judgment for our Adversaries themselves acknowledg they may be mistaken how many Factions and Sollicitations are used in the Court of Rome by Princes and States that a man of their Countrey or City be canonized And at what vast expences have they been to purchase it The City of Barcelona and the whole Country of Catelona spent many thousand pounds in the canonizing Raimond de Pennafort a Dominican Frier The Jesuits spent ten millions for the Canonization of their two twins Ignatius Loiola and Francis Xavier whom they call the East-India Apostle The Book of sacred Cerimonies doth acknowledg that the Pope sometimes was constrained in some sort to canonize a man against his opinion and therefore made a Protestation By that Protestation he thought to discharge his Conscience The words whereby the Pope canonizeth a Saint are these The manner of canonizing a Saint In the authority of God Almighty Father Son and Holy Ghost and of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and in our own we decree and define that N. of good memory is a Saint and must be put into the List of Saints c. But before the pronouncing of that Sentence the Cause is pleaded in the Consistory and an Advocate presents himself who represents the Reasons why such a one ought to be sainted The Apostles were not so sainted nor their Disciples nor those Fathers who were called Saints as Ireneus Cyprian Basil Hierome Augustine as a learned Divine noteth It happens saith he to some poor Saints for whom the dignity of Saints is begged in the Court of Rome to be cast in their suit and they cannot be Saints in Heaven because men on earth were not favourable to them Sometimes the degree of Beati is obtained for them which is a middle degree and an expectation of Saint-ship By this means Popes will give their Servants to be worshipped by the Nations of Christendom whch new Saints are far more honoured than the Patriarchs and Prophets for in the Roman Church it fareth with Saints as with Clothes the newest are the best and most esteemed Of Invocation of the Saints THe Papists maintain the Doctrine of Angel-worship of Invocation of Saints and of the Virgin Mary and canonized Saints calling especially upon the Virgin Mary They usually carve pourtray paint the Statue of the Virgin and represent her by them to the Eyes and Thoughts when they pray unto her in all their Offices Primers Psalters Rosaries Missals Breviaries Books of Devotion Churches Chappels Monasteries Altars of our Lady especially on all their publick Festivals dedicated to her Honour in greatest state crowned with a Crown of Glory as the Empress Queen Lady of Heaven Earth and all Creatures in them In their publick Liturgy they have a Letany whereby they pray 1. To her 2. To the Arch-Angels and Angels 3. To Patriarchs and Prophets 4. To the Apostles and Evangelists 5. To the Martyrs 6. To Fathers and Doctors 7. To Popes and Confessors 8. To Monks and Eremites 9. To all the Saints Virgins and Widows that they would joyn together to make Intercession for them And to these Saints they have their set Holy-days to them they burn Tapers perform Masses and Trentals each have their sundry Collects Hymns Praiers and Oblations each have their sundry Offices designed them Some are over particular Towns and Cities some over Trades and particular Professions same are over Diseases some have the special gift of bestowing Arts and Sciences Now what is this but to forsake the Fountain of living Waters and to hew out broken Cisterns that can hold no Water as the Lord complaineth in a like case The rise of all this was from a preposterous admiration of Saints departed or I may say of some of them they were rather Devils incarnate and from the perverse opinion of those who make no difference between civil Praier to Men living and religious Praier to Saints departed which Errour hath been maintained and heightened by the great ambition and avarice of the Popish Clergy so that now the French Proverb is not without ground 〈◊〉 or ne â—ognâ—ist Dieu plus â—ntre les Saints God cannot be known among so many Saints Thus have they jumbled together God and his Saints in a promiscuous manner of worship Saint Peter tells them to whom he writes that he will endeavour that they may be able after his decease to have these things always in remembrance â—hem in 2 Pet. 1 2 Pet. 1.15 Whence the Rhemists those Popish Corrupters rather than Interpreters of the holy Scripture take upon them to tell us if we will be so sottish as to believe them And they say it was this that the meant to pray for them and as in his life-time he meant to further their Salvation by instructing them so after his death
and sanctifieth and purgeth them that are defiled and multiplieth such Goods as we have need of and turneth away all the deceits of the Devil and defendeth men from all wicked fancies Are not the Scriptures here well applied doth not this Ceremony turn Christ out of Office with all his works and merits Gulielmus Durandus saith that the holy Water hath deserved to have of God so great vertue that as outwardly it washeth the Body from filthiness so it inwardly cleanseth the Soul from sin O intolerable blasphemy When men sprinkle themselves with this Water in the Church-Porch before they enter into the Church they are taught and commanded to say Aqua benedicta sit mihi salus vita c. let the blessed Water be unto me health and life grant me O Lord by this creature of the sprinkling of Water health of mind wholeness of body defence of health safeguard of hope strengthening of faith now and in time to come Of Pilgrimages 1. THe Papists hold that Pilgrimages made to Rome and to Jerusalem and the holy Land as they call it and to the memories of the Saints in other places to ask and obtain their help are godly and religious and to be much used of Christians 2. Large Indulgences were promised to Pilgrims especially to visit St. Peter and St. Paul the Apostles Pope Anacletus excommunicated cursed and pronounced all such guilty of Sacriledg as should hinder any man to go on Pilgrimage or to visit the Sepulchres of Saints Pope Calixtus ordained that whosoever spoileth robbeth or hurteth any such as go in pilgrimage to Rome or to any other holy places of Saints the same should be excommunicated and accursed 3. â—reg â—â—â—â—en Some desired to worship in that place where Christs feet had walked Some superstitiously attributed more sanctity to that place than to any other Gregory Nyssen hath a whole oration of this matter against those who go in pilgrimage to Jerusalem This going in pilgrimage is in a manner to deny the coming of Christ for if Christ be come there is no more difference in regard of holiness between one ground and another Whether it were then or not now I am sure it is a fond superstition for any to ask as Naaman the Syrian did for two burthens of earth out of that Country as more holy than any other dust 2 Reg. 5.17 Such idle vagaries do the Papists make to some other special places where perhaps the Devil hath obtained leave to work some jugling feats and lying miracles Then presently the Saint his name is up and well is he that can spare time and money for a visitation of a sensless stock Yea many a Saint as good as he or she shall be passed by with little more than a good morrow while the heat of their blind devotion carrieth them on to this selected one Yea now and then the same Saint shall have little courtesie at their hands if they meet any where but at his Manner-house as it were Saint James at Compostella is taken for a better man than when they find him other where Such brutish follies the Holy Ghost himself disdaineth with an heavenly scorn as appeareth by Elijahs mocking of Baals Priests and Isaiahs character of the blind Idolater The Writer of the History of the Holy War tells us Fuller Suppl of the Hist of thâ— Holy War that besides those that went many were either driven or fled to the Holy Land Those were driven who having committed some horrible sin in Europe had this penance imposed on them to travel to Jerusalem to expiate their faults Many a Whore was sent thither to find her Virginity many a Murtherer was enjoyned to fight in the Holy War to wash off the guilt of Christian blood by shedding the blood of Turks The like was in all other offences Now God forbid saith my Author we should condemn them if truly penitents for impious But we find that many of them reverted to their former wickedness Others fled thither who having supererogated the Gallows in their own Countries by their several misdemeanours to avoid the stroke of Justice protected themselves under this voyage and coming to Palestine so profited in those Eastern Schools of Vices that they learned to be more artificially wicked Thus He. Of the Agreement between Paganism and Popery NOw let me shew how the Papists in their Religion have borrowed many things from the Pagans I will here insert them as I find them in the Writings of divers Learned Men. I. The Heathen had their Pilgrimages The Heathen were wont to go on Pilgrimage to such an Idol So do the Papists they go many of them on Pilgrimage to our Lady of Lauretto to St. Michael to St. James to visit the Holy Sepulchre and the Holy Hand-kerchief which is a Relique in Rome wherein they say the Picture of Christ's Face is after it was wiped therewith But concerning Pilgrimages I have spoken in the former Section II. The Heathen made great Feasts and kept a great number of solemn Holy Dayes in honour of their Idols And have not the Papists brought in many Holy Dayes instead of the solemn Feasts of the Heathen Calvin speaking against this Superstition Calvin Serm in Dâ—ut 12. in one of his Sermons upon Deuteronomy saith men will say we must not now do as the Heathens did for that were a serving of the Devil But every Parish will have a Church-Holy-day to Play to Dance and to feed in till they burst again and all in the Honour of God Besides this every one had his Patron whom he worshipped and said they these things are not done any more in Honour of the Idols but in Honour of St. Martin And let them Dance and play the Drunkards all is well enough so it be done in Honour of God and his Saints 1. Twelftide was an Imitation of the Saturnales in which the Servants were Masters And the Lord of Misrule in Christmas is also a trace of the Saturnales at that time of the Year 2. Ashwednesday falls much upon the same time as the Day of Purifications and Propitiations for the Dead in the Pagan Rome which was upon the Eighteenth of February 3. As for Candlemas Rhenanus acknowledgeth that Candlemas is an imitation of the Februal Ceremonies of the Romans and the Insolencies of Shrovetide came from the Bacchanales 4. The Rogations and Processions about the field of Corn have succeeded to the Processions called Ambarvalia 5. The Heathens were wont to keep an Holy-day which they called the Feast of all Spirits And the Papists change the word and have the Feast of All-Souls III. The Heathens had a Temple which they called the Temple of all their gods The Papists call such a Temple the Church of All-hallowes the Church of All-Saints and they added a Church Holy-Day unto it IV. The Heathen had their Sacrifices to their gods And the Papists have their Masses set up in the room of them The Pagans had