Against Popery, Treatise · Argument 8
THE EIGHT ARGVMENT touching the wiſdome of true religion, an infallible note and ſigne thereof.
I May here alſo not vnfitly, nor out of place adde the fooliſhnes of poperie. For what can be more fooliſh or ridiculous, then the worſhip of ſuch reliques as they doe both worſhip, and alſo take great paines and trauaile many myles, & defray great charges for the worſhip of thē: eſpecially moſt fooliſh, abſurd, and groſſe is it to worſhip ſuch as before hauehave beene named, as the verie …ayle of the aſſe wheron Chriſt rode, & ſuch like. I aske here no pardō as ſpeaking groſſely, the holines of the thing muſt take away the homelines of the word. But I maruaile they could get n… better and ſweeter morſell then the taile: it may be they came too late to market, and ſo all the better peeces being taken vp before by dogges, kytes, ravens, and ſuch other cuſtomers as doe vſe to reſort to ſuch markets, this onelyonly was left, and ſo it was bought for the Pope his owne tooth; but he of his meere holie conſcience would not eate meate of ſo great a price, and of his great liberalitie beſtowed it vponupon the church for euer. If they make ſo much account of the taile, they would much more hauehave honoured the head, if they had come time enough to the market: what then would they hauehave done with the whole bodie, if they could hauehave gotten it? and if they make ſuch reckoning of a peece of a dead aſſe, I ſuppoſe that if they had the liuing aſſe, and could keepe him aliue (and yet what a foole am I to make a queſtion of their power in ſuch a thing, when as euerie man knoweth that their Pope and eueryevery Prieſt of his begetting, can make God himſelfe, and we heard alſo before that the Pope himſelfe can make ſomething of nothing?) I ſuppoſe, I ſaie, that if they had the liuing aſſe (now I make no doubt of their keeping him aliue, yet for all that why doe they not make▪ him aliue againe?) they would gather a counſaile for determining what new honour ſhould be done vntounto him.
2 The like may be ſaid of their admonitions, citations, and excommunications, againſt them that hauehave beene dead and buried a long time: as againſt Bucer, Paulus Phagius, Tooly, Iohn Glouer, and many other, whome beeing dead, they hauehave condemned, digged vp againe out of the earth, at leaſt their bones, or the bones of ſome other for theirs, and burned them. Is it not a toie for men to excommunicate them out of the viſible Church, that God hath called out of the world? And are not theſe two ſpeciall endes of excommunication, one to keepe the Church from infection by the companie of ſuch as deſerue excommunication; the other to draw the perſons excommunicated to repentance? when death hath firſt taken them awaie, what feare is there of the firſt? what hope or poſſibilitie of the ſecond?
3 As they doe thus abuſe excommunication, ſo much more fooliſhly doe they abuſe and blaſphemouſly profane the holy ſacrament of baptiſme, in applying the ſame to churches, bels, and ſuch like. Chriſt biddeth nations to be baptized, not churches or bells: Chriſt biddeth his diſciples teach and baptize; therefore alſo they may as well teach the goſpell to churches and bells, as baptize them. Neither hauehave churches and bells any ſinnes to be forgiuen, or whereof they can repent: therefore churches and bells neede not the ſacrament of theſe things, eſpecially no other part of God his righteouſnes belonging vntounto them, the which they cāperforme. The ſame may be ſaid of ringing the bell in any great tempeſt, as though that could make faire weather. As fooliſhly alſo did they, and do they make boyes and little children Biſhops and Cardinals. Many and infinite other the like follies there are in poperie, worthie to be laughed at by little children, more worthie to be derided by Eliiah and the Prophets of God: and altogether vnworthie of the wiſdome of the moſt wiſe God. Certenly I meruaile why plaies, interludes, and comedies, were in ſuch requeſt in the time of poperie, ſith in their golden legend they might daily read or heare, and in their exerciſes of their religion they did daily ſee ſuch pleaſant things, as would make better ſport then all the plaies in the world.
4 Well, to conclude this argument ſeriouſly, drawne from their follies. When Dauid counterfaited himſelfe a foole, and behaued himſelfe as a foole, by letting his ſpittle fall vponupon his beard, and ſcrabbling vponupon the walls before Achiſh King of Gath, 1. Sam. 21. 13. how doth this King (in whome as there was no feare of God, ſo there could be no good wiſdome) like thereof? the ſcripture anſwereth that he did ſharply rebuke his ſeruants for bringing ſuch a perſon in his court, and that he ſaide vntounto them: Loe, ye ſee this man is beſide himſelfe: wherefore hauehave ye brought him to me? hauehave I neede of madde men, that ye hauehave brought this fellow to plaie the madde man in my preſence? ſhall he come to mine houſe? In like ſort, yea and much more will the God of all wiſdome, rebuke thoſe that ſhall plead for poperie, or preſent Papiſts vntounto his court. He ſhall ſaie to any that ſhall commend Papiſts vntounto his Maieſtie in this ſort: Loe, ye ſee theſe men are beſide themſelues, wherefore doe ye bring them to me? hauehave I neede of madde or fooliſh men, that ye hauehave brought them to play the madde men or fooles in my preſence? ſhall they come into my houſe? Thus will the Lord rebuke and checke ſuch as ſhall ſpeake for the juſtifying of Papiſts vntounto him. Great men of this world take much and too much delight in fooles, and laugh at their follies (though they ſhould make better vſe of them:) but the onelyonly wiſe God is delighted onelyonly with true wiſdome, and ſuch as are truly wiſe. Therefore all the follies of the Papiſts, and the fooliſh Papiſts themſelues, ſo long as they continue ſuch, are abomination vntounto him. As for our religion, as it is no other then the Scripture commendeth, ſo it hath nothing but that which well beſeemeth the wiſdome of God, and therefore it cannot but be acceptable vntounto him.