Touchstone to Determine the True Catholic Faith, Part 25
Of Ceremonies.
COncerning ceremonies,Acts 15.28. the Apostles would lay no more on the disciples necks, then necessary things. And S. Paul writes to the Galathians: Stand therefore in the liberty, Gal. 5.1.wherewith Christ hath made you free; and be not againe wrapped in the yoke of bondage. And what this bondage is, he declareth:4. Cap. 4.3. when we were children, we were brought in bondage, vnderunder the elementes of the world, that is, we serued God with manie ceremonies, and with earthlie thinges: which after he calles beggarly, Vers. 9.in respect of those pretious iewels of the heart, faith, louelove, and knowledge, and such like: wherewith now we serue God. But the papistes hauehave taken …wie this libertie, which Christ hath giuen vsus: and hauehave multiplied in the church, the number of the Iewish ceremonies. They hauehave not laide vponupon the disciples neckes, onelyonly thinges necessary (as the Apostles did) but infinit thinges vnnecessarie; they hauehave turned from the right seruing of God, with knowledge, faith, and obedience to his worde. (which iewels they hauehave quite stolne away from Gods people & lost themselues also:) & hauehave returned againe to the beggarlie elements of the world, in seruing God, by offering of egges, candles, and such like. The worshippe of Christians excelles the Iewes worship in two thinges: First because that, that is according to carnall ceremonies onelie in meates and drinkes,Heb. 9. and righteousnes according to the flesh: but the worship of christians, is according to the spirit. Secondlie, the worship of the Iewes was by shadowes: but the worship of Christians is in truth, & by it selfe pleaseth God. Thesauri noui sermones quadragesimales, a popish booke so called, confesseth thus much.
Prudentius also thus verie excellentlie pictures out christian faith, and idolatrie.
In psychothaechia. Fidei & idololae…iae Pugna.PRima petit campum dubia sub sorte duelli
Pugnatura fides, agrestiturbida cultus,
Nuda humeros, intonsa comas, exerta lacertos:
Nam{que} repentinus laudis calor ad noua feruens
Praelia, nec telis meminit, nec tegmine cingi;
Pectore sed fidens valido, membris{que} retectis
Prouocat insani frangenda pericula belli.
Eccelacessentem collatis viribus audet,
Prima ferire fidem veterum cultura Deorum.
Illa hostile caput, phalerata{que} tempora vittis
Altior insurgens labefactas, & oracruore
De pecudum satiata, solo applicat, & pede calcat
Elisos in mortom oculos, animan{que} malignam
Fracta intercepti commercia gutturis arcta…t,
Difficilem{que} obitum, suspiria longa fatigant.
The same in English.
VIctorious faith doth enter first.
into the bloudie field;
And like a valiant champion
she will not flie nor yeeld.
And though the'uent of cruell warre
be subiect vntounto doubt,
Yet she doth come into the fielde
with courage bold and stout.
She cloathed is, with vile attire,
not pleasant to the eie,
Her shoulders naked are, her haire
doth out of orderlie.
Her tender armes vnarmed are,
They stand in steede of shield
Her naked body to defend,
not weapons for to weelde.
For hope of praise doth so enflame
and so enrage her heart,
That she forgets to arme her selfe
with buckler or with dart.
But being of a courage bolde,
not fearing perils any,
With naked brest, she dare attempt
to challenge dangers many.
Behold the heathenish worshipping
doth come with maine and might,
Against her bending all her force,
to put her to the flight:
But faith amounting to the skies,
doth wound her crested head,
Her face she dashes on the ground
and mouth with bloud beraide,
Her eies she putteth out, her winde
she stoppeth and her breath.
Thus Gentilisme, wanting winde:
doth see no way but death,
In the reuelation, the name of that great whore of Babylon,Reu. 17. v. 5. the church of Antichrist; the mother of spirituall fornication of the …ole earth: hath a mystery written in her forehead, because that all her religion should bee nothing; but mysteries, ceremonies, types, and shadowes. And was not the papistes so? All thinges that euer they vsed in their seruice were almost mysteries: Their …apes, censors, ashes, paxes, albes, stoles, crosses, cruets, and …chers, as their booke called [Rationale diuinorum] doth detiare.Rationale diuinorum. And this name is written in her forehead, that all men maie read and knowe it. And yet will they not knowe this whore? who readeth not this name in her forehead? who séeth not, that popish religion was nothing else, but mysteries, ceremonies, types, and shadowes? Why then it must néeds follow, that the popish church is that great whore of Babylon, whereof S. Iohn speaketh. The name of a thing, alwaies declareth the thing it selfe. If it cannot be denied, but that this name is in her forehead, then no doubt this is she indéede. And this mysterie, these ceremonies, of that wickednesse (as it may be well expounded) began euen in S. Pauls time, and in the daies of the fathers. They began euen then to depart from the simplicitie of the gospell, & to put this yoake againe on the disciples neckes.Col. 2. v 8. Some went about to make christians shoote at a wrong marke, they brought in worshipping of Angels, they had euen then voluntary religion, in pinching their bodies too much, which thinges had a shewe of worldly wisedome. These speeches began to be in vse againe: Touch not, tast not, handle not, whereas by Iesus Christ, we were made free: we might touch and tast al things. And therefore (he saith) they holde not the head, that is Iesus Christ, and his doctrine, by whom all the body being knit together, by ioi…s and bandes, groweth the growth of God. They growe and encrease: but not the growth or encrease of God: They growe not in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus (as Peter saieth:) they aske not counsell of their head, Euseb. lib. 3. eccl. Hist. cap. 37.in these thinges. Eusebius reporteth out of Egesippus, that as long as the Apostles liued, & the hearers of Christ himselfe, so long ye church continued a virgine: but after their deaths, this adulterer had wooed her and wonne her from Christ. Erasmus notes, that there hath been patching in the fathers workes also: Praefat. epist. 58. Aug.And doe we thinke she is a virgine still? The verie workes of Plinie and Seneca, being prophane writers, and the fathers workes; howe hath Sathan that olde deceiuer, the father of ignorance and blindnesse; obscured and darkened, and depraued? And do we thinke, that he hath not touched the work of God, his religion, his church? Yea no doubt especiallie he malignes that.
In Apol.Bernard writing against the superfluous ornamentes of churches saies thus: I let passe the great sta…elinesse of churches, their immoderat lengths, their vaine breadths, their sumptuous polishings, their curious paintings, which while they do draw the sight of thē that pray, vntounto them, they hinder their affection, and they seeme to me to resemble the olde custome of the Iewes. Marke howe Bernards saith, that those thinges, which nowe a daies the Popes defend… saie, were ordained to help deuotion; as guilded images & costlie ornaments, Bernard: saith, they hinder it: & that they tast rather of Iudaisme then Christianisme. He in those thick clouds of papisti…ll ignorance, sawe thus much: and manie nowe in the cleare light of the gospell, will hardly acknowledge the same. And to his agrées Ierom in his Epistle to Nepotian: concerning the life and conuersation of the cleargie. Iewrie had a rich temple, Ierom. Part. 3. Epist. Tract. 3. Epist. 7.and all thinges then made of golde. Then those thinges were allowed of the …de.