Works of Joseph Hall, Section 45
SECTION XLV.
The Churches ſtill retained in England. Socrat. Hiſt. Ec. l. 5. c. 16.17. Bed. hiſt. Eccl. l. 1. Cit. Gregor. Ep. Aug. ſuo. c. 30. & Edil…rto regi c. 32. Contra ſibi &c. Sed & Haereticorum templa ve…ata à Conſtantin…. Euſed. l. 3. c. 63.THE Maieſtie of Romiſh Petti-gods (I truely told you) was long agone, with Mithra and Serapis, expoſed to the laughter of the vulgar: you ſtraine the compariſon too farre; yet we follow you: Their Prieſts were expelled: for (as your Doctor yeeldeth) other Actors came vponupon the ſame ſtage: others in religion, elſe it had beene no change: Their Miniſterie and Monuments expoſed to vtter ſcorn…: Their Maſſes, their oblations, their adorations, their invocations, their anoylings, their exorcizings, their ſ…rift, their abſolutions, their Images, Rood-lofts, and whatſoeuer elſe of this kinde: But the Temples of thoſe olde Heathens were demoliſhed and raz…d: Here is the quarrell: ours ſtand ſtill in their proud Maieſtie: Can you ſee no difference betwixt our Churches and their Temples?Aug. de Ciuit. l. 8 c. 27. Ho…ker 5. b. c. 13. Id. Aug. coner. Maximin. Arrian. Nonne ſi templum. &c. Optat. Mileuitā. l. 6. Leuiſtis proculdubio pallas, Iudicate quid de co…cibus feciſtis: Aut vtrumque lauate, aut &c. Si quod tangit aſpectus lauandum eſt, vt parietes &c. Videmus rectum, videmus & coelum, &c. haec à vobis laua…i non poſſunt. The very name it ſelfe (if at leaſt you hauehave vnderſtood it) Kirke or Church (which is nothing but an abbreuiation of (foreign) the Lords houſe) might hauehave taught you, that ours were dedicated to God, & theirs to the Deuill, in their falſe gods: Auguſtine anſwers you, as directly, as if he were in my roome: The Gentiles (ſaith he) to their gods erected Temples; wee not Temples vntounto our Martyrs, as vntounto Gods, but memorials as vntounto dead men, whoſe ſpirits with God are ſtill liuing: Theſe then if they were abuſed by Popiſh Idolatrie, is there no way, but Downe with them, downe with them to the ground? Well fare the Donatiſts yet your old friends: they but waſhed the walles that were polluted by the Orthodoxe; by the ſame token, that Optatus askes them, why they did not waſh the bookes which ours toucht, and the heauens which they lookt vponupon: What, are the very ſtones ſinfull? what can be done with them? The very earth where they ſhould lye on heapes would bee vncleane: But not their pollution angers you more, than their proud Maieſtie: What houſe can bee too good for the Maker of all things? As God is not affected with State, ſo is he not delighted in baſeneſſe. If the pompe of the Temple were ceremoniall, yet it leaues this moralitie behinde it, that Gods houſe ſhould be decent: and what if goodly? If we did put holineſſe in the ſtones, as you doe vncleaneneſſe, it might be ſinne to bee coſtly: Let mee tell you, there may bee as much pride in a clay wall, as in a carued: Proud Maieſtie is better than proud baſeneſſe: the ſtone or clay will offend in neither, we may in both: If you louelove cottages, the auncient Chriſtians with vsus, loued to hauehave Gods houſe ſtately, as appeares by the example of that worthy Biſhop of Alexandria, Athanaſ. Apol. Euſeb. de vita Conſt. O…bo Friſing. l. 5. c. 3.and that gracious Conſtantine, in whoſe daies theſe ſacred piles began to lift vp their heads vntounto this enuied height: Take you your owne choyce, giuegive vsus ours; let vsus neitheir repine, nor ſcorne at each other.
SEP.
But your Temples, eſpecially your Cathedrall and mother Churches, ſtand ſtill in their proud Maieſtie poſſeſſed by Arch-Biſhops and Lord-Biſhops, like the Flamins and Arch-Flamins amongſt the Gentiles, from whom they were deriued and furniſhed with all manner of pompous and ſuperſtitious monuments, as carued and painted Images, Maſsing-Copes and Surplices, chanting and Organ-muſicke, and many other glorious ornaments of the Romiſh Harlot, by which her Maieſtie is commended to, and admired by the vulgar: ſo farre are you in theſe reſpects for being gone, or fled, yea, or crept either, out of Babylon.
Now if you be thus Babyloniſh where you repute your ſelues moſt Sion-like, and thus confounded in your owne euidence, what defence could you make in the things whereof an aduerſary would challenge you? If your light be darkneſſe, how great is your darkeneſſe?