Works of Joseph Hall, Section 46
SECTION XLVI.
ALL this while I feared you had beene in Popiſh Idolatry;The Founders and Furnitures of our Churches. now I finde you in Heatheniſh: Theſe our Churches are ſtill poſſeſſed by their Flamins, and Arch-Flamins: I had thought none of our Temples had beene ſo ancient: certainly I finde but one poore ruinous building, reported to hauehave worne out this long tyranny of time: For the moſt, you might hauehave read their age, and their Founders in open records: But theſe were deriued from thoſe: ſurely the Churches as much as the men: It is true, the Flamins, and whateuer other heathen Prieſts, were put downe,Lumb. l. 4. diſt. 24. Iſid. l. 7. Etymol. cap. 12. Theophilus Epiſc. cum caeteras ſtatuas deorum confringere…, vnam integram ſeruari iuſſit, eamque in loco publico crexit, vt Chriſtian Biſhops were ſet vp; Are theſe therefore deriued from thoſe? Chriſtianity came in the roome of Iudaiſme: was it therefore deriued from it? Before you told vsus, that our Prelacie came from that Antichriſt of Rome, now from the Flamins of the Heathen: Both no leſſe, than either: If you cannot be true, yet learne to be conſtant. But what meane you to charge our Churches with carued & painted Images? It is well you write to thoſe that know them; Why did not you ſay wee bow our knees to them, and offer incenſe? Perhaps you hauehave eſpied ſome olde duſtie ſtatue in an obſcure corner, couered ouer with Cob-webs,Gentiles tempore progrediente non infici…rentur ſe iu…ſmodi deos coluiſſe. Ammonius Grammaticus hacdere valde diſcruciatus, Dixit grauem plagèm religioni Graecorum inflictam, quod illa vna ſtatua non cuerteretur. Socrat. l. 5. c. 16. with halfe a face, & that miſerably blemiſht, or perhaps halfe a Crucifixe inuerted in a Church-window, and theſe you ſurely noted for Engliſh Idols: no leſſe dangerous glaſſe you might hauehave ſeene at Geneua, a Church that hates Idolatry, as much as you doe vsus: What more? Maſſing Copes, and Surplices: ſome Copes (if you will) more Surplices, no Maſſing: Search your bookes againe, you ſhall finde Albes in the Maſſe, no Surplices. As for Organ-muſicke, you ſhould not hauehave fetcht it from Rome, but from Ieruſalem: In the Reformed Church at Middleburgh, you might hauehave found this skirt of the Harlot: which yet you grant at leaſt crept out of Babylon; Iudge now (Chriſtian Reader) of the weight of theſe grand exceptions; and ſee whether ten thouſand ſuch were able to make vsus no Church, and argue vsus not onelyonly in Babylon, but to be Babylon it ſelfe: Thus Babyloniſh we are to you, and thus Sion-like to God: eueryevery true Church is Gods Sion: eueryevery Church that holds the Foundation, is true, according to that golden rule, Epheſ. 2.21. EueryEvery building that is coupled together in this corner-ſtone, groweth vntounto an holy Temple in the Lord: No aduerſary, either Man or Deuill, can confound vsus, eitheir in our euidences, or their owne challenges: we may be faultie, but we are true: And if the darkeneſſe you finde in vsus be light, how great is our light?
SEP.
But for that not the ſeparation, but the cauſe makes the Schiſmatike; and leſt you ſhould ſeeme to ſpeake euill of the thing you know not, and to condemne a cauſe vnhear…, you lay downe in the next place the ſuppoſed cauſe of our ſeparation, againſt which you deale as inſufficiently. And that you pretend to be, none other than your conſorting with the Papiſts in certaine Ceremonies: touching which, and our ſeparation in regard of them thus you write.
M.H. If you hauehave taken but the leaſt knowledge of the ground of our iudgement and practice, how dare you thus abuſe both vsus and the Reader, as if the onelyonly or chiefe ground of our ſeparation were your Popiſh Ceremonies? But if you goe onelyonly by geſſe, hauing neuer ſo much as read ouer one Treatiſe publiſhed in our defence, and yet ſticke not to paſſe this your cenſorious doo…e both vponupon vsus and it; I leaue it to the Reader to iudge whether you hauehave beene more lauiſh of your cenſure, or credit. Moſt vniuſt is the cenſure of a cauſe vnknowne, though in it ſelfe neuer ſo blame-worthy, which neuertheleſſe may be praiſe-worthy, for ought he knowes that cenſures it.