Phrafe of the Jews was, to Guard against any Approaches towards the Breach of it. Or in the Apoftle's Words, to (a) Abstain from all -Appearance of Evil. And remember that we venture our Souls upon thefe Diftinctions. Which then are in the Safeft Way, we who follow the Direct Rule of God's Commandments as they are plainly laid down to us in Holy Scripture, without (6) Turning to the Right Hand or to the Left, without either Adding to them, or Diminishing from them, as we are Commanded: Or you who Diftinguish the plaineft Precepts, and make them fpeak Metaphyficks?.

By which the Worship of the Devil may be Juftified, for it is Plain that when he offer'd to our Saviour all the Kingdoms of the World, he meant not that he was the Supreme God and Sovereign Difpofer of them, but only as having Received this Power from the Sovereign Difpofer, for he faid, (c) That is Delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will, I give it. And it is as Plain by the Anfwer our Saviour gave him, Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God, and Him only fbalt thou ferve. That all fort of Religious Worfhip was forbidden to be given to Any but to God only. And S. Auguftine makes all to be Devils who Require or Accept it: Latria and Dulia fignifie both the fame thing, that is Service, and here all Religious Service is Referved to God only. The Distinction of the Schools is vain, and meant only to Elude the Commands of God, and Introduce all Superftition. Ther

(4) 1 Theff. v. 12. (b) Deut. iv. 2. v. 32. (c) Luk. iv. 6. 8,

Ther are other unworthy Cafes put in the Rubrick of the Mafs, which flow from hence, as if a Dog or a Moufe fhould eat the Satrament If the Priest fhould Vomit it up a gain, in which Cafe, he is to Lick it up Reverently, unless it be Naufeous, (that was well put in) and then it is to be Difpofed of fo and fo. And again, if a Fly fhould Drop into the Cup, how the Fly was to be Dealt with

And one Reafon given for taking the Cup from the Laity was, That the Laity (at that time I fuppofe) wore Long Beards, and left the Blood of Chrift fhould Drop upon them, or Stick to their Whiskers! All thefe are the genuine Ef fects of Superftition, occafioned by the Notion of Tranf-fubstantiation.

And here, My Lord, let me obferve, That the Natural Effect of Superstition is Atheism or Deifm. As one Extreme runs into another, like East to West. For Men of Senfe must find out the Deceit that is in Superftition, and then placing all Religion on the fame foot (as in your Communion upon the Authority of your Church) they must think the whole to be a Deceit, or in the Modifh Word, Prieft-Craft, and the Contrivance of thofe who Gain by it. Whence it is, that the Holy Scriptures and the Legends have the fame Foundation in the Church of Rome, that is, her Authority; therefore the Common People believe them both alike, and the Men of Senfe believe neither. And this does fo lead towards the General Defection foretold, that in a great MeaL3. : fure

fure it is it; for it deftroys the Foundation of Religion, and turns it all to Superstition. And when the Infidelity which that begets fhall come to be Publickly owned, then where shall Faith be found upon the Earth? It is now acted in the Opus Operatum. And instead of the Two Sacraments which Christ has Appointed as a Means of Grace, the whole Face of your Religion is covered with ten Thoufand of your own Invention. The Unlimited Power taken in your Church of Confecrating every thing into a Means of Grace, your Worship of Saints (ma+ ny of them Legendary) their Reliques and Images, of Croffes, and of the Host, make up the Bulk of your Religion and Devotion's.

(38.) But not only the Host, or Body of Christ fuppofed to be Corporally in the Sacrament, but the Cross of Christ, or any Effigies of that Cross; and the Images of Christ, are Worfhipped in your Church with the Supreme Divine Adoration of Latria. As is told us by a Great St. of your Church, whom you call the Angelical Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, who fays that (a) Crux Chrifti est Adoranda Adoratione Latrie. And again, Crucis Effigies in aliqua alia Materia- Latria adoranda est. And in the Roman Pontifical it is ordered, that in the Proceffion of the Emperor and a Legate of the Pope, the Legate's Cross shall be carried on the

T

(4) Tar. 3 Qu. 2 Art. 4. in Cor. Conclufio.

the Right Hand of the Emperor's Sword, because (a) Latria is due to the Cross.

And in the Adoration of the Cross upon Good-Friday (which is the Principal Part of the Office for that Day) the Cross being Veiled, is Difcovered to the People by Degrees, firft one Arm of the Cross, then another, and at laft the whole Cross is Unveiled: And at each time the Prieft fays, Ecce lignum Crucis, Behold the Wood of the Crofs: And the People answer, Adoremus, Let us WorShip: And then the Priests first, and afterwards the People, come upon their Knees and pay their Adoration to the Cross. And remember that it is the Adoration of Latria which they give to it.

Now for Images, the fame Aquinas before Mentioned tells us the Worfhip we pay them is (b) Religionis Cultus, a Religious Worship, and that it is not a different Latria which is given to Christ and to His Images, but fays, (c) That when Worship is paid to the Images of Christ, the Reafon of the Latria is not Different, nor the Vertue of Religion.

If then ther be but one Latria, and the fame that is paid to Christ and to His Images, it will Juftify what James Naclantus, Bishop of Clugium Writes in his Expofition of the Epiftle

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(a) Quia debetur ei (Cruci) Latria. (b) 2da 2dæ. Quæ 8r. Art. 3. Refp. ad 3. (c) Quod Imaginibus Chrifti exhibetur Cultus, non diverificatur ratio Latrie, nec Virtus Religi onis.

Epiftle to the Romans, chap. 1. (a) That the Faithful ought not only to Worship before an Image (as fome perhaps out of Caution speak) but to Worship the Image it felf, without any Scruple at all; and with the fame Sort of Worthip as the Proto-type or whom it Repre fents; and if that is to be Worfhipped with Latria, fo its Image with Latria, if with Dulia, or Hyperdulia, fo the Image is to be Worshipped with the fame Worship..

39. Ther is another ftrange Latria paid to the Praputium of Christ, or the Foreskin was cut off at His Circumcifion. Your Doctors are at great Pains to know what is become of it. They might as well ask what is become of the Parings of His Nails! Whither will Superftition run? They had it at Antwerp, but the Hereticks took it away.

From thence it travelled by many Miracles to the Church of Saint John Lateran at Rome, and how it was thence Tranflated to the Church of Cornelius and Cyprian at Calcata, about Twenty Miles from Rome, I have read the Account at large in a Book in Folio, Intitled, De Bafilica & Pariarchio Lateranenfi, ad Alexand.

(4) Ergo non folum fatendum eft, fideles in Ecclefia adorare coram Imagine (ut Nonnulli ad Cautelam forte loquuntur) fed & Adorare Imaginem, fine quo volueris fcrupulo, quin & eo illam Venereantur Cultu, quo Prototypon ejus; propter quod fi Illud habet adorari Latria, Illa Latria, fi Dulia, vel Hyperdulia, & Illa pariter ejuf modi Cultu adoranda est. Venetiis,