" Phoebe, sylvarumque potens Diana
Lucidum coeli decus, o colendi
Semper et culti, date quae precamur Tempore sacro.
APOSTASY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 219
" Alme Sol, curru uitido diem qm Pi'omis et celas, aliusque et idem Nasceris; possis nihil urbe Eoraa Visere majus. " Rite matures aperire partus Lenis Ilithyia, tuere matrcs : Sive tu Lucina probas vocari,
Seu Genitalis. Diva." Horat. Carm. Sseculai-e.
And if this be not plainly to place her in the throne of God, I know not what can be imagined so to do. Your worship of angels and of saints is of the same importance, concerning whom you do well to entitle your paragraph, " Heroes;" your doctrine and practice con- cerning them being the very same with those of the ancient heathen, in reference unto their demons and heroes. So your own learned Vives confesseth of many of you, in August, de Civit. Dei, lib. xxviii. cap. ult. " Multi Christian]," saith he, " divos divasque non aliter venerantur quam Deum ; nee video in multis quod sit discrimen inter eorum opinionem de Sanctis, et id quod Gentiles putabant de suis diis;" — '■ Many Christians worship he and she saints no otherwise than they do God; neither do I see, in many things, what difference there is between their opinion concerning the saints and that which the heathen thought of their gods." And it is known what Polydore Vkgil before him affirmed to the same purpose. Your idolatry, in the worship of images of all sorts, shall be afterward declared. Be, then, this a single or mixed misdemeanour, it matters not; a misdemeanour it is, whereby we affirm that the Roman church is fallen from its pristine purity. And this we think is a full answer unto your in- quuy. We need not, j'ou cannot compel us, to go one step farther; but our way is plain and invites us. I shall therefore proceed to let you see once again that she is fallen, by all the waj^s you thought meet to confine your inquiry unto.
You proceed: " Finding yourself puzzled in the third place, you lay on load. 'She fell,' say you, 'by apostasy, idolatry, heresy, schism, licentiousness, and profaneness of life.' And in this you do not much unlike the drunken youth, who, being bid to hit his master's finger with his, when he perceived he could not do it, he ran his whole fist against it." Seriously, sir, you have the worst success in your at- tempts for a little vnt and merriment that ever I met with. If you would take my advice, you should not strain your genius for that which it will not afford you ; you forgot the old rule, —
" Tu nihil invita dices faciesve MineiTa."- — Hor. ad Pison., 265.
Any other diversion were better than this, which proves so success- less ; yet I must confess you deserve well of pastime, seeing to serve
220 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVEESIONS ON FIAT LUX.
its interests you so often make yourself ridiculous, as you now do in this pitiful stoiy. And I cannot tell you whether my answer have touched your finger or no, but I am sure, if it be tiiie, it strikes your cause to the heart ; and I am as sure of the truth of it as I am that I am alive. And you see how I am puzzled, even as he was who cried, " Inopem me copia fecit." Your church hath fallen so many ways, all so foully and evidently, that it is hard for any man to choose what instance to insist upon who is called on to charge her, as you, by your inquiry of them, do on your Protestant readers ; and for my part, I had rather you should take your choice against which of the things mentioned you think yourself best able to defend her. And, may it please you to choose your instance, if I prove not your church to have fallen by it, I will promise you to become a Papist. You proceed to your own particulars, and ask, " Did she fall by apostasy ?" to which you subjoin my words, " By a partial, not a total one;" with your reply, " Good sir, in this division apostasy is set to express a total relapse, in opposition to heresy, which is the partial." I see you have as little mind to be drawn to the consideration of your apostasy as of your idolatry; and would feign post off all to heresy, under a corrupt notion of which term you hope to find some shelter for yourself and your church, although in vain. But, —
" Verte ornncs tete in facies ; et contrahe quicquid Sive animis, sive arte vales." Virg. ^n. xii. 891.
You must bear the charge of apostasy also; for why must that needs be the notion of these terms, in the division you made, that you now express? Is it from the strict sense and importance of the words themselves, or from the scriptural or ecclesiastical use of them, or whence is it that it Tnust be so, and that it is so ? None of these will give you any relief, or the least countenance unto your fancy. Both dvroffrasia and a'ipsgig are words sx ruv /u,s0uv, in themselves of an indifferent signification, denoting things or acts, good or evil, accord- ing to their accidental limitations and applications. It is said of some, ' A'TTogrriffovTai rrig mgrsojg, — "They will depart from the faith," 1 Tim. iv. 1 ; and the same apostle, speaking of them that name the name of Christ, says, " Let every one of them depart from ini- quity," ' AiroarriTo dvo ddi>tlag, 2 Tim. ii. 19: SO that the word it&olf signifies no more but a single and bare departure from any thing, way, rule, or practice, be it good or bad, wherein a man hath been engaged, or which he ought to avoid and fly from. And this is the use of it in the best Greek authors: UoXXbv d(piffrdvTsg are such, in Homer, who are far distant or remote on any account from any thing or place; and Td irXtTarov dfiSTrixora, in Aristotle, things very remote. To leave any place, company, thing, society, or rule, on any cause, is