362 PAPAL HERESILì6 IDOLATRY. The holy Scripture teaches us to "judge nothing" (about thepre- sent or future state of men, absolutely) " before the time, until the Lord come, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of hearts, and then each man shall have praise of God," 1 Cor. iv. 5; Rom. xiv. 4. But the pope notoriously (in repugnance to those precepts, antici- pating God's judgment, and arrogating to himself a knowledge re- quisite thereto) presumes to determine the state of men, canonizing them, declaring them to be saints, and proposing them to be wor- shipped; and, on the other side, he damns, curses, and censures his fellow servants. God in his law commands us " not to bow down ourselves unto any image," or worship " the likeness of any thing in heaven, or earth, or under the earth;"'which law, whether moral or positive, the gospel ratifies and confirms, charging us to "keep ourselves from idols, and to flee worshipping of idols," that is, to observe the second commandment; the validity of which the fathers most expressly as- sert, and divers of themwere so strict in their opinion about it that they deemed it unlawful so much as to make any image.' But the pope andhis adherents (in point-blankopposition to divine law and primitive doctrine) require us to " fall down before" and to worship images: " Moreover, we decree that the images of saints be especially had and retained in churches, and that due honour and veneration be imparted to them, .... so that by those images which we kiss, and before which we uncover the head and fall down, we adore Christ, and venerate the saints whose likeness they bear."3 Neither is he satisfied to recommend and decree these unwarrant- ablevenerations, but with a horrible strange kind of uncharitable- ness and ferity [savageness], he " anathematizes those who teach" or think "any thing opposite to his decrees concerning them;"' so that if the ancient fathers should live now, they would live under this curse. The holy Scripture, under condition of repentance and amend- ment of life, upon recourse to God and trust in his mercy, through Jesus Christ our Saviour, offers and promises remission of sins, ac- ceptance with God, justification, and salvation. This is the tenor of atque horum reliquias essevenerandas.Pii IV. Profes. Fid. Bonum atque utileesse eos invocare .... sanctorum quoque corpora'.... a fidelibus veneranda esse. Conc. Trid. ' Exod. xx. 4. oG oro,gossç osaarÿ sidr'T.ov, Dias rravriç 11..;e ¡ca, &C. 1 John v. 21; 1 Cor. x. 7, 14; Clem. Alex., 'l'ertul. 3 Imagines porro . sanctorum in templis præsertim habendas et retinendas; eisque debitum honorem et venerationem impertiendam, . ita ut per imagines, quas osculamur, et coram quibus caput aperimus et procumbimus, Christum adoremus, et sanetos quorum illas similitudinemgerunt veneremur.Conc. Trid. sess. xxv Siquis autem his decretis contraria docuerit aut scnserit, anathema sit. hid.
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