Wesley Corpus

“Yet I can by no means approve the scurrility and contempt with which the Romanists have often been treated. I dare not rail at, or despise, any man: much less those who profess to believe in the same Master. But I pity them much; having the same assurance, that Jesus is the Christ, and that no Romanist can expect to be saved, according to the terms of his covenant. For thus saith our Lord, ‘ Whosoever shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.’ And, ‘If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.’ But all Romanists, as such, do both. Ergo, ‘The minor I prove, not from Protestant authors, or even from particular writers of their own communion: but from the public, authentic records of the Church of Rome. Such are the canons and decrees of the Council of Trent. And the edition I use was printed at Célen, and approved by authority. * And, First, all Romanists, as such, do break, and teach men to break, one (and not the least) of those commandments; the words of which, concerning images, are these, mn ainnwn xb Now nnw (as every smatterer in Hebrew knows) is incurvare se, procumbere, honoris exhibendi causa :* (and is accordingly rendered by the Seventy in this very place, by a Greek word of the very same import, mpocxvvew :) but the Council of Trent (and consequently all Romanisis, as such, all who allow the authority of that Council) teaches, (section 25, paragraph 2,) that it is legitimus amaginum usus,--eis honorem exhibere, procumbendo coram ets.t “Secondly, All Romanists, as such, do add to those things which are written in the Book of Life. For in the bull of Pius IV, subjoined to those canons and decrees, I find all the additions following :-- “1, Seven sacraments; 2. Transubstantiation; 3. Communion in one kind only; 4. Purgatory, and praying for the dead therein; 5. Praying to saints; 6. Veneration of relics; 7. Worship of images ; 8. Indulgences; 9. The priority and universality of the Roman Church; 10. The supremacy of the Bishop of Rome. Ali these things therefore do the Romanists add to those which are written in the Book of Life. “Tam, 3