Wesley Corpus

The minor I prove, not from Protestant authors, nor 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 Cologne, 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: Now, (as every smatterer in Hebrew knows) is incurvare se, procumbere, honoris exhibendi causa [‘To bow down before any one in token of honoring him’ (Wesley).] (and is accordingly rendered by the Seventy in this very place by a Greek word of the very same import, pse): but the Council of Trent (and consequently all Romanists as such, all who allow the authority of that Council) teaches (section 25, paragraph 2) that it is legitimus imaginum usus, -- eis honorera exhibere, procumbendo coram eis. [‘That is, the proper use of images is to honor them by bowing down before them’(Wesley).] 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. All these things, therefore, do the Romanists add to those which are written in the Book of Life. -- I am. To his Brother Samuel [2] [January] 1739.