The orthodox faith and vvay to the Church explaned and iustified in answer to a popish treatise, entituled, White died blacke; wherein T.W. p. in his triple accusation of D. White for impostures, vntruths, and absurd illations, is proued a trifler: and the present controuersies betweene vs and the Romanists are more fully deliuered and cleared. By Francis White Bachelour in Diuinitie, and elder brother of Doctor Iohn White.

Article 10. Wearing of haire-cloath, and lying vpon the ground in stead of a bed.

The wearing of haire-cloath, and lying vpon the ground, are things indifferenth 1.1, frequent in the Old Te∣stament, 2. Sam. 3.31. 2. King. 19.1. Iob 16.15. Dan. 9.3. but haue not any example in the New.

Epiphanius condemneth the open wearing of haire-cloath as vndecent, and disagreeing with the manner of the Catholike Churchi 1.2, and there is no necessitie of the doing heereof. Howsoeuer these things being in their kind indifferent, (when they are lawfullie vsed) are not condemned by vs: onely the vile hypocrisiek 1.3 and mise∣rable superstition, which after the daies of the auncient Fathers oppressed the Church, hath caused the Prote∣stants lesse to esteeme these exercises, rather maintaining the substantiall actions of mortification, Rom. 8.13. Ioel. 2.13. 1. Pet. 2.11. Tit. 2.12. Luke 9.23. Iere. 4.4. then these bodily exercises, 1. Tim. 4.8. And surely after that, the Church forgetting the admonitions of holy Scripture, Math. 6.16. Col. 2.21.23. began to describe mortification

rather by corporall exercises then spirituall actions, there oppressed the same an vmbragious heape of superstition: and in stead of true godlinesse, people doted after prodi∣gious vestures and habits, reposed confidence in Friers stinking Coulesl 1.4. And the brutish Friers, Dominick and Francis, contemning haire cloath as meane, began to weare shirts of Male next their skinne, chaines of Iron, and haltersm 1.5; and they whipped and displed themselues like Baals Priestsn 1.6, and lay naked in the snowo 1.7, and wal∣lowed in the dunghill with swinep 1.8, and the shamefull su∣perstition of these beasts, was (indeed) preferred before Christ Iesus and his Apostles doctrineq 1.9.

Notes

• h 1.1

  Pareus com. Gen. 37.34. Hic gestus adiapho∣rus quidem per se, nec impro∣batus. &c.
• i 1.2

  Epiphan. l. 3. haeres. 80. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• k 1.3

  Gers. p. 1. serm de vita Cler. Saepe mentiun∣tur hae vestes, dum aliud monstrant ex∣tra, aliud tegunt intra: exterius sanctitatem, in∣terius vilitatem &c.
• l 1.4

  Breuiar. Rom. de consecr. cu∣cul. Monach. orat Deum vt vestem illam ita benedicat & sanctificet, vt sit arma sortia ad tegendum pect. & tutum muni∣men contra spi∣ritum aeris, & ignita tela inimici, &c. Antonin. sum. hist. par. 3. tit. 23. c. 2. §. 1. Math. Paris. in Henric. 3. de Richard. episc. Cestrensi. pag. 840. Antonin. sum. hist. p. 3. tit. 24. c. 2 §. 6. Crebro pius pater (Fran∣ciscus) quasi seminudus, à populo relictus est: eo quod tunicas eius per particulas cum cultellis inciderent easq́ue deuote contra diuersa pericula, pro salutis remedio reportarent.
• m 1.5

  Antonin. ib. c. 2 §. 1.
• n 1.6

  Id. ib. tit. 23. c. 2 § 1. Vincent. spec. hist. l. 30. c 112. Surius tom. 5. Octobr. pa. 850. in S Dominic. loricato.
• o 1.7

  Sur. to. 5. in vita Francis. c. 5 pa. 589.
• p 1.8

  Math. Paris. in Henric. 3. pa. 328.
• q 1.9

  Anton. hist. p. 3. tit 23. c. 1. §. 1. Per hunc (Paulum) itur ad Christum, facilius per hunc. Nec mireris &c. quia doctrina Pauli, sicut & caeterorum Apostolorum, erat doctrina inducens ad fidem & obseruantiam praeceptorum: doctrina Dominici ad obseruantiam consiliorum, & ••deo facilius per ipsum itur ad Christum, &c. vid.