worship with God, as it happened among Paynim Idolaters: or els depriue God of this kind of honour, as now we see Protestants reiect and pul downe consecrated Altars, pretending them to be superstitious. The Church learneth not rites of Idolaters, but they of the Church.Wherin they shew most grosse ignorance, if indeed they so iudge of ignorance, and not of meer malice. Difference in religious, superstitious, and ciuil honour, consisteth in the persons, & intentions.For who is so simple, but he may see, that the chiefe difference between Religion and Superstition in external things, consisteth in the persons to whom they are done, and in the intention of the doers, and by the same difference of persons ciuil honours is also distinguished, from both religious & superstitious. As he that kneeleth to God, religiously honoreth God. Kneeling to the sunne, moone, or other false Gods, superstitiously honoreth the diuel, and kneeling to the King ciuilly honoureth the King. Iacob without doubt did al to Gods onlie honour. And that which he did in this place, is now vsed in the Catholike Church. For so Rabanus, a diligent obseruer and writer of Ecclesiastical Rites, Ceremonies, and Customes, touching the vse of holie oyle witnesseth (li. 1. c. 45. Institut. cleric.) that the Altar being first sprinkled with water, is annointed with Chrisme, to the example of the Patriarch Iacob, who after that dreadful vision, erected a stone for a title (or monument) powring oyle theron, and calling that place The house of God. Two sorts of holie oyle.S. Cyprian also writing of Chrisme mentioneth the two sorts of holie oyle vsed in the Church; one of simple oyle consecrated by a Bishop, which is vsed for Catechumens before Baptisme, persons possessed, and the sick; the other is made of oyle and balme, also consecrated by a Bishop, and this is vsed in Baptisme, Confirmation, and in consecrating Altars, Kings, and Priests.
Vowes are properly of things which are not otherwise commanded.20. Vowed.) It can not be vnderstood that Iacob heer vowed or promised only to serue God, as the Soueraigne Lord of al creatures, for to that he was bound, whether he should prosper temporally or no; but that he vowed particular godlie works, to which he was not otherwise obliged. As here he expresseth two things. Presupposing before al, that the Lord Omnipotent shal be his God, he addeth, Gen. 14.First, And this stone, which I haue erected for a title, shal be called the house of God. Wherby he promised the building of a Church, performed at his returne (chap. 35.) Secondly, he added, And of al things which thou shalt giue me I wil offer tithes to thee. And this Likewise was of free deuotion. For tithes also in the law of nature were due to Priests, and by inferiour Priests to the chiefe Priest, as Abraham gaue tithes to Melchisedech. And so al his tithes were due to his father, and after his father himselfe was chiefe: yet he promised them to God, that is, to offer them in Sacrifice, and bestow them in other vses pertaining to Gods seruice.
