in but a few pence you thinke that you bring with you in your pocket an vndoubted remission of your sinnes O fearefull rocke O dolefull wracke O hatefull auarice The Pope will needs haue a great Armie of innumerable Priests and Friars whom he pretendeth and in despight of Secular Princes mainteyneth to bee his onely his Subiects souldiers and seruants but he is more thriftie then to allow them wages of his owne pay or table of his prouision and therefore hee hath inuented for their maintenance such deuices as this to nimme the coyne out of your purses Which yee giue downe very gently that you may haue your part in these sweet Sacrifices not by way of commemoration of the benefit which you haue receiued by Christ but by way of bargaine and hier for the remission of your sinnes and the freedome of soules out of Purgatorie for pettie peniworthes And that you may ply their shop the oftner and become daily customers for Masse-bargaines they tell you that one Masse will not doe the feat that you are not alwayes rightly disposed to be capable of the benefit of this Sacrifice that for euery sinne you must haue at least one Masse with such like deuises and then let them alone to make their ware saleable they will finde you miracles ynough begotten by their Masses and stoare you with visions reuelations and many other such tricks and slights coyned in the forge of couetousnesse But what thinke you of the superstitious ceremonies of the Masse they are a many of deuises broached to astonish the simple vulgar and to rauish them with admiration of hidden and vnknowne mysteries without common sence without signification without any contents in them other then meere superstition The Masse-priest sometimes beats his breast one while lifts vp his eyes other-while casts them downe one while ioynes his hands together other-while spreads them at large one while holds his fingers close other-while displayes them sometimes he makes crosses in the aire in a certaine prefixed number and with so nimble motion as if he would beat away flies sometime he bends himselfe downe lowting low with Spanish crindges sometime hee stands vpright sometime stoopes sometime mumbles in secret other-while hee chaunts it alowd one while hee turnes to the people otherwhile to the Altar which are gesticulations fitter for the stage then for the Church and to procure laughter then to stirre vp deuotion Set habits I mislike not for in my first and best times my Ministers were in their holy functions adorned with proper habits for that purpose which indeed were not so costly and stately as now adayes I see them in some Churches nor so slouenly and nastie as I see them in other especially amongst those Friars which loue their broath well and take more care to haue their diet large and fat then to haue their Vestrie furnished and neatly dight As for the Sacrament whilest the Communion of the faithfull either all or many or some is in celebrating then is the fit time for that which is called Masse which should indeede bee the Liturgie and not a priuate but publique exercise euen for the said Communion and no other vse for this onely was the first and pure institution thereof But Romanists haue brought-in an innouation that for the most part the Communion should bee celebrated without Masse or Liturgie for they make boxes to be kept full of these Hosts there one comes another goes and the Priest without Masse without prayers affords to euery stander-by the Cōmunion or rather the halfe Communion it being a maymed Sacrament and full of vndecent enormities Hence I inferre that the priuate Masse as it is now adaies celebrated is in many respects friuolous and causeth the ruine of many soules One reformation of it would bee by cutting off many parts of it and generally all those strange gestures and by celebrating it for the Communion onely Whereupon it followes that in one and the same Church all the Altars except one principall should bee demolished as superfluous For in one Congregation one Masse is enough for the peoples Communion where the multitude of Altars and Masses is nothing but a meere superstition and erronious opinion of a Sacrifice But the greatest enormitie and most intollerable error of the Masse now adayes is that you poore soules are made beleeue that in it the bread is conuerted or as they speake transubstantiated into the true and reall body of Christ so that the bread after the consecration must bee no more bread no not in substance but Christ's true and reall body with his true reall presence in body and soule and the Deity vnited thereto with his head eies hands and feet the very same that was borne of the Virgin Mary which was fastened on the Crosse which rose againe and ascended into heauen and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father a thing beyond all vnderstanding and vtterly imperceptible which I could neuer apprehend nor approoue Surely the Scripture alwayes calleth the Eucharist euen after consecration bread Saint Luke calleth it the Communion of breaking of bread Act. 2.46 Saint Paul also saith 1. Cor. 10.16 That the bread which wee breake is the communion of the body of Christ and speaking of the due preparation before the Communion after a man hath prooued himselfe and purged his cōscience 1. Cor. 11.28 then saith he let him eat of that bread and drinke of that cup. So likewise all the ancient Fathers acknowledged true bread in the Eucharist neither euer heard they newes of this transubstantiation it being an vtter stranger in my house and for aboue eight hundred yeres after Christ neither heard of nor thought on And whensoeuer the ancient Fathers doe call the Eucharist by the name of Christ's body their meaning is that the bread is Christ's body Sacramentally without ceasing to be bread still euen as the water of holy Baptisme is sacramentally the blood of Christ which washeth the soule yet notwithstanding remayneth it still water And if yee aske mee what the Eucharisticall bread doth get by consecration more then it had before and what maner of transmutation or change that is which the holy Fathers acknowledge to be in the bread after consecration I answere that the bread before consecration is nothing else but ordinary bread and onely materiall food for the body but vpon consecration it is altered and changed and that spiritually and not materially for it becommeth Sacramentall bread and by so being it attayneth a very great and meruailous priuiledge that whosoeuer doth worthy lie eat it in the holy Communion doth receiue the true body of Christ in a certaine vnspeakeable but spirituall and Sacramentall maner Christ hauing ordeined and promised that whensoeuer this bread beeing made Sacramentall by consecration shall be eaten worthy lie he will giue his body spiritually and all other admirable spirituall benefits for the nourishment of their soules to those that shall thus worthylie communicate
And in regard of this spirituall effect of receiuing the body of Christ spiritually as often as the consecrated bread is worthylie receiued in the act of communicating the Fathers are wont to call that bread the body of Christ And in this sense Christ when he gaue the Communion to his Apostles in his last supper did call that bread which he deliuered to them his body So also must wee vnderstand the consecrated wine which beeing druncke corporally in the Sacrament the very blood of Christ is drunke but spiritually not corporally and so in the blessed Sacrament of bread and wine there is spiritually the true body and the true blood of Christ with their true and reall effects wrought in the soule of the worthy Communicant but there is neither the body nor the blood corporally and that which is there corporally is very bread and very wine imployed Sacramentally as I haue declared The like is to be vnderstood also of the water of holy Baptisme for that also before the inuocation of the most holy Trinity in the act of baptizing is no other then meere ordinary water but by that inuocation it is consecrated in the very act of Baptisme and so at one the same time both the water is consecrated and of ordinary becommeth Sacramental and withall there is performed the Sacrament of Baptisme with the inward effect of purging the soule whereas in the Eucharist the consecration goeth before whereby the bread and wine are made Sacramentall and afterwards follow the eating and drinking of them in which actions consisteth the very Sacrament and the body blood of Christ is giuen inwardly to him that worthylie eateth and drinketh this Sacramentall bread and wine but whosoeuer doth eat and drinke them vnworthylie without examining himselfe and first being clensed from sinne he doth not eat nor drinke any other thing then bread and wine For to those that are vnworthy Christ affordeth not spiritually his body nor his blood howsoeuer they doe eat and drinke the consecrated bread and wine which consecration hath this operation that it maketh the bread and wine Sacramentall vnto those that Sacramentally receiue them and are onely fit for them whereas the vnworthy receiue them not as a Sacrament Christ denying vnto them his body and blood and so to them this eating and drinking is no Sacrament and that by their own default This consecration therefore doth them no good at all but is the occasion that they eat and drinke not a Sacrament nor Christ's body 1. Cor. 11.29 and blood but iudgement condemnation as St. Paul denounceth because they doe not discerne the body of the Lord that is they put no difference betweene ordinary bread and this consecrated bread which in the Sacramentall eating doth spiritually exhibite the true body of Christ to the worthy receiuers they making no other preparation for it then if they were to receiue their common ordinary and meere corporall food So also if by any mischance in the time of communicating any vnreasonable creature should eat that consecrated bread it eateth no other then meere bread inasmuch as Christ doth not affoord his body with the consecrated bread but onely vnto those who are capeable of the Sacrament and are made worthy of it or at least doe not vnworthylie approach vnto it And because Christ performeth not this wonderfull worke of giuing his body and blood in such sort as I haue declared but onely by occasion of the Sacrament and forasmuch as likewise the Sacrament it selfe consisteth wholy in the actions of eating and drinking who seeth not that such consecrated bread whilest it is not imployed in those actions remayneth pure and ordinary bread for the consecrating of it serued only to make it Sacramental bread surely it is not Sacramentall otherwise then as it is to bee eaten Sacramentally in that spirituall banquet which then is in celebrating although the same should continue many houres or there were some sicke persons to communicate of it who lie in their beds at home euen though they were some ten miles distant thence in asmuch as this may bee held morally one banquet or Communion Whereupon you may easily perceiue the errour of those that terme by the name of the most holy Sacrament that consecrated bread which after the Communion finished is kept in Pyxes and cabinets where it is not to bee eaten by any but after certaine daies and weeks and moneths and perhaps not by men at all but by mice or other vermine and yet surely it is no Sacrament but onely in the act of eating therefore in these Pyxes and closets there is contained not onely no Sacrament but not so much as Sacramentall bread the force of consecration beeing already vanished inasmuch as that bread was consecrated onely to the end it might bee eaten in that meeting Sacramentally and therefore afterwards it becommeth ordinary bread which notwithstanding in reuerend regard that this very bread was consecrated to the Communion is to bee eaten by those that are in sacred function and not to bee brought vnto the common dining-table nor to be vsed as ordinary foode And yet alas euen to this bread thus reserued there are vsually prayers made and adoration performed as vnto the onely true God which is most expresse proper and formall Idolatry Consider also the grosse absurdities and manifest impossibilities which they are faine to maintaine who hold transubstantiation that the accidents of bread namely colour quantitie smell sauour and such like remaine without any subiect wherein they should inheare or substance whereby they should be supported Surely nothing can subsist in its actuall being whensoeuer it looseth its very essence and all Philosophie proclaimeth that Accidentis esse estinesse the being of an accident or qualitie consisteth in being supported by a substance or subiect So that by this reckoning these accidents are in being because they are seene and felt and yet are not in being because their owne being is denied them and that which essentially hath no being of it selfe but wholy dependeth of another it is vnpossible that it should exist without that by which it is that it is So euery accident in its owne essence is an appurtenance to another thing namely vnto substance and he that withdraweth substance and subject from an accident stealeth away the very essence thereof and so as I said these accidents are something because they are visible and palpable and yet are nifles because there is no substance left to support them and so they are appendants and no appendants And as for diuinitie that acknowledgeth that euen to God himselfe those things which imply contradiction are not feisible But what would they say concerning the power of nourishing which is alwayes to be found in the Eucharisticall bread Certainely he that should eate no other meat nor drinke no other liquor then these Sacramentall elements should finde himselfe nourished as much as with any ordinary bread and wine And being that
they fouly breake me this vnion But that which most of all offends mee is that the Pope my Capitall enemie doth destroy and breake and dissipate this my so important vnion drawing it mischieuously to himselfe and vrging that vnion consisteth in beeing subiect vnto him as a visible head Yet haue I shewed that there is no relation of an head in him and that hee is meerely my minister and seruant Indeede he is as euery other Bishop the visible head of his owne Church onely my daughter of Rome and he it is that giueth vnion to that Church for euery particular Church is visibly one whilest it depends of her owne only principall minister A Church that is a particular Church saith Saint Cyprian Cypr. lib. 4. Ep. 9. is a people vnited to their Pastour But in mee that am the vniuersall and totall Church there is no vnion made by any other then by my true and onely head Christ and all particular Churches bring forth that goodly and necessary vnion by beeing vnited with me vpon the same foundation and vnder the same head Christ and that by way of charity and concord Idem lib. 4. Ep. 2. To this purpose well said the same Cyprian that the Church of Christ is one beeing diuided throughout the world into many members and that there is only one Bishopricke which is diffused by the agreeing multitude of many Bishops Ibidem Ep. 3. Moreouer he saith though we be many Pastors yet wee feede one flocke onely And againe being that the Church which is one and vniuersall is not broken nor diuided shee is also vnited and combined by the bond of Priests conioyned among themselues Therefore Cyprian neuer could finde that this vnion consisted in one of the Bishops by the reducing all others to him as to an head but that all Bishops vnited together in faith and charity did cause this vnion of mine It is a grieuous iniury which my vngratefull daughter of Rome doth offer me whilest she forgetting that she is my daughter maketh her selfe my Mistres and vsurpes my Robes and my Titles as if she were the vniuersall Church when shee her selfe is a particular Church one of the many It is I that am the truely vniuersall who stretch forth my armes from East to West and from North to South and how can shee be vniuersall or totall beeing onely a part and member All the many are gathered together and vnited in me and not in her for euen she if shee will be Catholike must of necessity bee vnited to me as a part to the whole as a member to the body vnder mine and her head Christ Iesus Behold therefore the Rocke whereupon yee run whilest yee are willing to reduce your selues vnto an vnion inuented by the Pope that hee might thereby become my head and tyrannize ouer me and whilest ye yeeld obedience to him instead of remayning in vnion with me ye separate your selues from me and instead of making and procuring vnity you breake it and diuide it For he is not in the Catholique Church that is not in the vniuersall Church which am I and whilest the Bishop of Rome packeth a faction which receiueth vnion from him onely surely that sect of his can bee neither Catholique nor vniuersall nor Church therefore his party is not the vniuersall Church but a diuelish schisme wherein there cannot be any sound and holy vnion but a conspiracie and combination of a Sect not of a Church Now let vs passe on to the Rocks of Auarice THE SECOND PART ¶ The Rocks founded on Auarice The first Rocke The Masse THAT exercise wherewith I haue bene furnished sincerely for aboue foure hundred yeeres which now adayes you call the Masse was by the first institution thereof nothing else but a consecrating of the Bread of the holy Eucharist for the communion of the faithfull and that to represent the Passion and death of Christ and to make commemoration of that most blessed sacrifice wherein Christ himselfe being both Priest and Sacrifice did offer vp his most sacred Body and pretious blood vpon the Altar of the Crosse onely once for my redemption and for remission of sinnes and this was then instituted by Christ when in his last Supper he made his Apostles Communicants of that mysterious Bread and Wine which represented his Body and Blood saying vnto them Doe this in remembrance of mee That therefore which Christ gaue vnto his Apostles namely Bread and Wine for them to eate and drinke was the Sacrament a true and reall Sacrament but not a true and reall Sacrifice other then commemoratiue For this Sacrament was giuen them as in very deed an actuall Sacrament and bearing with it Sacramentall fruit and benefit but as a commemoration onely and representation of the future sacrifice When therefore he said vnto them Doe you this What else could he vnderstand but this ye also shall deliuer vnto others actually this true and reall Sacrament but so that it be commemoratiue and representatiue of my Sacrifice then ouerpast And in this sense did all my ancient Fathers alwayes vnderstand this sacred exercise now called the Masse for the introductions vsed in the making a reall and actuall Sacrament and for a Sacrifice not actuall but onely commemoratiue and representatiue Chrysost in epist ad Heb. hom 17. Listen to S. Chrysostome We make an offring euery day but we doe it in remembrance of the death of Christ there is onely one Sacrifice which was onely once offered in the Holy of holies but this Sacrifice is a type or modell of that And this which we now performe we doe onely in commemoration As he said Doe this in remembrance of me We performe not another Sacrifice as the Priest then did but we offer alwayes the same or rather we doe celebrate the memory of that Sacrifice So plainely speaketh S. Chrysostome that this action now called the Masse is not it selfe a Sacrifice but a memory and representation after-draught of a by-past Sacrifice What hath the Auarice of Rome done in this This sacred exercise which in regard of the reall action produceth the Sacrament is by them intituled to a true and reall vn-bloody Sacrifice vnder the name of the Masse and so they will needs haue their Priests truely and really to sacrifice Christ And to this their Sacrifice as reall and properly so called they attribute the true properties of an actuall Sacrifice making it propitiatorie impetratory and satisfactorie their end herein is that you my poore and simple children beleeuing these their fictions may ply them to say Masses for you but tendring beforehand your money to the priests and oftentimes driuing the bargaine for more or lesse to eeke it out for the quicke and the dead And so you finding your selues deepely drenched in sinne that you may saue the labour of a true and due sacrifice of an humble and contrite heart Psal 51.17 thus trusting more to this vnbloody Sacrifice which will stand you
a man's body is not an accident but a substance of necessitie it must bee nourished with substances and not with accidents the substance of meats being alwayes turned into the substance of the body nourished by them here therefore is no other starting-hole left then to run to a miracle that forsooth God doth create a new substance whereby he that thus eateth is nourished and so in trueth they might as well say that he liueth and is nourished without eating and drinking for to eate and drinke without receiuing the substance of meat and drinke is indeed not to eate and drinke at all Here I may adde the greatest impossibilitie of all and euen open contradiction hence following namely that Christ's body shal be a body and no body it cannot be denied that corporeal and incorporeall substances are so farre in their nature and essence distinguished that neither of them can haue the properties of the other nor be dispoiled of their owne properties without the totall destruction of one of them To be in a confining circumscribed place to haue quantitie and parts one distinguished from the other to be either heauy or light to be sensible are properties which arise from the internall essence of things corporeal To be indiuisible to be vncircumscribed by any place to possesse no situation to be wholy in the whole and all in euery parcell of the whole are properties of substances abstract immateriall and incorporeall Well indeed may it be granted that God's Almighty power can displace some of these properties in bodies by putting in another propertie contrary thereto but yet corporeal as he can make a body which is naturally heauy to become light and that which is hot to become cold but to make a body still to remaine an entire body yet so that it shall reteine no corporeall qualitie but assume incorporeall properties is vtterly impossible euen to God's omnipotencie for it should be at the same time both a body and a spirit and so a body and no body To this are the Papists driuen turning the body of Christ into an abstract immateriall and incorporeall substance and giuing it the true properties of a spirit and depriuing it of all bodily qualities And yet when the Disciples after the resurrection vpon Christ's appearance amongst them Luke 24.37 and saying vnto them Peace be vnto you were terrified and affrighted supposing they had seene a spirit for the driuing this error out of their heads Christ shewing them his hands and feet and body said Handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones It is therefore a sound position by Christ's owne argument that that which consisteth of flesh and bones cannot haue the properties of a spirit nor a spirit haue the properties of a body otherwise Christ's argument would not passe for currant if it were possible that a man's body might bee without palpable flesh and bones and that a Spirit might consist of palpable flesh and bones But the Papists will needs driue the body of Christ which of necessitie hath visible and palpable flesh and bones to be a meere spirit and so they make the same body remaining continually in heauen and not departing thence to come downe to the earth into the hands of the Priest and that without passing through the heauens or the aire and that the same entire body must be in the same moment of time both in heauen and vpon an infinite company of Altars in the earth and that not onely in the whole contents of the consecrated Host but in euery little particle thereof though no bigger then the point of a needle there must be the large entire body of a man fully growne together with all his flesh and bones with his hands and feete and with all the rest of his members A very meere vanitie whereat the Infidels our aduersaries may well make themselues merry and mocke at our faith for mainteyning things so repugnant to all reason which wee cannot salue vp no not by running to God's omnipotencie There is no necessitie at all whereby wee should be driuen to these absurd assertions True it is that Christ speaking of the holy Bread said This is my body but euen so it is said of iron heated red-hot this is fire not because it ceaseth to be iron but because that iron is accompanied with fire together with the properties thereof as heating enlightning and such like So this bread is his body because in the Communion the body of Christ doeth spiritually accompany this bread and doth bring spirituall effects with it So also Christ said of S. Iohn Baptist that hee was Elias Matth. 17.12 yet he was not in person that ancient Elias but he that was prefigured by him Iesus Christ therefore spake mysticallie and Sacramentally as likewise when he said of himselfe that he was the liuing bread Iohn 6.55 that his flesh was meat indeed and his blood drinke indeed Some of the holy Fathers vnderstand this place in S. Iohn not of the Sacrament of the Eucharist but of faith and in a mysterious sense that he that beleeued in him did thereby eate the true bread which was giuen from heauen And those among the Fathers which by this flesh and blood thus promised by Christ for nourishment vnderstand the Sacrament doe meane also that this flesh and this blood is to be eaten and drunke by faith whilest the Sacramentall Bread and Wine is eaten and drunke by the corporall mouth From this maine error concerning this impossible and vnconceiuable transubstantiation whereby they will haue a true and reall transmutation of the Bread into the true reall liuing entire and totall body of Christ doth arise a true and reall Idolatrie in the Masse wherein the consecrated Host is lifted vp that it may be adored for very Christ very God and yet in realtie and trueth it is true and reall bread Another branch springing from this error is that vpon this occasion they haue maimed the Sacrament in the peoples Communion by saying that in receiuing of the body of Christ in the Bread there is receiued the flesh and so the blood also by concomitancie And vpon pretence of certaine vaine and fruitlesse reuerences lest by any mischance the consecrated wine should be spilt vpon the ground and so the very blood of Christ be trod vnder feet they haue to preuent this mischiefe robbed the people of the vse of the cup. Wherein they erre more wayes then one first in running to this deuise of concomitance whereas Christ in his Institution of this holy Sacrament did employ both Bread and Wine commanding all both to eate and drinke and giuing order to his Apostles that they and their successours after them should in the very same man̄er minister the Communion vnto the faithfull people Moreouer by taking away from the Sacrament the signification thereof they doe in whole or in part destroy the Sacrament it selfe namely as farre as the thing signified is more or
lesse defalked Christ hath instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist in the forme of a meale a banquet a refection for the increase of amitie and loue among the faithfull whose charitie is much imployed in these mutuall intertainements and feasts as also to signifie that he would hereby refresh and nourish our soules Now he that debarres drinke from his boord and feeds his guests with meate onely surely maketh but a dry feast and hee that feeds onely on meate without any drinke at all is but ill refreshed and very imperfectly nourished When therefore the faithfull come together to the Lord's Supper they ought euen in the outward action not onely to eate but also to drinke together to expresse in this compleat man̄er their mutual loue and vnion and if they onely eate together without drinking they cannot taste the entire signification of this spirituall Feast which consists in an entire and totall charitie And hee that outwardly receiueth meate onely without the Cup cannot thereby represent to his vnderstanding the inward receipt of a compleat spirituall refection They haue therefore done very ill to take away the vse of the Cup to the grieuous mayming of the Sacrament and robbing of you my deere children of a great part of the fruit of the Eucharist whilest they giue it you in this man̄er lame and dismembred And this reuerence which they pretend is a vaine excuse for such care and diligence as by men can bee performed in this behalfe is sufficient to preuent vndecent handling of those sacred misteries and there beeing no danger at all that the very body or the very blood of Christ should be materially trampled or trodden vnder foot but surely their keeping their Sacrament thus in boxes and shrines which is indeede no Sacrament whilest it is not thereto imployed is heereby exposed to danger of beeing gnawen and consumed by mice and wormes and in this their case of danger they are driuen to say that a mouse eating those species doth receiue into it selfe the very body of Christ and the entire Sacrament though it receiue not rem effectum Sacramenti the Sacramentall thing and effect thereof and whilest these species remaine in the belly of this mouse it must needes follow according to their doctrine that in the mouse's belly there is included the true and reall body of Christ. And is not this I pray you a greater absurdity then if some droppe of the sacred wine though it were indeede the very blood of Christ should be spilt vpon the earth whence it may either be gathered vp or wiped away without beeing trodden on at all In the meane while heere also they vse their ambitious tyrannie making themselues absolute Lords ouer holy things and mysteries ordayned by Christ himselfe whereof they ought to be dispenfers onely and not commanders nor masters to giue or deny what they please euen to those who are worthy receiuers of them And besides this fuell of their ambition whereby they mainetaine transubstantiation to make their Priests and Friars to bee more highly esteemed and reuerenced of the people as those who manage and handle Christ and cause him to come downe from heauen heereto is to be added also the part which coueteousnesse hath in this lot by squiesing your purses and drawing from you the larger offerings by this vaine fancie put in your heads selling their Masses at so much the higher rate which they see cannot haue the name of a propitiatory Sacrifice vnlesse the very body of Christ bee offered in them And thus you see these so high mysteries for the priuate ends of those that manage them enwrapped with grosse and palpable errors from which I aduise you to keepe aloofe as from most pernicious Rocks ¶ The second Rocke Auricular Confession ONe of the precious treasures which my Iesus Christ hath layd vp in his house and mine is the remission of sinnes which cannot bee had or found anywhere else then in my precincts This in most full man̄er is granted first in Baptisme vnto those who beeing of ripe vnderstanding doe seriously come to the holy lauer And you my children by reason of your corrupt nature cannot remaine any long while in this mortall life without falling into sinnes whereupon the true and generall remedy for remission of sinnes committed after Baptisme is Repentance But I would haue you be aduised that yee by no deede that you can doe though supported with God's grace can euer purchase or merit this Remission as if doing one or more good actions and presenting them to God ye might pretend that he is bound to pardon you especially concerning the act of Iustification wherein of an impious sinner remayning vnder God's wrath a man becommeth the sonne of God and is reconciled to him and accepted of him This is a grieuous errour and dangerous Rocke inasmuch as neither repentance nor Confession nor any other act done by a sinner can binde God to affoord him remission to whom onely it belongeth to remit sinnes And this remission hath my only Spouse your Lord and mine Iesus Christ purchased and merited with his bitter Passion by shedding of his most precious blood and dying vpon the balefull tree of the Crosse and the remission of your sinnes consisteth in this onely that God through his meere grace and mercy accepteth Christ's satisfaction instead of that satisfaction which a sinner ought to pay him for his sinnes by the euerlasting punishment of eternall damnation And so a sinner becommeth iust whilest God doth deriue vpon a sinner the iustice of his sonne and doth apply it vnto him with this onely condition that the sinner by faith doe vnite himselfe vnto Christ and beleeuing in him doe lay his whole confidence on him onely and not on any worke or merit of his owne For all your workes if they be meerely naturall are filthy of no worth to obtaine any supernaturall good and if they be done with faith and by the helpe of grace besides that they are alwayes full of imperfections and tainted with some spots they are not indeede to bee counted yours but to be attributed to God and his grace and are also a debt due vnto him in many respects for whose the tree is his also is the fruit that it beareth and to him that is master of a slaue belong also the children the worke and the purchase whatsoeuer the slaue getteth Yee can neuer therefore bring vnto God your workes as your owne free gift whereupon you might expect recompence of pardon and so much the more in that there is no proportion betweene your workes which are finite and of finite value if of any at all and the offence of infinite demerit Suffer not therefore your selues to bee deceiued by the couetousnesse of the Priests and Friars when they tell you that you may obtaine iustification and remission of your sinnes how heynous soeuer by your good workes especially by giuing almes Neither put you any confidence toward the remission of
sinnes in any sauing Christ alone and in his merits Rom. 3.24 for hee freely iustifieth you without any merit of yours True it is and therefore take heede of the other extreame that no man can present himselfe to God nor rely vpon Christ's merits that goeth on in a wicked resolution to continue still in sin against his conscience And therefore I told you that you must addresse your selues vnto Christ to obtaine this remission but with faith that is with a true and liuely faith Iam. 2.17 not with that faith which without workes is dead but with such a faith in the mind which is accompanied with holy affections and that is to beleeue in Christ to bee subiect vnto him to obey him with detestation of faults committed and intending of a new life and yeelding vp a man's selfe to the keeping of God's holy Commandements And whosoeuer doth not this in vaine shall hee rely vpon Christ and his merits neither shall he euer obtaine remission of his sinnes This rysing vp from sinne and submitting to the obseruance of God's Commandements as farre as humane frailty will afford is not in you any merit whereto remission should bee repayed as due but it is a necessary disposition and taketh away the impediments that otherwise would hinder remission of sinnes And herein consisteth Penitence being both the inwards of true repentance which is the most principall disposition requisite for remission and the outside also of penitentiall workes as fasting almes mortifying the flesh and other workes of piety which are indeede no merits nor causes of forgiuenesse but fruits of inward true repentance and a fit appurtenance vnto the inward good disposition and vnto due humiliation These dispositions being forelaid as necessary required by God let a man hold himselfe to his faith and confidence in Christ and by his mercy hee shall without faile obtaine remission and the whole conueyance betweene God and a sinner is carried in this man̄er by the meanes of Christ mine and your onely Mediatour without any necessity at all of any other Confession made vnto man due Confession made vnto God beeing of it selfe sufficient whereby a sinner beeing humbled doth not any more defend his sinnes but confesseth to God Chrys in ep ad Heb. hom 31. that he hath sinned I doe not aduise thee saith Saint Chrysostome to lay thy selfe open nor to accuse thy selfe to others Psalm 57. but to obey the Prophet who sayeth Reueale thy way vnto the Lord. Confesse thy sinnes before God declare thy offences before the Iudge though not with thy tongue yet with thy memory and then hope that thou shalt obtaine mercy So saith that worthy holy Father I doe not know that I euer intertayned in my house any such Sacrament appointed mee by my Spouse as a true and proper Sacrament whereby hee hath obliged himselfe to giue remission of sinnes after Baptisme I beleeue indeed that whosoeuer groaning vnder the load of sinne shall with true inward pentience and reall repentance approach vnto the holy table and receiue the Communion with due preparation shall receiue remission of his sins For although this Sacrament was principally instituted by Christ and committed to mee for the spirituall feeding of the soule and for the preseruing of charity among my children yet in that it is also a remembrance of the Passion of Christ it auayleth much for the remission of sinnes for the obtayning whereof Christ's body was sacrificed vpon the Crosse his most pretious blood shed and therefore in his first giuing the Communion to his Apostles hee said vnto them Luc. 22.19 Math. 26.28 that that was his body which was giuen for them and his blood shed for the remission of sinnes You must vnderstand also that Auricular Confession and Priestly Absolution which are the ground of this Rocke now set before your view is neither practised aright nor well vnderstood by those that follow the Romane doctrine who hereupon haue built a shop of money-mart and gaine Recall I pray you to your remembrance that which I obserued before in the fourth Rocke of the first part concerning the two first medicinall Excommunications and you shall finde that my ancient custome prescribed vnto mee by my Spouse and practised by my holy and learned Ministers of at least foure of the first Ages was publickly to correct grieuous and scandalous offendors and according to the authority committed to me by Christ to binde them in their sins and afterwards to loose them againe and in this man̄er to imploy the keyes about the remitting of sinnes namely to debarre such offenders for some while from the holy Table sometime also from all other Congregations and meetings of the faithfull for spirituall exercises as heynous delinquents drowned in their sinnes and vnworthy of such participation vnlesse they should first recall themselues vnto due inward penitence and giue also outward satisfaction vnto mee by penitentiall workes enioyned them by me and my Ministers when they thus had by scandalous sins disgraced mee and not yet made mee any due satisfaction And yet in due time according to the pious discretion of my Ministers such as these were loosed and reconciled and were anew admitted to the holy meetings with others and to the Communion of the Lord's Supper This was a course taken to very good purpose and at length did work great setlednesse and comfort in the consciences of such offenders though perhaps it did goe downe with some bitternesse and shame For such a sinner being in this man̄er bound by me vpon earth was infallibly also bound in heauen nor could obtaine remission at God's hands though hee were neuer so well disposed by penitence and inward contrition betweene God and him for that promise made by Christ is most certaine and cannot faile Matth. 18.18 that he would bind in heauen all those whom I had without error bound vpon earth Iohn 20.23 and that he would withhold and suspend all remission from those sinners whose sinnes I had withheld namely by the aforesaid retention or excommunication or solemne penance and as soone as such a sinner thus first bound by me was afterward reconciled and remaunded to the Church and restored to religious commerce and to the participation of the holy Sacrament he did without faile obteine remission of Christ himselfe by vertue of his aforesaid promise that he would release and forgiue the sinne assoone as I had loosed the person and released the sinne by this externall remission and so the internal remission afforded by Christ in such a case dependeth vpon the externall remission giuen by me which truely was a way of dealing on a very sure hand And moreouer many grieuous and also secret offenders nay perhaps all the sort of them in regard of the suretie of this course came to their Bishop or to some other deputed by him who was afterward called the Penitentiary or Confessor and some openly with a lowd and audible voyce