Liturgies of King Edward the sixth there was a Prayer to the deliver'd from the Tyranny and all the detestable enormities of the Bishop of Rome which was thought fit to be left out as giving matter of Scandal and dissatisfaction to all that Party In the first Liturgy of King Edward the Sacrament of our Lord's Body was deliver'd with this Benediction that is to say The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for the Preservation of thy Body and Soul to Life Everlasting The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ c. Which being thought by Calvin and his Disciples to give some countenance to the Carnal presence of Christ in the Sacrament which pass'd by the name of Transubstantiation in the Schools of Rome was altered into this Form into the second Liturgy that is to say Take and Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and feed on him in thy Heart by Faith with Thanksgiving take and drink this c. But the Revisors of the Book joyn'd both Forms together lest under colour of rejecting a Carnal they might be though also to deny a real presence as was defended in the Writings of the Antient Fathers Upon which ground they expunged also a whole Rubrick at the end of the Communion Service By which it was declar'd That kneeling at the Communion was required for to other reason than for a signification of the humble and grateful acknowledgment of the Benefits of Christ given therein unto the worthy Receiver and to avoid that Prophanation and Disorder which otherwise might have ensued And not for giving any Adoration to the Sacramental Bread and Wine there bodily receiv'd or in regard of any Real or Essential Presence of Christ's Body and Blood. This Rubrick is again lately inserted And to come up closer to those of the Church of Rome it was order'd by the Queens Injunctions That the Sacramental Bread which the Book requir'd only to be made or the sinest Flower should be made round in the fashion of the Waters used in tâ—e time of Queen Mary She also Order'd that the Lord's Table should be placed where the Altar stood and that the accustom'd Reverence should be made at the Name of Jesus Musick retain'd in the Church and all the other Festivals observ'd with their several Eves By which compliances and the expunging of the passages before mentioned the Book was made more plausible And that it might pass the better in both Houses when it came to the Vote it was thought requisite That a Disputation should be held about some Points which were most likely to be keked at Two speeches were made against this Book in the House of Peers by Scot and Feckenham and one against the Queens Supremacy by the Archbishop of York But they prevail'd little in both Points by the Power of their Eloquence In the Convocation which accompained this present Parliament there was little done because they despaired of doing any good to Themselves or their Cause The chief thing they did was a Declaration of their Judgments in some certain Points Which at that time were conceiv'd fit to be commended to the sight of the Parliament that is to say First That the Sacrament of the Altar by vertue of Christ's Assistance after the words of Consecration are duly pronounced by the Priest the Natural Body of Christ conceiv'd of the Virgin Mary is really present under the species of Bread and Wine As also his Natural Blood. Secondly That after the Consecration there remains not the Substance of Bread and Wine nor any Substance but the Substance of God and Man. Thirdly That the true Body of Christ and his Blood is offer'd for a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and Dead Fourthly That the Supream Power of Feeding and Governing the Militant Church of Christ and of Confirming their Brethren is given to Peter the Apostle and to his lawful Successors in the See Apostolick as unto the Vicar of Christ Fifthly That the Authority to handle and define such things as belong to Faith the Sacraments and Ecclesiastical Discipline hath hitherto ever belonged and only ought to belong unto the Pastors of the Church whom the Holy Spirit hath placed in the Church and not unto Lay-men These Articles they caused to be Engrossed and so commended them to the Care and Consideration of the Higher House presented by Boner to the Hands of the Lord Keeper Bacon by whom they were candidly receiv'd But they prevail'd no further with the Queen or House of Peers when imparted to them than that possibly they might help forwards the afore-mention'd Disputation It was on the four and twentieth of June that the Publick Liturgy was to be officiated in all the Churches of the Kingdom In the performance of which service the Bishops giving no encouragement and many of the Clergy being backward in it it was thought fit to put them to a Final Jest and either to bring them to Conformity or to bestow their Places and Preferments on more tractable Persons The Bishops at that time were reduced into a narrow number than at any other time before there being no more than fifteen of that sacred Order left These being call'd by certain of the Lords of the Council were requir'd to take the Oath of Supremacy Kitchen of Landaff only takes it Who having formerly submitted to every Change resolv'd to shew himself no Changling in not conforming to the pleasures of the Higher Powers By all the rest it was refus'd Whereupon they were depriv'd of their Bishopricks The Bishops being thus put out the Oath is tendred next to the Deans and Chapters and lastly to the rural Clergy Thus Dr. Heylyn It is here to be noted That during the fore-mentioned Convocation there came from both the Universities a Writing sign'd by a publick Notary by which they both signified their concurrence to the aforesaid Articles only with a little alteration of the last But these Declarations and Protestations of the whole Representative Clergy and Universities were not like to signifie much since a Change of Religion was absolutely resolv'd on An account of the Years in which these Changes in Religion were made IN her First year she being resolv'd upon an Alteration of Religion as knowing well that her Legitimation and the Pope's Supremacy could not stand together called a Parliament which totally complied with her Designs in order to such a Change. But the Convocation of the Clergy which accompanied this Parliament totally oppos'd it And thereupon were depriv'd of their Ecclesiastical Benefices a company of Ignorant and Illiterate Men being Substituted in their places Which gave occasion to the Calvinists or Presbyterians to obtain great Ecclesiastical Preferments here By which they have continually laboured to supplant and undermine the Church of England It was the Second year of her Reign before any Protestant Bishops were elected The main cause for keeping the Episcopal Sees so long vacant was that in the mean time the best Flowers might be
6. c. 45. Writing to Novatian saith A Man ought rather to endure all things than to consent to the Division of the Church of God since that Martyrdom to which men expose themselves to hinder the Dismembring of the Church is no less Glorious then what a man suffers for refusing to Sacrifice to Idols nay in my Opinion this seems of the two the more Glorious Martyrdom for in the other cause he that suffers is a Martyr upon his own account but in this he is a Martyr for no less than the Body of CHRIST the Church 8. Also St. Cyprian lib. Deunitat Eccles Do they think saith he that Christ is among them when they are Assembled I speak of those which make Assemblies out of the Church of Christ no although they were drawn to Torments and Execution for the Confession of the Name of Christ yet this pollution is not washed away no not with their Blood. This inexpiable and inexcusable crime of Schism is not purged away even by Death it self That a man cannot be a Martyr that is not in the Church 9. And Again he saith He cannot have God for his Father that has not the Church for his Mother 10. So likewise St. Pacianus in one of his Epistles Epistle 2. ad Sempr. Although that Novatian saith he hath been put to Death for Christ yet he has not received a Crown and why because he was separated from the peace of the Church from Concord from that Mother of whom whosoever will be a Martyr must be a Portion To the same purpose also these words of Lactantius are very remarkable It is the Catholick Church only that keeps the true Worship of God. This is the Fountain of Truth this is the House of Faith this is the Temple of God into which if a man enter not or from which if any man goes out he is an Alian and Stranger from the hope of Everlasting Life and Salvation No man must by obstinate Contention flatter himself for it stands upon Life and Salvation St. Cyprian 55. ad Cornel. Num. 3. says The Church never departs from that which she once hath known and St. Irenaus lib. 1. cap. 3. That the Apostles have laid up in the Church as a rich Treasury all Truth It were an infinite labour to recite all that the Fathers say of this matter all counting it a most Pernicious Absurdity to affirm That the Church of Christ may err in Doctrine of Faith. For example How could God glory in the multitude of such as follow his Church if by so doing they should be led into Errour And yet Isaias 2. God seems to Glory in the multitude of those who confidently resort to the Church as to a Mistress of assured Truth to be instructed by her saying v. 3. Let us go up to the Mountain of our Lord and he will teach us his ways and we shall walk in his Paths and he shall judge among the Nations Behold Christ Erecting a Court or Tribunal in his Church to judge among Nations and deside all their Controversies which must needs suppose Obedience to be yielded to this Judgement Yea the same Prophet adds Ch. 54. v. 17. That no Weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every Tongue resisting thee in judgement thou shalt condemn And the Prophet there from the beginning manifestly speaks of Christ's Church Thirdly Isaiah Ch. 60. 12. The Nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish Under pain of perishing the Church must be obeyed Whence Fourthly Ezek. ch 44. v. 23. They that is the Priest shall teach the people what is between a Holy thing and a thing Polluted and the difference between clean and unclean They shall shew them and when there shall be Controversie they shall stand in Judgments This being their Office the peoples Office must needs be not to Judge them but Obey them Fifthly Christ Matth. 18.17 commands to Obey the Church under pain of being held here on Earth as Publicans and Heathens and of having this sentence ratified in Heaven ' Tell the Church saith he And if he will not hear the Church let him be unto thee a Heathen and a Publican and I say unto you whomsoever you shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever you shall loose upon Earth shall be loosed also in Heaven Here you see obedience to be yielded under pain of being held as a Publican or an Heathen and this Sentence to be ratified in Heaven Now if the Church could Err in teaching for Example that Christ is truly present in the Sacrament and hence obliged all to Adore him therein as much as they Adore him in Heaven and could oblidge them to this under pain of being held as Publicans and Heathens and held so as well in Heaven as upon Earth surely this cannot be an Errour for then in Heaven this Sentence would never be ratified St. Aug. Cont. Epist Fundam c. 5. I would not believe the Gospel unless the Authority of the Church moved me What ways the Church has made use of to settle mens minds in the Doctrin of the Sacrament of the Eucharist or the Lord's Last Supper TO make this appear more fully I will give you a brief Relation of the past Proceedings of the Church in the Decision of the Disputes concerning the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament and in the Substantial Conversion of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. This Real Presence and Substantial Conversion Berengarius and some Followers of his long ago denied Who being complained of two Councils were called one after another at Rome and Verseilis Anno Domini 1050 Berengarius Summoned and he not appearing his Heterodox Opinions were condemned He according to the new Protestant Grounds thinking his a Doctrine of great consequence and the Decrees of the two Councils a manifest Error and that himself had manifest Scripture and Demonstration against it judged himself freed from the obedience of silence or noncontradiction of these Councils And so he and his Followers publickly justified his Tenet desiring a reversion by some new Council of the former sentence against it Upon this revived Disturbance of the Church another Council five years after is Assembled at Tours Anno 1055. not far distant from Angiers where he was Archdeacon Here himself with others of his Party were present his Cause pleaded his Demonstrations considered and after all his Opinion again condemned himself also Recanting it The Council dismissed he finds yet other new Reasons and a greater strength in his former and falls again to the abetting maintaining and spreading abroad his old Doctrin A Fourth Council upon these new Troubles of the Church Anno 1059. Four years after the last was called at Rome where himself also was present Some say long Disputation there had his new Plea for it was found too light and rejected And his Opinion opposing Substantial Conversion again condemned both by himself and
a Decree rather be assented to than the contrary Decree of the forementioned Synod called at London Now for a further Confirmation of This Doctrine I will here deliver Evident Testimonies of most Eminent Fathers and Doctors of the Church concerning it The Truth of the Eucharist and Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist Confirmed by the Testimonies of the Fathers MAny of the Holy Fathers have taught That the Faithful partake of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist not with a mental mouth by Faith only as Calvin would have it but even with a Bodily Mouth in the way of a true and proper Eating So St. Augustin l. 2. contra Adversarium legis Prophetarum c. 9. We receive with a faithful heart and mouth Christ Jesus giving us his Flesh to eat and his Blood to drink and St. Leo Serm. 6. de jejunio mensis septimi where he Writes thus We ought so to communicate at the holy Table as that there be no doubt of the truth of Christ's Body for the same is taken with the Mouth which is believed with the Heart In like manner Calvin's Errour is Excluded by St. John Damascen for he tells us De Orthodoxa Fide l. c. 14. The Bread and Wine are no figures of the Body and Blood of Christ far be this from us to imagine but the very Body of Christ our blessed Lord himself testifying this is not a sign of my Body but my Body nor a sign of my Blood but my Blood The like hath Theophylact in S. Matth. 26. and St. Mark 14. where explaining the self-same Words of Christ he adds He shews that the Host which is offered upon the Altar is the very Body of our Lord and no Figure for he said not this is a Figure of my Body but my Body hence is it that the Holy Fathers Teach that by receiving the Eucharist Christ is truly incorporated with us and not by Faith only or Figuratively but united to us indeed so speak the Holy Fathers For thus says St. John Chrysostom Homil. 3. on St. Matth. He incorporates himself says he with us and not by Faith only but he makes us his Body verily and indeed So St. Cyril of Alexandria in St. John l. 10. c. 13. tells us We are not only united to Christ spiritually by a true Faith and sincere Charity but Christ also dwells in us Corporally by Communication of the Flesh of Christ and that Corporal Union of Christ with the Faithful therein by participation of the Eucharist he Illustrates by this Instance Like as says he if one blends one piece of melted Wax with another so as one lump seems to be made up of both the pieces even so by Communication of the Body and Blood of Christ he is in us and we in him for the corruptable Nature of a Body cannot otherwise pass over to Life and Incorruption unless a body of Natural Life be joyned with it St. Gregory Nyssen uses another instance in Orat. Catech. cap. 37. where he speaks thus In like manner as a little Leaven as the Apostle Testifies 2 Cor. 11. Leavens the whole Lump even so that Life giving Body passing into our Bodies Translates it self wholly into us and changes us as it renders ours like it and immortal in due time for it is necessary that our Nature so far as may be should admit so Efficatious a power into our Bodies where he also teaches us that it behoves us to believe that like as the forbidden Fruit was corporally eaten by Adam even so that the Body of Christ is taken of us corporally and received in the Belly so that it is not only mentally by Faith or Figuratively as Calvin would have it so as the wholsom Medicine be in us be no otherwise in us than the Destructive poyson which was bodily received to Repeal the same by a contray Action Read that whole Chapter then which nothing can be more clearly against the Errours of the Calvinists maintaining the Body and Blood of Christ to be taken by us Spiritually and not Corporally Last of all the Holy Fathers Teach that the Sacrament of the Eucharist for the sake of Christ's being there is to be Adored but Adored it ought not to be nay such Adoration would be Idolatry if Christ be not truly and really there contained for that Worship or Adoration that is called Latria is to be given to God alone whence it is plain that in the opinion of the Holy Fathers Christ is truly and really contained in the Sacrament of the Eucharist now that the Holy Fathers every where teach that the Sacraments of the Eucharist is to be Adored because of Christs being there appears plainly from St. Austin Epist 120. cap. 27. Where he tells us That the Faithful came to the Table they eat and Adored the same he maintains in his Comment 82. that place Psalm xcviii upon Worship his Foot-stool where the Foot-stool he explains by the Earth and the Earth by the Flesh of Christ Because says he he walked here in our Flesh and gave his very Flesh to be eaten by us for our Salvation and no man eats that Flesh unless he hath first Adored it It is discovered how such a Foot-stool of our Lord may be Adored and we shall not only not Sin in Adoring but we Sin in not Adoring and St. Ambrge de Spiritu Sancto l. 13. c. 11. upon the same words says thus By the Foot-stool is meant the Earth and by the Earth the Flesh of Christ which we daily Adore in the Mysteries Thus St. Ambrose The like hath St. Chrysostom in Epist ad Eph. homil 3. where he hath it thus Adore this and Eat And St. Cyril of Hierusalem Catech. 3. Mystagog hath these words Make thy approach to the Chalice of his Blood in the manner of Adoration This the Church has constanty held from the beginning and hold even to this day as appears from the General Council of Trent Sess 13. Cap. 5. where it requires the Worship of Latria to be given to the Sacrament according to the custom ever received in the Church Many more Testimonies of the Holy Fathers are yet behind which to produce were easy if there were no pains in Transcribing them and those already produced are sufficient for the truth of the Eucharist and for the Real Presence of the Body of Christ there Jo. 6. v. 54. Who Eates my Flesh and Drinks my Blood hath Eternal Life and I will raise him up at the last day And the Council of Nice calls the Eucharist Symbolum Resurrectionis a token of the Resurrection and St. Ignatius M. Epist 14. ad Epes termes it Pharmacum Immortalitatis A Medicine of Immortality Now if you ask the manner how it serves as an incorruptible food for a Glorious Resurrection I Answer The Species being altered by the heat of the Stomach the Body of Christ ceases to be here but his Deity remains after a special
matters of Faith do destroy Souls like as Wolves do destroy Sheep and that it is as impossible that their Followers should acquire by their teaching Divine Faith and True Sanctity as it is impossible that Thorns should bring out Grapes or Thisles Figgs The same Doctrine is taught by the Apostle who affirms That Hereticks are subverted Tit. 3. And Subvert the Faith of others 2 Tim. 2.18 That they make Shipwrak about Faith 1 Tim. 1.19 That they depart from the Faith 1 Tim. 4.1 That they are Reprobate about Faith 2 Tim. 3.8 and the like Which mischief they fall into themselves and bring upon their followers though they Err but in one Article of Faith as Himenaeus and Philetus did 2 Tim. 2.18 But Note here That the Apostle in the places cited doth not mean that Heretical Teachers do so Subvert and Ruine the Faith of their Followers that they leave them no Faith at all but that they subvert their Divine Faith which is the Gift of God wholly overthrowing that though they leave them store of Humane Faith to which seduced people firmly sticking yea sometimes even to Fetters and Death do reap thereby nothing at all but Temporal Commodities and Vain glory purchased with the Eternal loss of their Souls Secondly Doth appear out of the same Doctrine the great Obligation that Christian People have to keep themselves within the Bosom of the True and Catholick Church of Christ Because that this Church being continually assisted by Christ himself Matt. 28. 20. And taught all Truth by the Holy Ghost John 16.13 doth propose unto her followers in her Doctrine of Faith nothing buth Truth whereby their Faith doth easily come to be Divine and the Gift of God his Havenly Grace Co-operating with them It doth also appear how deeply they are obliged to take heed of and to shun and avoid false Prophets false and heretical Expounders of God's Word which run of their own accord not being sent authroized or allowed of by the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of the Ever Visible and Catholick Church of Christ And how wary they ought to be not to have itching Ears after new Masters 2 Tim. 4.3 Or greedily to hearken to their Novelties in Matters of Faith which upon the reckoning will be found to be no better than Fables that is than the Fictitious and Self-inventions of mens brains Though these busie Teachers palliate them with specious terms and bear their Hearers in Hand That these their new devices are the Pure Light of the Gospel For by forsaking the Doctrine of the Church the Spiritual Mother and Mistress of all Nations and as the Apostle terms her 1 Tim. 3.15 The pillar and Ground of Truth and following such New Teachers they make shipwrack of their Divine Faith and run themselves assuredly upon the Rock of Perdition Thirdly It appears how dangerously those are deceived who think they have Faith enough to Salvation if they believe those Points of the Christian Religion about which Catholicks and Protestants agree esteeming themselves not obliged to believe any of those Articles about which the Learned of these two Religions do differ and contend As though Christian people were not obliged under pain of Damnation to beware of false Prophets Matt. 7. To shun Heretical Teachers Tit. 3. To obey their Lawful Prelates and to be subject unto them in matters of Faith and Religion Heb. 13. To hear those Teachers whom Christ doth send Luke 10. To hear and obey the Voice of his Church if they will not be held to be in as ill case as Publicans and Ethnicks are Matth. 18. Or as though they were not bound to know the right means by which they are to be Justified cleansed from Sin and Saved to Believe rightly and to Receive worthily the great Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ 1 Cor. 11. Joh. 6. And as though they were not obliged under the same Penalty to believe and profess the True Gospel the True Faith and Religion of Christ and to Serve and Worship God rightly Seeing those which believe not his Gospel that is the whole Sum of Divine Doctrine taught by his Apostles and by their Successors the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of his Church are to be Damned Mark. 16 As those also are Which deny Christ before men Matth. 10.33 Which Crime all commit who deny themselves to be of the True Religion as is manifest by the Example of St. Peter who denying only that he was a follower of Christ and of his Company was reputed to deny Christ even as those will be who culpably profess a False Religion For such by their very Fact deny the True and themselves to be of the Communion thereof and of the Company and Society of the True Followers Disciples and Servants of Christ whereby at his Judgement-seat they will be reputed to have forsaken and denied him But to open this Point a little more because many even of the better sort are brought thereby into no small danger of Perdition this their conceit is not grounded upon any clear Text of Gods Word or upon the Authority of any Vnerring Church but meerly upon a Mistake of their own by which out of one or two Truths they infer a pernicious falshood upon which while they trust they trust to a broken staff which at their last Leap will let them fall into the deep Ditch of Perdition if before their Death they cast it not away Which presumptuous discarding of Divine Verities revealed by Christ to his Apostles for the direction of mankind to Eternal happiness and by them laid up in the Treasury of the Church as a Sacred Depositum 1 Tim. 6.20 under the sure Custody of the Holy Ghost is no less than High Treason against Christ our Saviour in regard that it raises a most pernicious Rebellion in his Spiritual Kingdom bringing part thereof again under the Tyranny of the Devil It frustrates the full Operation of his Passion extinguishes the true and right Worship of God despoils Christian People of Divine Faith and thereby of the true means of Salvation It deprives the Saints of due Honour defrauds the Faithful departed of necessary Relief It robs Heaven of Souls and inriches Hell with innumerable unwary and most unhappy People For which respects it is rightly stiled one of the greatest Sins and of the loudest crying Crimes that is Note That God cannot stir up and draw men by this his Heavenly Grace to believe these Verities unless they be proposed to be believ'd without all mixture of falshood for if any falshood be packt in among them and proposed with them for a Divine Truth revealed by God he cannot draw Men by his Grace to believe them thus mingled and preposed with Falshood as is manifest because he cannot induce men to believe any Falshood at all And therefore whosoever doth thrust in among some Divine Vereties any false Doctrine contrary to that which God hath revealed proposing the same to be believed as a