Because they are not to be found in the Word of God 2. They are many of them contrary to the Word of God 3. No Church in the World hath Power to make New Articles of Faith Quest. 4. What are the New Articles of Faith the Church of Rome hath added to the Antient Creeds Answ. They are these following I. That the Traditions of the Church are to be received with the same Faith and Veneration we owe to the Holy Scriptures II. That there are seven Sacraments Baptism Confirmation the Eucharist Pennance Extreme Unction Orders and Marriage and that these confer Grace III. That among the Ceremonies used in the Roman Church the Publick Service in Latin or an unknown Tongue is a commendable Service IV. That in the Mass there is offered to God a true Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead V. That in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the Bread and Wine are changed into the very Substance of Christ's Body and Blood VI. That Laymen need not receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist in both kinds and that it 's sufficient for them to communicate in one VII That there is a Purgatory or a Place after Death where good Mens Souls are tormented for smaller Sins and relieved by the Alms and Prayers of the Living VIII That the Saints departed this Life may and must be pray'd to and invoked and that their Reliques must be worshipp'd IX That the Images of Jesus Christ and of the Virgin Mary and of other Saints may and ought to be worshipp'd X. That Indulgences or Dispensations of the redundant Merits of Saints are very useful things XI That Auricular Confession or Confession of all our mortal Sins with the Circumstances of them to a Priest is necessary to Salvation XII That the Church of Rome is the Catholick Church and Mistress of all other Churches Quest. 5. Why must not Traditions be received with the same Faith that is due to the written Word of God Answ. 1. Because the written Word of God is perfect containing all things necessary to Salvation And that does not direct us to Traditions but rather warns us against them 2. Because the Traditions of the Church of Rome many of them are false and many uncertain 3. Their Traditions are not Traditions which have been receiv'd in all Ages by all Churches and in all Places for such only are the true Apostolical Traditions 4. That they are not absolutely necessary their own Practice shews in that they reject Authentick Traditions and particularly that of Communicating Infants And here you may note The Reason why they fly to Tradition is because they cannot prove their New Doctrines by the Word of God Quest. 6. Why do not you believe seven Sacraments Answ. 1. The Holy Ghost in Scripture hath no where declared such a number 2. This precise number of Seven Sacraments was not heard of in the Christian Church till twelve hundred years after Christ. 3. There are but Two Sacraments mention'd in the New Testament I mean such as are true and proper Sacraments viz. Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. 4. The Council of Trent was the first that made this Number an Article of Faith Quest 7. Why do not you allow of Publick Service in Latin or in a Tongue not understood by the People Answ. 1. Because St. Paul writes a whole Chapter against it 1 Cor. 14. 2. Because the Publick Service ought to be for the Edification of the People and Service in an unknown Tongue cannot edifie 3. The Practice of the Primitive Church is against it 4. Some of the wiser Men in the Church of Rome themselves find fault with this Publick Service in an unknown Tongue 5. This Practice in the Church of Rome is only to serve some Worldly Ends. Quest. 8. Why do not you admit of the Sacrifice of the Mass Answ. 1. Because the Church of Rome tells us that they do sacrifice Christ every day in the Mass which is directly contrary to the 9th Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 9. 25 26 27 28. 2. Because there can be no true and proper Sacrifice without Death and it founds dreadful to a Christian Ear that the Priest kills Christ every day or which is all one puts his God to Death 3. It destroys the end of a Sacrifice which is to testifie our Subjection to God but in this Sacrifice of the Mass the Offerer who is the Priest must be greater than the Offering 4. The Lord's Supper is only a Commemoration or Representation of Christ's Sacrifice and a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving but no proper or true Propitiatory Sacrifice Quest. 9. Why do not you believe a Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Answ. 1. It is against all Sense for we may see and feel and hear and taste and smell that the Bread and Wine after Consecration are Bread and Wine still 2. It is against Reason that Christ's Body and Blood should be in a thousand places at once 3. It is against Scripture for Christ protests that his flesh profits nothing Joh. 6. 63. 4. It is against the Nature of a Sacrament which is an outward visible Sign of something Spiritual and Transubstantiation destroys the Sign 5. Christ himself explains what he means by saying This is my Body when he adds Do this in remembrance of me which remembrance supposes the absence of his Natural Body 6. It is against that Article of our Faith which saith That Christ is to continue in Heaven till the Restitution of all things And there is no necessity we should take the words literally any more than the words in Jo. 10. 7. I am the door c. 7. This is my Body is a Phrase or Form of Speech exactly like that of the Lamb in the Passover This Lamb is the Passeover i. e. the Memorial of it 8. These words This is my Body do not naturally infer a substantial change by the Confession of some Papists themselves 9. They themselves cannot be sure of this Change because they say it depends upon the Intention of the Priest 10. The Absurdities that flow from the Doctrine of Transubstantiation are innumerable for then Christ must have eaten himself the Disciples must have eaten up their Master Christ's Body may be lockt up in a Box for half a year together and longer c. Whereas the Doctrine of the Church of England that the Bread represents Christ's Body and upon that account is his Body hath no Inconveniency in it 11. Transubstantiation is against the Doctrine of the Primitive Church which calls the Bread the Figure of Christ's Body Quest. 10. Why do not you think it lawful for Laymen to receive the Communion in one kind only Answ. 1. Because Christ saith expresly to the Disciples Drink ye all of this 2. The Practice of the universal Church of Christ for a thousand years together is against it 3. The Council of Constance in the year 1416. was the first that durst venture
〈◊〉 O my Lady Holy Mary I commendmy self my Soul and Body to thy blessed Care and singular Custody and to the bosome of thy mercy this day and every day and in the hour of my going out of the World All my hope and all my comfort all my afflictions and miseries my life my end I commit unto thee speak seriously what can you say more to God that by thy most Holy Intercession and by thy merits all my Words and Actions may be directed and disposed according to thine and thy Sons Will Amen Where it 's worth noting that first you do put as much trust in the Virgin as you do in God and then afterwards to make these harsh Expressions softer you desire her to interceed for you that your Works may be directed according to Christ's Will nay and her own as if she were a Lawgiver too Then follows Maria Mater Gratiae c. O Mary Mother of Grace Mother of Mercy protect us from the Enemy and receive us in the hour of Death which St. Stephen thought was fitter to be said to Christ when he cried Lord Jesu receive my Spirit Then follows the Evening Prayer to the Virgin Mary O Mary Mother of God and gracious Virgin the true Comforter of all distressed Creatures that call upon thee this Epithete by the way the Scripture gives to the Holy Ghost by that great Joy whereby thou wast comforted when thou didst know that Jesus Christ was risen the third day from the Dead impassible be thou the Comforter of my Soul and by the same who is thine and God's only Son in the last day when with Body and Soul I shall rise again and give an account of all my Actions do thou vouchsafe to help me that I may escape the Sentence of perpetual Damnation by thee Pious Mother and Virgin and may come happily with all the Elect of God to Eternal Joys Amen Then follows Under thy Protection we flee Holy Mother of God despise not our Prayer in our Necessities but deliver us from all dangers always O glorious and blessed Virgin Not to mention any more Prayers of this nature whereof there is a vast number If God be a God jealous of his Glory how can he like and approve of such doings It 's true the Honour done to his Servants is done to him but then it must be such Honour as they are capable to receive so to honour them as to give them the Epithetes and Titles which the Scripture gives to none but God so to honour them as to use in your Prayers to them the same outward Prostrations that you use to God when you pray to him so to honour them as to spend more time in your Addresses to them than you do in Supplications to God as is evident from your Rosary so to honour them as to say more Prayers to them than to Christ so to honour them as to joyn their Merits with Christ's Merits This is an Honour which I believe will oblige God to say one day Who hath required these things at your hands And how unlike the Worship of the true God is that Veneration you express to the Images and Pictures of Saints and to the Relicts How unlike that plain and simple Worship which the Gospel enjoyns One would think it should a little startle you to see that your Church is afraid to let the Second Commandment be known to the People you know they leave it out in their Primers and Catechisms or if they mention it they do so mince it that one sees plainly they are afraid the People should see the contrariety of their Worship to the express Word of God In the beginning of the Reformation the very sight of this Commandment made People run away from the Church of Rome as much as any thing Indeed to consider the general terms God uses there Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image c. Thou shalt not only not Worship them but not so much as fall down before them would make a Person that is not taken more with the Golden Legends than with Scripture afraid of Prostrations before Images upon the account of Devotion It is not all your plea that you do not terminate your Worship on the Image but on the Person represented by the Image that will excuse you at the great tribunal for not to mention that in the same manner the Heathen used to defend their grossest Idolatry and that you are forced to borrow their very Arguments your own Authors do confess that the common People are apt to pay Adoration and do pay Adoration to the Images themselves and why will you lay such a Stumbling-block before the People Much might be said of the Adoration you pay to the consecrated Host You confess that the Worship you give to it is the same Worship you give to God What if that Wafer should not be turned into the Body and Blood of Christ What if it should remain as very a Wafer as it was before Consecration What if it should not be God as you have all the Demonstration that Sense or Reason can give you that it is not changed into another Substance What monstrous Idolatry would this be Ay but we believe it to be God Why Madam doth your Belief that such a thing is God or Christ excuse you from Idolatry Should you believe a Stone to be God and adore it might not you justly be charged with Idolatry You look upon the Heathens as Idolaters because they adore the Sun Ay but they believe that Sun to be God and how then according to your plea can they be Idolaters If there be such a Transubstantiation in the Sacrament as you fancy and an Adoration of the Hoste so very necessary what 's the reason the Apostles of our Lord that saw Christ before their eyes only could not believe that there were two Christs one sitting at the Table the other reached out to them What 's the reason I say that they sate still and paid no Adoration to the Bread which according to you was transubstantiated into Christ If they did not adore it what a Presumption is it in you to give the highest Worship to the consecrated Bread upon a pretence that that Bread is God under the accidents of Bread But of this I have said enough before and could you but find time to read what our Authors have written upon this Subject it could be nothing but hardness of Heart and Resolution to be blind could keep you in a Church that fills your Head with Doctrines contrary to the nature of a Sacrament contrary to all that Moses and the Prophets nay and all sound Philosophers have said I will not say any thing here of your strange unbloody Sacrifice of the Mass a thing unheard of in the purer Ages of Christianity and which the Scripture is so great a stranger to that one would wonder how Mankind came to light upon the notion Nor of your Doctrine of
Bible among prohibited Books for should the People have liberty freely to peruse it the Church of Rome would grow very thin and despicable I am sensible your Priests find fault with our Translation of the Bible and cry out that there are great defects in it but when they talk so they had need talk to Women not to Men of Learning and that undestand Greek and Hebrew the Languages in which the Word was originally written The Honesty of our Translators appears sufficiently from hence because if any Sentence in the Bible be capable of a double Sense they express the one in the Text and the other in the Margin and where they do but in the least vary from the Original they either discover it by the Italick Character or give you notice of it in the Margin than which there can be nothing more honest And let any Papist of you all shew us wherein any thing in our Bibles is ill translated out of Malice or Design or expressed in words which the Original will not bear If we examine Translations by the Original then sure I am there is few Translations go further from it than the Vulgar Latin or the Rhemist Testament as were an easie matter to prove if I intended more than a Letter You are much taken with their Mortifications and Penances which you say we have not in our Church But it 's a sign Madam you did not rightly understand our Religion We are so far from condemning Mortification and Severity of Life that we do commend it provided it be in order to subdue the body of Sin and to raise our selves to a greater pitch of Vertue provided these Severities be separated from all opinion of Merit and from an opinion of their being satisfactory and expiatory and used only as helps to work in us a perfect Detestation of Sin And I will assure you there are more in the Church of England that use Severities in this humble holy way than you are aware of We indeed do not ordinarily inflict them on all persons because we know not there Constitution nor what their nature will bear nor have we any command for it in the Word of God but these things we leave to every Man's Discretion urging that where Sins require stronger Remedies there Men ought to make use of them and if their Corruptions will not be gone by Reasonings and Arguments that there they must inflict Mulcts and Penalties on themselves to drive the Unclean Spirit out Though I must say still that Religious Severities and Austerities are not certain signs of a true Religion for Heathens do use them as much as Christians nay more than Christians witness the Brahmanes in the Indies and the Religious Pagans dispersed through all the Eastern parts and if you conclude that therefore the Church of Rome must be in the right because they inflict great Pennances and Severities and make daily use of them I am afraid you only forbear turning Turk or Heathen because you never saw their far greater Severities in Religion than the Church of Rome can boast of But still the Protestant Church hath not the real Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Sacrament which the Church of Rome hath And are you sure the Church of Rome hath it I am perswaded you did never taste it nor see it nor feel it nor smell it and how do you know it What because the Priests of that Church do tell you so No say you it is because Christ saith in express terms this is my Body And here I confess I stand amazed that Men with Learning and Reason about them can sink into an opinion so contradictory that if all the consequences of it be considered there is nothing in nature can be more absurd or irrational and the Church of Rome had need oblige Men to deny both their Reason and Senses to believe a Transubstantiation Here indeed a Faith is necessary strong enough to remove Mountains and though never any Miracles were wrought but were wrought on purpose to convince our Senses yet here we must believe one which neither Sense nor Reason can discover When Christ gave the Sacrament to his Disciples saith the Apostle 1 Corinth 11. 24. He brake the Bread and said Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you It is a wonderful thing that the word is in the first Sentence this is my Body should have a literal Sense and in the very next Sentence pronounced with the same breath cannot admit of a literal Sense for the word is in the second Sentence must necessarily stand for shall be because Christ's Body when he gave the Bread was not yet broken If it will not admit of a literal Sense in the very next Sentence because of the Absurdity that would follow that Christ was crucified before he was crucified why should we understand it in the first Sentence literally when the Absurdity is far greater Nay that the word is should not be capable of being understood literally in the second essential part of the Sacrament This Cup is the New Testament that here I say it should import and can import nothing else but signifies or is a sign of the New Testament and yet must not be understood so in the first part of the Sacrament is a thing we cannot comprehend And when the Apostle speaking of Lord's Supper or Eucharist 1 Cor. 10. 16. The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ and the Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ Let the rigidest Papist that hath not quite banished his Reason tell me how he will make Sense of the word is here except he understand it figuratively most certainly it cannot be understood literally for the Cup is not that Communion but is a sign of it One would admire how Men can be so obstinate in a thing as clear as the Sun and you might as well conclude that Christ is a Door made of Boards and Nails because the Scripture saith he is a Door and that he is a real Vine with green Leaves and Grapes about him because the Scripture saith he is a Vine But suppose the word is in these words This is my Body must be understood literally how doth this make for Transubstantiation Are the words is and is transubstantiated all one A thing may be said to be a thousand ways and yet without Transubstantiation so that if by the word is you understand Transubstantiation you your selves must go from the literal sense and assume a sense which is not expressed in that saying All the Jews are so well versed in the sense of Sacramental Expressions that by the word is they understand nothing but signifies or represents and therefore it 's a horrid shame that Christians meerly for fear of being laughed at for departing from an absurd opinion and losing the credit of a pretended Infallibility should make themselves ignorant in that
which the meanest Jew even before the Gospel understood without a Teacher for we may confidently believe that no Jew before Christ's time was so sottish to think when it 's said the flesh is the Passover Exod. 12. 11. that the Flesh or Blood was really the Passover but only a sign and representation of it or a token to them as Moses calls it ver 13. I will not here put you in mind of the strange Absurdities that must follow from this Doctrine of Transubstantiation viz. that Christ when he did eat and drink in this Sacrament must have eaten his own Flesh and that the Apostles must have eaten his Body while he was at the Table with them and before it was crucified c. I could tell you that this Doctrine is against the great Article of our Faith that Christ is ascended into Heaven and there sitteth at the Right hand of God until the day of Judgment That it is against the Nature of a real Body to be in a thousand places at once And that from hence it must follow that the Body and Blood of Christ is capable of being devoured by Vermin capable of being poisoned and instead of giving life may be so order'd that it shall kill and murther witness Victor the third Pope of Rome and Henry the VIIth Emperour who were poisoned in the Sacrament not to mention a thousand more of such Monstrous conscquences But since Madam you do insist so much upon that place of Scripture John 6. 53. Except you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you I 'le but briefly shew you how ill a Logician you are to conclude that this is spoke of the Sacrament or to conclude that these words infer a Corporal manducation of Christ's real Body and Blood if they be meant of the Eucharist it will necessarily follow that Christ oblig'd the Jews and his hearers to come to the Sacrament at the time he spake these words for he speaks of their present eating and drinking Except ye eat c. But this he could not possibly do for the Sacrament of his Body and Blood was not instituted till at least a whole twelve months after nor did any of his disciples at that time dream of any such thing as his dying and being crucified nor doth Christ speak the least word of it in the whole Chapter which he must necessarily have done if he had intended the Sacrament by it which is all together founded in his Crucifixion For this Sermon of Christ concerning eating and drinking his flesh and blood was delivered just about the Feast of the Passover ver 4. After which feast as it is said John 7. 1. 2. the Jews celebrated the feast of Tabernacles and after this they kept another feast of the Passover the last which Christ was at which was no less than a twelve month after John 11. 55. John 12. 21. So that the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood not being instituted before the last Passover as all the Evangelists agree it was not possible that either the believing Jews or the Apostles could understand it of the Sacrament and I suppose Christ intended to be understood because there was no such thing as yet instituted Besides it is impossible that it can be understood of the Sacramental eating and drinking of the Body and Blood of Christ for without this eating and drinking there is no Salvation to be had as it is said Joh. 6. 53 54. and if it were to be understood of the Eucharist we must exclude all Christians from Salvation that are not in a capacity nor in a possibility of receiving it which I am sure your own Church will not do And that these words of Christ cannot possibly be understood of a Corporal eating Christ's flesh and drinking his Blood but must be understood of a Spiritual eating and drinking that is believing in him and obeying him and hoping for pardon through his Death which is the spiritual Food of the Soul is evident from the 54 th and 56 th Verse where every one that eats of his Flesh and drinks of his Blood is said to have actually eternal life in him and Christ dwelling in him and he dwelling in Christ. That is Christ loves him with a love of complacency he is a Child of God and beloved of him and an Heir of Heaven but since wicked men come to the Sacrament not only in our Church but even in the Church of Rome it would follow if a corporal eating were understood that wicked men eating Christ's Body and drinking his Blood have Eternal life in them and that Christ dwells in them and that they are true Children of God and Heirs of Heaven contrary to the unanimous Consent of the Holy Prophets and Apostles who call wicked men Children of the Devil and blinded by the Devil the God of the World and Heirs of Damnation And indeed it is strange that people should contend for this corporal and sensual eating of Christ's Flesh and drinking his Blood when Christ himself saith v. 63. That the flesh profiteth nothing and that this eating and drinking must be understood spiritually i. e. of Spiritual eating and drinking which is believing as it is said v. 64. You see Madam what it is not to make use of your own reason but to enslave it to the Faith of a Church which loves to act in the Dark and would have her Children Colliers and believe what the Church believes and know little more than the great Mystery of an Ave Maria or a Rosary Time was when you were pleased to tell our Ministers that though you were gone over to the Church of Rome yet you had Liberty not to pray to Saints nor to fall down before Images that was not thought necessary by the for Church of Rome which only recommends praying to Saints and Veneration of Relicks and Images as a thing useful and which men have received much benefit by And indeed I remember I was told you thought that praying to Saints was a kind of Idolatry and therefore were glad they would excuse you from that Worship but since I hear that you are grown as devout a Worshipper of Saints and peculiarly of the Virgin Mary and do prostrate your self before them as much as the most tractable Papist in the World I confess I did smell a Rat at first when your Priests assured you that Invocation of Saints was not a thing commanded but recommended as useful and was then confident that before a year came to an end for all these soft Expressions and Dispensations with your Omission of this Worship they would perswade you to that Worship which then you thought unlawful My Prophecy is come to pass and the Pill which seemed very bitter at first is swallowed and become sweeter than Honey and look'd upon as an excellent Medicine And this I must needs say is more than you could have in our Church But this is our Comfort that the more