first Institution and words of Christ which he vsed when hee deliuered bread and wine to his Disciples Againe the auntient fathers neuer knewe any other consecration but onely that wherein common bread was made mystical and a sacrament or signe of the bodie of Christ as touching the vse of it and not that the substance of it was turned into the substance of a fleshly body Secondly hee sayeth that Saint Iames increased these mysteries but heereby he doth intolerable wronge first to the holy man secondly to all the Apostles For first if Saint Iames had added any thing to the institution of Christ hee had beene too bolde and also had sinned against the Lawe of Christ who had commaunded his Disciples to teach no other thing but that which hee had deliuered vnto them Secondly if the Matt. 28. 20. Apostles had suffered any such matter they had beene vnfaithfull in their office and had neglected the Church which Christ will haue free from burden of humane traditions But the writinges and actions of the Apostles doe teach vs to iudge farre otherwise of them When the Corinthians had chaunged the mysticall Supper of CHRIST into a luxurious or want on banquet Saint Paul testifies that hee deliuered nothing vnto them but that which hee had receiued from Christ recalling them in such sort to the first institution that in the historie thereof hee differs not one word from those things that other Euangelistes had deliuered pronounceth all them to be accursed whether they bee men or Angells Gal. 1. 8 that durst adde anye thinge to the Gospell alreadie preached by the Apostles And shall wee then thinke that hee would tolerate so filthy a profaning of the mysticall Supper who withstoode Gal. 2 11 Peter to the face when hee as touchinge the conuersation of life something varied from the trueth of the Gospell Most vaine therefore and foolish is all that the Popes speake concerning the Apostles that they instituted or celebrated their Masse But let vs returne to Platina that the vanitie hereof may be more apparant For when hee had saide that others encreased it he addeth for Celestinus gaue the Introit Gregorie the Kyrielison Symmacchus the Gloria in excelsis deo Gregorie the third to the secret of the Masse Quorum solennitas hodie in conspectu tuae maiestatis celebratur domine Deus noster in toto orbe terrarum Alleluia was taken out of the Church of Ierusalem the Creed in the Councell of Neece Pelagius the Commemoration of the dead Leo the third Frankincense Innocent the first the kissing of the Pax Sergius the Agnus dei Nicolas the first the Sequences Gelasius Africanus as saith Nauclerus the Hymnes Collects Responsories Graduals and Prefaces Ierome the Epistle and Gospell Leo the first Orate pro me fratres and the Deo gratias the Cannon also sanctum sacrificium immaculatam hostiam c. Now beloued if all these thinges which Platina and others affirme to haue beene instituted at diuers times and by sundry men were taken from the Masse what I beseech you would be therein remaining that should deserue the name of a masse or a sacrifice Why then should that be called an ancient faith or religion whose chiefe foundation being first layde many yeares after Christes Ascension into heauen was afterward confirmed by new rubbish being added vnto it But admit that some of those things of the which wee haue hitherto spoken being added to the institution of Christ are in some sort tolerable yet our auncient fathers were altogether ignorant of the Corporall presence of Christ in his Supper and transsubstantiation of bread into his body whereupon the authoritie of the Masse depends The first disputation here of was in the Bertram yeare of grace 844. as may bee gathered out of the bookes of Bertram which he writ at the commaundement of Carolus Calvus concerning that matter Then Sergius the second who was the first that changed his name sate in the Romish sea Sergius 2. Pope For whereas before hee was Pope he was called Os porci swines-mouth hee then tooke vpon him the name of Sergius by which action God was willing to testifie to the whole world what a boare should come out of the Forrest whom Dauid affirmes Psal 80. 13. to be the destroyer and waster of the Church and that the time of defection was at hand wherein they that by baptisme had giuen their names vnto Christ by denying him should follow after superstitions For ten yeares after ascended into that place a womanish harlot to be Pope hauing to name Iohn the eight or rather Ioane the first God manifesting thereby that now that harlot beganne to shewe her selfe whereof Apoc. 17. 3. Christ had prophecied in the Reuelation But as yet they were not able to perswade all men to worshippe this their newe Idoll but alwayes GOD sent some to testifie of the truth vntill in the yeare of Christ 1215 vnder Innocentius the thirde in the Councell of Lateran there was a decree made concerning Transubstantiation which in the Decretals is thus reade Vna est fidelium vniuersalis ecclesia extra quam nullus omnino saluatur in qua idem ipse sacerdos est sacrificium Iesus Christus cuius corpus sanguis in sacramento altaris sub speciebus panis vini veraciter continentur transubstantiatis pane in corpus vino in sanguinem potestate diuina vt ad perficiendum mysterium vnitatis accipiamus ipsi de suo quod accepit ille de nostro There is one vniuersall Church of the faithfull without which none canne bee saued wherein the Priest himselfe Christ Iesus is the sacrifice whose bodie and blood in the sacrament of the Altar vnder the formes of bread and wine are truely contained the bread being transubstantiated into his bodie and the wine into his bloud by a diuine power that the vnitie of this mysterie might be effected wee receiue from him that which he tooke from vs. In the same Councell also was constituted Auricular confession whereby men of euery state and degree being fast chayned together as with fetters and linkes of Iron durst neuer speake against the decrees of the Romish Church Tenne yeares after that Honorius the thirde commaunded darke places or Chestes to bee made wherein the bread alreadie consecrated or rather as they speake transubstantiated into the bodie of Christ was reserued to bee worshipped which without all doubt are those secret places whereof Christ speakes Mat. 24. 23. commaunding vs not to beleeue them who shewe vs Christ to be contayned in them And to fulfill and finish all this superstition Vrban the fourth in honour Vrban 4. inuented the Feast of Corpus Christ 1264. of this sacrament at the request of a Recluse with whom in times past hee had beene ouermuch familiar inuented the solemne Feast which they call Corpus Christi Who is it then that can affirme the whole worshippe of the Masse to be
namely to leade and liue a life beseeming their Christian profession Now the Anabaptistes a contentious and stubborne kinde of men doe pause nay stand Anabaptist still and sticke vpon this last point and because they see that faith and the obedience of faith haue not as yet any place in Infants therfore they exclude them from baptisme neuer obseruing that the more principall and chiefe points take roote place in them to wit the grace of adoption washing away of sinnes by the blood of Christ Regeneration and other things that make vs heires of eternall saluation For if they did but perceiue this then would they conclude with the Apostle Peter and say Can any man forbid water but that these who are capable of the holy Act. 10. 47 Ghost should be baptized as well as they that are well growen The like is the error about the mysticall Supper of Christ The chiefest point The Lords Supper therin is the remēbrance of his death For Christ himself when he instituted it sheweth and the Apostle afterward commendeth this to be the proper ende and vse of it Now vnto this is ioyned the communion of the bodie and blood of Christ with his Church the sealing of our Redemption admonishing vs continually of our duetie that wee should not onely abstaine from strange sacrifices but also imbrace mutuall peace and loue together All which that we might truely and willingly performe Christ in a sacramentall manner of speech hath called the breade his bodie and the wine the blood of the newe Testament Now our aduersaries the Papists cleauing to the last wordes doe contende and dispute about the presence of the body of Christ and corporall eating of the same and thus haue they made an Instrument of diuision distraction of that which should be the bond of Christian concord These things then doe admonish vs that in euerie matter we should haue a respect vnto that which is the chiefest referring all the rest vnto such a scope that will not suffer vs to decline from the truth But let vs returne to the exposition of our text in the which are three things to be considered First why the lawe was added to the promise Secondly how long the lawe was to continue Thirdly and lastly by whome and how the lawe was giuen and deliuered As touching the first the Apostle saith it was added for trangressions This may bee taken two manner of waies Saint Ierome referres it to the Fathers that abode not in the couenant but being corrupted with the superstitions of Egypt and drowned in all manner of sinnes made themselues like vnto the heathen whome GOD had cast out before their eyes and therfore must be bridled and reduced into the way by a lawe From which this sentence seemes to take his beginning Ex malis moribus bonae leges natae sunt Now S. Augustine he takes this to be spoken more generally and saieth that the lawe was added to reproue transgressions and to humble the proud confident minds of the Iewes For because they bragged boasted themselues in their natiuitie as if from thence they had naturall righteousnesse it was necessarie saith he to humble them by a lawe applying vnto them the saying of the Apostle Quaecunque lex dicit Rom 3 19 ijs qui sub lege sunt dicit Whatsoeuer the lawe speakes it speakes to them that are vnder the law Which opinion of Saint Augustine comes neere vnto the minde of the Apostle who teacheth vs that by the lawe we are conuicted that we might haue our recourse vnto Christ who hath deliuered vs from the curse of the law And therfore saith Saint Ambrose in his first booke Ambros lib. 5. in Auxentium against Auxentius Iustū fides non lex facit quia non est per legem Iustitia sed per fidem Faith and not the law maketh a righteous man for righteousnes is not by the law but by faith That the lawe doth thus manifest our corruptiō the Apostle demonstrateth Rom 7. 7. 9. 10. saying I knew not sin but by the law a litte further I was once aliue without the law but when the commandement came sin reuiued and I was dead And again the Rom. 5. 20 lawe entred that the offence should abound Therefore the vse of the lawe is to manifest and reproue our sinnes that men might be brought to the knowledge of their owne guilt For because we flatter our selues in our sinne therefore wee will not willingly acknowledge sinne to bee in our selues but delite in our sinne vntill we feel our selues conuicted thereof in our consciences Therefore as the law doth not abolish the promise which is the Gospell it selfe so the Gospell doth not condemne the lawe or the doctrine thereof but rather deliuers the true vse of it For the lawe of it self is good holy finally the teacher of true righteousnes because it bringeth vs wholy vnto God and to our neighbor But by our owne corruption it comes to passe that wee doe not onely disobey the lawe but our desires are accustomed to be prouoked and set on fire by the commandements of the lawe Which wickednesse of our nature the Poet acknowledging hath said Nitimur in vetitum semper cupimusque negata Wherefore we are not to make this vse of the lawe as that by the same we should be iustified and saued for August de vera innocentia saith Saint Augustine Lex data est vt gratia quaeretur Gratia data est vt lex impleretur vitium prudentiae carnis per legem demonstrandum per gratiam sanandum fuit The lawe was giuen that grace might be sought for grace was giuen that the lawe might bee fulfilled the law demonstrated our corruption but grace tooke it away But in the law we must behold our selues as in a glasse that being conuicted of sinne we should flee vnto Christ whom the father hath made righteousnes for vs and our Mediator vnto himselfe Secondly 1. Cor 1. 3 the Apostle teacheth vs how long the lawe was to continue namely vntill the seede came vnto which the promise was made By the seede properly is vnderstood Christ in whome all Nations are blessed The continuance of the lawe But in this place the Apostle cōprehends with Christ the whole body of Christ that is to say the Church gathered both of Iewes and Gentiles vnto which properly this promise doth belong which is twofold the first part appertaines vnto Christ himself to whose kingdom all Nations of the world were to be subiect according to the saying of Dauid Aske of me and I shal giue thee the heathen for thine inheritance Psal 2. 8. and the ends of the earth for thy possession The secōd part belongs vnto the Church because that in Christ all were blessed that out of euery Nation did come vnto it That therefore which the Apostle doth in this place obscurely and briefly touch hee afterward in the
all men for his crueltie seemes to giue consent to the ambition of this Boniface to the end he might haue the Romans obedient vnto him But how vnluckily and vnfortunatly this happened to the Church not onely the euent and profaning of the holy thinges and of all religion which then followed did declare but also many sad and sorrowfull prodigies terrifying the minds and harts of men did demonstrate all which are recorded in ancient histories For a burning Comet appeared a childe was borne at Bizantium hauing foure Annal. Palmer feete another without eyes and hands whose inferiour parts from the loynes downeward were like a fish bloodie speares appeared all the night God witnessing thereby that the fatall time was now at hand wherein the Popes or Bishops of Rome who ought to follow celestiall things and teach all men to lift vp their hearts and mindes vnto God were now degenerated into four footed beasts and the Church depriued of her lights and of her hands that is to say destitute of faithfull Seers trustie guides and vigilant watchmen should now as a fishe swimme and floate amongst the waues of the world and vnstable alterations of superstitions For such Bishops followed as troubled the whole world with greate warres and cruell murders and vsurped to themselues an authoririe or power ouer Emperours and Kings Let the Popes of Rome then by their flatterers Iesuites and Seminaries boast spread abroad the antiquitie of their supremacie which all histories being considered had no being before the dayes of Boniface the thirde neither can they bring forth any other author of the same but onely Phocas then whome amongst the Emperours that professed the name of Christ none liued that was more wicked nor more cruelly minded I so speake of him because to make himselfe Emperour as he did he murdered Mauritius his Lord and Christian Emperour Is then the supremacie of the Pope so newe but newer are those things whereby superstitious men doe measure religiō in poperie amongst which the worshipping of Images is chiefest Euerie Images one knoweth that God in the olde Testament forbade Images and Christ teacheth vs that the same was ratified in the newe Testament when hee saith that hee came not to abolish the Lawe or to Mat. 5. 17 1. Io. 5. 21 breake the commandements of the Lawe but to fulfill them to whom consenteth the Apostle Iohn saying Babes keepe your selues from Idols It is manifest in the Primitiue Church there were no Images at all tolerated no not so much as of Christ Ierenaeus an auncient writer about Ire lib. 1. cap. 24. the yeare of Christ 185. maketh mention of the Gnostickes that they had the Imamages of Christ which they proposed to be worshipped with the Images of Pithagoras Plato and other Philosophers but this father condemnes and reproues the same in them Knowen is the action of Epiphanius Bishoppe of Salamina in Cipres which in an Epistle written to Iohn the Bishoppe of Ierusalem Saint Ierome being the Latin Translater thereof is thus cited When I came sayth he to a Village that was called Anablatlia and there passed-by seeing a candle burning demaunding what place it was and vnderstanding that it was a Church I went in to pray Now there I found hanging behinde the doores of the Church a vayle washed and painted and hauing an Image as it were of Christ or some other Saint for I doe not well remember whose Image it was Therefore when I sawe in the Church of Christ contrarie to the Authoritie of the scriptures the Image of a man hanging I cut it downe and gaue commaundement to the keepers of the same place that therewith they should burie some poore man And a little after in the same Epistle Precor vt iubeas presbyteros eiusdem loci deinceps praecipere in ecclesiae Christi istiusmodi vela quae contra religionem nostram veniunt non appendi These things then doe demonstrate and declare how the Fathers of auntient time vnderstood the commaundement of God concerning Images when as Epiphanius doth affirme the Images of Christ to bee against the authoritie of the scriptures and enemies to Christian religion But after the supremacie of the Popes before spoken of was confirmed Images also crept into the Church about the yeare of Christ 707 by Constantine the first for hate of the Emperour Philip. By which action grewe greate contention in the whole Empire and at the last was the occasion that the Greeke fell from the Latine Church In which schisme the Turkish Empire encreased which GOD euer from that daye hath vsed as his roddes and scourges to purge the filthinesse of Idolatrie And yet for all this foolish and superstitious men doe recken the worshipping of Images amongst the exercises of ancient and Catholicke religion oppressing and burdening vs with the name of noueltie because wee condemne this worshippe and would rid it away by the authoritie of the worde of God But now let vs come to their Masse the supporter and piller of their popish kingdome Masse inuented and encreased The author hereof they fayne Iesus Christ to be constantly affirming that all the Apostles but especially Peter and Iames celebrated the Masse Now how friuolous this is euerie man may easily knowe that doth but consider the Euanglicall history and the writings of the Apostles Christ instituted his supper in remembraunce of his death in that forme 1. Cor. 11. 23. and manner that the Apostles after deliuered it to the Church But what communion can this mysticall supper haue with the Masse wherein the sacrificing Priest doth all alone eates alone drinkes alone speakes alone behaues himselfe like a foole in a playe all the rest behoulding him as an idle spectacle Or hath Christ made any mention of a sacrifice for the quicke and the dead in the which notwithstanding they fixe the chiefest vse of their masse Christ instituted his supper in remembrance of his death hee neuer commaunded to apply it to the dead much lesse to offer his bodie and bloud dayly for their sinnes The Masse then is a newe Inuention the authors whereof are superstitious men that haue patcht it and pieced it vp at diuers times which that we may omitte other histories we wil declare out of Platina the Popes secretarie For he vpon the life of Sixtus the first thus writes In celebratione de coena domini loquitur mandauit vt sanctus sanctus sanctus dominus Deus Sabaoth cantaretur These wordes were at the first euident and did saith he touch all things as it had beene instituted by Christ Peter when hee consecrated vsed the Lords prayer Saint Iames the Bishoppe of Ierusalem encreased these mysteries Basill encreased thē others encreased them First he saith that Peter consecrated a newe worde whereof in the newe Testament vvhen there is any speech of the Supper the Apostles make no mention at all neither by it can any other thing be vnderstood but onely the reciting of the