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A30335 A discourse concerning transubstantiation and idolatry being an answer to the Bishop of Oxford's plea relating to those two points. Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715. 1688 (1688) Wing B5775; ESTC R23015 24,041 38

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possible to know Tradition The Writings of Learned Men the Sermons of Preachers the Proceedings of Tribunals the Decisions of Councils that if they were not General were yet very numerous and above all by the many Authentical Declarations the Popes have made in this matter So that either Tradition is to be for ever rejected as a false Conveyance or this is the received Doctrine of the Church of Rome from which she can never depart without giving up both her Infallibility and the Authority of Tradition X. There is not any one Point in which all the Reformed Churches do more unanimously agree than in the rejecting of Transubstantiation as appears both by the Harmony of their Confessions and by the current of all the Reformed Writers And for the Real Presence tho the Lutherans explain it by a Consubstantiation and the rest of the Reformed by a Reality of Vertue and Efficacy and a Presence of Christ as crucified yet all of them have taken much Pains to shew that in what sense soever they meant it they were still far enough from Transubstantiation This demonstrates the Wisdom of our Legislators in singling out this to be the sole Point of the Test for Imployments Since it is perhaps the only Point in Controversy in which the whole Church of Rome holds the Affirmative and the whole Reformed hold the Negative And it is as certain that Transubstantiation is the Doctrine of the Church of Rome as that it is rejected by the Church of England it being by Name condemned in our Articles And thus I hope the whole Plea of our Author in favour of Transubstantiation is overthrown in all its three Branches which relate to the Doctrine of the Primitive Church the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and the Doctrine of the Church of England as well as of the other Reformed Churches I have not loaded this Paper with Quotations because I intended to be short But I am ready to make good all the matters of Fact asserted in it under the highest Pains of Infamy if I fail in the performance And besides the more Voluminous Works that have been writ on this Subject such as Albertines Clauds Answer to Mr. Arnaud and F. Nonet Larrogues History of the Eucharist there have been so many learned Discourses written of late on this Subject and in particular two Answers to the Bishops Books that if it had not been thought expedient that I should have cast the whole matter into a short Paper I should not have judged it necessary to trouble the World with more Discourses on a Subject that seems exhausted I will add no more but that by the next I will give another Paper of the same Bulk upon the Idolatry of the Church of Rome AN ANSVVER To that Part about IDOLATRY c. THE words of the Test that belong to this Point are these The Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other Saint and the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are now used in the Church of Rome are superstitious and idolatrous upon which our Author fastens this Censure That since by this the Church of Rome is charged with Idolatry which both forfeits Mens Lives here and their Salvation hereafter according to the express words of Scripture It 's a damnable peice of Cruelty and Uncharitableness to load them with this Charge if they are not guilty of it and upon this he goes to clear them of it not only in the two Articles mentioned in the Test the Worship of Saints and the Sacrifice of the Mass but that his Apology might be compleat he takes in and indeed insists chiefly on the Worship of Images tho that is not at all mentioned in the Test he brings a great many Quotations out of the Old Testament to shew the Idolatry prohibited in it was the worshipping the Sun Moon and Stars or the making an Image to resemble the Divine Essence upon which he produces also sōme other Authorities And in this consists the Substance of his Plea for the Church of Rome But upon all this he ought to have retracted both the License that himself gave some Years ago to Dr. Stillingfleet's Book of the Idolatry of the Church of Rome and his own hasty Assertion in condemning both Turk and Papist as guilty of Idolatry the one for worshipping a lewd Impostor and the other for worshipping a sensless piece of matter It seems he is now convinced that the latter part of this Charge that falls on the Papists was as false as the former that falls on the Turks certainly is for they never worshipped Mahomet but hold him only in high Reverence as an extraordinary Prophet as the Iews do Moses It 's very like that if the Turks had taken Vienna he would have retracted that as he has now in effect done the other for I believe he is in the same disposition to reconcile himself to the Mufti and the Pope but the Ottoman Empire is now as low as Popery is high so he will brave the Turk still to his Teeth tho he did him wrong and will humble himself to the Papist tho he did him nothing but right But now I take leave of the Man and will confine my self severely to the matter that is before me And 1. How guilty soever the Church of Rome is of Idolatry yet the Test does not plainly assert that for there is as great a difference between Idolatrous and Idolatry as there is in Law between what is treasonable and what is Treason The one imports only a Worship that is conformable to Idolatry and that has a tendency to it whereas the other is the plain Sin it self There is also a great difference between what is now us'd in that Church and the Explanations that some of their Doctors give of that usage We are to take the usage of the Church of Rome from her Publick Offices and her authorised Practices so that if these have a Conformity to Idolatry and a tendency tō it then the words of the Test are justified what Sense soever some learned Men among them may put on these Offices and Practices therefore the Test may be well maintained even tho we should acknowledg that the Church of Rome was not guilty of Idolatry 2. If Idolatry was a Crime punishable by Death under the Old Testament that does not at all concern us nor does the Charge of Idolatry authorize the People to kill all Idolaters unless our Author can prove that we believe our selves to be under all the Political and Judiciary Precepts of the Law of Moses and even among the Jews the Execution of that severe Law belonged either to the Magistrate or to some authorized and inspired Person who as a Zealot might execute the Law when the Magistrate was wanting to his Duty so that this was writ inviduously only as it seems to inflame the Papist the more against us But the same Calvinist Prince that has exprest so just an Aversion to the