into a sacrifice the cup simply removed from the people and the bread also by transubstantiation or some other way And so for curing that alledged rudenesse Christs sacrament was turned into mans imagination and so ceased to bee Christs sacrament and became mans Yee know the truth and if yee sinne willingly after that yee haue received and acknowledged it by forsaking all or any part thereof fundamentall substantiall or accidentall all being copulatiue not to be changed in the meanest circumstance but upon a necessarie occasion good warrants and to good ends you know the danger set down by the Apostle and what it is to make your owne conscience naked before God and by your example to giue offence to many Take heed to your selfe and draw neere to God that you may keepe your conscience pure against the great day For this purpose set before you the image of mans frailtie and the character of Christian constancie that yee may striue to be strengthned and stand by grace In that unhappy division of the Tribes of Israel Heresie rooted in Ieroboam and spreading it selfe over the people in all the ten tribes who were taught in the truth of God before their fall found no contradiction in all the ten tribes notwithstanding of their forme of religion and of the heavie judgements of God powred out upon that fowle defection but it continued in force and they without sense aboue three hundred yeares and an halfe The Arrian abhomination broched by the envy and stomack of a man prone to contradiction possessing the Emperours heart by subtile suggestion made Arrius personall quarrels to produce reall questions anent the Godhead of Christ a filthy blasphemy at the beginning resisted by pastors people and long detested but by processe of time by authority and by the subtiltie of few Arrian Apostates not onely the multitude of Bishops very few excepted some sooner some later some as leaders and some as common souldiers either yeelding through feare or brought vnder with penurie or by flatterie ensnared or else beguiled through simplicitie become subject to the current of time Yea Osius the ancientest Bishop of Christendome the most forward in defence of the Catholicke cause and on the contrarie part most feared by whose hand the Nicene creed was set downe and framed for the whole Christian world to subscribe unto yeelded in the end with the same hand to ratifie the Arrian confession leaving the catholick faith to be kept and defended against the force of the world Whether a fretting cancker enter in the head as in Ieroboam or in the foote as in Arrius it is dangerous for the bodie Beware thou that standest lest thou fall But you haue before you a faire table liuely expressing the amiable portraits of more valorous Worthies and better deserving in conflicts for religion Christ the righteous his Apostles the Hebrewes those valorous and worthy people defenders of the truth against the Arrian heresie and terrours of Valence and Vrsatius the great patrons of that impurity Memorable Athanasius whose motto is his high honor Athanasius against the world and the world against Athanasius and old Eleazar who being desired by his old acquaintance to deliver himselfe from death by eating of flesh which was lawfull for him to vse and make as if hee did eate the flesh taken from the sacrifice commanded by the king answered that it becommeth not our age in any wise to dissemble whereby many young persons might thinke that Eleazar being fourescore yeare old and ten were now gone to a strange religion Seeing yee are compassed with such a cloud of witnesses cast away the turmoyling of the world and every thing that presseth downe and run with patience the race that is set before you looking unto Iesus the author and finisher of your faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse and despised the shame and is set at the right hand of the Throne of God If you would be to your wearied brethren the comfort of their miseries and the guide of their difficulties if yee would liue and dye a warriour against Sathan and an enemy against sinne and unchangeable servant to your owne master and if in this world yee would haue peace and in the world to come everlasting joy take heed to your conscience for it is Gods Officer for the purpose put into you to keepe you in awe You may dye your conscience cannot dye The light of it may be shadowed because it is not God but not quite put out because it is of God Howsoever many be afraied for their fame and few for their conscience yet suffer not yourselfe in your whole life to slippe the breadth of your naile from your good conscience It is a diet booke wherein the sinnes of everie day are written and for that cause to the wicked a mother of feare but the children of God though the world should never credit them require no better witnesse Augustine esteemeth not what Secundinus thinketh of him so long as his conscience accuseth him not before God Jt is the secretarie of a mans heart a sealed booke close now but to bee opened wide upon the great day It is the treasure of the libertie of our spirits which should be vnto us as farre aboue the libertie of the body and things belonging thereunto as the soule is aboue that dust which must goe to the dust If you would haue this libertie of your spirit yee must not stand for a name among men but you must striue to store vp in your conscience the true testimonies of your sincere loue to your owne religion and to your fellow brethren for your conscience shall bee for you if you doe well and as you shal stand dissemble or revolt without partialitie it will beare witnesse The reformation of our religion was builded by difficulties and maintained by patience and paines If our loue of ease and of worldlie goods and if our feare of temporall losses shall destroy it it had been better for us that we had never sought glory by that faire profession then by a foule revolt to staine not onely our owne name and conscience but by our hypocrisie to endanger the people of God My deare brother watch yee stand fast in the faith quit you like a man The sonne of God sitteth at the right hand af the Father and all power is given vnto him hee appoynteth and moderateth all our wrastlings hee giveth victorie and will come shortly and his reward with him As you haue happily begunne so goe on your whole course that nothing may bee observed in you other then such as becommeth a wise man to doe and a righteous man to suffer Goe on happily and loue your owne religion If by his grace hee shall strengthen you to proue a pattern of constancy at this time he shall make you an heire of glory for ever Feare not put your selfe and all that yee haue in the hands of the Lord yee shall never loose ought at his hand he shall liberally returne to you your gifts with advantage Bee stedfast in the Lord and let God and man see that yee honour him and your enemies shall see and you shall finde that great things shall be done to the man whom the King of Kings will honour To him that overcommeth will Christ grant to sit with him in his throne Now vnto him that is able to keepe you that yee fall not and to present you faultlesse before the presence of his glory with joy that is to God onely wise our Saviour bee glorie and majestie and dominion and power both now and for ever Amen The present difficulties dangers Resolution to suffer required Impediments arising from other mens persons removed Impediments arising from the qualitie of the cause removed The cause in the end wil be iustified howsoever for the present it bee maligned The cause is grounded upon sufficient reasons Rules for right administration of the Lords supper the present differences an impediment to communicate here The first difference The second difference The third difference Consent in heart and articles of religion required in communicants The ground of the alledged differences evill No part of the truth is to be forsaken The falles of backsliders to be set before the eyes of the sufferer The constancy of others tâ— be set before the eyes of thâ— sufferer A good conscience to be regarded in time of triall
AN EPISTLE OF A CHRISTIAN BROTHER Exhorting an other to keepe himselfe vndefiled from the present corruptions brought in to the ministration of the Lords Supper Printed Anno 1624. My reverend and deare brother YOVR doubtfull loue to your owne ancient and well deserved religion and your just feare of this uncouth change was after manie hard assayes with threatnings and terrours strangely enforced rankles your tender heart weary of contending with heavie perplexities of wrath and temporall losses if ye shall continue to walk as ye haue learned and are best perswaded of scandall and defection if ye leaue your own old profession which ye haue judged and judge to be most agreeable to the truth and of shame and of gnawing of conscience if ye shall pollute your self with practises different from your faith and contrary to the best light and likeing of your own mind In these difficulties your case is the more lamentable that ye are drawn under the displeasure of high authoritye which next to God ye would fainest please under the dislike of some Peers and Iudges of the land hauing such particular care to their owne charges giuing them small leasure to sound the depth of ecclesiastical controversies only for a matter of conformitie that known enemy to the vnitie and peace of the kirks of Christ in all the world where it hath found credit And surely your griefe must be the greater that in the day of your sorrow the wise men of your own mind are silent and slack for your help and your great opposites in this distressed cause your neerest friends and old acquaintance but without equall reason on their part or iust desert on yours Who would not be pierced in heart with the pittifull lookes of your wearied countenance as at the last gaspe of your wonted sinceritie and chearfull constancie In this againe if you be left to your selfe affliction is added to the afflicted and our mother the Kirke and her mother the Truth are forsaken And notwithstanding of this strait if any friends of a willing minde shall timously contribute to your comfort some Doeg or some Amazia is euer ready with their biting censure and check of high presumption But praised be the Lord there is no small number of religious and honest men in the kirke and common-weale and the hearts of all are in the hands of the Lord who may at his pleasure moue any that hath the tongue of the learned to speake a word in season to you that are wearie also dispose your friends and brethren of their old ingenuitie and tender compassion of your bleeding heart by their holy wisedome to remoue your doubts confirme your faith and helpe you to be perswaded in your owne minde and to advise you rather now to hold fast that which you haue heard and receiued then afterward with vntimous repentance to change their tune and stile as if you were not a brother but an aduersarie and Apostate if it shall happen as God forbid that you be driven from the bright candle of your knowne profession to the deepe darknesse of an unknowne way and by that unhappy change so much the more blinded as your light hath been greater and with the purest Ivorie turned with fire into saddest black or shal be mis-shapen in a new face stained with the contempt of your first puritie and blushing at the disparagement of your new forme A vile confusion that cannot bee eschewed if you shall suffer your selfe to bee drawne back againe to the deformities for iust causes casten out of the kirk and from that beauty of reformation which you haue before held and with ioy so long professed and vpon no better warrant then a bare example and very authoritie of mens names although for the time fathers and favourers of your profession but after long standing now suddenly moved and so taken with the novelties of the time that for ioyning with them they dare not onely separate from their old masters and fellow brethren but from themselues in respect of that which they were And yet in this maine current some way to be excused by their embarking like simple men in a warre ship and miserable mistaking of these base additions to be layd downe againe when it should please them like good schollers to returne to their owne masters the standard-bearers in our faith with imagined liberty not onely to concurre but to confirme and encourage their owne brethren afresh for the advancement of the interrupted worke of the ministry and edification of the body of Christ as they are bound in conscience and calling But howsoever men haue been inclined to giue place to the streame of the time yet from the day that the kirk hath been crossed and many of all sorts grievously afflicted with the perturbations daily arising about the violent inbringing of these intrused alterations neverthelesse you haue found some sweet refreshment under the shadow of a heavenly dispensation so ruling the pathes of these proceedings that you haue kept the truth suffered reproches and discredit with patience in standing against these misliked novelties so long as they remained without the compasse of your owne practise esteeming your particular losses contented gain and your iniuries excusable for keeping the liberties of Gods service and the secret ioy of your owne conscience to be brooked by your quiet carriage and sober conversation But now if the day of that poore ease be passed and patient walking can haue no further fauour and if you shall be drawen out to a publick stage before the Lord who would keepe you to be his witnesse and in the eyes of men who would gain you to be their disciples you must needs by your owne practise either shamefully recant or honestly confesse the religion wherein you haue stood Choose you this day whether with humbled Esther you will wisely resolue to proue constant and glad the hearts of many people by cleaving to that way wherein you haue found the Saviour with his blessings and benefits of all sorts or if you will against your owne experience of Gods favour to you and hard successe seene upon these novations where they haue beene most greedily embraced hazard by your vnseasonable example to giue occasion of stumbling to many and to loose the patience and labours of your former constancie and now like Peter overwhelmed with feare adventure to seek your comfort and quietnesse in the sway of time as though the Lord could be syled as Absolom was with Chusayes policie If you dare suffer committing your soule to the will of God as vnto a faithfull Creator it is his place to temper the cuppe of all your troubles and when he shall be pleased to try and determine your matter before the highest barre But if you shall deny before men the Lord and his truth once received he will deny you before his heavenly father and will not deliver you from the houre of temptation It may be that you find
sacrament by the name of the Table of the Lord which Table by some Fathers is called the Holy Table and by others the Lords Table a fit meane to represent our vnion and communion with Christ and among our selues in this life Thou doest prepare a Table before me in the sight of my adversaries and in the life to come I haue appointed to you a kingdome that ye may eate and drink at my table in my kingdome which mysterie of spirituall fellowship can no wise be so well adumbrate nor so sensibly perceiued of any beleeving Christian by a common Table in any mans house whosoever The second controversie betwixt you them ariseth from the sixth Article yee holding that Christ and his disciples sate at Table and they obscuring that assertion by alledging of a forme of sitting used by Christ different from your forme and by their law of indifferent things rejecting all forme of sitting and bringing in kneeling as a more humble and convenient gesture for the sacrament then Christ vsed By vertue of the first Article binding you to Christs patterne as you are bound by the Prophet to bee taught of God and consequently not to teach God so by the Apostles precept you should be a follower of Christ and not a reformer either of his practise or institution conforme thereto And as for the diversity of formes of sitting neither kneeling nor standing being opposite gestures to sitting can haue the name of sitting and consequently Christs sitting was no sort of kneeling As for the alledged indifferencie it is taken away by Christs free choyce of sitting expressed in his owne practise when he was neither straited by any occasion compulsion or other inclining cause but at his libertie might haue kneeled it pleased him in his owne wisedome to choose sitting as the meetest gesture for his communicants As for the humilitie of kneeling aboue your humility of sitting we haue no great warrant in the word for there sitting is vsed in preaching in praying in the sacrament but kneeling onely in prayer And yet Christ in his agonie vsed for a more humble forme falling on the ground upon his face Of the three gestures used by the Christian world in religious worship sitting standing and kneeling Christ did choose sitting And if a choyce were to be made of any of the three kneeling for us is most dangerous being the outward badge of their confession who contrary to our faith beleeue Christ to be bodily present either by transubstantiation consubstantiation or some vnknowne maner as also it being the formall adoration of a person and not a signe of reverence to be giuen to the sacramentall elements or any other thing which moved the Schoolemen to affirme that if there remained the substance of bread after the consecration the people would therefore take occasion of Idolatry and in stead of Christs body would giue godly worship to the bread and for avoiding of that idolatry they thought best to remoue away the bread and bring in transubstantiation Thirdly ye differ from them about the distribution of the bread you holding that Christ gaue it to them that were next him and the disciples divided it among themselues and they holding that it should be given by the minister his hand delivering it immediatly into the hand of every single person there present to receiue the communion Your practise as it is conforme to the order of the sacrament observed in this kirk since reformation began so it is most conform to the necessary order of Christs actions and forme of words as they are set down in the eight article But their assertion practise anent distribution can neither agree with the order of Christs actions the forme of his words nor the practise of this reformed kirk As for the order of Christs actions for preparation of the bread he doth three things he took it he blessed it he brake it which of necessity must be understood to be a mystical fraction And being thus prepared as he took the bread for them he exhibiteth and giveth it to them wherby they may be assured to haue good right to that bread and being thus prepared and made theirs he giveth a generall commandement to them all to take it and for the particular form of their taking that they should divide it amōng themselues according to the direction set downe in Luke for the right vse of the cup Divide it among your selues which forme of distribution for exercise of brotherly loue is as necessarie to be vsed upon the bread as upon the cup. And if by the act of giving the distribuoion of the cup were perfected by Christ giving sigillatim to every single person and their sole receiving of it immediatly out of his hand what could be the use of the generall commandement Divide it among you And to ascribe one sence to the act of giving the Cuppe and another of the bread and to thinke that the Apostles could boldly take the one or the other not knowing what right they had to it or what it was it were amisse to think And if the practise of kirkes were a sufficicient rule in sundry kirkes in sundry ages the Deacon delivered the sacrament to the people Since yee professe and faine would bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and submitting yourselfe to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a follower of God by your profession wish and submission rather to follow Christ and his Apostles followers of him then any other man or societie of men and rather the forme of our owne kirke observed since reformation wherin yee haue gotten the comfort that ever yee had or haue by that sacrament and for thir particulars and other causes of contention betwixt you and them that would draw you to a mixture with them in their forme you must deprecate favour while you be better informed and advised and they both to the effect that before you come to communication at the Table yee may be one in faith and articles of religion and of one consent of heart in Ierome his sence calling Augustine of his communion and of Augustines meaning calling a certaine woman of his communion As these differences betwixt you and them are evill in themselues so are they evill in the alledged ground whereby they are occasioned The peoples rudensse and lack of devotion which should be rather removed by diligent instruction then established by a practise founded vpon a necessitie that the sacrament must be alwayes celebrated to a sort of rude people void of reverence to receiue the same in a comely forme By that sort of rusticitie and want of devotion the communion table that in primitiue times stood in the middest of the kirke was separate from the congregation by a Chancellarie since from the middest of the kirke to the east end which was called the Quier then the minister and table both was separate from the people the table turned into an altar the sacrament