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A36092 A discourse for taking off the tests and penal laws about religion 1687 (1687) Wing D1593; ESTC R3313 36,709 48

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of England as fram'd by its first Queen-Elizabeth-Reformers is so generally express'd as to admit of a Sense owning Transubstantiation 2. That in favor of the Papists there are so many Expressions in their Liturgy Catechism and Homilies that very lately a great Church-of England Doctor The Doctor 's Book lately Licensed by the Archishop's Chaplain the Head of a College with the Countenance of the Archbishop of Canterbury is constrain'd to hold that the Church of England is for a Real Presence in the same Sense the Fish and Loaves were present to those that fed on them that is they are for a Corporal Presence 3. They cannot escape a falling in with Transubstantiation any other way than by closing with a Notion manifestly false and Platonic All which carefully weighed I advance to this Conclusion That the Church of England has hitherto had such favorable thoughts of a Corporal Presence of Christ's Body in the Eucharist and so much compassion for the Believers of Transubstantiation and have so far given up the Cause to the Papist that they cannot oppose Transubstantiation without embracing as false and a more absurd Notion and that therefore it s now become most unreasonable for them to make the believing of NO TRANSVBSTANTIATION to be a Condition of our Nobilities enjoying those Civil Privileges which are theirs by Inheritance And I doubt not but when our Protestant Lords shall in their great Wisdom have consulted the Sense of the first Reformers in Queen Elizabeths Reign the Countenance our Liturgy Catechism and Homilies give a Corporal Presence on purpose to encourage the Believers of Transubstantiation to come to their Communion they will see cause to conclude That it 's very hard were it their own Case to be justled out of the Rights of Peerage for an Opinion that must lie in their Judgment so doubtful And that whilst our Clergy are so zealous for the Name of Priests and for the Erecting and Railing in their Altars there is cause also why a Son of the Church of England should not be for the Continuation of this part of the Test The last Clause of the Test runs thus And that the Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other Saint and the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are now us'd in the Church of Rome are Superstitious and Idolatrous And that the Church of England hath no reason to urge the Continuation of this other part of the Test will appear I humbly conceive pretty manifest to those who will cast off old Prejudices and impartially weigh the following Considerations I. That seeing the Church of England has taken more than Ordinary care to give such a general Explanation of the Real Presence as may admit of a Corporal Presence and thus much she hath done with a Design to encourage the Believers of Transubstantiation to joyn with them in the Sacrament she cannot esteem the Adoration of the Sacrifice of the Mass to be Idolatry for it 's well known she would be thought to abhor the holding Communion with Idolaters and to this she must stick or give up the Cause to the Protestant Dissenters who say that they dare not hold Communion with that Church that will admit known Idolaters into their Communion But such doth the Church of England admit in admitting the Believers of Transubstantiation That the Church of England is for admitting the Believers of Transubstantiation who adore the Sacrifice of the Mass has been abundantly prov'd whence it follows That the Church of England must either give up the Cause to the Dissenter or declare that the Believers of Transubstantiation tho' they adore the Sacrifice of the Mass are not Idolaters and that the Adoration of the Sacrifice is not Idolatrous and if not Idolatrous how can they oblige all to declare it to be Idolatrous or part with their Civil Rights and Privileges for not making such a Declaration But II. There are some great Doctors in the Church of England who affirm That the Worshiping what is believed to be God tho' it be not God wants the Formal Nature of Idolatry and it 's not to be doubted but that the Believers of Transubstantiation do verily believe that what they worship is God how can they then insist on their Idolatry For altho' these Doctors are in a Mistake yet before it be so positively determin'd as in the Test the Matter should be fully debated amongst themselves for it 's not agreeable to the Rules of Wisdom for any Church to impose what is matter of doubt to some of her own Sons who are Men of great Learning and Vertue III. As to the Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary and other Saints it must be observed that Protestants themselves have different Apprehensions about the Nature of the Sin and tho' all judge it an Error yet all don't esteem it Idolatry and seeing here is not a word of Images in the Test the Church of England will be hard put to it to prove it Idolatry for if it be Idolatry it must in the Sense of a Protestant be either Idolatry against the First or against the Second Commandment Not against the First for who are there of the Church of England that make the Invocation of Saints to exceed the Idolatry of the Heathen The Author of Julian parallel'd it with Heathenish Idolatry but who makes it more absurd and gross And if it be an Idolatry only against the Second Commandment seeing Images are not mentioned how can it be made out unless they fall in with the Protestant Dissenter and say that as the First Command forbids all False Objects so the Second all false Authors and Means of Worship tho' directed Ultimately to the True God and so grant that what part of Worship soever has not God for its Author is Idolatrous Worship and thereby for the same Reason they make Invocation of Saints Idolatrous they make a great part of their own Worship to be so too And seeing they are so hard put to it to prove it Idolatrous they should not impose the Belief on 't with so much Severity as they have done it in this Case But IV. Altho' there were Reasons for the making those Tests when under a Church-of-England Prince yet there can be none for the continuance of 'em under a King who is for the Invocation of Saints for it 's a putting all those Nobles who enjoy their Birthrights and the Representatives of the Nation to pronounce his Majesty an Idolater which is not according to the Duty of a Subject nor indeed Civil But if the Sons of the Church who are for the fixing this Test should be treated by this present Government as the Clergy treated some Brownists in Queen Elizabeths Days it would be made a Crime no less than Capital The Brownists condemned the Church of England for no Church ensnared many in the Nets of their new Schism Neither could they be restrained tho' their Books were prohibited and two of