was turmoiled reflecting upon the prodigious Doctrine of Transubstantiation alone sufficient to fright rational believers from the Romish Communion By it we are required to believe that when the Priest pronounces those few Latin words Hoc est Corpus meum This is my Body minding what he says the substance of all the bread he lays before him is destroyed in a moment and instead of it our Saviour Jesus is placed under that figure of bread personally and corporally A wonder though a dayly one yet far surpassing that other which once happened in the world when God hearkning to the voice of Joshua made the Sun and Moon stand till he compleated his Victory against the Enemy invading Gibeon Josh 10.12 And to support this wonder a great number of others most stupendious are chained to it As First that those accidents of white and round remaining do subsist without any substance to rest upon a thing repugnant to their nature and to all humane understanding Secondly that the same accidents being converted either into vermin by corruption or into flesh and bloud by nutrition in him that eats them should produce a substance which is to give what they have not a thing surpassing all kind of power Thirdly that a proper well proportion'd body as that of our Saviour glorious in Heaven must come down and be fitted to every Wafer and to every the least crumb of them Fourthly that the same Body must lye sit or stand or however be in a hundred thousand places at the same time All these monstrous miracles and more we must swallow to support that mystery in spight of all reason to the contrary without any pertinent Text of Scripture to ground it upon nay many Texts opposing it as we shall hereafter declare and no necessity urging to it either for verifying the words of our Saviour in the institution of this blessed Sacrament or for the effects of it St. 1â— 15 Not for verifying the words seeing our Saviour in the same tenor said I am the true vine without any alteration either in his Person or in the Vine And St. Paul saith of his Corinthians 2 Cor. 12 27. ye are the Body of Christ yet meaning no conversion of substances Nor for the effects of the Sacrament Christ being able to convey with the worthy receiving of Bread and Wine what spiritual graces he pleaseth without any substantial alteration in the Elements as in the Waters of Baptism he affordeth the soveraign grace of Regeneration without any alteration in the substance of the Water The like repugnance I felt in believing their prodigious Doctrine of Indulgences Purgatory Worship of Saints and Images and other Points controverted with them but smother'd my doubts while in Spain partly fearing the severity of that Countrey in proceeding against Opposers of their Doctrine partly amused with the supposition that the Church and Pope of Rome were Infallible in their Decrees touching matters of Faith and so might stand with security to their Declarations And finally perswaded by my Catechists that it was a mortal Sin to admit willingly even a doubt in Matters of Faith A terrible yoke reaching to the thoughts of the heart but conducent to their purpose of keeping in their people by right or wrong With these Generalities I quieted in some sort my mind while I could see none that would seriously oppose those Tenents nor know the Arguments against them but by relation of Romish Writers fashioning them so as they might better receive their stroke For though by occasion of my Employment of teaching controversies in the University of Salamanca some years I had a Licence from the Inquisitor General of Spain to read prohibited Books yet the Prohibition was so severe that I could never come by any Book of their Opposers But Divine Providence leading me to this Countrey I met with persons of excellent wisedom and great integrity who in close and serious Disputes gave me a different light and help to find out the truth The chiefest of all was the Most Reverend Father in God Thomas Lord Archbishop of Cashell who at his coming to that See having notice of me and pittying I should continue in errours sought carefully after me and finding me out with admirable zeal and great dexterity dictated by Christian charity set upon me with solid Arguments of Holy Scripture Councels Fathers and Histories and gave me to view several learned Authors representing the Errours of the Roman Church in all the points controverted to which I listened the more willingly because I saw a vein of Charity and Zeal of Union among Christians run through all his discourses acknowledging the Church of Rome to be a part of the Catholick Church though not the Catholick Church as they speak excluding other Christian Congregations from that honourable Title reverencing what in them was good as the belief of Scripture and Christian Creeds the Practice of Devotion and Piety and onely reproving the Superstructures of Erroneous Practises introduced contrary to the Institution of Christ and Stile of the Primitive Church entertaining a charitable hope of the Salvation of many of them that went on with simplicity of heart and blameless ignorance of the Errours they were bred in All which sympathizing with my own temper and dictates in relation to all Christian Congregations got in my mind a special respect and regard to his reasons I replied to them with sincerity and liberty according to the principles I was instructed in Where a clear Text or pressing reason was deficient I appealed as to a Sanctuary to the Infallibility of the Church that in things surpassing our comprehension we were to captivate our understanding to the obedience of Faith proposed to us by the Church of God To secure this refuge and have it in a readiness I framed to my self and proposed to his Grace this kind of Demonstration That by natural evidences I was convinced there was a God of infinite Goodness wisedom and power That to these attributes it belonged he should provide for Man-kind means for obtaining their end of everlasting bliss That by revealed Oracles common to all Christians I believed he sent down his Son Jesus Christ for this purpose in humane nature and to shew by his Example and Doctrine a sure way to eternal happiness And providing not only for the age he lived in but for all times to come he left upon earth a Church furnished with convenient Laws for the foresaid end And whereas he foretold himself that in future times there should arise Heresies and Controversies as it is the nature of men it became his wisedom and goodness to appoint a visible Judge with infallible assistance of the Holy Ghost to determine all Controversies emergent which Judge was no other than the Pope of Rome Successor of St. Peter to whose definitions therefore we ought to stand and so quiet our minds The former part of this Demonstration had a grateful acceptance with his Grace as
degree Superiour to God himself in the Government of humane kind If the Laws of England were not to be understood or practised in Ireland but according to the will and declaration of the King of France certainly the King of France would be deemed of more Power and Authority in the Government of Ireland and the people more Subject to him than to the King of England So if the Law of God is to be measured by the Popes will and declaration certainly the Pope is above God in the Government of man kind Who would believe that any Christian would presume to say that it should be a greater sin to transgress an Ecclesiastick Law of the Pope than to break the Law of God Costerus c. 15. enchiridii propos 9. yet Costerus one of the chief defenders of the Romish Doctrine sticketh not to say so much resolutely asserting that it is a greater sin in a Priest to Marry than to commit Fornication or keep a Concubine in his house That Greater sin in his opinion being but a transgression of a Papal Law and the other reputed by him for Lighter a trespass against the Law of God expressed in his Divine Decalogue What Christian ears can abide to hear such execrable Blasphemies will they wonder now that the Pope should be taxed with that Antichristian Impiety declared by Daniel the Prophet Dan. 11.36 2. Thessa 2.4 and by St. Paul who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God Here you see the Romish Church guilty of that Abomination mentioned in our text of extolling man above God Pope's Supremacy To this enormity of robbing God of his prerogatives is joyned another of making the Pope Supreme Head and Master of all Christians not only in spiritual matters but also in their temporal interests with power to depose Kings and move their Subjects to Rebellion against them when they do not obey his will as it was declared in the Lateran Council under Innocent the Third by these terrible words If a temporal Lord warned by the Church doth neglect to purge his Land of Heresie Concil Laterar c. 3. let him be excommunicated by the Metropolitan and if within a year he gives no satisfaction let that be signified to the Pope that from thenceforth he may declare his Subjects absolved from their obedience to him and expose his lands to be occupied by Catholicks And so was done to King John of England by the same Pope Innocent the Third as it is recorded by Polidor Virgil Polidor lib. 15. Suar. li. 3. defens c. 23. to the Emperour Henry the Fourth by Gregory the Fourth To Frederick the 2d by Innocent the 4th and to several other Christian Princes as Suarez relates making the Practice of Popes herein an Argument of their Power for doing so Which kind of arguing as I was admiring in so exact a Schoolman and reflecting upon the power of prejudice and education even over the most sublime wits an ingenious Divine of the University of Dublin reply'd facetiously it was a very concluding argument that proceedeth ab actu ad potentiam being he did so it 's sign he could do it that was good for a jest But Suarez to be in earnest and give consistence to his argument subsumed that the Church Universal did see and approve of this proceeding and the Church being Infallible could not approve it if not Lawful Many other controversies would have a quick decision if this discourse were Legal That all saw it is allowed but that all approved of it freely is denyed Force and fear made them suffer what they would have resisted if they knew how I remit enlarging upon the injustice of the Pope's pretensions herein to another occasion and their unreasonable exclamations against the claim of our Princes to Supremacy of power over their subjects being they pretend no other than such as the godly Kings of Israel had in their time over the Jews and the Christian Emperors in the primitive Church over their respective subjects as it is declared in the 37. Article and 2. Canon of the Church of England Only I will reflect at present upon the cruelty the Pope has practised of late towards the unhappy Irish his Followers in pursuit of his pretended power of deposing Kings That being no matter of Faith nor passing a probable Opinion as Azor Peron Azor to 2 li. 11. c. 5. q. 8. Peronus in replica sua typis data anno 1620. and other very learned Authors of his own party do declare If we may call probable a doctrine so damnable that the great Parliament of France wherein of 200. Votes only 6. were Protestants in the year 1604. commanded Suarez his Book containing this doctrine to be burned by the hands of the publick Executioner and ordered the Jesuits to have their preachers exhort the people to the contrary doctrine or otherwise they should be proceeded against as Traytors and Disturbers of the publick peace Besides all their own Divines generally asserting that in a probable controversie one may with safety of conscience follow the side he pleaseth Yet the Pope prohibited severely the Irish to disclaim that seditious doctrine let them suffer never so many penalties and suspicions for it So zealous is his Holiness not of the salvation of souls but of the conservation of his own Grandeur in having all power upon Earth at his will and the Crowns of Kings to stand or fall at his beck is not this to exercise tyranny and cruelty in the conduct of souls Transubstantiation Touching the second Point proposed of Transubstantiation I signified before how prodigious that engagement was and what weak Foundation they had for it in Scripture Now I will declare how directly contrary to Scripture it is and to the doctrine of the Fathers of the Primitive Church The Council of Trent accurseth such as affirm Bread and Wine to remain in this Sacrament after Consecration Trident. Sess 13. can 2. And yet St. Paul teacheth us expresly and repeateth the same doctrine some five times over that after Consecration it is Bread which is broken and eaten 1 Cor. 11.23 24. The Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took Bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me Of the Bread he took in his hand all that followeth is affirmed to wit that he brake it and that it was his Body And whereas in a literal sense it could not be said with truth or propriety that the Bread was his Body as you may not say with sense that a stick is a stone he declareth immediately that he spoke in a figurative sense willing it to be a commemoration or remembrance of him the Bread still remaining in the nature of Bread though elevated by Christ's Institution to a supernatural and spiritual power of giving grace to well disposed Receivers And so S. Paul
distinction very few certainly When they bow down to an Image the Image it self down-right they worship Then generally they commit Idolatry in this practice or at least a sin in exposing themselves to a danger of committing it But what of the inconveniences of this practice one comes to a Church or Chappel loaden with Images and before he can recollect himself and think of God his imagination and eyes run upon those pictures and he returns home more full of Figures than of Spirit Inveration of Saints Now to the Fourth Their invocation of Saints is contrary to God's Ordinance Rom 8.34 who hath appointed his Son Jesus to make intercession for us who is more compassionate better able and more willing than any of the Saints or Angels to help us Joh. â— 16. And himself assureth us that whatsoever we ask the Heavenly Father in his Name Acts 4. â—2 he will give it us Contrary to this and the declaration of St. Peter that there is not salvation in any other and that there is no other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved The Romish Church teacheth her children to call the blessed Virgin Mary their life and hope vita dulcedo spes nostra their Redeemer and Savioress Reparatrix Salvatrix desperantis animae their comfort and giver of spiritual grace irroratrix largitrix spiritualis gratiae with other extravagancies certainly unwelcome to that glorious Mother of Christ and true humble soul who in that her famous canticle acknowledgeth her very lowliness to be the motive of God's high favours to her Luke 1.46 for he hath regarded the lowliness of his Hand-maiden The like exorbitancies they preach and teach of other Saints As I was considering this Point came to my hands a paper of my own censuring the doctrine I heard in a Sermon preached where I was present in the City of Palencia in Spain the year 1661. by a Fryer of a certain Order upon the Festivity of one of their Saints saying of him that he was incapable of erring in his doctrine that his doctrine was of equal authority with the Bible that whatsoever such a Saint did say though false in it self he saying it must be true The proofs he brought for these desperate positions were as mad as the positions themselves and so ridiculous that dare not relate them in this grav Auditory though I have them in writing Let not malice gather by this discourse that I revile the Saints or repine at their glory I rejoyce at it and bless God for so rewarding his Servants What I reprehend is the blasphemous abuses committed in the worship of them unpleasing certainly to the Saints A facetious expression of a Spanish Preacher may be a serious proof of this being so Preaching upon the Festivity of a Saint Founder of a certain Order he feigned that studying his Sermon he had an extasie or dream wherein finding himself in Heaven he saw that Saint he preached of behind the door hiding himself and being questioned why he did so answered He came there being ashamed to hear the mad expressions of his Fryer's in praising and extolling him upon such days And certainly if the Saints living in glory were capable of shame and sorrow they would grieve and be asham'd at the proceedings of their wild worshippers Of this I made grievous complaints to the Inquisitor General of Spain crying against exorbitancies of that kind repugnant to all Christianity being commissioned by himself to give him account of what doctrine I found censurable Even then and in that Countrey I cried against these exorbitancies but how succesful my good intention to that purpose was I do not know for this malady groweth still The way of getting the credit of a sound Catholick with the blind Vulgar is to exceed in this Practice as to spight the Jews and seem true Christians they will eat more Pork than their stomach can bear so to spight Protestants they will run beyond all measure even of their own principles in advancing Saints For one Church dedicated to our Saviour you will see an hundred dedicated to divers Saints for one Pater noster ten Ave Maries for one discourse or praise of God a thousand of their respective Saints Whereof I often saw to my deep grief sad experiences A person of Quality lyes dying in comes a Fryar of this Order and falls with all his Rhetorick to exhort him to devotion towards the Saints of his own Order to take the habit scapulary or cord of it Then comes one of another Order and falls likewise a commending the Saints and habit of his Order and so each one as they come Among them all little or no mention of our Saviour Jesus his Passion to rely upon Would you think it is the good of that soul or the honour of the Saint they are zealous for or rather the interest of the Convent judge it you and let others of more liberty speak it Have pity O good God of souls left to such Instruction Half Communion Touching the fifth point of denying the Chalice to the Laity I think it an injury to our cause to seek after any farther proof of it than their own Confession that our Saviour Jesus did institute and the Primitive Church did practise the administration of the blessed Sacrament under both kinds to the people as it is used in the Church of England But the Roman Church thought fit to do otherwise This confession is their greatest confusion and too too sufficient confutation It was to me a horror to see the boldness of the Council of Constance confessing the foresaid and coming down with a non obstante That Concil Constâ—n lâ—ss 13. notwithstanding Christ's institution and the practice of the Primitive Church therein the Council prohibited all Priests under pain of Excommunication to administer the Communion under both kinds to the Laity For causes they do not express neither do we need to labour in searching after them it being sufficient for our purpose to know that they can find or pretend causes to alter Christ's institutions and introduce others contrary to them The onely reason they give for their Decree herein is the Authority of the Church and some preceding Popes or Fathers and yet acknowledging that Christ ordained the contrary Is not this to transgress the commandment of God by your tradition Maâ— 15 3. is not this to agree with that attribute of Antichrist who opposeth and exalteth himself over all that is called God The Pope would seem to clear himself from that imputation bearing for title Servant of the Servants of God Gen 27 22 The voice is Jacob 's voice but the hands are the hands of Esau The Pope's speech in calling himself Servant of the Servants of God is Christian but his Deed in preferring his own Law and Institution to the Institution of Christ is Antichristian They cry Antiquity and Authority of the Church for this practice
his time the Divine Office was performed among the Scythians in the German Tongue Origen cont Cess li. 8. p. 402. which was common to them and the Germans Nay Origen affirmeth that in the primitive Churches all publick Offices of Religion were performed in the proper Language of every Countrey Scripture prohibited And lest they should learn in their Houses what they cannot in their Churches they are prohibited to read Scripture in their own Tongues without licence under the hand of the Bishop or Inquisitor by the advice of the Priest or Confessor touching the person's fitness for it and who presumes to do otherwise is to be denied absolution This is commanded in the Fourth Rule of the Index Index li. prohib Alex 7. Rom. An. 665. published by Order of the Council of Trent and set forth by the Authority of Pius the Fourth and since by Clement the Eighth and lately enlarged by Alexander the Seventh Mat. 4.4 This is cruelty to souls Christ declaring the Word of God to be their food And Scripture it self so often inviting us to the reading of it St. Peter thus exhorteth to it 2 Pet. 1.19 We have also a more sure Word of prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as to a light that shineth in a dark place till the day dawn St. Paul commendeth to us the reading of Scripture as written for our instruction and comfort Ro. 15 4. 2 Tim. 3.15 Act. 17.11 and as able to make us wise unto salvation St. Luke praiseth the Inhabitants of Berea in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily The Holy Fathers of the Primitive Church were of the same spirit of exhorting the Faithful to the reading of Scripture for their comfort and direction St. Clement Clement Epist ad Corin. p 58. for remedying a dissention happened among the Corinthians writes thus to them p 61. Look diligently unto the Scriptures which are the true Oracles of the Holy Ghost He addeth after Take St. Paul 's Epistles into your hands p. 68. and consider what he saith and praises them for being skilled in the Scriptures Beloved says he ye have known and very well known the Holy Scriptures and ye have throughly looked into the Oracles of God Ignatius epist ad Philad Policar Epist ad Philip. Clem. Alexand. Strom. 7. p 72. therefore call them to mind Of the same mind was Policarp Ignatius and the other Ancient Fathers Clemens of Alexandria mentioneth the reading of Scriptures among Christians before their Meals and Psalms and Hymns at them What makes the present Church of Rome so vigilant to the contrary in keeping their Flock from reading Scripture One reason they give and another they keep to themselves the reason they give is that Heresies did arise from the abuse of Scriptures Be it so but who were the abusers certainly Priests Monks and Fryars more frequently and of them the most Learned Turn to Records and you shall find it to be so Then if this Argument proves any thing it will obtain the banishing of Scripture from among the Learned and out of all the world Proving so much which is too much it proveth nothing Meat and drink is the ruine of many shall they be banished therefore out of the World No let the creatures of God serve his servants and let the abusers of them have their punishment in the very abuse they commit Let this Heavenly Lanthorn which God set up in his House the Holy Church to guide us in the dark ways of this life shine to all Christians And that weak eyes may not be dazled by the brightness of it let this be the general rule for all to read Scripture Where they find it clear let them embrace it devoutly and frame their lives accordingly where it appears obscure let them humbly pray the Lord he may help them with light to understand it and wait patiently upon his pleasure for doing so In the mean time they may be assured that all necessary knowledge for Faith in God to serve and praise him is fully contained in what is clear of Scripture So St. Augustine affirmeth Aug. de Doctrin Christ. l. 2. c. 9. In iis quae apertè in Scripturâ posita sunt inveniuntur illa omnia quae continent fidem moresque vivendi Whereof St. Paul giveth an ample testimony saying 2 Tim. 3.15 The holy Scriptures are able to make thee wise unto salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus and are profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness That the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works The Holy Fathers do agree with St. Paul in this his Opinion of the profit of Scripture for our spiritua◠instruction St. Basil commends them as the best remedy for all the passions of the mind Basil in Psal 1. St. Chrysostome reflecting upon that great meekness of David in letting Saul go free when he had him at his will in the Den commends to all the memory of that example Chrysost Homil. 1. de Davide Saule saying It is impossible that a mind conversant with this kind of Histories should be overcome with passions St. Jerome saith that infinite evils do arise from ignorance of Scriptures From hence most part of Heresies have come from hence a negligent and careless life and unfruitful labours The reason given by Papists against reading of Scripture being thus confuted would you know what reason it is that they have and keep to themselves Very many say it is for keeping the people blind-folded that they may not see the Ignorance of their Ministers nor the Corruption of their Mysteries It seems they have declared so much themselves in a Council of Bishops met at Bononia for restoring the dignity of the Roman See Conc. de stabilien Rom. fid p. 6 apud Stilling-fleet opere de Idololatria Rom. ecc pag. 201. by Order of Pope Julius the Third the chief advice they gave was that by all means as little of the Gospel as might be especially in the vulgar Tongue should be read in the Cities under his jurisdiction Adding that Book to have been the cause of that great decay of their former lustre and concluding thus And in truth if any one diligently consider it and compare it with what is done in our Churches will find them very contrary to each other and our very doctrine not onely to be different from it but repugnant to it Thus God was pleased they should discover their intention that it should be published for undeceiving the misled by them as written by several grave Authors who I suppose would not publish it but upon sufficient ground And is not this to use Tyranny over souls Third Point Now I will come to the third and last Point proposed of my Discourse which is to conclude from what is said hitherto that the resolution I took