Offices Manuals Treatises Controversies touching the Eucharist Sacraments Masse and Transubstantiation and more particularly by [d] Mr. Harding against Bishop Iewel who refutes it in the Name of the Church of England Yet now professedly avowed of late in A Brotherly and Friendly Censure of my 4. Quaeres p. 8. in Dr. Drake his Anti-Quaeries and Bâ—undary to the Holy Mount and sundry others as their chief ground of keeping suspending all those they deem unworthy from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper alone but from no other part of Gods worship This opinion first sprung from Popish Transubstantiation which as it introduced [e] Adoration of prostration kneeling bowing to towards before the consecrated Elements Altars and railing in Altars in the Church of Rome so it [f] lately brought into our Cathedrals and Parish Churches prostration kneeling bowing to and before the Sacramental Elements and rayling in of Altars Lords Tables at the East end of our Quires in imitation of the Romanists by our Popish Prelates and Priests Witnesse Archbishop Lauds own words in his Speech in Star-chamber An. 1637. p. 47. The Altar is the greatest place of Gods residence upon earth I say the greatest yea greater than the Pulpit For there t is Hoc est Corpus meum This is my Body But in the Pulpit it is at most but Hoc est Verbum meum this is my Word And a greater Reverence * no doubt is due to the Body than â—o the Word of the Lord And so in relation answerably to the Throne where his Body is usually present than to the Seat where his Word useth to be proclaimed â—hich Popish dotage of his seconded by Dr. Pocklington Dr. Heylin Dr. Laurence Edmund Reeve Shelford and other Popish Innovators I have [g] elsewhere at large refuted 2. That the Lords Supper is more holy dreadfull excellent venerable and more dangerous damnable to such who unworthily approach unto it than any other Sacrament or divine Ordinance whatsoever And therefore necessarily requires a greater measure degree and another manner of worthinesse fitnesse preparation qualification self-examination confession of sins faith repentance Grace Holinesse in those who are to be admitted to receive it than Baptism Prayer hearing reading of the Word thanksgiving fasting or any other part of Gods publike worship to which they and our rigidest Presbyterians freely admit all theiâ— Parishioners without any trial or transcendent worthinesse fitnesse or preparation Hence [h] Popish Councils Writers stile the Lords Supper Excellentissimum Sacramentum quia continet in se actorem totius Gratiae et Sanctificationis Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum et verum Christi Corpus et sanguinem And thence inferre Excellentia hujus Sacramenti requirit dignum mysterium et ideo volens recipere vel conficere tantum Sacramentum debet se praeparare per Contritionem et veram Confessionem peccatorum suorum ac puram devotionem Statuimus quod nullus deinceps ad Eucharistiae Sacramentum teneatur aliquem admittere nisi prius illum audierit in Confessione aut prius sibi fide facta quod more fidelium poenitentiae reciperit Sacramentum Nemo sine speciali Contritione Confessione et Satisfactoriis operibus dignè praemunitus ad Eucharistiam sumendam accedat Moneantur conjugari non niâ— praeparata aliquot dierum continentia ad Eucharistâ— sumpsionem accedere c. Which very Popish Doctrine and Consequence of an extraordinary transcendent degree of worthiness preparation c. are professedly asserted by the Authors of the Antidote to and Brotherly friendly censure of my four Questions Dr. Drake in his Anti-quaeries boundary Mr. Collins in his Juridical Suspension and others 3. Upon these precedent false Principles and the extraordinary danger of unworthy receiving the Popish Priests and Prelates inferr [i] That they are bound to admit none to the Lords Supper but such whom they upon a precedent private examination and Confession of their sins to themselves or such as they appoint shall absolve and deem worthy and prepared to receive it And their Councils Decree Nullus Parochus ad hujus Sacramenti sumptionem quempiam admittat cujus conscientiam non noverit aut ipse aut ab eo ei negotio praefectus Nec quemquam Parochi seu Curati ad Communionem admittant nisi quem privs sciverint confessum fuisse peccata aut ipsis aut eorum Vicariis seu Sacerdotibus deputatis And upon the self-same grounds as the Church of * Saxony in the beginning of Reformation admitted none to the Communion unlesse they were first examined heard tried and absolved of the Pastor and his fellow-Ministers Complying herein over-much with the Papists So now [k] Mr. Rutherford [l] Dr. Drake [m] Mr. Collins and other over-rigâ—d Presbyterians assert They are bound in duty conscience prudence first to try examine the knowledge faith graces repentance lives and visible worthinesse of all their Parishioners before they come to the Lords Supper to admit none thereto but such whom they and their Presbyteries upon trial shal deem worthy and prepared to receive it and to seclude all others from it concurring herein with these Popish Priests and Prelates 4. That there is [n] a letter Excommunication whereby the Prelates and other Officers of the Church are authorized impowred judicially by way of Church Censure to suspend and keep back scandalous ignorant unconfessed obstinate church-Church-members who refuse to submit to the examination and orders of the Church from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper only without any actual sequestring of them from any other publike Ordinances in which they may freely communicate with other Christians distinct form that Excommunicatio major which totally secludes Christians from entring into the Church and all Christian fellowship and Communion in any publike Ordinance and all private society with Christians Which lesser Excommunication was first introduced by Popish Councils Canonists Casuists only for lesser mortal sins and conversing with peâ—sons lying under the censure of the greater Excommunication And is now most eagerly asserted by [o] Mr. Rutherford [p] Mr. Gillespy [q] Dr. Drake [r] Mr. Collins [s] The Ministers of Syon College and others as committed to Chuâ—ch-Officers and Presbyteries by the will and testament of Iesus Christ though no ways warranted but contradicted by all the Scripture testâ—monies they produce to warrant it and by the practices of the Primitive Church as I have proved at large in [t] former publications The only memorable particular example recorded in antient Ecclesiastical Histories of a publick excommunication denounced by a Bishop for a scandalous crime especially against his Soveraign is that of St. Ambrose Bishop of Millain against the Emperour Theodosius the first thus recorded by [u] Theodoret and others The Inhabitants of Thessalonica a rich populous City in Macedonia in a popular tumult slow their Iudges and all who took part with Theodosius in the Government Wherewith he
SOME POPISH ERRORS unadvisedly embraced and pursued by our ANTICOMMVNION MINISTERS Wherein is Discovered The dangerous effects of their discontinuing the Frequent publick Administration of the Lords Supper the Popish Errors whereon it is bottomed perswading the frequent Celebration of it to all Visible Church-members with their Free-admission thereunto and prescribing some legal Regal Remedies to redress New Sacrilegious detaining of it from the people where their Ministers are obstinate With a New discovery of some Romish Emmissaries QUAKERS By William Prynne of Swainswicke Esquire a Bencher of Lincolns Inne John 10.10 The Thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy Chrysost. in Mat. Hom. 49. Ex ipsis veris Ecclestis frequentèr exeunt Seductores Proptereà nec ipsis omnino credendum est nisi ea dicant vel faciant quae convenientia a sint Scripturis August contra Faustum Manich. l. 19. c. 10. In nullum nomen Religionis seu verum seu falsum coagulari homines possunt nisi aliquo Sacramentorum visibilium consortio colligentur LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be sold by Edward Thomas at his Shop at the signe of the Adam and Eve in Little-Britain 1658. A New Discovery of some Romish Emissaries Quakers and others as likewise of Popish Errors Practices lately embraced pursued avowed by some Zealots and Grand Deformers in secluding their Parishioners sundry years from the Holy Communion of the Lords Supper c. THe sad Complaint of old to and of Constantius the Arrian Emperour who [a] made his exorbitant Will the only Law and used this Papal Speech to Paulinus and other Orthodox Bishops convented before him for refusing to communicate with the Arrians upon his command as being against the Ecclesiastical Canons At quod ego â—olo pro Canone sit Ita me lequentemâ— Syriae Episcopi sustâ—n ut aut ergo obtemperate Aut vos quoque exules estote made by St. Hilarie concerning the frequent changes of the Christian Faith and multitudes of Religions under his arbitrary Tyrannical Government viz. [b] Faith is come now rather to depend upon the Time than on the Gospel Our State is dangerous and miserable that we have now as many faiths as wils and as many Doctrines as manners whiles Faiths 〈◊〉 so writteâ— as we list or so understood as we will We make every year and every month a new faith and still we seek a faith as if there were yet no faith [c] This O Constantius woulâ— I 〈◊〉 know 〈…〉 what faith at length thou bâ—lievest Thou hast changed so often that now I know not thy faith That is â—amed to thâ—â— which us thâ—â— fellow 〈◊〉 if all builders ever disliking their own doings that thou still pullest down that thou art still setting up Thou subvertest the old with new and the new thou rentest in sunder with a newer correction and that which was once corrected thou condemnest with a second correction O thou wicked one Wâ—â—â— a mockery dost thou mâ—ke of the Church c May now be the dolorous just complaint of every sincere English Christian touching the manifold changes of Faiths the multiplicities of Religions in our Vertiginous unstable arbitrary and Tyrannical Age wherein too many of all Degrees make their own exorbitant lawless wills the only Laws Canons by which they act making Faith to depend rather upon their pleasures yea worldly designs than on the Gospel setting up of late years amongst us as many Faiths as Wills as many Doctrins opinions as we have Manners Sects coyning venting professing what New Faiths they list and understanding our antient Creeds as they please to interpret them new-making or at least imbracing a new Faith every year if not almost every month running from one New Sect Faith Opinion to another still seeking after the newest Faith as if they had quite lost the old changing so often that none know of what Faith or Sect they are being one month Presbyterians the next Independents the 3d. Anabaptists the 4th Quakers the 5th Ranters the 6th Seekers the 7th Arrians Anti-Trinitarians the 8th Socinians the 9th Arminians the 10th Antinomians the 11th Antiscripturists the 12. professed Atheists Subverting their old Church Religion Faith Sect with a New one that New with a Newer that Newer with the Newest and last broached as our Fashion-mongers change the shape of their garments till they have utterly lost all Faith Piety Religion Conscience and made the Church of Christ a meer Mockery yea Christ himself a Fable Neither are they lesse giddy or unstable in their State-Mutations than in their Ecclesiastical or Religious still changing from one mishapen New-Model to another so as what [d] Aelianus records of the ficklepated seditious Athenians the first inventors of New State Governments is as really verified of these English Innovators Athenienses omnino ad commutandos Reâ—publicae status erant versatiles omnium propensissimi ad vicissitudines c. In which respect [e] 〈◊〉 Iames his character of a double-minded man unstable in all his ways is now become their properâ—â—t Moâ—â—o unlesse they like [f] St. Iudes better These be spots in your Feasts of Charity feeding themselves without 〈◊〉 Clouds they are without water carried about with winds Trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twiâ—e dead plucked up by the roots Raging waves of the Sea foaming out their own shame wandring stars to whom is reserved the blacknesse of darkenesse for ever Murmurers complaiâ—ers walking after their own lusts c. These be they who separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit though they proclaim themselves the only Saints having the Spirit which I grant most true if meant of [g] the Spirit of Error or that [h] Spirit of perversities or giddinesses the Lord mingled in the midst of Aegypt and the Princes of Zoan which caused Aegypt and now England to erre in every work thereof as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit That subtile Romish * seducing Emissaries Iesuites Franciscans Popish Priests Friers of all sorts disguised under the Vizors of Independents Anabaptists Dippers Quakers Ranters Seekers Soldiers Factors Mâ—rchants Artificers and mechanick Professions of all sorts have been the principal Instruments to infuse this Spirit of Giddinesse into our intoxicated besotted English brains the original Plotters Broachers Fomentors Propagators of all the deplorable Warrs Divisions Errors Sects Heresies Blâ—sphemies New Faiths Changes of Government which have of late years miserably rent both our Nations Churches Kingdoms heretofore [i] happily united in Christian Amity Unity under one Hereditary Soveraign into diverse incoherent pieces Schisms Factions Churches irreconcilably divided from and against each other threatning [k] our inevitable speedy ruine without Gods infinite reconciling reuniting Mercy beyond all human probabilities I have at large demonstrated by irrefragable Evidences formerly published in [l] sundry printed Pieces to which I shall adde some other Fresh Evidences to open the closed eyes awaken the
himself and all those they deem their Enemies is contrary to the express precepts of Christ himself Mat. 5.44 45. Rom. 12 20 21. It is very remarkable that [h] Dr. William Peirce late Bishop of Bath and Wells who in the ruff of his Episcopal Power and Pride presuming on his great Court-friends suppressed all Lectures and Lecturers both in Market towns and elsewhere glorying in this his impious Tyranny and thanking God that he had not a Lecture left in his Diocesse And when he absolved Mr. Devenish Minister of Bridgewater whom he suspended ab officio beneficio onely for preaching a Lecture in his own Parish Church on the Market day which had continued above 50 years without interruption used this speech unto him intimating that preaching a Lecture was as hainous a crime as committing adultery [i] Goe thy way sinne no more in preaching a Lecture lest a worse thing happen to thee was by Gods just retaliating judgement soon after quite stripped of his Episcopal Power and Revenues upon his Impeachment in Parliament committed Prisoner to the Tower sequestred and now reduced to such extremitie that in November last he came to an honourable Knight of mine acquaintance in Westminster complaining to him he had not bread for him and his to put in their mouthes intreating his favour to procure any Lecturers or Curates place for him though never so mean which he by all the Friends he had could no where obtain to keep him from starving VVho thereupon minded him of these his former Speeches and cruelty towards other Lecturers and Ministers whom he reduced to extreme povertie wishing him to take special notice how God had justly requited him in his own kinde so as himself would now turn Lecturer or the meanest Curate under others in his old age to get but a meer subsistence and yet none would intertain him as himself confessed in any place So as the judgement threatned against Ely his posterity 1 Sam. 2.36 And it shall come to passe that every one that is left in thine House shall come and crouch to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread and shall say Put me I pray thee into somwhat about the Priesthood that I may eat a piece of bread was now actually fallen on this great Prelate And let others now greater than he in his highest condition consider it though never so well fenced with Guards and armed Forces by Land or Sea lest God reduce them and theirs to the like extremities as they have reduced these Ministers of Christ with sundry others and that upon the serious consideration of this memorable History recorded in [k] Aelian concerning Dionysius the younger in these very words Dionysius junior imperium habebat optime constitutum munitumque hoc modo Naves possidebat non pauciores quadringentis hexeres et quinqueremes Pedestres copias ad centum millia hominum equitum novem millia Civitas vero Syracusanorum maximis portubus erat instructa et moenibus altissimis circundata atque in promptu habebat omnem apparatum bellicum ad alias Naves quingentas Reconditum etiam habebat frumentum ad centum medimnorum myriades et armamentarium scutis gladiis hastis tibialibus innumeris thoracibus catapultis plenum refertumque catapulta autem inventum fuit ipsius Dionysii Praeterea sociis infinitis vigebat His rebus confidens Dionysius ADAMANTE FIRMATUM IMPERIUM OBTINERE SE PUTABAT Sed ipse primum fratres suos morte affecit Vidit etiam filios suos crudelissime mactari et virgineum pudorem filiabus eripi atque deinde nudas trucidari Breviter nemo ex ejus propagine sepulturam justam adeptus est Nam alii vim combusti sunt alii dissecti in mare projecti sunt Id adeo evenit ei cum Dion filius Hippaâ—ini imperium invasisset Ipse vero IN EXTREMA PAUPERTATE senex mortuus est Theopompus dicit eum nimiae meri potationis vitio ejus oculos laborasse ita ut caecutiret et sedisse in tonstrinis risumque scurriliter hominibus commovisse atque in media Graecia turpiter praeter decorum versatum miserrimam vitam traduxisse Ita non leve documentum extitit mortalibus ad amplectendam temperantiam et morum honestatem Dionysii ex tantis opibus in tam miserum statum rerum vicissitudo Pulcherrime a Diis immortalibus comparatum est ut nullam Tyrannidem usque ad tertiam generationem propagent sed aut confestim Tyrannos tanquam proceras piceas perdant et extirpent aut liberos eorum viribus denudent ac spolient If God deal thus with Heathen will he not deal more severely with Christian Tyrants and underminers of his Gospel who condemn others for that wherein they now exceed them Rom. 2.1 2 3 And here having done with my Discoveries I cannot but seriously lament to consider that as many of the late over-zealous New Modellers of our State to accomplish their own self-ends have contrary [z] to all their former Protestant Principles Oathes Protestations Covenants Remonstrances Commissions Trusts Obligations ignorantly or wittingly imbraced pursued justified imitated practised if not out-acted the very worst and most dangerous seditious treacherous Antimonarchical positions practices politicks of Antichristian Popes and Machiavilian Iesuites So divers over-rigid Presbyterian independent Ministers and Reformers of our Church out of a preposterous zeal and scrupulosity have blindly rashly or unadvisedly taken up maintained practised the erroneous Tenets and exorbitant Practices of Popes Romish Priests Prelates Iesuites against the very Doctrine Institution usage precepts of Christ himself the Primitive Fathers Church Christians in discontinuing the frequent administration of the holy Communion to their people and secluding all or most of their Parishioners from it sundry months nay years together by their own new Papal Authority without any lawfull cause hearing trial or excommunication judicially denounced against them â—or any scandalous sins whereof they are duly convicted when as they freely admit them to all other publike Ordinances without the least suspension from them instead of inviting exhorting compelling them [a] according to their duties to the frequent participation of this Soul-converting heart-refreshing Grace-communicating heavenly Supper wherin the remembrance fruits benefits of our Saviours passion are most lively represented to their senses and applied to their Souls which Anti-christian Sacrilegious new kind of Reformation to advance their own interests Power noâ— Christs Kingdom Glory is principally founded on these ensuing erronious Popish Principles all bottomed on and flowing from that monstrous absurdity of Transubstantiation and Christs corporal presence in this Sacrament which all [b] Protestaâ—ts abominate refute renounce 1. That Christ and God himself are more really immediately present and conversed with by Christans in the Lords Supper than in any other publike holy Ordinance whatsover asserâ—ed generally by all [c] Popish Councils Schoolmen Iesuits Canonists Casuists in their Decrees Masse-books