Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	according_a	bishop_n	power_n	2,858	5	4.7198	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48813	An answer to the Bishop of Oxford's reasons for abrogating the test impos'd on all members of Parliament anno 1678, Octob. 30 in these words, I, A.B., do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, profess, testifie, and declare, that I do believe that in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ at, or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever, and that the invocation of adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the Dais, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous / by a person of quality.	Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.	1688 (1688)	Wing L2673; ESTC R977	35,814	60

that however it might receive occasion from it yet the Essentials of it are such Sentiments as the Nation hath had for above the last hundred of years and that it hath upon greatest Judgment Reason and Experience confirm'd it self in and according to several Emergencies added to its securities by Law upon Law against the Regurgitations of that usurpation upon it not barely because of such Emergencies but because of that Grand Reason the very Essence of Popery hath given it whether therefore the particular Emergent hath had Dimensions Long and Broad enough for the particular Laws and Constitutions which have been made was not so much consider'd But the whole Nature of the Evil Fear'd and provided against being large enough to support such Acts it hath given Reason to all such provisions and that was the danger of the Roman Religion Resettling and Re-instating it self in a Protestant Nation as the English Nation is and hath been for so great a space Thus this Last Act for the Test setting before it only that so Full and Comprehensive Consideration of the Increase and Danger of Popery in this Nation to which the former good Laws had proved Ineffectual does therefore so Enact as that Act expresses In all which there is not the least Reference to the so much Infam'd Plot nor any Line looking toward it Till therefore there be a change in the very Essential Nature of Popery and a perfect Nullity of all the Fears arising from it made evident there must be This or That particular Accidental Cause quickning the Legislative Power of the Nation to branch out it self into more and more and further and further particular Laws that may more effectually reach the intended Point and be new in the Particulars observing where former Provisions were deficient and inefficacious which new Laws are not to be charged upon the lesser Accidental Causes but on the Irreconcileableness of Popery and its Growth to the peace and welfare of a Protestant Nation And so I have finished what I think necessary upon the Bishop's Second Reason to shew how Inconcluding it is for the Abrogating of the Test. I proceed now to the Third Reason The Test ought to be repeal'd because of the incompetent Authority by which it was enacted for it is a Law of an Ecclesiastick Nature made without the Authority of the Church contrary to the Practice of the Christian World in all Ages c. 1. This Reason rests upon these two Principal Pillars that the Power of making Decrees concerning Divine Verities is a Legislative Power given as the highest Act of Government by Christ's Commission to the Officers of his own Kingdom upon which the whole Fabrick of the Christian Church hath hitherto stood and is to stand to the End of the World and without which it must run into confusion and that to entrench upon this Prerogative of the Holy Catholick Church is to depose Christ from his Throne by disowning neglecting and affronting his Commission to his Catholick Church so that this Power cannot be usurped without Sacriledge and Blasphemy and such a daring Invasion of Christ's Kingdom as that nothing more imports Christian Kings and Governours than to be wary and cautious how they lay hands upon it 2. That the Bishops sitting in the House of Lords and to their shame consenting to this Law is not sufficient to make this Law an Act of Church Authority because it ought to have been first decreed by their own proper Authority without any Lay Concurrence and then to have come into Parliament and as they judged sit to have been abetted with Temporal Penalties a Practice never violated but by Aposlates and Rebel Parliaments And lastly because Particular Bishops sit not in Parliament by Power deriv'd from our Blessed Saviour but by the meer Grace and Favour of the King so that the exercising any Ecclesiastical Authority in that place is scandalously to betray as much as in them lies the very being of a Christian Church and profanely to pawn the Bishop to the Lord and lastly because the Ecclesiastical Power is by the Law of England setled in Convocation and therefore to enact any thing of an Ecclesiastical Nature without their consent is to betray the Rights of the Church of England as by Law established in particular as well as of the Church Catholick in general But as a Check and Limitation to all this the Episcopal Authour interposes the Civil Power may restrain the Exercise of this Ecclesiastical Prerogative as they shall judge meet for the Ends of Peace and the Interest of the Common Wealth and punish it too at their own discretion if it shall at any time entrench upon the Power of the State and it may prevent or correct Abuses I have thus collected the strength of this whole Reason without omitting any thing I could think material I have also subjoyn'd the Limitation that it may be of the use the Authour design'd it and may also be consider'd in its place to our purpose There are three Expressions I desire in modesty and reverence to this R. R. Authour to draw a Veil over 1. That Parenthetic to their shame viz. the Bishop's shame who consented to the Test-Law because it seems so much to confine on speaking Evil of Dignities and for the same Reason 2 ly upon that Except by Apostates and Rebel-Parliaments as also because I would not know the direct meaning of those words but go backward to cast a covering over them 3. On those words I draw the Curtain profanely pawn the Bishop to the Lord lest they seem rather fit to be retyr'd among the Bishops Ludicra But to the main purport and stress of the Argument I shall undertake to rejoyn these Assertions 1. That there is no such Legislative Power given by Commission from Christ to his Church or made the Foundation of it 2. That all such Pretensions of church-Church-Power drawn from the Practice of the Christian Church are very invalid 3. That the Law of the Test is not a Law of an Ecclesiastick Nature 4. And if it were the Church of England hath done enough in Convocation and other Church-Acts to support it 5. That the Presence of the Bishops in Parliament not protesting against it are sufficient proof of the two last Assertions 6. That according to the Bishop's own Limitation of church-Church-Power it must remain a good and necessary Law and for which the Parliament had Competent Authority I begin with the first 1. That there is no such Legislative Power given by Commission from Christ to his Church or made the Foundation of it which may be demonstrated in this manner This Legislative Power of the Church is most contrary to that Holy Book from whence we derive our Christian Sacred Religion and to the soundest Reason guided by that for by that there is nor can be any Legislative Power in matters of Divine Verity but what is immediately from Heaven either by voice from thence or by the

the Essence of Ecclesiastick Laws as they have been always Solemniz'd and Ratified in the Christian-Antichristianizing World upon light occasions But this Test presumes Two Things suppos'd before to be sufficiently certain 1. That no Romanist will deny his Transubstantiation nor consent that his Invocation of the Virgin Mary and of other Saints and that the Sacrifice of the Mass is Superstitious and Idolatrous The Test does not determine nor pretend Canonically to Define of these Things it onely proposes this as a certain Discovery of the Votaries of a Foreign Church nor does it mind to decide the Truth of those Matters It is enough to it to know who do or who do not assent to their presumed Truth and thereby to discover Men not to Decree points of Faith. 2. Nor is it Ecclesiastick but purely Civil and pertaining to the State onely whom it will judg safe to commit the Affairs of this Nation unto and into what Hands to entrust its Interests and having by more than a hundred years experience deemed it not safe for a Protestant Nation to be overgrown by a Papal Power it hath thus Resolved and Enacted not at that Time enquiring after the Truth of the Things concern'd in the Test but satisfied with the Assurance that a Roman Catholick as he is call'd will not assent to them as they are there laid Which are here onely taken notice of as matters of State and their Doctrinal Truth it supposes elsewhere to have been sufficiently Ascertain'd as shall be afterward consider'd 4. For indeed the Church of England hath both in Convocation in continual printed manifestations of its sense in daily preachings and ministrations of the Truth of the word of God abundantly and beyond all Controversie open'd explained and asserted concerning these things out of and according to Scripture so that not in a Humane Light or Determination but in the very Beams of Scripture and Divine Truth which are plainly to be seen streaming from the fountain of light the word of God there is warranty enough without any Invasion upon Christ's Kingdom or the Rights of the Officers of it supposing them what we can suppose rhem for a Parliament safely to proceed as it did supported by as many Assurances as it could desire that if the Lips of the Ministry of the Church of England preserv'd knowledge and that the Law was to be enquired at its mouth the Resolution of that Church in all those cases was sufficiently known and no injury could be done to it 5. Of this the presence of the Bishops in Parliament not Remonstrating nor Protesting against this Law his consenting however the Author judges it to their shame are security enough That they understood the Test-Law to be no Invasion of the Rights of the Church but according to the whole Doctrine and Government of it as by Law established For seeing as hath been before argued every Body nor Estate of Men in Parliament knew so quick and feelingly for themselves and specially such a Body as the Episcopacy of a Nation it can never be suppos'd they would as by a common Conspiracy agree to betray their own Rights and Priviledges having at hand always that freedom of entring their Protestations of Dissent So that although it is acknowledg'd they sit in Parliament by the Grace of the King and by the Constitution of English Parliaments and not by Power deriv'd from Christ nor as a Convocation according to the Laws of England in that case yet it is always to be forethought that they sit with their Understandings with their Consciences with their Senses with their Sentiments of Self-preservation about them and that therefore they would not be Felones de se by consenting to the Destruction of their noblest Rights and on account of which they are judg'd worthy to sit as an Estate and to vote in Parliament viz. as Bishops of the Church of Jesus Christ. 6. But lastly it can never be understood but that according to the Bishops own limitation if that be the Standard of church-Church-Power and Praerogative or his setting up another Power and Praerogative to mute it the Parliament have well done in this Test-Law For seeing the Civil Power may restrain the Exer●ise of Ecclesiastical Praerogative as they shall judg meet for the ends of Peace and the Interest of the Commonwealth and may punish it too at their own discretion if it shall at any time intrench upon the Prerogative of the State and that it may praevent or correct Abuses who can determine whether the States have not done according to what they might and ought to do in preventing and correcting Abuses For if they may prevent and correct Abuses they must be able to judg of them they must determine when they ly they must judge also of the best means to prevent them And what more lyable to such judgment of Abuses and to undergo the best and most effectual methods of Praevention than the things to be declar'd against in the Test as shall be manifestly prov'd in the following Reason And seeing that upon these very accounts it is notorious that even in this Nation Church Power and Prerogative hath swoln beyond all bounds and entrench'd with a vengeance upon the Power of the State why then may not the State continue the correction and punishment of it by After Acts seeing the Bishop allows these punishments at their own discretion and restrain and lock down men Certainly all the Avenues to such an Exercise and Notions again of that Power that they hav found in all Ages so destructive to the Peace and Interest of the Commonwealth And here I cannot but reflect upon the strange Irreconcileableness of the Bishop's Church-Prerogative and of the Civil Power as he hath stated it For that such a Seeing Judging Prerogative and Legislative Power that can alter make Decrees concerning Divine Verities should not know how to keep within its own bounds nor so to learn its Power but that it must be restrain'd for the Ends of Peace and the Interest of the Commonwealth and be punish'd too at discretion for its aptness to praesume and to intrench upon the Power of the State nay and beyond all this to be so extravagant that its Abuses may have need to be praevented and corrected Who can imagine Jesus Christ should be so nearly concern'd in such a Prerogative and Legislative Power as to be disown'd neglected affronted if that he be Christ risen and that the usurpation of it should lie so near Sacriledge and Blasphemy as that his Kingdom should be invaded and Himself deposed and on such an account that it should be such a Seeing and Holy Catholick Church and yet that this Civil Power that is suppos'd to know so little in Divine Verities may bind its hands punish praevent correct its Abuses What must Christ so closely importuned in it suffer in the mean time What kind of Kingdom and Power is here allow'd in the mean time What Governour would accept such

Ministery of Angels or by immediate Inspiration given to Holy Men Prophets and Apostles and consigned by them into the Holy Writings we call Scriptures All which after Revelations are to be tryed and Tested by their compare with and Agreement to former Revelations as is most manifest in all parts of Scripture and by the constant and continual Appeal of the Old Testament to the New So that this prerogativ'd Legislative Church that is pleaded into so high and rampant a Power that All-seeming wavings of its Authority must be an Invasion of Christ's Kingdom a Deposing of Him an affronting his Commission smells strong of the Pride and Ambition of that City which first as a City and then as a Church hath always aspir'd to have a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth as also of the Luciferian Ascent of the Beast that carries it with and upon which I doubt not the Sacriledge and Blasphemy will be found Who exalts himself above all that is called God or worshipped who sitteth in the Temple of God shewing Himself that he is God. But to us there is but one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy One Father who is in Heaven One Master who is Christ and all we are Brethren One Legislative-Lord and the chiefest in his Church are Servants Ministring his Word in the Scriptures the onely law of Divine verities And therefore in this Prerogative-sense dare not receive the title of Masters or Fathers nor can those who receive the Law of Christ made evident from the Scriptures to be his Law by their Ministry upon such Ministration yield them therefore the Names of Masters or Fathers in a Legislative sense For they know they ought to Preach Christ the Lord and themselves onely Servants for Christ's sake that they have no Dominion over the Faith of Christians who are however called the Laity yet are Christ's Clerus but only are Ensamples of the Flock who attends the motion of the Chief Shepherd the Lamb Christ Jesus whithersoever he goes and will not follow Strangers Princes and States by Light offer'd them by the Ministerial labours and services of the Bishops and Elders of the Church who labour in the word and Doctrine are to direct their Power according to that Light they receive by such Ministrations but together and not without their own search into Scriptures and constant meditation therein And the People are to obey in Agreement with that Law and word of Christ which they are to know for themselves in that Light diffus'd by the preaching of the word to them in season and out of season which I say they are to know for themselves and not others for them by the deep research of their own minds into Scripture to see whether those things are so or not For wisedom hath written to them even to them as may be seen by all the Epistles of the Apostles that they might know the certainty of the words of truth and have their trust in the Lord and not an Implicit Faith in Men and might be able by Apologies for the hope that is in them to answer the words of Truth to those who send to them either in a way of advice or challenge Whatever is contrary to this undoubted evidence of the Word of God and sound Reason seeing every one must give an account of himself to God as well as those who are set over them who by faithfull Offers of Truth discharge themselves whatever I say is so propos'd as by a Catholick Church and its prerogative I affirm savours of that intoxicating Cup of Abominations in the hand of that Sorceress that calls her self the Mistress of Churches and would Sit the Lady of the Christian World and of the power that bears it who under pretence of the Kingdom of Christ undermines it and hath in the unsearchable Judgment of God delay'd thus long its appearance to all the World and is the Baalam lofty Prophet of that Romish Pergamus 2. The pretended practice of the Church of God in all Ages can give no presidency in this Case beyond what is thus asserted For in the times of the Old Testament Religious Princes did by the general advice and Doctrine of the Prophets and of those Priests who kept their Faith to the Law of God themselves govern and reform according to that of which each King was to have a Copy Written by himself which was to be with him and he was to read it all the days of his Life That he might Learn to fear the Lord his God and to keep his Laws And whereas in that precedent Law enquiry of the Priest in the place God should choose was commended it plainly insinuates the divine Responses God gave at that time by the Vrim and Thummim immediately from himself were intended but yet all was to be founded in the Written Law there all was to be shown and from thence to be learnt or not to be receiv'd no not under a power of seeming Miiracles Deut. 12. In the first times of Christianity for three hundred years there were no Christian Magistrates who would wait for the Churches Oracle's But for the Determination of the Church without a Lay-Concurrence it is most apparently opposite to that grand instance of the first Council wherein the people if any distinguishingly styl'd the Church and who made most manifestly one of the Estates if I may so express it in the whole Conciliary management The Apostles the Elders the Brethren and the whole Consultation and Determination mov'd upon the Poles of express Scripture as will be most visible to any enquirer into those Conciliary Acts For he that runs may read Acts 15. In the days of that first and most Religious Emperour Constantine although he as all pious Princes and Christians would receiv'd light from the Ministers of sacred truth yet so that he us'd his own Judgment together with it deploring the weaknesses he observ'd among these who seem'd to be pillars of light but yet it must be acknowledg'd that that Apostasie the Mystery of iniquity that began to work in the Apostles days was well grown up and advanc'd and a Legislative Church was Towring up its Power in the Christian World at that very time But it is undoubted There is nothing so Ancient as Divine Truth in the Law and in the Testimony consenting with that Law of Reason Engraven in man's Heart and to these we must goe Fot whatsoever speaks not according to these there is no Morning to it nor from it but a Night even to a Midnight ensues upon it what Antiquity soever it pretends to 3. That I may yet give a more direct Answer to this Reason the Test-Act is not a Law of an Ecclesiastick Nature For it is onely an Exploration and Touch upon Persons whether they are Romanists or not it is no Canonical Determination of the Point of Transubstantiation it binds no Decree with a Spiritual or Ecclesiastick Anathema or Excommunication which are of

a Power as this of Christ's or how can the King of Kings Lord of Lords Prince of the Kings of the Earth be such an Underling Certainly this is is a precarious Power with a witness Surely in this state of things there must be a most profane pawning the Bishop indeed to the Lord or how can ever one Firmament bear two such Suns or the Consciences of Man ever be at rest between them both or serv two such Masters They must adhaere to one and despise the other But since the Bishop must be Reverenced as a man of Sense and Reason certenly it cannot be the Roman Holy Catholic Church that may be thus treated by the Civil Power nor is it any Protestant Civil Prince or State that hath these Powers but only a Caesar or State of the Roman Character Image and Superscription hath this Power and only on Protestant Churches under their dominion And so I pass with the Fatigue of this confounding perplexing Reason and com to the last but longest Reason which I shall yet but in brief consider The fourth Reason for which the Test-Act ought to be repealed is because of the uncertainty and falshood of the matters contained in the Declaration it self as First That there is no Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of our Saviour's Body and Blood. And Secondly That the Invocation of Saints and of the Mother of God is Idolatrie This reason so plainly divided by the Bishop into its two parts that of Transubstantiation and that of Invocation of Saints and of the Mother of God must be distinctly considered But before I proceed upon either of them I must needs object That this Test is not fairly quoted for in so great a concern every word ought to have its due place and no pretence of keeping the substance will justifie the variation of an Iota from the very Letter except my apprehension exceedingly deceive me the Sence is much more injured than the Letter is varied Indeed the Author hath been so fair as to prefix the Text of the Act that his unfair Repetition may be convinced by it but the unwary or unthinking Reader may easily slide into Errour by it one being in the Title-page where it may miss being considered the other in the body of the Book Observ then the difference betwixt the Text of the Test and the Bishop's Quotation the Test runs thus I believe there is no c. The Bishop quotes as a proposition There is no c. It may be a much more uncertain proposition and more liable to falshood to asfirm there is no Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of our Saviour's Body and Blood than so say I do believe There is none and so proportionably I believe is to be supplied to the second member of the Declaration viz. And I believe that the Invocation or Adoration of c. Now although I make no doubt that every Christian ought to be fully assured of the propositions themselves to be declared in the Test yet plain and down-right Doctrinal Propositions are not the proper subjects of solemn sincere Profession Testification and Declaration in the presence of God. But such solemn sincere Professions Testifications and Declarations properly fall upon the belief of a man's mind which he knows and hath judgment of as a rational man becaus they are within him for the Apostle tells us The spirit of a man knows the things that are within him So that a man's belief that is within him may be wel declared and testified even as all matters of sence and of trust and becaus they are within him known onely to himself There are therefore many just occasions to declare and testifie it to others Of which the denial of lawful Authority as a Qualification for Places of Trust and Power are justly to be accounted among the principal And this very observation as it is plain and grounded on undeniable evidence by a compute of the words of the Test set down by the Bishop himself in the Title-page and Fourth Reason page 9. does indeed make vain frivolous and of no possible avail or so much as significancie All that follows as to the Test which is the thing in quaestion and under debate and brings it into this narrow compass Whether persons so devoted to the Faith of the Church of Rome may for the ends of Peace and the Interest of a Protestant Common-wealth be secluded from Power and trust by the consent of the major part of their own particular Bodies and of each other Body or Estate of the Nation and the Supreme Prince assenting in so considerable and solemn an Act as an Act of Parliament must needs be which hath been already discours'd For which soever side of the Propositions should be true yet stil what a man within himself believes he truly knows and truly may declare and testifie And the business of the Test is not to determine as hath been said which part of either of the Proposions is true but what belief each person admitted to Trust and Power is of that so the Nation as Protestant may consult its own safety against the growth of Popery into a National strength and interest and further confirms all that hath been said That it is no Ecclesiastic Act but a pure perfect Magistratic Act as the Administring an Oath in all other cases concerning the Trust of matters of Faith is So that the affirming that those two Propositions are by this Law to be solemnly and sincerely in the Praesence of God Protested Testified and Declared is a down-right unfaithfulness not to say out of reverence to the Author Falshood in the very sight of the Sun in the sight if I may so speak of the Frontispiece of the Book which Title-Page gives of necessity the Lye to this Ninth page and is enough to discredit and to call into just suspicion the badness of the whole Cause that is so insincerely handled by a person of such a Character of Dignity and Sacredness of Office as a Christian Bishop who ought to do so much otherwise But this is not all the unfaithfulness of the Episcopal Author in recounting the Test he is arguing against for whereas the Declaration in the Act runs thus I believe that in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is not any Transubstantiation of the Elements of the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ c. The Bishop represents his Proposition thus That there is no Transubstantiation in the Sacraments of our Saviour's Body and Blood. Now it is easie for every person that does but in the lest apply his mind to it to perceive that the Test leaves it free to every person to frame any Mystical Spiritual Analogical Figurative sense in his own thoughts concerning Transubstantiation and which may sufficiently satisfie and exhaust the sense of more than most words of the Greek Fathers import for it is observabl they have no word strictly Greek for Transubstantion And onely foreprize's

Attyr'd it in the sincere honest mind and the intelligent Christian leaving all the cramping Difficulties of Transubstantiation to its Slaves can declare freely with the Test There is not any Transubstantiation of the Elements of Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper into the Body and Blood of Christ. Whatever spiritual Communion there may be between Christ in his Death and the true Believer is most humbly in the mean time owned and prayed for which is the first thing that was to be shewn The second Head is That the very point of Transubstantiation is of all others the most reasonable to settle the Test upon and the more reasonable in all regards because of the so exceeding difficulty of the Notion 1. What can a civil Power have greater indignation against or be more willing to settle upon as an exclusive Test of all from places of Honour Trust and Power than the being Vassals to such an Imposture as destroys all the Truth and Certainty that is in the World Who can be believ'd upon Oath which the Apostle says is the end of all strife if there be no more credit to sense then that Bread may be a Humane Body and Wine Blood though it hath all the evidences to sense possible it is what it judges it to be and that is Bread And what more heed can be given to Reason if its main Foundations can be thus overturn'd so that all the principles of Government and humane Converse are overthrown What may not such Bigots be screwed into who leave themselves naked of the defences of Sense and Reason at the Command of a tyrannic Church and Pope and become meer Tools in such Hands Who can concredit to them the Interest of their Country who couch down like Asses under such a Burden and especially for a Notion so dark and slippery that no one knows where to have it And what would become of humane Commerce if such Things multiplied 2. Upon Transubstantiation the Test-Act doth most deservedly fall because when the foundations of general Reason and common Sense are laid Religion and the Reason and Honour of that as it is National comes next to be consider'd that it may bear up it self and invite both the People of the Nation and even the Nations round about to a just veneration of it But Transubstantiation being made the great and most tremendous Mystery of the Roman Religion yet carrieth in the very judgment of sense the Countenance mean and appearance of the most notorious Cheat and Juggle that the Name of Religion ever offered to the World for there being a most contemptible poor and low outside onely without the least of Power or Puissance or any the thinnest resemblance of a Miracle demands a Belief of the Highest and most constant Miracle daily to be performed by the most Profligate oftentimes and most Ignorant of Mankind and depending upon their Intention too which may defeat the Miracle All this dishonours the very Name of Christian Religion and is so heavy and intollerable a Gabel Excise and Tax upon the Religious Sense of Mankind as must needs eat out the whole Life Power and Reverence of it And therefore it is worthy the Notice Prevention and Correction of so grand an Assembly as the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of the Nation met in Parliament and the Seclusion of all Persons from so sage and awful a Convention who are under so great a Slavery as not to renounce it For as Moses testifies The wife Laws of a Nation in Religion give it an Estimation of a Wise Great and Honourable Nation If therefore a Parliament secures the Rights and Properties of the Nation from any Impositions upon their Estates but with their own Consent How justly may it doe the same against any Illegal Impositions upon their Faith And whereas this Transubstantitaion is attempted to be brought into Parallel and placed in the Rank of other great Mysteries of the Christian Religion as of the Blessed Father Son and Spirit One God of the Hypostatical Vnion and Incarnation of Jesus Christ besides the Intrinsick difference of the one and of the other There is this vast distance That those Supreme Revelations are Heavenly Divine retir'd in Meditation Holy Rational Discourse and Spiritual Adorations But this of Transubstantiation while it does nothing offers nothing to Sense to Reason or so much as to Faith from Divine Revelation but by Gross Letter a Figurative Spiritual Proposition into condensating pressing and incrassating it pretends to a real Operation or conversion of Bread into the Body without any such thing But yet as if such a thing were seen to be indeed done Mercenary Priests play all the Tricks of Gesture Posture Elevation Geniculation with the whole Train of Attendant Frauds too many to be mention'd upon the Score of a dull coarse Cheat even in Handicraft and Legerdemain in Mechanicks All which Imposture is indeed not onely Morally but Naturally impossible ever to be understood 3. It ought above all other Points in Popery to be the Subject of a Test-Act because it hath above all other Points of Popish Falshood been made the Test of Vassalage and Slavery and as it were that very Mark of the Beast joyn'd with the Idolatrie of Adoration and Image-Worship and of the Receiving his Name and Worshipping his Image which all must receiv or be kill'd and none must buy or sell that the Psuedo Spiritual Excommunication may be pursued with secular Anathema's upon all who will not bear this Cognisance of the Bestian Usurpation In short This hath been the central Point from which and into which have Flowed all the Cruelties Persecutions Massacres deluges of Bloud that have been pour'd out Bloud of Men Women and Children Sacrific'd at this Altar that have made it indeed an Altar of Bloud an Altar where real Flesh and Bloud have been Offered and to say The Bread and Wine have been so Transubstantiated into the Body and Bloud of Martyrs were much nearer Truth Here have been the so-much unheard-of Barbarities and Inhumanities that would make a Historie of Transubstantiation Truth indeed could it be had worth th' having to justifie the Test and such a one that certainly could never upon the Account of so blessed a Religion and of a Sacrifice of such infinite Grace as that of Jesus Christs Offering himself once for all for Mankind have entred into the Heart of any Man were it not that such a very detestable Bestial Power that bears at this very time and hath long born a Citie or False Church in which wil be found the Bloud of Prophets and Apostles and that is Drunk with the Bloud of Saints and of the Martyrs of Jesus is made known unto us in the Revelation Now all this is matter of known Historie and of evident Fact How justly therefore is Power and Trust endeavour'd to be surprized by a Protestant Parliament from such hands that dare not disown Principles so doub le dyed in