But every one will confess that the hunger here spoken of is not corporal but spiritual Why then should any man dream here of a corporal eating Again the corporal eating if a man might have it would not avail any thing to the slaking of this hunger nay we are expresly told that the flesh thus taken for so we must understand it profiteth nothing a man should never be the better nor one jot the holier nor any whit further from the second death if he had filled his belly with it But that manner of feeding on his flesh which Christ himself commendeth unto us is of such profit that it preserveth the eater from death and maketh him to live for ever Joh. 6. 50 51 54 58. It is not therefore such an eating that every man who bringeth a bodily mouth with him may attain unto but it is of a far higher nature namely a spiritual uniting of us unto Christ whereby he dwelleth in us and we live by him If any do farther inquire how it is possible that any such union should be seeing the body of Christ is in heaven and we are upon earth I answer that if the manner of this conjunction were carnal and corporal it would be indeed necessary that things conjoyned should be admitted to be in the same place but it being altogether spiritual and supernatural no local presence no physical nor mathematical continuity or contiguity is any way requisite thereunto It is sufficient for the making of a real union in this kind that Christ and we tho' never so far distant in place each from other be knit together by those spiritual ligatures which are intimated unto us in the words alledged out of Joh. 6. to wit the quickening Spirit descending downward from the Head to be in us a fountain of supernatural life and a lively faith wrought by the same spirit ascending from us upward to lay fast hold upon him who having by himself purged our sins sitteth on the right hand of the Majesty on high First therefore for the communion of the Spirit which is the ground and foundation of this spiritual union let us call to mind what we have read in Gods Book that Christ the second Adam was made a quickening Spirit Cor. 15. 45. and that he quickeneth whom he will Joh. 5. 21. that unto him God hath given the spirit without measure Joh. 3. 34. and of his fulness have all we received Joh. 1. 16. that he that is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. and that hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us his Spirit 1 Joh. 3. 24. 4. 13. By all which it doth appear that the mistery of our union with Christ consisteth mainly in this that the self same Spirit whch is in him as in the Head is so derived from him into every one of his true members that thereby they are animated and quickened to a spiritual life We read in Ezekel 1. of four living creatures and of four wheels standing by them When those went saith the Text those went and when those stood these stood and when those were lifted up from the earth the wheels were lifted up over against them He that should behold such a vision as this would easily conclude by that which he saw that some invisible bands there were by which these wheels and living creatures were joyned together howsoever none did outwardly appear unto the eye and the holy Ghost to give us satisfaction herein discovereth the secret by yielding this for the reason of this strange connexion that the spirit of the living creature was in the wheel Exek 1. 21. From whence we may inferr that things may truly be conjoyned together tho' the manner of the conjunction be not corporal and that things distant in place may be united together by having the spirit of the one communicated unto the other Nay if we mark it well we shall find it to be thus in every of our own bodies that the formal reason of the union of the members consisteth not in the continuity of the parts tho' that also be requisite to the unity of a natural body but in the animation thereof by one and the same spirit If we should suppose a body to be as high as the heavens that the head thereof should be where Christ our Head is and the feet where his members are no sooner could that head think of moving one of the toes but instantly the thing would be done without any impediment given by that huge distance of the one from the other And why because the same soul that is in the head as in the fountain of sence and motion is present likewise in the lowest member of the body But if it should so fall out that this or any other member proved to be mortified it presently would cease to be a member of that body the corporal conjunction and continuity with the other parts notwithstanding And even thus is it in Christ altho ' in regard of his corporal presence the heaven must receive him until the times of the restitution of all things Act. 3 21. yet is he here with us alway even unto the end of the world Matt. 28. 20. in respect of the presence of his Spirit by the vital influence whereof from him as from the Head the whole body is fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part Which quickening Spirit if it be wanting in any no external communion with Christ or his Church can make him a true member of this mistical body this being a most sure principle that He which hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Rom. 8. 9. Now among all the graces that are wrought in us by the Spirit of Christ the soul as it were of all the rest and that whereby the just doth live Habak 2. 4. Rom. 1. 17. Gal. 3 11. Heb. 10. 38 is Faith For we through the Spirit wait for the bope of righteousness by faith saith St. Paul to the Galatians Gal. 5. 5. And again I live yet nâ—t I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2. 20. By faith it is that we do receive Christ Joh. 1. 12. and so likewise Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith Eph. 3. 17. Faith therefore is that spiritual mouth in us whereby we eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood that is as the Apostle expresseth it without the Trope are made partakers of Christ Heb. 3. 14. he being by this means as truly and every ways as effectually made ours as the meat and drink which we receive into our natural bodies But you will say If this be all the matter what do we get by coming to the Sacrament
the nature of this hainous sin of Idolatry is such that it can no ways stand with the fellowship which a Christian man ought to have both with the Head and with the body of the Church To this purpose in 2 Cor. 6. 16 17. we read thus What agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols for ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you And in Colos. 2. 18 19. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puft up by his fleshly mind and not holding the head from which all the body by ioynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God. In which words the Apostle sheweth unto us that such as under pretence of humility were drawn to the worshipping of Angels did not hold the Head and consequently could not retain communion with the Body which receiveth his whole growth from thence Answerable whereunto the Fathers assembled out of divers Provinces of Asia in the Synod held at Laodicea not far from the Colossians did so solemnly conclude that Christiana ought not to forsake the Church of God and go and invocate Angels and pronounced an Anathema against any that should be found to do so because say they he hath forsaken our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God and given himself to Idolatry Declaring plainly that by this Idolatrous Invocation of Angels a discession was made both from the Church of God as they note in the beginning and from Christ the Head of the Church as they observe in the end of their Canon For the further understanding of this particular it will not be amiss to consider what Theodoret a famous Bishop of the ancient Church hath written of this matter in his Commentary upon Colos. 2d that is They that defended the Law saith he induced them also to worship the Angels saying that the Law was given by them And this vice continued in Phrygia and Pisidia for a long time for which cause also the Synod assembled in Laodicea the chief City of Phrygia forbid them by a Law to pray unto Angels And even to this day among them and their borderers there are Oratories of St. Michael to be seen This therefore did they counsel should be done using humility and saying that the God of all was invisible and inaccessible and incomprehensible and that it was fit men should get Gods favour by the means of Angels And this is it which the Apostle saith In humility and worshipping of Angels Thus far Theodoret whom Cardinal Baronius discerning to come somewhat close unto him and to touch the Idolatry of the Popish crue a little to the quick leaveth the poor shifts wherewith his companions labour to obscure the light of this testimony and telleth us plainly that Theodoret by his leave did not well understand the meaning of Pauls words and that those Oratories of St. Michiel were erected anciently by Catholicks and not by those Hereticks which were condemned in the Council of Laodicea as he mistook the matter As if any wise man would be perswaded upon his bare word that the memory of things done in Asia so long since should be more fresh in Rome at this day than in the time of Theodoret who lived 1200 years ago Yet must I needs confess that he sheweth a little more modesty herein than Bellarmine his fellow-Cardinal doth who would make us believe that the place in Revel 19. where the Angel saith to St. John that would have worshipped him See thou do it not I am thy fellow-servant Worship God maketh for them and demandeth very soberly Why they should be reprehended who do the same thing that John did and whether the Calvinists knew better than John whether Angels were to be Adored or no And as for invocation of them he telleth us that St. Jacob plainly prayed unto an Angel in Gen. 48. when in blessing the sons of Joseph he said The Angel which delivered me from all evil bless those children Whom for answer we remit to St. Cyril in the first Chapter of the third book of his Thesaurus and intreat him to tell us how near of kin he is here to those Hereticks of whom St. Cyril there speaketh His words be these That he doth not mean in that place Gen. 48. 16. an Angel as the HERBTICKS understand it but the Son of God is manifest by this that when he had said The Angel he presently addeth who delivered me from all evils Which St. Cyril presupposeth no good Christian will ascribe to any but to God alone But to come more near yet unto that which is Idolatry most properly An Idol we must understand in the exact propriety of the term doth signifie any Image but according to the Ecclesiastical use of the word it noteth such an Image as is set up for religious adoration And in this later sence we charge the adherents of the Church of Rome with gross Idolatry because that contrary to Gods express Commandment they are found to be worshipers of Images Neither will it avail them here to say that the Idolatry forbidden in the Scripture is that only which was used by Jews and Pagars The Apostle indeed in this place exhorting Christians from Idolatry propoundeth the fall of the Jews in this kind before their eyes Neither be ye Idolaters saith he as some of them were 1 Cor. 10. 7. 8. And so doth he also add concerning another sin in the verse following Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed As well then might one plead that Jewish or Heathenish Fornication were here only reprehended as Jewish or Heathenish Idolatry But as the one is a foul sin whether it be committed by Jew Pagan or Christian so if such as profess the Name of Christ shall practise that which the word of God condemneth in Jews and Pagans for Idolatry their profession is so far from diminishing that it augmenteth rather the hainousness of the crime The Idols of the Heathen are silver and gold the work of mens hands saith the Psalmist and so the Idols of Christians in all likelihood mentioned in the Revelation are said to be of gold and silver and brass and stone and of wood which neither can see nor hear nor walk The description of these Idols we see agreeth in all points with Popish Images where is any difference The Heathen say they held the Images themselves to be Gods which is far from our thought Admit some of the simpler sort of the Heathen did so what shall we say of the Jewish Idolaters of whom the Apostle here speaketh who erected the golden Calf in the wilderness Can
the authority of Clement the 8. to omit other testimonies in this kind it is concluded that the Cross of the Popes Legate shall have the right hand upon this very reason quia debetur et â—atria because the worship proper to God is due to it Now whether they commit Idolatry who communicate unto a senseless thing that worship which they themselves confess to be due unto God alone let all the world judge They were best therefore from henceforth confess themselves to be Idolaters and stand to it that every kind of Idolatry is not unlawful Their Jesuite Gregorius de Valentia will tell them for their comfort that it is no absurdity to think that St. Peter when he deterreth the faithful by name ab illicit is Idolerum cultibus St. Peter calleth them that is abominable Idolatries doth insinuate thereby that some worship of Images is lawful John Monceye the Frenchman in his Aaron Purgatus dedicated to the late Pope Paul 5. and in his 20 questions propounded to Visorius stretcheth yet a strain higher For howsoever he cannot away with the name of Idols and Idolatry yet he liketh the thing it self so well that he undertaketh to clear Aaron from committing any error in setting up the golden Calf and laboureth to purge Laban and Micha and Jeroboam too from the imputation of idolatry having found indeed that nothing had been done by them in this kind which is not agreeable to the practice of the Roman Church at this day And lest the poor people whom they have so miserably abused should find how far they have been misled we see that the masters of that Church do in the Service books and Catechisms which come unto the hands of the vulgar generally leave out the words of the second Commandment that make against the adoration of images fearing lest by the light thereof the mistery of their iniquity should be discovered They pretend indeed that this Commandment is not excluded by them but included only in the first whereas in truth they do but craftily conceal it from the peoples eyes because they would not have them to be ruled by it Nay Vasquez the Jesuit doth boldly acknowledge that it plainly appeareth by comparing the words of this Commandment with the place which hath been alledged out of Deut. 4. that the Scripture did not only forbid the worshipping of an image for God but also the adoration of the true God himself in an image He confesseth further that he and his fellow Catholicks do otherwise What saith he then to the commandment think you Because it will not be obey'd it must be repeal'd and not admitted to have any place among the moral precepts of God. It was saith he a positive and ceremonial Law and therefore ought to cease in the time of the Gospel And as if it had not been enough for him to match the Scribes and Pharisces in impiety who made the Commandments of God of none effect that they might keep their own traditions that he might fulfil the measure of his fathers and shew himself to be a true child of her who beareth the name of being the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth Rev. 17 5. he is yet more mad and sticketh not to maintain that not only a painted Image but any other thing of the world whether it be without life and reason or whether it be a reasonable creature may in the nature of the thing and if the matter be discreetly handled be adored with God as his image yea and counteth it no absurdity at all that a very wisp of straw should be thus worshipped But let us turn yet again and we shall see greater abominations than these Ezek. 8. 15. We heard how this blessed Sacrament which is here propounded by the Apostle as a bond to unite Christians together in one body hath been made the Apple of strife and the occasion of most bitter breaches in the Church we may now observe again that the same holy Sacrament which by the same Apostle is here brought in as a principal inducement to make men flee from Idolatry is by our Adversaries made the object of the grossest Idolatry that ever hath been practised by any For their constant doctrine is that in worshipping the Sacrament they should give unto it â—atriae culâ—um qui vero Deo debetur as the Councel of Trert hath determined ' that kind of service which is due to the true God determining their worship in that very thing which the Priest doth hold betwixt his hands Their practice also runs accordingly for an instance whereof we need go no further than to Sanders book of the Lords Supper before which he hath prefixed an Epistle Dedicatory superscribed in this manner To the Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ under the forms of Bread and Wine all honour praise and thinks be given for ever Adding further in the process of that blockish Epistle Howsoever it be with other men I adore thee my God and Lord really present under the forms of Bread and Wine after consecration duly made Beseeching thee of pardon for my sins c. Now if the conceit which these men have concerning the Sacrament should prove to be false as indeed we know it to be most absurd and monstruous their own Jesuit Cosler doth freely confess that they should be in such an error and Idolatry qualis in orbe terratum nunquam vel visus vel auditus fuit as never was seen or heard in this world For the error of them is more tolerable saith he who worship for God a Statue of gold or silver or an Image of any other matter as the Gentiles adored their Gods or a red cloth lifted up upon a spear as it is reported of the Lappians or living Creatures as did sometime the Egyptians than of those that worship a piece of bread We therefore who are verily perswaded that the Papists do thus must of force if we follow their Jesuits direction judge them to be the most intolerable idolaters that ever were Nay according to their own principles how is it possible that any of themselves should certainly know that the Host which they worship should be any other thing but bread seeing the change doth wholly depend upon consecration duly made as Sanders speaketh and that rependeth upon the intention of the Priest which no man but himself can have notice of Bellarmin disputing against Ambrosius Catharinus one of his own brethren that a man hath no certain knowledge of his own justification can take advantage of this and alledge for himself that one cannot be certain by the certainty of faith that he doth recive a true Sacrament for as much as the Sacrament cannot be made without the intention of the Minister and none can see another mans intention Apply this now to the matter we have in hand and see into what intricate Labyrinths these men have brought themselves Admit the Priests intention stood right at the