Transubstantiation For I would ask Supposing a Man should Consecrate with the Words of St. Luke This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood would that change the Wine not to say the Cup into the very Blood of Christ Certainly it would not do it by force of those Words for they intimate no such thing and it is not unlikely but those were the very Words our Saviour spake for not only St. Luke uses them but St. Paul and that upon a solemn occasion when it concerned him much to give a true Representation of this Sacrament as you may see 1 Cor. Chap. 11. The occasion of his mentioning the Institution of this Sacrament was very great Irreverence which some were guilty of in receiving of it indeed such as it was almost impossible for them to be guilty of had they believed what the Church of Rome now believes about it it was therefore very necessary that the Apostle should speak clearly and plainly out in this matter and we see he does solemnly usher in what he says with the Authority of Christ For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you in c. And then he repeats the Words as St. Luke does and not only so but calls the other part of the Sacrament Bread near Ten times in that Chapter 4. The Last Argument I shall make use of upon this Head is this That the Doctrine of the Church of Rome upon another account does not agree with the Words of our Blessed Saviour The Opinion of that Church is That under each Species as they call it whole Christ is contained Body Blood Soul and Divinity so that both are but just the very same Thing in nothing different but in outward appearance which only deceives our Senses And it is upon this Opinion chiefly that they ground the denyal of the Cup to the People because say they should they have the Cup they would have no more but just the very same thing they had in the other Kind And supposing their Opinion true the Argument may for any thing I know have some force in it but then they ought not to deny us leave to Argue the other way That that Opinion must needs be false which makes our Saviour guilty of a great Absurdity in appointing Two Kinds but both really the same thing and one of them perfectly unnecessary But that which I would chiefly take notice of is That this Doctrine of theirs contradicts the Words of our Saviour for what they make but One Thing he plainly makes Two and calls them by Two different Names The one he calls his Body the other he calls his Blood which supposes them to be Two different Things as plain as Words can express them They say indeed That in the Glorified Body of Christ the Body and Blood cannot be separated and therefore were the Words to be taken in such a sense as to consider them separated they would contain a great Absurdity so that wherever the one is the other by concomitancy must be there too But who told them that the Glorified Body of Christ is in the Sacrament The Words of the Institution intimate no such thing but speak of his Body given and his Blood shed which certainly was separate from his Body But however this is arguing from Reason against the Words and is just the very same thing which they condemn as Heretical in us And if this be once allowed they must throw off the whole Doctrine for we can shew them Ten times as many Absurdities in the Doctrine of Transustantiation as they can in supposing the Body and Blood of Christ to subsist separately In short either we must stick to the very Words of our Blessed Saviour or we must not if we must their Opinion must be false which makes what our Saviour calls Two Things to be but One if we must not stick to the very Words but interpret them according to right Reason and other Places of Scripture they then give up their Cause To conclude this Head What Reason can there be imagined why our Saviour should in a solemn manner at different Times and under different Names give the very same thing call the one his Body and the other his Blood when according to the Nature of the Thing he might as well have inverted the Names and have called that his Blood which he calls his Body and so on the other side There cannot I believe be any Reason thought of but only this That the one Kind the Bread was very proper to represent the breaking of his Body the other the Wine to represent the shedding of his Blood which is the very thing that we would have for then there is a sufficient Reason for these Names without any Bodily Presence at all I have been the longer in considering the Sense of the Scripture in this Matter because your Writers commonly boast more of the Scripture being for you in this Case than in any other Controversies betwixt us And I think I have proved more than I need have done in proving that the Sense your Church puts upon the Words of our Saviour cannot be the true Sense of them It being sufficient in a Matter of this Nature which is loaded with so many Absurdities to have shewed that they did fairly admit of another Interpretation But having so fully Confuted this Doctrine out of the Scriptures I am now more at liberty to shew you the gross Absurdities and the monstrous Contradictions that are involved in it tho' in truth it is so full fraught with Contradictions that it 's a hard matter to know where to begin I shall therefore content my self just to repeat some of them which are ready Collected to my hand by a Great Divine of our own Chilligworth p. 165. That there should be Accidents without a Subject that is That there should be length and nothing long breadth and nothing broad thickness and nothing thick whiteness and nothing white roundness and nothing round weight and nothing heavy sweetness and nothing sweet moisture and nothing moist fluidness and nothing flowing many actions and no agent many passions and no patient that is that there should be a long broad thick white round heavy sweet moist flowing active passive nothing That Bread should be turned into the Substance of Christ and yet not any thing of that Bread become any thing of Christ neither the Matter nor the Form nor the Accidents of Bread be made either the Matter or the Form or the Accidents of Christ That Bread should be turned into nothing and at the same time with the same Action be turned into Christ and yet that Christ should not be nothing That the same thing at the same time should have it's just dimensions and just distance of it's Parts one from another and at the same time should not have it but all its Parts together in the felf-same Point That the Body of Christ which is much greater should
AN ADDRESS To those of the Roman Communion IN ENGLAND Occasioned by the late Act of Parliament For the further Preventing the Growth of Popery LONDON Printed for Mat. Wotton at the Three Daggers near the Inner-Temple-gate in Fleetstreet 1700. BOOKS Printed for Matt. Worten The Second Volume of the Remains of the most Reverend Father in God and Blessed Mertyr William Laud Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Written by himself Collected by the Late Learned Mr Henery Wharton and Published According to his Request by the Reverend Mr. Edmund Wharton his Father Occasional Paper N o 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. Angliae Notitia Or the present State of England with divers Remarks upon the Ancient State thereof by Edward Chamberlayne Doctor of Laws The Ninth Edition with Great Additions and Improvements In Three parts Remaks upon an Essay concerning Humane Understanding in a Letter Addressed to the Author N o 1 2 3. The History of the Revolution of Portâ—gal in the Year 1640. Or an Account of their Revolt from Spain and Setting the Crown on the Heads of Don John of Braganza Father to Don Pedro the present King and Catherine the Queen Dowager of England Echard's Roman History First and Second Part. Charone of Wisdome in Three Books Englished by George Stanhope D. D. Farnaby's Rhetorik English Gardiner BOOKS Printed for Matthew Wotton at the Three Daggers in Fleetstreet A Guide to the Devout Christian In Three Parts The First containing Meditations and Prayers affixed to the days of the Week Together with many Occasional Prayers for particular Persons The Second for more Persons than one or a whole Family for every day of the Week Together with many Occasional Prayers The Third containing a Discourse of the Nature and Necessity of the Holy Sacrament Together with Meditations thereon Prayers and Directions for the worthy Receiving thereof To which is Added A Prayer for Ash-Wednesday or any other time in Lent for Good-Fryday and any Day of Publick Fasting By John Inett M. A. Chanter of the Cathedral Church of Lincoln The Fourth Edition Corrected A Guide to Repentance or the Character and Behaviour of the devout Christian in Retirement By John Inett Chanter of the Cathedral Church at Lincoln The Christians Pattern or a Treatise of the Imitation of Jesus Christ in Four Books with Cutts written originally in Latin by Thomas à Kempis now rendered into English To which are added Meditations and Prayers for sick Persons By George Stanhope D. D. Chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty Price 5 s. The same Book is Printed in a smaller Letter and sold for 2 s. Salvation every Man's great Concern written originally in French by Monsieur Rapin done into English An earnest Invitation to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper wherein all the Excuses that Men ordinarily make for their not coming to the Holy Communion are Answered by Jos Glanvil late Minister of Bath A Defence of the 39 Articles of the Church of England written in Latin by J. Ellis S. T. D. now done into English To which are added the Lambeth Articles together with the Judgment of Bp. Andrews Dr. Overal and other Eminent and Learned Men upon them Twelve Sermons preached upon several Occasions By the Right Reverend Father in God Richard Lord Bp. of Bath and Wells His 2d and 3d. Parts of the Demonstration of the Messias in which the Truth of the Christian Religion is Defended especially against the Jews Dr. Stanhope's Sermon at the Funeral of Dr. Towerson His Sermon preached at the Annual Meeting of the Sons of the Clergy The Heinousness of Injustice A Sermon preached at the Assizes at Lincoln by Lawrence Echard A. M. Mr. Bradford's Sermon preached before the King Jan. 30th Mr. Hole 's Visitation Sermon at Bridgwater Dr. Barton's Sermon to the Societies for Reformation of Manners The Character of the True Church in a Sermon Preach'd at the French Church in the Savoy upon these Words How goodly are thy Tents O Jacob and thy Tabernacles O Israel Numb 24. ver 5. by A. D. Astor de Laussac formerly a Prior and Arch-Deacon of the Church of Rome THE CONTENTS THE Design of this Address Page 1. Why those of the Roman Communion have not Reason to expect the same Toleration with other Dissenters p. 4. Reasons to persuade those of the Church of Rome to examine the Grounds of their Religion p. 15. Of the Infallibility of the Church of Rome p. 25. Of Transubstantiation p. 54. Of the Idolatry of the Church of Rome p. 95. Of the Popes Supremacy p. 127. ERRATA PAge 10 in Marg. after Vid. ad 4 Gen. p. 13. line 10. for they read the Romanists p. 27. l. 11. f. it r. is p. 28. l. 16. f. differs r. differ p. 32. l. 14. f. pretences r. pretenders p. 55. l. ult f. thing and lies r. things and lie p. 57. l. 9. f. terms r. forms p. 58. l. 9. after Now r. our Saviour p. 60. l. 21. f. blessings r. blessing p. 117. l. 16. f. Scripture r. Scriptures and dele adds p. 126. l. 5. f. those r. these p. 141. l. penult f. Person r. Persons p. 143. l. 1. after and r. the. AN ADDRESS To those of the Roman Communion IN ENGLAND THE Design of this Address is not by any means to insult over you in the Circumstances under which it has pleased God in his Providence to bring you or to raise popular Odium against you No however necessary I may judge that which has lately been done yet I cannot but have a great compassion for any thing that looks like Suffering for Conscience sake And this I think I owe not only to the Principles of Humane Nature which require that we should have a tenderness and pity for those that are in Affliction but to the Principles of my Religion as a Christian and a Member of the Church of England I have always looked upon it as one of the Glories of the Protestant Religion that it gives the dominion over Mens Consciences to God only that it asserts the natural Liberty of Mankind to judge for themselves what it is that God expects from them that it makes very charitable Allowances for the Ignorance and Mistakes of Men when joined with Sincerity and a true Love of God and that in consequence of these things it does not incline it's Members to a severe inquisition into the private Opinions of Men or to be hard upon them upon that account And on the other side that it has been a great aggravation of the Errors of the Church of Rome that the Belief of them has been so rigidly exacted under no less pain than Damnation in the other World and the being Burnt or at least Vndone in this whenever it has been in their power to effect it But you will say perhaps That if the Opinion of Protestants be so much against Persecution how comes it to pass that there have been so many severe Laws from time to time made against you especially
this last which deprives your Children of their Inheritance if they will not renounce their Religion and deprives you of the comfort and assistance of your Spiritual Fathers by forbidding them to Exercise any Office of their Function under pain of lying in a Goal all their Lives if they are caught Now in answer to this I would not aggravate Matters to make you odious but as plainly and as tenderly as I can lay the Reasons before you which we may suppose the Nation went upon in making these Laws in some hopes to alleviate that Exasperation which your present Sufferings may cause and which may very likely make you throw away without considering all that a Protestant can say for your Conviction Why those of the Roman Communion have not reason to expect the same Toleration with other Dissenters And First I desire you would consider that there must be some peculiar Reason of this dealing with you under a Prince and in a Nation so much inclined to Liberty of Conscience in almost every Body else We have indeed a very ill Opinion of your Errors and the danger of them to the Souls of Men and of the dishonour brought to God by giving to Creatures the Worship due only to him But besides these there are some things peculiar in your Religion which give Protestants just grounds of Jealousie and make your Case very different from that of other Parties who dissent from the National Establishment The first is this That you own a Dependence upon a Foreign Power and a Power which is a declared Enemy to all Protestants You own for the Vicar of Jesus Christ and the Head of your Church a Person who pretends to a Power to Depose Princes and to give away their Dominions to such of your Church as are able to get them and who in fact has very frequently Exercised this Power and by it caused great Bloodshed and Disturbances in the World Particularly he has by Name Excommunicated Two of our own Princes Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth and has forbid all their Subjects to obey or assist them and has given away their Country to any Invader that would come and take it And he does the same in effect every Year in the famous * The form of all these Bulls may be seen in Bullar Roman Bulla Coenae by our King and Government at present You cannot wonder if Protestants are desirous at least to disarm all those who own this Man for the Vicar of Jesus Christ And this in fact was the Cause of most of those severe Laws which have been made against you In the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's days the Papists generally lived as easie and quiet as other Subjects but when the Pope Excommunicated the Queen and Priests were sent from the Seminaries abroad to alienate the Hearts of Her Subjects and Conspiracies were entred into against her then were those severe Laws made as against those that were Enemies to the State It is very well known how many Conspiracies followed that Excommunication through the whole course of her Reign and what danger the Nation was in from the Spanish Invasion which was undertaken upon the instigation of Romish Priests and upon the Title which the Pope gave the King of Spain to the Kingdom of England But I shall not insist upon these things or the many Provocations we have had ever since to this day or the great danger we may be in at present so far I believe must appear reasonable to all indifferent Persons that it is fit for us to make all those who expect to enjoy the Privileges of other Subjects to renounce an Authority so dangerous to us It may perhaps be said that there are some among you who do not own the Pope to have such Authority and that therefore we may safely deal more gently with them As to this I shall not insist at present to shew how far this Power of the Popes to Excommunicate and deprive Heretical Princes and States is a Doctrine of the Church of Rome this is certain that it has been long pretended to by the Head of that Church and those who do not approve of it ought to speak out and to renounce Communion with him as a Tyrant and an Usurper and a Heretick by pretending such Power from Jesus Christ which was never given him But so long as they stick by him and own him for the Head of their Church and the Vicar of Jesus Christ for the Judge of Controversies and the Supreme director of their Consciences they must not wonder if Protestants can have no Confidence in them especially if we consider how many Methods of Deceit have been taught and recommended by those among them who have been and are still the great Guides of Consciences The 2d Consideration I would propose is this That Protestants have a Right by the Principle of Self-Preservation to take such Methods with those of the Roman Communion as may put it out of their power to do them a mischief * Vid. Concil Lat. Can. 3. de Haereticis which is called a General council by that of Constans Sess 19. and by that or Trent Sess 24. because Papists are obliged by the Laws of their Religion to persecute Protestants and these are Laws that have been as much put in Execution when ever it has been in their power and it could be done with safety as any Laws they have It would be thought too invidious to reckon up all the Wars and Massacres Burnings and Crulties of all sorts that have been and are still in the World upon this account especially what has been done in a manner under our view in a Neighbour Country the sad effects of which not only our selves but all the Protestant Countries in Europe see and feel by those vast Numbers of poor Creatures that flock to us to preserve their Consciences and beg their Bread Only thus far we cannot forbear to take Notice that there have been more hard things suffered for not submitting to the Pope than ever were inflicted upon Christians for their Religion by all the Heathen Persecutors together Were these things the effects only of suddain Passion or Factions of State which often do hard things to one another there might be however some hope left that it might be otherwise should we ever again come into their power But when Men are cruel upon a steddy settled Principle of Persecution there is nothing left but to guard our selves against them as well as we can Not that we may lawfully do hard things to them because they have done so to us or our Brethren for that would be Revenge or at best the imitating a very bad Example But every Man has by nature a Right to defend himself and if that makes it wise or necessary for him to do some things which otherwise he has no Inclination to it is not his fault but the fault of those who bring that necessity upon him We are
make a different Religion To instance in particular those that own General Councils to be Infallible must take their Decrees as part of the Rule of their Faith but now they that own the Pope for Infallible must besides take in all his solemn Determinations and so have a much larger Rule of their Faith than the other and in many Cases very different and what may be much more different than it is now for if he be indeed Fallible as many of them say that he is he may determine Vice to be Vertue and Vertue to be Vice he may fall into great Errors as other Fallible Men may do and as some of them in fact have done and yet those of that Church who own him to be Infallible must take these things as part of the Rule of their Faith and Manners These I take to be undeniable Consequences from the differences among them about their Infallible Judge and I think from all together I may well inferr that there is no such thing since it so much concerns the World if there be any to be at a certainty about it and yet the greatest part of Christians know nothing at all of the Matter and those who do pretend to know it are in truth as much at a loss about it as those that do not only they agree in a Name which leads them different ways perhaps all wrong and only more Infallibly secures them in Error But I would now speak a word or two to the several Pretences to it The first Pretender is the Pope who seems indeed to have the best Pretence for if God do think sit to appoint such a one a single Person who is always ready to hear and determine Matters seems most proper at least much more proper than a number of Men to be sent from all Parts of the World who can seldom meet and never without a great deal of trouble and this seems to be the most genuine Doctrine of the Church of Rome which makes the Pope the Center of Vnity makes Communion with him necessary and a Mark of a True Church and makes his Church the Mother and Mistress of all Churches which is hardly Sense without Infallibility But as to his Pretence I shall consider it presently when I come to examine his Supremacy for if that fall his Infallibility must fall along with it One thing only I would observe here That it seems apparent from hence that the Primitive Church knew nothing of his Infallibility in that they took to that troublesome and chargeable and tedious way of ending their Disputes by Councils which supposing he be appointed by God to determine them and inabled to do it infallibly were not only useless and impertinent but indeed dangerous and very apt to turn Men from the way by which God had appointed the Church to be Guided A number of Men may be good for Counsel and Assistance of one that is Fallible but must be utterly unnecessary and an incumbrance to one that is Infallible And therefore since the Church has always made use of Councils either General or Provincial to determine Matters of Faith I may certainly conclude they knew nothing of his Infallibility Infallibility of General Councils As to General Councils it is not our present Business to enquire of what use they may be to the Church or what External deference is due to them if we could have those that are truly General but whether they are Infallible or not Now as to this I would only propose this one short Consideration That they are not of the appointment of Jesus Christ but begun 300 Years after Christ by Constantine now whatever Wisdom there may have been in calling so many Bishops together to endeavour by their Authority to Compose the Differences of the Church or to Establish good Discipline yet it was still a Humane Constitution and I know no way to annex Infallibility to what is so If 3 or 400 Men meet together each of which is confessedly Fallible they must altogether be so unless you can shew a Promise from Jesus Christ to secure them from Error Now if there be such a Promise as this we Protestants expect to find it in Scripture but however you your selves cannot pretend to it unless it be in Scripture or comes down to you by Tradition from Christ and his Apostles As to Scripture the very Name and Thing of a General Council is quite unknown to it and as for Tradition that could as little convey down any such Promise for the whole Thing was unknown in the Church for 300 Years not so much as the Name ever heard of As for the Meeting at Jerusalem of which we have an account in the 15 of the Acts of the Apostles it was only a Meeting of those that were then at Jerusalem upon occasion of a Complaint that was brought to them And it was a Meeting of Men most of which were by immediate Inspiration singly Infallible and therefore can be no President for a Meeting of Bishops from all Parts of the World And much less does this which was an accidental Meeting contein an Institution for the future and a Promise to make them Infallible when met in a Body together who singly are but like other Men. If it be said that they must be Infallible because they represent the Vniversal Church which is Infallible the Difficulty will still return for tho' we should grant the Church to be Infallible yet who appointed this Representations did Jesus Christ Has he annexed a Promise of Infallibility to it Without such a Promise as this there may be Infallibility in the Church and yet 3 or 400 Bishops or the Majority of them may be mistaken they may be a Number of Men packed together to serve a Turn they may be guided by Faction or Interest by their own Interest or the Interest of those who send them as in fact it has been more than once or if they are good Men that will not make them Infallible We may contrive as wisely as we please but we can never be certain to annex the Supernatural Assistance of God to our own Schemes To conclude this Head If the Infallibility you boast of be fixed in General Councils there was none in the Church for 300 Years when yet there was the most need of them there having been a greater number of dangerous Heresies in that Time than have been in the Church ever since But what is worse either there was no true Faith and Religion all that while or else it must be granted that we may have it without an Infallible Guide Christians were then at least in this respect in the same Condition that Protestants are now And I hope it will be granted that we need not desire to be in a better than they were The Last refuge for Infallibility is that it is in the diffusive Body of the Church But this I believe must be at last reduced to one or other
more about it for there are so many Absurdities and gross Contradictions in the contrary Opinion that we ought to lay hold of any thing that can but make sense of the Words and avoid those Monstrous Absurdities But I shall now indeavour to prove from the Words themselves that the sense which the Church of Rome puts upon them cannot be the true sense of them 1. The Doctrine of the Church of Rome is that our Saviour by pronouncing these words this is my Body made that to be his Body which before was only Bread but certainly the literal sense of the words does not import any thing of this and it 's the literal sense which they must stick to or else the whole support of their cause is gone now according to all the Rules of speaking it ought to have been his Body before he could truly pronounce it to be so but this they deny and say it was only Bread till these words were pronounced and that the calling it his Body made it become so which is a form of Speech quite unknown to the World and I challenge them to bring any Author either Sacred or Prophane that ever made use of words of this kind in such a Sense Since therefore it is confessed that what our Saviour took into his Hands was Bread and that it remained Bread till the speaking of these words This is my Body and since those words in their natural construction cannot be understood to effect any Change it must remain Bread still and be only the Body of Christ in such a sense as Bread may be called his Body that is in such a sense as the Lamb they eat of but just before was called the Passover by being a Representation and Commemoration of it 2. Another Argument I would make use of is this that our Saviour did not by pronouncing those words make what he gave them to be his very Body and Blood because after the pronouncing of them he calls what he gave in the Cup the Fruit of the Vine Verily I say unto you I will drink no more of the Fruit of the Vine until that day that I drink it new in the Kingdom of God In which words are contained these three I think plain Reasons which prove that it was Wine and not his Blood that he gave them 1. That He expresly calls it the fruit of the Vine and the Words they say are to be taken in the literal Sense and literally nothing else is the fruit of the Vine but Wine at least the Blood of Christ is not 2. In his saying that he would drink no more of it till he drank it new in the Kingdom of God it is supposed that he had heretofore drank of what he then gave them But I suppose it will hardly be said that he ever before drank his own Blood 3. As the Words suppose that he had drank before of what he then gave them so they do that he would drink of it again which very likely must be understood of his eating and drinking with them after his Resurrestion for then the Kingdom of God that is the new State of the Christian Church was come And therefore unless the Blood of Christ can be properly called the fruit of the Vine unless it can be supposed that he had drank his own Blood before and did design to drink it afterward these Words must evince that it was Wine which he then gave them I would not conceal that tho' St. Matthew and St. Mark recite the Words which I have Quoted after the Consecration of the Cup yet one of the Evangelists St. Luke recites them before and so they may seem to relate to a Cup that went about the Table at the Paschal Supper But this Objection if well considered does rather the more confirm what I have been proving for two of the Evangelists do place it immediately after the Consecration and delivery of the Sacramental Cup and in them it is apparent they can referr to nothing else but that Now if our Opinion about this Sacrament be true the difference betwixt the Evangelists in this Case is not material as importing no difference at all in the Doctrine of the Sacrament though our Saviour's Words are reported different ways and so this secures the Honour and Authority of all the Evangelists But if our Saviour's Words are to be understood as the Church of Rome understands them it 's impossible in any tolerable manner to reconcile the Evangelists for St. Matthew and St. Mark must upon this supposition not only put his Words wrong together and out of that order he spoke them but must also quite misrepresent his meaning and that in a Point of great Consequence Which I believe can be no way consistent with the Opinion which the Church of God has always had of these Gospels But I shall consider this Matter a little more fully in that which I have to urge in the Third Place 3. I desire it may be considered that the Words of our Saviour in the Institution of this Sacrament cannot be understood literally because as they are recited by the Evangelists they are not literally the same but differ as to the literal meaning very materially Mat. 26.28 Mark 14.24 Luke 22.20 St. Matthew and St. Mark in the Instistution of the Cup recite our Saviour's Words thus This is my Blood of the New Testament which is shed for you St. Luke recites them thus This is the New Testament in my Blood Now from this difference among them I would observe these Two Things 1. That the Evangelists being so little curious to recite the very same Words that our Saviour spake could not have any Notion of a strict necessity of a literal meaning and of such a strange Doctrine which could have no foundation but in the literal interpretation of the very Words that he spake this had been at best very strange negligence in a Matter of so great Consequence 2. I would observe that if our Interpretation of the Words be true the Evangelists are easily reconciled as agreeing in the same general Sense tho' differing in the Expressions because both of them denote a Commemoration of the Blood of Christ and of the New Testament or Covenant founded upon it and it is not then very material which is placed first but if they are to be taken literaly it's impossible ever to make them agree and so one of the Evangelists must not only have mis-recited our Saviour's Words but quite have mis-understood his meaning and have done what he could to lead People wrong in a great Point of Faith For certainly the true real Blood of Christ is a very different thing from the New Covenant or Testament which is founded upon it But it will appear still of greater Consequence to keep to the very Words which Christ spake if the Opinion of the Church of Rome be true that it is the repeating the Words of our Saviour which effects the
be contained wholly in that which is less and that not once only but as many times over as there are Points in the Bread and Wine That the same thing at the same time should be wholly above it self and wholly below it self within it self and without it self on the right Hand and on the left Hand and round about it self That the same thing at the same time should move to and from it self and lie still or that it should be carried from one place to another through the middle space and yet not move That to be One should be to be undivided from it self and yet that one and the same thing should be divided from it self That a finite thing may be in all Places at once That there should be no certainty in our Senses and yet that we should know some things certainly and know nothing Corporal but by our Senses That that which is and was long ago should now begin to be That the same thing should be before and after it self That it should be possible that the same Man for Example You or I may at the same time be awake at London and not awake but asleep at Rome there run or walk here not run or walk but stand still sit or liedown there study or write here do nothing but dine or sup there speak here be silent that he may in one place freeze with cold in another burn with heat that he may be drunk in one place sober in another valiant in one place a coward in another a Thief in one place and honest in another that he may be a Papist and go to Mass in Rome a Protestant and go to Church in England that he may die in Rome and live in England or dying in both Places may go to Hell from Rome and to Heaven from Fngland That the Body and Soul of Christ should cease to be where it was and yet not go to another place nor be destroyed These are some of those monstrous Contradictions which are involved in this Doctrine of Transubstantiation I shall only observe these few things more about this Matter and then conclude this Point 1. That you ought not for the avoiding of these Difficulties to content your selves to believe in general that somehow or other you don't know how this Sacrament is the Body of Christ for your Church has determined the Matter that it is the very Body of Christ which was Born of the Virgin Mary and was afterward Crucified and that there remains no substance of Bread but only this Body of Christ after Consecration 2. I would observe that none of these Difficulties are taken off by considering Christ's Body as glorified for besides that if it be a Body still it must have the Properties of a Body this Sacrament was Instituted while our Saviour lived in the World and had just such a Body as other Men of the same bigness and all other qualities as to his Body the same And therefore in interpreting these Words This is my Body all the Difficlties are still the same as if he were now living or as they would be were they spoken of the Body of any other Man 3. I desire that you would consider that you may be sure we do not mis-understand nor mis-represent your Opinion because these Absurdities are what your own Divines take notice of as well as ours and do not pretend to be able to give any direct Answer to them 4. I would observe That tho' these Contradictions are so apparent and staring that no Body that hears of this Doctrine can well miss of them yet they are new and none of them ever heard of in the Church for many Hundred Years from whence we inferr that the Doctrine it self was as little heard of 5. We do not find that any Christian for many Hundred Years ever denied or disputed the truth of this Doctrine from whence we cannot but conclude that it was then unknown in the Church for it must have had strange good fortune to escape without any Contradiction when all the Articles of the Creed had been Disputed round 6. As this was not disputed or denied by any Christians so neither was it objected against the Christian Religion by any Heathen not even by Julian himself who as being an Apostate must have known all the Secrets of our Religion whereas in truth there had been Ten times more weight in this than in all the Objections together which they made use of against Christianity 7. There were several things in the Primitive Church inconsistent with the belief of this Doctrine in particular that of mixing Water with the Wine the Water to represent the People as the Wine represented the Blood of Christ of which St. Cyprian gives us a full Account Vid. Cypr. Epist 63. 8. I would observe That the Church of Rome can assign no peculiar necessity or usefulness of this Sacrament above others that should give a probable Reason of the mighty difference betwixt this and others and of such a strange wonderful Dispensation as the eating our Blessed Saviour himself Nay with them both Baplism and Confession are esteemed much more necessary and the omission of them more dangerous than the omission of this Sacrament 9. To conclude this whole Matter I think I have sufficiently shewed that this Doctrine has no foundation in Scripture I would have considered at large the Sense of the Primitive Church in it and I do not question but to have been able very clearly to make out that it was a Doctrine quite unknown to the Church of God for many Ages but that was not consistent with the Brevity I am at present forced to use I would therefore only observe this one thing That we ought not to conclude this to have been the Doctrine of the Fathers only from some accidental or general Expressions which they sometimes make use of It 's plain that none of them designedly treat of this Matter or explain it to us none of them recite it among the Articles of their Faith none of them take any notice of the difficulties of it no Christians appear to have been shocked at this Doctrine and no Heathens to have Objected it all which could hardly have been avoided had this been the constant Doctrine of the Catholick Church And as for General Expressions the calling what they received the Body and Blood of Christ that could not be avoided the Nature of the thing requiring them even according to our Opinion of this Matter And we see that notwithstanding we have made such express Declarations against the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and that by reason of this Controversy we express our selves more cautiously than we may suppose the Fathers would do before any Controversy was moved ved about it yet some general Expressions of our own Divines are often turned against us by those of the Church of Rome and there is no question but were the Authors of them as Old as the
Fathers they would be as confidently quoted for the Proof of Transubstantiation as any Sayings of the Fathers now are And this shews us how this Doctrine tho' monstrous in it self might under the Covert of such General Expressions without any great stir or bustle insensibly creep into the Church especially in very Ignorant and Superstitions Times tho' after all our Divines have sufficiently traced the footsteps of it and shewed the progress it made and the opposition it met with in the World before it could be Established The next thing to be spoken to is the Idolatry of the Church of Rome In the Sacrfice of the Mass and in the Invocation of the Blessed Virgin and of other Saints as it is practised in that Church Now Idolatry may be of two sorts I. When People worship any thing for the Supreme God which really is not so II. When they give that Worship to any Creature which is due only to God and which he has appropriated to himself As to the first sort of Idolatry that of Worshiping some thing as the Supreme God which realy is not so we do not charge the Church of Rome with it unless perhaps the worshipping of what is but Bread and Wine in the Sacrament instead of Jesus Christ may come under that head I say perhaps here because I would not enter into any thing besides the main cause that may be contested for tho' Jesus Christ be God and they worship some thing as Jesus Christ which is not so yet the mistake being chiefly about his Human Nature I would not positively affirm a thing which may bring on any dispute which is not to our purpose This they do not deny that they give the highest Divine Worship which they call Latria to that Object which they take into their hands and put into their Mouths in receiving this Sacrament which I shall at present call Idolatry but with a promise to recant it whensoever they shall answer the Reasons I have given to prove that what they thus Adore is only Bread and Wine or whenever they shall give me a more proper Name by which I may call that great Sin of giving the highest Divine Worship to a Creature The truth is that such a Worship may not only be called Idolatry but the most absurd and senseless Idolatry that ever the World fell into But this I shall not now insist upon having spoken so much already to that which is the foundation of it the Doctrine of Transubstantiation The other Matter in which we charge them with Idolatry is the Invocation of the Blessed Virgin and other Saints Now in this we do not charge them with owning any of those to be God but only with giving them that Worship and Honour which cannot lawfully be given to any thing which is but a Creature In speaking to this I shall consider these Two Things 1. Whether the giving to a Creature the Worship due only to God may not be properly termed Idolatry tho' at the same time we pay that Worship we own it not to be God but a Creature 2. Whether the Worship given to Saints by the Invocation practised in the Church of Rome be of that sort such as God has appropriated to himself and consequently such as becomes Idolatrous when applied to a Creature 1. As to the first of these Those of the Roman Church cannot deny but it must be a very great Sin to give the Worship of God to Creatures but they deny it to be properly Idolatry We on the other side grant that it is not Idolatry in the highest sense of the Word and in the sense in which they commonly understand it viz. The owning a Creature to be God So that so far we are agreed but then we say that Word may be used in a lower sense to denote what they grant to be a Sin as well as we but will not call it by that Name so that our difference in this Matter is only about the use of a Word Now we think our selves in the right in the use of this Word upon these Accounts 1. Because we have no other Name to express that which is not denied to be a very great Sin The giving God's Worship to Creatures and having no peculiar Name for it we think it not improper to give it the Name of that Sin which is of nearest affinity to it and of the same general kind as is done in many other Cases Thus our Saviour calls looking upon a Woman to lust after her by the name of Adultery and the like The next step to owning a Creature to be God is to give it the Worship due to God and therefore we think it not at all improper to call these two Sins by the same general Name especially having no Word in our Language more proper by which we may express it 2. We think our selves fully justified in the expression because the Scripture does every where charge the Heathen Worship of their Gods and Images in general with the Crime of Idolatry tho nothing can be more apparent than that many of the Heathen owned only one Supreme God and that all of them looked upon many of the Gods whom they Worshipped not as Supreme but as Gods of an Inferior Nature and had much the same Opinion of them as the Romanists have now of Saints and Angels and had the very same pretences and excuses for the Worshipping of them which the Romanists make use of to defend themselves They owned many of their Gods to have been born and to have dyed and it was hardly possible to look upon any such to be the Supreme God In a Word There is nothing more evident than this that they had several Ranks and Orders and Degrees among their Gods and it was impossible to look upon all these to be Supreme And yet the Scripture every where without any distinction charges their whole Worship with Idolatry and so do the Primitive Fathers as well as the Scriptures particularly they thought it to be Idolatry to throw a little Incense into the Fire before the Statues of their Emperors From whence we may plainly inferr these Two Things First That they thought that there might be Idolatry in giving such Worship as was appropriated to God to Creatures tho' they were not pretended to be any thing else but Creatures only Creatures highly exalted and in high Favour with God as Saints and Angels are supposed to be Secondly That they looked upon the offering of Incense to be a part of Worship appropriated to God and that could not be given to a Creature without the Crime of Idolatry which is a Matter the Church of Rome have reason to consider well of who offer it every Day to those who however they may have been better Men are certainly no more Gods than the Heathen Emperors were To conclude this Matter The sense of the Primitive Church in the business of Idolatry is plainly seen in this that they every
where accuse the Arians of Idolatry for Worshipping of Jesus Christ for this very Reason because they owned him not to be God or at least not the Supreme God from whence it plainly appears that they had the same Notions in this Case that we now have That Men may be guilty of Idolatry in giving Divine Worship to what they believe is not God Thirdly The Apostle calls Covetousness Idolatry which tho' it be a figurative Expression yet however denotes to us the thing for which I am now pleading The Covetous Man does not look upon his Money to be his God or intend to give it any of that Worship he thinks due to God I believe no Covetous Man in the World can be justly charged with either of these but because he places his Heart and his Affections upon it which ought to be given to none but God because his Money is the thing in which he puts his trust and his confidence therefore it is that he is said to make an Idol of it and to be guilty of Idolatry And so it is as to the Worshipping of Saints tho' their Worshippers know very well that they are not Gods yet because they give them the Worship of God that outward Adoration and inward Reverence hope trust and dependance which are due only to God they do by that make them Idols and are justly chargeable with Idolatry I now proceed to the Second Point To shew that the Worship which the Church of Rome gives to the Blessed Virgin and other Saints by the Invocation practised among them is Divine Worship such as ought to be given to none but God We are not concern'd at present to enquire into the Doctrine of the Church of Rome but into the Practice that being the thing particularly Censur'd in the Test-Act tho' indeed the Practice of any Church is the best Exposition of Her Doctrine The Council of Trent leaves this Matter in general Terms determines that we must seek the help and aid of the Saints Opem Auxiliumque Sess 25. but does not fix the measures of it However since it does not Censure what was then the Common Practice of that Church we may take it for granted that the meaning of the Council was that we must seek their aid and help in the Methods which were then in use for if they disapproved of what was then commonly Practised it concerned them much to speak out as to set their own People right and to keep them out of dangerous Practices so also to vindicate the Honour of their Church which was then openly charged with Idolatry upon account of those Practices We agree with the Church of Rome in this That we ought to have a great honour and respect for the Saints of God That we ought to love their Memory to endeavour to imitate the good Examples they have left us and to bless God for the Benefits he has bestowed upon the Church by their means And above other Saints we ought to have a great esteem and value for the Blessed Virgin who had the Honour to be the Mother of our Lord and by that to be so nearly concerned in the greatest Blessing that ever was bestowed upon the World But we differ from that Church in this That they Adore the Saints and Pray to them and that not as one Friend would desire another to Pray for him but with all the solemn Ceremonies and Circumstances of Prayer and with the very same with which they pray to God they do it in their Churches Kneeling and with their Eyes lift up to Heaven and with all the signs of Devotion which can be shewed not only from one Creature to another but from a Creature to its Creator They make Vows to them burn Incense to their Images dedicate themselves to their Service make Offerings to them and the like They pray to them directly to bestow Blessings upon them Thus in the Office of the Blessed Virgin She is not only called the Gate of Heaven but she is intreated to loose the bonds of the Gvilty to give light to the Blind and to drive away our Evils and to shew her self to be a Mother They pray to her therein for Purity of Life and a safe Conduct to Heaven She is commonly called the Queen of Heaven the Mother of Mercy and which is most Shameful of all The Psalms of David Composed for the Honour of God and which contain the highest strains of Devotion which a Creature can give to God are by a Saint of that Church Bonaventura turned to the Honour of the Virgin by putting her Name where the Name of God is put by David And this was neither Censured by the Council of Trent nor has been by any Pope that I can hear of to this Day but on the contrary the Author of it has been Canonized and the Book is in Common use which perhaps is one of the blackest pieces of Idolatry that ever was in the VVorld And tho' a Church must not always bear the Guilt of what is publish'd by private Persons in her Communion tho' it do pass without Censure Yet considering how careful that Church has been in many Matters of much less moment especially where her own Authority is concerned and how solicitous they are to keep Books that make against them out of the Hands of their People it looks at least like espousing the Blasphemies and Idolatrous Prayers and Praises of it to let this Book go so freely about without Censure and to incourage it so far as to make the Author of it a Saint These and many other Instances might be given of the Worship they give to the Blessed Virgin and tho' they are somewhat more modest with relation to other Saints yet what I have taken notice of already may sufficiently shew that they give them the VVorship which God has appropriated to himself I would only therefore mention further that in many Instances they pray to them to bestow those Blessings which only God can give such as to open the Gates of Heaven to unty the bonds of their Iniquity to heal their spiritual Maladies and many other of the same Nature of which I shall give them Examples at large if required or if I find it necessary to confirm any thing that I have now said I now proceed to take notice of some of those Reasons we have to prove that this Invocation is part of that Worship which God has appropriated to himself and which consequently cannot be given to any Creature without the Crime of Idolatry 1. I desire it may be considered that the Scripture does every where speak of Prayer as applied to God and to none else and that without the least intimation of any such Distinctions as are made use of in the Church of Rome VVe have in the Old Testament the History of the Church of God for near 4000 Years and in all that time there is not the least instance or intimation of
of the former for it will be very difficult to shew how the Church can exert it's Infallibility so as to be a Guide but either by means of it's Head which you make the Pope or else by the way of a General Council there is no other way whereby those of your Communion can be certain what is the Doctrine and what are the Traditions of your Church but one of these and therefore having considered both of them already I shall proceed to consider the way of Reasoning your Divines commonly make use of to prove that there either is or ought to be such an Infallible Judge As for what they say from Scripture it is commonly urged so coldly and with so much diffidence that we may see they do not lay any great stress upon it But that you may not be amused only with some general Words in truth nothing to the purpose I desire you would consider that there being no Infallibility which can serve to be your Guide but only that of the Pope or a General Council nothing from Scripture can be pertinent but that which proves either the one or the other No Man or Number of Men can be Infallible without a particular Assistance and we cannot be sure they are so without a particular Promise And therefore when you hear any thing alledged from Scripture only ask your selves What does this prove Does it prove the Pope to be Infallible Or does it prove a General Council to be so If it do not prove one of them it proves nothing in this Matter for you are never the nearer your Guide for any thing else Now as to General Councils I have shewed already that there is not the least hint of them in Scripture and as for the Title of the Pope to it I shall consider it presently in examining his Supremacy And in the mean time shall take notice a little what they urge from Reason to prove that there ought to be such a Judge ought to be I say for all the Reason in the World without a Revelation from God can never prove that there is one it being a thing that depends meerly upon the appoinment and good-pleasure of God The Writers of the Romish Church it must be confessed talk Plausibly enough when they expose the weakness of Human understanding and the Infirmities of Human Nature and I must say that in reading of them I could hardly forbear at least to wish that if it had pleased God some effectual Remedy had been provided to secure Men from Error But this did not at all influence me to think that God had done so and that upon these Three Accounts 1. Because we see in fact that neither Mankind in general nor Christians in particular have been secured from Errors that there have been as many Contests and Differences among Christians as we can suppose there would have been taking it for granted that they were left in the State we say they were without any Infallible Guide to direct them and therefore whatever force such a Consideration from the necessity of ending Controversies might have had in the first Times of our Religion the matter of Fact does now in a great measure take it off because in 1700 Years the Church has not been freed from them From whence as I said before we may inferr either that it is not the Will of God that Controversies should be ended or that an Infallible Judge will not end them or that there is no Infallible Judge either of which takes away the force of this Argument 2. Because this whole way of Arguing from the weakness of our Understanding and proness to Error and the like proves nothing in particular and consequently does not bring us at all nearer Satisfaction than we were before The most natural Inference from it is That every Man is to be of the Religion of his Country for that makes through work and excuses us from using our Fallible Reason at all in the Matter whereas in your Way however you may cry out of the uncertainty of our own Reason yet you must use it in a great many material Points and indeed found all the certainty you have upon it you must for instance Judge by your own Reason whether the Christian Religion be true or not whether among all the Professors of Christianity yours be the True Church whether there be any Infallible Judge or no and who he is and what his Determinations are These are things of great weight and of a great latitude and indeed take in the chief Points of Religion and yet these things must be judged of by that Reason which God has given every Man or they cannot be judged of at all whereas your whole way of Arguing from the fallibility of our Understanding either proves that we cannot judge with certainty of these Matters or it proves nothing 3. This whole way of talking is to me a strong prejudice against what you would prove by it For if you had a plain Institution or a Promise of such a Judg to shew there would be no need of this Arguing that would be Sufficient and without that no Man can be Infallible and we may be sure that Men have no such Commission or Promise to shew when they are forced to use so much Cavilling and Dispute about the matter which is indeed nothing to the purpose without the other We do with much more reason inferr that since God has not thought fit to give any such Commission that therefore we must make the best of those other means which he is pleased to allow us to search the Scriptures and endeavour to understand them as well as we can And this is the Method that our Saviour directed Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life and they testifie of me From which Words we may plainly infer these following things 1. That the Jews had at that time no Infallible Guide in Matters of Religion for if they had our Saviour would have directed them thither but we see he directs them to the Scripture 2. We may inferr that the Persons our Saviour spoke to had without an Infallible Guide sufficient Abilities to understand the Scriptures and to have true Faith otherwise we may be sure he would not have sent them thither and if they could understand the Old Testament without such a Guide much more may Christians understand the New which is much easier 3. We may inferr that Private Persons for such our Saviour spoke to may have sufficient assurance of Divine Truths from examining the Scriptures tho' they go against the Governors of the Church for our Saviour tells them that they might find in the Scriptures that he was the True Messias tho' the Chief Priests did at that time reject him and were afterwards the Authors of his Crucifixion All which do absolutely overthrow the necessity of an Infallible Judge in order to True Faith And there cannot be one thing said against
Protestants examining the Scriptures now but what would have held as well against the Command of our Saviour here to the Jews unless they can shew us a positive Institution of an Infallible Guide but all the Arguments from Reason and the imperfection of our Understanding are perfectly the same in both Cases The truth is all our Saviour's Preaching did suppose this for it had been a vain thing to Preach to People who had not abilities to understand And if we go further to the Preaching of the Apostles we shall find that they endeavoured to prove the truth of what they said out of the Scriptures by which they appealed to the Understanding of their Hearers and made them proper Judges of what they said as far as their own Salvation was concerned in it We see in Acts 17.11 The Bereans were commended as more noble than those of Thessalonica because they searched the Scriptures daily to see whether the things the Apostles preached were so or not The Apostle St. John commands Christians to try the Spirits that is to examine the pretences that any should make to the Spirit of God which supposes that their Understanding how fallible soever was sufficient to judge in these Matters In a word the Writers and Emissaries of the Church of Rome do themselves when they don't think of it in effect confess this for when they bring Scripture and other Arguments to persuade us to come over to their Church I would ask them are we proper Judges of these things or are we not Will our Faith be a true Faith that is founded upon these Scriptures or these Reasons that you here bring If it be so then we may understand for our selves and there is no necessity in order to true Faith of an Infallible Judge but if it be not so there ought to be then an end of Disputes for it 's in vain to Dispute where it 's supposed that we cannot understand or judge and all offering of Scripture or Reason to prove the truth of their Opinions is only affront and mockery But it may be it will be said Don't we see People differ about the Interpretation of Scripture some go one way and some another and yet all are consident of their own how can we be sure that we are in the right any more than they who are as confident in what they say as we are Now this Objection is founded upon this that we cannot have certainty of what is once Disputed which is contrary to the Common Opinion of Mankind who would have done Disputing if they thought they could not be certain when once Men differed from them This does indeed overthrow all Reason and Religion Some have ventured to Dispute the Being of God and many more the Truth of the Christian Religion and yet I hope we may be very certain of the Truth of both these But I would only urge at present this one Consideration Are all the World agreed about their Infallible Judge If not how can they be certain of that But to press this Matter a little more plainly they say for instance that we can't from Scripture be certain of the Divinity of our Saviour because the Socinian's a small number of Men dispute that Matter But the same Socinians deny their Infallible Judge and therefore that must at least be as uncertain as the other And not only the Socinians but all Protestants deny it which must make it still more uncertain and not only all the Protestants but the Greek Armenian Aethiopian Churches a vast Body of Men which must still add to the uncertainty and not only all these but all that in any Age or Nation have ever differed from the Church of Rome for whoever differs from them must deny their Infallibility and consequently this must have been Disputed not only as much as any one Point but as much as all the rest together This I think is a demonstrative Answer to this whole way of Arguing and shews the manifest Absurdity of it for it makes things uncertain because they are Disputed and yet makes the most Disputed thing in all the World the Foundation of all the certainty they have I have been the longer in examining this Point of the Infallibility of your Church as being that which is the great support of all your other Errors I now proceed to speak something to the particulars I promised and first I shall begin with Transubstantiation which is the first thing Renounced in the Test The Sense of the Church of England in this Matter seems to be this That tho' Believers in the faithful and due receiving of this Holy Sacrament are made Partakers of the Benefits of the Death of Christ that is of the breaking of his Body and the shedding his Blood and so may be properly enough said to be partakers of his Body and Blood yet that which they take into their Mouths is really but Bread and Wine but Bread and Wine set apart for a holy Use to represent the breaking of the Body and the shedding of the Blood of our Blessed Saviour and therefore in a Sacramental sense may be called his Body and Blood tho' in truth and reality they are but Bread and Wine Both Sides do in some Sense own a real Presence of Christ in this Sacrament but this one thing if observed will sufficiently shew the difference That Protestants say that in the devout and holy Use of this Sacrament Christ will be present with his Grace and Assistance to the Souls of good People but that the Things which appear before us which we eat and drink are not Christ but Bread and Wine Those of the Church of Rome on the other side say That the Thing which lies before them which they put into their Mouths tho' before Consecration they are Bread and Wine yet upon pronouncing those Words This is my Body and this is my Blood they lose their own Nature and Substance of Bread and Wine and become very Christ the very same Christ that was Born of the Virgin Mary and that suffered upon the Cross And therefore pay them the same Divine Honour and Worship as if God or Christ did truly and openly appear before them Now the whole ground of this Dispute lies in the Words of the Institution This is my Body and this is my Blood They say that the Words ought to be understood in the plain literal Sense we say they ought to be understood as used by Christ in his Instituting a Sacrament that is appointing one thing to be a representation and a memorial of another and which because it does represent may very well be called by the Name of that Thing which is represented by it which we think to be a very natural easy way of speaking and agreeable as to that present occasion so to other terms of Speech of the same nature which had been in use among those People to whom our Saviour spoke But in particular the time in which