c. farther from the Papists Doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mass it follows that our LORD'S Priest hood is not Eternal or peculiar to himself as the Scripture teacheth particularly Heb. 7. Seing many succeed him in the Office Nay it may be inferred by good consequence that Men are preferrable to IESUS CHRIST Himself for the Priest is alwayes preferrable to the Sacrifice and therefore if their Priests are impowred to offer up Iesus Christ they must be esteem'd better then he None was worthy to offer that saerifice which taketh away sin but such an high Priest as was holy harmless undefiled separat from sinners and made higher then the Heavens Heb 7. 26. Wherefore as none could be the sacrifice but IESUS so none other could be the Priest to offer that Sacrifice both the Sacrifice and Priest are one which makes the Opinions of the Papists concerning a sacrifice of the Mass impious and blasphemous It would require a particular Treatise to set forth the corruptions of the Church of Rome in this part of their Worship as the Priest partaking alone the offering it for such are dead the celebrating it in honour of Saints c. And therefore if there were no more but this alone 't were too much to make People leave the communion of that Church But Lastly besides these Impieties mentioned whereof every one is actually guilty who joine in the Worship of the Church of Rome there be a great many other errours abuses and corruptions taught and practised in that Church which all they who keep her Communion must necessarly be reckoned guilty of For as joyning in Worship is a sign of holding Communion so thereby persons testify their belief of and assent to all which that Church with whom they hold Communion teacheth and practiseth as necessary to Salvation Now seeing the Church of Rome requireth all under pain of damnation to believe the infallibility of their Church the Supremacy of the Pope Purgatory Auricular Confession Pennances Indulgences the Insufficiency of Scripture the equal Authority of Unwritten Traditions the unlawfulnesse of Clergy Mens Marrying the necessity of observing Dayes Meats c. Without particular dispensations from the Pope who arrogates to himself a power of rescinding both Humane and Divine Laws these and many more Falseshoods and Absurdities are enjoyned by the Roman Church as Articles of Faith and as necessary to Salvation and therefore who keep communion with her do ipso facto approve of all her Errours and Abominations and must be thought to exclude from Salvation those who refuse to submit thereto for she doth so It will not availe any to say that in their Private judgement they are otherwise perswaded neither have made any expresse Verbal Acknowledgement to the contrary seeing they do that which necessarly import the same Men give their assent by their Actions as well as by their Words and what we cannot approve in our Hearts we ought not to approve by our Profession or Practice Hypocrisy in Religion is damnable and they are Hypocrits who professe what they do not beleive The belief of the Heart and confession with the mouth should not be disjoined neither ought we by our Actions to countenance what we judge false and abominable This I thought fit to say because it is a trick used to gain persons to the Roman Communion if otherwise they cannot be induced to pass them a formal abjuration of the Protestant Doctrine or an expresse consent to all the Tenets of that Church But such would do well to remember and consider that they do the one and the other really and upon the matter as much as if they gave more expresse Declarations I shall conclude with these words of Scripture which certainly are as applicable to the Church of Rome as ever they were or will be to any Come out from among them and be ye separate saith the LORD and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the LORD Almighty 2 Cor 6. 17 18. And again Come out of her my People that ye be not partakers of her Sins and that ye receive not of her Plagues For her sins have reached unto Heaven and GOD hath remembred her Iniquities Rev 18. 4. 5. CHAP. IV. Of the last Words of JACOB'S Vow The Question about the Churches Right to Tithes waved but the taking them away is shewed to be Sacriledge Every Particular Person oweth to GOD a part of his Estate The Proportion considered and some Motives pressing Charity and Alm's-Giving are proposed THat GOD is to be Worshipped and Adored that there should be Endeavours to please Him will be readily acknowledged by All This is the very Dictate of Natural Conscience and who have no Sense thereof nor own any Obligation thereto must needs be very Profligate and Debauched And though it cannot be denyed but that there are such Monsters of Wickedness who have no Fear of GOD before their eyes yet it must be confessed also that the Generality of Mankind as they profess and believe in GOD so they seem to wish and be desirous of His Favour and Good wil. It is not then gross Atheism and Infidelitâ—… which damnes and undoes the greatest part of the World but the Rock upon which Men split most is Hypocrisie and the want of sincerity in serving GOD. They would please him and are content to do something in order to it but yet have not a Heart to ply all that is requisite thus they will observe the smaller and lesser part of the Law but in the mean time slip over what is more Weighty and of Greater Moment they are very ready and willing to pay that Service which is cheap and easie and which puts them neither to great pains nor much cost but what imports and includes either they are averse to and shrink from Some will be very Religious whilst it is counted Religion to hear the Word of GOD to read it and talk of it to pray and to frequent the outward Ordinances of the Gospel but when they are told of denying themselves of taking up the Cross of Mortifying the body Subduing lust Bridling their passions and particularly of distributing their goods to the poor then they discover the Naughtiness Hollowness of their Heart how much they mock GOD and deceive themselves for they look upon these as hard sayings and cannot digest them but with the Young Man in the Gospel they turn away sad and sorrowful Such will seem sometimes to contend earnestly for Heaven but yet they keep a fast hold of the Earth they seem very zealous for the service of GOD so long as it costs them nothing but when Chargeable Expensive Duties are required then they find out many Shifts Excuses they either pretend the non-necessity of them or their own inability and when none of these can be pretended they still delay and put off till another time
as the Papists have gone And certainly nothing can be brought in defence of the Papists which may not as well be alledged for the Heathens Nay except some few logical distinctions which prove very frivolous all the specious pretexts which the Papists make for justifying their Practice are to be found in the Apologies of the Heathens Do the Papists say that their Worship terminats not in the Image it self but is carried by it to what is thereby represented the Heathens said the same Do the Papists say that they use Images only to remember them of the Invisible objects of their Worship So did the Heathen as appears from Maximus Tyrius and some others Are the Heathens taxed with a gross conceit that the Gods inhabited their Images and that some divinity resided in them The Papists entertain the same fancy of theirs at least a great part of the Vulgar do else what means the high esteem of one Image of the same Person above another Why are tedious Pilgrimages undertaken to visit the Images of the Virgin or some other Saint in such and such places when the Images of the same Saints are every where How comes it that miracles the gifts of healing c. Are ascribed to Images if they do not think that there be something of Divinity in them Therefore the Papists opinions and practices anent Images are one and the same with the Heathens for which they are accounted Idolaters in Scripture and consequently all subtilties of the Roman Doctors will not free their Church from this horrid and provoking crime And as both reason and Scripture declare against them so they cannot plead here the practice of the Ancient Church for nothing is more manifest then that the Primitive Church abstained from the very appearance of this Idolatry and Superstition so far were they from practising it witness that known Fact of Epiphanius Bishop of Salamine in Cyprus in tearing a Linnen cloath whereon the Image of Christ was painted which he found in the Church lest it should be an occasion of Idolatry to the People this was about the end of the fourth Century And about the sixth Serenus Bishop of Massile brake to pieces all the Images of CHRIST and Saints which were in the City fearing the People who were then Declining from the Purity of the Christian Religion should be drawn to worship them And that the worship of them was not at that time Publickly allowed nor brought into the Church appears clearly from Gregory the first his Letter to the said Bishop wherein he hath these words that thou didst forbid Images to be Worshipped we praise altogether but that thou brakest them we blame who would be fuâ—…ther instructed in the Judgement of the Fathers in this point of Image-Worship let them read the English Homilies where also they will clearly see the great Disagrement betwixt the present Church of Rome and the Primitive Church for hundreds of years so little Reason have they to plead Antiquity But though all should be admitted which the Papists say for their Vindication in worshipping Angels Saints and Images yet this would not free them altogether from Idolatry so long as they Worship the Host or Consecrated Bread For though there were no other Reason to tax them with this Crime yet this were sufficient which we come now in the last place to speak to And the rather because they go not about to excuse this nor do they collour it with subtile Glosses as in former Instances they do not cry out that they are wrong'd and calumniat when they are said to worship the Host for they publickly allow it and the Council of Trent hath pronounced an Anathema upon all who do not think the same Worship due to GOD ought to be payed to this Sacramental Bread That whereon the worship of the Host is founded is the Doctrine of Transubstantiation or a total Conversion of the Bread into the Body and Blood of the Lord IESUS CHRIST and therefore if this Doctrine be taken away or shew'd unsufficient it will clearly appear that they are guilty of Idolatry as some of themselves plainly acknowledge Now as to the Doctrine of Transubstantiation it cannot be expected that we should here treat of it fully and particularly for this would carrie us too far from the design of this Present Treatise and make it swell too bigg All we shall say at present is that there is no Evidence for it no Ground to believe it and consequently no Reason for establishing this Worship which they make to follow upon it If we examine the several ways by which we come to know and to be assured of any thing it will easily appear that there is no Evidence for Transubstantiation no Ground to believe that the Host is the real Body and Blood of JESUS CHRIST All things are Manifest to us either by Sense or Reason or Revelation and what appears by none of these is a groundless conceit a Fantastick Opinion which ought not be made the Foundation of any Religious observance and such will the Doctrine of Transubstantiation be found to be For first if we examine our Senses and believe their Testimonie there is no Transubstantiation but the Bread continues Bread after consecration the Figure Shape Cllour smell and Taste are the same were before and if it be keept any while it moulds and corrupts as Bread so that to the appearance of Sense there is nothing but Bread And if we have recourse to Reason it will not contradict but confirm the Testimony of our Sense And farther shew what an absurdity it is to think otherwayes because it would quite destroy the Nature and Properties of Bodies if the Body and Blood of IESUS CHRIST were in the Host For then it would follow that one body might be in Diverse places at once that Matter might be without Extension that the Accidents Effects and Properties of a Body may remain when the Body it self is destroyed and such like absurdities Thus Transubstantiation is founded neither upon Sense nor Reason but is contrare to both And therefore if there be any such thing it must appear by Revelation but it will appear as little this way as any other for there is no Revelation to be trusted but what is set down in the Scripture and they are altogether silent What ever was the occasion of this Doctrine sure the Scripture was not for it is not plainly asserted nor is it to be deduced from clear or Positive Truths Nay the Scripture gives so little ground to fancie this that on the contrarie it speak so of this Sacrament as may assure us there is no such thing as the Papists dream for it calls it Bread both before and after its Consecration and the usuall Phrase for the celebration of this Sacrament is in Scripture the breaking of Bread which would have been a very mean expression if the Bread were turned to the Body of IESUS CHRIST The pretext for Transubstantiation from Scripture
are these words this is my Body which in Truth when considered are no Pretext at all because none but such as are Prepossest with the Fancy could understand that to be the Meaning of them such a Mystery and Miracle as Transubstantiation is had need to have been asserted more plainly and clearly that is to say in Terms which do more necessarly import it The Disciples who used frequently to trouble our LORD about the meaning of His Words and to raise Scruples when he spoke of things far more Credible it is not likely that they would have let this go if they had understood him as the Papists do if they had so taken him up as to think that he said what He Reached and what they Received and Eat was not real Bread but that same real Body which was before their eyes they would no doubt enquired farther into the matter and asked how such a thing could be But having a little before in the Celebration of the Passover heard our LORD say of the unleavened Bread according to the Iewish custom this is the Bread of Affliction which our Fathers eat in Egypt they could not understand the Bread now distribut to be his Body otherways then the unleavened Bread was the Bread which their Fathers eat in Egypt to wit not the same reallie but only the Symbol or Memorial thereof Thus it appears that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation is a meer groundless Conceit favoured neither by Sense nor by Reason nor Scripture but flatly opposed by all of them And so though the Bread in the Sacrament be Consecrat to an Holy use and though it serve for Holy ends and Purposes yet as to its Nature and Substance it is still Bread and therefore who worship it worship not GOD but a Creature and a dumb Senseless Creature of it self too which is as gross Idolatry as any can be Neither will it excuse them that they think it to be him who is their GOD for then all Idolatry should be excusable he who Worships the Sun should be excused if he fancied a Deitie therein Mens Opinions will not alter the Nature of things nor make that Justifiable which is of it self Damnable otherways the greatest Crimes may prove no Crimes Nor will it acquit the Papists of Idolatry in worshipping the Host that they intend therein to worship JESUS CHRIST seing their Worship is directed immediatly to another thing otherwayes the Israelites who worshipped the Golden calf might upon the same account be freed of Idolatry And yet the Papists in worshipping the Sacramental Bread are more gross then the Israelites in worshipping the Golden calf For they made not the Calf their GOD neither did they terminat their worship in the Calf it self but used it only as the means of conveying their Worship to the true GOD. Whereas the Papists believe the Bread in the Sacrament to be the very LORD IESUS CHRIST himself and do terminat their Worship in the very Sacrament it self Then which I hardly think there can be a grosser instance of Idolatry produced from among the Heathens whither Ancient or Modern If saith Coster a Popish-Writter the Doctrine of Transubstantiation be not true the Idolatry of the Heathens in Worshipping some Golden or Silver statue or any Image of their Gods or the Laplanders Worshipping a red cloath or the Egyptians an Animal is more excusable then that of Christians Worshiping a bit of bread And another of them saith that if there be nothing but bread in the Eucharist they are all Idolaters Thus they confess that it is the Supposition of Transubstantiation only which can vindicat them from the grossest Idolatry but that there is no such thing to be supposed we have already proved and they who will needs believe a thing not only without all ground but contrarie to all Evidence of Sense Reason and Scripture their Errour is wilfull and neither is it to be excused nor the Practises which they build thereupon to be Extenuated And it will be to little purpose here to have recourse to the Fathers for the Defence of this Opinion for first we are not obliedged to believe any of them contrary to Sense Reason and Scripture And secondly it hath been frequently shewed that they say no such thing for untill about the Eight or Ninth Century this Opinion did not creep into the Church it only entered in with the Worship of Images for which among several others see a late discourse of Transubstantiation But though there were ground for the Doctrine of Transubstantiation and that CHRIST should be really in the Sacrament as the Papists imagine yet according to their Principles it is scarce possible yea I may say altogether impossible to know certainly or to have any assurance when the Bread is truly Transubstantiated or that CHRIST is Really in the Sacrament and therefore who Adore it run alwayes the Hazard of committing the grossest Idolatry which is the most Heinous of Crimes According to the Principles of the Romish Church there can be no Transubstantiation if the Elements be not prepared of due matter viz. The Bread of true Wheat and the Wine of ripe Grapes and neither of them any wayes spoiled or corrupted if the Priest who Celebrats be not a true Priest that is to say Rightly ordained and according to them a great many things are requisite to make ones Ordination valid and it is not possible to know when they are wanting or when they are present but thought he should be a True Priest yet if he intend not seriously the Consecration of the Sacrament or doth not pronounce the words or doth not pronounce them right but doth either mangle or transpose them in all these cases there is no Transubstantiation neither is there any difference betwixt the Elements of Bread and Wine which seems to be consecrat and common Bread and Wine And therefore it is impossible to know when the Bread is Transubstantiated or when not when CHRIST is really present and when he is absent for it is one to an hundred but some one or other of these necessarie conditions of a right Consecration is wanting and therefore also who adore the Sacrament can never be certain that they adore JESUS CHRIST really but instead of him may be paying Divine worship to a meer creature to lifeless Bread and Wine which may perplex the minds and consciences of such as seriously consider the heinousness of the crime of Idolatry To evade this Difficultie they tell us that the Adoration of the Sacrament is always with the supposition of Christ's presence that they adore the Bread upon this condition that it is the Body of IESUS CHRIST But this is a sillie evasion and will never free their Church of Idolatry for it is only Doctours or the Learned who may use these subtilties as for the Vulgar they do not make any such supposition nor do they worship the Sacrament with any such salvo And besides both the One and the Other
16. 1 Thess. 5 27. And for the same Reason the rest of the Scripture ought to be read and the Church has been still in use to do so Now the main Reason hereof is not our own instruction but to do honour to GOD for as hereby we own the Scriptures to be from GOD so we solemnly acknowlege our selves bound to hear and obey his word and tye our selves to walk as it diercts us The publick Worship of GOD is not rightly performed when there is no reading of Scriptures and it is all one almost as if they were cast out of the Worship when they are only read while the People are coming to Church but not after they are mett For then the reading is only used for a divertisement to put off the time and not as a Honour or Acknowledgement due to GOD. They understand little of the Nature or end of publick Worship who would have the reading of Scripture laid aside because it can be done at home Such have more regard to their Fancy then to the true honour of GOD and do come to Church rather to feed an impertinent Curiosity and desire of Novelty then to perform a reasonable Service to GOD. Not to speak of the inability of a great many to perform this exercise in Private the reading at home makes not so much for the Honour of the Sciptures and consequently of GOD who is the Author of them Respect to the Majesty and Authority of GOD require that his Will and Pleasure be Promulgate with solemnity and heard with reverence We have an eminent Instance hereof Neh. 8. 5 6. 4thly To the reading of the Scripture was alwayes wont to be joyned Preaching on the Sabbath and other Festival-dayes as appears from the forecited places which custome the Church hath continued and it is most necessary and profitable It shews our deference to GOD and a regard for his Authority when we are willing to hear such as he hath Commissioned to inform us of his Will anent us He that heareth you said Christ to the Apostles heareth me and he that dispiseth you despiseth me and him that sent me Kings and Princes are Honoured or Affronted according as their Servants and message are received now the Ministers are Ambassadours in CHRISTS stead by whom GOD befeecheth People to be reconciled unto himself 2 Cor 5. 20. Reconciliation with God is the Errand on which Ministers are sent and seing the terms of this Reconciliation and the means by which it is wrought are set down in Scripture therefore the subject matter of preaching should be to give the sense and meaning of the Scripture and to exhort to a Complyance with what is there contained Sermons are not ordained to teach men curious things or to tickle them with fine neat speeches but to make them understand the Scriptures to instruct them in the Doctrine thereof and to stirr them up to observe the same thus Ezra preached Neh. 8. 8. And ordinarly in the primitive Church their Sermons were only Explications of such Portions of Scripture as were read in the publick Service together with an Exhortation to obey it The principal design of Preaching is to unfold the meaning of God's Word and to help men to discern the mind of the Lord revealed therein and as these are the best and most Edifying Sermons which discover this plainly and clearly so it is the duty of all to hearken diligently to these instructions and to receive them gladly It speaks out a Love to GOD when we are willing and very desirous to know his will but there is little regard for God where there is no desire to understand what he sayeth to us in and by his word But though the Priests lips should keep know ledge and that it is the peoples duty to seek the Law at his Mouth yet this is not to render the private search and study of the Scriptures useless Guides are ordained to be helps but not to take away our own sight we may find them useful though we do not put out our eyes As the Noble Bereans did we should search the Scriptures dayly whither these things we hear be true or not And this is the more necessary because we are forewarned of false Prophets Every Spirit is not to be believed none ought to be received with an implicit Faith but only the Spirit of GOD all other should be tryed before trusted And it needs be no hard task to try the truth of Doctrines if we lay aside prejudice and search the Scripture impartially A man by applying his eye narrowly especially if he hath the advantage of a Rule will soon discern whither a thing be straight or crooked and it is indeed no less easie to judge in matters necessarie to Salvation 5thly I cannot omit here what was Anciently Universally used though now turned into desuetude among us and it is the Solemn and explicite profession of the Christian Faith by a rehearsal of some Summary thereof as the Apostles or Nicene or Athanasian Creed The expresse declaration of our Faith is much both for our profite and the honour of GOD It is for the honour of GOD that we believe in GOD and in JESUS CHRIST and give our assent to all the truths of the Gospel without this faith it is impossible to please GOD unless our worship be founded on the belief of these things it is altogether unacceptable And it is not only necessary to have this Faith alwayes in our hearts but we must also sometimes openly testify it by confessing the same with our mouths as the Apostle tells us Rom 10. 9. Where he saith that if thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the LORD IESUS and shalt believe in thine he art that GOD hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation This is also profitable for our selves for these Creeds are the Badges of Christianity which instruct us in our profession and teach us how to answer every man who asketh a reason of the hope that is in us A frequent repetition of the Creed fixeth the great Articles of our Religion in our mind brings them often to our remembrance and serves to excite us to walk worthy of the Gospel Persons of Honour are careful to behave sutably while they have the signs and badges of their Dignity and Quality upon them and sure it could not but oblidge and quicken us to study a Christian Behaviour if we frequently made a serious and solemn profession of our Faith Lastly the celebration of the LORDS Supper should frequently accompany our other acts of publick worship the Apostles with their Converts did this dayly as we read Acts 2. 42. 46. which practice continued long in the Primitive Church St. Augustine in one of his Epistles to Ianearius says 't was the custome to do so in many places The Council of Antioch condemnes such as
more then that we should encrease in knowledge The reading of the Holy Scripture should be recommended to People according to the practice of all the Fathers It was not the People who wrested the Scripture and spread Heresies they were the Bishops and Doctors and Persons of the Clergy Arrius Macedonius Nestorius Eutyches Pelagius were all Church-men 2ly The Worship of the Roman Church has not a Resemblance to the Christian Religion because it wants the purity and simplicity thereof to make Worship look like Christian as we formerly shewed it should be Plain and Simple that is free of Ceremonies except what are requisite to Excite and Fix the attention should chiefly consist of Actions which are Grave and Serious and which do properly expresse the Divine Majesty and Glory But the Worship of the Papists is meerly Pomp Pageantry a vain external Shew of Ceremonies fitter for the Theatre then the Church Their Churches are dressed with Gaudy Scenes like Play-Houses and like them too they use not the light of the Sun but the dazling deceiving light of Lamps and Wax-Candles their Priests are sumptuously decked with various kinds of Garments and as for the Service it self it consists in sprinkling of holywater kindling Perfumes Kneeling and bowing and often crossing Turning to the Right or Left Hand according to the Sign given the Elevating and Lowing of the Voice at certain Times the vain repetition of unintelligible Words and in a multitude of impertinent and insignificant Ceremonies which chock the very Spirit of Religion and which would render what is read or spoken to no purpose though it could be understood For 't is impossible that the mind can be attentive or make any Serious application where there is such a multitude of external performances The Worship enjoyn'd and practised in the Church of Rome has more resemblance to Paganisme then the Christian Religion it contains indeed Acts and Instances of the true Worship of GOD but so buried in Heathnish Superstition that they lose their Efficacy both with GOD and Man Their Sprinklings Processions Scourgings Pilgrimages and in a word the most of their Ceremonies both in their Ordinary and Extradinary Devotions are derived from ancient Paganisme and are indeed more suited to Pagan tempers then Christian minds for such as understand the Gospel know that GOD taketh no pleasure in such Actions The hour cometh saith Christ and now is that the true Worshippers of GOD shall Worship Him in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to Worship Him 3ly Popish worship is not only full of Superstition but Idolatry it not only is made up of many foolishly and uselesse Actions which can pretend to no Shadow of Reason or Divine Authority But it contains also many things expresly forbidden as the Invocation and Adoration of Angels and Saints c. What St. Paul said of Rome Pagan holds true of Rome Christian they have changed the truth of GOD into a lie and Worship the creature more then the Creator For the most of their Worship is not tendred to GOD and JESUS CHRIST but to Angels the blessed Virgin and other departed Saints to Images Reliques that is the Bones Ashes and other forged appurtenances of their supposed Saints I say supposed for their is no evidence for the most of them but the Popes Cannonization which is very unsufficient 'T is laid on the name of one Pope Gregory that he should have said multorum corpora venerantur in terris quorum animae cruciantur in infernis that is many are Worshipped as Saints who are damned in Hell The Papists in their publick Worship are required to adore Bread as GOD to Pray to the Dead and for the Dead and to do several other things which not only have no warrant in Scripture but are quite contrary thereto and therefore GOD can be pleased neither with such a worship nor those who offer it more then he was with the Nations whom the King of Assyria planted in Samaria of whom it is said that they feared the LORD and served other Gods besides 4ly The Mass which is the chiefest part of their Worship is the highest abomination For it is used in stead of the Holy Sacrament which our LORD instituted that night wherein he was betrayed but in Truth it is is quite another thing because they have added to it and pared from it and use it in another sense and to other purposes then what that Sacrament was design'd for First they withhold the Cup which is the one half of the Sacrament though it be clear that our Saviour commanded All to drink of it as both the Councill of Constance and Trent acknowledge in their Acts which prohibite the use of the Cup to the Laity And as for the other part of the Sacrament besides that their Wafers cannot be counted Bread they do not use the rite of breaking it which is so essential that this Sacrament is ordinarly denominat by it in Scripture Indeed what the Priest takes to himself he breaks in three pieces one whereof is cast into the Cup another is left upon the Altar until the end of the Service and the third he puts in his own Mouth but this doth not answer to that breaking which our LORD used and which is necessary to hold Forth the purport of the Sacrament That this Action may be agreeable to our LORD'S institution it is necessary that all the Communicants eat and have distribute to them one broken Bread 2ly Our LORD ordain'd the Bread in this Sacrament to be only a symbol of his Body but they give it out to be His very self and command Divine Adoration to be payed thereto which is the greatest absurdity and the grossest Idolatry imaginable as we have formerly made out 3ly Our LORD designed this Sacrament to be only a memorial of his Death and of that satisfaction was given thereby to the Iustice of GOD for the sins of men but they teach and command under pain of damnation to be believed that in the Masse there is a real propitiatory Sacrifice for the living and the dead because according to them Iesus Christ is dayly Sacrificed and Offered therein Which Doctrine contains a heap of Absurdities and makes their Mass a Blasphemous action and most injurious to the Sacrifice of the Cross. For hereby it would follow that Christ was Sacrificed before he was Crucified viz. when he instituted this Sacrament that his Death was no sufficient Attonement there being such necessity for repeating it so frequently and that St. Paul erred grossely in thinking it absurd that he should offer himself often in saying he was but once offered to bear the sins of many and in preferring that one Oblation of IESUS CHRIST upon the Cross to all the legal Sacrifices because they behoved to be offered year by year continually to shew their insufficiency whereas he by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified see Heb. 9. 25. 28. 10. 1.