per coecitatem malam sententiam praeterquam oportet colligunt we put all those to confusion that through vaine glory or ignorance broach new doctrines in the Church For none of all these Heretickes can derive their succession from the Apostles nor shew how their doctrines were received by Tradition from them For before Valentinus there were no Valentinians and he came to Rome under Hyginus and increased his faction under Pius and continued unto Anicetus Cerdon also that was before Marcion came in under Hyginus who was the eighth Bishop and Marcion prevailed under Anicetus which was the tenth So those that are called Gnosticks from Menander Simons Disciple All these sell into Apostacy after the Church had continued a long time Thus Tertullian confoundeth Valentinus Apelles and other Hereticks edant origines ecclesiarum suarum evolvant ordinem sacerdotum ita per successionem ab initio decurrentem ut primus ille episcopus aliquem ex Apostolis vel Apostolicis viris qui tamen cum Apostolis perseveraverit habuerit authorem antecessorem Let Heretickes shew that they had an Apostle for the Author of their doctrine or some Apostolicke man whom they doe succeed as Polycarpus was placed by Saint Iohn in the Church of Smyrna and Clemens by Peter in the Church of Rome Confingant tale quid Haeretici I would faine see Hâ—reticks to set their heads to devise such a pedigree This hee was sure they could not for Valentinus and Marcion saith he came in under Antoninus the Emperour and were cast out of the Church by Eleutherius In this sort doth Saint Cyprian confound Novatian Novatianus in Ecclesiâ nâ—n est nec Episcopus computari potest Novatian is neither Bishop nor member of the Church qui Evangelica Apostolica traditione contempta nemini succedens à seipso ordinatus est because hee cannot prove his succession according to Apostolicall tradition To conclude thus doth Saint Augustine confound the Donatists and Sectaries of his time Numerate Sacerdotes vel ab ipsa sede Petri in illo ordine Patrum quis cui successit videte They that say there were no materiall Churches built till 200. yeares after Christ are more injurious to the Church and unjust to themselves and to all true members of the Catholicke Church than perhaps every one is aware For if in all this time there were no materiall Churches then there could bee no materiall Chaire wherein their Bishops were enthronized and if no Chaire then no reall inthronization then no personall succession from the Apostles whereby the right faith was derived from God the Father to his Sonne whom he hath sent into the world out of his owne bosome nor from the Sonne to his Apostles nor from the Apostles to succeeding Bishops For as Tertullian reaoneth very excellently if we will have the truth to be adjudged of our side it must appeare by this if we walk in that rule quam Ecclesiae ab Apostolis Apostoli à Christo Christus à Deo tradidit which we have received of the Apostles they of Christ Christ of God Those that deprive us of the benefit of this Apostolicall tradition plucke one speciall staffe out of our hands whereby wee stay our selves from falling from the true Catholicke Church and beat all Hereticks out of our Communion Miserable were we if he that now sitteth Arch-Bishop of Canterbury could not derive his succession from St. Augustine St. Augustine from St. Gregory St. Gregorie from St. Peter For hee that remembreth whom hee succeeds will doubtlesse endevour and pray to be heire to their vertues as well as possessor of their places What a comfort is this to his Grace and to all those that receive consecration from him and to all those that they shall ordaine when they remember that this Grace can say Ego sum haeres Apostolorum Sicut caverunt Testamento sicut Fidei commiserunt sicut adjuraverunt ita teneo I am the Apostles heire the Faith which they have by Will bequeathed to the Church that I hold Mea est possessio Olim possideo prior possideo habeo origines firmas ab ipsos authoribus quorum fuit res Here I and my Predecessors have kept possession here are my evidences which I have to shew that I have received the right Faith from the true Owners Vos verò but as for you Marcion and Apelles exhaeredaverunt semper ubdicaverunt the Apostles Christ God Himselfe hath dis-inherited you and cast you out On the other side what a confusion is this to all Hereticks or Schismaticks when the Fathers of our Church and all true children of the Church shall be able to tell them that they have no right of inheritance or portion in their Mother Quando unde venistis Quid in meo agitis non mei tell us when and from whence you come and what you make your selves to doe in the Church that are no sons of the Church We can with Saint Irenaeus point you to the time of your comming in You Cartwright and your brood came in as most Sabbatarians did under Arch-Bishop Whitguift and you Ames and Brightman with your Laodiceans came in under Arch-Bishop Bancroft and you Vicars and our Cotton with his fugitives came in or rather went out under Arch-Bishop Abbot Thus Saint Irenaeus Saint Cyprian Saint Augustine and other holy Fathers have detected the Donatists Marcionists and other Sectaryes of their times and so put them to utter confusion And so by their example are we taught to doe and our duty is to blesse God that wee are able so to doe Cotton therefore or whosoever else is the Author of this Letter shewed himselfe a sly and subtile Merchant when he would make use of the authority of a learned and godly Bishop of our Church against his mind utterly to overthrow the Truth of our Church by making simple people believe there were no Churches nor Altars till 200. yeares after Christ. For if this were so and that he could tell us when our Church came in then there would no be cause but to honour him and his party for a true Church as well as this of ours And it would bee no reproch to him and his adherents to have their comming in detected and thereby themselves discovered to bee no other but such whose comming in may be discovered CAP. X. Dedication and Consecration of Churches used by godly Bishops and taxed by the Centurists for the Mystery of Iniquitie What penance was performed by Hypocrites and Apostata's before their admittance into the Church Of Confession Exomologefis Dayes of Penance and Absolution Citizens Penance I Will passe from the placing of the Bishops Chaire to the dedication of his Church where it was set The dedication of Churches within two hundred yeares after Christ sheweth clearely that there were Churches within that time There is mention of Dedication of Churches under Euaristus Anno 112. and under Hyginus Anno 154. under Calixtus of
such as were fallen to decay by age Anno 221. And before them all Saint Clemens his command both for building and Consecrating of Churches maketh it apparent that there were Churches The words of his Epistle to St. Iames are these Ecclesias facite per congrua loca quae divinis precibus sacrare oportet These testimonies of Roman Bishops the Centurists suspect and brand the Dedication of Churches with the Mystery of Iniquity But who delivered them the keyes of the bottomlesse pit to condemne whom they list Or what Mercury conveyed Saint Peters keyes into their hands to shut out nay thrust out of heaven and to let in thither whom they list No blessed Martyr holy Father or godly man before themselves durst nay would forget their owne piety so much as to tax the Dedication of Churches for a Mysterie of Iniquity But some of all these sorts have allowed commended and practised the Dedication of Churches Where then the Doctrine and Decrees of Popes and of the first and best times are confirmed by the doctrine and constant practice of the holy Catholicke Church it seemes great boldnesse and impiety in three or foure men to condemne and to brand their authority with the Mysterie of Iniquity It appeareth by the testimonies of Eusebius Athanasius Basil Nazianzen alledged by the Centurists Gent. 4. cap. 6. and of S. Austin Prosper and Sidonius alledged by them Cent. 5. c. 6. and if they had beene disposed they might have added to these S. Chrysostome Sozomen S. Ambrose Greg. Magnus and diverse others in all ages that have approved and with great devotion and piety practised the Dedication of Churches O then that there should be a mouth opened to such blasphemy But to let them stand to their owne Master whether the worke were good or bad it is confessed on all hands that there were Churches dedicated within 200. yeares of Christ therefore the Centurists will helpe to cry downe their opinion that say there were none built in all that space Secondly the use of the keyes and the exercise of the discipline of the Church in excommunication abstention giving absolution and receiving Penitens into the Church all which were of famous and frequent use within 200. yeares after Christ doe manifestly declare that there were Churches built within that space For how Deliquents should be excommunicated out of Dens Forrests or private houses or solemnely admitted into them againe is beyond any common understanding If we cast our eyes upon the discipline used in the Primitive Church in casting out and receiving men againe into the Church we shall finde that it was executed so solemnely gravely and impartially yet with such pitty and fellow-feeling of humane infirmities as made the same very awfull and reverend and struck the mindes aswell of those that stood as of such as had fallen with griefe and terrour None that had fallen into any notorious crime to the publike scandall of their brethren and to the wounding of weake consciences were admitted againe into the Church before they had done open penance in sackcloth and ashes with fasting and prayer Thus was the Young-man who had committed many notorious robberies received againe into the Church by S. Iohn Anno 100. So those simple Women led captive by Marcus the Valentinian and by him corrupted both in body and minde made open confession of their faults Lugendo lamentando Weeping and wailing before they were received into the Church So by the sentence of Hyginus Cerdon à religiosorum horninum conventu abstentus est and was not received into the Church before he had performed his penance exomologesin faciens Anno 151. So Marcion and Valentinus were cast out of the Church by blessed Eleutherius saith Tertullian and when Marcion confessed his fault and submitted himselfe to take penance he was received to peace with this Proviso that he should reduce those to the Church whom he had perverted Now in what sort Penitents performed their penance and made confession the act it selfe will discover Is actus saith Tertullian this act which usually and most commonly is expressed by a Greek word exomologesis est wherein we confesse our fault to God not as though he were ignorant thereof but â—o far forth as by this confession Satisfactio disponitur the minde is set in readinesse for satisfaction pâ—enitentia nascitur our repentance springeth out of it and pâ—enitentia Deus mitigâ—tur by our penance GOD is appeased Therefore Exomologesis prosternenti humâ—â—ifâ—e andâ— hominis disciplina est penance is a discipline used for the humbling and casting downe of men conversatione in injungens imposing withall such a manner of conversation as may move pitty and commiseration De ipso quoque habitu atque victu mandat This Exomelogeâ—is giveth law both to our food and raiment Saccâ— câ—nere incubare and ordereth men to lye in sackcloth and ashes to have the beauty of the body in no honour to fill the soule with sorrow Plerunque verò jejuntis preces aleâ—â— to feed our prayers with fasting to weepe waâ—e and mourne night and day unto thy God Presbyteris advolvi aris as Rhenanus reads the place Dei â—dgeniculari to humble your selfe before the Priests and to fall downe upon your knees before Gods Altars to sue unto al the brethren for their prayers in your behalfe Haec omnia exomologesis penance worketh all this Ergo cum te ad fratrum genua protendis Christum contrectas Christum exoras when you fall downe at your Brethrens knees you catch hold of Christ you over-intreat Christ to be good to you And when your Brethren weepe for you Christus patitur Christ is troubled and affected Christus Patrem deprecatur Christ becoms your intercessor to his Father Facitè impetratur semper quod filius postulat a sons request is â—oone granted by a Father Some saith he think they shall performe a speciall benefit and afford an acceptable reliefe to their modesty by concealing their faults As if forsooth because our cunning will helpe us to bleere mens eyes proinde Deum celabimus wee shall be inabled thereby to keep our faults from Gods notice An melius est damnatum latere quà m palam absolvi had you rather be damned so no body know of it than to have your sins pardoned before the face of all the world Miserum est sic ad exomologe sin pervenire hee is in a miserable case that makes such a kind of confession But besides modesty which you hope to preserve by concealing your faults you may perhaps feare other inconveniences and disgraces that you make the body lyable unto quod inlotos quod sordulentos that you have neither your face washed nor your hayre kemb'd nor your clothes brusht and are shut up from all pleasure and delight in asperitudine sacci horrore cineris oris de jejunio vanitate feeling nothing but rough sackcloth galling the sides seeing nothing but head
sixth houre Those that are drunken are drunken in the night and those that creepe into houses creepe into them in the night Abraham whose sons we are not by nature but by grace at this very houre in the cleere light of faith built two Altars in one Chaper one in Moreh and another in Bethel And now under Abraham and Melchisedech was the Christian Church in the prime For the Church of the Iewes sayes S. Ambrose began not before Abrahams Nephew son was growne up to mans estate Now it is to be observed say these holy Fathers Quantae fidei quantaeque devotionis how faithfull and devout this blessed Patriarch was who because Deo credidit Deoque altaria erexit cultumque ejus venerando dilexit he believed in God and erected Altars to him God therefore blessed him and caused Semen ejus multiplicari eique amplissimaregna terrasque dari de hostibus triumphari nec non in suo semine quod est Christus gentes quae nos sumus benedici Abrahams seed was multiplyed and upon him were large Kingdomes and Territories bestowed All his enemies subdued and in him were the Gentiles that is our selves eternally blessed because he erected Altars to God and honoured his service And againe say the same Fathers if Abraham for these causes was blessed Dubium non est quin Altarium sanctorum eversores sacrarum rerum quibus in iisdem Altaribus Deo famulandum est surreptores damnentur there is no doubt but they put their salvation in great hazzard that undermine Altars and put their hands to the taking away of holy things that belong to Altars by their consecration as Tythes and offerings doe and the like From which impiety King Iames of blessed memory washed his hands Populari enim res sacras ad usus nescio quos certe parum sacros addicere bonis omnibus Regi autem ante omnes displicet quo nemo à sacris alienandis alienior maleque illum habuit quod quae devota Deo erant propter voventium mentes abalienata erant as testifieth famous Elie. And so we see and all posterities doubtlesse shall see how God hath blessed his seed and propagated his Kingdomes and subdued his enemies as was affirmed of King Pepin by these holy Fathers to whom I returne and with them to Abraham For so zealous was the Father of the faithfull that he not only built an Altar but was ready to sacrifice his son upon it Isaac also aedificavit Altare and therefore the Lord promised a blessing to him and his seed But Religion and Devotion increased much more with Iacob who did not only erect Altars and consecrate them and powre Oile on them but made further promise of devoting his Tythes to the Lord. Now marke what inference these holy Fathers make from hence and then judge whether Altars crept into the Church or whether the complying of Christians with these Fathers of the Iewes doe not argue that Altars did not creepe into the Church but were received with publike honour and devotion Vnde hodie Christiana religio exemplum sumens ex antiqua patrum traditione domos in honorem Dei aedificat ac dedicat Altaria erigit eisque oleum superfundit Whereupon Christian Religion taking their example from hence doe build and dedicate houses to God and erect Altars and do receive many precious gifts and oblations of Gods people for the honour of his House and service and for the use and benefit of his Priests and of the poore And we advise him that goeth about to impropriate these things to his owne use and to withdraw them from the uses which the Dedicators and Donors intended to remember Cujus sit discriminis damnationis into what danger of damnation he putteth himselfe The ninth houre is from Moses to Christ. And how Altars were in an open and honorable manner brought from the Church of the Christians into the Church of the Iewes at this houre of the day the same holy Fathers shew out of the bookes of Moses Ioshuah Iudges and from the deeds of David Solomon and the Machabees even to Christs time and conclude thus Haec idcirce posuimus ut animadvertatur quantum apud divinam majestatem valeat veneratio divini cultus erectio Altarium And from hence the same Fathers inferre which saves me a great deale of labour ex Sanctorum patrum explanationibus out of the expositions of the holy Fathers in the best and ancient times that Christian Churches tooke their president in erecting Altars so that their complying herein with the people of the Iewes is a cleere argument that Altars did not creep into the Christian Church For that the Tabernacle typum gerebat futurae Christi Ecclesiae and that the Temple likewise typum gesserit Sanctae dei Ecclesiae nullus sanum sapiens ignorat no man that has not his understanding tackt and the eye thereof turned after the humour of the men of Grantham as the Marigold turnes with the Sun wil impeach the setting of Altars or the Lords Table Altarwise in any Christian Church by terming their comming in to be creeping and to bee the worse thought of for their complying with the people of the Iewes For is it not fit there should be a complying and correspondencie betweene the type or figure and the substance which Christian Altars are in regard of the Altars among the people of the Iewes Wherefore since Altars in the Christian Church comply so fitly with the Altars in the Iewish Church it is an argument that the Church wherein they are is a true Christian Church and that the honour done them is no other then in truth belongs to them For if their types were had in singular honour among the Iewes then the Substance ought to be had in much more honour among Christians And it is not the part of a good Christian Sanum intelligens that is sound at heart to speake so unlike the Servant of Christ good Christian so like a Pensioner to the men of Grantham as to say that Altars Crept into the Church by a kinde of complying with the people of the Iewes The twelfth houre is from the death of Christ to the end of the world and how the Church of God set it selfe to comply with the Church of the Iewes in erecting dedicating and consecrating Churches and Altars ordaining of Priests and Levites apointing and receiving of oblations offering Sacrifices and confirming Christs Church to the true patterne thereof shewed to Moses in the Mount and lively presented in the Tabernacle and Temple the same holy Fathers take upon to demonstrate ex Sanctorum Patrum eloquiis out of the doctrine of holy Fathers Can any man say then that Altars crept into the Church as the Tables of mony-changers came into the Temple and were set where they ought not to the defiling thereof which this pure man plainly intendeth that the next word must be have these
appeared and spake in the midst of the people The Bishop we see daily in our Cathedrall Churches standing in his Throne turneth his face to the people and dismisseth them with the blessing is truly said to open his mouth in medio ecclesiae as Aaron when he did the like at the doore of the Tabernacle of the Congregation yet doth his Throne stand in the Quire for all that and did never stand in the body of the Church among the people notwithstanding his aperuios in medio ecclesiae If this Author would stand to Durandus his determination of this matter he should sooner finde the people shut out of the midst of the Quire than the Quire shut up in the midst of the people if Ordo Romanus be considered which Durandus examined as exactly as any man else So that for a conclusion I may say of this man as the Steward does of those that make a Feast They keep their worst wine till the last so hath he kept his worst arguments till the last If that which he brings out of Eusebius S. Austin and the fifth Councell of Constantinople will not save him from perishing in this cause it will be bootlesse to catch at Durandus or Platina either Let him bring in these and they will pluck Ordo Romanus after them and then has he ordered the matter wel in his Lettered Institutions delivered to the Vicar For certainly if there be good reason that Durandus carry a hard hand against the Vicar if he be for the Penman it is as good reason that the Penman feele it as hard upon him if he speake for the Vicar This Milstone of a consequence the Author has whelmed upon himselfe under which I leave him as Durandus himselfe was once left sub lapide duro and how he will quit himselfe nescio nec ego curo But though this mans proofes borrowed of antiquity faile him for his project in taking away of Altars Or setting them up in the body of the Church among the people yet he may hope of better successe from the Orders and Articles of our owne Church True this is indeed his endeavour but if he have the Father for enemy it is a desperate assay to raise a party for him of his children But I forbeare to censure him and take leave to follow him and behold the issue Thus he writeth to the Vicar CAP. XVIII The consent and testimony of Fathers ought to be reverenced What office at the Altar might be performed by none but Priests Of Sacrifices mentioned in the holy Fathers of the purest times Of S. Iustin S. Irenaeus Tertullian S. Cyprian S. Chrysostome S. Ambrose S. Augustine The Councell of Carthage c. THE purpose of this Author was doubtlesse to astonish the poore Vicar and to cast him into a Trance and to take away the use of his senses that he should not understand nor see any difference betweene having an Altar or setting the Lords Table Altarwise as our Diocesane and the Governours of our Church have ordered the bringing in of that other Oblation which the Papists offer upon their Altars What this other Oblation is he tels us not now nor named before One of the twaine sure had beene requisite for him that meant to deale clearely Thus whether out of ignorance or guile he involves himselfe and perplexeth the poore Vicar For the good man finds himself metamorphosed into a Papist he knowes not how his intention made that other oblation God knowes what The Lords Table set Altar-wise resolved a blasphemous figment and a pernicious imposture and all this done against himselfe by no body but himself under his owne hand when he subscribed to the 31. Article Here is a knack of art dexterously and swiftly performed if it would hold But God forbid that any impostor should make a man what God never made him Though what this man fetcheth about nimbly and invisibly in a refined way of giving satisfaction and advice blunt malice practiseth daily with downright strokes But that the Vicar may keepe his owne shape against all practises of transformation it stands him in hand to have a double guard alwaies about him of the holy Fathers and blessed Martyrs of the Primitive Church and of the learned and godly Fathers of our owne Church Against these two Inchanters have no power charme they never so wisely or rudely The first thing then to be done for the poore mans security against mishapening of him into a Papist is to shew this That in case he had prevailed in his desire to bring in an Altar or to set the Lords board Altar-wise which thanks be to God is now done by our Bishops direction yet neither his Altar nor oblation nor sacrifice would have been condemned for blasphemous figments or dangerous deceits the ancient and holy Fathers and blessed Martyrs being Iudges I hope there is no man but will reverence the authority of these Fathers and not cast any such imputation upon them as to say in the censorious straine of our bold Centurists that they spake not according to the custome of the Scriptures or that they did obscure the true doctrine and right use of the Lords Supper or that by their liberty and impropriety of speech they brought diverse inconveniencies to Gods Church Let such boldnesse be farre from good children to teach their fathers to speake Kemnitius teacheth them more modesty and goodnesse Bonae mentes plurimum moventur consensu testimonio antiquitatis The Fathers of our Church testifie the like reverence not allowing any Preachers doctrine but such as the ancient Fathers have reaped and gathered out of holy Scripture to his hand Let therefore the Fathers themselves speak whether Altars and all manner of Oblations and Sacrifices praises and thanksgiving excepted were had in such abomination that they were esteemed blasphemous figments and dangerous deceits The Prophet Malachi saith S. Iustin Martyr did prophesie de sacrificiis gentium of the Sacrifices which the Gentiles should offer in every place that is De pane Eucharistiae Poculo Eucharistiae It appeareth that S. Iustin that holy Martyr did call the Eucharist a Sacrifice and hath the Prophet for his warrant Anno 150. S. Irenaeus also saith that when Christ tooke the Bread and the Wine he said the bread was his body and confessed the wine to be his bloud novi testamenti novam docuit oblationem and taught a new Oblation of the New Testament which the Church receiving from the Apostles in universo mundo offert Deo doth offer unto God in all the world This saith he is that pure sacrifice offered unto God in every place which the Prophet Malachi spake of before Prayers and almes deeds are a sacrifice acceptable to God as the same holy Martyr sheweth out of S. Paul Phil. 4. yet that is no new Oblation brought in by the Apostles but taught from the beginning of the world in Abels Sacrifice Gen. 4. Anno
of Praise Prayer Almes-deeds and the like and there were Sacrifices which neither they nor Deacons neither might offer and such were those Sacrifices whereof the Fathers make so often mention that are offered at the Holy Altar Of such the Nicene Councell speaketh Diaconi offerendi Sacrificii non habent potestatem and the Councel of Carthage Conc. Bracarense and many more All Gods people men and women were allowed to offer some Sacrifices to commemorate the death of Christ upon the Crosse to offer all manner of spirituall and Christian Sacrifices of Fasting Prayer Mortification Almes-deeds praising of God reading and preaching of Gods Word but the Sacrifice of the Altar wherein the Death and Passion of Iesus Christ is commemorated in the Consecration of the Bread and Wine and breaking and delivering them to the Faithfull is the particular function of the Priest to performe Thus wee see Altars Oblations and Sacrifices were in common use amongst the most holy Saints of God that ever lived Therefore farre bee it from this man to condemne these or the like in our Church for blasphemous figments and pernitious impostures Farre be it I say from him even as farre as it was from the mind of those learned and godly Fathers that framed the 31. Article whose meaning may yet more cleerely appeare from the declaration made therof by their successors in place piety and learning whereof we are now to speake CAP. XIX The meaning of the 31. Article delivered What Sacrifices are blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits The doctrine of our Church herein taught by Bishop Mountague Bishop Andrewes Bishop White and Mr. Casaubon Homilie of Sacraments IT is very meet that wee enquire more narrowly into the meaning of the 31. Article For we may be sure that those godly and learned Fathers of our Church that give strict charge to private Preachers that they shall take heed that they teach nothing in their Preaching which they would have the people religiously to believe and observe but that which is agreeable to the doctrine of the Old Testament or the New and that which the Catholicke Fathers and ancient Bishops have gathered out of that doctrine will not censure the constant doctrine of the Fathers and Primitive Church for blasphemous Fables and dangerous deceits nor yet involve and lap Chemnitius Gerardus and other sound Protestants yet such as suffer Altars still to stand as this Author tells us within any plait or fold of that their censure The words of the 31. Article whereunto this lettered man relateth are these The Sacrifice of Masses in the which it was commonly said that the Priests did offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of paine and guilt were blasphemous Fables and dangerous deceits Now let us heare what is the true and Orthodox meaning hereof out of the mouthes of the most learned men of our Church and such as the most learned Prince that ever was in this kingdome King Iames of happy memory allowed and set on worke to deliver the mind of the Church and of himselfe in this very point And in this ranke I begin with Bishop Mountague Bishop Mountague speaking as he saith himselfe in Bishop Mortons words saith thus I beleeve no such Sacrifice of the Altar as the Church of Rome doth I fancy no such Altars as they imploy though I professe a Sacrifice and an Altar And a little after speaking of his adversaries saith thus I have so good opinion of your understanding though weake that you will confesse the blessed Sacrament of the Altar or Communion Table whether you please to be a Sacrifice not propitiatory as they call it for the living and dead not an externall visible true proper Sacrifice but only representative rememorative and spirituall Sacrifice Now if you grant a Sacrifice why deny you an Altar And againe I have used the phrase of Altar for the Communion Table according to the manner of antiquity and am like enough sometimes to use it still nor will I abstaine notwithstanding your agginition to follow the steps and practise of antiquity in using the words Sacrifice and Priest-hood also and yeâ— be further from Popery in that practice than you from Puritanismâ— or any Puritane indeed from true Popery being two birds of one feather It appeareth plainely from hence that our Church doth not condemne the Sacrifice of the Altar mentioned in the holy Fathers for blasphemous figments and dangerous deceits but the Sacrifice of Masses because the common opinion held of them was that they were propitiatory externalâ— visible true and proper Sacrifices for the quick and the dead For had they beene commonly held to be no more but representative rememorative and spirituall Sacrifices our Church would not then doth not now finde any fault with them What the fault is the said most learned and acute Bishop proveth out of Saint Cyprian in this â—ort Nam si Iesus Christus Dominus Deus Noster ipse est â—ummus Sacerdos dei Patris sacrificium Patri seipsum â—btulit hoc fieri in sui commemorationem praecepiâ— utique illâ— Sacerdos vice Christi vere fungitur qui id quod Christus feciâ— imitatur sacrificium verum ac pleâ—um tunc â—ffert in Ecclesia Deo Patri si sic incipiat offerre secundum quod ipsum Christum videat obtulisse You doe not this saith he to the Gagger therefore in Saint Cyprians judgement your Sacrifice is neither full nor true The like doth the Reverend Bishop of Elie avouch turning his speech to the Cardinall and saying thus At vos tollite de missa transubstantiationem vestram nec diu nobiscum lis erit de Sacrificio Memoriam ibi Sacrificii damus non inviti Sacrificari ibi Christum vestrum de pane factum nunquam daturi Sacrificii vocem scit Rex Patribus usurpatum nec ponit inter res novas at vestri in missa Sacrificii audet ponit Take you Transubstantiation out of the Masse and we will not contend with you about a Sacrifice A memory of a Sacrifice we grant but grant we will never that Christ made of bread is Sacrificed The word Sacrifice is in use among the Fathers this the King knoweth well enough and hee placeth it not among Noveltyes as he doth the Sacrifice in your Masse Will you be pleased yet further to heare of the doctrine of our Church in this particular out of learned Doctor White now Lord Bishop of Elie. The things which wee simply condemne in the Popish Masse are these 1. That CHRIST existing in earth covered with formes of Bread and Wine is in his very substance offered to God his Father 2. We reject private Masses in which the Priest eateth alone and undertaketh for a fee to apply the fruit thereof to particular persons 3. That it is of equall force with the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Crosse. 4. That it conferreth grace by the outward worke
things hence or that the complying of these holy Fathers with Gods people the Iewes is in this respect any argument of their secret and undue creeping in or not rather a forcible argument to warrant and justifie the bringing of them into the Christian Church and the due honouring of them being no worse things than such as the types whereof were shewed Moses in the Mount and are themselves with their Priests and holy service performed about them visible types of the triumphant Church in heaven and for this cause as chiefly because they are the seats and Chaires of estate where the Lord vouchsafeth to place himselfe amongst us as Optatus speaketh have beene in all ages so greatly honoured and regarded of the most wise most learned and most blessed Saints of God So that he which saies Altars crept into the Church by a kindâ— of complying with the people of the Iewes may with as good reason say that the orders of Archbishops Bishops Priestâ— and Deacons with their severall offices and degrees with their attyre habits and vestments together with oblations tythes glebe lands and maintenance crept into the Christian Church by a kinde of complying with the Iewes and are therefore alike and altogether to bee cast out of the Church as Iudaicall Ceremonies But God forbid that any sonne of the Church as this man intitles himselfe or Vniversity either should shew so little good affection and learning as to speake or thinke the worse of any of these for their complying with the people of the Iewes herein and cast them out as Iudaicall ceremonies For what the Patriarchs and people of the Iewes practised by the law of nature or the rule of right reason or by inspiration of Gods Spirit many hundred yeares before the Ceremoniall or Leviticall Law was given are not to be ranked among Iudaicall Ceremonies which were fulfilled in our Saviour Christ and were by him taken away and nailed to his Crosse. The Councell of Aquisgrane and the Fathers whom they follow take us out another lesson For then making of vowes singing of Psalmes and spirituall Songs keeping of Feasts observing of Fasts dedicating of places for Gods Worship ordayning and maintaining of Priests and Deacons as well as Altars should all be cast out from the face of this man and his abettors as Moses was from the presence of Pharaoh beware thou see my face no more thou art crept in among us that are the sons of the Church under a Vizard made of a kind of complying with the Iewes whose Mosaicall ceremonies we renounce But it is to be hoped that he that weares the name of the Sonne of the Church will not to her wrong under that ensigne advance the party of Donatus Nihil honorificentius quà m ut Imperator Ecclesiae filius esse dicatur sayes Saint Ambrose a sonne of the Church is a name for Kings and Emperors the nursing Fathers of the Church and it were sacriledge to steale it away from them and convey it to their and her enemies But if this man be a sonne of the Church then may we say with Iacob deliver me ô Lord I pray thee from the hand of my brother from the hand of Esau lest he come and smite the Mother upon her Children He had shewed himselfe more likâ—â— sonne of the Church if he had said that the name of Sabbath had crept into the Church in a kinde of complying in phrase with the people of the Iewes and that in a shadow of things to come as if Christ were not come in the flesh against the Apostles express doctrin and charge Col. 2. and from hence would have sought to have cast out that old leaven out of our Church which hath sowred the affections of too many towards the Church and disturbed the peace and hindred the pious devotion thereof CAP. XXIII The conceit of a Dresser unworthy a Divine Suting Psychicus in Tertullian The Patriarch and Bishops in the fifth Councel expresse a different apprehension thereof Christs first institution of the Sacrament no rule to us in matters Circumstantiall An Altar confessed by the Author Saint Paul did and the Church may order things otherwise than Christ used The Eucharist to be received Fasting THe Authour hath much busied himselfe to pull downe disgrace and cast out Christian Altars as ever did Abraham Isaac or Iacob or the old Christians before Moses or Moses David Salomon or any of the Patriarches before CHRIST or any blessed Martyres holy Saints of God and zealous Christians since Christ have beene to build consecrate adorne and honour them Whose Factor he is and of whom he is to receive his pay the enemy of Altars that befriended him with this inspiration best knowes But if his pay must be proportioned noâ— by his good will but by his good successe then can it not be good The man I thinke was borne when all good starres had their backes toward him And if he bare not Sisera's minde why do the Stars fight against him in their order for that wherin he thinkes to winne a reputation by disgrace of Altars brings them honour and him confusion at every turne Such is the proud mans destiny In eo deijciuntur in quo extâ—lluntur sayes Saint Austin their table is their snare their prosperity their ruine they hope to leane on a wall and adders sting them Sicut fumus peribunt The higher smoake mounteth the further from heaven the neerer to nothing So hath it fared with this man from the beginning hitherto The higher he built his hopes upon old writers or new the lower is he beaten with their fall upon his head It is found by his owne Authors that Altars were in the Christian Church within lesse than 200. yeares after Christ that they did not stand in the body of the Church that they did not creepe in that their complying confuteth their creeping Hitherto wee are gone already and now comes forth a reason against the setting of the Lords Table Altarwise made of such stuffe that if he had studyed all his life long to honour Altars in the opinion of good Christians and to fill his owne face with shame he could not I thinke find any comparable to this fulsome and nasty conceit of a Dresser The Country people would suppose them Dressers I confesse unfainedly that this speech was so scandalous and offensive to me and I perswade my selfe it is no lesse to any Christian apprehension and trencht so close upon blasphemy that I could not choose but take up such stones as lay neere mee to cast at it And I cannot but wonder how any man I will not say in holy orders meditating on the holy Eucharist Consecrated upon the most holy Altar standing no otherwise than it ever did in the holy Catholicke Church but any man of gentle extraction liberall education and virtuous disposition could have so unhallowed and degenerate a thought come into his mind fitter for Epicurus or one of Bacchus Priests than
assent which I believe neither of you will ever be able to doe in this Letter the world sees you have not done it Yet are not you or he Master of an other mans understanding and of his will much lesse no more than the Vicar is of his eares in Tacitus as you wittily allude You know he to whom all things were committed gives off when it comes to this with Ego volui vos autem noluistis So it may be probably presumed that some of Gr. and others of that Immercuriall wood may be so knotty sturdy that if you come with your Herculean armes to twine and twist them with your rationibus cogentibus they will cracke in the bending like a gunne and say non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris Nay give me leave to say thus much that if you had a purpose to prepare and send forth factious seditious schismaticall and hereticall Foxes into the standing Corne of Church and Common-wealth you need tye no other fire brands to their tayles nor inspire them with any other doctrine or afford them any prime Materials or principles so full of spawne and probability to multiply their like for them to hatch and worke upon as this feracious and pregnant Plebiscite that what is by Law custome prescription or prerogative royall appointed and setled shall not be allowed or practised by the men of some incorporation or other before it bee maintained rationibus cogentibus Let this principle be granted behold what a spectacle I shall present unto you withall Let this mans plot take effect that nothing be allowed but what such as he and the Vicar shall maintaine rationibus cogentibus the men of Grantham being Iudges and such Scribes and Pharisees as this man appeares to bee then the orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons with their tythes and maintenance together with the houses of God and all Consecrate things the power of the keyes and all discipline shall be utterly overthrowne and ruinated Then shall the holy Scripture the holy Sacraments the Articles of our Creed and saying of our Lords Prayer bee doubted of and called into question Then shall the power of Kings and Monarchs with their Crownes and dignityes with their Lawes Ordinances and prerogatives be shaken nay racketed up and downe If a decree come from Augustus Caesar that all the world shall be taxed and if Tiberius after him and their successors Princes and Monarchs shall require taxes and tollages Carts and cariages aydes and subsidies of their subjects in never so gracious a manner for the necessary support of the Common-wealth the Crowne and dignity though this power doe belong to Monarchs and that the Kings of Israel and Iudah from the first to the last and all Emperours and Kings heathen and Christian exercised and practised the same and that St. Paul to prove himselfe as Theophylact sayes to be no Galilean impose a necessity of this duty upon all good Christians yee must be subject for Conscience sake and testifie your true subjection by ready payment of customes and tributes and that all holy Fathers resolve that all mens goods even of Clergy men are subject to the impositions of their Princes agreeing herein with Theophylact who delivers the cause of such subjection to Princes qui nisi essent jam omnia olim periissent potentioribus imbecilliores devorantibus yet will Iudas of Galile who as Origen saies against Celsus was a man of great place and account in that Countrey and by his example the men of Galilee stand out till the Emperour maintaine his edict rationibus cogentibus otherwise hee which payes makes himselfe Caesars slave sayes Iudas of Galile as Iosephus reports him pretending the defence of publike liberty Sed revera privatorum lucrorum studio But our Saviour Christ who was a Galilean by habitation and suspected to be tainted with that Galilean leven and tempted accordingly with that question Is it lawfull to pay tribute to Caesar and strongly put to it shall wee pay it or shall we not pay it both under Augustus and Tiberius did submit himselfe to their prerogative and did not stand out till he was convinced rationibus cogentibus For who could frame a better argument for exemption from their authority than that which is included in that question of whom doe the Kings of the earth intimating other Kings as well as Caesar take tribute or poll mony of their sonnes or of strangers and concludes that the children are free wherein his exemption is clearely included yet for all that lest we should be an offence unto them by putting them to maintaine their right as this man counsels and Iudas would doe rationibus cogentibus though the tax was heavy dragma and sometimes Didragma viid. ob and xvd. upon every pol which was the double dayes wages of a labourer and yearely payd yet our Saviour gives present order and rather than a fayling should be with him or his workes a miracle for payment thereof Our Saviour Christ allowes of what is appointed by the edict of a heathen Prince and setled only by right of Prerogative and prescription without requiring to have the same maintained rationibus cogentibus And so ought this author to doe or destroy GODS Ordinance But I beseech you consider what large and spacious floud-gates this man sets wide open to let in a whole deluge of confusion impiety and sacriledge into the Church if the contents of his Letter in this particular might obtaine viz. that the constitutions orders decrees appointed by Canon or received by tradition of holy Church be not of absolute authority and require full obedience but are to be scanned and disputed and not allowed or received before they be maintained rationibus cogentibus You shall neither say nor read the Apostles Creed much lesse the Nicene and Constantinopolitan Creed for Arrius Eutichus Nestorius and an 100. Hereticks more will tell you that the Articles touching the Deity and Humanity of our Saviour Christ and concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost and the true descent of Christs soule into hell the place of the damned are not maintained rationibus cogentibus You shall not believe that the Mother of our Lord was a Virgin ante partum in partu and post partum for you know who have not beene ashamed impiously and blasphemously to write and Preach the contrary and doe hold that it is not maintained rationibus cogentibus you shall not believe the holy Catholicke Church because you know who say it is not maintained rationibus cogentibus the word Catholike being not found in all the Scripture You shall goe nigh to lose two petitions of seven of the Lords Prayer Luk. 13. Fiat voluntas tua libera nos à malo because some may say that it is not maintained rationibus cogentibus that there ought to be more in the Greek than are in the Vulgar translation You shall lose all Saint Pauls Epistles for Ebions sake and especially the Epistle to the
reverence to the Name of IESVS as he ought to doe and they deride him and complaine of him what will become of the man trow ye He must utterly forbeare to use any reverence to the Name of IESVS and conforme himselfe therein to this discreet and modest Alderman and his brethren or be laught out of the Church for doing the same as by Canon he is appoined I pray you therefore tell me whether this personating person had not said enough in this So of his to keepe the Vicar that he should never doe the reverence appointed by Canon to that blessed Name of IESVS if he must doe it with this hazard Exposed he is to derision to derision of his enemies enemies that have appeared against him enemies fleshed countenanced and graced against him excluded also from all hope of reliefe And now that he has set him in this crampe he bids him doe his reverence on Gods name as law appoints Either he must be a profane Esau and flat Schismatick and not do it or be made a Holocaust indeed a Confessor or Martyr if he do it Had this man railed against the Canon and the makers thereof in odious and ribald-like termes with Martin or disputed against it with Cartwright with spitefull and venomous reasons he could not have frustrated the execution thereof so speedily and effectually as he hath here done with his artificiall and plausible dandling of the poore man approving commending and bidding him do it but in such a sort that if he do it he shall be sure to bring an old house on his head for observing an old popish antiquated Canon If there be laughing jeering and derision in the Church and that raised in the judgement of the discreet and modest Alderman and his brethren by reason of the Vicars bowing affectedly at the name of IESVS I pray you what will be come of the man had not he a faire warning given him and see he would not looke to it The Item was seasonable Doe it So you do it not affectedly to procure derision of the Parishioners And now behold here are the best of the Parish make a generall complaint against you that you have done it affectedly and procured much derision I see there are offences and Vmbrages taken by the Towne against you whereof I gave you a timely caveat when I spake with you last and that which I did not then suspect is now come to passe The Alderman whom I have knowne this 17. or 18. yeares to bee a discreet and modest man and farre from any humour of Innovation together with the better sort of the Towne have complained against you What is now to bee done bad enough with the Vicar I feare me but that all this is but done in perspective without realities The Penman of the Letter would but let you see a device of his phansie So I leave the Vicar but in a phantasticall danger But what I pray you will become of the Church if this lettered mans device should Cotton and take reall effect For though he doe but play in counterfeiting his Ordinary yet he playes as the Cat doth with the Mouse for in the end he intends to ruine her and to be the death of all her Canons If the Centurion or a meaner man even this Penman himselfe say to his servant goe hee goeth or bid him doe this hee doth it But the case is not so with the Church her decrees constitutions and Canons must be scanned and disputed upon before any obedience bee yeelded them Shee like a Mother commands and of right expects Obedience immediately from her sonnes She saies ye shall all bowe both Priest and people at the blessed Name of Iesus But this man thinkes fit to demurre upon the command of his mother and before he will performe it or be a meanes if his place require it to exact obedience in others he will have the matter disputed on and disputed before the good men of a Corporation And then the disputer must use no inartificiall arguments and say the Church so appoints this perfit artificer and Peter Ramus will not allow of that So but he must first of all maintaine the decree of the Church with arguments and reasons and those must bee forcible too rationibus cogentibus or else no bargaine and that is as much in Vicars power or any mans else to force the approbation of his reasons upon wilfull and dis-affected persons as it is to avoyd the derision of his gestures In the meane time the Authority of the Church stands at a weake stay if the Vicar must lend his shoulder to proppe it up with his rationibus cogentibus that it reele not on his head And it would be a merry world with the men of every good Towne if they might bee allowed to piert upon the Canons of the Church and crow over her authority and bring her to the question before the common Councell to know of CHRISTS Spouse as they did of Christ Himselfe by what authority doest thou these things to make us bow at the Name of IESVS and who gave thee this authority within our incorporation Saint Paul saies indeed every knee shall bow c. But we among our selves have concluded that that place Phil. 2.10 is meant of the knees of the soule What shall the Vicar doe in this case with his rationibus cogentibus If hee tell them the ancient Fathers expound it of the knees of the body as well as of the knees of the soule or of spirits or divels and that according to the plaine Text of Scripture and doctrine of antiquity the Church hath ordered that the knees of your body shall bow as well as the knees of your soule to that IESVS that is a Saviour of the body as well as of the soule this is new doctrine to them Therefore now there is no remedy but to take him along with them into Mars-street and after they have benched themselves say May we not know what this new doctrine wherof thou speakest is for thou bringest certaine strange things to our â—ares wee would know therefore what these things meane Doubtlesse this is the liberty this man seekes to thrust into their hands But thankes be to God there is not a Corporation in this kingdome I perswade my selfe but hath more grace piety discretion and good government than to lend an eare to such idle Dreamers that as Saint Iude saies defile the flesh despise Dominion and speake evill of dignities and by the grace of GOD they will be wiser than to be bewitched with the charms of his commendations of discreet and modest men who does but seeke thereby to praise them into Innovation by cunningly applauding them to be farre fâ—om any humour of Innovation They therefore in their discretions and wisedome will thinke fit in matters of the Church to guide themselves by what they see done in the Kings Majesties Chapels and in Cathedral and Mother Churches and to order themselves