the Body and Blood of thy most well-beloved Son c. These other words were to be read Fac nobis hanc oblationem ascriptam rationabilem acceptabilem quod est Figura Corporis et sanguinis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi which is the Figure of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ All that made me know that to establish the belief of Reallity with Transubstantiation in the Church of Rome there hath been need not only to corrupt the Scriptures and to give them an interpretation which is absurd impossible and ridiculous but moreover to withstand all Antiquity Ch. 2. §. 2. to pervert the Writings of the Holy Fathers even to suborn the Canon of the Mass which afore such monstrous corruption was slipt into the Church was but a certain number of Prayers devout enough and very reasonable Those horrible alterations which I discovered caused me to look with detestation upon the belief of the Roman Church and to mistrust it in every thing SECT II. The Belief of Rome about the Sacrifice of the Mass is contrary to the belief of the Primitive Church I. In what sense it is true to say that the Holy Sacrament is a Sacrifice A Little while after I discovered the consequences and the progressions of the Error and the Falshood of this other Article of the Council of Trent (a) Sess 2.2 cap. 1 2. can 1 2 3. The Mass is a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and for the Dead To explain this Proposition we must suppose with the Scripture that Alms Prayers and Thanksgivings and the rest of our good Works are Eucharistick Sacrifices so the Prophet (b) Cap. 14. v. 3. Hosea calls the Thanks which we give to God The Calves of our Lips So David directs his Prayers unto God saying (c) Psal 141.2 Let my Prayer be set forth before thee as incense and the lifting up of my Hands as the Evening Sacrifice So (d) Ad Heb. 13.15 St. Paul following after David says Let us offer the Sacrifice of Praise to God continually that is the fruit of our Lips giving thanks to the Name It is in that sense that all the Christians in the Scripture are called Priests Ye are (e) 1 Pet. 2.9 says St. Peter awchosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an Holy Nation a peculiar People that ye should shew forth the Parises of him who has called you out of Darkness into his marvellous Light And St. John in his (f) Rev. 1.6 Revelations He has made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father From whence you see that the Sacrifices of the Christians are Prayers Alms Thanksgivings and good Works and that all the Christians are themselves the Priests who offer them to God In that sense I conceived very well that the Holy Sacrament being the Commemoration of the death of the Son of God was a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving of Praises of bounden Duty and Service as I have learned since more perfectly in the Book of Common-Prayer wherein immediately after having received the Holy Communion we say O Lord and Heavenly Father we thy humble Servants entirely desire thy Fatherly Goodness merceifully to accept this our Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving And Although we be unworthy through our manifold Sins to offer unto thee any Sacrifice yet we beseech thee to accept this our bounden duty and service And then I did embrace very willingly the Doctrin I took since out of D. D. H. Hammond his (a) Lib. 4. Sect. 4. Practical Catechism out of Arch-bishop Cranmer his (b) Lib. 5. p. 377. Answer to Bishop Gardner D. Sim. Patrick in his Christian Sacrifice viz. That the Propitiatory Sacrifice had been made by our Lord Jesus Christ only but that the Sacrifice of Commemoration and Thanksgiving is made now by the Minister and the People II. The pretended Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Roman church is contrary to the Scripture THe Doctrine of the Council of Trent touching this Question seemed to me very harsh They must believe that Christ is Immolated every day in the Sacrament that a Roman Priest doth offer the Son of God unto his Father and that he doth offer him as a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and the Dead Alas said I is not that to wrong Christ's Priest-hood to give him so many Fellow-Priests and petti-Sacrificers St. Paul (a) Ad Heb. cap. 7.23 Teaches me that the difference betwixt Moses's Law and Christ's consists in this that in the Law of Moses there was need to keep several Priests for as much as being Mortal they were to be Successors one to another but in the Law of Christ our Saviour Jesus Christ who is the Priest himself has no need of a Successor since he is living for ever since he is Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec They truly were many Priests saith he because they were not suffered to continue by reason of Death but this Christ because he continueth for ever hath an unchangeable Priesthood after that who doth not see that the Roman Church which says that her Priests are true Sacrificers and Christ's Successors in his Priesthood wrong Christ our Lord supposing that his Priest-hood has the same Imperfection as that of Moses's Law St. Paul teaches me that the Reason why in Moses's Law they reiterated their Sacrifices because the Blood of the Beasts which were offered was not able to sanctifie Sinners The Law Ad Heb. 10.1 saith he can never with those Sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect For then would they not have ceased to be offered Because that the Worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of Sins What then Doth the Church of Rome mean that the Sacrifice of the Cross was not able to Sanctifie Sinners that it has no more virtue than the Sacrifices of Moses's Law which were to be very oft reiterated doth that Church intend to give the Lye unto the Apostle who says (a) Ad Heb. 10.10 That we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all And that (b) Ad Heb. 10.14 By one offering he has perfected for ever them that are Sanctified If the Sacrifice of the Cross of Christ has sanctified us all there remains nothing to do but to gain to our selves by Faith an interest in the Merit of his Death and Passion What do then signifie all those reiterated Sacrifices And if Christ's Priest-hood is everlasting Christ being living for ever why do they appoint Successors in his Priest-hood Are not all the Masses of Rome as many Blasphemies which accuse the Death and Passion of Christ of insufficiency and imperfection And all those Romish pettiSacrificers erected without any Order or Vocation of God are not they the Usurpers of Christ's Priesthood III. What has given occasion to that Error and the Degrees of Corruption which brought forth that Belief TO discover the stock of that Error
my self engaged upon pain of a mortal Sin to recite every day the 119th Psalm wherefore I did read it every day with as much application as I could Ch. 1. §. 1. The obligation to recite it so often did never make me to loath and though I were weary oftentimes to Read or to hear Read I do not know how many fabulous Stories which are to be found in the Roman Breviary several thwart applications of the Scripture several Orisons and Litanies wherein they Pray to all the Saints one after another to obtain of them the things which we are to hope only from God Almighty yet I was never loath to hear the Scripture especially this Psalm whereunto I had some most peculiar Attractions I went to Church with joy I opened my Breviary with pleasure to Read that Psalm and I discovered therein every day some new glimps of Light which inticed me to have a great deal of Esteem for the Word of God Psalm 119. It is in that Psalm I learned that the Wor of God is an excellent remedy to Cure all the Diseases of our Souls (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. drawing them out of their Deboachments and a miraculous Preservative (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 11. to keep them from falling again into Sin Therein I learned that an infallible mark to be sure whether a man fears God or no is to know whether he be glad (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 74 to see and frequent those who put all their trust in his Holy Word Therein I learned that a very good way to become (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 98. Wiser than all our Enemies to have more * 99. understanding than all our Teachers * 100. to be Wiser than the Ancients is to love the Scriptures so that our Study be in them all the day long Therein I learned that the Word of God is an Holy Contract full of a great many very obliging Promises wherein the Lord has been pleased to agree with men (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 50. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 82. to comfort them in their afflictions (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 107 to strengthen them in their troubles to fulfil them (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 58. with his loving Mercies to save them (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 81. to deal well with them (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 65. to take them in his Protection and to deliver them Therein I learned that the Saints are to love the Word of God (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 154. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 170. above all Silver and Gold in the World that (i) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 72. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 127. it is their Meditations all the day long That the cause of their grief and trouble is to see that their Enemies which are no others than the Enemies of God (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 97. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 148. have forgotten his Holy Words despised them and banished them out of their hearts therein I learned that the Word of God (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 139. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 158. is sweeter than any thing that it is (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 103. a LAMP unto our Feet and a LIGHT unto our Path that (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 105. the entrance of the word of God gives LIGHT that it gives understanding unto the simple that this holy Word is (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 130. very Pure that it is (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 140. true from the beginning and that it (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 160. endureth for ever These Holy thoughts of a Prophet full of the Holy Ghost presented themselves every day unto my eyes with some new inticements and made me conceive so high an esteem of the word of God that I fully resolved to make the Holy Writings my peculiar Study I read first many times that Translation of the Bible which is called the Vulgar Translation then having obtained the permission of Reading the Scripture in a Vulgar Tongue knowing that one 's own Tongue prints in his mind more pure and more lively Notions I read the Translation of the Bible by the Doctorsof Louvain But whereas I heard say every day by those I conversed withal that the Bible was a Book full of Darkness that the Translations thereof had been corrupted by the Hereticks I read the New Testament in the Togue in which every body confesses it has been first written and as for the Old Testament the places which they say have been corrupted by those of the Reformed Church I conferred with the Translation of the Sventy Interpreters which I thought free from Corruption since it was done about 272 Years afore the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ Good God! how marvellous are the means thou art pleased to use to act thy Miracles would some body had told me at that time Oh you are plunged in many Errors and all that Study of the Scripture to which you give your self with so great an application it is the work of God who begins to pluck you from the Errors of Rome Alas I should have been amazed very much Yet for all that it is very true for if I had been altogether Ignorant of the Original Tongues of the Scripture I should have had some Reason or at least some pretence to mistrust that the places of the Scripture which are directly contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome Ch. 1. §. 2. had not been Translated according to the Originals or that the Interpreters had changed the sense and the signification of them as it is cried out so often by those of the Roman Church § 2. The Errors of the Roman Church whereof I was perswaded made me find in the Scriptures many difficulties many insufficiencies and many contradictions THe reading of the Scripture raised in my mind many difficulties Difficulties of the Scripture not that the Scripture is dark in it self but because I had my understanding full of the Errors of Rome and I did endevour to find those Errors in the Scripture in the places from whence the Roman Writers are wont to draw them This place of (a) Matth. 16.18 St. Matthew Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will Build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it c. That of (b) Luke 22.32 St. Luke I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not and that (a) John 21.16 of St. John Feed my Sheep c. If all these Words do signifie nothing but what every body conceives by the natural notions which they do picture in our Soul these Words are very easie but if they do signifie that the Pope is the true Successor of St. Peter the Vicar of Christ the High-Priest the Head
be found in the Roman Church who durst prove against them as did Tertullian against Marcion that the Sacrament of the Eucharist is the Figure of Christs Body and that consequently Christ was not a Ghost On the contrary a Protestant would be able to bring against those Heresies the same Arguments which the first Christians used and he would be warranted therein by all his Church From whence comes that difference if not from that that a Protestant believes nothing concerning the Sacrament but what they believed in the Primitive Church whereas a Divine of the Church of Rome acknowledges several articlesof Faith which were unknown among the First Christians and which consequently are the cause he cannot speak the same Language nor use the same Arguments they used These two Reasons seemed to me so much the stronger because I looked upon them not as the opinion of a single man who may be deceived or some place of a Book which may be corrupted and drawn into an ill sense but I looked upon these Reasons as the Reasons of all the Church and publick Weapons both of Learned Men and of the People to fight the Heathens and the Hereticks with all III. Third Proof drawn out of the manner whereafter the Fathers were wont to speak of this Holy Sacrament THat which confirmed me that in the Primitive Church they did not believe the Real Presence with Transubstantiation was the manner wherewith the Fathers both Greek and Latin were wont to speak of those Mysteries Theodoret (a) In 55 Quaestiosuper genesim says It is an extreme foclishness and extravagancy to Worship what one Eats 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the same in (b) Dialog 1. Intitled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another place The LORD says he did the honour to the visible Signs to call them his BLOOD and his BODY not having changed their Nature but having added Grace to Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is there any appearance that the Fathers believed what the Council of Trent teaches A Divine of the Church of Rome who should say that it is an extreme extravagancy to Worship what one Eats That Christ hath not changed the Nature of Bread and Wine in the Sacrament would he not presently be sent to the Inquisition and condemned as an Heretick to be burnt a live The Eucharist say the Fathers of the Church (a) Cyprian de Caena cap. 6. is a visible Sacrament whereupon the Divine Essence imparts it self after an unutterable manner It (b) Idem cap. 2. is an Holy Nutriment capable of rendering us Immortal which is very much different from the ordinary Nutriments we are daily fed withal It keeps indeed the kind of a corporeal substance but it makes known by an invisible efficacy that it possesses the Presence of a Divine Vertue (c) Hilary de Trinit lib. 8. we are in Christ by his corporeal Birth and he is in us by the Mysteries of his Sacraments (d) August cap. 12. cont Adimant The Lord did not doubt to say this is my Body when he gave the Sign of his Body He (a) Idem in Psal 3. permitted Judas to be present at the Banquet wherein he committed and gave to his Disciples the Figure of his Body and Blood If a Roman Author should use these expressions which the Holy Fathers used would not a Bishop of the Roman Church zealous for the Interests of the Council of Trent say to him Sir 't is not enough to say with Cyprian tha tthe Divine Essence imparts it self in the Eucharist after an unutterable manner the Hereticks say all that You must say furthermore the Body and Soul of Christ are there really in the room of the substance of Bread 'T is not enough to say the Eucharist is an Holy Nutriment of a Divine Vertue the Hereticks do confess all that You must say moreover it contains the Real Presence of Christs Body and Blood 'T is not enough to say that Christ is in us by the Mysteries of his Sacraments the Hereticks do believe the same thing but you must say he is in us really his Body his Soul his Divinity In fine you must have a very great care of saying the Sacrament is the Sign and the Figure of Christ's Body and Blood as St. Austin said you must say to the contrary that it is not the Figure of Christ's Body and Blood you must say that it is Christ's own Body and Blood into which the Bread and Wine of the Lord's Supper is Transubstantiated Certainly this Bishop would speak well according to the belief of the new Roman Church but he would be far from the Doctrin of the holy Fathers He would forsake the Faith of the Primitive Church he would bring forth propositions of which the first Christians have been wholly ignorant he would even condemn the Belief of 330 Bishops of a general Council held at Constantinople in the year 754. for those 330 Bishops condemning as Idolatry the Worshiping of Images among the Reasons they brought did exhort the People to be contented with the Images that Christ has instituted giving in the Holy Sacrament Bread and Wine as Images and Figures of his own Body and Blood and speaking of the Bread of the Eucharist Behold there is said those Fathers the Image of his life-giving Body and a little after The Lord say they has commanded us to put upon the Table this Image especially chosen to wit the substance of Bread least Idolatry should slip in among the Christians if he had been represented under an Human Figure IV. Fourth Proof drawn out of the Novelty of the Doctrin teaching Transubstantiation ALl those Reasons perswaded me not only that the belief of the Real Presence with Transubstantiation was not the belief of the Primitive Church but furthermore that they were Articles of Faith newly devised And I knew afterwards they were no older than the beginning of the thirteenth Age when Pope Innocent the Third in the (a) Scotus in 4. Sent. dist 11. quaest 3. Council of Lateran in the year â—214 set among the Articles of Faith the Belief of Transubstantiation since we see that in the end of the Ninth Age about the Year of our Lord 870. Bertram or John Scot one of the most learned Men of that time wrote a Book by the command of Charles the Bauld King of France touching the question of the Eucharist wherein he maintains openly the Belief of the Protestant Church since we (a) Biblioteca Patr. de Div. Offi. find a letter of the Emperour Charles Magne to his Teacher Alcuinus wherein these words are to be read Jesus christ supping with his Disciples broke the Bread and gave it to them likewise the Cup in figure of his Body and Blood In fine since even in the Canon of the Mass instead of these words which are to be found there now Ut nobis Corpus Sanguis fiat dilectissimi Filii tui c. That it may become to us
we must know that the custom of the First Christians was thus Before they might participate of the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ they came to present their Offerings Bread Wine Oyl Fruits and other things and those Offerings were called by the Fathers of the Church Sacrifices as it is evident by the reading of (a) Lib. 4. cap. 32.34 St. Ireny (b) Epist 34. Item Lib. de Oper. et Eleem. St. Cyprian (c) Lib. 5. cap. 17. Theodoret the second Council of (d) Can. 4. Mascon about the Year 587 as it is to be seen in (e) Lib. 1. cap. 7 8. Rebanus Maurus his Instructions of Church-men Let the Sub-Deacons says he receive the faithful Peoples Oblations in the Temple of God and give them to the Deacons to be put upon the Altar and this was the reason why they called the Table of Communion an ALTAR because of the Oblations they offered upon it Such was the belief the use and the simplicity of the Primitive Church But alas how much has error defaced this Holy Practice in the Roman Church How great alteration is happened from the belief of the first Christians 1. Instead of Bread the First Faithful offered upon the Lords Table they offer in the now Roman Church only some slender Hosts like to Wafers and it is that of which the Author of the Exposition of the Roman Order and Constitutions complains as (a) In his Comment upon the Capitular of Charlesmagne lits B. Monsieur Pithou relates In some Churches says he the Oblation of Bread which according to the Ancient Custom of the Church was offered by the Faithful People upon the Lords Table for the usage of the Sacrifice is at this time reduced to a very small and very light form to the form of a little piece of Money which has neither the Figure nor appearance of the true Bread And it is to authorize such error that in several Pictures of the Lords Supper Christ is to be seen with all his Apostles having every one upon his Plate a little Hoste of the bigness of one Farthing Is not that a mighty alteration in the Roman Church to offer to the Lord some little Hosts that have not any appearance of Bread instead of the true Bread which was offered in the Primitive Church And is it not a monstrous boldness worthy of punishment to make the World believe that Christ instituting the Holy Sacrament hath not taken ordinary Bread but some little Wafers alike to those they use in the Roman Church 2. Whereas in the Primitive Church the Oblations which were made were Sacrifices of Thanksgiving and Duty and that the Holy Sacrament was look'd upon but as a Sacrifice of Commemoration according to the belief the Church of England keeps still we have seen since altogether with the belief of Reality and Transubstantiation the belief of a Real and Propitatory Sacrifice in the Mass which has obliged the interessed to hold as they-did since in the Council of Trent That Christ was every day truly Sacrificed I do not know how many times for our Sins and that the Roman Priests were true Sacrificers and all that without any ground in the Scripture without any advowing or authority of the Primitive Church whose belief was very far from that of the Roman Church as it is proved in all this Section IV. The horrid abuse of the Roman Church to offer Sacrifice in the honour of Saints is a practice contrary to that of the Primitive Church FOr as much as Error is the Mother of Blindness as one deep calleth another Psal 42.9 and all the design of the Devil is to bring men to Impiety and to the Destruction of the Kingdom of Christ Whereas in the Primitive Church they directed their Oblations only to God Almighty they celebrated the Sacrifice of the Lords Supper only for the honour of his Divine Majesty the Church of Rome carried on Error to such excess as to hold that in the Sacrifice of the Mass which they do pretend Christ himself is Really Sacrificed that that Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ Really and Substantially present is offered Durst I rehearse such a Blasphemy that it is offered in honour of Saints and one comes boldly to say to a Priest who prepares himself to say the Mass Sir you must say the Mass of St. Peter The Mass of St. Paul Of St. James or some other that is to say You must Immolate Jesus Christ to day to the honour of St. Peter to the honour of St. Paul of St. James of St. Barnabas or of some other and that you may not think that I do impose upon the Church of Rome you are but to read upon that matter which you please of the Books of the Roman Theologians or to hear what the Priest says every day in his Mass when he reads the Canon thereof and you shall hear him saying with a low voice these words after he has recited the names of several Saints Ut illis proficiat ad honorem That it may profit them to honour he doth pray God that this Sacrifice be profitable to their honour If in the Old testament any should have offered Sacrifices to God in the honour of Abraham Isaac and Jacob would not they have stoned him in that very instant to expiate by his death the Impiety of this Blasphemy Alas in the Law of Moses there were in the Sacrifices only some Beasts whose throat were cut When Christ began to shew unto his Disciples how that he was to go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the Elders and Chief-Priests and be killed to appease the wrath of his Father provoked against the Sins of Men St. Peter was presently filled with Zeal and could not abide that his Master should go unto Jerusalem to be Sacrificed there (a) Math. 16.22 Be it far from thee Lord said he this shall not be unto thee Oh! should St. Peter be upon the Earth and some body should come to tell him Peter this Priest who goes to say the Mass is going for your sake to worship you to Sacrifice Christ himself his own Body and Blood Would not he hear the news with a mighty horrour Would not he say with much more reason Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee thou shall not be Sacrificed for my sake for my honour We do read in the Acts of (a) Cap. 14. the Apostles that some people of Lycaonia having seen the Miracle that St. Paul had wrought were ready to offer a Sacrifice to him and that the Priests of Jupiter brought Oxen and Garlands unto the Gates and would have done Sacrifice with the People in honour of Barnabas and Paul which when these Apostles heard of they rent their Clothes and ran in among the People crying out and saying Sirs why do ye these things we also are men of like passions with you and preach unto you that ye
are attributed or that they have been thereafter increased adulterated and filled with Corruptions But let it be what it could these Liturgies though corrupted are nevertheless works of Antiquity and since many of the Authors of the Roman Church hold them all authentical we may rightly urge those works against them to make them to acknowledge that in the time those Liturgies were written the manner of administring the Eucharist was entirely different from that of the Church of Rome in the abridgement of the Cup in the worshipping of the Host and in Celebrating in an unknown Tongue which is a strong Proof against the novelty of the now Roman Church II. The beginning of all the Errors of the Roman Church in the administration of the Sacrament BUt without farther insisting upon Proofs which may be said to be negative only which nevertheless are of great weight and have almost the force of a Demonstration in Questions wherein one Sect is accused of Innovation it is very easie to produce positive Proofs to shew the Novelty of those Errors since we know the time when they were brought into the World and that we know their beginning and their Authors 1. The beginning of the abridgement of the Cup. We know by (a) Consult de utraque spec pag. 1025. Cassander's report that the Eastern Church has always given the Communion under both kinds to every one of the Faithful and that even in the Roman Church the custom of distributing to every body the Bread and Wine of the Sacrament did last more than a Thousand years the erroneous custom of Abridging the Cup of Christ's Blood to all the People was born in the Council of Constance in the 13. Session wherein the Council after having acknowledge that it was the custom of the Primitive Church to communicate under both kinds established as a Law the custom of taking away from the People a part of the Sacrament and declared hereticks those who say That it is an error to withstand the custom of the Primitive Church the Example and Institution of CHrist and the Commandement to which he has boud us upon ternal Damnation viz. the Commandement of Drinking of the Chalice of his Blood This is will some say a very strange Doctrine that a Council notwithstanding the Custom of the Primitive Church Christ's Example and the Commandement he has injoyned unto all the Faithful should dare forbid all Priests to give the Communion under both kinds and would have it be an heresie to obey our Lord Jesus Christ to be conformed to his Example and to follow the practice of the Saints who lived in the primitive Church This is a very Churlish and ungentile manner of dealing But what Reasons had that Council to forbid to administer the Communion under both kinds Are ye curious to know them I have learnt them of Chancellour * Tract contr Haeres de Cons. sub utraque specie Gerson 1. The Mens Beards which grow on their Lips 2. The loathsomness which one should have to drink after others 3. The costliness and difficulty of getting Wine 4. The inconveniencie of Frosts in Winter 5. The importunity of Flies in Summer 6. The trouble that the Deacons should have to bring Wine to the Faithful 7. The danger of spilling 8. And the Peoples unworthiness to equal Priests in receiving the Sacrament if he received it under both kinds These are the Reasons of great moment which have obliged that Council to withstand so directly the Institution of Christ and the holy Custom of all the Primitive Church Truly are these Reasons sufficient to abolish so express a Commandement which Christ has injoyned to all the Faithful to drink his Blood Are there some new inconveniencies which have happened since to alter the Form in which Christ has instituted the Sacrament Had not Men their Beards in the time of Christ Was there no body to be found in the Apostles time 'till the Council of Constance who had loathsomness to drink after others Is Wine dearer now in France Italy and Spain than it was then in Syria Graecia jerusalem and Constantinople Did not Wine freeze before the Council of Constance Is it but since that time Flies have vexed the People in Summer Are the trouble of the Deacons and the danger of spilling wine such things as Christ had not foreseen And are the Priests of the Roman Church more elevated in Dignity than Christ himself was and his Apostles that there should be need to set betwixt them and the People a difference which was never set betwixt Christ and his Apostles betwixt the Apostles and the rest of the Faithful 2. The Beginning of the Worshipping of the Host As for the worshipping of the Host not only we do not find that Christ or his Apostles ever worshipped the Sacrament or that this was the use of the first Faithful not only we do not find in all these Lyturgies whereof I have spoken any footstep of that worshipping But furtheremore we do know all the degrees whereby this Errour fair and softly slid into the World We know that it was Pope Innocent III. who first commanded that some Boxes should be kept in the Church wherein the consecrated Host should be conserved That it was Peope Honorius III. about the Year 1220 who renewed that Decree with this new Addition that upon those Boxes these words should be written Hìc Deum adora Here adore God and that the same Pope ordained that the Host should be Elevated We know it was Pope Gregory IX who added to that Elevation the Sound of a little Bell about the Year 1230. And in fine we know that it was Innocent IV. who ordained that the Host should be worshipped These are the degrees whereby that Error has been established in the Roman Church And if you would know what Engins they have used to give Authority unto that Worshipping you are but to read Platina and the * Ad Evam reclusam data apud Vrb Vet. 6. Id. Sept. An. Pontif. 3. Bull of Pope Urban IV. directed to a Nun called Eve and you shall see that about the ear 1264 this Pope Instituted the Feast which is called Corpus-Christi-Day upon the Revelation and the Request of that Nun to whom he sent the Book of the Office of the Sacrament which is said to have been framed by Thomas Aquinas We know that afterwards Pope Clement V. in the Council of Vienna ordained that this Festival Day should be kept by all those of the Roman Church And that about the Year 1360 they began at Pavie to make Processions and Tabernacles which was afterwards observed in all Towns that submitted to the Popes Authority Before the time that the Roman Church had corrupted the Word of God the Christians did receive the Sacrament with devotion with zeal and an holy greediness it was with a joy which cannot be expressed that they met in the Churches to participate of the true Body and true Blood
Deus qui fecit Imperatorem dum se super Imperatorem extollit jam quasi hominum excesserat metas se ut deum non ut hominem aestimârat from thence it is manifest that the Pope makes himself equal to God Almighty since as I have shewed before he raises himself above Kings and the Emperors But he is not contented with that he maintains he may give dispensations against that which the Apostles have ordained even against that which is contained in the Old and New Testament Papa dispensat contra Apostolum Papa dispensat contra vetus Testamentum say the Interpreters of the Pope in the Gloss upon the Chap. (b) Decretal In. 3. lib. 8. de concess praebendis Proposuit and upon the Canon (c) Causa 25. q. 1. sunt quidam Papa dispensat in Evangelio interpretando ipsum and Thomas Aquinas holds (d) 2ª 2 a◠quest 1. Artic. 10. that the edition of a new Crred belongs to the Authority of the Pope According to those principles Luther was condemned because he held that it was not at all in the power of the Church nor in the power of the Pope to establish new Articles of Faith as it is to be seen in the Bull of Leo X. that begins Exurge which is to be found in the end of the first Council of Lateran You may give to that Theologie what name you please but for my part I cannot chuse but think that to give dispensations against the Laws of the Apostle St. Paul to release men from observing what is written in the Old and New Testament may well be called more than Judaisme more than Mahometisme must be stiled Heathenisme and monstrous Impiety 2. The Pope takes upon himself the same Titles that we use to give but to God Almighty and unto Jesus Christ our Saviour the true Son of God IN the Book of Decretals of Gregory the IX (a) Titul 7. ad caput quanto personam Innocent III. saies that the Pope upon the earth holds the place not of a mere man but of God himself and according to that upon one of the Gates of Rome these words are to be found Paulo III. Optimo maximo in terris Deo To Paul III. the best and mightiest God upon the earth after that what title can one give to God Almighty Optimo maximo to attribute those titles to men who dares maintain that it is not an Impiety And lest some should believe that it is the fault of him who built that Gate who gave to the Pope titles which the Pope does not assume we are but to read the titles which the Pope takes to himself Martin V. sends his Embassadors to Constantinople and in the beginning of the instructions he gives them concerning the business of which he commands them to treat these are the titles which he takes upon himself sanctissimus beatissimus qui habet coeleste arbitrium qui est dominus in terris successor Petri Christus domini dominus universi Regum pater orbis lumen c. The most holy and most blessed who has celestial Authority who is Lordin the earth successor of Peter the Christ of the Lord the Lord of the Vniverse the Father of Kings the Light of the World c. Truly when you hear those great Tibles do not you believe that it is Christ himself which is spoken of the most holy and most blessed there is none but God who can be the most Holy and the most Blessed who is Arbitrator of Heaven and the Lord of Heaven and Earth What think you is it not God Almighty is it not to give him a Rival and A Competitour in his mighty power to give unto the Pope titles which belong but to the Divinity In fine these other titles following the Christ of the Lord the Lord of the Vniverse Father of Kings the light of the World c. Could you find in all the Scripture and in the Holy Fathers more stately and more magnificent titles to express the Kingdom the supream power the goodness and the highness of Christ our Lord If the Pope doth attribute to himelf the same titles and the same power which are attributed only to God Almighty is not this a good cause to say that it is a manifest Impiety And if the Roman Church be grounded upon the power of the Pope is there not good cause to say that it is grounded upon Impiety Such is the Religion of Rome it is not God Almighty who is worshipped in that Church it is the Pope Paulo III. Maximo optimo in terris Deo it is not the word of God which is received there for the word of truth it is the word of the Pope dispensat super Evangelium in the Roman Church it is not Jesus Christ who is the most holy one it is Martin it is Alexander Sixtus Innocent Clement or some other which you please who is Bishop of Rome Sanctissimus Beatissimus in the Roman Church it is not Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ of the Lord the Lord of the Vniverse the Father of Kings the Light of the World it is the Pople Martin Alexander Innocent Clement Christus Domini c. And to be brief it is not Jesus Christ if I may dare rehearse that Blasphemie who participates the human and the Divine nature it is the Pope who participates those two natures as it was proved in the Theologie of the Papists about the time that Luther began to be known in the world * Erasm in Epist ad Timoth and some while after Could ever Impiety have been raised up to an higher degree could the Devil himself have devised any thing more profane and do you think that the ambition which cast him down head-long into Hell was more criminal and more opposed to God Almighty's Majesty than the ambition of the Bishops of Rome SECTION II. The Covetousness of the Popes THE second point whereupon doth turn all the frame of the Roman Church is covetousness 'T was to heap up riches that Pope Boniface VIII began to traffick with Indulgences and Forgivenesses and to declare that the Popes Bulls had efficacy even in Purgatory and that they were therein exactly executed in favour of those souls for whose deliverance a sum of mony was given 't is to heap up great Treasures that the Roman Church doth hold that the Pope for a certain sum of mony may dispense in the degrees in which it is forbidden by the Law of God to contract Matrimony 't is by reason of a certain sum of mony that your sins are forgiven you how great and horrid soever they be It is to heap up riches that the Church of Rome sells Bishopricks Archbishopricks Cardinalships all kind of Dispensations and all kind of Ecclesiastical preferments in a word it is to heap up riches that the Pope sends his Legates into all the Kingdoms which would receive them to preach there Croisadoes and Jubilees and to distribute