the most part of Godfathers are appointed they especially that are Rich at the time of Baptism take hold of the Rope and as the Suffragan sings before as is wont to be done in Baptizing of Children they all make the Responses and after name the Bell which as Christians use to be is then dressed in new Garments And after they have a sumptuous Feast and the Suffragan is rewarded liberally This is sure something more than a Metaphorical Baptism I shall only add one more strange Doctrine of the Church of Rome touching Baptism and that is That a Child may be Baptized in its Mothers Womb by a Pipe This I find Asserted in a Treatise Intituled Compendium Dianae The Words pag. 201 are these Pueri si moriantur in utero matris nihil obstat quo minus possint Baptizari si Actio Ministri possit ad ipsum puerumetiam in utero matris existentem pervenire ut si fistula possit pertingere ad ipsum Infantis Corpusculum vel propter Matris Cicatricem aspersio aquae possit ad illum pertingere hoc etiam si acceleretur matris mors dummodo sit certo moritura tunc enim etiam ipsa mater tenetur permittere ut proles Baptizetur Res 12. In English thus If Children dye in their Mothers Womb nothing hinders but that they may nevertheless be Baptized if the action of the Minister may extend to the Child it self although remaining in its Mothers Belly as if a Pipe may reach the Infants Body or by or through the Cicatrix of the Mother I must leave the Reader here to guess at his meaning the sprinkling of the Water may reach thereunto And this although thereby the Death of the Mother be hastned provided she must certainly dye for then even the Mother her self is bound to permit that her Child be Baptized But I suppose the Reader as well as my self is nauseated with such fulsome Poposh Divinity Le ts therefore hasten to another Article The eight and twentieth Article of the Church of England Of the Lords Supper THE Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the Love that Christians ought to have amongst themselves one to another but rather it is a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christs Death Insomuch that to such as rightly worthily and with Faith receive the same the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ aud likewise the Cup of Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ Transubstantiation or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord cannot be proved by Holy Writ but it is repugnant to the plain Words of Scripture overthroweth the Nature of a Sacrament and hath given occasion to many Superstitions The Body of Christ is given taken and eaten in the Supper of the Lord only after an Heavenly and Spiritual manner And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith The Sacrament of the Lords Supper was not by Christs ordinance reserved carried about lifted up and worshipped The Presbyterians That Doctrine which maintains a Change of the substance of the Bread and Wine into the substance of Christs Body and Blood commonly called Transubstantiation by Consecration of a Priest or by any other way is repugnant not to Scripture alone but even to common Sense and Reason overthroweth the Nature of the Sacrament and hath been and is the cause of manifold Superstitions yea of gross Idolatries In this Sacrament Christ is not offered up to his Father nor any real Sacrifice made at all for Remission of Sins of the quick or dead but only a Commemoration of that one offering up of himself by himself upon the Cross once for all And a Spiritual Oblation of all possible Praise unto God for the same So that the Popish Sacrifice of the Mass as they call it is most abominably injurious to Christs one only Sacrifice the alone propitiation for all the Sins of the Elect. The Papists If any one shall deny That in the Sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist is contained truly really and substantially the Body and Blood together of our Lord and so whole Christ but shall say That he is in it only as in a Sign or Figure or by his Vertue or shall say that the substance of Bread and Wine remains or shall deny that wonderful and singular Conversion of the whole substance of the Bread into the Body and of the whole substance of the Wine into the Blood the species only of Bread and Wine remaining which Conversion the Catholick Church most aptly calls Transubstantiation Let him be Anathema If any one shall say That Christ exhibited in the Eucharist is eaten only Spiritually Let him be Accursed The nine and twentieth Article of the Church of England Of the Wicked which eat not the Body of Christ in the use of the Lords Supper THE Wicked and such as be void of a lively Faith although they do carnally and visibly press with the Teeth as S. Augustin saith the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ but rather to their Condemnation do eat and drink the Sign and Sacrament of so great a thing The Presbyterians Although ignorant and wicked Men receive the outward Elements in this Sacrament yet they receive not the thing signified thereby but by their unworthy coming thereunto are guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord to their own Damnation The Papists All Communicants do eat the Very and Natural Body of Christ Jesus If an Infidel receive the Sacramental Species he eats Christs Body under the Sacrament Thom. Aquinas p. 3. A. 3. ad 2. The Body of Christ saith Claudius de Sainctes Repet 2. cap. 6. is as truly and really received of Vnworthy as of Godly Communicants And Bonaventure in 4. d. 9. A. 2. q. 1. calls it the common Opinion of the Doctors Certitudinaliter verum a most certain Truth Nor is this all but they hold That the very Body of Christ may be received by Beasts and Vermine If a Dog or a Mouse saith Aquinas in the place just now cited ad Tertium eat the Sanctified Host the substance of Christs Body ceaseth not to be there as long as the Species do remain Nay Durandus adds That the Devil himself may eat Christ His Words are these Competit Bruto Angelo cuicunque vel Bono vel MALO species Sacramentales sumere A Brute or any Angel Good or BAD may receive the Sacrament Durand in 4. dist 9. q. 3. num 6. ad primum 'T is true some of their ancient Schoolmen were not arrived to such irreverent conceits Peter Lombard l. 4. d. 13. A. puts the Question What does the Mouse eat when she gets part of a Consecrated Host And Answers modestly Deus novit God knows And Bonaventure in 4. d. 13. a. 2. q. 1. could not endure to hear That Christs
Councils be retained in the Church and accurseth those who either avouch them to be unprofitable or deny that there is any power in the Church to grant them Let them teach that the Images of Christ the Virgin-Mother of God and other Saints are chiefly in Churches to be had and retained and that due Honour and Worship is to be given to them They who deny That the Saints enjoying Eternal happiness in Heaven are to be called upon or who affirm either that they pray not for us Men or that Invocation of them to pray for us is Idolatry or contrary to the Word of God and repugnant to the Honour of the only Mediatour between God and Men Jesus Christ or that it is folly either by Word and Thought to make supplications to them that reign in Heaven are of an impious Opinion The three and twentieth Article of the Church of England Of Ministring in the Congregation IT is not lawful for any Man to take upon him the Offfce of publick Preaching or Ministring the Sacraments in the Congregation before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent which be chosen and called to this work by Men who have publick Authority given unto them in the Congregation to call and send Ministers into the Lords Vineyard The Presbyterians No Man ought to thrust himself to teach or govern in the Church unless he be carefully called thereunto The Papists Whoever shall say That those which are not rightly Ordain'd by Ecclesiastical and Canonical Power but come from elsewhere are lawful Ministers of the Word and Sacraments Let him be Accursed The four and twentieth Article of the Church of England Of speaking in the Congregation in such a Tongue as the People understandeth IT is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God and the Custom of the Primitive Church to have publick Prayers in the Church or to Minister the Sacraments in a Tongue not understood of the People The Presbyterians Publick Prayers are to be made in the Vulgar Tongue not in Latin amongst the French and English but so as they may be understood by the whole Assembly forasmuch as it ought to be done to the Edification of the whole Church unto whom by a sound not understood no profit can in any fort Redound Prayer with Thansgiving being one special part of Religious Worship is by God required of all Men and that it may be accepted it is to be made in the name of the Son by the help of his Spirit according to his Will with Understanding Reverence Humility Fervency Faith Love and Perseverance and if Vocal in a known Tongue The Papists Although the Mass contain great Instruction of Faithful People yet it seem'd not expedient to the Fathers that it should every where be said in the Vulgar Tongue If any one shall say That the Rite of the Church of Rome by which part of the Canon and words of Consecration are pronounced with a lower voice is to be Condemned or that the Mass ought to be Celebrated only in the Vulgar Tongue Let him be Accursed It is not necessary that we understand our Prayers Prayers not understood of the People are acceptable to God The Five and twentieth Article of the Church of England Of the Sacraments SAcraments Ordained of Christ be not only Badges or Tokens of Christian-mens profession but rather they be certain Witnesses and effectual Signs of Grace and Gods good Will towards us By the which he works invisibly in us and doth not only quicken but strengthen and confirm our Faith in him There are two Sacraments ordained by Christ our Lord in the Gospel that is to say Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Those five commonly called Sacraments that is to say Confirmation Pennance Orders Matrimony extream Unction are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel being such as have grown partly of the Corrupt following of the Apostles partly as states of Life allowed in the Scripture but yet have not like Nature of Sacraments with Baptism and the Lords Supper for that they have not any visible Sign or Ceremony ordained of God The Sacraments were not ordained of God to be gazed upon or to be carried about but that we should duly use them And in such only as worthily receive the same they have a wholesom Effect or Operation but they that receive them unworthility purchase unto themselves Damnation as St. Paul saith The Presbyterians There be only two Sacraments ordained by Christ our Lord Baptism and the Lords Supper neither of which can be dispensed by any but by a Minister of the Word lawfully Ordained Private Masses or receiving the Sacrament by a Priest or any other alone as likewise the denial of the Cup to the People worshipping the Elements the lifting them up or carrying them about for Adoration and the reserving them for any pretended Religious use are all contrary to the Nature of this Sacrament and to the Institution of Christ The Papists If any one shall say That the Sacraments of the new Law were not all substituted by Christ or that they are more or fewer than seven viz. Baptism Confirmation Eucharist Pennance Extream Unction Holy Orders and Matrimony or that any of these is not truly and properly a Sacrament Let him be Accursed If any one shall say That'tis not lawful to reserve the Holy Eucharist but that the same is presently to be distributed or that it is not to be Ador'd even with the outward Worship or that it ought not solemnly to be carried about in Processions or shewn publickly to be adored to the People or that it is not lawful to hear it Honourably to the Sick Let him be Accursed If any one shall say That by the Sacraments themselves of the New Testament ex opere operato meerly by the thing done Grace is not conferred but that the Faith of the Divine Promise suffices to obtain Grace Let him be Accursed If any one shall say That in Ministers whilst they make and confer the Sacraments there is not required an Intention at least of doing that which the Church does Let him be Accursed The six and twentieth Article of the Church of England Of the unworthiness of the Ministers which hinder not the Effect of the Sacraments ALthough in the visible Church the Evil be ever mingled with the Good and sometime the Evil have chief Authority in the Ministration of the Word and Sacraments yet forasmuch as they do not the same in their own Name but Christs and do Minister by his Commission and Authority we may use their Ministry both in hearing of the Word of God and in the receiving the of Sacraments neither is the effect of Christs Ordinance taken away by their Wickedness nor the Grace of Gods Gifts diminished from such as by Faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments Ministred unto them
Body should be in a Mouses Belly or in a Privy But most of their Followers count them too precise And Vasques in 3. q. 77. a. 8. disp 195. cap. 5. concludes Vera Constans opinio sit c. The true and constant Opinion is That Christ is so long under the Species in any place whatsoever though never so base and filthy as the outward forms would conserve the nature of Bread if it were there Nor matters it saith he that by this means we must grant that Christs Body may descend into a filthy and unclean place nor ought Godly Catholicks thereat be scandalized Now since Christs Sacred Body may be in the Body of any Beast or Vermine and that it is to be Worshipped and Adored with no less than divine Honour wherever it be a Question ariseth Whether he be to be Worshipped for Example in the Belly of a Sow pardon Christian Reader the Instance for 't is the Papists own For Biel on the Canon of the Mass lect 84. starting the same question returns this Answer Ubicunque five in ventre SUIS sive in ore viri vel mulieris ibi esse venerandum adorandum intus in Anima licet non exterius in opere Wherever he is believed to be either in the Belly of a SOW or in the Mouth of a Man or Woman there he is to be Worshipped inwardly in the Soul though not externally in Work Another scruple likewise they have since the outward forms may happen especially by the Sick to be Vomited up again what must be done in the Case To which Albertus in his Compend Theol. verit l. 6. cap. 19. answers Si Infirmus Corpus domini Rejiciat suscipiatur c. If the Sick Spew up Christs Body he must take it again as well as he can or if he be not able himself the Priest must do it for him or some discreet or cleanly Boy And Biel in the place late cited gives this Counsel Si Ejiciatur per Vomitum c. If Christs Body be cast up by Vomit so that you can but yet discern the outward signs and appearance of Bread from the other Garbage and your Stomach will serve you to do it without loathsomness and danger of re-spuing you must take it again but if the Party be nauseous then it must be laid up honourably with the other Reliques But others say it must be burnt and the Ashes reverently laid up by the Altar And Paladanus in 4. d. 9. q. 1. a. 3. moving the Question what was to be done if a Beast should eat the Sacrament says he 't was to be killed and the Host to be taken out of the Maw and if a Man had so much zeal as to endure to eat it he were much to be commended provided he do it fasting And thereupon tells a Story out of Hugo Cluniacensis how one Goderane took a parcel of the Eucharist which had been vomitted up by a Leper The same Author advises That the Sacrament be not given to those that have a Scowring or the Flux lest the Body of Christ should pass away through his Belly into the Draught c. I have recited these Horrid Blasphemies in their own Words That my Countreymen may detest a Religion Compos'd of such impious Phrensies and I beg the Readers excuse for ossending his Ears with such stuff For Popish impudence has this advantage they write such things as Christian Doctrine which a modest Man can scarce endure to Rehearse The thirtieth Article of the Church of England Of both kinds THE Cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the Lay-people For both the parts of the Lords Sacrament by Christs Ordinance and Commandment ought to be Ministred to all Christian men alike The Presbyterians They speaking of the Papists have stoln or snatcht away one half of the Lords Supper from the greater part of the People of God and only allow the Cup to a small parcel of shaveling Priests The Ministers are to take and Break the Bread to take the Cup and to give both to the Communicants Private Masses or receiving this Sacrament by a Priest or any other alone as likewise the denial of the Cup to the People are contrary to the Nature of this Sacrament and to the Institution of Christ The Papists This Holy Synod Declares and Teacheth That Laicks and Clerks not Consecrated are by no Divine precept bound to receive the Sacrament under both kinds and that it may in no sort be doubted without prejudice to Faith but that the Communion of one kind is sufficient to Salvation If any one shall say That by Gods Command all the Faithful of Christ ought to receive in both kinds or shall deny That the Church was moved with just Causes and Reasons to order the Laity to Communicate but in one kind or shall say she erred therein Let him be Accursed The one and thirtieth Article of the Church of England Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross THE Offering of Christ once made is that perfect Redemption Propitiation and Satisfaction for all the Sins of the whole World both Original and Actual and there is none other Satisfaction for Sin but that alone Wherefore the Sacrifices of Masses in the which it was commonly said that the Priest did offer Christ for the Quick and the Dead to have Remission of pain or guilt were Blasphemous Fables dangerous Deceits The Presbyterians In this Sacrament Christ is not offered up to his Father nor any real Sacrifice made at all for Remission of the Sins of the Quick or Dead but only a Commemoration of that one offering up of himself by himself upon the Cross once for all and a Spiritual Oblation of all possible Praise unto God for the same So that the Popish Sacrifice of the Mass as they call it is most abominably injurious to Christs one only Sacrifice the alone Propitiation for all the Sins of the Elect. The Papists In this Divine Sacrifice of the Mass the same Christ is contained and unbloodily Sacrificed who once offered himself bloodily on the Altar of the Cross This Holy Synod therefore Teacheth That this Sacrifice is truly Propitiatory And that thereby if with a true Heart and right Faith in Fear and Reverence we being contrite come to God we do obtain Mercy and find Grace in a seasonable help For by the oblation hereof God being pacified granting the Grace and Gift of Pennance does forgive Crimes and Sins even the greatest and most heinous It is one and the same Host Christ who then offered himself on the Cross now offering the same by the Ministry of the Priests the manner of offering being only different The Fruits of which Oblation viz. The Bloody one are most plentifully received and conveyed by this so far is That from being any ways derogated from by This for which reason it is offered not only for the Sins Punnishments Satisfactions and other Necessities of
the Living but also for those that are departed in Christ who are not yet fully purged Whoever saith That by the Sacrifice of the Mass the most Holy Sacrifice of Christ finished on the Cross is Blasphemed or that it derogateth from it Let him be Anathema The two and thirtieth Article of the Church of England Of the Marriage of Priests BIshops Priests Deacons are not commanded by Gods Law either to vow the Estate of single life or to abstain from Marriage Therefore it is Lawful for them also as for all other Christian Men to Marry at their own discretion as they shall judge the same to serve better to Godliness The Presbyterians Certainly the forbidding Marriage to Priests is an ungodly Tyranny not only against Gods Word but also against all Equity If an impossible Vow be the certain destruction of the Soul which God would have to be Saved not lost it follows That we are not to persist therein but the Vow of Continency to those who have not a special Gift is impossible The Papists Whosoever shall say That Clerks entred into Holy Orders or Regulars that is Monks Friers and Nuns having solemnly professed Chastity may contract Matrimony or that being contracted it is good any Law Ecclesiastick or Vow notwithstanding or that all who feel not that they have the Gift of Chastity may although they have vowed it Marry Let him be Anathema The three and thirtieth Article of the Church of England Of Excommunicated Persons how they are to be avoided THat Person which by open Denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the Vnity of the Church and Excommunicated ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the Faithful as an Heathen and Publican until he be openly reconciled by Pennance and received into the Church by a Judge that hath Authority thereunto The Presbyterians Church Censures are necessary for the reclaiming and gaining of offending Brethren for the deterring of others from the like offences for the purging out of that Leaven which might infect the whole lump for vindicating the Honour of Christ and the Holy profession of the Gospel and for preventing the wrath of God which might justly fall upon the Church if they should suffer his Covenant and the Seals thereof to be profan'd by notorious and obstinate offenders For the better obtaining of these ends the Officers of the Church are to proceed by Admonition Suspension from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper for a season and by Excommunication from the Church according to the nature of the Crime and demerit of the Person The Papists Do not in Terms contradict this Article but are guilty of many Errors and vile Superstitions about Excommunication As 1. In the form of it For thus Gratian in the Decrees Caus 11. q. 3. cap. 106. debent reports the manner of it in that Church Twelve Priests ought to stand round about the Bishop with lighted Tapers in their hands which at the end of the Curse or Excommunication they ought to throw upon the ground and tread upon with their Feet and then a Letter is to be sent throughout the Parishes with the Names of those Excommunicated and the Causes of it Others relate the Ceremony more largely thus That it is done with three Candles or Tapers and that they Curse the Parties Soul and Body to the Devil and say Let us quench their Souls in Hell Fire if they be Dead as this Candle is put out and therewith one of the lights is presently extinguisht If they be alive Let us pray that their Eyes may be put out at this Candle and so out goes the Second And that all their Senses may fail them as this Candle loseth its light and so the Third is gone All which is performed with ringing of a Bell as the Magdeburgenses Cent. 13. cap. 6. relate whence arises our Proverb of Cursing With Bell Book and Candle 2. In the Causes of it gross Sins escape For their ungodly Law saith He that hath not a Wife but instead of a Wife a Concubine Let him not be debarred from the Communion They are the very Words of Gratian decret dist 34. cap. 4. Is qui non habet Uxorem pro Uxore Concubinam a Communione non repellatur and yet they Trifle with this Tremendous Censure in most trivial Cases The Arch Bishop of Canterbury in King Henry the 4ths time laid an Interdict on the Churches of London for not Ringing their Bells when he went through the City D'Auroult himself a Jesuite in his Book Intituled Flores Exemplorum Tom. 1. Tit. 63. ex 9. Licensed by the Provincial of that Order not 70 years ago complains thus We are fallen now saith he into such times That if a Person hath but lost his Rakes or Mattocks or his Fork he thinks he cannot find them by any more convenient means than by the Sentence of Excommunication viz. upon the Stealers if they do not Restore them 'T is true the Council of Trent Sess 25. cap. 3. inter Decret Reform Ordains That no Excommunications for discovery as they are called of lost or stollen Goods should pass by any other Person than the Bishop himself and then with great Circumspection Which shews that such abuses had been commonly practis'd and that they held the same not unlawful Provided the Bishop granted the Sentence 3. In the Subjects They extend it to the Dead Their grand Council of Constance Cursed Wickliffe more than forty Years after he was Dead And D'Auroult in his Book last cited Tom. 1. Tit. 62. Ex. 1. gravely gives the Reason of it Although saith he the Dead cannot properly be Excommunicated or Absolv'd yet in as much as they are in respect of their Bodies either in the Bowels of the Earth or upon it the Church for terrors sake Excommunicateth and Absolveth some Nay they thunder it out against Insects and Inanimate things For St. Bernerd they tell us Excommunicated the Flies that troubled him when he went about to Consecrate an Oratory at Fusniack and in the Morning they were all found dead if you will believe the Life of that Saint l. 1. cap. 12. Sparrows us'd to foul St. Vincents Church The Bishop of the Place Excommunicated them and they never came there more nay if any caught a Sparrow and thrust it into the Church 't would presently dye de Tempore Serm. 69. A Priest saying Mass to the Young Men they would be running out to gather Fruit in an adjoining Orchard and he Excommunicated it and it ever after was barren Promptuar Serm. dist Exempl 41. To conclude the Devil himself hath not escaped them A Woman was six years plagued with an Incubus Devil soliciting her to naughtiness she complains to St. Bernard he Excommunicates the Devil and Interdicts his Access to her or any other St. Antonines Chronicle part 2. tir 17. cap. 5. Sect. 9. What a graceless Religion is this to tell such ridiculous lyes and sport thus with an Institution