the common charges and charitie of the rich By which the charitie and unitie of all sorts were much preserved for which cause the said feasts were called Charities of the ancient Fathers and of Saint Paul vers 20. they were called Coenae dominicae our Lords Suppers because they were made in the Churches which then were called Dominicae that is our Lords houses in which feasts because there hapned some foule abuses which the Apostle rebuking vers 22. Why have ye not houses to eate and drinke in or contemne ye the house of our Lord c. they were taken away See Con. Gang. 11. Con. 3. Laod. can 27.28 Apollorum can 39. Clemens Alex. Sâ— Iust. Sâ— August contra Faustum lib. 20. cap. 20. St. Chrysost. hom 27. in 1 St. Ambrose upon this same place by which it appeares no new thing for Catholiques to take some thing with a good intention besides what was instituted by Christ. Here some may aske whether it belongs to me out of my authoritie to institute or renew this pious ceremony in taking bread and wine in remembrance of the death of Christ generally for the prudent Catholiques of England I answer no. God forbid that I should presume to institute or renew any ceremonie in the Catholique Church but I doe onely in compassion of their miseries present to their necessitie if any be in danger of death losse of fortunes or ruine of posteritie and cannot expect leave from the supreame Pastor of our soules the doctrine of Claudius Carinnus de vi pot leg human c. 10 that even in lawes every particular man hath power to interpret the same to his advantage and to dispense with himselfe therein if there occurre a sudden case of necessitie and there be no open way and recourse to the Superiour much more then said I in a pious ceremonie against which there is no law forbidding the same And if you reply that this is taken in a strange Church I answer That in case of necessitie the plâ—ce is impertinent to the thing For Saint Bonaventure that great and pious Doctor using much jaculatory prayers and being upon the place of naturall necessitie and there uttering some of the said prayers the Devill asked him Whether that were a place to pray in to whom he answered in opusc Hic et ubique meum licet orare Deum That it was lawfull to praise God in all places and to receive bread and wine in a Protestant Church from a Minister or to receive the same in a Taverne from a Vintners boy the godly onely know the difference If you reply againe that so we may offer Incense to an Idol in a temple because we may burne perfume and the Idol we know to be nothing I deny that and the disparity is in this that in offering Incense the act and shew there tends to the honour and worship of the Devill For the place being dedicated to him whatsoever is therein done as an usuall ceremonie is taken whatsoever the intention be as done to his honour Which act as it is unlawfull in it selfe to be done because pretended Idolatrie wherein Gods worship is given to the Devill at least in outward shew so it is unlawfull to faine in words the act to be done becauâ—e it is dissembling the object it selfe being likewise forbidden by the law of God both which are great sinnes and apt to cause great scandall which I shall make appeare not to be in our case where I coâ—tend there is no sinne in the act nor yet dissembling nor the object forbidden If you reply thirdly that there is dissembling in going to Church as going two waies in Religion contrary to the Scripture for thereby I seeme to be otherwise then I am the reply is false for I professe but one religion which is Catholique and at Church I doe but observe the picture of true religion ill formed which is but a humane act not hurtfull but by a pious intention may be made good by which all hypocrisie and dissimulation may be avoyded And if I seeme to Protestants to be a Protestant what am I the worse for that I never yet could finde any law to ground an action against the censures of men If they censure me to be a Protestant I am not under their scourge for religion unlesse they will on purpose make an Act of Parliament to cut off my head which shall be no president for any other Iudges or Iustices and then I must set up my rest with a Noble man saying Contra potentiam non est resistentia There is no resistance against power But continuing alwaies loyall both to my King and Countrey and obedient to God and his Church and in so doing giving both God and Caesar their due and that without either sinne or dissembling I had rather they censure mee unjustly yet according to the lawes established for I alwaies stand pro Rege Lege and so misse their aime by an Ignoramus then I loose my life by a pure might But hence it doth not follow for all their censure that I am a Protestant for to be so I must beleeve the 39. Articles of the Church of England which is the definition of a Protestant Which Articles or any other tenents of theirs I meddle not with for if I must doe all things contrary to Protestants lest I should be thought so when they eate I must fast and when they sleep I must wake which is ridiculous As for their thinking me a Protestant it proceeds from want of knowledge for they or most of them neither knowing what a Protestant or Catholique indeed is if Catholiques went to Church they would not know how to distinguish or persecute them it being lawfull among them for every one to beleeve what he pleaseth may easily thinke amisse of me And for me to take benefit of their ignorance and to hide my selfe in persecution untill either the glory of God or good of my neighbour shall urge me to discover my selfe I cannot yet finde my selfe by any law forbidden It may be objected secondly that there were divers Statutes made upon the alteration of Religion in the 2.5 and 6. yeers of Edward the sixth and 1. and 23. of Qâ—eene Elizabeth in hatred of God and his Church as that the Masse should be abrogated and all the Kings subjects should come to Church to heare such Service as was then oâ—dained to distinguish betweene Catholiques and Protestants and that whosoever should say or heare Masse afterwards should incurre certaine penalties as by the said Statutes appeares But no man could obey these commands without sinne Ergo. I answer that I know not much to what purpose this objection can serve R. P. that made it For all Divines as well Catholiques as Protestants know that all humane lawes binde in conscience no â—urther then they are consonant and conformable to the divine law And as farre as they command lawfull unitie and uniformitie to the good
of whom Poggius writeth that after he had said Masse bidding the Feast of Epiphanie he spake to the honest rusticks on this wise My good neighbours to morrow you are to keepe good cheere and celebrate a high feast the feast of Saint Epiphanie a most holy wight but whether Epiphanie were male or female a he Saint or a she Saint I finde it not in my books What was he that Christened a childe with this forme of words Ego baptizo te in nomine Patria Filia Spiritua Sancta What was he who reading in the Gospel of Saint Iohn invenimus Messiam lept out of his skin for joy saying Now to the confusion of all Hugonots I have found the Masse in the new Testament What was he who reading in the Epistle Melchisedec Rex Salem panem vinum protulit translated it thus King Melchisedec brought forth salt bread and wine What was he who in a dispute about putting hereticks to death most Clarke like prooved his conclusion that hereticks ought to suffer death because the Apostle saith Hereticum post unam aut alteram admoniâ—ionem devita 1 Titus 3.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is shun or avoyd but this silly animal mistooke the verâ—e devita for a proposition and a nowne as if the Apostle had said de vitá out of life with him Neither doth Pope Siricius better argue against Pâ—iests marriage Men in holy Orders must not contract Matrimonie because the Apostle saith They that are in the flesh cannot please God neither Innocentius against Lay-mens reading Scripture The beast that touched the Mount was to be thrust thorow with a dart Ergo. The people must not meddle with the Scripture As for their manner of preaching who so much scorne and deride ours let all travellers speake whether it be not thus A Parish Priest or some Monk or Frier gets up into a spacious Pulpit and there runs himselfe out of breath from one side to the other before his houre glasse be halfe run of whom a man might well demand as some one did in Tully of a declaimer Quot millia passâ—um declamasti When this shaveling betweene whose head and heaven there is not a haire first appeares to the people he crosses himselfe as their manner is when they are affraid of evill spirits then reads the Gospel of the day in Latine whereof the people understand not a word and after he hath spent some time in translating it and scored out his way he conveighes a prayer into a parenthesis concluding it with an Ave Maria. After this resuming the words of his Text in the handling of them he robs and deplumes the late written posâ—ils upon that â—ospell and like the Crow in the Poet Cloathes his Discourse with the choicest of their feathers in the end sticks two or three gaudy feathers out of the Peacockâ— taile I meane the golden Legend telling them how St. Dominâ—ck spying the Devill sitting in the Church like a Sparrow called him to him pluckt off all his feathers and put him to a great reproach or how St. Dunstane tooke the Devill by the nose with a paire of tongs fire hot Or how St. Bernardâ—lest â—lest good Ale and giving the same to certaine lewd persons caused divine grace to enter into them And here if the Author and his Consorts please to be merry at Sermons spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici But if any more ingenuous Papists like Lodovicus Vives condemne the Author of your golden Legend for a man of a brazen face and leaden heart and bring better stuffe yet even these come farre short of the Preachers of the Reformed Churches in many remarkable particulars First all the Popish Preachers take their text out of the Gospel or â—pistle of the Day but the Protestants confine themselves not to those parcels of Scripture but make choice as God shall direct them for the most profit of their flocke of any part of the Canonicall Scripture to expound it Againe the Protestant Preachers in their translation follow the originals the Greeke and Hebrew the Papists as they are bound under paine of a curse follow the corrupt vulgar Latine which they may not upon any pretence reject The Protestants deliver no Doctrine of faith for which they bring not Gods word The Papists ground many of their Doctrines upon unwritten Traditions or Decrees of Popes or Councels The Protestants build upon the true foundation gold silver and precious stones that is heavenly solid and precious Doctrine conformable to holy Scriptures The Papists hay and stubble as namely the putting Thrones and Dominations with Archangels Angels Cherubins and Seraphins in ranke and file a Geographicalâ— description of foure Regions under the earth Hell Purgatory Limbus Patrum and Limbus Infantum an imaginary treasury of super-abundant satisfactions to be dispenced by the Pope hallowing of Water Salt Creame c. Christening Bels Singing Dirges and Trentals Pilgrimages Whippings Masses without Communicants dry Communions censing Pictures Invocation of Saints worshipping of Images with Reliques and such like trash f De te fabula narratur unlesse you can substantially refute Vigniers his Theater of Popes or Plessis his Historia Papatus or Abbot Down and Powell and infinite others accurate and elaborate Treatises De Antichristo you must aske blessing of the whore of Babylon as your mother g Will you call it the same wine which was powred out into two cups whereof one hath store of rats-bane in it See pag. 16. letter â— and pag. 33. letter u h There was never such a prophane gamster heard of as this Masse-Priest who playeth not only with the word of God and prayers but with Sacraments here and most solemne oathes hereafter what horrible prophannesse what detestable hypocrisie is it I will not say for a Lay Papist but a Romish Priest not only to be at our Service but to stay at the Communion to heare the Ministers exhortation out of the Apostle to all persons that come to the holy Table Diligently to try and examine themselves before they presume to eate of that bread and drinke of that cup for as the benefit is great if with a true penitent heart and lively faith we receive that holy Sacrament for then we spiritually eate the flesh of Christ and drinke his blood then we dwell in Christ and Christ in us we be one with Christ and Christ with us so is the danger great if we receive the same unworthily for then we be guiltie of the body and blood of Christ our Saviour we eat and drinke our own damnation not considering the Lords body we kindle Gods wrath against us when we provoke him to plague us with divers diseases and sundry kinds of death Nay more if he joyne with the whole congregation in the rehearsall of the words of the institution and the consecratory prayer will he present himselfe on his knees for he excepts no Ceremonies and receive the consecrated elements delivered to him with these
words The body of our Lord Iesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body and soule unto eternall life and yet all this while never thinke of receiving the Sacrament but only of eating a piece of bread and drinking a draught of wine which shall be better done with the remembrance of Christ then without it He will say that our Sacrament is nothing but common bread and wine and that nought else is to be received aâ— our Communion Table The Lord rebuke thee thou false tongue What because we beleeve not that the bread and wine is transubstantiated into Christs body and blood must it therefore be nothing but common bread and bare wine By the same reason he might say that because the water in Baptisme is not transubstantiated into Christs blood that therefore it is nothing but faire water and he may in a jesting manner wash a childe in remembrance of Christs washing us with his blood It is true we teach with Theodoret Dial. 2. That the sacred symbols after consecration depart not out of their own nature but still remaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their former substance shape and figure but withall we teach that they remaine not the same in use signification and supernaturall efficacie by vertue of Christs promise to all that worthily partake of the same Neither could this prophane scoffer be ignorant hereof for he saith He hath often been at our Service where we professe that all who with a lively faith receive the holy Sacrament spiritually eate the flesh of Christ and drinke his blood He also maketh mention in this Pamphlet of the 39. Articles which he will have to be the definition of a Protestant and in those Articles he could not but reade Art 28. Christs body is given received and eaten in the Supper but only after a heavenly and spirituall manner And in the Apologie of the Church of England part 2. cap. 14. The Supper of the Lord is not only a signe of the love that Christians ought to beare amongst themselves one to the other but rather it is a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christs death in so much that to such as rightly worthily and with faith receive the same the bread which we breake is the partaking of the body of Christ and likewise the cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ. With which confession of ours fully accordeth the Helvetian the French the Belgicke the Augustane and the Swevick as he that hath an eare may heare in the Harmony of Confessions Printed 1581. cap. 21. De sacrâ coenâ Domini What should I need for further proofe hereof either to alleadge the testimonie of Calvin Epist. 31. Non modo figuratur in coenae communio quam habemus cum Christo sed etiam exhibetur neque verba illic nobis dantur à Domino sed veritas ac res constat cum verbis Haec porro communio non imaginaria est sed qua in unum corpus unamque substantiam cum capite nostro coalescimus There is not only figured in the Supper that communion which we have with Christ but it is also exhibited neither doth our Lord deceive us but the truth of the thing is correspondent to his words neither is the communion we speake of an imaginarie but such a reall one whereby we grow into one body and one substance with Chrâ—st our head or the testimonie of Bucer Epist. ad Italos addit hoc est corpus meum hic sanguis meus id credamus nec dubitemus haec dari nobis his ipsis symbolis dari in cibum potum vitae aeternae ut magis magisque vivamus in Christo habeamus illum manentem in nobis He addeth this is my body this is my blood let us beleeve it and no way doubt but that these things are given unto us by or with these very symbols and that they are given unto us for the food and drinke of eternall life that we may more and more live in Christ and have him living in us It never came into the thought of any professour of the Gospel to celebrate the Supper of the Lord without the Lord as Bucer speaketh in this Epistle or exclude him from his owne Table We teach he is there truly present and is truly received by all worthy communicants but spiritually by faith not carnally with the mouth according to the grosse Capernaitical conceipt of Romanists For first our Saviour in the sixth of Iohn where he commandeth all to eate his flesh and drinke his blood vers 53. affirming that his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drinke indeed perceiving that some were offended thereat saying vers 60. this is a hard saying who can beare it thus he declareth his own meaning vers 63. The words which I speake unto you they are spirit and they are life that is spiritually to be understood not carnally and grossely Secondly the Orthodox Fathers disclaime this carnall eating with the mouth St. Cyril in his Anathems denyeth the Sacrament to be hominis comestionem An Anthropophagie or man eating St. Chrysostome saith it is mensa aquilarum not graculorum and St. Austine that it is cibus mentis not ventris or dentis the food of the soule not of the tooth or belly Tract 20. in Iohan. Vt quid paras dentes ventrem crede manducasti Why dost thou prepare thy teeth and thy belly beleeve and thou hast eaten and St. Cyprian de coena Dom. haec quoties agimus non dentes ad manducondum acuimus sed fide sincera panem sanctum frangimus As oft as we doe these things we doe not whâ—t our teeth to eate but with sincere faith we breake that holy bread Thirdly Christ never instituted any Sacramentall action but it was profitable to the soule but the eating of Christs flesh with the mouth and swallowing it down in the stomack doth no way at all profit the soule Fourthly Christ never wrought any miracle outwardly upon the creature but the truth therof appeared even to sense when he turned the water into wine Ioh. 2. The change was discovered by the taste vers 9 10. When the Ruler of the feast had tasted it he said to the Bridegroome thou hast kept the good wine till now In like manner when Christ multiplyed the five Barley loaves and the two fishes both the taste and the stomacke and the eyes of all that were present gave testimonie to the truth of this miracle For they did all eate and were satisfied and saw twelve baskâ—ts remaining full of the fragments or broken meat which remained to them that had eaten Neither can it be shewed that ever Christ the Author of truth deluded the sense If therefore the bread had been truly and really turned into the substance of flesh either the sight or the taste or the touch would have discerned this change which yet as themselves confesse discover nothing but the whitenesse the roundnesse the
subversion and ruine of their soules pag. 19. In the Protestant Church there is neither idâ—latrie committed nor hurt done pag. 22. Why should we not communicate with Protestants where there can be no danger of sinne and in pag. 23. Protestants are not to be called properly formall heretiques pag. 41. In going to the Protestant Church there is no morall malignitie at all in so much that scarce the weakest man can invent how to sinne by any thing that is there done it being of its owne nature so indifferent and to a good intention good that à parte rei there is no appearance of evill therein pag. 48. I never yet could finde any idolatrie committed at Protestant Churches as often as I have frequented the same pag. 52. Protestants are not properly and in rigour formall heretiques If Protestants are not formall heretiques it followeth necessarily that they are no heretiques at all for forma dat nomen et esse If it be a false suggestion that Protestants are blasphemous heretiques hating God and his Church then the truth is they are neither blasphemous heretiques nor haters of God nor his Church but lovers of both If there be no idolatrie committed in Protestant Churches then God is there purely worshipped in spirit and truth If there bee no hurt done in Protestant Churches no danger of sinne nor so much as any appearance of evill then are all Papists iustly to be punished who refuse to come to our Church and they are guilty of grievous sinne in disobeying the commands of King and State and have no pretence at all for their recusancie Thus as Virgil when he read the obsolete writings of Ennius said he sought for aurum instercore so maist thou finde here gold in a dunghill I have washed away the filth by Animadversions inserted in convenient places make thou use of the gold to enrich thy knowledge and confirme thy assurance of the doctrine of the Gospel purely taught and sincerely professed in the Church of England Octob. 1. 1642. A TABLE OF THE SPECIALL CONTENTS LOcks that are scrued with letters are most troublesome to unlocke if we know not the particular letters by the setting whereof together the wards flye open such is the ensuing discourse consisting of very many heads doubling or trebling the Alphabet as appeare by the marginall notes yet without any summaary contents premised or directorie Titles serving in stead of signall letters to open the severall parts and Sections thereof It was thought therefore requisite to supply that defect in the Romish Authour by this table wherein the Reader may readily and easily finde those remarkable points which either are professedly handled or occasionally touched therein First in the Preface pag. 3. Secondly in the Treatise pag. 16. Sect. 1. pag. 26. Sect. 2. pag. 57. Sect. 3. pag. 82. Thirdly in the Appendix pag. 143. First in the Preface The originall of Recusancie in England pag. 6. The Rescripts of seven Popes in the case all erroneous pag 7. The determination of generall Councels of great authoritie yet not infallible pag. 12. Secondly in the Treatise The state of the question touching going to Church with men of a different religion explicated pag. 16. Naamans fact bowing in the temple of Rimmonâ—iscussed â—iscussed pag. 17. The words of the Prophet 2 Kings 5.19 goe in peace diversly expounded pag. 18. None may dissemble his Religion no not in feare of death pag. 21. The resâ—lution â—f the Sorbon Doctors in the case of Recusancie pag. 24. SECT 1. The definition of scandall pag. 26. Severall divisions of Scandall pag. 27. The distinction of veniall and mortall sinne refuted pag. 28. Evangelicall Councels as they call them are not distinct from precepts pag. 29. Povertie in it selfe is not scandalous pag. 31 Whether our Liturgie be any part of the Missall pag. 33. Prayers ought to be made in a knowne tongue pag. 34. What is meant by appearance of evill 1 Thess. 5.22 pag. 35. In what case the eating meates offered unto Idols is forbidden by the Apostle 1 Cor. 8. pag. 39. The definition of an heretique pag. 51. That the faith of Protestants is no way defective pag. 53. The Romish Clergie is grosly ignorant pag. 54 The Protestants manner of preaching in many respects to be preferred before the Romish pag. 55. SECT 2. Recusancie is no distinctive signe betweene a Papist and a Protestant pag. 57. The Protestants Sacrament is not a bare signe nor the holy Eucharist common bread pag. 60. The body and blood of Christ is truly given in the Sacrament pag. 61. The popish carnall manner of eating Christs flesh with the mouth is repugnant to faith reason and common sense pag. 62. The Apostle by the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.20 meaneth not the Agapae or Love-feasts pag. 64. A foule practise and high misdemeanour of Davenport alias à Sancta Clara in procuring a surreptitious Bull against Day the Franciscan pag. 75. SECT 3. That Papists attribute religious worship to images themselves pag. 85. That a man being questioned of his faith though before an incompetent Iudge is bound to answer the truth pag. 98. That we may not dissemble with dissemblers nor play the Fox with Foxes pag. 99. That Papists trust in their owne merits though some at their death have renounced them pag. 104. The Oath of Allegiance divided into eight branches and every branch justified by Papists themselves pag. 109. The Oath of Supremacie divided into foure branches pag. 114. In what sense Protestants teach the King to be Head of the Church pag. 115. Who are meant by forreiners in the Statute pag. 120. That no Papist can take the Oath of Supremacie but that he must renounce a fundamentall point of his Religion pag. 138. Thirdly in the Appendix 1. A forme of Recantation injoyned the Lollards in the 19. yeere of King Richard the second taken out of the Records in the Tower pag. 143. The Resolutions of the Fathers in the Councell of Trent pag. 145. The Oathes of Supremacie Enacted 35. Hen. 8. 1 Elizabeth pag. 148.150 A proviso for Expounding the Oath 5. Elizabeth pag. 151. The Admonition annexed to the Injunctions Elizabeth 1. pag. 152. The Conclusion of the Authour of the Animadversions to the Reader pag. 154. Errata sic corrige P. 7. in marg state r. flat p. 8. lin 11. p. 7. r. 12. p. 15. l. 9. Ignorattia r. ignorantia p. 22. l. 22. the r. they p. 28. l. 15. dele the p. 42. l. 17. rejoice r. rejoyne p. 54 l. 35. proposition r. praeposition p. 64. l. 14. Apollorum r. Apostolorum p. 76. l. 6. adde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 85. l. 12. sede r. sedè p. 97. marg l. 6. doth r. doe p. 99. l. 11. marg adeo r. adde l. 12. r. wizards p. 140. marg l. 6. d the appendix A SAFEGARD FROM SHIPWRACKE TO A PRVDENT CATHOLIKE Wherein is PROOVED THAT A Catholique may goe to the Protestant Church And Take both the Oathes of Allegiance
being sufficiently proposed at leastwise to most of them I much doubt For as Diana saith 5a. parte pag. 240. col 1a. A man speaking heresie that is a proposition condemned by the Church without an hereticall consent is no heretique neither in curreth excommunication denounced against heretiques so that although they be incredulous and beleeve not the truth yet they are not properly and in rigor formall heritiques Adde that there is no more sin to goe to the Protestant Church then to goe to them to dinner or to goe with them to a play or other sports And I for my part had rather give twelue pence to heare a Sermon then take five shillings to see a play For there is no such sport as to heare a weake fellow speake fustian with gravitie or tell a fable of the whore of Babylon or Babylonians for so now they terme Catholiques with erected eyes in earnest Or why should it be more lawfull to see a play where most commonly intercedes scurrilitie and obscene gestures and the end of which is nothing but vanitie then to heare a Sermon where perhaps in some places or by some simple men their may be some untruth told of the Pope to please their Auditory although most commonly nothing but moralitie which is the end and intention of the same I pray resolve me § 2. It is not unlawfull to goe to Church because Recusancie is a distinctive signe Which is the second branch of the Minor THat Recusancy is a distinctive sign of a Catholique from a Protestant is most false Which is thus proved If Recusancie be a distinctive signe it is a signe naturall or by institution but neither can be said Ergo it is no signe The Minor is proved Not naturall for as Hurtado above cited well observeth Actions and things are not of their own nature significant but have naturall and politicall uses independent of any signification For a bush hung out at a Taverne doore doth naturally signifie no more wine to be sold then any other creature whatsoever Nor doth the habit of a Bishop naturally signifie a Bishop more then a Judge and so of other things No more doe naturally the actions of men But admit that Recusancy were improperly said a naturall signe yet it would naturally signifie no more a Catholique then a Brownist for he refuseth likewise to goe to Church or any other Sectary Although a posteriori it might be thought by discourse to signifie some one displeased with the Protestant Church but why or wherefore it would never signifie Not by institution for if so who instituted the same God or man Not man for it is out of his power to signe the people of God from not his people It is only the owner of the flocke that must signe the sheepe and none other unlesse it be by speciall order from him Hence when God would signe his people in the old Testament from the people of other Nations he himselfe instituted Circumcision Gen 17. as a distinctive signe betweene them and others that whosoever had that signe should be of his people and who so had it not was to be rejected Neither was it sufficient that any man had accidentally and by the institution of Abraham any other signe by which he might be knowne from others because he was not thought sufficiently marked nor accounted any one of Gods people by any other sign then Circumcision Which was the sole marke of God saying All the male kinde of you shall be Circumcised And this is consonant to reason For one man may get a distinctive signe of another mans institution shall God therefore own him Brownists as I have said have Recusancie doth it therefore follow that they are likewise Catholiques If a sheepe in my neighbours flocke should teare an eare in a bramble or bush or accidentally breake an horne this sheepe is hereby distinct from the rest yet the owner doth not own it by that marke but by a marke of his own institution and ruddle So it is in the present That God did not institute the same it is so evident that it needs no proofe For where may we finde his institution Vnlesse we should run to the all-knowing spirit of hereticks Hence it follows that Recusancie is no distinctive signe If you aske me what is then the signe to know a Catholique from any other Sectary I answer His beleefe of the Creed of the Catholique Church and his lâ—fe at all times in communion with the See Apostolique So Stratford lib. 2. de Eccles. cap. 6. pag. 188. It may be here objected first the common opinion of Divines as the said R. P. saith 2a. 2ae q. 3. To use a distinctive signe of a false religion that properly is such is a deniall of faith and evill in it selfe But the Service said in a Protestant Church is such Ergo. I grant the Major For if the signe be proper of a people rejected of God as since the promulgation of the Gospel Circumcision is to a Jew the Major must needs be true But if the signe be garments or the like used to the worship and ceremonies of a false law which some fondly call a proper signe then the Major meaning the use of such a signe to be a denyall of faith is false according to Diana resol 34. pag. 191. above cited Azorius Sanches and many others there Because such signes being naturall things may be lawfully used as I have said before independent of any such signification and so not properly signes whatsoever R. P. saith to the contrary upon his own bare word The Minor proposition I deny For who instituted that service to be such a signe not God as all Catholiques will confesse but rather the contrary it being Catholique Not themselves for it would savor too much weakenesse to thinke that they would institute to themselves a signe of a false religion And if it be taken for a signe naturally although improperly signifying then I say of its own nature it signifies no more a false Religion in a Protestant then a pious ceremony in a Catholique For Catholiques say the same service Catholiques preach moralitie and each may if hee please receive bread and wine once in a day in a weeke or a moneth in remembrance that Christ dyed for him and this shall be better done then to eate bread and wine without such remembrance For receiving bread and wine See that deduced out of Azorius tom 1. lib. 8. instit moral c. 11. Navar. consil 15. de haeret num 2. Which were but to renew in an urgent point of necessitie the old custome in the Apostles time as appears by the Corinthian Christians in Saint Paul 1 Cor. 11. who did eate and drinke in the Church besides what they received of Christs institution as his true and reall body and blood For after the Sacrifice and Eucharist was ended there were kept Church feasts for the reliefe of the poore upon
taste and other accidents of bread Fifthly If the flesh of Christ may be eaten with the mouth without faith not only infidels and reprobates but even rats and mice might sometimes through the negligence of Priests gnaw upon the consecrated Host and eate the flesh of the Son of God which were horrid to imagine and blasphemous to utter Sixthly if the Romish Priests undoubtedly beleeve this doctrine of transubstantiation as they doe other Articles of their faith why did Garnet and other Popish Priests when they were required to say these or the like words if after I have consecrated and pronounced the words this is my body there be not in stead of the bread the very flesh of Christ let me have no part in heaven they refused so to doe this profession being demanded of them but a day or two before their deaths when if ever men will clearely discharge their conscience and utter whatsoever is in their very heart it being the last time they are like ever to confesse with the mouth unto salvation Seventhly if the bread be transubstantiated into Christs body and his body truly really and properly taken from the hand of the Priest put into the mouth chawed with the teeth and swallowed down into the stomacke of all communicants either Christ of necessitie must have two bodies one visible another invisible one with the full dimensions of a man the other of a wafer one passible the other impassible one residing in one place the other filling a million of places or at least the selfe same body of Christ must at the same time be visible at the right hand of his Father and invisible in the Host with the dimensions of a man in heaven and of a wafer on earth with distinction of organs in heaven and inorganicall upon earth resting in heaven and moved on earth from the hand to the mouth and from the mouth to the stomack of millions of communicants Lastly I demand of this Priest and his pew-fellows what becomes of Christs body after it is conveighed into the stomack doth it remaine there after the forme and accidents of bread are changed or doth it some wayes remove out of the stomack or is it there converted into any other substance they dare not pitch upon any of these three nothing therefore remaineth but an annihilation or corruption in the stomack and so the holy one of God whom God would never suffer to see corruption no not in the grave shall now after his glorification suffer corruption in the stomack of all Romish Capernaits i The Apostle in that place speaketh not of Suppers in the plurall number but the Lords Supper in the singular and vers 23. delivereth the right manner of administring it according to Christs institution and so St. Cyprian in his Tract de caena Domini and the most approved interpreters both ancient and moderne understand the word and not of love feasts As for the reason this authour alleadgeth for this his exposition it is very frivolous For if the love feasts must therfore be tearmâ—d coena Dominicae our Lords Suppers because they were made in the Churches which were then called Dominicae by the same reason the Homilies and Catechisings and Songs should be called Dominicae because they were made said or sung in the Churches which were then called Dominicae k He meaneth a Romane Catholique or Papist which indeed can hardly be knowne to be a true Catholique See pag. 1. letterc. But doth he think that we know not what a Papist is Let them remember what Polycarp did answer when Marcion accoasting him said Nosti me Doest thou know me Yes saith Polycarp Novi primogenitum diaboli I know the first begotten of the devill We know you qua tales to be the naturall issue of the man of sinne and whore of Babylon and in this double and dissembling way it is hard to say of what religion you are or whether of any at all l A lewd slander it is not lawfull among us for every one to beleeve what hee pleaseth but this Priest thinketh it lawfull for him to speake what he pleaseth though against common sense and his owne conscience For within tenne lines of these words he maketh mention of the 39 Articles of the Church of England to which we all are bound to give our assent and consent and in case any Parson or Viâ—ar doe not reade these Articles and publikely testifie his approbation of them within a moneth after his induction into his Benefice he lapseth his Living Besides it is the knowne doctrine of all Protestants that the Scripture is the sole and perfect rule of faith and that as we may not beleeve any thing contrary unto it so neither any doctrine as necessarie to salvation which cannot be evidently proved out of it Of what brasse then was the brow of this slanderer made who affirmeth it to be lawfull among Protestants for every man to beleeve what he pleaseth m See page 53. Letter E. n See the Advertisement to the Reader o We are as much beholding to the stiâ—câ—er up of this Safeguard for the Relation herein closed as the Church of Rome hath little cause to con him thanke for it For hence we learne first what credit is to be given to the Popes briefes which may be so easily procured by false suggestions to the wrong and prejudice of those that deserve well of the Roman cause A cleare evidence hereof we have in Day the Franciscan who never so much as appearing before his Holinesse to answer for himselfe is censured by the Popes Bull and that for doing a pious and religious act Secondly what a silly Consistory the Papall is at this day the Pope himselfe as fallible a man as any other and the Cardinals slight and weake fellows never a skilfull Pilot sitting at the Sterne of Peters ship Thirdly what charitie there is betweene Romish Priests and Iesuits and how they heape coales of hell fire one upon anothers head Davenport otherwise Franciscus a Sancta Clara procures a Bull like to Phalaris his brazen Bull with fire in the belly of it to torment Day the Franciscan without his fault or knowledge and this Priest here condemns Sancta Clara to black darknesse for ever pallentes umbras erebi noctâ—mque profundam this man saith he is descending to Lucifer who will presume to be copartnâ—r with the holy Ghost and thus leaving him the said a Sancta Clara to him that will have him c. tantaene animis caelestibus irae are they Friers secular Priests or Devils that thus spit fire one at another Let Davenport have the day of Day at Rome what hath Sancta Clara done that in the charitaâ—le censure of this Priest Lucifer must have him He tooke upon him to draw some Rules out of Scriptures and the writings of the ancient Fathers For the direction of generall Councels in declaring matters of faith A capitall crime no doubt but what else hath this