B. Laud and his party That in the time of our first reforming this Church * Canon 7th made Anno 1640. from the gross superstition of the Papists it was carefully provided that all means should be used to root out of the minds of people both the inclination thereto and the memory thereof especially of the Idolatry committed in the Mass for which cause ell Popish altars were demolished Now I pray is it an effectual means to do these two things to set up altars of wood in their places or tables of wood altarwise as the Laudensians would have and bow to or towards them as Papists did and do is this according to Gods Commandment But before I go further to prevent mistakes I say that 't is one thing for men to kneel or bow before or towards a place meerly as a place and another thing to bow or kneel towards or to a place or thing purposely and upon a religious reason or respect for some religious excellency or holiness that is in it or conceived to be in it more than in another place or thing To kneel or bow towards or before a place or thing the former way is necessary or unavoidable as to the action it cannot be done without it for a man cannot kneel or bow but some place or thing will be before him as is to be seen in prayer in the Church or field or private house but as to the person kneeling or bowing 't is accidental and besides his intention he kneels not he bows not purposely before or towards his feat the Pultpit Pew East or West North or South out of any religious respect to the seat or place or because he thinks there is more religious excellency or holiness in it or because God is more present there or that way than in another place or thing or way but only because his seat or Pew is so placed that he cannot conveniently stand or kneel otherwise so well as that way Now in this or this way there is no Idolatry or superstition to bow towards or before the Communion-Table or East in time of Religious worship But now your bowing once or twice or three times at your entrance into the Church and so often when you come in sight of the holy Altar and three times when you come near it and three times when ye go out of or pass through the Church or Chancel or by the holy Altar and this too when the Sacrament is not administred is not casual accidental or necessary but purposed and intended in a religious respect to that place or thing not simply as towards a place but as to an holy place yea more holy than other places because you conceive Christ to be most specially prosent there and upon religious reasons which are not found to be in it by any institution of God which renders your worship superstitious making it an image or means of worship against the second Commandment Ye make it a relative object and motive of worship as Papists do their Images and Crucifixes and the Cross Papists say they give no religious respect unto the Tree or Cross whereon Christ was crucified or to the Garments he wore or Manger in which he lay or Spear that was thrust into his side as materially considered in themselves but only quantum ad rationem contactus * Aquin. 3a parte q. 25. a. 4. c. And Bellarmine saith that Imago non est capax honor is propter se sed relative ad prototypum Dr. Ames Bell. Ener l. 6. c. 5. p. 261. membrorum Christi in relation to and by reason of their touching the members of Christ and then it will follow that Judas his lips ought to be worshipped and so saith Shelford in his Sermon p. 19. and so saith A. B. Laud in his Star-Chamber Speech p. 47. for he saith There 't is hoc est corpus meum and a greater reverence no doubt is due to the body than to the word of our Lord and so in relation answerably to the Throne where his body is usually present than to the seat whence his word useth to be proclaimed And the Table or holy Altar hath some part of your divine worship imparted to it making it an object mediate though not ultimate of your worship and a motive to excite your worship from some conceived excellency in it though but relative as Papists make their * A. B. Laud by statute made the Dean and Prebends of Canterbury to swear that at their coming in and going out of the Choire and all approaches to the Altar they would by bowing towards it make due reverence to Almighty God as Dr. Heylin saith Cyp. Angl. l 4. p. 291 292. where 't is in the Margent thus Summa reverentia adorare Deum versus Altare Images and are judged by your Divines to be therefore Idolatrous You say saith a reverend Divine that you worship God before or towards the holy Altar yet without doâ—bâ— some part of your worship sticks to the Altar transiently and relatively 1. Transiently as making the Altar the objecâ— of your worship mediately though noâ— ultimately 2. Relatively as a motivâ— to excite your worship for its more holiness than in any other part of the Church or Church-houshold-stuff aâ— Dr. Duncomb speaks in his Cambridâ— Determination Sure we are Papists are more than suspected even charged with Idolatry by Protestant Divines for bowing before or towards Images aâ— ours do before or towards the holy Table For A. B. Laud's statute above though they do not directly and ultimately worship the Altar yet they do worship God not only before or towards the Altar of their own devising but through and by the Altar as much as Papists do by and through an Image and I may add as much as the Israelites did worship God by or through the Golden Calf they make it a mediate object and a relative motive of theâ—â— worship and so a devised medium of worship contrary to the second Commandment I cannot see how they can acquit themselves oâ— Altar-worship but they must also acquit Papists of Image-worship I have proved already that Christs body is not corporally presenâ— in the Sacrament of the Lords-Supper it must therefore be said that his body is there Sacramentally significatively Sacramentum * Bishop Jewel's Def of Apol c. 1. d. 3 p. 316. vocatur corpus Christi id est significaâ— corpus Christi that is the Sacrament is called Christs body that is it signifies Christs body But to this I answer then that the Sacramental presence of Christs body on the holy Altar is no sufficient reason to prove that the said holy table or altar whereon some times the Sacrament of his body is set or consecrated as Dr. Pocklington speaks is therefore to be adored or religiously reverenced or bowed corporally unto For 1. The Sacrament of the Lords-Supper or signs of Christs body and blood are not God but are the good
The first and third of these three Conclusions shew the reasons of the second and hold forth this truth That the works of unregenerated men done before they receive the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not good works and so pleasing unto God and that because they spring not from a lively faith in Christ but are evil because they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done And therefore they make not men meet to receive grace or deserve not grace of congruity at Gods hands 2. And this erroneous Doctrine of merit of congruity and preparing and disposing and making men meet and worthy to receive grace is also contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of Engâ—â— in her Homily for Rogation-week T. 2. p. 3. p. 223. which saith thus Faith is the first entry into a Christian life without which no man can please God Faith is the giâ—t of God Ephes 2. 8. Charity wherewith we love our brethren is the work of God If after our fall we repent it is by him that we repent who reacheth forth his merciful hand to raise us up if we have any WILL TO RISE it is HE that PREVENTETH OUR WILL AND DISPOSETH us thereunto If after contrition we feel our consciences at peace with God through remission of sins and so be reconciled to his favour and hope to be his children and inheritors of everlasting life who worketh these great miracles in us our worthiness our deservings and endeavours our wits and vertue Nay verily St. Paul will not suffer flesh and clay in such arrogancy and therefore saith all is oâ— God which hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ Lo here you see that your vertue wits endeavours deservings worthiness are excluded from being the efficient disposing much more from being the meritorious cause of the favour of God or grace of faith or love or repentance c. in us and that these are the gifts of God which he by his Spirit worketh in us And 3 't is contrary to the Church of England's Liturgy as Collect for the 17th Sunday after Trinity Lord we pray thee that thy grace may alway prevent and follow us and make us continually to be given to good works And in one of the Collects after the Communion Prevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee c. Wherein we acknowledg that Gods grace and favour must prevent us and go before our doing or beginning to do any good works and that his grace must follow and further us with its continual help else we shall not be able to begin nor continue to do good works acceptable to him And 4. 't is contrary to the tenth Article of the Church of England of Free-will The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God by Christ PREVENTING us that we may have a good will and WORKING with us when we have that good will 2. Because 't is contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of Ireland Articles 25 and 26. which accords with the Doctrine of the Church of England verbatim in her tenth and thirteenth Articles 3. Because 't is contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of Scotland which also agreeth with the Doctrine of the Church of England to be seen in the Confession of Faith made by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster Edenburgh August 27 1647. Sess 23. c. 9. Art 3 4. c. 10. Art 1 2. c. 16. Art 2 3. 7. Now these Errors of the Papists are grounded upon two Errors more which they have received from the Pelagians 1. The first Error which is the ground of these is this That men in the state of corruption before they are endued with a lively faith in Jesus Christ can by the power of their own free-will do good works which Papists call dispositions or preparations of grace which they say do out of congruâ—â—y move God to bestow his grace upon them and prepare or make them meet and worthy to receive Gods grace Now though this error be sufficiently yea abundantly confuted before especially in the seventh Article of this Renunciation yet because 't is the ground of many others and 't is so much stood upon and 't is so pleasing to corrupt reason Give me leave to say something more against it here also And 1. I say that this Doctrine is condemned by the Synod of Dort Chap. 3 4. Error 3. before recited And also Error 5 We reject the Doctrine of them that teach that corrupt and natural man can so rightly use common grace by which they mean the light of nature or those gifts which are left in him after the fall that by the good use thereof he may attain to a greater namely Evangelical or saving grace and by degrees at length Salvation it self And God for his part sheweth himself ready in this manâ—er to reveal Christ to all men seeing he doth sufficiently and efficaciously afford to every man necessary means for the making Christ known and for faith and repentance They give not their reason there for their rejecting of the former part of this Error because that they had it done before in the third and fourth Error rejected But against the latter they say thus For this is convinced to be false as by the experience of all ages in the world so also by the Scriptures Psal 147. 20. He sheweth his word unto Jacob his statutes and his judgments unto Israel he hath not â—ealt so with any Nation and as for his judgments they have not known them Act. 14. 16 God in times past suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways Act. 16. 7 8. Paul and his company were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia and after they were come to Mysia they assayed to go into Bithynia but the Spirit suffered them not And Error the ninth they reject the Doctrine of them that teach That grace and free-will are co-partening causes jointly concurring to the beginning of conversion and that grace doth not in order of causality go before the action of the will that is that God doth not effectually help mans will unto conversion before the will of man moveth and determineth or setleth it self thereunto For this Doctrine was long since condemned by the ancient Church among the Pelagian Errors out of the Apostles authority Rom. 9. 16. It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy And 1 Cor. 4. 7 Who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive Item Phil. 2. 13 It is God which worketh in you
them in their sanctified Banners to make them fortunate Vide Elements of Armory p. 166. 8. In this Church of St. Peter's is besides the said 25 little Altars one great Altar or Sepulcher viz. that of St. Peter which is as it were their Sanctum Sanctorum upon which no man may celebrate Mass but the Pope only This Altar or Sepulcher is made four square of a perfect Cubical figure the length breadth and height of it are equal the measure of every side or area of this Altar is precisely 25 foot of square measure as the words of Baronius Ann. 324. and Onuphrius de praecip Rom. Basil c. 4. do testifie 9. They have most remarkably imprinted the number 25 upon all their Altars because Christs 5 Wounds as they call them are in 5 several places engraven upon the top of every Altar Which their multiplying of our Saviours Wounds from 5 to 25 what it may signifie either in their intention or beyond their intention is not material to enquire but certain it is that there are usually and ordinarily 25 Prints marks or dints engraven upon all their Altars St. Peter's hath thus and so have others 10. The Pope keeps his Jubilee every 25 year 11. As they seem to affect saith he the 25th year so also the 25th day of the Month for their chief Holy-days are upon the 25th day more than upon any other day as the 25th of December for the Nativity of our Saviour The 25th of January for St. * That is Paul the Hermite not the Apostle Paul's Conversion The 25th of February for the Feast of St. Mathias The 25th of March for the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin The 25th of April for Saint Marks day The 25th of July for St. James his day and upon the 25th day of August is the Feast of St. Bartholomew celebrated at Rome as their Breviary witnesseth although in other places it be celebrated one day sooner 12. 'T is observed by a learned man that when Gregory reformed the Kalendar they rejected the Golden Number 19 by which means they made a twofold Epact of 25 of which one is written thus 25 the other thus XXV or in a different colour Who also addeth this That until he could see some reason why the Jesuits fastned this conceit upon 25 rather than upon any other number he should impute it to their affectation of this number above all other And 't is observed that Antiochus who in many almost in all things was a type of Antichrist insomuch that what some Authors expound of Antiochus in Daniel other Authors interpret of Antichrist faileth not in this but of all the days of the month he and his Officers did solemnize the 25th day by offering sacrifice upon the Idols Altars on that day and by their Monthly persecution of the Jews on that day as appears Mac. 1. 59. Obj. But it 's objected concerning the number of the Colledg of Cardinals that at their first institution it was not 25 but 26 because the Pope numbreth himself among the Cardinals as he is Peter's Successor in his Apostleship and because he is a Cardinal so accounted Answ To this 't is answered that the Popes were not of the decreed number 25 as Christ was not numbred among the 12 Apostles though he was an Apostle Heb. 3. 1. but was their Lord and Master and head So the Pope as he pretends himself to be Vicarius Christi is not and cannot be numbred among the Cardinals but is their Lord and head The reason why the number 666 was chosen saith Mr. Potter was because the only figure of this number is a perfect figure perfectly representing the city of Rome as the number 144 was chosen because the figure of this number is a perfect figure perfectly representing the city of Jerusalem For which he gives many reasons and proves what he saith by Demonstrations too many and large to be set down here which I believe all the Papists in the world will never be able fully to answer to him for brevities sake I must necessarily refer you Thus far Mr. Potter of the Number of the Beast 666. I pray seriously read the Book you 'l find more in it than I can express here Mr. Mede when he looked upon it at first he sleighted it and read it with much prejudice but by that time he had read all of it and read it again he admired it as the excellentest piece that ever was Printed of that subject By counting the Number 666 thus you may find the rise body and seat of Antichrist If the application of the Number 666 or its root 25 doth discover any other Church or City besides Rome it 's no more than Dr. H. More and Mr. Mede collect that there may be little Babylons petty Harlots elsewhere out of Rome in Italy and though it may hold the faith as Rome anciently did yet it may degenerate and become Romish first and so Antichristian in the end as the City and Church of Rome did and doth * Which I humbly conceive should make all Churches examine themselves what they hold and practise that is held and practised by that apostatized Church and come wholly off from her in what she hath not express Canonical Scripture for or allowed example of or precept for it or promise to it therein And the apostacy of other Churches may be measured by their near accession to and agreement with this Queen of Harlots As learned Dr. Henry More hath observed in his Synopsis Apocalyptica l. 1. cap. 15. Sect. 10. pag. 314. where he shews that the square root of the number of the Beast is 25 and doth detect to whom the Vision of the Beast doth belong And besides the name long since foretold and found to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose Numeral Letters make the Number 666 is considerable as appears thus Λ Α Τ Ε Ι ΠΟ Σ 50 1 30 5 10 300 70 200 Put these Numbers together and you may find that they make exactly the number 666. And 't is very well known that upon the division of the Empire into Eastern and Western the Greeks called the Western Churches the Latin Churches and the Western Bishops in General Councils were called the Latin Bishops and the distinction of the subscriptions were under the titles of Patrum Latinorum patrum Graecorum and the very name of the Beast doth determine him to Rome and Italy where * Dr. Prideaux in his Introduction to History put out in his Son Matthews name P. 91. saith that Vitalianus one of the Bishops of Rome in the year 666 sent Theodorus a Greek and Hadrian an African into England to bring in the Latin service being the year 666 just the number of the Beast of which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 give a shrewd account the Latin Tongue was and is used in every thing Mass Prayers Hymns Litany Canons Decretals Bulls Councils Bible which