necessary and edificative of the whole flock of Christ but are only made or said to be so by the will of man carrying a real appearance of evil and are scandalous to Papists and Protestants and establish such modes of Religious worship as are most conformable to the Gospel-rule and primo-primitive practise and not too like to and inductive of the Government and form of worship of the Apostatical and Antichristian Church of Rome I verily believe they would have more dutiful Sons and good Friends than now they have and the Church and Kingdom would have more peace and prosperity to which God of his great mercy incline their hearts However I beseech them to let their moderation be known to all men And I intreat all people without making any tumults upon any pretence whatsoever in their own places and callings quietly to endeavour and earnestly expect and pray for an amendment of what is amiss in Church and State to fear God and honour the King and submit to those that are in authority under him And so God keep you all Septemb. 29. 1673. R. R. B. D. The particular Doctrines renounced are these I. THat the Bread and Wine in the Lords-Supper after the Priests pronouncing these words with intention This is my Body and this is my Blood are turned or transubstantiated into the substance of Christs Body and Blood II. That Christ is really more present on the high Altar or Communion-Table as on his Throne or Chair of State than in the Pulpit or Font c. and that therefore more corporal bowing or more bodily reverence is due to the Altar or Communion-Table than to the Pulpit or Font. III. That mens persons are justified or accounted righteous before God for their own good works that follow Faith either in part or in whole and not for the merits of Jesus Christ alone IV. That Faith that doth justifie Believers persons before God is a bare and naked assent to the truth and that so and as an act habit or work in us it justifies V. That the persons of true Believers in Christ are not justified before God by the righteousness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ imputed to them on Gods part and apprehended and applied by Faith alone on their part VI. That mens foreseen faith repentance good works c. were the true causes moving God to elect them to eternal Salvation VII That men unregenetate or in the state of nature have by their own free will power sufficient of themselves to turn themselves to God to believe in Jesus Christ repent and do good workâ— acceptable to God when they will and also finally to resist the efficacious grace of God in converting an elected sinner to himself VIII That truly regenerated persons cannot be certain of their eternal Salvation but may totally and finally fall away from the acts and habits of saving Grace before they die and be eternally damned IX That the corruption of our nature commonly called Original sin which remaineth in truly regenerated persons after Baptism is not properly sin X. That meer men in this life since Adams fall can perfectly fulfill Gods whole Moral Law and also voluntarily do good works besides and above Gods Commandments which they call works of Supererogation which are as they say greater and holier than the works of the Moral Law and do merit remission of sin and eternal life not only for themselves but also for others XI That unregenerated mens own good works do make them meet to receive grace from God or as the School Doctors say deserve grace of congruity XII Thâ—t the good works of â—â—regenerated men do ex condigno merit at Gods hands eternal life XIII That there is a place after this life called Purgatory wherein the souls of believers dying since Christs Resurrection are purged from sins by penal satisfaction which were not purged in this life so fully as they ought that they may enter into Heaven XIV That the Pope of Rome successively or the Papacy is not the Antichrist of which the Scripture writes XV. That it is lawful to set up and suffer Images of the Sacred Trinity of God the Father of God the Son or Crucifixes Of God the Holy Ghost or of Saints departed this life which have been worshipped in Temples or Churches where Gods people do usually meet to worship God XVI That those Books which are commonly called Apocryphal Scriptures as Tobit Judith c. are the pure word of God and in all things agreeable thereunto XVII That the Pope or Bishop of Rome is the supreme Head of the Universal Church of Christ above all Emperours Kings Princes Pastors People and Churches The Articles of Lambeth The Doctrine of the Churches of England and Ireland Arminianism is not the Doctrine of the Church of England Notes taken out of King James his Declaration against Vorstius King James no friend to Arminianism A Renunciation OF SEVERAL Popish Doctrines BECAUSE Contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of ENGLAND IN general I renounce and detest all Popish false Doctrine and all Popish Superstitious and Idolatrous Worship and practises and the real appearances thereof and in particular I renounce and detest these that follow ARTICLE I. That the Bread and Wine in the Lords-Supper after the Priests pronouncing these words with intention This is my Body and this is my Blood are turned or transubstantiated into the substance of Christs Body and Blood This I renounce because it is contray to the Doctrine of the Church of England which Article 28th faith thus Transubstantiation or the change of the substance of bread and wine in the Supper of the Lord cannot be proved by holy Writ but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture overthroweth the Nature of the Sacrament and hath given occasion to many Superstitions The Body of Christ is given taken and eaten in the Supper only after an heavenly and spiritual manner and the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is faith And Homily of the worthy receiving the Sacrament it saith thus It is well known that the meat we seek for in the Supper is spiritual food the nourishment of our souls an heavenly refection and not earthly invisible meat and not bodily a ghostly substance and not carnal p. 200. It 's also contrary to the Church of England's declaration concerning kneeling at the end of the Communion-service The Sacramental bread and wine remain still in their very natural substances therefore may not be adored for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians and the natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ are in heaven and not here it being against the truth of Christs natural body to be at one time in more places than one This declaration is not only against the Papists Transubstantiation but also fully against the Lutherans Consubstantiation viz. That Christs body and blood is really and corporally in the bread and wine Both which
through the Calf or Calves And this is the judgment of not only * Divine right of Church-government cap. 1. q. 5. S. 2. Con. 2. pag. 150 151 152. Perkin's Order of causes on 2d Command p. 30. Cases of Conscience l. 2. c. 11. p. 206. Usher ' s Sum of Chr. Relig. p. 332. Andrew ' s upon 2d Com. p. 279. Prideaux Serm. upon 1 Cor. 10. 7. p. 7. Willet Synopsis Papis of Images q 5. a. 3. p. 462. Elton upon 2d Com. p. 30 31. Downham ' s Divinity l. 1. c. 6 pap 161. Bishop Ridley saith That it is against the second Commandement to bow down or do worship unto any Image of God or of any other thing Fox Acts Mon. in one Vo p. 1675. learned Rutherford but also of reverend Mr. William Perkins A. B. Vsher Bishop Andrews Bishop Prideaux Dr. Willet and other of our learned Divines that the Israelites did not intentionally worship thâ— Golden Calf or Calves so as to terminate their worship in it or them bâ—â— the true God Jehovah represented by it anâ— them for which they give many gooâ— reasons Perkins saith the Israeliteâ— worshipped not the Calf itself but God iâ— the Calf And so say A. B. Vsher anâ— Bishop Andrews Bishop Prideaux quotes 1 King 16. 31. where Ahab is chronicled to have outstript in Idolatry his Predecessors for that he made it but a lighâ— thing to retain Jeroboam's Calves wherein they worshipped the true God after aâ— Idolatrous manner Mr. Hildersham saith Aaron and the Israelites intended to worship the true God in the similitudâ— of the Golden Calf as is plain Psal 106. 20. They changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass A. B. Vsher to this question But though we do not reverence the Images themselves may we not worship A. B. Vsher condemns as a breach of the second Commandment menâ— and womenâ— making courtesie to the Chancel where the High Altar stood Sum of Christ Relig. p 232. God in or by the Image gives this answer No we may not for the Israelites are condemned not for worshipping the Golden Calf as a god but for worshipping God in the Calf which appears 1. In that they said Let us make a feast to morrow to Jehovah Exod. 32. 5. 2. In tbat Moses otherwise might seem not to have done welâ—â—â— to drink that against their conscience which they judged to be God Exod. 32. 20. To which I add 3. That we cannot in reason or charity think that the Jews were so mad as to think that that Calf which they knew to be made of their own golden Ear-rings was essentially that God that brought them so miraculously out of the land of Egypt 4. Aaron who fashioned the Calf made Proclamation and said To morrow is a feast unto the Lord that is unto Jehovah which is a name they gave only to the true God as Dr. Willet observes And 5. Rutherford gives this reason more They believed not the Calf to be really and essentially Jehovah because they believed not Moses to be essentially God but their guide and leader under God for this Calf they made to supply Moses absence Exod. 32. 1 The people gathered themselves together against Aaron and said unto him Vp make us gods which shall go before us for as for this Moses the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt we know not what is become of him They made then a Calf only a visible god under Jehovah to lead them in Moses his place 6. They knew that Jehovah brought them out of Egypt before this Calf was framed and yet notwithstanding these Israelites are charged with corruption with Idolatry Exod. 32. 7 8. and sin v. 21. yea 't is called a great sin v. 30. and they are said notwithstanding their intention to worship the molten Calf Psal 106. 19. which is called an Idol Act. 7. 40â— for it they are called Idolaters 1 Cor. 10. 7. and about three thousand of them lost their lives for it Exod. 32. 28. And moreover let me tell you that learned Ainsworth proves upon Exod. 20. 5. That to worship God before an Image that is put in a religious state oâ— state of worship before a man is to worship an Image in sacred Scripture sense hence Amaziah who bowed down before the gods of the Edomites is judged to have committed Idolatry for which the Lord was angry with him 2 Chr. 25. 14 15. Mark it that which is called falling down before the gods of the Edomites in the 14 vers is in the 15 vers called seeking that is serving the gods of the people Idem est adorant coram Domino Domino as Mr. Pool hath it out of Ainsworth upon Exod. 20. 5. 't is the same thing to pray before God and to pray to God to pray before God in 1 Chron. 17. 25. is 2 Sam. 7. 27. called praying to God And idemâ—est procumbere coram diabolo diabolo 't is the same thing to pray before the Devil and to pray to the Devil For that which in Mat. 49. is called falling down before the Devil is in Luk. 4. 7. called worshipping of the Devil How you that pretend to worship God with the highest reverence towards the holy altar that is by corporal bowing to or towards it can escape from guilt and punishment except ye repent I know not Dr. Henry More saith plainly Dr. More his Mystery of Iniquity c 10 p. 33. thus Idolatry is committed when we perform some riâ—e or ceremony that is toâ— some external religious action appropriate to the signifying our acknowledgment of the divine eminency before or rather unto that which is not God where by before I understand an intended direction by our selves or others or at least of custom of the religious action as to an object we would honour thereby And a little before he saith thus To give the appropriate signs significative of our agnition Dr. More Mystery of Iniquity c. 10. p 32. of divine excellency to any thing that is not God is Idolatry Yea the using the appropriate signes of the acknowledgment of divine excellency to that which is not God though the assent go not along is notwithstanding the acknowledgment of that to be God which is not and therefore cannot chuse but be flat Idolatry and if Idolatry be committed without the parties devotion toward the undue object then let a man fancy this external religious worship accompanied with as small degrees of devotion or inward intention as hâ— pleases it will not fail to be Idolatry still Yea he saith further Thaâ— Incurvation towards an Image erected to any creature especially in a Temple or on an Altar yea though removed from both were a sign of religiouâ— worship or service by infallible definition Thou shalt not bow down to them nor serve them that is to say thou shalt not do the service of Incurvation nor any other religio is service to them For service
said to Moses Thou shalt see my back-parts Exod. 33. 23. Sometimes he turns again shewing his face to the people passing by because St. Paul saith Videmus in aenigmate we see through a glass darkly 1 Cor. 13. 12. When the Priest passeth from one corner of the Altar to the other the Clerk which serves him removes also with him because the Lord said Where I am there shall also my servant be Joh. 12. 26. The Massifying Bishop stands at the right horn of the Altar because it is written Deus ab austro veniet God shall come from the South These things are to be seen in Bishop Durand's Rationale in the Books of Pope Innocent the third of the Mysteries of the Mass in Gabriel Biel upon the Canon of the Mass in Tollet of the Instruction of Priests in Hugo de Sancto Victore in his Mirrour of the Church Who but the Popes instituted in the Church the making of the sign of the Cross to fright away the Devil who but Pope Honorius not above 500 years since instituted kneeling which some call adoring at receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Which saith Bishop Jewel William Bishop Jewel Serm. upon 1 Cor. 11. 23. p. 51 52. Bishop Jewel's Reply to Harding art 8. d. 1. pag. 283. where he pleads against adoration of the Sacrament that there is neither commandment of Christ nor any word or example of the Apostles or ancient Fathers for it but that 't was lately devised by Pope Honorius about Anno 1226. but after Transubstantiation as Vitiâ— Degeneâ—â— saith pag. 109. Durand and John Dunce Scotus perceiving could not be justified without great peril of Idolatry they removed the bread and wine out of the Sacrament and turned them into the body and blood of Christ and so brought in Transubstantiation which destroys not only the nature of the Sacrament but the body and blood of Christ too All Papists that I have read as * Aquinas 3. q. 75. a. 2. O. Contrariatur venerationi hujus Sacramenti si aliqua substantia creata esset ibi quae non possit adoratione latriae adorari Aquinas Vasquez †Bellar. de Sacramento Eucharistiae l. 2. c. 8. a. 2. cap. 13. a. 5. cap. 24. a. 6. Hardâ—ng's answer to Jewel's Challenge fol. 111. a. Bellarmine and some others say as Durand and Scotâ—â— do that to kneel at receiving the bread and wine at the Lords-Supper as Papists did if Christs body and blood be not corporally present under them is Idolatry Upon this account I find the learned Frenchman * Dall Apol. c. 20. and Dr. Heylin saith thus The Lutherans held with the Catholicks that Christs body was really in the Sacrament else they knew that there was no reverence due to the Sacrament History of Presbytery p. 2. Yea he saith This prayer the body of the Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy body and soul unto eternal life was left out of King Edward's second Liturgy because 't was thought to savour of Transubstantiation Cypr. Angl. 25. A B. Laud in his Star Chamber-Speech pag. 55. saith very well of Communion Tables standing Altarwise thus That if it advance or usher in Superstition and Popery it ought to stand so in none Dallaus saying to this purpose That this viz. their kneeling at receiving the Elements in that Sacrament were ground enough if there were nothing else to separate from the Church of Rome All our learned and sound Divines maintain against the Church of Rome That it is Idolatry to kneel purposely before a creature in a Religious state or state of worship put before a man that we may not do the needless works of Idolators that 't is scandalous to do needlesly as Idolators do that a publick declaration of a mans good intention in doing a needless action that appears evil or is otherwise scandalous frees not that action from being actively scandalous That it 's impossible to adore God in or through an image and set give no religious positive reverence that is worship to the image To give the appropriate signs significative of our agnition of the Divine excellency to any thing that is not God is Idolatry Nay though these appropriate signs were used without devotion by the party towards the supposed object and were intended only by other men to be directed thither or only were interpretable to be so directed it were Idolatry notwithstanding saith Dr. Henry More in his Mystery of Iniquity c. 10. p. 32. Idolatry is committed saith he when we perform some rite or ceremony that is to say some external religious action appropriated to the signifying our acknowledgment of divine eminency before or rather unto that which is not God Where by before or unto I understand saith he an intended direction by our selves or others or at least by interpretation of custom of the religious action as to an object we would * If this and what Bishop Prideaux Fasc cont loc 4. S. 3. q. 6. p. 241 be true I see not how Catholicks or Lutherans or Dr. Heylin himself can free themselves from Idolatry â—â— injungitur ut indifferens recipitur a nostris ut gost is summae reverentiae tanto mysterio debitus For is not kneeling received and done by them as to an object they would honour thereby and is not kneeling a purposed and an accustomed sign of our acknowledgment of Divine excellency in Gods house and in Gods worship there honour thereby for that is the only thing whereby the action becomes Idolatry for there will always be a necessity of performing our religious rites before or towards something or other by way of circumstance of place which might be without the least guilt or suspition of that crime Wherefore it is the intended and accustomary application of the appropriate signs of the acknowledgment of the Divine excellency unto an object where the Divine excellencies are not that is to any thing that is not truly God which is this hainous sin of Idolatry saith Dr. Henry More in his Mystery of Iniquity c. 10. p. 33. For saith he as a woman that renders or gives up to one that is not her husband what is appropriate to her husband to wit the use of her body let her fancy what mental restrictions or directions of her intention she will in the act is questionless a downright adulteress so whosoever applies the appropriate acknowledgments of the Divine excellencies which is religious worship to that which is not God let him mince it as well as he can with mental limitations and restrictions if he once pass this religious worship upon this undue object he is thereby without all controversie a gross Idolater Ibid. Again he saith Whatsoever is interposed betwixt God and us by way of object in our worshipping is not an help but an hinderance to the perfection of that worship Ibid. c. 14. p. 50. To worship before an image and to worship an image are in sacred Scripture all
that they 〈◊〉 things indifferent which may be abâ—sed or well used Answ This 〈◊〉 yielded in part Flowers are wrougâ—â— in Carpets Arras and Pictures 〈◊〉 Princes printed or stamped in theâ—â— Coyns which when Christ did see in the Roman Coyn we read 〈◊〉 that he reprehended it neither do we condemn the art of Painting and Image-making as wicked of themselves but we would grant them that Images used for no Religion or Superstition rather we mean Images of none worshipped nor in danger to be worshipped of any may be suffered But Images placed publickly in Temples cannot possibly be without danger of worshipping and Idolatry wherefore they are not publickly to be had or suffered in Temples The Jews to whom the Law was first given and should best know the meaning of it would not suffer Images publickly to be in the Temple at Jerusalem though no worshipping was required at their hands but rather offered themselves to death than to assent that Images should be once placed in the Temple neither would they suffer any Image-maker among them And Origen added this clause lest their minds should be plucked from God to the contemplation of earthly things And they are much commended for this earnest zeal in maintaining Gods honour and true Religion P. 45. And truth it is that Jews and Turks who abhor Images and Idols as directly forbidden in Gods Word will never come to the truth of our Religion while the stumbling-blocks of Images remain among us and lie in their way And P. 49. What meaneth it that Christians after the use of the Gentiles Idolaters cap and knee before Images is not this stooping and kneeling before them adoration of them which is forbidden so directly by Gods Word P. 50. Satan desiring to rob God of his honour desireth exceedingly that such honour might be given to him wherefore those which give the honour due to the Creator to any creature do service acceptable to no Saints who be the friends of God but unto Satan Gods and mans mortal and sworn enemy Obj. But they say that they do not worship the Image as the Gentiles did their Idols but God and the Saints whom the Images do represent and therefore that their doings before Images are not like the Idolatry of the Gentiles before their Idols Answ 'T is answered thus St. Augustine Lactantius and Clemens do prove evidently that by this their answer they be all one with the Gentiles-Idolaters The Gentiles saith St. Augustine which seem to be of the purer Religion say We worship not the Images but by the corporal Images we do behold the signs of the things which we ought to worship And Lactantius saith the Gentiles say we fear not the Images but them after whose likenesses the Images be made and to whose names they be consecrated And Clemens saith that Serpent the Devil uttereth these words by the mouth of certain men We to the honour of the invisible God worship visible Images which surely is not false See how in using the same excuses which the Gentile-Idolaters pretended they shew themselves to join with them in Idolatry For notwithstanding this excuse Augustine Lactantius and Clemens prove them Idolaters And the Scriptures say they worship stocks and stones notwithstanding this excuse even as our Image-mongers do And Ezekiel therefore calleth the gods of the Assyrians stocks and stones although they were but Images of their gods So are our Images of God and the Saints named by the names of God and his Saints after the use of the Gentiles What should it mean that they according as did the Gentile-Idolaters light Candles at noon-time or at midnight before them but therewith to honour them for other use is none of so doing for in the day it needeth not but was ever a Proverb of foolishness to light a candle at noon-day And in the night it availeth not to light a candle before the blind and God hath neither use nor honour thereof By which it appeareth that Are not Tapers appearances of the same Religion to be abstained from as well as candles we do agree with the Gentile-Idolaters in our Candle-Religion And P. 52. As the Gentiles so our Image-maintainers have invented and spread many lying-tales and written many Fables and Miracles of Images And P. 53. Among the holy Relicks they have they say the tayl of the Asse on which our Saviour rode which they offer to be kissed and to be offered unto And P. 55. The having of Images in Churches publickly hath not only brought us to worshipping of them but to worshipping of them with the same kind of worship wherewith they worship the Copy as the Homily shews out of Naclaâ—tus Bishop of Clugium And P. 56. the Homily saith thus Having shewed and proved that our Images have been be and will be worshipped and by their own confession that they ought to be worshipped I will out of Gods Word make this general argument against all such makers setters up and maintainers of Images in publick places thus And first I will begin with the words of our Saviour Christ Wo be to that man by whom an offence is given Wo be to him that * Is there not the same reason against Popish Ceremonies and other unnecessary things offendeth one of these little ones or weak ones Mat. 18. Better were it for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the midst of the sea and drowned than that he should offend one of these little ones or weak ones And in Deut. 27. God himself denounceth him accursed that maketh the blind to wander out of the way And in Levit. 19. Thou shalt not lay a stumbling-block or stone before the blind But Images have been be and as afterwards shall be proved ever * May not the same be said of Popish Ceremonies Con the Popes Nuncio brought with him into England in A. B. Laud ' s reign many Reliques of Saints Medals and pieces of gold with the Popes picture on them to seduce the Ladies of the Court and Country Heylin ' s Cyp. Angl. l. 4. p. 358. will be offences and stumbling-blocks especially to the weak simple and blind common people deceiving their hearts by the cunning of the Artificer as the Scripture expresly in sundry places doth testifie and so bringeth them to Idolatry and therefore wo be to the erector setters up and maintainers of Images in Churches for a greater penalty remaineth for them than the death of the body Obj. If it be replied that this offence may be taken away by diligent and sincere doctrine and preaching of Gods Word as by other means and that Images in Churches therefore be not things absolutely evil to all men although dangerous to some and therefore that it were to be holden that the publick having of them in Churches is not expedient as a thing perilous rather than unlawful and utterly wicked Ans This will be answered by proving the third Article which
Christ be not really present in the Sacrament there is no reverence due to the Elements or Sacrament History of Presbytery p. 2. He must mean by his real presence a corporal presence as Papists * Fox Acts and Monuments p. 1416. in one Volume our godly Martyrs learned †Scottish Oath or Confession of Faith commanded by King James King James and many others understood and do so understand the phrase else he speaks not ad rem to the purpose For if he mean a spiritual presence so Christ is in the Sacrament of Baptism and in all his Ordinances and yet he saith not that there is such a bodily reverence due to it or them as he and his party plead is due unto the Elements in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper And what he means by his Reverence Bishop Prideaux knew right well he meant kneeling in his former Books put forth in his time who in his Fasciculus Controversiarum loc 4. Sec. 3. q. 6. p. 241. saith thus That kneeling is Godfry Goodman Bishop of Glocester preached at Court the 5. Sunday in Lent for the real corporal presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Supper which made no small stir but that was taken up as Heylin saith Cypr. Anglic. l 2. Yet whatsoever he was taught to say by Bishop Andrews and Laud he was and lived and died a Papist and so declared himself as Heylin himself confesseth in his Cypr. Anglic. l. 4. p. 446. injoined only as a thing indifferent and is received of our men as a gesture of the highest reverence due to so great a mystery Mark it he saith 't is received of our men as a gesture to so great a mystery and a gesture of the highest reverence he spake or wrote not his own but their sense And that which they call reverence Bishop Sparrow plainly calls adoration For in his Rationale p. 273. he saith That 't is the duty of people to receive kneeling for it is a sin not to adore when we receive this Sacramen And Dr. Kellet in his allowed Tricennium p. 637. 654 655 620. saith That the presence of Christ in the Sacrament is such as the Eucharist it self must be adored and that if any desire proof that the Eucharist is to 〈◊〉 adored he adviseth him to read taken with the peoples in forâ— of form of the Crucifix may in the eating or handling and that the people of the cup of a silver pipe and that sitting â—â— Communion 〈◊〉 of the * But did the Apostles and the Primitive Christians who kneeled not prophane the Sacrament and sin against God by so doing or was the Sacrament then not so worthy as 't is now or rather were not men then more Christian than now Lords-Supper and that not only the Eucharist it self but also the very Altar upon which it lies must be adored What Laud thought of this matter you will see in the next particular and I doubt not but you 'l find him of the same judgment and as superstitious as they and one of those whom Bishop Prideaux meant by our men And Dr. Sutton †Dr. Sutton ' s Godly Meditations c. 33. p. 179 and p. 182 a Prebend of Westminster pleads for kneeling at receiving the Sacrament upon such a moral account as if God our Maker were more present in the bread and wine than in the water in Baptism and in any other Ordinance for he urgeth Psal 95. 6 O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker as if God by the Prophet in that place of Scripture did call upon all the members of his Church to worship fall down and kneel before him in the bread and wine at the Sacrament in a religious state put before them in the act of receiving and so make Christ and his holy Aposâ—les and all others that use not that gesture transgressors And the learned Papists holds That if the Elements bread and wine in the Sacrament be not turned really into Christs body and blood kneeling at receiving them is not lawful but that 't is Idolatry if any created substance remain there So Aquinas 3. q. 75. Hardings Answer to Bishop Jewels Challenge fol. 111. a. Bellarmine de Sacramento Eucharistia l. 2. c. 8. 〈◊〉 â— cap. 13. a 5. cap. 24. q. 6. Of the same mind were Scotus and Durand and therefore they removed the bread out of the Sacrament as Bishop Jewel shews in his Sermon upon 1 Cor. 11. 23. p. 52. What many of our men have written in favour of Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation may be seen in Laudensium Autocatacrisis p. 107 108. and the Supplement thereunto c. 3. p. 34 35. ART II. That Christ is really more present on the high Altar or Communion Table as on his Dr. Pocklington Altare Christianum c. 24. p. 175. vide p. 8. hujus Throne or Chair of State than in the Pulpit or Font c. and that therefore more corporal bowing or more bodily reverence is due to the Altar or Communion-table than to the Pulpit or Font. THis I renounce because it is contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England contained in the declaration after the Communion-service concerning kneeling which saith That by kneeling no adoration is intended or ought to be done either unto the Sacramental bread and wine there bodily received or unto any corporal presence of Christs natural flesh and blood for the Sacramental bread and wine remain still in their very natural substances and therefore may not be adored for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians and the natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ are in heaven and not here it being against the truth of Christs natural body to be at one time in more places than one For if bodily reverence or adoration be not due to the Elements which are signs of Christs body and blood as broken and shed for us then certainly they are not due to the Table or Altar on which they are but set and if it be Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians to adore the Sacramental bread and wine then much more it is Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians to adore or bodily to bow purposely to the high Altar or Communion-table on which they are but set Now that this corporal bowing purposely to the Altar or Communion-table is religious and adoration I prove thus by our own men Aris Dei adâ—eniculari est adorare sacrosanctum altare To bow to Gods altars is to adore the holy altar saith Dr. Kellet in his Tricennium p. 644. Papists say there is a Worship due to the Cross ratione contactus because Christs body touched it and therefore they adore it but they call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reverence or honour So A B. * Aquin. 3a parte q 25. a. 4. c. A. B. Laud in his Star-Chamber Speech p. 47. A B. Laud's Injunctions to Merton-Colledg
to do say We are unprofitâ—ble servants and therefore our good works cannot merit any thing of God by their own worth and oblige him to give us a reward for their profit done him Cond 5. That there be a proportion between the thing meriting and the thing merited but between our imperfect good works and eternal life there is no proportion merit of condignity must be equal to the reward or thing merited that is truly and properly meritorious that doth properly and absolutely for it self deserve a reward or which doth in its formal reason include equality or condignity tâ— that reward of which 't is said to be meritorious but now that there is no proportion between our works and eternal life is proved Rom. 8. 18. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Where 't is clear thaâ— the Apostle who was a regenerated man and had done as many good works as any regenerated man after his conversion as appears by his works yet those he sligâ—ts in comparison of the knowledge of Christ by faith and who suffered many great and cruel afflictions and 〈◊〉 last Martyrdom for Christs sake yet he reckoned them all not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us in heaven they hold no true proportion or equality with the reward neither in respect of dignity or worth nor in respect of duration or time these affâ—â—ctions are not worth that glory which we shall have in heaven aâ—â— these afflictions which are but for a moment are not worthy to be equalled with that eternal weight of glory which they work for us if righâ—â— born This place saith Pareus and our Dr. Fulk and Willet in locum tollit omne meritum condigni Pareus in loc Dr. Fulk taketh away all merit of condignity for if the sufferings of the Saints neither for quality nor quantity are proportionable to the glory that is to come then it followeth necessarily that they are not worthy if the sufferings of Martyrs come short of the value and worth of the glorious happiness of Saints triumphant in heaven then sure much more do their best actions come short thereof There is a reward ratione pacti when a man promiseth such a reward to a person if he do such a work for him Now this reward is called wages not properly merit because it may be meerly of promise and not of desert e. g. A man may promise another man an 100 l. of good gold to fetch him a bottle of straw which when he hath done he is bound to give or pay it to him because he promised so much but this is not properly merit of condignity for the work done was not worth the money supposing as is to be supposed the straw easie to be had and near at hand for there was no proportion between the fetching of the bottle of straw and the 100 l. Now where there is merit of condignity there must be proportion between the merit and the reward because the reward of the merit is an act of justice as Aquinas shews and justice is a certain equality as he there proves out of the Philosopher 12. 〈◊〉 q. 114. a. 1. c. 2. There is a rewardâ— ratione operis when a man doth such a work that doth of its self and its own nature carry such a dignity and worthiness in it as that it deserves such a reward to be given to him in justice Now this is that the Papists are to prove that our good works do that there is such excellency dignity and worthiness in them as that they do of their own nature deserve eternal salvation at Gods hands and that God is bound in justice with it to reward us for the dignity of our good works which we Protestants utterly deny and we say that if we should yield that our good works do thus merit eternal life at Gods hands these absurdities would easily follow 1. That we had something whereof to glory or to boast of that we had merited our salvation contrary to Ephes 2. 8 9. 2. That eternal life were not freely given to us but of due and just debt paid to us contrary to Rom. 6. 21. 3. That Christ dyed in vain contrary to Gal. 2. 21. This is one of the Church of Romes Antichristian Doctrines which doth in effect deny Christ to be come in the flesh It 's but a vanity in our men the great friends to Rome to say that Papists profess with us the Apostles Creed when as indeed and in truth by their doctrines and practises they deny and overthrow what they profess for if men can by their own strength turn themselves to God when they will and fulfil the whole moral Law do works of superogation and by the right use of their natural reason and will merit ex congruo the first grace and then ex condigno merit eternal life What need was there for Christ so have come into the world and taken our nature upon him become our surety to have fulfilled the law and dyed for us And therefore our Homily before alledged saith very well That this Doctrine of Merits speaks blasphemy against Gods mercy and great derogation to Christs blood-shedding and another Homily before alledged That whosoever denieth this Doctrine that faith alone justifieth is not to be accounted a Christian man nor for a setter forth of Gods glory but for a setter forth of mans vain glory and for an adversary to Christ and his Gospel and that it were the greatest arrogance and presumption of man thâ—â— Antichrist could set up against God to affirm that a man might by his oâ—â— works take away and purge his own sin and justifie himself Homily of salvation of mankind p. 16 17. Obj. But they say That Christ 〈◊〉 merited that our good works that are his Nova haec est Theologia Prophetis Apostolis ignota Christus meruit ut nos mereamur nobisipsis vitam aeternam Dr. Ames Bel Enerv. t. 4. c. 2. p. 214. gifts wrought in us and performed by us should merit eternal life Ans 1. This I have often heard said but could never as yet see it proved and therefore till it be proved I deny it because there is neither sacred Scripture nor good reason for it I know that true believers in Christ are made worthy 2 Thes 1. 5. Apoc. 3. 4. by the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to them and apprehended and applied by a lively faith but this makes not their imperfect works which as good he works in them and which they owe unto him meritorious at Gods hands again God doth reward his people with eternal life secundum opera * Rom. 2. 6. according to their works but not propter opera for their works and the reward is of free gift not of due debt for 't is ex pâ—â—misso of Gods own free promise but not