which is a begging of the question and yet hee can not prove kneeling at the hearing of the word let bee in the act of receaving the sacramentall elements but out of a misprinted place in Perth assembly pag. 45. where in is put for after Farre lesse can our Formalists pretend the respect of prayer For we have no act enjoyning either any vocall prayer to be uttered by the minister or mentall by the Communicant when he is to receave the elements Nor doe our Formalists observe one forme of words at the deliverie either for prayer or otherwise Wheresoever the publike intent of a Church is to kneel for reverence of the sacrament every Communicant following her direction is an idolater Howbeit his privat intent were divers from the intent of the act which is urged as the publike intent of the Church yet he is interpretativè an idolater and to be so construed both before God and man If any man receave the sacrament upon his knees at Rome or in any other Popish Church whersoever were his privat intent yet he must be interpreted to kneel according to the intent of the Church of Rome The heart may be carried one way and the outward action another way for feare or other respects but that outward action must be interpreted not according to the intention of the minde but the intent of the injoyner If ye fall downe before an idol in Spaine suppose for feare of the inquisition ye commit idolatrie and honoureth that idol in the sight of men If it be asked after what manner the Communicant must be interpreted to adore I answer That upon better consideration of the act then before I thinke the Communicant may according to the act kneel with a Popish intent carring both the inward motion of his spirit and outward submission of his body to the sacrament upon opinion of transubstantiation or with the Lutherans intent upon opinion of consubstantiation and that for two cases first because the words of the act make mention only of the body and bloud of Christ and of the blessed sacrament but not one word of the elements of bread and wine Next because some of our ministers the chief urgers of kneeling are popish and have taught in publike in the pulpits of Edinburgh that wee ought not to contend or descant curiously upon the manner of Christs presence in the sacrament and that he is present after an unknowne manner To this purpose they cite a saying of Durandus It is current among the English prelats The bishop of Rochester in his defence of kneeling commendeth the simplicitie of the ancients who disputed not whither Christ were present Câ—n sub in or trans in the supper See Hooker likewise in his fift booke of ecclesiasticall policie And Sutton on the Lords supper in his appendix They will talke more plainly when they shall see their time Our Doctour commendeth them for this They would have us beleeve that the manner of the presence of Christs body at the sacrament is unknowne whereas we know very well that Christs body is present after a spirituall manner to the soules of the godly receaving by faith â—ut to the sacrament or elemenâ—s only after a sacramentall manner that is relatively as things signified are to signes howbeit farre distant That incomprehensible or unsearchable manner whereof they talke is a lurking hole for adversaries to the truth as Beza can tell him Our Doctour from Christs personall omnipresence inferreth page 142. the flesh and bloud of Christ may be worshipped in the sacrament because wheresoever his person is his humanity is corjoyned with his divinitie By this Popish reason Christs flesh and bloud may be worshipped in a stone in the moone the sunne or any other thing else His argument is borrowed from the Rhemists note upon Heb. 1. 8. Our doctour rejecteth the Vbiquitaries conceat of Christs humanitie extended and diffused through every place yet notwithstanding of this personall omnipresence he hideth himself in the lurking hole of the imperceptible manner of the sacramentall presence He acknowledgeth a spiritual presence of Christs body in the sacrament Bâ—llarmine acknowledgeth as much for saith hee Non habet Christus in Eucharistia modum existendi corporum sed spirituum If ye will bear the word Bodily so will Bellarmine he content because saith he Christ is not present after that manner that bodies have existence of their own nature unlesse the right explication bee added He commendeth the expression of the councell of Treâ—â— Verè realiter substantialiter Truely reallie substantiallie as the best and surest For the popish sence When our doctours will not have us to contend about the manner of presence whither by consubstantion or transubstantiation yet this taketh not away Substantially in generall but leaveth place to substantially in an unknown manner But wee proceed If any will extend the words of the act to the elements of bread and wine and interpret the receaving of Christs bodie and bloud of the souls inward receaving then howbeit hee kneeleth not upon opinion of the reall presence of Christ in the sacrament yet his adoration is terminated and resteth someway upon the sacrament or sacramentall elements otherwise hee cannot bee said to kneel for receiving of the sacrament Now as the papists agree not among themselves about the manner of worshipping their images so the Communicants may differ in the manner and way of terminating that adoration or worship Therefore suppose he believe not the reall presence or existence of the body of Christ in the bread yet hee may in his apprehension and imagination unite them as the papist doth his image with the prototype and so adore the thing with the thing signified as the purple robbe with the King is coadored or adored per accidâ—ns or hee may consider the signe as substitute in the roome of the thing signified howbeit absent and performeth before it or about it that adoration which hee would bestow upon the thing signified and by it or in it honoureth the thing signified properly but the signe improperly As when a Kings Ambassadour or Vice-gerent is honoured at some solemnitie with the honour of his Master but improperly for the King is properly honoured Or as Vasâ—uez will have images to bee adored to wit with the inward motion of the minde to the thing signified the bodie of Christ and the exterior or outward signe of submission to the signe to bee transmitted to the thing signified or considering the signes as things sacred and in relation to God whom we are serving in the use of them So howbeit the way and manner of terminating the reverence in the Sacrament bee different according to the conceat of the Communicant all come to one end to wit to kneel for reverence of the Sacrament Now to kneel for reverence is a gesture of adoration and soveraigne worship as L. ackowledgeth It is nothing to the devil whether a man erre this
the supreme magistrat in things indifferent taketh away the scandall There are two sorts of indifferent things saith Zâ—nâ—hius some that are manifest occasions of sinning others are not of that kinde Res adiaphorae duplices sunt Quaelam suâ—t alicui aportâ—e occasiones peccatorum ita ut exillis verè immineat pâ—riculâ—m pèceandi alie vero non ita se habent For the first sort that we ought to abstaine from 〈◊〉 evill and all manifest occasion of evil For who saith he will venture to passe along a ruinous bridge if hee perceave manifest danger of falling into the river Can the supreame magistrat take away that aptnesse and fitnesse that any thing hath to intise and provoke men to sinne The Apostle Paul saith he had rather never eat flesh then offend a weake brother for eating flesh offered to the idol and sold in the market And I think he had greater authority in such matters nor any prince or generall assembly The Belgick synods yee see would not take so much upon them but for ad kneeling for fear of idolatrie If the Church to whom the rule for directing the use of things indifferent in maters of religion are laide down to wit that all things bee done decently in order to edification without offence may not presume so farre far lesse may the magistrate for his power is cumulative to assist the Church not privative to deprive the Church of her power The magistrates countenance maketh the scandall the greater and hee strengthneth it by his authoritie whereas hee should remove scandals and not lay stumbling-blocks in the way of the people The brasen serpent was but a passive 〈◊〉 active scandall and yet Ezekias brake it in pieces for more should active scandals bee removed These Courâ—-clawbacks tell us wee should rather offend the people then the supreme magistrate But better offend that is displease him nor offend that is give occasion to the poorest soule let bee many thousands to fall into any sin let bee so haynous a sin as is the sin of idolatrie The magistrate is not in danger of stumbling for yee say he esteemeth the matter indifferent Is not the supreme magistrate a sinfull man May hee not make Israel to sin May hee not abuse things indifferent and transgresse the rules above mentioned May hee not bee a secret friend to the pope or an a bettor of superstition Suppose hee have no such intention yet hee can not by his authoritie alter conditionem operis the qualitie of the work it self and make a thing which of it selfe is inductive to scandall not inductive Doth his commandment make all so sure that none can bee scandalized That is impossible considering the shew of evill in the deed it self the ignorance of many thousands the disposition of the ignorants to superstition the pronnesse of mens nature to idolatrie and the increase of papists Ioab was guiltie of Vriahs bloud notwithstanding of the Kings commandment so art thou of thy brothers falling Thy life for his life if hee bee a missing Say not therefore with Cain Am I my brothers keeper Active obedience to the magistrate ought not to bee a rule of thy love to Gods glory and the salvation of thy brother Passive obedience is not denied but defences by lawes aright first to bee heard Whereas they alleadge that sitting is dangerous for breeding contempt and prophanation To passe by the institution experience is a testimonie in the contrare Rusticitie in the behaviour of simple ones not acquainted with all the points of civiliâ—â— is not prophanation but may bee where the minde is in good order Horrible prophane were the words of our blind bishop to a gentle woman in the offering of the elements because shee would not kneel Wee maintain that kneeling in the act of receaving the sacramentall elements was not devised or at least authorized till the great Antichrist overruled Wee need not to poinâ—â— at the time when it first began for there are many corruptions in the Romane Church which can not bee dedâ—â—ed 〈◊〉 a certain beginning by the Romanists themselfs It is sufficient that wee point out a time wherein it was not in use There can not be an authentick testimonie alleadged for kneeling in the act of receaving the sacramentall elements before the opinion of reall presence yea or of transubstantiation began to spread or to come to a more certain date for the space of a thousand years after Christ. I say authentick testimonie for wee regard not supposititions or counterfite works Origens first homilie in divers loca is brought in saying Thou therefore humbling thy self â—â—itat the Centurieâ— â—nd say Lord I am not worthie c. but that works is acknowledged by the papists themselfs to be counterfite Suchlike counterfiâ—e Cyrillus of Jerusalem in his fifth catechisme saith Then come to the cuppe of the blood not stretching out thy hand sed prâ—nus in modum adorationis venerationis dicens Antenâ— But stowâ—ing downward or with the face bended downward in manner of adoration or veneration saying Amen He sayeth not Cade pronuâ— fall down on thy faâ—e sed accede pronus but come inclyning or bowing thy heâ—d or upper part of thy body as men use to do when they make courtesie for men can not come falling flat But what need wee trouble our selfes with his words seeing hee is marked for a counterfite by Moulias on the Lords supper the bishop of Spalato and Plessie who in his answere to the bishop of Evereux saith These catecâ—ismes of Cyrillus are supposititious and come not to light but in our time M. Down in his treatise of transubstantiation pag. 3â— 38. saith That these catecbeticall booke are but of a verie late edition that Harding acknowledgeth that in his time they were known to veâ—ie few and in â—rite that they have beene published since in print and perhaps to winne more authoritie to them misfathered upon Cyrillus of Ierusalem This Cyrill directs the Communicant to touch his lips which are sanctified with the touch of Christs body and bloud that by the touch of that finger hee may sanctifie his eyes brow and others No authentick testimonie can they produce bearing the word kneeling which is an adoration not in a large but strict sense The testimonies bearing the word adore are either counterfite or to bee understood of inward adoration as Doctour Burges himself confesseth sundrie of the learned do construe them or of adoration in time of prayer before they communicate or adoration is taken taken only for veneration See Iewel in the article of adoration Bilson in his book of obedience and Mortoun the late defender of the ceremonies in his latest worke entituled Of the institution of the sacrament He bringeth in sundrie exemples to prove the latitude of the word Adore When Theodorâ—t saith dialog 2. that the mysticall signes are adored he should speake very grosly if the word adore meant not only reverent usage Moulines on
of the word or at any of them unlesse they think the sacrament the Lord their maker The second reason in the narrative saith the Doctour is this And considering withall that there is no part of divine worship more heavenly and spirituall then is the holy receaving of the blessed bodie and bloud of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Relative to this reason we have in the conclusion these words And in regard of so divine a mysterie the assembly thinketh good that that blessed sacrament be celebrated to the people humbly or as the act ratified in parliament hath meekly and reverently upon their knees We have here no other description of receaving the sacrament in the narrative but the receaving of the body and bloud of Christ which smelleth strongly of the reall presence For the like and some other phrases hath Master Prinne discovered Doctour Couâ—ins to be popish in the survey of his privat devotions Then all that communicate receave the body and bloud of Christ in at their mouth good and bad This shall please the Lutheran and Papist full well But by mysterie saith the Doctour is no meant the elements nor is it said mysteries but mysterie It may well be the elements are not meant because it may be they thinke the elements vanish away and nothing remaine but the accidents or that Christs body and bloud are substantially present with the elements or some other unknowne way as the Doctour hath beene mutering in privat And that is a mysterie indeed But by mysterie must be meant the sacrament for in the narrative we have no other phrase to expresse the sacrament but the receaving of the body and bloud of Christ which is relative to this word mysterie And in the conclusion the word sacrament both preceedeth and followeth So the words in the same sense may be framed thus Considering there is no part of divine worship more heavenly and spirituall then is the holy receaving of the blessed sacrament therefore the assembly thinketh good in regard of so divine a mysterie or in regard of so heavenly a paâ—t of Gods worship that that blessed sacrament be celebrated c. Whereas he saith the word is mysterie not mysteries in the plurall number howbeit we finde it so in the first copies let it be mysterie The Doctour himselfe in his solutions for kneeling useth sometime the word mysteries sometime mysteries Casaubone speaking of this sacrament saith It is called sometime mâ—sterie sometime mysteries Dicitur autono masticè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aut numero multitudinis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionysius Areopâ—git a entituleth the chapter of the Lords supper The mysterie of the synaâ—is or holy communion Ambrose saith Indignus est Domino qui aliter mysterium celebrat quà m ab eo institutum est Hierome saith Licet in mysterio possit intelligi tamen veriùs corpus Christi sanguis ejussermo scripturarum est Oecumenius saith That the Apostle calleth the mysterie of our Master the Lords supper A number of testimonies might be cited to this purpose The reason of such speach is because both the sacramentall signes are referred to one Christ. It is but one action the celebration of the supper Further we receave the bodie and bloud of Christ when we heare and beleeve the promises of the Gospel read exponed or rehearsed Origen saith Hoc quod modo loqu mur sunt earnes Christi that which we are presently speaking to you is the flesh of Christ. And in another place We are said to drinke the bloud of Christ not only by the rites of the sacraments but also when we hear the word Hierome as ye heard before That more truly the speach of the scripture is the body and bloud of Christ. If then in the narrative be no me â—o meâ—nt then the spirituall receaving of Christs body and bloud it is no more a reason for kneeling at the receaving of the sacrament then at hearing of the promises of the Gospel read and exponed The words therefore must bee meant of the sacramentall manner of receaving and the words relative in the conclusion In regard of so divine a mysterie must meane In regard of the mysticall oâ— sacramentall receaving and so the Communicant is directed to kneel in regard of the sacrament The third reason in the narrative is the correspondence betweene the outward gesture of our body and then meditation and lifting up our hearts wheâ—â— wee remember and consider the mysticall union betwixt Christ and us and among our selfes whereof we are made partakers by the receaving of Christs body and bloud He shunneth to set downe the words of the narrative and of the conclusion answerable to them as he did in the former two reasons because he perceaved they could not be framed to his purpose For there is no mention made in the narrative of mysticall union nor is it said in the narrative that the most humble and reverent gesture of the bodie well becommeth the meditation and lifting up of our hearts when wee remember and consider the mysticall union betwixt Christ and us but that the most humble and reverent gesture of our body in our meditation and lifting up of our hearts becommeth well so divine and sacred an action to wit as is the receaving of the body and bloud of Christ. Wee are not directed by the act to meditate and lift up hearts but to use that kinde of gesture which becommeth meditation and the lifting up of the heart nor is kneeling a gesture well becomming meditation Wee meditate sitting lying walking Kneeling is a gesture well becomming prayer but not meditation By lifting up the heart no necessity to meane prayer for the minde and heart may be lifted up by faith and contemplation without prayer And to this lifting up the Communicants were exhorted of old with sursum corda least their hearts and mindes should be groveling and onely bent upon the elements And so the lifting up of the eyes may be a signe of lifting up of the heart and minde in token that wee looke confidently to have our desires granted by God who dwelleth in heaven as the casting downe of the eye as a token of humiliation for sinne Suppose by lifting up of the heart prayer should be meant yet kneeling is not the humblest gesture for prayer but prostration Then we should prostrat our selfes when wee receave the sacrament Next if the Communicant shall pray mentally when hee receaveth the sacrament and in that regard kneel he shall be exercised other wayes then the act of receaving requires Further a secret mentall prayer shall be commended to him in publike without a vocall and the signe of it the humble gesture of kneeling whereas the signes of secret and mentall prayer in publike should be concealed so farre as may be The minister when he delivereth the elements is not directed to use a vocall prayer to be followed by the Communicant And wee see the Conformitants are
manner of adoration by images The manner is not different If the old opinion of some Heathnike philosophers were their tenent that the world was animated by God as our bodies are by our soules then they might with some probabilitie conclude Jupiter â—st quodcunque vides All that thou seest is great Jupiter and infer this worship before every creature But Christian religion will not admit such grosâ—e opinions They say men how before the chaire of estate or the princes seale which are dead and senslesse creatures I answer civill worship is conveyed mediatly to the person of the prince by bowing before such senslesse creatures because men thinke it expedient to uphold the infirmitie of princely majestie by such meanes But God needeth no mediat worship to uphold his majestie nor will have none Againe the ceremonies of Kings and Emperours courts are no rules for religions worship For as Augustine saith Multa de cultu di vino usurpata sunt quae honoribus deseruntur humanis sive humilitate nimia sive adulatione pestifera That great humilitie or pestiferous statterie may be the originall of many honours given to princes borrowed from the formes used in Gods worship Nazianzen saith The Roman Euperours were honoured with publike images Their crownes and diademes and purple robes many lawes tributs and multitude of subjects were not sufficient to make sure their empire but they behoved to be adored not only in their owne persons but also in colours and other works made with mens hands that they might seeme the more venerable That is as Chemier interpreteth these images proceeded ab inexplebili fostuÌ„ Imperatorum from the insatiable ambition of Emperours The statues of some Kings have had divine honours conferred on them Doctour Abbots in his defence of Perkinse saith It should seeme sâ—range that formalities observed to princes in their courts for majestiâ— and royall estate should be made paternes of religious devotion to be practised in the Church Francis Whit in his reply to Fisher saith Civill and religious worship are of divers beginnings and formes and every thing that is possible lawfull and commendable in the one is not so in the other There is civill ordinâ—nce for the one but there wanteth divine ordinance for the other But ye will say The people of God worshipped God by the arke I answer They worshipped God not by the arke but in the arke For God was present in the arke after an extraordinarie manner God was likewise in the temple after a peculiar manner hearing their prayers Immo hic est modus qno Deus est in templo peculiaciter nimirium quia ibi est per exauditionem saith Bellarmine which was true of Salomons temple but not rightly applied to ours God is not in the sacramentall elements after such an extraordinarie manner nor yet the body of Christ. Nay the body of Christ is not spiritually in the sacrament to use the Doctours phrase pag. 95. if by sacrament be meant the sacramentall elements as commonly it is taken for so the meaning shall be popish as I have declared before But there is a spirituall presence of Christs body not without but within the hearts of the faithfull This presence of God by his spirit or spirituall presence of Christs body in the heates of the faithfull is not extraordinarie but ordinarie and common to all the godly not exposed to the senses but inward and invisible Howbeit in words they deny a relative worship of Christ by the signes to gull the simple yet wee must look to their carriage before the signes and their ground taken from the moving and stirring object Yea sometime words escape plaine enough The Lutherans worship Christ in the sacrament as wee should do Their errour is only in the manner of presence saith our Doctour pag. 141. No errour to worship Christ flesh and bloud there in respect of the personall presenâ—e of Châ—ists body pag. 142. There then either really or by imagination as the Papist uniteth the image and the samplar or as there as when an emptie coffin is carried at funerals and all the solemnities observed as if the corps were present Let him take his choice And pag. 144. If ye except out of the number of reformed Churches all that thinke that Christ is present in the sacrament and in the sacrament to be adored I fear ye draw the number of the reformed Churches to a very small account whom ye call the purer sort such as Arrians Anabaptists and their followers He abstaineth from cleare speeches that he may lurke under the word Sacrament and forbeareth the expression of our divines for the manner of Christs presence D. Mourton pag. 291. saith that in the relative reverence which is used in their Church relation being made from the signe to Christ the thing signified the sacrament is objectum à quo significativè And what is that but reverence relative by the signe to Christ And what hindereth adoration to be carried by a significant object more then by a representative The signes in the sacrâ—ment notwithstanding of the want of humane shape represent Christ to us Yee may aske What if yee keep not a constant course but sometimes sit sometime stand and sometime kneel I answer Put case yee kneel sometime for feare like a temporizer or of your owne accord ye take liberty indeed to sit stand or kneel but when and how oft yee kneel yee adore and tie your self to adore at these times before such an object after the same manner and for the same respects and considerations which are observed by those who keep a constant course For it is not here as in prayer Wee may pray without externall adoration or with it as in the petition of the mother of Zebedees children Matth. 20. she came to Christ adorans peâ—ens worshipping him and petitioning And 2 Sam. 14. 4. the woman of Tekoa fell on her face to the ground and did obeisance when shee petitioned the King For every gesture in praying to God is no more a gesture of adoration then in petitioning men Now when yee adore in prayer your adoration is directed immediatly to God having no object before you but such as standeth casually before you from which you may turne your selfe in the very act of praying to which you have no more respect then to other objects round about you But here you 〈…〉 kneel before such an object an object significant and for that respect doth kneel that that signe of outward worship may bee convoyed to Christs flesh and bloud signified by that object We have in the former argument considered the sacramentall elements as an object presented before us in the hand of the minister without any further use Wee are now to consider them in the use when wee take eat and drinke and our next argument shall bee this To adore upon our knees when wee are performing an outward action which is not directed