Commemoration as we say but it cannot be a Sacrificing of Christ again as you say if we refer the matter as we ought to be judged by Scripture wherein there is nothing to shew that is a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the Living much less for the Sins of the Dead whose estate can never be altered after this Life Luk. xvi 26 28. But as they fall they must lye for ever Eccles xi 3. Po. The World may now see how unjustly you brag of your Magnifying the Merit of Christs Passion and how falsly you accuse us of diminishing and disparaging it Since we hold it sufficient to pardon both Quick and Dead and you deny it can do any good to the Dead Prot. It is not for want of Merit in Christs Passion but for want of Capacity in those who have not Repented in their Life Time that hinders these Deceased Persons from receiving the benefits of Christs Death Christ hath declared he will pardon none but them that do repent and if Men do not repent before they die they cannot repent afterwards and so cannot receive any benefit of Christs Passion and if living Men be taught they may get a Pardon after Death it will encourage them to put off their Repentance to the very last Nor would so false a Doctrin without any ground in Scripture ever have been taught in your Church but only that the crafty Inventers of it found it would make Masses sell at dear Rates Po. You are very free of your Censures but we despise them being assured our Doctrins and Practices are the true sense of Scripture as it is interpreted to us by the Holy Catholic Church Prot. Do you really think so Pray then before we leave this Subject will you tell me How the making only some that is the Priests to Drink of the Cup can possibly be the true meaning of Christs Words Drink ye all of this Math. xxvi 27. Po. Why it is plain the Apostles were Priests and not Lay Men and it was only to the Apostles that Christ spake these Words and though we forbid the People to Drink of this Cup yet we Command the Priests to do it Prot. Was it not also only to the Apostles that Christ said then Take Eat this my Body Ver. 26. and will it not follow by your way of arguing that none but Priests must Eat of the Bread and that the People must receive neither Bread nor Wine You know the Apostles stood then in the place of Lay-Men and represented the Congregation as Christ did the Priest so that S. Paul plainly applies to the People the Commands both of Eating and Drinking which Christ gave at first only to his Apostles And nothing is more evident than that all the People at Corinth did Drink of the Cup and some of them too largely 1 Cor. x. 21. Chap. xi 21. and Ver. 27 28 29. Chap. xii 13. So that I wonder how you dare call the contradicting Christs Commands and the Precepts and Practice of the Apostles the true sense of Scripture and why you rob the People of one half of the Sacrament Po. We rob them of nothing because we declare we give them whole Christ which is contained fully under either species Prot. This is no more than if one who clipt off half the Kings Coin should say it was still current Money The very declaration it self supposes that our Lord instituted two species when one was sufficient and so to excuse your selves of impiety you accuse him of doing things in vain And since Christ is here set out as having suffered for Sin and so his Blood separated from his Body we cannot imagin how the Bread alone should be sufficient to set forth this Mystery Po. There is danger lest we should spill the Cup in giving it to the People and lest it should be profaned by the rude mouths of Lay-men Prot. This danger may be in giving it to the Priests however you are not of S. Pauls mind who when the Cup was abused at Corinth even to excess durst not alter Christs Institution nor take it wholy away as you do thereby committing a grievous Sacriledge in keeping back part of that whereof God hath made you dispensers and as much as in you lyes depriving the People of the benefit of Christs Blood Po. We can find more fault with your preparation for it than you with our dispensing of it for why do not you all go to a Priest to confess your sins before you do receive as the Scripture doth appoint Prot. The Scripture appoints every Man shall examine himself before he Eat of that Bread and Drink of that Cup 1 Cor. xi 28. Now of this you say very little but our Church strictly enjoyns all thus to prepare But Scripture no where appoints it as necessary for all to go to a Priest and confess before every act of receiving Po. Doth not Scripture declare that penitent Sinners confessed their Sins to a Priest Math. iii. 6. Acts. xix 8. And command us to confess our faults one to another James v. 16. and can there be any fitter time to do this than just before we Communicate Prot. We do not forbid Men at any time to Confess to a Priest but advise them to it in case of a troubled Mind or a violent Temptation and especially if that be their condition who are to receive the Sacrament But we dare not lay such a Snare on our People as to make this always necessary since God hath not declared it is so And those Examples you bring concern Publick Confession of Sins before the Priest and the Congregation and so doth that place in S. James for it orders us to Confess not to the Righteous Man alone but one to another that so the Righteous Man and all the rest may pray for Mercy for the Penitent and I have heard this was the Primitive way of Confessing Sins and is still here in our Church where the Offences are scandalous and the Party censured But this is no ground for your Private Confessing into the Priests Ear and so getting an Absolution of course at Set times Po. Hath not Christ granted to the Priests a power to remit mens sins or retain them John xx 23. and must not the Iudge who is to condemn or set free of necessity hear all the particulars concerning the Criminal Prot. Our Priests will not grant us Absolution in particular Cases unless we do so far confess the Crimes we are guilty of as to shew our selves truly penitent but they do not compel us under pain of Damnation to come and tell them all our Sins which Scripture saith is impossible Psal xix 12. Nor doth the Kings granting a Commission to certain Judges to hear and to determine Causes oblige those who can make up their differences among themselves to come and be tried before them Besides the Priest is not the highest and last Judge nor can he infallibly tell when
THE PLAUSIBLE ARGUMENTS OF A Romish Priest ANSWERED BY AN English Protestant Seasonable and Useful for all Protestant Families Licensed May 24. 1686. LONDON Printed for R. Clavell at the Sign of the Peacock in S. Pauls Church-yard 1686. TO THE READER IN the following Dialogue though not All yet the most Material Points wherein the Roman Church differs from the Church of England are briefly and plainly discoursed So that while by their little Tracts and short Catechisms daily Printed and sent abroad the Romish Emissaries do labour to Seduce the Weaker sort of Protestants They may be provided with short and satisfactory Answers to their most usual Fallacies Their Assaults are generally in the Dark and because it is impossible always to stand by those particular Persons whom they labour to Draw-in it is thought fit to publish this little Manual to enable those that are Attacked readily to defend themselves To which end the Holy Scripture is here recommended as the best Touch-Stone to justifie our Doctrines and discover their Corruptions And the more their Guilt makes them fly from it the more our Sincerity should make us cleave to it For this is in every Protestants Hand and there are so many and so plain Places of it which condemn the Opinions and Practices of the Roman Church that it requires no great Skill nor Art to discern how different they are from Gods Word And all the Learning and Artisice of their greatest Doctors will not be able to hide it from a plain and honest Enquirer that will take but the Pains to read this Divine Vnalterable Vniversally received and Infallible Book of God I know they pretend especially to the Vnlearned That all Antiquity is clearly for them but it is best for those who are not Read in Ancient Authors to leave that Province to the Clergy of the Church of England who have hitherto always worsted them at that Weapon also And since we can prove both by Scripture and Antiquity That all their Additional Articles of Faith are False and Erroneous and yet they do acknowledge all those Articles of Faith which we hold as necessary to Salvation to be True Doubtless Ours must be the safer Religion in which both Sides do agree Again The plain Words of Holy Scripture prove Our Religion but all those Points wherein they differ from us cannot be proved but by pretended Traditions some of which are expresly contrary to Gods Written Word The Scripture was not made by us but by the GOD of Truth and it is owned not by us alone but by them and all Christians to be the Word and Will of God and this is clearly on Our Side But those Traditions which they fly to for their Evidence are of their own Making and in their own Keeping No other Christians do allow them and We have nothing but their own Word in their own Cause to prove them to be Genuine Which being the Case I hope none will ever be perswaded to leave a certain plain and evident Religion of Gods own prescribing for an uncertain obscure and Ill-proved Religion which is no more but a meer Human Invention as the ensuing Pages will more fully declare THE CONTENTS THe Religion of the Church of England Taught by Christ and his Apostles Page 1 Concerning the Scriptures in an Vnknown Tongue p. 2 Concerning the Pretended Roman Catholick Church p. 3 Concerning St. Peter's Superiority and Jurisdiction over the rest of the Apostles p. 4 Concerning the Popes Supremacy p. 6 Concerning the Popes Infallibility p. 7 Concerning Implicit Faith or Believing as the Church Believes p. 8 Concerning Oral Tradition or the Faith delivered down by Word of Mouth from Age to Age p. 9 The Church of Rome full of gross Errors p. 13 Concerning Image-Worship p. 14 Concerning Invocation of Saints and Angels p. 17 Concerning the Worship of the Blessed Virgin p. 22 Concerning the Adoration of Relicks p. 23 Concerning Divine Service in an Unknown Tongue p. 24 Concerning Transubstantiation p. 27 Concerning Half-Communion or denying the Cup to the Laity p. 35 Concerning the Doctrine of Concomitancy or the Blood always accompanying the Body p. 36 Concerning Auricular Confession or that which is privately whispered into the Ear of the Priest p. 37 Concerning Priestly Absolution p 38 Concerning Satisfaction or Penances p. 39 Concerning Indulgences p. 42 Concerning Purgatory p. 44 Concerning the Sanctity of Religious Orders p. 50 Cencerning Exorcisms or Casting-out Evil Spirits p. 52 The Conclusion p. 53 A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A Popish Priest AND A PROTESTANT OF THE Church of England Popish Priest WHat Religion are you of Protestant Of the same that Christ and his Apostles taught which is professed by the Church of England whereof I am a Member Po. How do you know that the Religion you profess is the same that was taught by Christ and his Apostles Prot. By the Scriptures wich they left behind them Po. How can you tell whether they writ and left that Book behind them or no Prot. The Book is worthy of such Authors and all Christians though they differ in other things agree in this nor dare you deny it Po. We do not deny it only we say you ought to confess you received this Book from the Roman Church and must learn the meaning of it from her Prot. This Book hath been preserved in all Christian Churches but we received it from those good Protestants who translated it into English whereas your Priests as I am informed kept it in Latin and withheld it from such plain Men as my self while they had power here Po. Though they did â—o it was only for fear you should wrest the Scripture to your own destruction 2 Pet. iii. 16. Prot. That danger is only in some places hard to be understood and which I may safely be ignorant of But in all things necessary to Salvation it is so plain as to give understanding to the Simple Psal cxix 130. Wherefore I rather think they concealed it all from us to keep us from seeing their Errors because the more I read it the less I like your Religion Po. Is it not a strange presumption in you that are but a Lay-man to read that which you cannot rightly understand Prot. It is no presumption to obey the Command of Christ who bids us Search the Scriptures John v. 39. and declaring the not knowing them to be the cause of Error Math. xxii 29. And the Beraeans are commended for examining the Apostles Doctrine by Scripture Acts xvii 11. Now surely if we have Commands and Examples of Reading the Scripture it must be supposed we can in some measure understand it Po. Well you read that Christ will be with his Church to the end of the World Math. xxviii 20. and therefore you ought to believe the Catholic Church can only give you the true sense of Scripture Prot. I do believe this and am a Member of this Catholic Church being rightly baptized into it and holding the
such a man as I am to know what these Pastors have judged about these matters than to know what the Scripture saith of them Po. Have not Councils set this down and is not the Pope always ready to declare the Churches true Sense Prot. But how can I know which are lawful Councils or what they have determined or if I did know the Words and doubted of the Sense it would be very hard for me to get the Pope to tell me in words or writing what it was and if the Pope did this he cannot speak or write plainer than God hath done in holy Scripture and therefore I am told there is as much difference among you about the Sense of Councils and Popes as there is among us about the Sense of Scripture Po. Well but your own Catholic Bishop or Priest can tell you the true meaning of both Councils and Popes in all these matters Prot. So can our Protestant Bishops and Priests tell us the true meaning of Scripture But if you be forced to resort at last to particular fallible Men for the certainty of your Faith why do you boast of a better way to be infallibly assured of the Truth than Protestants can ever have and upon that false ground urge Men to come over to your Church Po. Because we rely upon that Oral Tradition which hath been delivered down through all Ages in the Roman Church and can never fail so long as we have living Witnesses to declare it and is not this certainer than a dead written Rule that may be interpreted as every man pleases Prot. No sure for all Men put things of greatest concern in Writing and do not trust things for Posterity to be told by word of Mouth A written Rule says always the same words and can have no ends upon us but your living Witnesses by forgetfulness or to serve their Pride and Covetousness may deliver Tradition variously And you have no Evidence that those things are Apostolical Traditions which your Church says are so but either ancient Writings which are of far less credit than Scripture and then also you must suppose those ancient Writings to be more evident than your Traditions because you prove these by them or else you must trust to fallible Men whose Interest it may be and is to deceive you and thus your present living Witnesses bear sole Testimony to themselves which is very suspicious at the best So that your way is neither certainer nor easier than ours Po. I know not what your way is unless you make every private Man to be judge of Scripture when that declares The People must enquire the Law from the Priests Mouth Malach. ii 7. And Commands us to obey them that are over us in the Lord Hebr. xiii 17. affirming that no Scripture is of any private Interpretation 2 Pet. i. 20. Prot. Our way is to read diligently and pray heartily to be directed And if we doubt then to go to our Protestant Bishops and Priests for they and not your Clergy are over us in the Lord and they are as able as willing and of as great Integrity as any among you to give us Satisfaction And though we do not pretend that every private Man may interpret difficult places without the advice of his Pastor Yet you are mistaken in your Interpretation of that Place of S. Peter 2 Pet. i. 20. Where the Apostle is proving the Scripture is a sure Rule because it was not written or first Interpreted by any private Mans Will or Fancy but the Authors spake by the Holy Ghost and according to the Will of God Which is nothing to your purpose Po. However it seems you are forced to rely on these Priests of yours for the true meaning of Scripture and the final certainty of your Faith and yet you call this a slavish thing in Catholics Prot. Our Priests do not barely tell us this or that is the Sense of Scripture and then forbid us all further enquiry which would really be an enslaving of their People But they compare one Scripture with another and give us sound and solid reasons for all their Expositions desiring us no further to believe them than the clearness of their evidence deserves and this allows us the freedom of rational Beings Po. But is it not contrary to Scripture and reason both that the People should judge of their Pastors Proofs and Declarations Prot. It is not contrary to Scripture for there all Christians are expresly commanded To prove all things and hold fast that which is good 1 Thess v. 21. and to try the Spirits 1 John iv 1. St. Paul bids the Corinthians Judge what he said 1 Cor. x. 15. And likes those who tried his Declarations by the Scripture Acts xvii 11. So that no doubt God will expect Men shall have something more to say for that Faith on which they trust their Souls than that their Priest barely affirmed that it was true Po. Is not the Priest judge of the People and can it be reasonable then that they should be his Iudges Deut. xvii 9. Prot. We do not pretend to judge our Priests but only to use our Reason which God gave us not in vain in judging meerly for our selves because we read that every Man shall bear his own burden and therefore every man must prove his own Work Galat. vi 4 5. and this gives us not any power over either our Priests or Fellow Christians 't is no judgment of direction for others but only a judgment of discretion which to strip us of is to degrade us into the rank of Brutes Po. Well though you seem fond of your own way yet even the good effects of our Method may convince any impartial Man it is better For do you not see how quiet and unanimous we are by our Peoples intire relyance on their Pastors Prot. This may prove it a cunninger but not a safer Method The Turks are as unanimous as they are in your Church but they may thank ignorance and severities for it And for our parts we envy not their happiness who have found out a way not prescribed by Christ to live peaceably in gross Errors and to be unanimous in their Mistakes Po. I know you aim at your Church and wonder how such a Man as you dare charge the Roman Church with gross Errors and Mistakes Prot. Because I can make my Charge good For if Scripture be the Rule of what we ought to believe and practise then your kneeling and praying before Images your Invocation of Angels and Saints adoring Relicks praying in an unknown Tongue Transubstantiation Half Communion Auricular Confession Indulgences and your Doctrine of Purgatory with divers others which I can name are gross errors and corruptions believed and practised in the Roman Church Po. You are very bold But I doubt not to justify all these opinions and practices and to convince you so fully of the truth and innocency of them that I hope you will own
Po. Well but the Literal sense is not to be left unless where the words cannot be taken otherwise than Figuratively which is not the case here Prot. Yes that is the very case here for the Literal sense is impossible and full of Contradictions but the Figurative is natural plain and easie For if we take these words Literally Christ's Body was whole and sitting at the Table and broken into pieces on the Table at the same time it must be entire now in Heaven and yet all of it in ten thousand different and distant places on the Earth We must believe the substance of Flesh hath none of its proper Accidents and that the Accidents of Bread can subsist without their proper substance We must think that to be real Flesh and Blood which we see smell taste and feel to be real Bread and Wine We must believe there is a Miracle when all our Senses which are witnesses to all other Miracles give Evidence there is no Miracle at all here In short we must contradict our Reason and deny our Senses without any need unless it be to uphold an unintelligible Literal sense when the Figurative is far more plain Po. 'T is strange how Prejudice may blind Men surely you cannot be in earnest when you say a Figurative Speech is plainer than a Speech without a Figure This only shews how desperate your Cause is which drives you to these Absurdities Prot. I will prove it is no Absurdity to maintain that in this case the Figurative sense is easier For that is the easiest sense of any words which the Mind first apprehends when we hear them For Example if one point to an House and Land and say This is my Estate there the plain sense is the Literal sense But if one hold a Writing sealed in his Hand and say This is my Estate the easiest and plainest sense then is This is that which conveys my Estate and all the benefits of it to me So if Christ had pointed to himself sitting at Table and said This is my Body the Apostles would and we must have taken it Literally but since he points to Bread and saith This is my Body the first and most natural sense of the words is This is that which signifies my Body and communicates all the benefits of my Incarnation and Passion to you and thus S. Paul expresly doth expound it when he saith it is the Communion of his Body and Blood 1 Cor. x. 16. Po. What then do you believe that Christ is in this Sacrament no otherwise but in a bare figure and empty sign Prot. We believe that Christ is here verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful and really present as to all the effects and benefits of his Passion but this presence though it be real yet is spiritual and apprehended by Faith not corporal and substantial because then it must be discerned by sense Po. From one absurdity granted many will follow and your absurd exposition forces you to hold this ridiculous assertion That a Spiritual Presence is a real Presence Prot. Dare you seriously deny this which you call a ridiculous assertion Is not Christ really with his Church to the end of the World by his Spiritual Presence Is not the Holy Ghost really with every Regenerate Man by his Spiritual Presence The effects and benefits of Christ's Death which we seek in this Sacrament are Spiritual such as Pardon Peace Grace and hopes of Glory yet they are very real and therefore we think it fittest to expect them in a Spiritual manner especially since our Lord hath told us It is the Spirit that quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing John vi 63. And the Aposte saith Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Heb. xi 1. That is It makes things invisible and Spiritual to be very real to the true Believer Po. I find you delight much in calling this Spiritual Meat and Drink but would gladly understand how you dare do so without any Authority of Scripture yea when the Scripture saith Christ will give us his Flesh to Eat John vi 53. Prot. We have good Authority of Scripture for this viz 1 Cor. x. 3 4 Where it is said that the Israelites had the priviledge by certain signs to Eat and Drink into Christ as well as we in a mystical way For they did all Eat of the same Spiritual Meat and did all Drink of the same Spiritual Drink For they Drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ We see it was Spiritual Meat and Drink which they had yet it was the same with ours and therefore ours must be Spiritual Meat and Drink too Again we are not said All to Drink into one Blood but into one Spirit 1 Cor. xii 13. Nor can we understand how St. Paul could call that which is the Communion of Christs Body by the Name of Bread after Consecration 1 Cor. xi 26 27 28. If the outward part did not remain unchanged in substance though its use be changed and our Souls are certainly fed here yet these are not capable of feeding either on Bread or Flesh Yea our Lord himself teaches us to Expound those Words in St. John of a Spiritual Communication of his Body for he saith The words he speaks to us are Spirit and Life John vi 63. Po. You do but prevaricate when you pretend to believe Christ is really present in the Sacrament for if you truly believed this you would give Divine Worship to the Host as we do Prot. We bend our Knees address our Prayers and give Divine Worship to Christ who is really present to our Faith in this Sacrament But since we are sure that the outward part is not changed in nature but only in use and signification and doth still remain Bread we dare not give Divine Worship to that which is a Creature since it would be Idolatry so to do Po. Well I will inform you of one very ill consequence of your denying Christs Flesh and Blood to be substantially in this Sacrament that is you make it to be only a Commemoration of the Sacrifice on the Cross but we give it far more honour believing it to be a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the sins of quick and dead Prot. Neither you nor we ought to make the Sacrament what we please we must take our Notions of it from Scripture and from Christ who instituted it and he bids us Do this in Remembrance of Him Luk. xxii 19. And S. Paul doth not say it is the Lords Death but the shewing forth of his Death 1 Cor. xi 26. Yea he makes this the main difference between the legal Sacrifices and that of Christ on the Cross that they were often Offered but he was only to be Offered once and by that one Offering hath perfectly satisfied for the Sins of the whole World Hebr. ix 25 26. And Chap. x. 14. So that this Sacrament is certainly a