no fewer than these that were enioyned For they teach that in baptism our sins are forgiuen vs by the merits and satisfaction of Christ allanerly but the sins committed after baptisme be taken away and expiat by our own satisfactions but the Apostle sayth That as the wage sin is death so the gift of God is life eternall throgh Iesus Christ Rom. 6. 23. our Lord. Heauen then is Gods free gift through Christ and not our deseruing Neither can it be considered how Christs obedience is properly a satisfaction and yet either requireth or admitteth our satisfaction Besids their owne extravagant fayth that one drop of Christs blood is sufficient to saue the whole World what necessitie or place then is for our satisfaction in our Saluation They will not receaue the Kingdom of Heaven after this manner but as a iust debt to the which God of justice is bund and obliged to them not only for the merits of Christ but also for the merits of their owne works which hath an equal worth answerable to the Kingdome of Heauen J passe by here their selling of Masses their baptising of Bells baptism being a Sacrament of the new couenant only and no wayes belonging to senslesse creaturs their scrotching fire of Purgatory as hot as hell wherein the Souls of the godly dying in the Lord are tortured before they come to Heauen till such time as the punishment due to their veniall sin in that continuall torture bee ended And yet the Scritpure tels vs Blessed are the dead that Revel 14 13. die in the Lord for so sayeth the Sprit they rest from their labours and their works follow them Fearefull should their rest bee if dieing in the Lord with some little thing vnsatisfied as they affirme they shuld be cast in the torture as hot as hells fire And heere is to be obserued the mercilesse dealing of their father the Pope who hauing power to relieue soules when he pleases yet suffers many thousands to be tortured there still till he or his receaue money for their deliuerance And thus much shortly for the third part whereof I promised to speake CHAP. 16. The cunning dealing of Romish Emissaries in seducing and disputing NOw being forced here to acknowledge the foresaid false grounds of the Romish Religion which in my miscarying J laide downe as true to haue beene the beginning of all this mischiefe and hauing my mind ouercharged with the filthinesse and loathsomnes thereof to testifie the vnfained forsaking of them all the filthynes of their superstition J must add some things by way of conclusion for the loue I carry to my Country the trueth of that Religion which is allowed of God albeit J know it will incense sundry against mee I would aduertise young Schollers and others whether at home or abroad to bee warre of the Jesuite his cunning dealing with other their Emissaries such as are seminarie Priests Friers c. whether hee come directly to seduce you or come occasionally to disput with you If hee haue a purpose to seduce you hee will first make choyse of some catholicke of your acquaintance who hath best credite of you and most respected by you him he will instruct how to handle you and will put his owne speaches and arguments in his mouth if you hearken giue eare and make hopes you may bee theirs an offer will bee made to you to speak with a Father or learned man and so you and and he shall come to conference If hee can not finde a fit person to deale with you then hee will come openly to you if he be where he may professe himselfe if not he will come vnder the habite of a Gentleman or burgesse of a Towne or Countryman as best fits his purpose as it were by occasion falling in your company will talke of any purpose till hee take you vp and as he hath time to stay or to bee with you so will he worke ordinarily hee will blame all our professours for few good works and open euill liues of the great many this at once he will turne vpon the Religion But stumble not you for this for the Religion of the Jewes was good when the Prophet complaines that Faith and trueth was Psal 12. departed from the children of men The Lords word which is our Religion condemnes the sins of professours more than they can condemne the same They will obiect the liues of Ministers what they please to speak of them and they haue in readinesse some examples and instances in print or writ or in their memorie but stumble not you at this for they doe injurie to the Ministers when they blame all for the fault of some and again they doe iniury to Gods word when they prease to blame the trueth for the teachers fault One of the twelue Apostles was a Devill what was the Apostles or the Apostleship the worse and yet when all is said if their closters were as open as Ministers conversation they should mak litle talke in this poynt They will tell thee of the ignorance and want of Learning among Ministers be not you troubled for this they are learned enough that know Iesus Christ rightly and can teach him soundly learning is not the glory of our Religion but trueth and yet thogh I somtime thoght so and said so as they doe yet I found it otherwise when I mette with the Ministers Yocke with the Ministers when they will so farre as J know they will ruse themself litle for the want of learning They will obiect they haue no warrandable calling but vrge you them to iustifie the calling of their chiefe pillars Popes Cardinals and Prelates whose office and entrie in their office God neuer ordained in his worde Ministers calling goes not by succession but by election Their office is prescrived in the word their entrie and qualification Let euery one justifie as he is challanged so much as may bee seene of men is alwayes nearer the rule of the Apostles than any of their calling They will obiect the noveltie of this Religion and will aske for succession of Pastours in our Church But answer you that they slander you vniustly for novelty whose doctrin was taught by Christ and his Apostles and recommended to after ages Where the Catholick Church and true sheep of Christ vvho heard his voyce and fled sequestrating themselues from strangers were there was our Church particular professours names is no poynt of saluation What manamong ten thousand can shew his naturall pedegree from the seventh generation shal a man be questioned of the trueth of his humanity if he cannot deduce his genealogie from Adam or Noah Albeit the Protestants can bee able to show continuance of their doctrine by the lyne and catalogue of the witnesses the truth through all ages from Christs vnto our time If this obiection were of any worth wee might use it against their Church and they could not deduce from Christ or the Apostles
the head and quickned by one Spirite for which cause of Christ it is said that he dwels in vs and wee in him he is the head and wee Ephes 3. 17 4. 16 are the members of his mysticall bodie By this threefold certaintie they teach and belieue that they are made sure of Christ in the Sacrament for performance wherof they show that there is no necessitie of corporall presence First because these meanes of certaintie were appoynted of Christ to supplee his corporall absence till his second comming againe Secondly because the Sonne of God is more able after this manner from Heauen to communicate himselfe to vs on Earth then the Sun that shines dayly is able from Heauen to giue light and heate to vs on Earth without descending corporally to vs. Then for the exposition of the wordes of the Sacrament This is my body they professe to expone them as Saint Paul expones them who sayes that the bread which we break is the communion of the body of 1 Cor. 10 16. 1 Cor. 11 25. Iesus the cup which wee blesse is the Communion of the blood of Christ and as Christ speaking of the cup it must be exponed This cup is the new Testament or covenant in my blood and according to the vsuall forme of the Scripture language concerning Sacraments where the name of the gift is giuen to the Seale to assure them who faithully receaue the one that they are made sure of the other or the name of a mercie bestowed is given to the memoriall of it to make the acknowledgment of that mercy more fresh and liuelie Seeing that therefore J could find for the Romish doctrine of transubstantiation no warrand of the Lords worde and by that doctrine no ground of infallible certaintie to free mee from Idolatrie but on the contrare grounds of assurance that it could not bee that God would expose his Sonne any more to personall suffering of such indignities as is done him in the Masse Let any man iudge whether I had reason to sute to bee receaued to the communion with him according to the warrand of his owne worde and bee free for euer from all perill of that grosse Idolatrie CHAP. 10. The Masse drawes away from Christs rule of the Sacrament and defaces his institution THe next reason why J call the Masse an errour is because it doth leade men away from the right rule of the Sacrament to follow mens deuices and forged mysticall rites of mens appoyntments whereof the Lord hath pronounced in generall In vaine doe they worship mee teaching for doctrine the precepts of men Which howsoeuer they bee in estimation among men yet are abominable before God for our Lord Jesus beeing to leaue the World in regarde of his corporall presence thought good to appoynt a holy Supper wherein hee will haue his bodilie sufferings and bloodshed and death represented and brought to fresh remembrance by the breaking of bread and wine powred out in a cup and the Soules of his faithfull ones fed comforted in the assurance that his body was broken for them and his blood shed for the remission of their sinnes by eating of the bread broken and drinking of the wine powred in the cup which eating and drinking should bee to them a pledge and seale of their spirituall coniunction with CHRIST and partaking of his life as certainely wrought by his spirit as if these elements which they did eate and drinke were ioyned with their bodies Then which ordinance of our Lord nothing can bee more sweet to a Soule that considers his purpose therein and therefore he hath commanded not his Ministers only but his whole Church on Earth to doe this in remembrance of him following his example as he hath caused set down by his pen-men in his Testament to bee followed till his second comming againe But the Church of Rome as her defection hath growne peece and peece hath so far departed from the rule that scarsly now in their Masse can the footsteps of Christs ordinance be seene for vnder pretense that they are not tied to follow these circumstances which were proper to the first Supper such as are the time after Supper the place an vpper Chamber the number of persons eleuen or twelue the sexe men only and not women which any man may perceiue to bee proper to that first time and not belonging to the nature of the Sacrament if these circumstances were vrged vniversally they should marre and hinder that action and the comfort of the communicants women beeing secluded the night taking when the day was free a chamber taking wherein all the Church could not assemble and twelue only admitted where fourtie twelues were prepared and waiting on vnder pretense I say of not beeing tied to these foure circumstances when they may be prejudiciall to the action they haue taken libertie to alter the substance and sacramentall rites of this Supper left to be imitate by all Christs Churches till his second cōming again for as thogh Christs ordināce had beene too base and simple they haue deuised to cloath their Priests in brodering of silk and siluer and gold and to make sumptuous Masse cloathes to set out their work with all As if Christ his ceremonies had beene of small signification they haue casten them by and appoynted new ones of their owne making mysticall significations of their owne deuising As if the Apostle Paul had superfluously from Christs mouth giuen commandement to the common people to drink of the cup they haue cutte off the halfe of the peoples comfort and witholden the cup from them As if the Lord had not done wisely in vsing plaine language to his disciples such as they vnderstood they haue rolled vp all in an vncouth language commanding that Masse should only bee said in Latine As if our Lord had not well considered what belongs to the holynesse of such a worke in taking such bread as was vsuall in the Land and as the Master of the house laid downe before him to Supper they haue made a round Masse bread the quantitie of twelvepence or sixpence and as thin as they can cause it sticke together with a stamped crucifixe on the one side of it for the purpose they haue turned the communion of a number to the Priests drinking and eating alone the Lords table to a stone Altar the memoriall of his death to an imaginary corporall presence the seale of Gods giuing of Christ vnto men into mens offering vp of Christ to God Gods Sacrament into mans sacrificing of the sonne of God to the Father in a worde they haue turned Christs holy Supper in the Popes Masse and so what by adding what by pairing what by altering and chopping and changing they haue mutilated deformed and defaced Gods ordinance falsified King Jesus his great seale and corrupted his testament that he who is partaker of the Masse thinking to get Gods blessing by it casts himselfe in danger of Gods curse for beeing
and as sin althogh inherent into vs and only imput vnto Christ Iesus who had no inherent sin in him made him die the death wherefore may not Christs righteousnesse inherent in him and imput vnto vs bee accepted of God for our iustification to life and that so much the more because Christ Iesus is our head and cautioner which the Saints are not For he hath made him to be sin for vs which 2 Cor. cap 5. vers 21 knew no sin c. CHAP. 13. Of taking away the Cup. TOuching their minching of the holy Sacrament of the Lords Table and depriuing rhe People of the one halfe thereof contrare to Christs institution who commanded them all to drinke of it is a grievous defrauding of the people of their due comfort and that by Iohn 6 which they will haue spoken of the Sacrament except yee eate the flesh of the sonne of man and Iohn 6. drink of his blood yee haue no life in you So to depriue them of the blood is to depriue them of eternall life And in the primitiue times when persecution raged in the Church the godly Fathers neuer omitted the holy cup to the people that not only because of Christs divine institution but also that they might encourage people to shed their blood chearfully for him who had shed his blood for them did so friely communicate with them in the holy cup. Further Christ sayeth it is the cup of the new Testament in his blood which he shed for the remission of sins Then it appeareth that to depriue the people of the cup is asmuch as to depriue them of the blood of Christ for the remission of their sins for in the hostie there is no shedding of blood as they themselues confes As for the custom of the primitiue Church it is clear in this poynt neither can they or do they deny it yet when either the command of Christ or practise of the primitiue Church seemeth to crosse their businesse they dissalow both him and the ancients and in open counsell giue a decreet to their contrare The councill of Constance holden anno 406 which was the first councill that discharged the cup as an heresie towardes the middest of the Canon Concilium Constantinense 13. sess hath these wordes Although Iesus Christ did institute and administer to his Disciples this venerable Sacramēt vnder the formes of bread and wine and likewise although in the primitiue Church this Sacrament was receaued by the faithfull vnder both kinds neuerthelesse this custome hath with reason beene induced that it should bee receaued by those who consecrate vnder both kynds and by the layity vnder forme of bread only c. And concluds that these that would maintaine the contrare were heretiques where by consequence they make Christ and the primitiue Church heretiques at least in practise which if J had not red and considered in their councils J could not haue beleeued that men could be so impudent and absurd as to affirme CHAP. 14. Of Images HEre J can not passe by their adoration of Jmages 2 book of the images of Saints chap. 21. but must giue a taste thereof Their doctrine is of Images that they are not only relativè as they respect the thing represented but properly and perse by themselfe and terminatiuely without respect to the thing represented as Bellarmine hath expresly yea not only with the worship of dulia or seruice as they call it by the which distinctiō they blind the eys of the ignorant since all religious worship in whatsoueer degrie belongs properly to God but also they teach and affirme that the Images of God and the crosse ought to bee worshipped with the selfesame supreme worship that is due to God himselfe which they call Latria as hath expresly their 25. ques 3. arti in the concl 4. article Angelick doctour in his third part Sic ergo dicendum est c. and fourth article in the conclusion Crux Christi c. which conclusion the foresaid doctour prooues by this that wee giue the supreme worship to him in whom we put the hope of our safetie but in the crosse of Christ This is the crosse of wood whereon hee was nailed we put our hope of safetie So the Papists obiect of faith according to his doctrine is an Image of stocke and stone And therefore Suarez sayes in expresse tearmes Per hanc 45. disp 4. sect adorationem c. I shall faithfully translate the words By this adoration a man not only professeth that which hee adoreth to represent God but also to bee God and his supreme Lord and Redeemer otherwise it would not be a true and supreme worship The common people their case in this Idolatrie is deplorable but somewhat more excusable albeit they be involued in that same guiltinesse who must beleeue by an implicite faith whatsoeuer their Church beleeues for their great doctours doe expresly admonish their Readers that their Preachers let not the people vnderstād in their sermons that this Soueraigne worship of God should bee giuen to Images by the principles of the Roman catholicke faith for it might readily skarre them of catholick Romans make them become Calvinist hereticks See Bellarmine of the Jmages of Saints at these words Quantum ad c 22. chap. giues the same watchword in the place forsaid And this 25. ques 54. dis 4. article because as they both acknowledge in the forsaid places the common people can not be capable of these sublime distinctions wherby the foresaid doctrine must be maintained yea skarsly saith Bellarmine our great doctoures themselues Some of them for eschueing the inconvenience of this foresaid doctrine do use these tearmes directly and indirectly but any that pleaseth to examine at more length this defence they shal find it indirect enugh to giue to the creature any way a worship due to the Creator Further for backing of this doctrine their best reason that I could perceiue they euer broght was their blotting out of the second command of the Lords Law for giuing and not graunting that the second command were one with the first yet wherfore do they scrape out so great a part of that command if their best defence stood not in cancelling the Law of God which is opposite to their adoration of Jmages CHAP. 15. Of their new beliefe satisfaction purgatorie IN this place their large addition to their beliefe represents it selfe to my mind as may be seen in the bull of Pope Pitis the 4. concerning the oath taken of their Church-men containing their Trent creed wherein beside the Articles of the Apostles creed they haue ingrossed many other Articles of their most grosse and absurde heresies I can not also omitte heere their idle repetition of Prayers ascrybing merite and satisfaction to the number of them for I my self haue been enioyned to say such a number of Aues Pater nosters by waye of pennance or for the reliefe of Soules and