that is nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ and is made His Member We hope it will be observed that as these Words are express and formal so the Design on which He uses them will admit of none of those Distinctions they commonly rely on Tertullian says Lib. de Resur c. 8. the Flesh is fed with the Body and Blood of Christ. St. Austin Serm. 9. de Divers after he had called the Eucharist our daily Bread he exhorts us so to receive it that not only our Bellies but our Minds might be refreshed by it Isidore of Sevil says The substance of the visible Bread nourishes the outward Man or as Bertram cites his Words all that we receive externally in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ is proper to refresh the Body Next let us see what the 16th Council of Toledo says in Anno 633. condemning those that did not offer in the Eucharist entire Loaves but only round Crusts they did appoint one entire Loaf carefully prepared to be set on the Altar that it might be sanctified by the Priestly Benediction and order that what remained after Communion should be either put in some Bag or if it was needful to eat it up that it might not oppress the Belly of him that took it with the burden of an heavy surcharge and that it might not go to the Digestion but that it might feed his Soul with spiritual Nourishment From which Words one of two Consequences will necessarily follow either that the Consecrated Elements do really nourish the Body which we intend to prove from them or that the Body of Christ is not in the Elements but as they are Sacramentally used which we acknowledg many of the Fathers believed But the last Words we cited of the Spiritual Nourishment shew those Fathers did not think so and if they did we suppose those we deal with will see that to believe Christ's Body is only in the Elements when used will clearly leave the Charge of Idolatry on that Church in their Processions and other Adorations of the Host. But none is so express as Origen Comment in Mat. c. 15. who on these words 'T is not that which enters within a Man which defiles a Man says If every thing that enters by the Mouth goes into the Belly and is cast into the Draught then the Food that is sanctified by the Word of God and by Prayer goes also to the Belly as to what is material in it and from thence to the Draught but by the Prayer that was made over it it is useful in proportion to our Faith and is the mean that the Understanding is clear-sighted and attentive to that which is profitable and it is not the matter of Bread but the Word pronounced over it which profits him that does not eat in a way unworthy of our Lord. This Doctrine of the Sacraments being so digested that some parts of it turned to Excrement was likewise taught by divers Latin Writers in the 9th Age as Rabanus Maurus Arch-bishop of Mentz and Heribald Bishop of Auxerre Divers of the Greek Writers did also hold it whom for a Reproach their Adversaries called Stercoranists It is true other Greek Fathers were not of Origen's Opinion but believed that the Eucharist did entirely turn into the Substance of our Bodies So Cyril of Ierusalem says Mystic Catech. 5. that the Bread of the Eucharist does not go into the Belly nor is cast into the Draught but is distributed thorough the whole Substance of the Communicant for the good of Body and Soul The Homily of the Eucharist in a Dedication that is in St. Chrysostom's Works Tom. 5. says Do not think that this is Bread and that this is Wine for they pass not to the Draught as other Victuals do And comparing it to Wax put to the Fire of which no Ashes remain he adds So think that the Mâ—teries are consumed with the Substance of our Bodies Iohn Damascene is of the same mind who says Lib. 4. de Orthod fide c. 14. That the Body and the Blood of Christ passes into the Consistence of our Souls and Bodies without being consumed corrupted or passing into the Draught God forbid but passing into our Substance for our Conservation Thus it will appear that tho those last-cited Fathers did not believe as Origen did that any part of the Eucharist went to the Draught yet they thought it was turned into the Substance of our Bodies from which we may well conclude they thought the Substance of Bread and Wine remained in the Eucharist after the Consecration and that it nourished our Bodies And thus we hope we have sufficiently proved our first Proposition in all its three Branches So leaving it we go on to the second Proposition which is That the Fathers call the consecrated Elements the Figures the Signs the Symbols the Types and Antitypes the Commemoration Representation the Mysteries and the Sacraments of the Body and Blood of Christ. Tertullian proving against Marcion Lib. 4 cont Marc. c. 40. that Christ had a real Body he brings some Figures that were fulfilled in Christ and says He made the Bread which he took and gave his Disciples to be his Body saying This is my Body that is the Figure of my Body but it had not been a Figure of his Body had it not been true for an empty thing such as a Phantasm cannot have a Figure Now had Tertullian and the Church in his time believed Transubstantiation it had been much more pertinent for him to have argued Here is corporally present Christ's Body therefore he had a true Body than to say Here is a Figure of his Body therefore he had a true Body such an escape as this is not incident to a Man of common Sense if he had believed Transubstantiation And the same Father in two other places before cited says Christ gave the Figure of his Body to the Bread and that he represented his own Body by the Bread St. Austin says Com. in Psal. 3 He commended and gave to his Disciples the Figure of his Body and Blood The same Expressions are also in Bede Alcuine and Druthmar that lived in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries But what St. Austin says elsewhere Lib. 3. de Doct. Chr. c. 16. is very full in this matter where treating of the Rules by which we are to judg what Expressions in Scripture are figurative and what not he gives this for one Rule If any place seem to command a Crime or horrid Action it is figurative and to instance it cites these words Except ye eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man you have no Life in you which says he seems to command some Crime or horrid Action therefore it is a Figure commanding us to communicate in the Passion of our Lord and sweetly and profitably to lay up in our Memory that his Flesh was crucified and wounded for us Which words are so express and full that whatever
we left upon that Point which by the Grace of God we should perform very soon but we had offered to satisfie them in the other grounds of the Separation from the Church of Rome if they desired to be farther informed we should wait on them when they pleased So we all rose up and took leave after we had been there about three hours The Discourse was carried on on both sides with great Civility and Calmness without Heat or Clamour This is as far as my Memory after the most fixed attention when present and careful Recollection since does suggest to me without any Biass or Partiality not having failed in any one material thing as far as my memory can serve me This I declare as I shall answer to God Signed as follows Gilbert Burnet This Narrative was read and I do hereby attest the truth of it Edw. Stillingfleet Being present at the Conference I do according to my best memory judge this a just and true Narrative thereof Will. Nailor The Addition which N. N. desired might be subjoined to the Relation of the Conference if it were published but wished rather that nothing at all might be made publick that related to the Conference THe substance of what N. N. desired me to take notice of was That our eating Christ's flesh and drinking his blood doth as really give everlasting life as Almsgiving or any other good Works gives it where the bare external Action if separated from a good Intention and Principle is not acceptable to God So that we must necessarily understand these words of our Saviour with this Addition of Worthily that whoso eats his flesh and drinks his blood in the Sacrament Worthily hath everlasting life for he said he did not deny but the believing the Death of Christ was necessary in communicating but it is not by Faith only we receive his body and blood For as by Faith we are the sons of God yet it is not only by Faith but also by Baptism that we become the sons of God so also Christ saith He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved yet this doth not exclude Repentance and amendment of Life from being necessary to Salvation therefore the universality of the Expression whoso eats does not exclude the necessity of eating worthily that we may have everlasting life by it And so did conclude that since we believe we have all our Faith in the Holy Scriptures we must prove from some clear Scriptures by Arguments that consist of a Major and Minor that are either express words of Scripture or equivalent to them that Christ was no otherwise present in the Sacrament than spiritually as he is received by Faith And added That it was impertinent to bring Impossibilities either from sense or reason against this if we brought no clear Scriptures against it To this he also added That when D. S. asked him by which of his senses he received Christ in the Sacrament he answered That he might really receive Christ's body at his mouth though none of his senses could perceive him as a Bole or Pill is taken in a Syrup or any other Liquor so that I really swallow it over though my senses do not taste it in like manner Christ is received under the accidents of Bread and Wine so that though our senses do not perceive it yet he is really taken in at our Mouth and goes down into our Stomach ANSWER HAving now set down the strength of N. N. his Plea upon second Thoughts I shall next examine it The stress of all lies in this Whether we must necessarily supply the Words of Christ with the addition of worthily he affirms it I deny it for these Reasons Christ in this Discourse was to shew how much more excellent his Doctrine was than was Moses's Law and that Moses gave Manna from Heaven to nourish their Bodies notwithstanding which they died in the Wilderness but Christ was to give them Food to their Souls which if they did eat they should never die for it should give them life where it is apparent the bread and nourishment must be such as the life was which being internal and spiritual the other must be such also and vers 47. he clearly explains how that Food was received He that believeth on me hath everlasting life Now having said before that this bread gives life and here saying that believing gives everlasting life it very reasonably follows that believing was the receiving this Food which is yet clearer from verse 34. where the Iews having desired him evermore to give them that bread he answers verse 35. I am the bread of Life be that comes to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst Which no man that is not strangely prepossessed can consider but he must see it is an Answer to their Question and so in it he tells them that their coming to him and believing was the mean of receiving that Bread And here it must be considered that Christ calls himself Bread and says that a Man must eat thereof which must be understood figuratively and if Figures be admitted in some parts of that discourse it is unjust to reject the applying the same Figures to other parts of it In fine Christ tells them this Bread was his Flesh which he was to give for the Life of the World which can be applied to nothing but the offering up himself on the Cross. This did as it was no wonder startle the Jews so they murmured and said How can this Man give us his Flesh to eat To which Christs Answer is so clear that it is indeed strange there should remain any doubting about it He first tells them except they eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man they had no Life in them Where on the way mark that drinking the Blood is as necessary as eating the Flesh and these words being expounded of the Sacrament cannot but discover them extreamly guilty who do not drink the Blood For suppose the Doctrine of the Blood 's concomitating the Flesh were true yet even in that case they only eat the Blood but cannot be said to drink the Blood But from these words it is apparent Christ must be speaking chiefly if not only of the spiritual Communicating for otherwise no man can be saved that hath not received the Sacrament The words are formal and positive and Christ having made this a necessary Condition of Life I see not how we dare promise Life to any that hath never received it And indeed it was no wonder that those Fathers who understood these words of the Sacrament appointed it to be given to Infants immediately after they were baptized for that was a necessary consequence that followed this exposition of our Saviours words And yet the Church of Rome will not deny but if any die before he is adult or if a Person converted be in such Circumstances that it is not possible for him to receive the
Sacrament and so dies without it he may have everlasting Life therefore they must conclude that Christs Flesh may be eaten by Faith even without the Sacrament Again in the next verse he says Whoso eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood hath eternal Life These words must be understood in the same sense they had in the former verse they being indeed the reverse of it Therefore since there is no addition of worthily necessary to the fence of the former Verse neither is it necessary in this But it must be concluded Christ is here speaking of a thing without which none can have Life and by which all have Life therefore when ever Christs Flesh is eaten and his Blood is drunk which is most signally done in the Sacrament there eternal Life must accompany it and so these words must be understood even in relation to the Sacrament only of the spiritual Communicating by Faith As when it is said a man is a reasonable Creature though this is said of the whole man Body and Soul yet when we see that upon the Dissolution of Soul and Body no Reason or Life remains in the Body we from thence positively conclude the Reason is seated only in the Soul though the Body has Organs that are necessary for its Operations So when it is said we eat Christs Flesh and drink his Blood in the Sacrament which gives eternal Life there being two things in it the bodily eating and the spiritual communicating though the eating of Christs Flesh is said to be done in the worthy receiving which consists of these two yet since we may clearly see the bodily receiving may be without any such Effects we must conclude that the eating of Christs Flesh is only done by the inward Communicating though the other that is the bodily part be a divine Organ and conveyance of it And as Reason is seated only in the Soul so the eating of Christs Flesh must be only inward and spiritual and so the mean by which we receive Christ in the Supper is Faith All this is made much clearer by the words that follow my Flesh is Meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed Now Christs Flesh is so eaten as it is meat which I suppose none will question it being a prosecution of the same discourse Now it is not meat as taken by the Body for they cannot be so gross as to say Christs Flesh is the Meat of our Body therefore since his Flesh is only the Meat of the Soul and spiritual Nourishment it is only eaten by the Soul and so received by Faith Christ also says He that eateth my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in him and he in him This is the definition of that eating and drinking he had been speaking of so that such as is the dwelling in him such also must be the eating of him the one therefore being spiritual inward and by faith the other must be such also And thus it is as plain as can be from the words of Christ that he spake not of a carnal or corporal but of a spiritual eating of his Flesh by Faith All this is more confirmed by the Key our Saviour gives of his whole Discourse when the Iews were offended for the hardness of his sayings It is the Spirit that quickneth or giveth the Life he had been speaking of the flesh profiteth nothing the words I speak unto you are spirit and they are Life From which it is plain he tells them to understand his words of a spiritual Life and in a spiritual manner But now I shall examine N. N. his Reasons to the contrary His chief Argument is that when eternal Life is promised upon the giving of Alms or other good Works we must necessarily understand it with this Proviso that they were given with a good intention and from a good Principle therefore we must understand these words of our Saviour to have some such Proviso in them All this concludes nothing It is indeed certain when any promise is past upon an external Action such a reserve must be understood And so St. Paul tells us if he bestowed all his goods to feed the Poor and had no Charity it profited him nothing And if it were clear our Saviour were here speaking of an external action I should acknowledge such a proviso must be understood but that is the thing in question and I hope I have made it appear Our Saviour is speaking of an internal action and therefore no such proviso is to be supposed For he is speaking of that eating of his Flesh which must necessarily and certainly be worthily done and so that objection is of no force He must therefore prove that the eating his Flesh is primarily and simply meant of the bodily eating in the Sacrament and not only by a denomination from a Relation to it as the whole man is called reasonable though the reason is seated in the Soul only What he says to shew that by Faith only we are not the Sons of God since by Baptism also we are the Sons of God is not to the purpose for the design of the Argument was to prove that by Faith only we are the Sons of God so as to be the Heirs of eternal Life Now the Baptism of the adult for our debate runs upon those of ripe years and understanding makes them only externally and Sacramentally the Sons of God for the inward and vital Sonship follows only upon Faith And this Faith must be understood of such a lively and operative Faith as includes both repentance and amendment of Life So that when our Saviour says he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved that believing is a complex of all evangelical Graces from which it appears that none of his Reasons are of force enough to conclude that the universality of these words of Christ ought to be so limited and restricted For what remains of that which he desired might be taken notice of that we ought to prove that Christs Body and Blood was present in the Sacrament only spiritually and not corporally by express Scriptures or by Arguments whereof the Major and Minor were either express words of Scripture or equivalent to them it has no force at all in it I have in a full discourse examined all that is in the Plea concerning the express words of Scripture and therefore shall say nothing upon that head referring the Reader to what he will meet with on that Subject afterwards But here I only desire the Reader may consider our Contest in this particular is concerning the true meaning of our Saviours words This is my body in which it is very absurd to ask for express words of Scripture to prove that meaning by For if that be setled on as a necessary method of proof then when other Scriptures are brought to prove that to be the meaning of these words it may be asked how can we prove the true meaning of that place we bring to prove the
those we deal with may think of them we are sure we cannot devise how any one could have delivered our Doctrine more formally Parallel to these are Origen's words Homil. 7. in Lev. who calls the understanding the Words of our Saviour of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood according to the Letter a Letter that kills The same St. Austin calls the Eucharist a Sign of Christ's Body in his Book against Adimantus Lib. cont Adimant manich c. 12. who studied to prove that the Author of the Old and New Testament was not the same God and among other Arguments he uses this That Blood in the Old Testament is called the Life or Soul contrary to the New Testament To which St. Austin answers That it was so called not that it was truly the Soul or Life but the Sign of it and to shew that the Sign does sometimes bear the Name of that whereof it is a Sign he says Our Lord did not doubt to say This is my Body when he was giving the Sign of his Body Where if he had not believed the Eucharist was substantially different from his Body it had been the most impertinent Illustration that ever was and had proved just against him that the Sign must be one and the same with that which is signified by it For the Sacrament being called the Type the Antitype the Symbol and Mystery of Christ's Body and Blood The ancient Liturgies and Greek Fathers use these Phrases so frequently that since it is not so much as denied we judg we need not laboriously prove it Therefore we pass over this believing it will be granted for if it be denied we undertake to prove them to have been used not only on some occasions but to have been the constant Style of the Church Now that Types Antitypes Symbols and Mysteries are distinct from that which they shadow forth and mystically hold out we believe can be as little disputed In this Sense all the Figures of the Law are called Types of Christ by the Fathers and both the Baptismal Water and the Chrism are called Symbols and Mysteries And tho there was not that occasion for the Fathers to discourse on Baptism so oft which every body received but once and was administred ordinarily but on a few days of the Year as they had to speak of the Eucharist which was daily consecrated so that it cannot be imagined there should be near such a number of places about the one as about the other yet we fear not to undertake to prove there be many places among the Ancients that do as fully express a change of the Baptismal Water as of the Eucharistical Elements From whence it may appear that their great Zeal to prepare Persons to a due value of these holy Actions and that they might not look on them as a vulgar Ablution or an ordinary Repast carried them to many large and high Expressions which cannot bear a literal meaning And since they with whom we deal are fain to fly to Metaphors and Allegories for clearing of what the Fathers say of Baptism it is a most unreasonable thing to complain of us for using such Expositions of what they say about the Eucharist But that we may not leave this without some Proof we shall set down the words of Facundus Desens Conc. Chalced. lib. 9. who says The Sacrament of Adoption that is Baptism may be called Adoption as the Sacrament of his Body and Blood which is in the consecrated Bread and Cup is called his Body and Blood not that the Bread is properly his Body or the Cup properly his Blood but because they contain in them the Mystery of his Body and Blood and hence it was that our Lord called the Bread that was blessed and the Cup which he gave his Disciples his Body and Blood Therefore as the Believers in Christ when they receive the Sacrament of his Body and Blood are rightly said to have received his Body and Blood so Christ when he received the Sacrament of the Adoption of Sons may be rightly said to have received the Adoption of Sons And we leave every one to gather from these words if the cited Father could believe Transubstantiation and if he did not think that Baptism was as truly the Adoption of the Sons of God as the Eucharist was his Body and Blood which these of Rome acknowledg is only to be meant in a moral Sense That the Fathers called this Sacrament the Memorial and Representation of the Death of Christ and of his Body that was broken and his Blood that was shed we suppose will be as little denied for no Man that ever looked into any of their Treatises of the Eucharist can doubt of it St. Austin says Epist. 23. ad Bonifac. That Sacraments must have some Similitude of these things of which they be the Sacraments otherwise they could not be Sacraments So he says the Sacrament of the Body of Christ is after some manner his Blood So the Sacrament of Faith that is Baptism is Faith But more expresly speaking of the Eucharist as a Sacrifice of Praise he says Lib. 20. cont Faust. Manich. c. 21. The Flesh and Blood of this Sacrifice was promised before the coming of Christ by the Sacrifices of the Types of it In the Passion of Christ it was done in the Truth it self And after his Ascent is celebrated by the Sacrament of the remembrance of it But he explains this more fully on the 98th Psalm where he having read ver 5. Worship his Footstool and seeking for its true meaning expounds it of Christ's Body who was Flesh of this Earth and gives his Flesh to be eaten by us for our Salvation which since none eats except he have first adored it He makes this the Footstool which we worship without any Sin and do sin if we do not worship it So far the Church of Rome triumphs with this place But let us see what follows where we shall find that which will certainly abate their Joy He goes on and tells us not to dwell on the Flesh lest we be not quickened by the Spirit and shews how they that heard our Lord's words were scandalized at them as hard words for they understood them says he foolishly and carnally and thought he was to have cut off some parcels of his Body to be given them But they were hard not our Lord 's saying for had they been meek and not hard they should have said within themselves He says not this without a cause but because there is some Sacrament hid there for had they come to him with his Disciples and asked him he had instructed them For he said it is the Spirit that quickens the Flesh profiteth nothing the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and Life And adds understand spiritually that which I have said for it is not this Body which you see that you are not to eat or to drink this Blood which they are to shed who shall crucify
any account of them as being Fallible and Uncertain and so they can never secure us from Error nor be a just ground to found our Faith of any Proposition so proved upon Therefore no Proposition thus proved can be acknowledged an Article of Faith This is the breadth and length of their Plea which we shall now examine And first If there be any Strength in this Plea it will conclude against our submitting to the express Words of Scripture as forcibly Since all words how formal soever are capable of several Expositions Either they are to be understood literally or figuratively either they are to be understood positively or interrogatively With a great many other Varieties of which all Expressions are capable So that if the former Argument have any force since every place is capable of several meanings except we be infallibly sure which is the true meaning we ought by the same parity of Reason to make no account of the most express and formal Words of Scripture from which it is apparent that what noise soever these Men make of express Words of Scripture yet if they be true to their own Argument they will as little submit to these as to Deductions from Scripture Since they have the same Reason to question the true meaning of a place that they have to reject an Inference and Deduction from it And this alone may serve to satisfy every body that this is a Trick under which there lies no fair dealing at all But to answer the Argument to all Mens Satisfaction we must consider the Nature of the Soul which is a reasonable Being whose chief Faculty is to discern the Connexion of things and to draw out such Inferences as flow from that Connexion Now though we are liable to great Abuses both in our Judgments and Inferences yet if we apply thefe Faculties with due care we must certainly acquiesce in the result of such reasonings otherwise this being God's Image in us and the Standard by which we are to try things God has given us a false Standard which when we have with all possible care managed yet we are still exposed to Fallacies and Errors This must needs reflect on the Veracity of that God that has made us of such a Nature that we can never be reasonably assured of any thing Therefore it must be acknowledged that when our Reasons are well prepared according to those eternal Rules of Purity and Vertue by which we are fitted to consider of Divine Matters and when we carefully weigh things we must have some certain means to be assured of what appears to us And though we be not Infallible so that it is still possible for us by Precipitation or undue Preparation to be abused into Mistakes yet we may be well assured that such Connexions and Inferences as appear to us certain are infallibly true If this be not acknowledged then all our Obligation to believe any thing in Religion will vanish For that there is a God That he made all things and is to be acknowledged and obeyed by his Creatures That our Souls shall out-live their Union with our Bodies and be capable of Rewards and Punishments in another state That Inspiration is a thing possible That such or such Actions were above the Power of Nature and were really performed In a word all the Maxims on which the belief either of Natural Religion or Revealed is founded are such as we can have no certainty about them and by consequence are not obliged to yield to them if our Faculty of reasoning in its clear Deductions is not a sufficient Warrant for a sure belief But to examin a little more home their beloved Principle that their Church cannot err Must they not prove this from the Divine Goodness and Veracity from some Passages of Scripture from Miracles and other extraordinary things they pretend do accompany their Church Now in yielding assent to this Doctrine upon these Proofs the Mind must be led by many Arguments through a great many Deductions and Inferences Therefore we are either certain of these Deductions or we are not If we are certain this must either be founded on the Authority of the Church expounding them or on the strength of the Arguments Now we being to examine this Authority not having yet submitted to it this cannot determine our Belief till we see good Cause for it But in the discerning this good Cause of believing the Church Infallible they must say that an uncontroulable evidence of Reason is ground enough to fix our Faith on or there can be no certain ground to believe the Church Infallible So that it is apparent we must either receive with a firm persuasion what our Souls present to us as uncontroulably true or else we have no reason to believe there is a God or to be Christians or to be as they would have us Romanists And if it be acknowledged there is cause in some Cases for us to be determined by the clear evidence of Reason in its Judgments and Inferences Then we have this Truth gained that our Reasons are capable of making true and certain Inferences and that we have good Cause to be determined in our Belief by these and therefore Inferences from Scripture ought to direct our Belief Nor can any thing be pretended against this but what must at the same time overthrow all Knowledg and Faith and turn us sceptical to every thing We desire it be in the next place considered what is the end and use of Speech and Writing which is to make known our Thoughts to others those being artificial signs for conveying them to the understanding of others Now every Man that speaks pertinently as he designs to be understood so he chooses such Expressions and Arguments as are most proper to make himself understood by those he speaks to and the clearer he speaks he speaks so much the better And every one that wraps up his meaning in obscure words he either does not distinctly apprehend that about which he discourses or does not design that those to whom he speaks should understand him meaning only to amuse them If likewise he say any thing from which some absurd Inference will easily be apprehended he gives all that hear him a sufficient ground of Prejudice against what he says For he must expect that as his Hearers senses receive his Words or Characters so necessarily some Figure or Notion must be at thâ— same time imprinted on their Imagination or presented to their Reason this being the end for which he speaks and the more genuinely that his words express his meaning the more certainly and clearly they to whom he directs them apprehend it It must also be acknowledged that all Hearers must necessarily pass Judgments on what they hear if they do think it of that importance as to examin it And this they must do by that natural Faculty of making Judgments and Deductions the certainty whereof we have proved to be the Foundation of
body that hath any sense of Religion or regard to his Soul forsake our Communion where he finds nothing that is not highly suitable to the Nature and Ends of Religion and turn over to a Church that is founded on and cemented in carnal Interests the grand design of all their attempts being to subject all to the Papal tyranny which must needs appear visibly to every one whose eyes are opened For attaining which end they have set up such a vast company of additions to the simplicity of the Faith and the purity of the Christian Worship that it is a great work even to know them Is it not then a strange choice to leave a Church that worships God so as all understand what they do and can say Amen to go to a Church where the worship is not understood so that he who officiates is a Barbarian to them A Church which worships God in a spiritual and unexceptionable manner to go to a Church that is scandalously to raise this charge no higher full of Images and Pictures and that of the blessed Trinity before which prostrations and adorations are daily made A Church that directs her devotions to God and his Son Jesus Christ to go to a Church that without any good warrant not only invocates Saints and Angels but also in the very same form of words which they offer up to God and Jesus Christ which is a thing at least full of scandal since these words must be strangely wrested from their natural meaning otherwise they are high blasphemies A Church that commemorates Christ's death in the Sacrament and truly communicates in his Body and Blood with all holy reverence and due preparation to go to a Church that spends all her devotion in an outward adoring the Sacrament without communicating with any due care but resting in the Priestly absolution allows it upon a single attrition A Church that administers all the Sacraments Christ appointed and as he appointed them to go to a Church that hath added many to those he appointed and hath maimed that he gave for a pledge of his presence when he left this earth In a word that leaves a Church that submits to all that Christ and his Apostles taught and in a secondary order to all delivered to us by the Primitive Church to go to a Church that hath set up an Authority that pretends to be equal to these sacred oracles and has manifestly cancelled most of the Primitive Constitutions But it is not enough to remain in the Communion of our Church for if we do not walk conform to that holy Faith taught in it we disgrace it Let all therefore that have zeal for our Church express it chiefly in studying to purify their hearts and lives so as becomes Christians and reformed Christians and then others that behold us will be ashamed when they see such real confutations of the calumnies of out adversaries which would soon be turned back on them with a just scorn if there were not too many advantages given by our divisions and other But nothing that is personal ought to be charged on our Church and whoever object any such things of all persons in the world they are the most inexcusable who being so highly guilty themselves have yet such undaunted brows as to charge those things on us which if they be practised by any among us yet are disallowed but among them have had all encouragement and Authority possible from the corruptions both of their Popes and Casuists But here I break off praying God he may at length open the eyes of all Christendom that they may see and love the truth and walk according to it Amen FINIS More Nevochim Par. 1. c. 30. Apolog. 2. Lib. 4. adv Her c. 34. * Boniface the 8th Extrav lib. 1. c. 1. de Majoritate Obedientia After he had studied to prove that the temporal and material Sword as well as the spiritual was in the Power of St. Peter from these words Behold two Swords and our Saviour's Answer It is enough In the end he concludes Whosoever therefore resists this Power thus ordained of God resists the Ordinance of God except with Manichee he make two Beginnings which we define to be false and heretical For Moses testifies that not in the Beginnings but in the Beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth Therefore we declare say define and pronounce that it is of necessity to Salvation to every human Creature to be subject to the Pope of Rome And it is plain this Subjection must be that he had been pleading thorough that whole Decretal which is the Subjection of the Temporal Sword to the Spiritual Ord. Rom. in Pascha Greg. Nazian Orat. 1. Apol. 20. Orat. Chrisost. l. 2. de sacr c. 10.