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spirit_n	father_n	only_a	son_n	5,506	5	5.6836	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79524	Catholike history, collected and gathered out of Scripture, councels, ancient Fathers, and modern authentick writers, both ecclesiastical and civil; for the satisfaction of such as doubt, and the confirmation of such as believe, the Reformed Church of England. Occasioned by a book written by Dr. Thomas Vane, intituled, The lost sheep returned home. / By Edward Chisenhale, Esquire.	Chisenhale, Edward, d. 1654.	1653 (1653)	Wing C3899; Thomason E1273_1; ESTC R210487	201,728	571

blood whilst a Divine hand master'd his humane polices and their works of darkness were brought into light when least suspected to have them laid open to the world And though the persons the outward Instruments of this separation and change from Romes errors were not in all things approvable touching Moral conversation yet this doth not absolutely disprove the truth of their Doctrine as I have proved in the 6. Chapter Bellarmin accounted Pope Sixtus an Heretick and the Jesuites hold Hominem non Christianum posse Romanum esse Pontificem quodlib 4 art 2. pag. 100. And it is unequal dealing to censure others of that of which they themselves will not be condemned God made use of Balaam's Ass to open the eyes of Balaam and Luther I crave pardon for the comparison retorting upon his Master the Pope who smote him and his Princes with Romes Thunderbolts was a means to open the eyes of the English Clergie who saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way and I hope none can blame them for hearkning to his voice we do not in all things approve of Luther Calvin Beza c. In those things wherein we do not differ from Rome she cannot blame us and in those things wherein we differ we can prove that not any one point but was for 600. yeers after Christ by the Church of Rome it self professed and since has by the pride and arrogancy of wicked and aspiring Popes by little and little been forsaken and by her deserted so that who please impartially to consider of what I have in this Treatise fairly laid down may plainly perceive that it is Rome not England has forsaken the Primitive truth and whilst the Doctor or any other shall strive against the truth of England's Church they do but wound their own soul by back-biting her they bring a staffe to their own head all the injury and mischief they frame against her falls down on their own Pates they themselves are caught in the Net which they have privily laid for others all the Arguments and strength of Reason they bring against her in this point being but so many domestick witnesses to their own condemnation I need not study reproofs for Romes Apostacy it is sufficient that I have proved her to have changed her faith and by that means I have returned all the Doctors ingenious upbraidings against the Church of England upon the Church of Rome's own score so that I will declaim no longer upon this Theam I will deliver the rest with sighs and groans the prolocutors of an o'refraight heart and in anguish of spirit weep out the rest of this sad Scaene and hanging my Harp with David upon the Willowes I will forbear to run any more divisions upon these discourses heartily beseeching the Almighty God to reconcile us into one faith by the Spirit of his Son Jesus and shall from my very soul pray That it would please God to open the heart of the Romane Clergy to see their own errors and that he would in mercy turn unto them and turn them unto him and would gratiously cause them to remember from whence they are fallen and to do their first works and likewise that it would please him to put courage and strength into the hearts and hands of Christian Princes and Ministers that they might thereby be emboldned by the operations and effectual workings of his holy Spirit to reprove the present Bishops of Rome of the errors of their wayes knowing this that if a man rebuke a wise man he will love him Give admonishment to the wise and he will be wiser Prov. 9. and plainly to let him know how the Church of Christ suffers violence under his Tyrannical persecution whilst he sits above her Councels and exercises a Legislative power over her heavenly treasure her Scriptures left to her by the Apostles and over her Apostolical traditions moulding them into new formes for to promote thereby the interest of the Papal Chair and likewise to let him know that Councels were the onely means to keep the several Churches in unity and that these being invalid by the late usurpations of the Popes all our discords do arise from thence and that till this be freely and satisfactorily abandoned there is no hopes of uniting the neighbouring Churches with her and that in the mean time the Pope himself is the occasion of the separations made and though it be necessary that offences come that there be Heresies amongst you as Saint Paul saith 1 Cor. 11. that they which are approved may be known yet for that the Pope is the cause of these divisions and offences by reason of those his unjust proceedings towards the several Christian Churches that he might expect the woe denounced by the Evangelist Matth. 7. It must needs be that offences shall come but woe be to that man by whom the offence cometh and that therefore he would no longer tempt God by his wilful persisting in his new-taken-up errors but that he would as his Predecessors the Antient Bishops of Rome have done before him cast himself upon a general Councel utterly renouncing his late Trent and Laterane-Prerogatives and the injunction of obedience to his Papal Canon-Law without which there is no hope of reconciling our differences and by whieh means by the blessing of God the multitude of Believers may be of one heart and one soul Act. 4. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love her Now that we may all with one minde and one mouth praise God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 15.6 that there may be no dissentions amongst us but that we may be knit together in one minde and one judgement 1 Cor. 1.10 that we may proceed in one Rule that we may minde one thing and have the Apostles for our ensample Phil. 3. that as Christs coat was seamless as his Legacy was Peace so we may all be cloathed with Righteousness and keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Eph. 4. Grant O Lord for thy onely Sonne our Saviour Christ his sake Amen Glory in the Highest to God on on Earth Peace to men of good will FINIS The Printer to the Reader THe injury done to this work through my many misprisions occasioned by the difficult and uncouth Character of the Authors hand whose remote abode admitted of no intercourse to instruct me therein nor had I any in Town acquainted therewith to perfect my reading thereof makes me as I have already by the intercession of a friend begged the Authors pardon so now by my self gentle Reader humbly to implore yours I must confess in some places I was forced to guess at the Authors meaning I not being able to read many of his words by which means I have distorted his style and obscured his ingenious phancies sometimes by inserting some Linsey-wolsey lines of my contexture in this far purer Volumne otherwhiles by omitting whole sentences of the Authors yet these

is a figure of the Testament of Christ which was to be sealed with his blood For his blood is not the Testament but the thing that confirms the new Testament This is so evident a place to disprove the tenents of Romes Church in this particular that her champions are forced to their last refuge of abusing Scripture and therefore they render that text thus This blood is a new Testament in my blood which translation I submit to the judicious Reader whether it be not more strange then any figurative speech Christ saith we must be baptized with the holy Ghost this is a figurative speech So likewise Except a man be born again c. that was a figurative speech intending thereby spiritual regeneration S. Paul saith that in Baptism we cloathe us with Christ and be buried with him Rom. 6. which are figurative speeches of our newness of life and mortification of sin The Paschal Lamb without spot signified Christ the effusion of that blood signified Christ's passion and the sprinkling of the posts with blood whereby the first-born escaped death is a type of those which at the last day shall be saved being sprinkled with the blood of Jesus As in the Old Testament Exod. 12. God said This is the Lords passeover which was not the Lords Passeover but a figure representing the Lords passing by so Christ in the New Testament says of the bread and wine This is my body This is my blood which is not so in substance but in signification A figure hath the name of a thing that is signified thereby as we say a mans image is called a man the figure of a tree a tree or the like So we say Let us go to S. Peter of Millain to S. James in Compestella c. not meaning thereby the things themselves but understanding by the things representive the things represented Even so the bread and wine though Christ call them his body and blood yet they are not verily so but the elementary parts and outward signes of the invisible grace his flesh and blood thereby signified Nor is this a strange interpretation but according to Christs own figurative speech saying Luk. 22. I have much desired to eat this passeover with you Which words none can deny to be figurative God himself used that figurative speech and Jesus the onely Son of that Father to ssure us of his unity with the Godhead breathes out the same Spirit to his Apostles This is my passeover This is my body This is my blood As the shedding of that Lamb's blood was a token of the shedding of Christs blood then to come and forasmuch as the Sacraments of the Old Testament ceased and ended in Christ lest we should through corrup●ion and depravity forget the accomplishment of those Types and not take heed to print in our memories the benefits we receive by Christ Therefore Christ at his last Supper when he took leave of his disciples being shortly to depart out of the world according to the will of the Father did make a new Will He did make a new Will and Testament wherein he bequeathed clear remission of sins which he sealed next day with his blood and instituted this holy Sacrament in remembrance thereof and ordained the same in bread and wine saying This is my body This cup is my blood which is shed for remission of sins Do this in remembrance of me And Saint Paul says 1 Cor. 11. As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup we shew the Lords death till he come Therefore when we come to be made partakers of this heavenly food we should seriously call to minde the wonderful sufferings great goodness and marvelous kindness of Christ he offering himself for our redemption and by a lively faith apply the merits of his Passion to our souls and so we verily receive Christ he to be in us and we in him The Scriptures do sufficiently set forth this truth That when Christ said Hoc est corpus it was a figurative speech and the Church of England holds forth this truth against all adversaries and opposers thereof And that in this she may not seem arrogant to assume a self-interpretation of the Scriptures to maintain this her assertion I will bring in some ancient Fathers to bear witness for her Saint Augustine How to interpret Scrip ure de doctrina Christiana lib. 3. advising us how to interpret Scripture bids us beware how we take literally any thing that is spoken figuratively and figuratively any thing that is spoken literally And he therefore gives this Rule in way of caution If the thing saith he that is spoken be to the furtherance of Charity then it is a proper speech and no figure as when it commands any good or forbids any evil act then it is no figure but if it command any evil thing or forbid that that is good then it is a figurative speech Now this saying of Christ Except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood ye have no life in you seems to enjoyn a hainous and vicked thing and therefore upon S. Austin's rule it is a figurative speech But I will not onely conclude it upon that general rule to be so But I will likewise for better clearing this truth ●t down the express opinions of the Fathers in this point The ancient Fathers agree that it was a figurative speech Irenaeus contr Valent. lib. 4. c. 32. ●aith Christ confessed bread which is creature to be his body and the cup to be his blood And in cap. 57. he ●●ith that Christ taking bread of the ●ame sort that ours is of confessed that ●t was his body It was saith he ma●erial bread and therefore a figurative ●peech Cyprian ad Magn. lib. 1. Epist 6. Christ called bread made of many corns and wine pressed out of many grapes his body and blood Cyril in Johan lib. 4. cap. 14. Christ gave to his disciples pieces of bread saying Take eat this is my body And herewith agree Austin de Trinit lib. 3. cap. 4. Theodoret. dialog 1. all concurring that when Christ took bread and wine and spake these words This is my body This is my blood that it was bread and wine which he gave and not any other substance And Origen in Levit. Hom. 7. declareth the eating and drinking of Christs flesh and blood to be figurative therefore saith he understand them as spiritual not as carnal men Tertul. contra Marcion lib. 1. calls bread broken by Christ a figure of his body and wine his blood because saith he in the Old Testament bread and wine were figures of his body and blood And Chrysostome upon Psal 22. saith that Christ ordained the Table of his holy Supper for this purpose that in that Sacrament he should shew unto us bread and wine for a similitude of his body and blood So that all agree it is a figurative speech S. Ambrose upon 1 Cor. 11. saith that in eating and drinking the bread and

CATHOLIKE HISTORY Collected and gathered out of Scripture Councels Ancient Fathers and modern Authentick Writers both Ecclesiastical and Civil for the satisfaction of such as doubt and the confirmation of such as believe the Reformed Church of ENGLAND Occasioned by a Book written by Dr. Thomas Vane INTITULED The Lost sheep returned home By Edward Chisenhale Esquire Chrysost in Matth. Hom. 30. Christianus si malus evaserit pejor fit quam suisset Gentilis 2 Pet. 2.21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness then after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment given unto them London Printed by J.C. for Nath-Brooks at the signe of the Angel in Cornhil 1653. To the Right Reverend The LEGAL CLERGY OF The Reformed Protestant Church OF ENGLAND The Author Wishes many dayes of consolation here and eternal joy in the Holy Ghost THe Israelites lamented after the Lord when the Ark was removed and it pittyed the children of Sion to see her stones in the dust and how can any sing a song of the Lord in a strange Land For my own part many have been the troubles of my spirit Right Reverend for the desolations and miseries that have of late befallen our English Church and amongst the rest this has not been the least affliction of my soul to see her like Sennacherib murdered of her own sons to see her laid desolate whilst her enemies cry There there so would we have it When Ierusalem was destroyed she became an habitation unto strangers and our English Sion being now laid waste a Babylonish Tower of Rome would fain be built by the Enemy upon our holy Hill But that which most afflicted me was to see the sons of our Sion's Tower being compleatly furnished out of her spiritual Magazine and being harnessed and carrying bowes to resist the Darts of Satan should like the children of Ephraim turn their backs in the day of battel amongst whom I finde Doctor Vane the Author of a Book intituled The lost sheep returned home to be the Ring leader and chief of the Apostate-Tribe who had no fooner escaped out of our English sheep-fold but straightway he discovers the Muset thorow which he stole thinking thereby to decoy the rest of the flock into the Wilderness Now I seeing this injury done unto our English Vineyard though it was not proper to me to make up the fence did presume to lay these thorns in the breach whereby I might divert the Flock from straying after novelties and seeking after strange Pastours and in the interim blind the Wolves that they should not discover the breach that is made in our Pale Some I know will condemn me for presuming to treat upon this subject being a Theam too high for my reach and too sacred for my calling and with Socrates will condemn Lysia's Oration as not being suitable for him that was to pronounce it If there be any such amongst us I desire them to take notice That when the Temple was to be rebuilt all the people of Israel without exception contributed towards the work Ezra 11.5 6. The Priests and Levites and all the children of Israel c. and appointed the Levites to set forward the work Chap. 3.8 For my part I do not desire to transgress the bounds of a well-wishing Israelite I do not with Uzzah think to support the Ark with my own hand but humbly present to your judicious sense the sweet smelling flowers which grow in others Gardens and withal give your Reverendships a view of the wilde Thistles that bear no Figgs leaving it to your choyse to weed out the one and root up the other to whom the work more properly belongs For my part had I not perceived that the hearts of many of the Romish Faction were hardened through the deceitfulness of that Book insomuch that many began to triumph over the wounds therein given to our English Church as if the Protestant Religion were neckt in the sparring blowes And had I not been upbraided daily with the clamorous insultings of divers Papists that our Church wanting grounds of Replyes was the cause of her silence I had neither given them this occasion to censure me of presumption or busied my self either for their information or the Church of England's justification the one more properly belonging to anothers charge the other needless in respect the quarrel they have renewed is but with their own shadow all that ever they now pretend being heretofore fully answered the force of Divinity and weight of Reason adjudging the Garland to our English Church Nevertheless those answers being in several pieces and many not having the several Books and the Doctor having couched many subject matters in one Volume I thought it requisite that a Reply were composed in answer to his objections not the importance of his subject matter but the ease and convenience of the people to have him answered in one piece calling upon some to this work And I consulting with my self and imagining after so long a time of its not being answered that the more judicious amongst you might perhaps think it below them to make a reply to that which had already by others been most fully and plainly refuted answered did assume the boldness to re-capitulate this ensuing Treatise which together with my self I prostrate at your feet Amphion plaid ever best when he heard poor Ithoneus blow upon his Oaten Pipe and I could wish these rude Collections of mine might but serve as a Plain-song whereon your Reverendships might descant I did not intend that these loose pieces thrown into the Gap should stand for a sufficient Fence for our English Vine-yard onely I was something confident that they might be serviceable to you and be made use of in part as being Materials prepared for your use wherewith you might firmly repair the Breach which the Doctor has made which being set by your more Divine hands might become a growing Rampire against the Wolves and Foxes that would steal into your Vine-yard to pluck your Grapes and a standing Bulwark to keep her up maugre the engines of Hell and Satan I know it is you to whom the charge of the Plantation is committed it is you that are the proper Husband-men and know best how to fence her clusters you are the Levites must repair the breaches in our English Tabernacle I beseech you be not offended that I have taken notice of this Gap made in your Fence but rather let this my boldness finde pardon from your goodness and let this piece be acceptable to you as coming from one that in humility and love desires you to have an eye to this breach and if when you view the pieces I have thrown into the Gap you finde any that are proper for your Fence fix it down and throw the rest by or if in your judgements you think it need no further reparation yet vouchsafe to confirm it with your holy hand sith this bold

and reflecting upon the curiosity of some who would be over-scrutinous to examine the points of this Commission by the rule of the holy Writ at last they concluded upon this result That it must be de fide received that his holiness is the only exposito● and by the same rule of gradation an Evangelist to deliver new Scripture of the old and new Testaments The Pope abuses the Scriptures and having perswaded some and forced others into this opinion without care for the souls upon earth without respect of Saints and Angels in Glory and without all fear of the Almighty God of heaven he commands the holy writ which was the dictates of the holy Spirit of God to be blotted wrested mangled and tortured at his will and pleasure making no more account thereof then if it were but the Embryo of a Bear which by the licking of its dam were to receive shape and perfection And if there be any text which doth impugne this his usurped unlimited power it must not be suffered to pass the Press before first it be either rubbed over with his holiness index expurgatorius or else brushed with his Ghostly interpretation As for example Josh 1.18 the people professing an unlimited power to Joshua in all things to obey him The words in all things are expunged in the Rhemish translations for it stood not with his holiness interest and prerogative to let them be for a president For if the people of God were in all things to be obedient to their Prince this spoiles his holiness claime to command in temporalibus wherefore it was thought fit to send these words to the index expurgatorius Object The Doctor in his book fol. 59. argues the truth of Romes doctrine for that she has not corrupted or extinguished the text that being easier to do then to change her doctrine To which I answer Resp The Scriptures which Rome hath she received from other churches and those Churches from whom Rome received them sending aswell to other places as to Rome copies of those holy writs it would much ashame her to alter them in respect that true original Copies would be produced against her to her condemnation but the Bishop of Rome being to teach these Scriptures within his own precincts and territories he as times served to advantage himself might and has in many places strained courtesie to wrest the sense delivering to the people doctrines not warranted by this holy writ which he might with more confidence do in respect that no other Bishop was to meddle in his diocess and he by the favour of Princes being accounted summus pontifex wherefore reason tels that his doctrine and traditions are more questionable then his translations of the Scriptures for he needed not much to alter the Scriptures in respect it matters not what they say being but dead letters without the spirit of his holiness interpretation Yet so much did they dote upon the pomp and vainty of this world and upon that lordly height they have aspired to here upon earth that the divel did bewitch them to alter that text of Joshua which did directly gainesay such their dominion and power though by reason of their new preheminence they being above councels and the onely infallible expositors of the divine oracles they needed not so to have done or rather thus that corruption of Joshua was before the late councels of Lateran and Trent which made the Pope above councels and it behoved them to blot out such words as did impugne their other power of lording it over Kings and Princes but since these councels they may now put them in againe For it is no matter what the Scripture says for his holiness will give such an exposition as shall not destroy his own interest and since those councels such exposition though it be never so contradictory to the word of God it must de fide be received O tempora O mores Saint Basil saith they which have been brought up in Gods word will not suffer one syllable of her doctrine to be betrayed what then shall we think of the fathers of Rome's Church that practice as time serves these tricks upon those sacred letters These divine writs the dictates of Gods holy Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no marvel if they make bold with the fathers mis-translating and altering their writings and crying up their own traditions making their own mole-hills mountaines and making the fathers like unto Moles whose nature as Aristotle saith is never to open her eyes till she be dead and so they make the fathers being dead to witness things they never dreamed on or saw being living as I have shewed in the tenth Chapter If these divine oracles of God must not escape the venom of their claws if these must not be delivered to the people without corruption I know not how we may give faith or credit to her traditions the vanity of which I will briefly discover in this ensuing Chapter CHAP. XIII That because all things were not written the Church may deliver traditions such as she derives from the doctrine of the Apostles or ancient fathers That the Scriptures are to judge of those traditions That Rome is to be blamed for her traditions because they are against Scripture THe Jews say That when Moses was with God on the Mount and received the written law that he had unwritten law likewise delivered him by word of mouth for certainly say they God staid not fourty dayes and fourty nights on the mount to keep Geese nor needed he stay so long to interpret the law of the tables wherefore they conclude that Moses received traditional law which he taught Joshua Joshua the elders the elders the Prophets the Prophets taught the people Now because those their traditions were uncertaine the sects of the Pharisees sprung up and Essenes obtruding new traditions as simply necessary and a more perfect Rule of Sanctity then that that was writ whereupon our Saviour in the seventh of Mark reproves them saying They worship me in vaine teaching for doctrines the commandments of men and yet in the 23 of Mat. he hath commanded us saying All that they bid you observe that observe and do but after their works do not for they say and do not These two texts seem to impugne each other but the fathers of the premitive Church have resolved this knot and reconciled these texts by this exposition that all traditions agreeable and consonant to the holy word are to be observed but such traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees as were not agreeable to the holy word of God were to be rejected We confess that all things which Christ and his Apostles did No traditions but such as are agree able to the word of God are to be embraced were not written according as is expressed Joh. 21. vers ult And that the Apostles had order to teach the people whatsoever Christ had commanded them but as we allow this so by no meanes

this salvation And herewith agree the Fathers of the Primitive Churches Origen who writ about two hundred yeers after Christ upon the text of Matth. 15. The Word was made flesh and very meat which whoso eateth shall live for ever says that no evil man can eat thereof for it is onely eaten by faith And herewith agrees S. Cyprian in Serm. de Coena Dominic saying Our eating and drinking is a certain hunger and desire to dwell in him and that none do eat of this Lamb but such as be true Israelites which hunger is termed of the soul as David was an hungry Psal 41. My soul hath thirsted after God which is the well of life For the soul feeling nothing but the horrour of death and the terrour of Gods justice sin by the Laws impeachment having drawn that direful sentence upon her in her pensive meditations of her just demerits betakes her self to this spiritual refreshment of comfort and solace being hereunto invited with the sweet appellation of blessed if she hunger and thirst after righteousness and a cheerful promise of comforts that she shall be satisfied Matth. 5. Which spiritual hunger and thirst as it is not perceived of a carnal man but onely of such as inwardly desire this refreshment and ease from the deep throws of their sad condition so is it not given to any but such as spiritually long and seek after it God feedeth the hungry but the rich those that stand upon their own integrity he sends empty away It is no carnal banquet that flesh and blood can thirst after Have ye no houses to eat and drink in 1 Cor. 11. It is not eating an ordinary Supper to satisfie the greedy appetite of a natural man but as Christ said to his disciples Joh. 4.32 I have other meat to eat which ye know not The disciples themselves as carnal men knew not of this spiritual food and therefore Christ minding to draw them from their gross fleshly principles and to convince them that there is spiritual food as well as that which the mouth and throat take and swallow plainly says unto them Is any dry let him come to me Joh. 7. for he is meat he is drink which whosoever by faith spiritually eat and drink live for ever Athanasius de peccat in Spir. sanct says Christ made mention of his ascension to pluck men from corporal fancie and thereby to perswade them that his flesh was spiritual food the things which he spake were spirit and life It must needs therefore be understood of spiritual eating and spiritual drinking his flesh and blood which hereticks unbelievers could not do as S. Hierome upon Hos 8. witnesses And S. Ambrose de benedict Patr. cap. 9. says Jesus is the bread which is the meat of the Saints and he that taketh this bread dieth not a sinners death for this bread is remission of sins And S. Austin in his 26 Tract upon John Bread and wine which nourisheth the body a man may eat and drink and nevertheless die but the very body and blood no man eateth but hath everlasting life And in another place in sententiis ex Prosp decerpt cap. 339. He that agreeth not with Christ doth neither eat his flesh nor drink his blood although to the condemnation of himself for his presumption he every day receive the Sacrament of so high a nature Judas did eat the bread saith he in his 59 Tract but not the bread that was the Lord. Christ is onely spiritually in the bread and wine to such as by a lively faith receive him As for the wicked they receive but the meer bread and wine abusing the Ordinance From these Authorities may clearly be evinced that the Church of England doth maintain in this point as the ancient Fathers taught concerning this Sacrament Nor can any otherwise understand of this holy mystery for if Christ be corporally in the bread and wine then the wicked receiving him receive his body and not his Spirit for Rom. 8. as he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his so he that hath Christ in him believeth because he is justified And if his Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised Christ from death shall give life to your mortal bodies for his Spirits sake that dwelleth in you So that no wicked man hath the Spirit of Christ in him and to maintain that he hath him corporally and not spiritually is to divide his Humanity from his Divinity which blasphemy the Catholike Church abhors Now the Church of England doth not thus divide the Natures but holds that both his Body and Spirit is by faith received but not that the body is corporally in the bread the bread and wine being but the elementary parts signifying the spiritual substance and that God worketh this faith inwardly in our hearts 3. The bread and wine are but figures of the body and blood by his holy Spirit and outwardly confirmeth the same to our ears by the Word and to our senses by the eating and drinking the Sacramental bread and wine in his holy Supper Which eating and drinking is a spiritual feeding requiring no real presence of Christ but onely in Spirit grace and effectual operation And that when Christ said Hoc est corpus meum it was but figuratively spoken it being bread which he brake and gave as a type for a remembrance how his body was crucified for us And let none wonder at this her tenent to say that Christ spake in figures when he did institute this Sacrament for it is the nature of a Sacrament to be figures and types signifying mystical grace thereby received Hence it was that the Philistims when the Ark came into the army of the Israelites said that God was come into the army 1 King 4. And God himself at that time by the mouth of his Prophets said that from that time that he had brought the children of Israel out of Egypt he dwelled not in houses but that he was carried about in tents and tabernacles 1 King 7. which was a figurative speech he speaking that thing of himself which was to be understood of the Ark. Which phrase of speaking Christ himself often used as in Mat. 13.11 17. The field is the world The enemy the devil c. Joh. 16. I am the vine you are the branches Joh. 4. I have meat to eat which you know not And Joh. 10. I am the door Matth. 12. He that doth my Fathers will is my brother and sister c. These and many more Christ spake in Parables Tropes and Figures but chiefly when he said Hoc est corpus a figurative speech This cup is the new Testament in my blood the word my taken for the thing in the cup. Neither is the cup nor the wine Christs Testament but a signe and figure of his Testament And admit that by the word cup neither the cup nor wine is meant but the blood yet it

as a matter of faith and that upon pain of damnation as witness this novel point and some others which are of later times crept into that Church And when any thing of Papal will and interest must be held forth to the other Churches then is the Lateran at Rome pitched upon Ante chap. 14. as I have formerly said as the onely convenient place to have the matter debated it being there likely to receive the least opposition by reason his Holiness is at hand to take notice of his enemies and to punish them and to flatter and promote such as stand for his Papal pleasure In this Councel of Laterane The Councel of Laterane chap. 17. likewise was hatched that other Cockatrice that strange brazen-fac'd and staring opinion of deposing Kings from which root of bitterness springs many tart branches of dangerous and poysonful Errours the nauseating juyce of whose sowre grapes being given to some other Churches to drink it hath intoxicated them making their Vertigious heads turn after the Laterane Weather-cock and in their brain-sick fit conceit that her high-reared Spire is the onely supporter of the heavenly Pole whilst the sober and discreet Christian knows that her proud top being exalted to that height is but so much the neere● the pattern of Babels Tower And whilst they think she is dignified before others her head being lifted above them others know she hath not whereof to boast unless in this That shee has the upper room in Satan 's airy principality which how much the higher she is lifted she is but thereby rendered more subject to be muffled with the black contractions of the Devil's Cimerian clouds of Errours And though the top thereof be forged out of that material Sword as is by the Romish Legends maintained which cut off Saint John Baptist's head it should not therefore arrogate to be the onely decolling instrument of Principality and Temporal power But I return to the subject matter of this Chapter That I may the further lay open the errours of the Church of Rome in this particular Miracles the cause of Transubstantiation and that the Papists shall not have whereof to boast in that I said they were induced by Miracles to maintain this doctrine should I pass those Miracles by in silence I will let the Reader know what they were It is reported that a Bishop of Canterbury about the time of this change did shew unto some for their conversion the Host turned into flesh and blood in outward appearance dropping into the Chalice and that thereupon they believed Transubstantiation Another is reported by Paschasius of one Plegildus a Priest of Almain who did see and handle visibly the shape of a childe upon the Altar and after it turned into bread and he was to receive it Another is reported of a Jew-boy who coming into the Church with another boy which was a Christian he saw upon the Altar a little childe torn in pieces and afterwards by portions distributed which he reporting was condemned to be burned but was after rescued from the flame by the Christians These Miracles were the onely arguments used against Berengarius and the convincing perswasions of the facile consciences of those days which how it stands with the doctrine of Christ Joh. 6.63 the practice of the Apostles the profession of the Primitive times and the faith and doctrine of the ancient Fathers let any judge S. Paul says 1 Cor. 11. That which he had received of the Lord Jesus that he delivered That as often as they did eat the bread and drink the cup they shewed the Lords death till he came Saint Paul calls it bread and the Evangelist wine and that after consecration and the Fathers of the Church taught that doctrine with them and Christ himself calls them bread and fruit of the vine and S. Paul The communion of the body And this being the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles though an Angel from heaven should come and teach any other doctrine let him be accursed Gal. 1. Wherefore these miraculous apparitions were no ground for Rome to change her faith in this point If these stories be true they ought to be considered as extraordinary apparitions like the light from heaven which shone about S. Paul These external miraculous apparitions were but to perswade the consciences of Infidels and Heathens to turn to the faith of Christ and to be perswaded of the truth of that Sacrament and not to make the true and already-grounded Christians to change the nature of their faith which is the ground of things hoped for and the evidence of things which are not seen Heb. 11.1 This was to perswade the mis-believing Jew of Christ and of the truth of this blessed Sacrament whereby he was to be made partaker of the benefits of his precious death and passion not to teach the Christian any new doctrine concerning the same These miracles should rather confirm him in his faith received that it was a spiritual banquet in respect that after the apparition as the story runs at the receiving that which was received was become bread again and not to ensnare him into this novel errour which was contrary to Christs doctrine the Apostles preaching and the practice of the Primitive Church But I will no longer insist upon this point I submit to any good Christian whether it be safer to follow Christs explanation of this mystery to be spiritual with which S. Paul and the ancient Fathers do concur then to humour the times and to be observant to the late Popes which about the time of this change were grown great and since have by cunning practices enlarged that power insomuch that now they are declared above Councels and whatsoever they propound must de fide be received upon the score of their infallibility be it never so contrary to the truth of Gods Word And they by this doctrine receiving advantage by their Altar-Sacrifices will not easily be induced to renounce the errour thereof and though never so palpably against the Truth of God yet the Jesuites will maintain it for their Masters advantage this doctrine tending more to his avail then any good to the souls of his flock Wherefore the Church of England having a right to reform errours in her own Province has chosen to cast off this blinde tenent of the Pope and his Parasites and she having the warrant of Christ the rules of the Apostles the practice of the Primitive Church and the consent of the ancient Fathers for her doctrine in this point hath therefore made choice with them in unity of Spirit firmly to hold and maintain that Christ in his humanity is not really and corporally in the Sacrament but figuratively in the outward elements being thereby signified and is spiritually eaten and drunken of the worthy receiver CHAP. XVI Against Communion in one kinde That the Church of Rome's withholding the Cup from the Layty is a novelty against Christs precept and the ancient