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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74986	An antidote against heresy: or a preservative for Protestants against the poyson of Papists, Anabaptists, Arrians, Arminians, &c. and their pestilent errours. Shewing the authors of those errours, their grounds and reasons, the time when and occasion how they did arise; with general answers to their arguments taken out of holy scripture and the ancient fathers. Written to stay the wandering and stablish the weak in these dangerous times of Apostasy. / By Richard Allen, M.A. sometime Fellow of Penbrooke [sic] Colledge in Oxford.	Allen, Richard, b. 1604 or 5.	1648 (1648)	Wing A1045A; Thomason E1168_2; ESTC R208803	57,457	159

therefore it ●s not a thing indifferent because it is an ordinance of Christ nor yet absolutely necessary to salvation as hath been said before Baptism is called the lavacre of regeneration Tit. 3.5 and Joh. 3.5 it is said Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God not that any part of our Regeneration is ascribed to water but only by water the office of the Holy Ghost is declared as also by fire Mat. 3.11 which some mistaking did brand their children with a hot iron Though the outward washing of water then be not the very washing away of sin yet it is so called the sign borrowing the name of the thing signified for the more forcible perswasion of our hearts and stronger confirmation of our Faith that our eyes are not fed with bare signs but presented with the thing it self and that our sins are as certainly done away by the blood of Christ as our bodies are cleansed by the washing of water To let pass those ridiculous toies of salt spittle and other stuff used by the Papists the main difference at this day among us is concerning circumstance of time The Pelagians and Anabaptists deny Infant-baptism and both upon the same ground With this Errour of the Anabaptists many godly people are entangled that are free enough from the rest of that pestilent Sect. Their Reasons are 1. Because there is neither precept nor example for it 2. Infants do not beleeve but it is sayed Acts 8.37 If thou beleevest thou mayst be baptized Answ It is answered To the first That there is both precept and example for Infant-baptism the precept is Mat. 28.19 the examples are Acts 16.15 33. 1 Cor. 1.16 where Infants are included as part of the nations and housholds and although there be no express command for baptizing Infants yet seeing also there is no express exception they must be baptized or else those general precepts and examples including all both Infants as well as men are not followed and observed And if it be sufficient Reason against Infant-baptism that there is no express precept or example for it then let the Anabaptists themselves for shame leave off that shameful stripping and dipping their proselytes or else shew me where they have any express command or example for it Object Secondly They that do not beleeve must not be baptized but Infants do not beleeve Ergo. Whosoever doth not labor shall not eat 2 Thes 3.10 But Infants cannot labour Ergo. Answ Both these Arguments are somewhat alike and neither good because that is drawn to Infants which belongs only to men of years And indeed this latter is the better of the two because it hath an express text for confirmation which the other hath not But to remove that rub of the Anabaptists out of the way concerning the Faith of Infants We say 1. That they have reasonable souls faculties of understanding and will which are the seat of Faith and the weakness of the Organs cannot hinder the power of the Holy Ghost to work Faith in them if he please 2. Without Faith there is no salvation if Infants then have not Faith the Anabaptists must shew some other way of salvation besides Faith in Christ or else conclude that all Infants dying are damned but yet I hope they will not pass this cruel sentence upon them unless they provide a Limbus or place of ease for them as the Papists do 3. Circumcision is the seal of the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4.11 And yet it was administred to Infants Infants therefore ought to be baptized and as good reason there is to baptise as there was to circumcise them 4. We have many presidents of children that were regenerate and sanctified as of Jeremiah John Baptist c. who were filled with the Holy Ghost from the womb and if children have the Holy Ghost then they may be baptized Act. 10.47 Can any man forbid water that these should be baptized who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we 5. Our Saviour himself testifieth in express words That Infants beleeve in him Mat. 18.6 And that babes and sucklings confess him and bear witness unto his name Mat. 21.16 And did grace them with many favours own them for the children of God taking them in his arms laying his hands upon them and blessing them saying That to them belongs the Kingdom of God Who then shall be so bold or impious to refuse and reject those that our Saviour himself received and embraced so lovingly giving such gracious testimoneis of them with whom God entered into Covenant as well as with their parents Gen. 17.7 And unto whom the promises of God were made as well as unto them Acts 2.39 But say the Anabaptists how shal we know that children believe And saith one If I had a certificate from God that a child believes I would not stick at his Baptisme Let them tell us what infallible certificate they have for men of riper years And whether they do not plunge more hypocrites and unbelievers in their flouds then we sprinkle at our fonts is a question to be made But the Anabaptists contradict themselves crossing one Argument with another overthrowing their own grounds and destroying the foundation that themselves have layd As for their stripping it is against common honesty and modesty and that dipping is not necessary to be used is clear by their own Argument because they have no where one express word of command or warrant for it And also the blood of Christ is called the blood of sprinkling Heb. 12.24 And as it was typified under the Law by divers sprinklings so it is exprest under the Gospel by sprinkling as well as dipping CHAP. XXVI Of the Lords Supper Truth THE Lords Supper is the Sacrament of Preservation in the Church wherein by the signs of bread and wine are signified sealed and exhibited to every faithful receiver the body and blood of Christ for his spiritual nourishment and continual growth in him unto life everlasting Adversaries of old were many that did either despise and refuse this holy Sacrament or abuse or prophane it either mingling adding or altering and changeing the Elements and substituting others in their places But to let them pass at this day the principal Errours Errours are these three Antidote The first is of Transubstantiation and that holdeth that after the words of Consecration and by vertue of the same there is a conversion or turning of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ so that the very true and natural body of Christ is corporally present and carnally eaten in the Sacrament the substance of bread and wine being vanisht away nothing remaining thereof but only the outward accidents to serve the senses The first occasion of this heresie seems to be given by the Capernaites John 6.52 but was confirmed under this title by the Councel of Lateran called against Berengarius in

God everlasting one living and true God with the Father and the Son For first he is called expresly both Lord and God 1 Cor. 12.5 and 6.28 the mighty God Isai 40.13 18. and Isai 6.9 compared with Acts 28.25 26. Psal 95. compared with Heb. 3. Levit. 26.12 13. compared with 1 Cor. 3.16 6.19 2 Cor. 6.16 where he is called the Lord our God the Lord our maker Our bodies are the temples of the living God 1 Cor. 3.16 and the temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.16 Now if we were commanded to build him a temple of wood and stone it were a clear proof of his Godhead because this service is only due unto God how much more seeing our selves are called his temple August lib. 1. Cont. Maxim Arian Divine attributes are given to him 1. Omniscience 1 Cor. 2.10 Omnipresence Psal 136.7 Eternity Heb. 9.14 But above all that which God takes to himself as a peculiar mark to be known from all false Gods even to foretel things to come Isai 41.23 is ascribed to the Holy Ghost 2 Sam. 23. 2. Acts 1.16 1 Tim. 4.1 Such works are ascribed to him as are proper only to God As of 1. Creation Job 26.13 33.4 Of Preservation Gen. 1.2 Of Regeneration Sanctification John 3.5 Tit. 3.5 1 Cor. 6.11 Also he raiseth the dead Rom. 8.11 And therefore the second general Councel held under Theodosius the great condemned Macedonius in these words If he were created how doth he create How doth he sanctifie How doth he give life c. for these are not the works of a creature but the peculiar works of the great and mighty God Lastly The very name of Spirit sheweth his nature for as the Spirit of man is of the nature of man so the Spirit of God is of the nature of God not a part as the spirit of man is a part of him but the whole Godhead for the Divine Essence is not compounded of parts And whereas he is called the Spirit of the Son as well as of the Father and is said to be sent or come by and from them both from hence appears clearly the essential Union that is between them that all three are but one God The Catholick Faith then is this That we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance The Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God and yet they are not three Gods but one God For the Godhead of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost are all one the glory equal the Majesty co-eternal In this Trinity none is afore or after other none greater or less then other and he that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity Athanas Symb. CHAP. III. Of the Creation Truth IN the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth and all things therein both visible and invisible Man he formed of the dust of the ground not corrupt and sinful as now he is but according to his own likeness or image in true holiness and perfect happiness Errours There were anciently many Errours about the Creation that now we do not hear of the Masters whereof were Simon Magus Cerinthus Marcion Manicheus and divers others At this day first the old Anthropians or Anthropomorphites are new risen they conceived grosly because it is said man was made after the likeness of God that therefore God had a body in shape like mans body Epiphanius imputes it to their rudeness sparing to call them Haereticks but rather Schismaticks So the Messalian Haereticks of old thought that God might be seen with bodily eyes mistaking that saying of our Saviour Mat. 5. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God This Errour is maintained at this day by those that affirm that Adam was created after the likeness of God in personal shape and that God hath a personal shape the which he can make visible when he please Ofiander taught that man was made like unto God by influence of the divine substance an Errour borrowed of the Manichees and Priscillianists For M●●●s taught that the body of man was made of the substance of the Prince of darkness but his foul was part of the Divine substance From the same stock sprang that doctrine of one E. Avery who published in print Anno 1647. That the reasonable soul in all mankind is God himself With these rank the Familists who say That Adam was all that God was and God all that Adam was The Papists also have their Errours concerning the Image of God in Adam original righteousness the place of Paradise tree of life c. Antidote Man was made after that the heaven and earth were finisht as a creature partaking of both in his soul heavenly in his body earthly a little model of the whole Creation And it is said he was created after the likeness or Image of God not that the body of man is like God in shape and proportion for God is a Spirit and hath no body or bodily members no visible form or lineament and therefore is called the invisible God Col. 1.15 But man is like God 1. In the grace majesty and comeliness of his body excelling the other creatures and after a sort resembling the Divine Majesty 2. In his soul Because 1. It is immortal like God 2. It is endued with understanding and will like God and adorned with Divine graces as wisdom knowledg righteousness and true holiness and that these are the more special and principal parts of the Image of God in man appears Ephes 4.23 Col. 3.10.3 Man is like God in his dominion over the other creatures given him in his first Creation Gen. 1.28 being in that regard a petty God to other creatures as Magistrates are to other men Psal 82.6 Lastly The very name of Image doth clearly evince that the soul of man is not God himself nor any part of the Divine substance because nothing is the Image of it self or can be said like it self And the souls of wicked men shall perish for ever in hell Mat. 10.28 And therefore the soul of man is no part of the Divine substance but an immortal nature created of nothing by the power of God and breathed into the body CHAP. IV. Of Divine Providence GOD having made the world of nothing did not leave it to it self Truth but doth stil by his Almighty power and wisdom sustain and govern the same preserving all things that are and disposing all things that are done freely and according to his own good pleasure so that nothing is or comes to pass rashly or by chance but according to the counsel of his heavenly will Errours Adversaries to this truth are 1. Atheists and Epicures that deny all Providence holding That all things were created and are dayly acted by chance and fortune 2. Stoicks and Stoical Patrons of fate and destiny that have devised a certain chain

we have in Christ carnally thinking that now we are freed from all care of good works and may follow what course we please Antidote That we ought to follow good works for the Reasons before named is evident by those places of Scripture Ephes 2.10 We are created unto good works that God hath prepared for us that we should walk in them Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might purifie unto himself a people zealous of good works 2 Cor. 5.10 Rev. 20.12 We shall be judged at the last day according to our works therefore look to your works So 1 Pet. 2.12 2 Pet. 1.10 2 Cor. 13.5 Heb. 10.24 2 Cor. 9.2.3 And our best works have not that worthiness in them to deserve at Gods hand 1. Because they are imperfect Isai 64.6 They are a debt that we owe unto God Luke 17.10 When you have done all you can or are commanded to do say you are unprofitable servants for we do but our duty we must do them to serve not deserve 3. If they were perfect yet they are Gods not ours Phil. 2.13 He worketh in us both the will and the deed Joh. 15. Without me ye can do nothing 4. If we ascribe merit to our works we make the death and merits of Christ either unnecessary or insufficient Object But eternal life is called a reward Rom. 2.6 Rev. 20.12 et 22.12 Sol. There is a reward of debt and a reward of grace it is the Apostles own distinction Rom. 4.4 Heaven and eternal life is a reward of grace not of debt God hath made himself a debter to us not by receiving any thing from us but by promising all things to us August in Psalm 132.2 It is said we shall be rewarded not for but according to our works the merit of works is plainly set aside and when God doth crown our works he doth but crown his own gifts August Enarr in Psalm 102.3 The Apostle calls the reward of sin wages because it is of due debt but eternal life he calls a gift because it is not of debt but grace Rom. 6.23 4. The Kingdom of Heaven is called not the wages of servants but the inheritance of Saints or those whom God hath chosen for his children 5. The good man of the house i. Christ Mat. 20. payed at night all his labourers equal wages to shew that they received a gift of grace not a reward of works CHAP. XVII Of Death and Burial Truth THere is no man living that shal not see death for our life is but a race that will come to an end and when we have finisht our course here our body shall turn to dust in the earth and our soul return to God that gave it Errours Enemies to this truth were 1. The old Hereticks called Nazarens affirming That the soul of man and the soul of a beast were both of a like nature and substance from whence sprang up those Hereticks in Arabia the stony called therefore Arabici who affirmed That the soul of man dyes with the body even as the soul of a bruit beast doth 2. Others affirmed That the soul did not dye but sleep in the grave untill the day of Judgment Both these Errours are revived at this day by those that affirm The whole man is mortal And books are written of the mortality of the soul Pope John the 23. was of this opinion That the soul should not see God till the day of Judgment 3. Familists say They ought not to bury the dead because it is said let the dead bury the dead 4. And those are greatly to be blamed that despise Christian buriall and though not guilty of Heresie yet of inhumanity that expose their dead friends undecently or irreverently 5. The Papists account burial of the dead a meritorious work borrowing their authority from the book of Tobit The Reason why the Arabians were so easily taken with this Errour of the souls mortality was because they were Antidote and are at this day a very lewd dissolute and theevish people and this doctrine doth fit such peoples turn very well and the same may be the Reason it is received by many at this day happy were it for them if the soul dye or if it but sleep till the day of Judgment it cannot but be a little refreshing to the thoughts of wicked men that seeing their life so uncertain yet they shall not go presently into torment But Eccles 3.19 20. is to be understood of the state of the body after death for of the soul it is said v. 21. That the soul of man goes upward and the soul of a beast goes downward towards the earth Eccl. 12.7 The dust shall return to the earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Luk. 23.43 This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise That answer of our Saviour to the Sadducees Mat 22.32 puts the Adversary to silence for God is not the God of the dead but of the living Lastly The exceeding joys and hopes of good men and the fears and terrours of wicked men at their departures are sufficient Arguments that the soul sleeps not but goes presently to a place of joy or sorrow whereof the soul hath some secret inklings instinct or divine assurance and whereunto those hopes and fears seem to invite or usher it Secondly After the departure of the soul the body ought to be carryed to the grave and layed up in decent burial if not out of any regard to the party deceased yet out of reverence to the common nature of mankind or of pure shame of that frailty weakness and deformity that our selves are subject to The holy Patriarks and all Gods people of old were very careful of their Sepulchers or burying places as you may read and the Jews used many Ceremonies of comliness at their burials not out of any superstition but in a godly consideration of the Resurrection in the hope whereof those Ceremonies did seem to confirm them and as that doctrine grew clearer so these Ceremonies grew fewer as Tabitha her body was only washed Acts 9.37 And therefore we condemn those numerous superstitious and impious Ceremonies used by the Papists at their burials but yet still we should consider that the dead bodies of our godly and Christian friends are precious things and were the Members of Christ Temples of the Holy Ghost and shall at the last day be raised again and made like unto Christs glorious body in hope whereof in mean space we should lay them up with decency and reverence It is no matter to the dead but 1. It is an honor done to the common nature of mankind 2. A comfort to surviving friends 3. Many ways useful to all that are present CHAP. XVIII Of the Resurrection Truth ALthough our bodies when we are dead shall be turned to dust and ashes yet at the last day they shall be raised again

and be united to our souls and both together be taken into everlasting joy or depart into everlasting sorrow Errours The first adversaries that we read of were the Sadduces who denyed the Resurrection but were put to silence by our Saviour Mat. 21. afterwards Hymeneus and Philetus whose words eate like a canker 2 Tim. 2.17 Then Simon Magus Menander and their followers At this day the Familists and other fanaticks will understand no resurrection but a rising from sin or that the resurrection spoken of at the last day is not to be understood literally of the body naturall but mystically of a certain spirituall body that all the Saints shall be gathered into and that the body of flesh shall be annihilated and for ever brought to nothing 3. The Manichees imagined a certain Pythagorean transmigration of souls out of one body into another and 4. The Anabaptists imagine we shall rise again but with other new bodies not the same that now we have But 1 Cor. 15.19 30 32. Antidote If in this life onely we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable why stand we in jeopardie every houre If the dead rise not let us eate and drink for to morrow we shal dye but be not deceived for Joh. 5.28 The hour shal come that all that be in the grave shal hear his voyce 1 Cor. 15.52 For the trumpet shall sound and the dead shal be raised Revel 20.13 The Sea shal deliver up the dead that are in it death and the grave shal deliver up the dead that are in them 2 Cor. 5.10 For we must al appear before the tribunal of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body Job 19.26 Though after my skin wormes consume this bodie yet shal I see God in my flesh whom I my self shal see and mine eyes shal behold and none others for me CHAP. XIX Of Glorification in Heaven Truth ANd whom he Justified them he also glorified after the resurrection and the last Judgement is past the Saints or chosen of God shal go with Christ in triumph into heaven and there reign with him for ever Errours Cerinthus of old taught which he said he received by Revelation from Angels That Christ should reign after the resurrection 1000 yeares upon earth where the Saints should enjoy all pleasures of the flesh This doctrine that false Prophet Mahomet embraced and put in his Alchoran and is greedily embraced not onely of his followers but also of the Anabaptists and other among us who expect such a temporary kingdome wherein the godly shal reign alone and inherit the earth after that the wicked be all destroyed The Familists say The joyes of heaven are here in this world c. But 1 Thess 4.17 Antidote The Lord shal descend from heaven to what place to the earth no but then we that are alive shal be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the ayre and so shal we ever be with the Lord. 2 Cor. 5.1 When this earthly Tabernacle is dissolved i. when we dye our next building or habitation to dwell in is eternal in the heavens 1 Pet. 1.4 The inheritance of the Saints is reserved in heaven for them where 2 Tim. 4.8 a Crown is laid up for them and 2 Cor. 2.9 things prepared for them that the heart of man cannot conceive But Phil. 3.20 their vile body shal be made like the glorious body of Christ Dan. 12.3 They shall shine as stars for ever and ever Revel 22.5 the Saints shal raign in heaven for ever and ever as for those 2000 years Rev. 20. they are to be understood of the condition of the Saints in this present world when Satan was bound 1000 years that he could not deceive the Nations CHAP. XX. Of Hell Truth BUt the Reprobates wicked and ungod●y men after they have received their fearfull doome shal go into the everlasting torment of hell fire prepared for the devil and his Angels There be some that say there is neither Devill nor hell Errours no Devil or evill spirit but a mans own vile affections nor hel but a mans own evill conscience 2. Others say there is a hell but not till the day of Judgement 3. Others that hell tormen●s are not everlasting but that the damned and devils themselves shall be saved at last as a Sect of old called therefore Liberatores sayd or as many as in hell call for mercy say the Turks Antidote But 2 Pet. 2.4 The Angels which fel at the beginning were cast down into Hel and delivered into chains of darknesse Jude 6. Everlasting chains where 2 Thess 1.9 Their destruction shal be everlasting Mar. 9.44 Their worm never dyes their fire never is quenched Revel 20.10 Are tormented day and night for ever and ever there were devils then and a hel from the beginning into which with the Devill and his Angels the reprobates all wicked men are cast Mat. 25.41 not for a time but for ever for out of hell there is no Redemption Luc. 16.26 betwixt that and heaven there is a great gulf fixt so that th●re is no passing between Deut. 32.29 Oh that men were wise then they would understand this they would consider their latter end CHAP. XXI Of Purgatory THere is no other third or middle place between Heaven and Hell Truth whereunto the souls departed do go And therefore the doctrine of Purgatory with all its appendices as pardons prayers for the dead c. are not only fond vain and unwarrantable but heathenish also blasphemous Errours This was a device of the old Heathens was received among Christians first by Simon Magus Montanus and other leud Hereticks and is now embraced by none but the Roman Church through the covetousness and filthy lucre of their Clergy because it fils not only the Popes coffers but also the private purse of every mass Priest The place they say is next unto hell the pains of it are all one with hell fire though some mitigate the matter But King Henry the fourth of France resolved this doubt best of any The time it lasts is till the day of Judgment at utmost no longer and yet if surviving friends wil pay the Priest pray or the Pope but say the word they may be released at any time sooner It was invented for the purging of souls departed which had not fully fatisfied in this life Antidote But as there be but two sorts of men in this world so there are but two places prepared for them in the world to come and as there are but two places so there are but two ways and gates that lead unto those two places Whereof you read Mat. 7.13 14. If there were a third place certainly our Saviour who came to teach and afterwards sent his Spirit to lead us in the way of all truth would have shewed us the way to that place too But seeing the

is spiritual heavenly and divine The matter of the thing present the Apostle shews plainly 1 Cor. 10.16 But for the manner of presence we have no such evident demonstration To conclude the truth is present with the signs the Holy Spirit with the Sacrament feeding our souls with the truth of Christs body and blood but the invisible working of that Divine Spirit herein is unsearchable the natural man cannot perceive it because it is spiritual Let us firmly beleeve then what we cannot conceive and rest assured in this truth that we receive in the Sacrament the very body and blood of Christ by Faith though we cannot conceive it by sense or reason CHAP. XXVII Of Reformation Truth THere is no particular Church on earth and never was so priviledged but that it may and many have faln into dangerous Errours both of life and doctrine as the examples of all both former and latter times have witnessed so that there is no Church consisting of men that may err but may need Reformation even as a material building doth need often reparation And for as much as many horrible abuses and superstitions were lately brought through the deceitfulness of some into the Church of England to the great dishonor of Almighty God the decay of piety and imminent ruine of the true Protestant Religion therefore this present Reformation was extreamly necessary and is no Innovation but a Restauration only of our Church to its ancient purity of doctrine discipline and divine worship as it was established by the noble Princes K. Edward 6. and Q. Elizabeth of famous memories Although this truth be as clear as the light Errours as shall immediately be made appear and that this present Reformation hath cast out many gross abuses that contrary to the determinations of our Church have been lately put upon us yet there are divers adversaries that either out of malice or ignorance or both do still with all their might oppose it And so I shall reduce them all under three heads The first is of those that do it of pure malice as all lewd and dissolute persons who hate all reformation whatsoever that shal hedg up their extravagant ways and give a check or stop to their loose courses among these we may reckon some Papists and other Sectaries The second is of those that do it of meer ignorance as divers civil Protestants that think no Religion so ancient as that they were bred in and strangely mistaking Church-men for the Church take up most of their religion upon their credit The third sort do it of malice and ignorance both as divers fiery spirits that think there is no way to reform the Church unless they pull it to pieces as if there were no way to cure the head-ache but to knock a mans brains out There be also divers hypocrites that can drive on a reformation for their own ends and advantages and yet are as great enemies to the truth of it as any of the former Antidote I shall endeavor to satisfie the honest Protestant that is engaged against the reformation for want of better information and would soon perhaps imbrace the truth if he were not courted with so many lyes by deceivers that abound in the world The common complaint and cry is for the Religion that was in Queen Elizabeths time again And that we have not now the same Religion The Answer in brief is that we have the same Religion still not a new And that the true Protestant Religion which was then profest is now not altered but settled being restored to its pristine purity and purged from many abuses wherewith it was but lately corrupted As First Many Popish and Arminian tenents were taught and publickly maintained that are contrary to the doctrine of our Church at first established as will appear by comparing them with the 39. Articles and the book of Homilies the nine Articles of Lambeth and other learned writings of our former Bishops Secondly Many Crucifixes Images or Idols were set up in our most eminent Churches and most eminent places of them and that partly by connivence partly by command of men at that time of most eminent place and note whereby Superstition was nourished and Idolatry committed But now these Images are contrary 1. To the Word of God expresly forbidding them 2. To the judgment of the ancient Christians Fathers and Councels with great zeal condemning them And 3. of our own Church of England as in the book of Homilies and 39. Articles may be seen Thirdly The Communion Table was altered both in name and place from a Table to an Altar from the body of the Church to the head or upper end of the Chancel contrary to express order s●t down in the book of Common Prayer before the communion where it is said that the Table shall stand in the body of the Church or in the Chancel and the Priest shall stand at the north side which he cannot do if he stand close up to the wall And if it might be placed according to the discretion of the ordinary yet he must have more discretion then ordinary that will make the end of a table the side as one endeavored to do but that his Geometry failed him Fourthly The Bowing used to the Communion Table was a matter of worse consequence then was commonly imagined It is the attendant on Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation It serves to nourish those Errours still in mens minds ushers in many other Popish superstitions and is the occasion of gross Idolatry Fifthly The rails wainscot and traverse courtains before the Table as if it were the Sanctum sanctorum of the Jews or a Chappel intended for private Mass or as if none were holy enough to approach neer it but the Priest also the Tapers Copes Vestments and many other things lately used though they seemed but small matters to some yet they were not the less dangerous for being little for like little thieves they crept in at our Church windows to open doors to the great ones and if these had continued by this time they would have brought in the whole Mass of Popish Idolatry and those that plead for them are but the devils pimps that seduce the people and under the name of things indifferent would lead them a whoring after Idolls Hereunto we may add that horrible abuse of Excommunication the highest censure of the Church that in the Courts Christian was made a messenger to fetch in fees and men were cast out of the Church for not comming into the Court to say no more Lastly They err as much on the other hand and are to be condemned that scornfully or basely abuse the Church and places set apart for the use of Gods Ordinances which is seldom done but in open or secret contempt of the ordinances themselves Let them among other examples remember that of Julian unckle to the Apostate who in contempt pissed against the Communion Table his bowels rotting out he voyded