for my fiery zeal that wears no mask the Apostle says Gal. 4. 18. It is good to be zealous in a good matter and as good to be zealous against a bad one And is not the spirit of God resembled to fire Which where it appears in truth it will burn off all masks of Hypocrisy and make men walk in all simplicity of Conversation before God and before men But why is my disputing open railing If I speak any thing false witness of the falâ—hood But if the corruptions of your Church be such that they cannot be named by their proper Names such as all solid Theologâ— Philosophy and ordinary humane Laws would call them in calling them so am I a Rayler or you very great and enormous sinners I speak of those two grand crimes Idolatry and Murder which are interwoven into your Religion And whetâ—er my Arguments be blustering words or solid Reason let any indifferent Reader judge by what has passed â—itherto in your pretended Confuration of this Antidote against Idolatry and in my â—o clearly proving my Reasonings therein to remain sound and unshaken for all the Battery you could lay against them And whereas you add not always too much concerned whether true or false it is such an equivocating Imputation that look one way on it it says less than is true For I confess I am never too much concerned whether I speak true or false especially considering of what moment the things are I write of But if you mean I am not always enough concerned whether what I affirm be true or false The tree is known by its fruits â—â—ow me where I have trip't or if I have any where trip't prove that it was out of carelesne's whether it was true or false which I uttered And this I think he pretends he will show in this Dehortation of mine For immediately he adds Witness the Contents of this Chapter whereof I shall give my Reader a brief Extract drawn up in the Form of an Homily yet in the Doctors own words and charitable Dialect Thus then begins the Dissuasive Repl. This is a Dissuasive of my Adversaries own making whom though I acknowledge a man of Wit and Eloquence yet I will not trust him in making speeches for me and seâ—ing his Dissuasive is pretended but an Epitome of mine and mine being already under the eye of the Reader I hold it altogether impertinent to set down his especially he putting his for mine and calling it so adding at the end of it This is Mellifluous Dr. Mores sweet harangue c. The truth is he has made as dry and lank an Homily as he could and heaped up those Titles their Church is adorned with in the Apocalypse barely and nakedly without the Occasions and circumstances I bring them in upon to make himself and his party merry and to make my serious Exhortation to deceivable People that they take heed of the frauds and danger of that Church to look ridiculously But this is one Artifice of theirs amongst the rest when the weight of Reason and Religion presses on them to any purpose to slip from under it by some ludicrous jest or profane raillery Wherefore letting this drollery pass let us observe what in good earnest he would weaken my Exhorration by or where is that place in it where he will make good that Imputation against me that I am not enough concerned whether what I say be true or false Now I would gladly know says he what there is in all this discourse which an ingenuous Son of the Church of England will not be heartily ashamed of and even blush for the Doctors sake Repl. Why did you then make such a silly Oration in my name that all the ingenuous Church-men in England should be ashamed of it as well they might if I had made such a jejune lank piece of stuff as your officiousness has made for me But for mine I dare say there is no ingenuous Son of the Church of England unless â—ou measure the Iâ—genuity and Disingenuity of men by their affection and disaâ—fection to the errors of your Chuoch as you seem to do in Dr. Taylor much less any genuine Sons of our Church but will approve of the firmness reasonableness and seasonableness of such an Exhortation Here is I confâ—ss quoth he stout railing Disingenuity more than is necessary for a Doctor c. Repl. Here the Reader may be pleased to take notice of the special sense of Disingenuity with my Antagonist namely that it is the plainly speaking such Truths as argue the gross errors and perillous Enormities â—f the Church of Rome Whenas it is ten thousand times more disingenuous according to the law of God and Nature to smother Truth to the great and real injury of both the Church of Rome and our own And then for my stout Railing which else where he calls that â—nmanly Rhetoâ—ick of Railing let us put them together The stout unmanly Rhetorick of Railing I demand If it be either ferine or womanish with a plain open Constancy to declare those Truths that are of such vast Concern and of so perspicuous a clearness to those that do not wilfully wink against them Or if the propriety of language and to declare according to the nature and true Notion of things and that without all ill will be any form of Rayling Unless Adam in the state of Innocency railed when he gave names according to the natures of the Creatures And this great Clamour against me of Railing is because I call Idolatry Idolatry and the killing of men because they will not commit Idolatry with the Church of Rome barbarous murder But if he mean because I call the Church of Rome by those Titles the Spirit of God calls her in the Apocalypse my Apology is already made in the twenty fourth Paragraph of this 10th Chapter Which I desire my Antagonist and every one it may concern in the fear of God toâ— peruse and to consider the latter part of it touching those eight last Chapters of the first book of my Synopsis Prophetica and my Exposition of the seven Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia In both which Expositions I challenge any diligent searcher to show any considerable flaw that will lessen the certitude of them for the main or if they think there is the least faultering in this proposal let them show any flaw at all if they can For as for my self though I have been an anxious searcher after Truth I was never yet satisfied concerning any more palpably than of these I speak of Which God knows I do not speak in the way of Boasting but merely to excite the ingenuous to try the strength and evidence I find them that they may thereby after a manner whether they will or no feel it also themselves and find it Nor do I use those Names of Infamy wherewith the Spirit of God has branded the Pontifician Clergy nakedly and without occasion as my Antagonist has
communicable to the Humanity of Christ then that the Divinity is communicated thereto In such sense then as the Divinity is communicated to the Humanity which are one by hypostatical Union may Divine Worship also be communicated to it namely as an acknowledgment that the Divinity with all its adorable Attributes is hypostatically vitally and transplendently residing in this Humanity of Christ. Which is a kind of Divine Worship of Christ's Humanity and peculiar to him alone and due to him I mean to his Humanity though it be not God essentially but onely hypostatically united with him that is and does as naturally partake of Religious or Divine Worship in our Addresses to the Divinity as the body of an eminently-vertuous holy and wise man does of that great Reverence and civil Honour done to him for those Excellencies that are more immediately lodged in his Soul Which Honour indistinctly passes upon the whole man And as the very bodily Presence of this vertuous person receives the civil Honour so in an easie Analogy doth the Humanity of Christ receive the Divine bâ—â— both as partial Objects of what they do receive and with signification of the state of the whole case viz. that they are united the one with the Divinity the other with so vertuous a Soul Hence they both become due Objects of that entire external Worship done towards them to the one civil to the other Divine And therefore in the second place it is plain that there is not one and the same due Object capable of Religious Worship in either Supposition as well in that which supposes the Bread transubstantiated as in that which supposes it not transubstantiated For in the former it is the true and living corporeal Presence of Christ whose whole Suppositum is as has been declared capable of Divine Honour but in the latter there is onely at the most but his symbolical Presence whose Adoration is Idolatry by the nineteenth twentieth and twenty-first Conclusions And lastly The pretending that though the Bread be not transubstantiated yet the Divinity of Christ is there and so we do not miss of the due Object of our Worship this is so laxe an Excuse that it will plead for the warrantableness of the Laplanders worshipping their Red cloth or the Americans the Devil let them but pretend they worship God in them For God is also in that Red cloth and in the Devil in that Notion that he is said to be every-where Nay there is not any Object in which the ancient Pagans were mistaken in taking the Divine Attributes to be lodged there whether Sun Heaven or any other Creature but by this Sophistry the worshipping thereof may be excused from Idolatry For the Divine Attributes as God himself are every-where To direct our Adoration toward a supernatural and unimitable Transplendency of the Divine Presence or to any visible corporeal nature that is hypostatically united with the Divinity most assuredly is not that sunk and sottish that dull and dotardly sin of Idolatry For as touching this latter to what-ever the Divinity is hypostatically united or to avoid all cavil about terms so specially and mysteriously communicated as it is to Christ the Right of Divine Worship is proportionably communicated therewith as I have already intimated And as for the former That through which the Divine Transplendency appears is no more the Object of our Adoration than the diaphanous Air is through which the visible Humanity of Christ appears when he is worshipped But the Eucharistick Bread being neither hypostatically united with the Divinity nor being the Medium through which any such supernatural Transplendency of the Divine Presence appears to us Adoration directed toward it cannot fail of being palpable Idolatry For the Eucharistick Bread will receive this Adoration as the Object thereof by Conclusion the nineteenth and twentieth But the Adoration or any Divine Worship of an Object in which the Divine Attributes do not personally reside in such a sense as is intimated in those words of St. Iohn Ioh. 1. 14. And the word was made flesh but onely locally as I may so speak this according to sound Reason and the sense of the Christian Church must be downright Idolatry CHAP. II. His Answer to the first second and third Conclusions His first second and third Conclusions saith he quite digress from the charge in hand shewing what a grievous sin Idolatry is which is much more largely and Learnedly declared by our own Authors and readily granted by them with this further allowance that if he can fix the crime upon us with any shew of reason we shall acknowledge our guilt to be of a double dye The Reply THese three first Conclusions do not digress from the charge in hand For as much as they tend to the better understanding of the nature of the charge As for the first it is plainly referred to in the sixth Conclusion And the second and third yield their due Illustration to the fourth which is framed by way of an Axioma discretum That though Idolatry be a sin of that hainousness and provoke Gods wrath and Jealousie so yet it does necessarily involve in it ignorance or mistake c. Which does seasonably prevent all vain excuses and subterfuges all unskilfull extenuations of so deadly a crime Which I wish I could free the Church of Rome from When as of the contrary out of my love to the Truth and the Church of Christ I am necessitated to prove her guilty thereof not by shews of Reason but by solid and irrefragable Demonstration Which I pray God open their Eyes to see that they may wash away their guilt of a double dye by the tears of a timely Repentance Answer to the fourth and fifth Conclusion The fourth and fifth saith he tell us that Idolatry necessarily involves in it ignorance or mistake in the act of Worship The fifth advanceth a step higher and concludes very abruptly that because all Idolatry involves in it some ignorance or mistake therefore no Ignorance can excuse from Idolaâ—ry very learnedly The Reply Not so learnedly neither or rather not altogether so solidly as you have set down my Inference in the fifth Conclusion from what preceeded in the fourth For my own words are these in my fifth Conclusion That to be mistaken in the Object of Worship or in the kind of Worship or in the Application cannot excuse any thing from being down right Idolatry for as much as none are in good earnest Idolaters without some of these mistakes How very Learned this is is another matter but how firm and solid an Inference it is I leave any one to Judge Answer to the one and twentieth and two and twentieth Conclusion From the fourth and fifth the Doctor saith he makes a long stride to his one and twentieth Conclusion where he peremptorily concludes that because mistake does not excuse one from Idolatry by Conclusion the fourth and fifth Therefore the Adoration of any Object which we out of mistake
the next place it necessarily follows that they are the most barbarous Murtherers of the Servants of God that ever appeared on the face of the Earth For indeed if they had had Truth on their side so far as that the things they required at the hands of the Dissenters had been lawfull though not at all necessary yet considering the express voice of Scripture which must be so exceeding effectual to raise consciencious Scruples and indeed to fix a man in the contrary Opinions besides the irrefragable Votes of common Sense and Reason and the Principles of all Arts and Sciences that can pretend any usefulness to Religion in any of its Theoreticall Disquisitions I say when it is so easie from hence if not necessary for some men to be born into a contrary consciencious Persuasion it had undoubtedly even in this case been notorious Murther in the Pontifician Party to have killed men for dissenting from the Doctrine and Practice of their Church But now the Murtherers themselves being in so palpable an Error and requiring of the Dissenters to profess Blasphemies and commit gross Idolatries with them which is openly to rebell against God under pretense of obeying Holy Church as they love to be called they murthering so many hundred thousands of them for this Fidelity to their Maker and their indispensable Obedience to the Lord Iesus Christ this is Murther of a double dye and not to be parallel'd by all the barbarous Persecutions under the red Dragon the Pagan Emperours themselves 3. From which two main Considerations it follows in the third place that considering the fit and easie congruity of the names of the Seven Churches and of the Events of the seven Intervalls denoted by them to the Prefigurations in the Visions there can be no doubt but that by Balaam mentioned in the Epistle to the Church in Pergamus wherein Antipas that is the Opposers of the Pope are murthered the Papal Hierarchy is understood as it is also by the Prophetess Iezebel in the Epistle to the Church in Thyatira who was also a Murtheress of the Prophets of God and both of them exprâ—â—ly Patrons of Idolatry as is manifest in the very Text. Nor is it at all wonderfull that Balaam and Iezebel the one a man the other a woman should signifie the same thing For the false Prophet and the Whore of Babylon in the following Visions of the Apocalypse signifie both one and the same thing viz. The Hierarchy of Rome from the Pope to the rest of their Ecclesiastick Body 4. And what I have said of the Vision of those Seven Churches the same I say of all those Expositions of the thirteenth and seventeenth Chapters of the Apocalypse and that of the little Horn in Daniel namely The words of the Prophecies being so naturally applicable to the Affairs of that Church besides the demonstration of Synchronism that the weight of those two foregoing Conclusions being added thereto there cannot be the least doubt or scruple left but that those Interpretations are true and that the Church of Româ— is that Body of Antichrist that Mother of Fornications and Abominations of the Earth that is of multifarious Modes of gross Idolâ—tries or that scarlet Whore on the seven Hills that is also drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus 5. And that therefore in the fourth place in the Church of Rome the Poison exceeding the Antidote there can be no reason that Salvation should be hoped for there It is a sad and lamentable Truth but being a Truth and of such huge moment it is by no means to be concealed What God may do in his more hidden ways of Providence he alone knows And therefore we cannot say that every Idolatrous Heathen must perish eternally But to speak no farther then we have commission and according to the easy tenour of the Holy Scriptures we must pronounce though with great sadness of heart that we have no warrant therefrom to think or declare any of the Popish Religion so long as they continue so to be in the state of Salvation and especially since that voice of the Angel which sounded in the Intervall of Thyatira saying expresly Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues and the Apostle in his first Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. 6. 9. Be not deceived neither Fornicatours nor Idolaters nor Adulterers c. shall inherit the Kingdome of God And those of the Church of Rome are bound to continue Idolaters as long as they live or else to renounce their Church and therefore they are bound to be damned by adhering to the Roman Church unless they could live in it for ever For he that dies in such a capital siâ— as Idolatry without Repentnce nay in a blind obstinate perseverance in it how can he escape eternal Damnation 6. But though we had kept our selves to the Apocalypse the thing is clear in that Book alone ch 22. ver 14 15. where all Idolaters are expresly excluded from the Tree of Life Blessed are they that do his Commandments and one of them though expunged by Rome is Thou shalt not worship any graven Image that they may have right to the tree of life c. For without are dogs and Sorcerers and Whoremongers and Mortherers and Idolaters and whoso loveth and maketh a Lie All these are excluded the Heavenly Ierusalem and from eating the Tree of Life Of which who eateth not is most assuredly detain'd in eternall death As it is written in the foregoing Chapter Apoc. 21. 8. that Murtherers and Whoremongers and Sorcerers and Idolaters and all Liers shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second Death What sentence can be more express then this 7. But besides this Divine sentence against them they are also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are self condemned or at least give sentence against themselves while they so freely pronounce that no Idolaters are to be saved which they frequently do to save their own Church from the reproach of Idolatry For because some Protestants have declared for the Possibility of Salvation in the Romish Church they farther improve the favour to the quitting themselves of the guilt from others hopefull presages that by an hearty implicit Repentance of all their sins even of those that are the proper Crimes of that Church they may through God's mercy in Christ be delivered from the punishment This piece of Charity in some of our Party they turn to the fencing off all imputation of Idolatry from themselves arguing thus That no Idolaters can be saved But those in the Romish Church may be saved according to those Protestants opinion Therefore those in the Romish Church are no Idolaters But most assuredly while they thus abuse the Charity of some even by their own Proposition they must bring the sentence of condemnation from all the rest upon their
framed his frigid flaccid and insipid Dissuasive which he would father upon me but upon the Church of Romes false boasts of her self whereby to tempt ours to her Idolatries I put in their mouths what the Spirit of God says touching her in the Apocalypse and other places of Scripture Whereby is understood plainly how the Mystery of Iniquity is with them and how when they make a specious show and boast of being one thing the Spirit of God judges them the quite Contrary But further he adds That this Exhortation of mine is an ill-grounded and Schismatical Discourse Dr. Thorndike himself being Vmpire in the Case Repl. As for Dr. Thorndike I shall consider him at tâ—e close In the mean time it is apparent that my Exhortation is very well grounded it being grounded upon sound and clear Reason and the Holy Scriptures of God than which there is no â—uâ—eâ— ground in the world And certainly no genuine Sons what ever the ingenuous Sons of the Church of England may do will ever say that it is Schismatical whenas the main end of it is to keep the members of our Church â—rom making any Schism or separation from us and from betaking themselves to the Church of Rome who has separated herself from the purity of the Gospel But after this most inhumanely and injuriously he parallels this faithfull and unexceptionable Exhortation of mine made to the people to keep them from the deceits and inticements of the Church of Rome that they may not separate from the Church of England and Apostatize to her to the bitter and rebellious Trumpeters of war in the late distempered times who loudly out of the Pulper thundred into the peoples ears Curse ye Meroz yea curse ye bitterly c. And there are not wanting in this Nation says he those who can find Rome in England to make Meroz of it when they please Repl. Then they are those chiefly that are of your Emissaries gendring and fomenting But it is well known to all the world that it has been precisely and particularly my care and labour to distinguish what is truly Antichristan from what is not that the Church of England might be cleared from such Imputations and the saddle set on the right Horse As you may see Preface to my Idea of Antichristianism Sect. 8. and in the two last Chapters of Synopsis Proâ—hetica For my own part I dare say there is none that know me either personally or by my writings that will not readily acknowledge that nothing can be more removed from bitterness persecution tumult and rebellion then that Spirit that I am of No could I in those very times of rebellion and tumult forbear to testifie in publick my disgust thereof in these mean Rymes but of sound and good sense Immortality of the Soul Book 2. Cant. 3. stanz â— Can wars and jars and fierce Contention Swoln Hatred and consuming Envy spring Fâ—om Piety No 'T is Opinion That makes the riven Heavens with trumpets ring And thundring Engins mundrous balls out-sling And send mens groaning Ghosts to lower shade Of horrid Hell This the wide world doth bring To divastation makes mankind to sade Such direfull things doth false Religion pers wade But true Religion sprung from God above Is like her fountain full of charity Embraceing all things with a tender love Full of good will and meek expectancy Full of true justice and sure verity In heart and voice c. It is not our telling you plainly and apertly according to Truth and Scripture what is hainously amiss in you that can be any prejudice to our own Church but it is the excusing you and dissembling your great crimes by extenuating termes and your aggravating every little Ceremony of ours such as kneeling at the Communion and the like to make us odious to the ignorant people that makes us suspected of Romanism But this is one of your Arts amongst many others to make those that are the most hearty well-willers to the Church of England the most suspected by them But Truth and Innocency bids defiance to all your devices But in the mean time where is the charge made good of being so little concerned whether I speak true or false in this Exhortation of mine Why at last it is this That I so peremptorily aver that no Protestants allow them a possibility of Salvation but onely in case of such a Repentance as implies an absolute renunctation of their Religion and its Idolatrous doctrines and practises by disoâ—ning of and dismembring themselves from the Roman Church Which says he will scarce appear pardonable in the eyes of his fellow Doctors Repl. This is a charge founded upon the eighth Paragraph of this tenth Chapter I desire the Reader to peruse the Paragraph and compare it with his charge where after disowning and dismembring themselves from the Roman Church he omits a special â—lause which immediately follows viz. As much as it is in their power so to do Which is quite another tâ—ing from actually renouncing of their Church while they have not the opportunity of discovering her gross Errors but that their general Repentance is so hearty and unfeigned that it would descend to this particular upon the detection to them of the foul errors of that Church And this I hope will not onely be pardonable but acceptable to those eminent men of our Church Arch-bishop Laud Bishop Abbot and the rest he names out of Bishop Laud Relation Sect. 35. who examined to the bottom will appear of the same mind with my self And for that of Mr. Hooker in his Discourse of Iustification Sect. 17. where he saâ—s For my part I dare not deny possibility of their Salvation who have been the chiefest Instruments of ours Which Quotation which my Adversary so much glories in it is evident is nâ—thing at all to the purpose For as much as he speaks not here of those of the Church of Rome since the Reformation but beâ—ore when the state of the Church was the VVoman in the VVilderness as is manifest both from the sentence it self quoted and the Context But if Mr. Hookers Authority be of any weight with you do but look into the foregoing Section and he will tell you the Church of Rome hath plaid the Harlot worse then ever did Israel And now I demand for a Christian who is part of the Body of Christ to adjoâ—n himself to the Church of Rome what is it but to make a member of Christ the member of an Harlot as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 6. 15. And is that I pray the next way to the Capacity of Salvation But this by the by After this he brings in Dr. Potter and Dr. Hammond glorying much of the charitable principles of the Church of England and Objecting want of charity to them for maintaining that Protestancy unrepented destroyes Salvation Now if the Objectors should retaliate and say that Popery unrepented destroyes Salvation I would willingly be instructed saith he by Dr. More wherein
no man can maintain it by Truth And therefore to bring a true Argument against us in defense of it would be to bring an impertinent one For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truth always agrees with never clashes with Truth as Aristotle has noted And therefore it is not to be imputed to the weakness of my Antagonist but of his Cause that with undeniable evidence I have perpetually confuted his Answers though I believe he has brought as good as the Cause is capable of and managed them and intermingled them with such circumstantial Rhetorical humours slights and tricks to make something of nothing and to make a show of Answering and confuting me that I must freely confess he is a complete Artist in that Roman Sophistry whereby they become cunning Anglers for poor deceivable Souls And thus much in short upon his Title-page and Advertisement We come now to his Introduction which I shall cast into so many Paragraphs and so Answer them in order Paragraph the first Dr. Henry More is a Person whose Learning and Parts have brought him into a name among the Professors of the refined Arts and Sciences Fame speaks him a great Philosopher And his Publick works are said to avouch no less Nay some have passed so far in favour of his Character as to term him The great Restorer of the Platonick Cabbala And truly if this be so I conceive the Gentleman had done himself a great deal of right if he had still kept to his own Element for as much as his late unlucky ingaging in Controversial Disputes cannot but prove a blot to his former undertakings For the Learned world must needs acknowledge that Dr. More the Controvertist is much degenerated from Dr. More the Philosopher The Answer Here observe the art and smooth cunning of my Adversary who drives at these two things First to make show of a great deal of equity and candor of judgment in acknowledging notwithstanding the Controversie betwixt us that I am not altogether nothing in matters of Philosophy but have writ with some success and acceptance on such Subjects that he thus seeming so impartial and indifferent a man and so readily acknowledging any thing well done by me he may the more easily be believed where he gives judgment against me and says That though I be something succesfull indeed in Philosophy yet I am very unlucky and unskilfull in Theological Disputes a tolerable Philosopher but a very mean Controvertist in points of Divinity The other drift is to make me if it were possible to melt and relent that I have thus lessened my credit in the world by my unfortunately ingageing in Controversies betwixt us and the Church of Rome as if he bemoaned my misfortune therein who if I had kept to my own Element of Philosophy might have been gratious and acceptable with all the world with the Pontifician party as well as vvith the reformed and kept up my Credit in force with all when as now I have hugely impaired my repute at least with those of his Party But to the first I Answer That though this Intimation of his own Impartiality be craftily enough managed yet that general acknowledged Testimony of my suffering in Philosophy is a witness against himself For if I have been so usefull and succesfull in my Philosophical demonstrations of the existence of God and Immaterial Beings in the vindication of Divine Providence in the proving of the Immortality of the Soul and in finding the ancient Iudaical Cabbala which the Platonick Philosophy is so near akin to so artificially couched in the Text of Moses and the like all which tend to the honour and safety of the Christian Religion the same clearness of sight which helps me to discern and judge of these things cannot but inable me to judge also in those concerning points that are betwixt you and us As that eye that can see one colour right is not confined to that colour but by the same faculty and soundness of sight can see another And it is more my impartialness and unprejudicedness than any thing else that makes me see so clearly and so truely in any thing As to the second my Adversary has suggested no more nor so much as I have diverse times reflected upon my self and was well aware of before I meddled with these kind of Controversies namely that it would lessen my repute and favour with many But if I seek to please men how shall I be the servant of Iesus Christ as the Apostle speaks Gal. 1. 10. And as for the business of Repute and Esteem in the world I thank God I am convinced even from my very Heart and Soul that I ought to be utterly dead to all Self-joy and Self-gloriation and therefore if any thing happen cross to that life that ought to be mortified in me if it moves me not I am at peace if it does it is yet the gift of God to me and I am admonished thereby to advance furthâ—r into that death by the power and Spirit of Christ that will at length lay asleep all such disturbances in my Soul for ever And there are greater matters than the esteem of men which I am not insensible but have always been well aware that I run the hazard of and such as that wisdom which is according to the Spirit of this world sets the greatest esteem of all upon But this I thank God could never affright me into the neglect of so undispensable a duty as the declaring so important truth so exceeding clear to my self and of so unspeakable consequence for the Church of God and for the settling of a true grounded peace in the Christian world That there might be truely one flock and one Sheepfold and Jesus Christ the true Shepherd over all which cannot be till such Barbarous and Idolatrous Laws and Instituâ—es be reversed as obtain still in the Papacy But for my part my great Fort and Shelter against all the Inconveniences I expose my self to by my just liberty of speech is to keep as near as I can in that frame of spirit which our Saviour commends to us in that Precept of his Matth. 5. 44. Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despightfully use you and persecute you Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luk. 23. 34. This is the Sanctuary I desire to take shelter in even in that ineffably profound and humble Spirit of unself-interessed Love which I infinitely prefer before all the keenness of wit and crafty prudence of the Spirit of this world that so subtily shifts for it self which I envy no mans use or injoyment of may but my Soul sufficiently incorporate with this lovely Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ may that be the lot of mine inheritanec both in this life and for ever For this is that which is truely invincible indeed and will easily put by any such thrust as my
from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implies Religious Worship is the calling of them by an higher Title than if they should call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So little mincing is there in the application of Saints from that of Gods signifying in the same latitude that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Sâ—ints as it signifies onely Pious or Holy there sounds nothing amiss in it Answer to the fifth Conclusion All the Answer saith he That truth can allow to this fifth Conclusion is Nego suppositum For the Doctor here supposeth that he hath given us a true and adequate division of the Pagan Idolatry in the precedent Conclusion according to Divine declaration and the common consent of Christendom whereas I have shewed his Hypothesis to be false and laid open his foul and gross mistakes 't is a favour to call them so which indeed are such as might invite a modest man to wipe his pen and lay it aside till he had taught it a more awful regard to Ingenuity and Truth This is his whole Answer Verbatim The Reply Upon which truely I have much ado to forbear from more than smiling to observe the art of my Adversary in making the greatest noise and boast where there is least of all at the bottom he speaking such a perfect nothing with so great a grace If he has shewed any Hypothesis to be false it must be an Hypothesis of his own making For I did not nor do suppose my fourth Conclusion to be an adequate enumeration of all the Idolatries of the Pagans but onely as many as I have enumerated to be real Paganical Idolatries which my Adversary himself cannot deny And I intended no more than thus nor is any more than thus serviceable to my design For I shall not refer to that Conclusion for any more modes of Idolatry than are mentioned there Nor does this fifth Conclusion pronounce of any more than are there mentioned So that this Conclusion is as firme as a Rock of Marble Let any man therefore consider his long flourish at the end of this Answer and he will observe what an excellent Artist my Adversary is in making a show of saying something when the matter do's not afford any thing to be said But such sleights serve to keep the people in their bondage of Errour And yet he wipes his mouth who ever should wipe their pen and presumes he has done nothing amiss it being in so Pious a Cause and for the interest of his Church For I must confess I think it impossible but himself should here clearly discern that he says nothing at all to the purpose Answer to the sixth Conclusion This sixth Conclusion says he looks back upon the fifth and calls to it for help but till the fifth has learned to stand upon its own legs it is not in a condition to lend any proof or support to its neighbours This to the sixth Conclusion as demonstrated from the fifth But my Adversary is very pleasant upon the Confirmation annexed thereto of which I shall give a tast in my Reply The Reply I appeal to the Reader If the fifth doth not stand very fast and unmoveable for any thing my Adversary hath brought against it or indeed can be brought against it To make a show of undermining it he seigned a false Hypothesis of his own which he would have fastened upon me as if I had need of it when as I have most manifestly proved to the contrary So that this sixth Conclusion also is as firme as need be desired But he assaults the further Confirmation of it which I added ex abundanti with a pleasant freak fetched out of Eusebius his mentioning of thirty Thousand Deities of the Heathens reckoned by Hesiod which he brings in a Maurice dance against my Confirmation to make it Ridiculous nay many more Gods of wood and stone noted by Eusebius himself he like a second Amphion makes to dance after his pipe but all his Musick is spoiled by my freely acknowledging that by â—ome inferiour helpfull Being I understand such a Being as he may if he will call an inferiour Deity and is so in as good a sense as any can be upon the suppoâ—al I mean namely that Religious Worship is given to it So that the uncertainty of the sense of that phrase shall be no matter for his Antick Sophistry or Distorted Raillery But in the mean time this numerous rabble of inferiour Deities he has conjured up I shall make discharge their force against himself illustrating the strength of my Confirmation from hence viz. That if the giving Religious Worship to what is not the supreme God though not as to him but as to some inferiour helpfull Being which they judge worthy of Religious Worship and so make an inferiour Deity of it be not Idolatry the Pagans who as my Adversary affirms out of Eusebius worshipped thirty Thousand such like Deities and more were seldom or never to be found Idolaters which I think is absurdity enough So little has my Adversary got by attempting to raise a disjunctive Quibble out of that ancient Father of the Church Eâ—sebius to blind the eyes of the Populacy Answer to the seventh Conclusion In Answer to this seventh Conclusion he first Proposes some things as Preparatory thereto Afterwards he brings in the Answer it self The Preparatories are these I. That Catholicks usually distinguish two parts of Worship The first Latria which is the highest Religious Worship possible due to God alone the Creatour of all Things and that Examples of this kind of worship are Sacrifices and the erecting of Temples and Altars II. That neither Sacrifice it self nor dedication of Temples and Altars excludes a secondary Remembrance or Titular honour of Saints III. That there are other Acts of an inferiour respect which without any offence to the Catholick Divinity we may chuse whether we will call Religious worship or no as burning Incense lighting up Candles and bowing our bodies to the Saints and their Images These Acts he calls indifferent and variously determinable according to our intention to either a Divine or Civil VVorship As was Abrahams incurvation of his body to God Gen. 17. to Angels Gen. 18. to Men Gen. 23. This is the sum of the force and strength of his Preparatories The main strength of his Answer it self is contained in these few things namely That all my Instances of Idolatry in this seventh Conclusion are not true Instances of Idolatry but that I do as unskilfully as if a Lawyer should define murther to be the wilfull taking away a mans life without cause or cuâ—ting a limb or drawing of blood So saith he sacrificing to an Image and bowing to an Image sutes not well together as if they were both Acts of Idolatry any more than all those are of Murther His great exception therefore against this seventh Conclusion is that I make bowing to an Image Idolatry
when it is so in its own nature and we thereby Idolaters Now is it in our Power to make this middle Worship of Saints expressed by consecrated Images and bowing to them to be a Civil Worship For the Almighty Law-giver is afore hand with us in this who has forbidden us to have any other Gods besides himself And in the second Commandment as he has forbidden that himself should be worshipped by any graven Image Deut. 4. v. 12. 13 14 15 16 17 so by vertue of the first Commandment he has also forbid us to erect or consecrate or any ways to make any Image to any one else and to bow to it in honour of the Person it is made to it being the known and usual way of making a false Deity a false or inâ—eriour Deity being nothing else but some Creature for there cannot be possibly any more than one real God that by erecting an Image â—o it and by bowing to this Image or any otherwise worshipping it or honouring it in reference to tâ—at Creature as by burning Incense before it and making Invocations looking up to it is made a God VVhich therefore is forbid by this first and second Commandment as a Religious that is to say as a wickedly Religious or Idolatrous VVorship whether to God or to any thing else but is not in any wise a Civil VVorship it being thus branded by God for an Idolatrous one and declared to be a Mode of Religious VVorship though a bad one as I have noted in this Conclusion Nor is there any legitimate Religious VVorship but what is truly Divine and is done to God himself VVhat ever comes after this it is but several degrees of Civil VVorship whether to Men or to Angels namely when they are visible to us But to VVorship an Angel no way sensible nor visible to us is an act of Idolatry as is else where proved In the mean time we sufficiently see how weak all the attempts of my Adversary are against this seventh Conclusion Answer to the eighth Conclusion This Conclusion for its proof appeals to the Testimony of four false witnesses to wit the third fourth fifth and sixth Conclusions and as such I justly except against them This is his whole Answer to the eighth The Reply But now I desire the Reader to examine those four witnesses as he calls them and consider how clear and unexceptionable a witnses they give And to perpend my Reply to his Objections against them that he may see what exceeding firm and evident Truths they witness too and such as no man of ordinary wit and Conscience if he impartially consider them can possibly deny And to note also that from my Adversaries own Concession if those four Conclusions be true this Conclusion must be true also But that there may be no room left for further Cavilling I will according to my Promise in my Reply to his Objections against my fourth Conclusion answer to his exceptions there preposterously made against a special Clause annexed to this eighth viz. That the Pagans Daemons exquisitely answer to the Christians Saints and Angels in this point saving that this Spiritual Fornication is a rape upon our Saints and Angels but single Fornication in the Heathen with their impure Daemons Touching this particular Clause says my Adversary pag. 12 Of all the Doctors Conclusions there is none more intrinsick and Fundamental to the Subject now under debate nor any that ought to speak more or doth speak less to the point than this For it is most fondly Erroneous and most disingenuously obâ—ruded upon the easy credulity of the Vulgar that the Pagans Daemons exquisitely answer to the Christians Saints and Angels So he But this is onely to make a noise ad populum For what I affirm is most apparently true viz. That the Pagans Daemons exquisitely answer to the Christians Saints and Angels in this point here mentioned in having the like Idolatrâ—us Worship done to them For my Conclusion says in this Point which he craftily and according to his custom leaves out but the Point is easily proved For had the Daemons of the Pagans Temples Consecrated to them So have the Saints Had they Altars built to them So have the Saints Had they Images erected to them So have the Saints Did they burn Incense to the Daemons So they do to the Saints Were the Daemons invoked before their Images So are the Saints Did they make Vows to the Daemons So they do to the Saints And is not this similitude exact enough for my purpose who intimate onely that those things are done to Saints that were done to the Pagans Daemons and that therefore those four Conclusions are rightly alledged to prove the eighth But whereas my Adversary makes a noise as if this Clause were the most Intrinsick and Fundamental to the whole business it is so little essential to the matter that if I had not mentioned it my Cause had been alike strong without it and my Reader by casting his eye on this Conclusion and the Conclusions here cited might have observed as much as I have said of himself so obvious is the Truth thereof But taking this Clause absolutely as my Antagonist has quoted it there might abundance more similitudes betwixt the Pagans Daemons and the Pontifician Saints be enumerated out of the 17. Chap. of the first book of my Synopsis Prophetica which for brevity sake I omit The greatest Objection my Adversary brings against this Assertion is That the Saints are not called Gods as the Daemons of the Pagans were Can any sober Divinity says he brook it pag. 15. that the Pagans Daemons should be said exquisitely to answer to our Saints and Angels Do we Worship Saints and Angels for Gods â—Do we call them Gods Do we take them for Gods Do we Sacrifice to them as Gods Far be it as from our heart to intend it so from an ingenuous Adversary to Object it But I say though you do not Sacrifice Oxen to the Saints yet you burn Incense to them which was a very high and Holy Sacrifice under Moses But the great stress lyes in this that you do not call them Gods But what 's that to the purpose while you make them so doing in a manner all the Religious Ceremonies that the Pagans did to their Gods And for the very Name in your Latine Authours how much does Divus Paulus and Divus Thomas differ from Deus Paulus and Deus Thomas which yet is usuall enough Nec tam praesentes alibi cognoscere Divos But we will not insist on Grammatical Niceties Admit they are not called Gods not to note that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies at least as high does it follow you do not make them so Let us frame this short Parable fitted for the meanest Capacity A City suppose for a certain time was so instituted that Whores and Whoredom under that very Name and Appellation was admitted as Lawfull but there being some ill consequences of it and
Determination of clear and free Reason 1. WE will now try how obnoxious the Romanists are out of the plain Definitions and Determinations of free and clear Reason In which Method let us set down for The first Conclusion That Idolatry is a kind of Injustice against God That this is true may appear from that Definition of Religion in Tâ—lly who defines it Iustiâ—am adversus Deum Which is not the sense of Tully onely but the very voice of Reason and Nature And therefore Idolatry being one kind of Irreligion or Impiety it must needs inâ—lude in it a kind of Injustice against God 2. The second Conclusion That Idolatry is a very fore and grievous Disease of the Soul vilely debasing her and sinking her into Sensuality and Materialiâ—y keeping her at a distance from the true sense and right knowledge of God and leaving her more liable to bodily Lusts That the natural tendency of Idolatry is this and yet the Souls of men in this Lapsed state are naturally prone to so mischievous a Disease as both History and daily Experience do abundantly witness See the Mischiefs of Idolatry in my Mystery of Iniquity Part 〈◊〉 Lib. â— Ch. 16. Nor can it infringe the truth of this Conclusion that a man retaining still the true Notion of God according to his Divine Attributes may according to a sense of his own bow down toward a corporeal Object of worship For he must retain it by force against such a Practice as would and does naturally debauch the users of it And besides if he had really the Life of God in him as well as the Notion of him he would feel such Actions grate against his heart and perceive how they would invade and attempt the abating and extinguishing the more true and pure sense of God and of his Worship and seduce the Soul to external Vanity But suppose a man or two could keep their minds from sinking down from a right Notion of the Deity yet they are as guilty of Idolatry if they give religious Worship to corporeal Objects as he is of Adultery and Fornication that yet uses them so cautiously as neither to impair his bodily Health nor besott his natural Parts thereby And therefore though there may be some few such yet the Laws against Fornication and Adultery ought notwithstanding to be very sacred to every one even to those discreeter Transgressours of them and ever to be obeyed by them because the Observation of them is of such infinite importance to the Publick And what we have said of the Worship of God is analogically true of honouring of the Saints who are best honoured by the remembrance and imitation of their Vertues not by scraping Legs to or clinging about their Image which are no more like them than an Apple is to an Oister 3. The third Conclusion That those high expressions of the Jealousie of God and his severe Displeasure against Idolatry are very becoming the nature of the thing and his Paternal care of the Souls of men This appears from the foregoing Conclusions For both the Prerogatives and Rights of the Divine Majesty himself are concerned and also the Perfection Nobilitation and Salvation of the Souls of men This we discover by Reason and our Reason is again more strongly ratify'd by Divine Suffrage The fourth That Idolatry though it be so hainous a Sin yet where it is committed most in good earnest does necessarily involve in it Ignorance or Mistake in the Act of Worship or in the Object they either taking the Object to be God when it is not or to have some Attribute of God when it has not or to enjoy some Prerogative of God which yet it does not or else the Worship not to be Divine when it is or lastly they mistake in the Application of the Worship thinking they do not applâ— Divine Worship to an Object when they do The fifth That to be mistaken in the Object of Worship or in the Kind of Worship or in the Application cannot excuse any-thing from being downright Idolatry forasmuch as none are in good earnest Idolaters without some of these Mistakes The sixth That the peculiar Honour or Worship which is given to God is given to him not so much as his Honour and Worship as his Due and Right insomuch that he that does not give it to God or communicates it to another does an injury to the Divine Majesty This is plain and consonant to what was said on the first Conclusion That Religion is a kind of Justice towards God And indeed if Divine Honour was not given to God as his Due and Right it were no Honour at all but rather a Benevolence 4. The seventh The Right of that peculiar Honour or Worship we do to God is grounded either in the nature of his incommunicable Excellencies or in his Excellencies so far as we know incommunicated to any Creature or lastly in Divine Declaration or Prescription of the ways or Modes of thus or thus worshipping him which himself has some-time set down The eighth That any Actions Gestures or Words directed to any Creature as to an Object which naturally imply or signifie either the incommunicable or incommunicated Eminencies of God is the giving that Worship that is the Right and Due of God alone to that Creature and that Injury against the Divine Majesty which is termed Idolatry The evidence of this Conclusion may appear from hence because there is no other way of Application of external Worship than by directing such significant Actions Gestures or Words toward such a Being as to an Object The ninth That the using any of those Actions or Gestures or doing any of those things that the true and supreme God did chuse and challenge in the setting out the Mode of his own Worship towards or in reference to any Creature as to an Object this also is that Injury against God which we term Idolatry The Reason is this Because such a mode of Worship does thus manifestly appear to be the peculiar Right of God which none can transfer to another but God himself Wherefore this Right having not been communicated by him to any other when-ever such a kind of Worship is used it must be used to him and to none else Nor can his dereliction of any such Mode of being worshipped warrant the use of it to any Creature afterwards because no Creature can be God in those circumstances as he thought fit to institute such a Worship for himself in For no Creature can be God at all and therefore never capable of any of those Modes of Divine Worship which God ever at any time instituted for himself Besides if this dereliction and disuse of any Mode of Worship might make it competible to a Creature then might we sacrifice Beeves and Sheep besides other Services of the Temple to any Saint or Daemon 5. The tenth An omnipercipient Omnipresence which does hear and see what-ever is said or transacted in the World whether considered in the
kneeling to the Bread or Wine in any sense but they are on their knees afore hand in their Prayers and Devotions to God and Christ and it is ex accidenti as I may so speak that they are on their knees when they receive the holy symbols So far are they from wittingly and conscientiously directing any Religious Worship toward them but the symbols are brought to them in such a posture as the Communicant is found in at his Devotions whose face happily was not so much as derected to the Communion Table while he was at his Devotion and his heart as it is said sursum corda wholly carryed to Heaven This I confess is a pretty gird of my Adversary and a cunning justling me as it were against my own Church as much as he can But it is manifest that what I have here delivered in this Conclusion is agreeable enough with the Rites of our own Church as well as with Truth it self To the third I Answer That my twentieth Conclusion is not truly recited For my words run thus That Religious Incurvation toward a bare symbolical Presence wittingly and conscientiously directed thither c. He has left out the most emphatical word in the sentence viz. bare And hence you see how unseasonable his Parenthesis is without exception of any For when I restrain my Assertion to bare symbolical Presences it is evident that I except those that are covered and concealed from the eyes of the people As the Cherubins were on the Ark of the Covenant So that it was a great oversight to say no worse in my Adversary to leave out that Monosyllabon which was of such principal signification in the sentence But it being in as it was manifestly in and before his eyes in the Conclusion he pretends to consute this twentieth Conclusion is no contradiction at all to the sixteenth All Religious Incurvation towards a bare symbolical Presence is Idolatry says this twentieth Conclusion But does the sixteenth say Not all Religious Incurvation toward a bare symbolical Presence is Idolatry It says no such thing But does onely imply that some symbolical Presence may be bowed towards without Idolatry as that over the Ark of the Covenant it being not bare or open but hid from the eyes of the people nor yet that bowed to as to an Object neither but onely as a circumstance of Worship Let the Reader judge how heedlesly at least if not disingenuously my Adversary has dealt with me in this assault and withall how firmly and clearly I have maintained my own His Answer to the two and twenâ—ieth Conclusion My twenty first he gives here no brush against Of the two following he speaks thus The twenty second and twenty third Conclusions weakly cavil at the adoration of the Host as Idolatrous either in Catholicks or Protestants But these petty Nibblers at the most blessed and ever adorable Sacrament shall have their Answer in the next Chapter when the Doctor treats of this subject ex protesso The Reply His Answer is marvellous lofty and full of despiciency towards his Antagonist and all of his mind But I do not impute this so much to the pride of my Adversary as to his cunning and prudence that he may by this Scheme of confidence keep his Parties devotions warm to the adoration of the most blessed and ever adorable Sacrament as he phrases it And we indeed will also acknowledge the consecrated bread an holy and blessed symbol of the body of Christ but we adore onely our Celestial Lord and King who sits at the right hand of his Father in glory and take it as a great reproach done to him that those of the Romish Religion should pretend that a morsel of Bread or a Waser after a few words of the Priest should become this Lord of glory And meaner and more petty Nibblers than we even those small and contemptible Animals ordinarily called Mice offer such an Argument against so grand an Absurdity as may well puzzle the subtilest of your School-Divines viz. How this consecrated Host if it be Christ himself in his own Body and Person should suffer himself to be eaten up by a Mouse You will say that the Mouse onely eats up the species or external shew of a Body not any real Body at all and that though Christ be contented to go along with the species when Men eat the Sacrament yet if a Mouse light on it as soon as she nibbles at it he slips out of the way I must confess I know no other subter-fuge but this But this seems to me a meer shift Nor do I think that any will deny but that if the Mouses stomach were searched presently after she has eaten this consecrated Bread that the Bread or call it the species will be found there and certainly endewed with such Attributes as are the specifick Attributes of Body that is with Divisibility and Impenetrability which being the essential and specifick Difference whereby Body is Body it is plain that what they call species is really a Body or substance but the Body or substance of the Bread is transubstantiated into the Body of Christ therefore it is evident that the Body of Christ is in the belly of the Mouse if Transubstantion be true Which plain consideration methinks might be sufficient to awaken any one that is not in a very dead sleep or incurable Lethargy out of all conceit that a consecrated Water does become Personally and Corporeally Christ himself For if it be He though he humbled himself indeed so very extraordinarily in the behalf of us Men yet it is not at all credible that he would make himself so vile and cheap as to suffer himself to be devoured by a Mouse And if this Argument chance to be less pleasing yet the recalling it to my memory is to be imputed to the scornfull expressions of my Adversary who makes us such petty Niblers in our argumentation Whenas if he had not overlooked in this lofty mood of his my twenty first Conclusion this twenty second could not but have appeared to him perfect demonstration upon the suposal that Transubstantiation is but a conceit and no solid Truth which is the main Argument of the next Chapter His Answer to the twenty third Conclusion His present Answer to my twenty third is this For Protestants indeed to adore the Sacrament who believe no Corporeal presence of Christ there would be a like Crime as for an unconverted Iew to adore Iesus Christ in whom he believes not But what is this to the Doctors purpose The Reply My Antagonist here acknowledges it a great sin even a Crime in a Protestant to adore the Sacrament as well as for the Jew to adore Jesus Christ when he does not believe on him Let me then here note by the by how great a Crime it is in them who as much as in them lyes force men to commit so great a sin by their unchristian Persecutions But I would ask further what
literally or properly Christ is an Impostor that is is not the true Christ which is expresly the sense which my Antagonist would pin upon this passage of Costerus For first it is well known that it is usual in the Hebrew idiome in which Christ spake as it is not unfrequent also in other tongues to use the verb substantive est when the subject and predicate in a proposition is signum and significatum or if you will when the subject and predicate are those Arguments which Logicians call Similia So our Saviour â—ays elsewhere I am the Vine I am the door And St. Paul says 1 Cor. 10. 4 The rock was Christ besides the examples I have produced in the foregoing Paragraph Will any Body therefore that has the least dram of Reason or Religion in him when This is my Body may so naturally and according to the idiome of the â—ongue signifie This is the sign or symbol of my Body or this is the Representation of my Body that is to be broken or crucified for you affirm that unless it signifie This is my very Body indeed flesh blood and bones Christ must be an Impostor Nay when Christ himself so plainly affirms Matâ—h 26. 26. that it is Bread For he affirms of that Bread which he had used no consecration to that even that was his Body Indeed if he had first done something to it for the transmutation of it and then taken it up and said This is my Body here had been more colour of pretence that it was not ordinary Bread But he says of this Bread as yet unconsecrated That it is his Body and therefore he plainly affirms that Bread remaining still really Bread is his Body which can be in no sense so but in a figurative one that is to say That it is the sign or symbol of his Body Wherefore when our Saviour does so plainly affirm that the Bread is but the symbol of his Body is it any fault in him that the Church of Rome or any lapsed Church else will so perversly and absurdly understand it as if it were the very Body of Christ it self upon Consecration as if our Saviour Christ had declared it so to be And besides this affirmation of our Saviour we may add the Attestation of his Evangelists whom he lead into all Truth Does not St. Luke expresly say Câ—ap 22. 19. He took Bread and gave thanks and brake and gave it to them saying This is my Body which was given for you do this in remembrance of me What can possiblâ— be more plain then this He gave what he brake he brake what he took and what he took was Bread and of this Bread which he gave brake and took he says This is my Body Wherefore it is evident that of the Bread he pronounced according to the Testimony of St. Luke That it was his Body But Bread cannot be his Body otherwise then symbolically or by way of token or remembrance and therefore he adds Do this in remembrance of me Now memory is not of things present but of things absent All which circumstances do so emphatically import that the Bread is but still a sign not the Body of Christ himself that the most cautious Lawyer could scarce express any ones mind in a conveyance more certainly and expresly And yet our Saviour must be an Impostor if he did not mean by This is my Body This is my real Body the same that hung upon the Cross and was born of the Virgin Mary Can there be any thing more injurious to Christ and Christian Religion then this Add unto all this That besides that Christ himself and the Evangelists declare that it is Bread and not the natural Body of Christ it is demonstratively impossible to be so and openly repugnant to all our senses which alone would assoile our Saviour from being an Impostor the words being easily to be understood in a figurative sense But I hope by this my Adversary blushes that 〈◊〉 has pinned so uncouth and incredible a sense on this Argument of Costerus and will acknowledge that Costerus used this Argument onely as a probability namely That Christ being so certainly the true Christ it is not probable that he would deal so unworthily with his Church as by these words This is my Body occasion so great Idolatry in this Artolatria or Bread worship continued so long in it and that therefore it is not Bread but the real Body of Christ which yet is as well argued or rather far worse then if the Anthropomorphites of old should have argued thus That certainly God would not have dealt so unworthily with his Church as to occasion so hideous an errour and blasphemy that the eternal God has limbes and shape like a Man from those words Let us make man after our own Image if so be he have not so And that therefore he has the lineaments and shape of a Man But besides this where there is no pretense from Scripture to any such thing it is plain that the Church for as long a time have defiled themselves with the Invocation of Saints and worshipping of Images which are gross Idolatries as well as this nay indeed when the Scripture is expresly against it Which yet if you will believe the Romanists themselves have possessed the Church as many hundred years as this worshipping of the Eucharist though they be all really Innovations upon the lapse of the Church as the skilfull in Antiquity do abundantly prove And for this gross errour of Transubstantiation it was not confirmed by any Council till about 1200 after Christ. Wherefore what an intolerable injury and calumny is it against the sacred Person of Christ to cast this Bread-worship upon him as if by the occasion oâ— his words it was introduced when indeed both against his words and against all sense and Reason the lapse and corruption of the Church has brougâ—t it in with other Idolatrous opinions and mispractises But when all this is so to say Christ is not Christ that is That Christ is an Impostor if these words This is my Body be not literally to be understood as if it were his very true natural Body flesh blood and bones I leave to any one to judge if it be not so groundless and so hideous a reproach that it will be hard to find any name ill enough for it And here I profess I cannot but stand iâ—finitely astonish'd at the bold Rhetorick of my Adversary and such like Patrons of the Roman Cause who for the swaggering of the credulous people into a belief of Transubstantiation do not stick to own it as reasonable and certain as that Iesus is the Messias or that the Mystery of the holy Trinity is true When as the Mystery of the holy Trinity has been no less then three or four times confirmed by general Councils in the more pure Times of the Church before her grand Apostasy and Christ always held the true Messias nor can it be doubted
but he is so by any that is a Christian and may be demonstrated to be so to any that do doubt if they approve themselves but idoneous Auditors Nor can there be any Reason or demonstration brought against the Mystery of the holy Trinity â—o far forth as the Scripture and the ancient Councils have defined any thing therein But the Triunity of the eternal Deity has seemed to the best and wisest Philosophers so reasonable and venerable a Tradition that without any force or fear of any external Power they have embraced it of themselves and spoken many things therein very consâ—nant to the Christian verity And therefore this Mysterâ— though it be competently obscure whereby it becomes more venerable to say it is as repugnant and as impossible to Reason as Transubstantiation whenas it was Confirmed by so many general Councils in the purer times of the Church and intimated by so many places of Scripture as also is the Divinity of Christ most expresly and indubitably and his Messias-ship not questioned bv any Christian to set these Fundamentals of our Religion on the same tickle point nay on the same impossible point that Transubstantiation stands upon not countenanced by any Council till about four or five hundreds years ago and repugnant to Scripture and Common senâ—e and to the very first Principles of all solid knowledge and science were it not charitably to be interpreted a ranting piece of Rhetorick to befool the â—ulgar as if they would say As sure as Christ is the Messias and that the Mystery of his Divinity and of the Triunity of the Godhead is true Transubstantiation is so itâ— ere either a careless disregard what became of Christianity or a subdolous and operose endeavour of betraying it and oblique insinuation that Transubstantiation and the rest of those Mysteries of our Religion are alike false and impossible But I hope better things of my Adversary and that he is rather an over officious propugner of a beloved falshood and of so great interest to his Church then a sly Impugner or Betrayer of these sacred Truths And now I hope I have fully cleared all the Objections that my Antagonist has brought against this third Chapter or any Paragraph therein So that it remains invincible and unshaken That the Opinion of Transubstantiation is not onely false but impossible and consequently the Adoration of the Eucharist palpable Idolatry Which my Adversary himself cannot deny no more than Franciscus Câ—sterus who has so expresly affirmed it as I have shewed in this eighth Paragraph As for that further oâ—fer towards a plausibilility for the Truth of Transubstantiation for the Mystery of the holy Trinity wants no such small apologies that the seeming Impossibility thereof is an Argument of its being a doctrine Divinely inspired and that that saying rightly here takes place The more incredible the more credible These are fine Lullaby-songs to be sung to babies half asleep But we have most evidently demonstrated even as clear as Noon-day that Transubstantiation is not a seeming Impossibility but a palpable and real one And as for that saying The more incredible the more credible it is a foundation so large that all the Figments even the most extravagant of all the Religions of the World may equally be founded upon it and by how much more incredible and impossible any Figment is by so much the more stronger faith it ought to obtain and may the more firmly be supported by this Foundation For the more impossible the more incredible the more incredible the more credible As for example the more incredible it is that Mahomet put the Moon into his bosome and that it came out at each sleeve divided into two and that he straitways sodered it together and sent it back whole to Heaven again the more incredible this story is the more credible it is That is saith my Antagonist for he explains this venerable Aphorism By how much the more incredible the Mystery is if we onely consult our senses and the bare sentiments of the natural Man by so much the more credible it is that there lyes a Divine Revelation at the bottom Cannot the Mahumetan defend his Religion as wisely as thus from this ground It is not a sign of our meer natural or unregenerate estate when we will not nor can believe things that are apparently repugnant to the indeleble Principles of natural Understanding But it is a sign of their being the slaves of the Man of sin in a doub â—esense who can swallow such gudgeons For for this cause God sends them strong delusions saith the Apostle 2 Thes. 2. that they may believe alye because they love not the Truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness But Iohn 8. 36. if the Son makes us free by his spirit of real Regeneration then are we free indeed even from all such Impostures as these while the world Apoc. 17. 8. wonders after the Boast and the strange stories that he utters But we know who those are that are excluded out of the holy City even every one that Apoc. 22. 15. loves and makes a lye and those certainly are none of the Regenerate And who should those be that love and embrace lâ—es but those that take up such Principles that they cannot discern a lye or withhold their assent from it For the more Impossible which should turn any Mans stomach from believing makes it but the more Incredible and the more Incredible the more Credible But we have harped too long on a string which will sound over harsh to such ears as are less accustomed to Truth My main purpose I had dispatch'd before But I could not but say something to the fine popular fetches of my Adversarie who cunningly insinuates into the minds of the unskilfull and simple that it is a sign of a more then ordinary Religious and regenerate estate far removed above the meer natural Man to believe things that are plainly and apertly repugnant to the light of Nature and right Reason For this is such a gap as may let in the grossest falsities and Immoralities that can be invented and that upon the shew of Religion and Supernaturality For giving up their faith to their Priest and his Church the more incredible the Act to be good or Doctrine true the more credible What therefore may not Men be brought to believe and act upon so unsound a Principle I pass now to his fourth Section which encounters all my three next Chapters at once CHAP. IV. The gross Idolatry of the Romanists in the Invocation of the Saints even according to the allowance of the Council of Trent and the authorized practice of that Church 1. BUT we will fall also upon those Modes of Idolatry wherein the Church of Rome may seem less bold though indeed this one that is so gross is so often and so universally repeated every-where in the Roman Church that by this alone though we should take notice of nothing farther Idolatry may seem quite
own heads as they have herein given it against themselves in saying that all Idolaters are damned or that no idolater can be saved For it is demonstrated as clear as the Noon-light in this present Discourse that the Church of Rome are Idolaters 8. And in that of those of our Church that say they may be saved upon a sincere and hearty implicit Repentance of all their sins wherein they include the Idolatries and all other Miscarriages which they know not themselves guilty of by reason of the blinde Mis-instructions of their Church no more is given them by this then thus viz. That they are saved by disowning of and dismembring themselves from the Roman Church as much as it is in their power so to do and by bitterly repenting them that they were ever of that Church as such and by being so minded that if they did know what a corrupt Church it is they would forthwith separate from it So that in effect those of the Roman Church that some of ours conceit may be saved are no otherwise saved if at all then by an implicit renouncing Communion with it which in Foro Divino must go for an actual and formal Separation from it In which Position if there were any Truth it will reach the honest-minded Pagans as well but it can shelter neither unless in such Circumstances that they had not the opportunity to learn the Truth which since the Reformation and especially this last Age by the mercy of God is abundantly revealed to the world So that all men especially those that live in Protestant Nations or Kingdoms are without all excuse and therefore become obnoxious to God's eternall wrath and Damnation if they relinquish not that false Prophetess Iezebel as she is called in the Epistle to the Church in Thyatira who by her corrupt Doctâ—ines deceives the people and inveigles them into gross Idolatrous Practices 9. Thus little is conceded by those of our Reformed Churches that speak most favourably of those in the Church of Rome And yet this little must be retracted unless we can make it out that any of that Church are capable of sincere and unfeigned Repentance while they are of it For to repent as a Thief because he is afraid to be hanged is not that saving Repentance But to repent as a true Christian none can do unless he has the Spirit of God and be in the state of Regeneration For true Repentance arises out of the detestation of the ugliness of Sin it self and out of the love to the pulchritude and amiableness of the Divine Life and of true Virtue which none can be touched with but those that are Regenerate or born of God Now those holy and Divine Sentiments of the new Birth are so contrary to the Frauds and Impostures to the gross Idolatries and bloudy Murthers of the Church of Rome which they from time to time have perpetrated upon the dear Servants of Christ that it is impossible for any one that has this holy sense but that he should incontinently fly from that Church with as much horrour and affrightment as any Countrey-man would from some evil Spectre or at the approach of the Devil 10. He that is born of God sinneth not saith S. John 1 John 5. 18. How then can they be so born whose very Religion is a Trade of sin and that of the highest nature they ever and anon exercising gross acts of Idolatry besides that they are consenting by giving up their belief and suffrage to the murtherous Conclusions of that Church to all the barbarous and bloudy Persecutions of the Saints that either have happened or may happen in their own times or ever shall happen by that Church they become I say guilty thereof by adjoyning themselves to this bloud-thirsty Body of men with whom the Murther of those that will not commit Idolatry with them and so rebell against God is become an holy Papal Law and Statute And therefore I say how can any man conceive that those men are born of God who are thus deeply defiled with Murtherous and Idolatrous Impurities but rather that they are in a mere blind carnal condition and uncapable while they are thus of any true and sincere Repentance and consequently of repenting of their daily Idolatries which they commit and ordinarily to make all sure in ipso articulâ— mortis and therefore are out of all capacity of Salvation while they are members of that Church As plainly appears both by this present Reason fetch'd from the nature of Regeneration as also from the judgement of the Romanists themselves touching the state of Idolaters after this life and chiefly from the express sentence of the Spirit of God in Scripture as I intimated before 11. And therefore in the fifth and last place it is exceeding manifest how stupid and regardless those Souls are of their own Salvation that continue in the Communion of the Church of Rome and how desperately wild and extravagant they are who never having been of it but having had the advantage of better Principles yet can find in their hearts to be reconciled to it This must be a sign of some great defect in Judgement or else in their Sincerity that they ever can be allured to a Religion that is so far removed from God and Heaven 12. But this Church as the woman in the Proverbs is I must confess both very fair of speech and subtil of heart and knows how to tamper with the simple ones right skilfully She knows how to overcome all their carnal senses by her luxurious Enticements She has deck'd her bed with coverings of I apestry with carved work with fine linens of Aegypt She has perfumed her bed with Mâ—rrh Aloes and Cinnamon Prov. 7. 16 17. She entertains her Paramours with the most delicious strains of Musick and chants out the most sweet and pleasing Rhymes to Iull them secure in her lap Such as those Idolatrous forms of the â—nvocation of the Virgin Mary and of other Saints which I have produced of which she has a numerous store Unto which I conceive the Prophet Isay to allude in that passage touching the City of Tyre representing there mystically the relapsing Church of Rome Take an harp go about the City thou harlot that hast been forgotten make sweet Melody sing many Songs that thou mayst be remembred Isa. 23. 16. See Synopâ—is Prophetica Book 2. ch 16. 13. She gilds her self over also with the goodly and specious â—itles of vnity Antiquity â—niversality the power of working Miracles of Sanctity likewise and of Infallibility and boasts highly of her self that she has the power of the Keys and can give safe conduct to Heaven by Sacerdotal Absolution and if need be out of the Treasury of the Merits of holy men of their Church which she has the keeping and disposing of can adde Oyl to the Lamps of the unprovided Virgins and so piece out their Deficiency in the works of Righteousness Such fair speeches and fine gloâ—ing
in wickedness but besides their pretense of singing them out of Purgatory by mercenary Masses and pecuniary Redemptions by Pardons and Indulgences and I know not what Trumperies they allure men to come into their Church as having that great Store and Treasury of the Merits of Holy-men and women their works of Supererogation which they pretend to have the keeping and disposing of So that a poor Soul that is bankrupt of herself and has no stock of Good works of her own may sufficiently be furnished for love or money by the Merchants of this Storehonse Which besides that it is a blasphemous Derogation to the Merits of Christ is the grossest Falshood that ever was uttered For these Holy men as they are called and Virgins were God wot themselves most miserable Sinners and died in most horrid Idolatries as dying in the Practices of that Church and he that comes to that Church does necessarily become a gross Idolater himself besides that he sets to his seal and makes himself accessory to all that innocent bloud the bloud of those many hundred thousands of Martyrs for the Protestant Truth which that Woman of bloud that sits on the Seven Hills has with the most execrable Circumstances imaginable so frequently murthered So that a Soul otherwise passable of her self would be necessarily drown'd in this one foul Deluge of Guilt so far is she from having any relief or advantage by reconciling her self to the Church of Rome 20. Wherefore who-ever thou art that hast any sense or solicitude for thy future state and Salvation believe not this Woman of subtil lips and a deceitfull heart and give no credit to her Fictions and high Pretensions but the more she goes about to magnifie her self do thou humble her the more by shewing her her ugly hue in the glass of the Holy Scriptures If she boast that she is that holy Ierusalem Psal. 122. 3. a City at Unity within it self whenas the rest of the World are so full of Sects and Factions tell her that she is that carnal Ierusalem wherein Christ in his true Members hath been so barbarously persecuted and murthered and that the Stones of her buildings are no living stones but held together by a mere iron violence and the Cement of her walls tempered with the large effusion of innocent bloud forasmuch as she is that two-horned Beast that gave life to the Image of the Beast Apoc. 13. and caused him to decree that as many as would not obey his Idolatrous Edicts should be slain This is the power of your Unity which is not from the Spirit of God but from the spirit of the Devil who was a Murtherer from the beginning But the Division of us Protestants is both a sign of our sincere search after the Truth and a more strong Testimony against you of Rome in that we being so divided amongst our selves yet we so unanimously give sentence against you your Miscarriages and Crimes being so exceeding gross that no free eye but must needs discern them 21. If she vaunts of her Antiquity give her enough of it and tell her she derives her pedigree from that great Dragon the old Serpent Apoc. 12. 9. that is called the Devil and Satan that Murtherer of mankind Ye are of your father the Devil saith our Saviour and the works of your father will ye do Iohn 8. 44. We grant that the Visage and Lineage of your Church reaches even beyond the times of the Apostles the two-horned Beast reviving the Image of the Pagan Beast the great red Dragon by bringing up again his old bloudy Persecutions and Idolatries It suffices us that our Church began with the Apostles If she glories in her Vniversality and in her large Territories tell her she is that GREAT City which spiritually is called Sodom and Aegypt where our Lord was crucified Apoc. 11. And that she is Babylon the GREAT the mother of Fornications and the Abominations of the Earth If she boast of the power of the Keys and of Sacerdotal Absolution tell her that he that is holy he that is true he that has the Key of David he that openeth and no man shuâ—teth and shutteth and no man openeth Apoc. 3. that is to say our Lord Iesus Christ will never part with these Keys to his inveterate Enemy that notorious Man of Sin or Antichrist If she spread before thee her goodly wares of mercenary Masses of Pardons and Indulgences of the mutuatitious Good works of their pretended Holy men and women or the Wealth and externall Glories of their Church and varieties of rich Preferments and Dignities say unto her that she is that City of Trade of whom it is written that no man buyeth her merchandise any more and again Alas alas that great City that was cloathed in fine linnen and purple and scarlet and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls For in one hour so great riches are come to nought For her Merchants were the great men of the Earth and by her Sorceries were all Nations deceived And in her was found the bloud of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth Apoc. 18. 22. If she would amaze thee with the stories of the wonderfull Miracles done by her tell her that she is that two-horned Beast Apoc. 13. 13 14. that doth great wonders and that deceiveth them that dwell on the Earth by means of those Miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the ten-horn'd Beast or that false Prophet working Miracles Apoc. 19. 20. and deceiving them that receive the mark of the Beast and worship his Image who together with the Beast is to be taken and cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone or lastly that Man of Sin and Son of perdition 2 Thess. 2. 9. whos 's coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders If she would inveagle thee with her pretenses of Infallibility tell her that she is that Woman Iezebel Apoc. 2. 20. that calleth her self a Prophetess or the Prophet Balaam Apoc. 2. 14. that insnared the Israelites in Idolatry and that very false Prophet that together with the Beast is to be cast alive into the lake of burning brimstone Apoc. 19. 20. 23. And lastly if she would gull thee with that specious and much-affected Title of Holy Church tell her that the Spirit of Truth in the Divine Oracles let her commend her self as much as she pleases gives no such Character of her but quite contrary declaring the See of Rome to be the Seat of Satan Apoc. 2. 13. and their Church his Synagogue Apoc. 3. 9. the Pope and his Clergy to be Balaam the son of Bozor Apoc. 2. 13 14. who loved the wages of unrighteousness and who was the Murtherer of Christ's faithfull Martyr Antipas to be that Woman Iezebel who calls her self a Prophetess but was indeed a Sorceress and a murtherer of the true Prophets of the Lord Apoc. 2. 20.
to be also that false Prophet that is to be taken alive and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone Apoc. 19. 20 to be that great City that spiritually is called Sodom and Aegypt where our Lord was crucified Apoc. 11. 8. to be the Beast that has the horns of a Lamb but the voice of the Dragon Apoc. 13. 11. decreeing Idolatries and cruel Persecutions against God's people to be that Babylon the great Apoc. 17. Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth the Woman on the seven Hills that is drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus and lastly to be that Man of Sin 2 Thess. 2. that notorious Antichrist that opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or is worshipped whose coming is with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they may be saved For which cause God sends them strong delusion that they believe a lie That they all might be damned that believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness As well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well all they that love the Romish Lies and Impostures as all they that invent them are here plainly declared in the state of Damnation With this Nosegay of Rue and Wormwood antidote thy self against the Idolatrous infection of that strange Woman's breath Prov. 5. 3. whose lips yet drop as an honyâ— comb and â—er mouth is more smooth then oyl And be assured that that cannot be the true Holy Church wherein Salvation is to be expected which the Spirit of God has marked with such unholy and hellish Chara â—ers let her boast of her own Holiness as much as she will 24. And if she return this Answer to thee That this is not to argue but to rail in phrases of Scripture do thou make this short Reply That whiles she accuses thee of railing against sinfull and obnoxious men she must take heed that she be not found guilty of blaspâ—eming the holy Spirit of God I confess these Propheticall Passages apply'd to such persons as to whom they do not belong were an high and rude strain of Railing indeed and quite out of the road of Christianity and common Humanity But to call them Railings when they are apply'd to that very Party to whom they are really meant by that Spirit that dictated them is indeed to pretend to a sense of Civility towards men but in the mean time to become a down-right Blasphemer against the Holy Ghost that dictated these Oracles And that they are not mis-apply'd any impartial man of but an ordinary patience and comprehension of wit may have all assurance desirable from that demonstration of the truth compriz'd in the eight last Chapters of the first Book of Synopsis Prophetica to say nothing of the present Exposition of the Seven Epistles to the Seven Churches in Asia 25. Wherefore O serious Soul whoever thou art be not complemented out of the Truth and an earnest pursuance of thine own Salvation from a vain sense of the Applauses or Reproaches of men or from any consideration what they may think of thee for attesting or standing to such Verities as are so unwelcome to many ears but of such huge importance to all to hear For no less a Game is at stake in our choice of what Church we adhere to that of Rome or the Reformed then the Possession of Heaven and eternal Life Wherefore stand stoutlâ— upon thy guard and whensoever thou art accosted by the fair words and sugar'd speeches of that cunning Woman who will make semblance of great solicitude for thy future Happiness most passionately inviting thee to return into the bosom of Holy Church be sure to remember what an Holy Church she is according to Divine description and that if thou assentest to her smooth Persuasions and crafty Importunities thou dost â—pso facto pardon the vehemence of expression adventure thy self into the jaws of Hell and cast thy self into the arms of the Devil Matth. 23. 15. God of his mercy give us all Grace to consider what has been spoken that we may evermore escape these Snares of Death Amen THE END CHAP. X. The Answers of my Antagonist to this 10th Chapter and my Replies put together without any distinction of Paragraphs HItherto I have reduced my Antagonists Answers to the Paragraphs of each Chapter But now he does so overflow with humour wit and confusedness and walks so aloâ—t in Generals that I cannot reduce this last Section of his on my last Chapter to any such particular distinctness but must make what I can of things in that order they lye First then my hearty Exhortation to men to take heed how they be drawn into the Communion of the Church of Rome he phancies may fitly be called Dr. Taylor revived or a second Disâ—asive from Popery Whereupon he takes Occasion to give the different Characters of Dr. Taylor and my self For Dr. Taylor is a Person says he of a more refined and plausible Insinuation a smooth tongue and oâ—ly Expression cloaking his many and great Disingenuities with fair glozing words in an affected strain of Scripture phrase pretending to the power of Godliness But Dr. More is a Polemical man of a quite different Temper His fiery zeal wears no mask His disputing is open rayling and his Arguments blustering words not always too much concerned whether true for alse To which I Reply Whether he call my hearty Dehortation Dr. Taylor revived or a second Dissâ—asive from Popery he may please his own pâ—ancy in that he shall find me a man of great humanity and facility in matters of that kind And let Dr. Taylor be of one temper and my self of another so there be no Immorality in these different tempers that is all one to me also But when he talks of the great Disingenuities of Dr. Taylor I suspect they are nothing else but great and hard Arguments against the errors of the Roman Church which they cannot Answer The same crime that I have been guilty of all along this book hitherto and it 's â—ell I be not charged with great disingenuities my self at last which now I think on 't I have been already under an harsher term he calling that calumny in me who seem to be a more rude Writer which in Dr. Taylor that more smooth and oylâ— Arguer he termes a disingenuity But it 's needless for me to say any thing more of Dr. Taylor his learned and eloquent writings will Answer for him and themselves too But now for my own Charge That I am â—olemical I am sure I am neither Souldier nâ—r disputacious Schoolman But if I be Polemical or warlike it is in that warâ—are whose weapons are spiritual as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 10. 4. for the pulling down strong holds and inveterate Imaginations raised against the truth of God and the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
â—â—oration of the Blessed Sacrament or which is the same of Iesus â—hrist in the Sacrament Which is a quite different thing from that uncatholick expression of worshipping the Host For Catholick Principles own nothing of the Host to remain after Consecration but the species or symbols Nor does the Council enjoyn the Worship of Latria to the symbols but to â—esus Christ veiled with these symbols The Reply THis Answer is most what but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or strife about words Whether it be called Host or Sacrament it is all one to me and to the Cause I undertake For by the Host I mean tâ—e consecrated Bread and it is familiar in common spâ—â—ch to understand the Host in that sense As when they say At the elevation of the Host and As the Host passes by aâ—d the like which is understood of the Sacrament as my Adversary here had rather have it called Besides that the very Reason of the name implies so much that it is the Consecrated Bread because Hostia from whence the word Host is signifies a Sacrifice Which your Church will not grant the Bread to be before Consecration whereby you conceive it to become Christ himself And lastly Durandus and I doubt not but many others of your Church do call the Sacrament it self Hostia very often So that there is more of pomp then solidity in this rebuke and a cunning endeavour to make me seem less skilfull in these Points of Controversie in the eyes of your Party But now to the Second part of your Answer which seems more material That the Council enjoyns not the Worship of Latria to the symbols but to Jesus Christ veiled with the Symbols I Reply That for as much as they enjoyn adoration or bowing to this effigiated bare or visible sâ—mbolical Presence of Christ invisibly there it is Idolatry by Conclusion 20th Chapter 2. And though they pretend to omit the external species or shew of the pread in their Worship yet while it is acknowledged that they Worship Christ as Hypostatically united with the substance of the Bread not annihilated but changed and transubstantiated into his body there veiled with these Species and being this Transubstantiation is not this Latriâ— of theirs is turned into Idolatry by the twenty first twenty second and twenty fifth Concâ—usions of the second Chapter As it is manifest to any one that lists to compare the Case with these Conclusions which stand very firm still for any thing he has been able to alledge against them After this my Adversary gives a brief sum of this third Chapter of mine in this Enthymeme Transuâ—stantiation is a meer Figment Ergo The adoration of the Eucharist is palpable ldolatry and so runs out preposterously to the eighth Paragraph in Answer to the concealed Proposition of the Enthymeme But I will rather set his Answers in the same order that the numbers of the Paragraphs require And so his Answers to the Antecedent of the Proposition will come in view first We will consider his Answer to the consequence of it at the eight Paragraph which is its due place His Answer to the Argument in the fourth Paragraph To this he Answers This is indeed a fair demonstration that Dr. More is acquainted with Plautus his Comedies and can when he pleases descend from the Divinity-chair to a piece of unseasonable mirth anâ— stage Drollery But let this pass as a pleasant skirmiâ— before the main charge The Reply If it was not indecorous for St. Paul to quotâ— Heathen Poets as Aratus and Epimenides yea Comedians as Menander in his Thais how can it be below such an one as I to quote a Comick Poet 〈◊〉 in any point of Drollery but for an earnest 〈◊〉 ration That â—t never was seen nor is it possible that 〈◊〉 body can be 〈◊〉 two places at once But if this Testimâ—â— does not like you you may remember how I showd you above That Athanasius and Anastatius ancient Christians declare â—hat an Angel himself nor a Soul separate can be in two places at once But the stress of my Argument yes not in the â—uthority of Pâ—autus but in tâ—e sense of all mankind as I have inâ—imaâ—ed who by common suffâ—age unless infinitely prejudiced do ratifie this 〈◊〉 That one body cannot be in two places at once Which distinct force of this my first Argument 〈◊〉 Aâ—versary endeavoured to smother by a Rhetorical flourish and nimble-paced Transition 〈◊〉 those fetcâ—ed from Arts and Sciences c. To which you shall now hear his Answers His Answer to the Argument from Physicks in the fifth Paragraph To this he Answers First by asserting it possible That a Body occupying a space equal to it self in one place may â—et be elsewhere without occupying any place at all and he would prove this more then possible from the opinion of the Learned who maintain that actually the supreme Heaven occupies no place Secondly by denying the Inferences I make 〈…〉 of one Body being in two places at once as first That the Body will be equal to those 〈◊〉 sâ—aces What needs that Mr. Doctor saâ—s he It is enough that in each of those two spaceâ— it be onely equal or commensurate to that determinaâ—e place it there occupies suppose of six cubâ—â—s and in neither of them equal or commensurate to a space of twelve Cubits And then for my Inference That granting this Body equal to the spaces it occupies at once it will be double to it self he denies the consequence Because a Body of one Cubit rareâ—ied into a double dimension and therefore occupying a double space will not be double to it self And a rational Soul informing a Body of a span length when the Body is grown to another span still informed by the same Soul it does not follow that the Soul is double to it self Is not this rare Divinity says he Let the Doctor show a material disparity in these two Cases or else acknowledge the unconclusiveness of his own Objection This is the sum and substance of that wherewith he would enâ—rvate my Argument drawn from Physicks against Transubstantiation What follows belongs rather to his Answer to my Argument drawn from Metaphysicks which we shall consider there The Reply In the mean time to his first Answer I Reply thus That it is a fetch beyond the Moon or rather beyond the World to endeavour the enervation of my Consequences from the supposal of a Body in two internal places at once that it so filling those two places is equal to the two places equal to one another and that therefore it is double to it self by saying that a Body occupying a place equal to it self in one place may yet be elsewhere without being in any place beâ—cause the supreme or extimate Heaven is in no place which yet is to be understood of no exâ—ernal place But Eustachius and other Schoolâ—hilosopâ—ers and all that hold an internal place â— which Truth is plainly demonstrable do hold that it is in
a place internal upon which our Argument goes but is equally true of locus externus Nor then will this high flight beyond 〈◊〉 supreme or extimate Heaven serve for any evâ—◠〈◊〉 For as much as we speak of Bodies placed â—n this side of 〈◊〉 extimate Heaven and no Boâ—y can bâ— found amongst Bodies but it will be 〈◊〉 cumscrâ—bed bâ— the ambient superficies of the next Bodies about it that superficies of the ambient Bodies that do immediately compass 〈…〉 Body being its place And every Body â—ill hâ—ve such a place that is found on this 〈…〉 extimate Heaven This is a Truth that 〈◊〉 be denied And our Question is 〈◊〉 onely of sucâ— Bodies as are on this side 〈◊〉 extimate Heaven From which the unseasonablenâ—ss of my Adversaries subterâ—uge is plainlâ— dâ—cerned which in no sense will serve his turn unleâ—s for the amuzing the minds of the People To 〈◊〉 Second Answer I return this To the first 〈◊〉 thereof That it is not onely enough to him but it is also enâ—ugh to me that in each of the two â—paces the Body be equal to that deâ—erminate place it tâ—ere occupies understanding either an internal or external place For suppose one and the â—ame Body at each place at â—nce 〈◊〉 either an internal or external place of such a quantity of six Cubits suppose which it cannot fill unless it be commensurate to them it is plain it fills as much space as comes to twelve Cubits if six and six make twelve which is as sure as two and two make four And therefore that it is equal to twelve Cubits because it plainly fills up the space of twice six Cubits Or how ever at the same time fills the ambient superficieses that would exactly fit twice six Cubits in several There is no greater demonstration of equality then this which the Geometricians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Coâ—gruentia So certain is it that a Body adequately filling two places of six Cubits big at once has it self the magnitude of twelve Cubits But the Body is supposed but one and the same Body in both places and therefore can be but six Cubits Wherefore it is both six Cubits and twelve Cubits at once that is to â—ay it is double to it self at the same time which is impossible Nor does the Second part of my Adversaries Answer evade this Impossibility That it will no more follow that a Body occupying at â—he same time two places and so being equal to those two places which are double to one single place that the Body is double to it self then that a Body of one Cubit â—aâ—ified into a double dimension and therefore occupying a double space is double to it self Or the rational â—oul informing a Bodâ— of a span length at first but 〈◊〉 the same Body grown another span is thereby double to it self For not at all to quarrel with the mistake of the nature of Rarefaction which I must confess I take to be the Cartesian way not the â—ristotelean and candidly interpreting his meaning in those words a body of a span length and then grown up to another span which grown up to another span naturally implies the Body not double but octuple to what it was before passing by these and medling onely with his own meaning as it may be hoped and Hypotheses the examples do not at all reach the present purpose For speaking in his sense a body of one Cubit rarified into a double dimension is double to it self unrarified that is It is as big again as it was when it was unrarified But it is not as big again or double to it self at the same time but double it is to what it was before And the same is to be said of the soul in such a sense as extension is applicable to her and increase or decrease of it namely by dilatation and contraction Spiritual that it is double when the Body is grown as big again as it was when it was but a span long to what it was when the Body was but a span long But here in the present Case a Body is demonstrated double to it self compared with it self and its present condition at the same time Which is impossible viz. That the same Body should be double now to what it is now That it now should be as big again as it self is now For neither can the Soul her self be said to be now as wise again as she is now but onely as wise again as she was some time ago And so my Adversaries Answer does not at all reach the point in hand And therefore my Demonstration stands firm and unshaken of the Impossibility of Transubstantiation from this Argument taken from Physicks as any unprejudiced eye may easily discern Nor had we any need here to consider the continuity or discontinuity of places But all is clear from what we have thus briefly represented His Answer to the Argument from Metaphysicks in this fifth Paragraph To my Metaphysical Argument that infers that the Body of Christ will be Divisum à se and both Unum and Multa First he Answers to the first part If divisum à se secundum substantiam I deny it If divisum à se quoad locum transeat To the Second That it will not be Unum Multa but onely Unum in Multis one and the same in many places His second Answer is that I go upon a false supposition That essential Vnity is derived from the Vnity of local Presence not from the Intrinsick Principles of the subject For unless this be granted Plurality of local Presence at once will not prove a thing divided from it self His last Answer is That by this and my former Argument I put armes into the hands of Infideâ—s against the Mystery of the Holy Trinity For it will follow saith he That one and the same Divine Nature being in three distinct Persons at once the same Nature will be treble to it self as much as the same Body being in two places at once will be double to it self And secondly that one Divine Nature being in three distinct Persons it will be as much Divisa à se besides that it will not be Divisa ab aliis viz. from the three distinct Persons with which it is really identified as a Body will by being in two distinct places at once Thâ—s is the bare edge and full strength of his Answers against my Metaphysical Argument As for his Rhetorical Flourishes and Boasts they are no part of any proof and I list not to meddle with such things The Reply To the First part of his first Answer I Reply That it is plain that it is divisum à se secundum substantiam both quoad totum and quoad partes because it is separate or distant so many yards or so many miles suppose from it self nothing of it self being between As distant and separate as two several Individual Bodies at the same distance that is to say A is as many yards
lyes the charity and moderation they boast of Why I 'll tell you In this â— hat whereas Protestancy that is Christian Religion quatenus reformed from the errors of Rome wants no repentance and the Errors and mispractises of the Church of Rome are so hainous and enormous that most Protestants comparing the Crimes of that Church with the menaces of Scripture do conclude the Adherers thereto in the state of Damnation without any more to do so soon as they adhere unto it Dr. Hammond and Dr. Potter are so charitable that though men dye in that Church yet by a general sincere repentance such as implies that if their Errors and mispractises were discovered to them to be such they would forthwith leave the Communion of that Church declare they may be saved which is the same I profess too But we declare in the mean time that it is perfect madness in any one to go over to such a Church in which there is no Salvation but upon supposition that if we knew the gross Errors and mispractises of it we would presently renounce Communion with it which if we did not we should certainly be damned But behold a third fetch also Nothing is more current saith he amongst them when they are pressed with the Crime of Schism then to return the Charge upon us from other grounds saying that as the Donatiâ—ts and Luciferians were so we are Schismaticks in cutting off from the Body of Christ and hope of Salvation other Churches from which we are divided in Communion From which he would infer that we should make our selves Donatists and Luciferians if we should cut them off from hope of Salvation To which I Reply That this must be current onely amongst them that phancy themselves pressed with the Crime of Schism But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How soft and yielding must they be how weak and feeble that can phancy themselves pressed with such an Objection Certainly those must be but very few And therefore this Answer must be current but with a very few Our constant Answer is that they are Shismaticks that depart from the Communion of the truly ancient and Apostolick Church Of whose lineage we do avow ouâ— selves to be and do plainly and irrefragably prove it And therefore you are Apostates from us and Schismaticks that you do not cast off your enormous errors and hainous practises and Communicate with us But with the Lucifâ—rians and Donatists you make your selves more holy and call us Hereticks when your selves are really the Hereticks and Schismaticks In this are you like the Donatists and Luciferians and unjustly take upon you to cut us short of Salvation But does it thence follow we justly declaring you debar'd of Salvation by reason of your open Idolatries and Murders of the innocent people of God that we become thereby also Donatists and Luciferians let any indifferent man judge But the last and strongest prop of so bad a Cause is the great and venerable Authority of Dr. Thorndike an ingenuous Son of the Church of England Of whom he says In regard I have mentioned so eminent a person and member of the Church of England as Dr. Thorndike I shall make bold to turn him into the lists against Dr. More The Antithesis of their doctrines is very remarkable for they run diametrically opposite one to another 1. Dr. More affirms the VVorship of the Host in the Papacy to be Idolatry Dr. Thorndike ch 19. denies the VVorship of the Host in the Papacy to be Idolatry 2. Dr. More holds that the placing and reverencing Images in Churches is Idolatry Dr. Thorndike ch 19. holds that the placing and reverencing Images in Churches is not Idolatry 3. Dr. More will have Invocation of Saints to be inexcusable Idolatry Dr. Thorndike ch 16. excuses Invocation of Saints from Idolatry 4. Lastly Dr. More exhorts all men to separate from the Church of Rome as Idolaters But â—r Thorndike ch 1. avows to all the world that those who separate from the Church of Rome as Idolaters are thereby Schismaticks before God VVhen the two Doctors are fully agreed upon these Points Dr. More shall hear more from me if he desires it In the mean time I shall intreat him to respite my pen for some other Employment Repl. Dr. Thorndike I confess is a Person whom his years and repute of Learning have made venerable But what is this to the point in hand to the proveing the Charge of my being less regardfull then I should be in this Exhortation whether I speak true or false This is a mere popular Topick and this your whole last Section wherein you would fain offer something against this last Chapter of my Antidote but a loose and weak stroke of Rhetorick to drive the simple into your Church as I have seen men drive Geese or Turkies on the high way to London with a stick and long string with a red cloth tyed at the end of it as you annex the splendid name of Dr. Thorndike at the end of this Section to either scare or incourage poor Souls to your Communion But does Dr. Thorndikes being of another mind from me prove that I am in the wrong If this be to conâ—uâ—e a man I can easily conâ—ute Dr. Thorndike himself by shewing that Persons not onely of very eminent Learning but of clear and terse judgments differ from Dr. Thorndike in all these four Antitheses Mr. Ioseph Mede of our Colledge who was so modest a Soul that though he had worth to furnish out I know not how many Doctorships never commenced Doctor let us for the time to make the Comparison more plausible call him Doctor as well as my Adversary does Doctor Thorndike and then say Dr. Thorndike denies the worshipping the Host to be Idolatry Dr Mede affirms it to be Idolatry Dr. Thorndike holds the honouring of Images in Churches to be no Idolatry Dr. Mede affirms it to be Idolatry c. Where is Dr. Thorndike now Nay suppose I should put that eminently Learned Prelate of the Church of England and of singular clearness of Reason and Judgement Bishop Downham once of Christs Colledge in the balance with Dr. Thorndike who in these things is exquisitely of the same mind with Dr. Mede in what elevation would Dr. Thorndike appear then The same I may say of the Archbishop of Armagh Bishop Jewel Arch-bishop Abbot and several other Bishops and Doctors of our Church who at least joyntly if not in several will surely counterpoize the weight of Dr. Thorndikes name Indeed I might say the whole Body of our Church as subscribers to the Homilies of our Church affirm in all these points against Dr. Thorndike Nay I dare with all confidence assert that no man can make any good sense of the 13th and 17th Chapters of the Apocalypse but he will plainly discern that the very Spirit of God himself has declared against him What poor and simple Souls then must they be that can be scared out of the Truth or
kept in Error by such Topicks as these Dr. Thorndike is not of the same mind with Dr. More therefore Dr. More uses blustering arguments not much concerned whether true or false For my part I desire no man take my Arguments or Assertions upon trust but do appeal to Scripture and his own Reason whether what I say be not true and would have him examine them accordingly And therefore Dr. Thorndike must not be offended though I yield not to his name though I have a due respect for him till I have tried the strength of his Arguments in each Antithesis to my Assertions As to the first Antithesis therefore where he denies the Worship of the Host in the Papacâ— to be Idolatry Cap. 19. the short and long of his Argument is this That no Papist worships the Elements of the Eucharist nor the Accidents of it for God Therefore no Papist in this VVorship is an Idolater He Vâ— orships not the Elements of the Eucharist because he does not believe them to be there Nor the Accidents as they call them because he believes them to be no part of the Body of Christ into which the consecrated Bread is Transubstantiated But to this I brieflâ— Answer That the Bread Transubstantiated into the Body of Christ and Hypostatically united with the Deity there where the Accidents shew us so that they become that very Person God-man is the intended Object of their Worship and Adoration being visible to them merely in vertue of those Accidents or species that are like Bread Now therefore it is plain if there be no such thing as Transubstantiation that their Adoration passes upon a mere untransubstantiated piece of Bread instead of the Body or corporeal presence of Christ supposed to be veiled with those Accidents of Bread which therefore is plain Idolatry For in that they are mistaken in their Object and intended no Worship to a piece of Bread but to Christ does not excuse the Idolatry by the 4th and 5th Conclusions of the second Chapter See also Conclusion 21. and 22. as also the last Conclusion of the same Chapter I have represented Dr. Thorndikes Argument with the utmost strength I could possibly and yet it is no other than you see To the second Antithesis Dr. More says he hoâ—ds that the placing and reverencing of Images in Churches is Idolatry Repl. I do not hold that the mere placing of Images in Churches is Idolatry though I must confess I had rather have their room than their Company but onely the worshipping of them And now let us hear what Dr. Thorndike Chap. 19. alledges to the contrary â—n doing honour saith he to the Images of Saints there can be no Idolatry so long as men take them for Saints that is Gods Creatures much less to the Images of our Lord. â—or it is the Honour of our Lord and not of the Image And a little after to the like sense For indeed and in truth it is not the â—mage but the Principal the Nicene Council calls it Prototype that is honoured by the honour that is said to be done to the Image because it is done before the Image This is the sum of his Argument to prove that Image-worship is no Idolatry Now in order to the better understanding my Answer you are First to take notice that both my Adversary and Dr. Thorndike understand such Images as have honour done to them in the Church of Rome viz. Images dedicated or consecrated as you have an example of the form above and therefore such as are the symbolical Presences of their Principals or Prototypes Secondly That this honour here mentioned in general by Dr. Thorndike is the Honour done and allowed by the Church of Rome unto Images viz. Invocation before them Incurvation setting up Wax-candles and burning Incense before them Noâ— that the doing of this honour to these Images is not Idolatry Dr. Thorndike would prove upon the Principel of Pope Adrian and the second Council of Nice Because the Honour does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 passes from or through the Image to the Principal in so much that the Principal alone seems to be worshipped not the Image And this Principal being either the Saints or Christ so long as we remember the Saints to be Gods Creatures it can be no Idolatry much less in the Image of Christ since the Principal or Prototype there is God Repl. To the first of which I Answer That the Primitive Christians knew the Emperor to be Gods Creature and even eo nomine because they remembred him to be Gods Creature would not cast a few grains of Incense into the fire in honour of him though it cost them their lives for not doing of it And the departed Souls of the great Heroes or Benefactors among the Heathen whom they after death made Damons and worshipped them were known well enough to be Gods Creatures that is to say the off-spring of the highest Numen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Heathen Poet could saâ— and yâ—t no Christians doubt but they were Idolaters in worshipping them And therefore by the third and fourth Conclusions of the first Chapter the worshipping of the Images of the Saints though terminating on the Saints themselves is Idolatry Besides Incurvation to an Image such as is here practised is Idolatry by the seventh and eighth Conclusions of the same Chapter See also the nineteenth Conclusion of the second Chapter And then for the Image of Christ though Christ be God yet to Worship God by an Image is Idolatrâ— By the nineteenth Conclusion of the second Chapter and by the second Commandment and the â—earfull vengeance on the Israelites for worshipping the golden Calf which not withstanding was the symbolical Presence of Jehovah And for the pretense that the Worship is done onely before the â—mage not the Image since the Image is a symbolical Presence dedicated to Christ or this or that Saint and that these are the Instances of Honor debitus viz. Incurvation toward it burning Incense and the like used by the Câ—urch of Rome and specified by the Council of Nice to which the Council of Trent does refer it is manifest that these honours are done to these Images as well as to their Protoypes as appears further from the tenth Conclusion of the first Chapter and the twentieth of the second which Conclusions are improvable also to the case of burning of Incense and lighting up wax-candles and bringing of Oblations to these symbolical Presences which please the simple people when they visibly behold their Masters to whom they pay their Religious Tribute or Offerings whether Money or money-worth What Idolatry can be more Pagan-like than this So little satisfactory is it what Dr. Thorndike produces for the freeing of the Church of Romes Image-worship from Idolatry To the third Antithesis Dr. Thorndike says he excuses Invocation of Saints from Idolatry Repl. Truly upon my perusal of that Chapter in Dr. Thorndike I think my Adversary has little reason to