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

Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel doth not acknowledg us Eccles 9.5 The dead know not any thing Job 5.1 Call now if there be any that will answer and to which of the Saints wilt thou turn If Paul were a Mediatour then the rest of his fellow Apostles were so too and if there be many Mediatours then S. Paul's saying 1 Tim. 2.5 doth not hold good that there is but one Mediatour c. August lib. 2. Cont. Epist Parmen cap. 8. Christ is Mediatour according to both natures according to his humane he suffered and dyed by the power of his divine he overcame death and rose again without his humane nature he could not suffer without his Divine to give price and value to his sufferings he had not satisfied therefore it is said God purchased his Church with his own blood Acts 20.28 Both natures did work in this Office of Mediatourship each of them doing his own proper work and yet both together producing but one common effect CHAP. IX The Death of Christ. Truth THe Office of Christ as Mediatour consists of three parts whereof his Priesthood is principal and of his Priesthood that oblation he made of himself upon the Cross whereby as the only Sacrifice for sin he pacified the wrath of God and redeeming our souls from eternal death purchased for us the favou● of God and life everlasting Errours Adversaries to this truth are 1. Arrians and Socinians who affirm Th● Christ by his death did not satisfie for our sins 2. Papists who say That Christ by his death indeed satisfied for our sins and for the eternal punishment due unto us for them but for the temporal punishment we must satisfie out selves either in this life or else hereafter in purgatory 3. Arminians affirm That Christ dyed for all men as well those that perish as those that are saved for Cain and Judas as well as Abell and Peter From whence 4. Another riseth That a man whom Christ dyed for may perish The death of Christ being the consummation and total sum as it were Antidote of all his sufferings from his cradle to his grave is therefore commonly taken for the whole satisfaction that he made unto God for our sins To the Adversaries we say First That Christ by his death did satisfie for our sins Isai 53.5 8 10. His soul was made an offering for sin c. Mat. 20.28 A ransom for many 1 Cor. 5.7 A Sacrifice for us Rom. 4.25 He was delivered to death for our sins And 5.10 We were reconciled by his death 1 Pet. 2.24 He bare our sins in his own body on the tree Object But Micah 7.18 God forgives iniquity because he delights in mercy If Christ satisfie for sin how is it mercy Sol. Christs merits and Gods mercy stand and agree together very wel Christ hath satisfied and yet we are freely forgiven because God exacts nothing of us but of Christ It is free to us we payed nothing and though Christ made satisfaction yet still our sins are freely forgiven us because Christ himself for whose sake our sins are forgiven us was freely given us Secondly Christ satisfied not only for eternal but temporal punishment aso For otherwise 1. It could not stand with Christs all-sufficient Sacrifice who trod the wine-press of his Fathers wrath alone and none helped him Isai 63.3 if we must satisfie for some part our selves 2. It cannot stand with Gods mercy who forgives us freely for Christs sake 3. It cannot stand with his Justice when the fault is forgiven in exact any punishment but they confess Christ hath satisfied for the fault fully therefore in Justice there can be no punishment left for us to undergo Thirdly Christ dyed not for all but only for the elect Mat 1.21 He shall save his people John 10.15 I lay down my life for the sheep And 17.9 I pray for them I pray not for the world c. Fourthly A man that Christ hath dyed for can never perish John 10.15 And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish c. 1 Pet. 1.5 They are kept the Power of God unto salvation and what is able to controll that power Object But Christ is a ransom for all 1 Tim. 2.6 Dyed for every man Heb. 2.9 For the whole world 1 John 2.2 Sol. By world is meant the world of Gods Elect so it is taken John 6.33 and John 17.9 for the reprobate only By all understand all sorts and degrees of men all Countries and Nations not the whole multitude of mankind but the amplitude of grace only August Tract 45. in Joan. He spared not his own Son but delivered him for us all Rom. 8.32 For all whom for the elect as it follows v. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect ●ld Cont. Donat. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and the son of man came not to judg the world but to save it but the world is not reconciled unto God nor saved unless by world ye understand the Church which is both reconciled and saved Id. Epist. 48. Tom. 2. The whole world lyeth in wickedness i. the tares that grow all the world over And again Christ is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world i. for the wheat that likewise grows all world over CHAP. X. Resurrection of Christ Truth CHRIST did truly rise again from death and took his body flesh and bones and all things appertaining to the perfection of mans nature wherewith he ascended into Heaven and there fitteth at Gods right hand until he return again to judgment at the end of the world Errours David George the Father of the Family affirmed That Christs body was dissolved into ashes and so rose no more as of old Apelles said It was resolved into the four Elements whereof it was at first compounded 2. The Swenkfeldians affirm That it is quite layed aside 3. The Vbiquitaries That it is every where even as his Godhead is every where 4. There be at this day who affirm That it is in the Sun an old heresie of the Manichees and Seleucians who affirmed That Christ in his ascension left his body in the Sun taking their ground for it from Psal 19.5 He set his tabernacle in the Sun as they read It is no great matter to beleeve that Christ dyed this the Jews Heathen Antidote and all wicked men beleeve but the faith of Christians is the Resurrection of Christ August in Psal 120. This one point is the very lock and key of all Christian Religion For 1 Cor. 15.14 If Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain our faith is also vain we are still in our sins But Mark 16.6 He is not here he is risen 1 Cor. 15.4 He was seen of Cephas then of the twelve then of five hundred brethren at once Acts 2.31 Neither did his flesh see corruption Mark 16.19 He was received into Heaven and sate at

overthrow and therewith the whole Gospel burying Christ again that is risen for our Justification For if our works before or after Justification do merit grace and life by congruity or condignity then is Christ in vain and become of no effect To the Adversaries we say First 1. That we are justified without works by faith alone not that faith is or can be alone without good works in respect of its Essence but in the act of Justification it is alone as it is an Instrument of Justification Psalm 143.2 Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Iob 15.15 What is man that he should be just or he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous Rom. 3.20 By the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified Gal. 3.11 And that no man is justified by works is evident For the just shall live by faith Rom. 3.28 We conclude then that a man is justified by faith without works Good works indeed may justifie us before men as an evidence of our faith and of this S. Iames speaks Iames 2.24 Ye see then how by works a man is justified But before God we are justified only by the perfect Righteousness of Christ applyed unto us by the hand of faith wherein our own works have not the least finger Secondly we are justified by faith not as the cause but only as an Instrument of our Justification not as it is a vertue inherent in us but as it goes forth and apprehends and applies Christ unto us not by the merit of faith but by the merits of Christ applyed by faith and therefore it is said Rom. 3.22 The righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all that believe And v. 24. We are justified through the redemption that is in Iesus Christ And Phil. 3.9 The righteousness whereby we are justified before God is called the righteousness that is through the Faith of Christ and the Righteousness by faith and therefore when it is said we are justified by faith it notes the use or effect not the merit or dignity of faith For 1 Cor. 1.30 Christ is made unto us Righteousness And 2 Cor. 5.21 We are made the Righteousness of God in him Thirdly There is a glorifying Righteousness in the world to come In this world a sanctifying a justifying Righteousness that wherewith we shall be dothed in the world to come is both perfect and inherent that wherewith we are sanctified in this life is inherent but not perfect that wherewith we are justified is perfect but not inherent The Righteousness whereby we are justified before God is not inherent in us but in Christ in us not by inhesion but imputation the Righteousness of Christ whereby we are justified is not infused but imputed to us and accounted ours So Rom. 4.5 Abraham was iustified by a Righteousness imputed or accounted unto him 2 Cor. 5.21 We are made the Righteousness of God in him the Righteousness of God not ours in him not in us August Enchirid. cap. 41. Fourthly When we say we are justified by faith alone we do not mean a faith that is alone that is solitary without good works but a living faith and a working faith for a dead faith cannot justifie and a living faith cannot be idle but worketh by love Gal. 5.5 We are justified by faith alone without works not that works are separated from faith or can be but only excluded from the act of Justification The parts of our Justification are 1. The imputation of Christs righteousness 2. Forgiveness of our sins The inward moving cause is Gods mercy the outward is Christs merit The formal cause is the imputation of Christs righteousness the instrumental faith and faith without works whereby works are excluded not from the nature of Faith but from the act of Justification CHAP. XIV Of Sanctification Truth WHom he justified them he also glorified Our glorification which shall be finisht and compleated in the life to come is begun in this life partly in regard of our condition wherein we are made happy and partly in regard of our nature wherein we are made holy We are made holy in our nature by the grace of Sanctification which is the renewing of our whole nature though not wholy in this life according to the image of God in righteousness and true holiness Adversaries to this truth were 1. Errours Simon Magus and his disciples who gave libertie to all looseness and uncleanness saying That sin defiled the body but not the soul and they are followed by the Libertines of our age who scoff at all sanctitie or holiness of living And if you observe you shall find that holiness of life is had in great esteem and reverence among all sorts and sects among Papists and the very Turks themselves after their way only it is in disgrace among our common Protestants who usually despise and brand those with odious names who are any way strict and severe in their lives endevoring to live in the fear of God 2. Some Anabaptists as the Adamites and Familists say that they re perfect and pure from all sin and that there are men living as perfect and pure as Christ was So the Pelagians and Donatists of old of latter time● a Sect called Fratricelli affirmed that a man might attain in this life to that perfection to be without sin and he that is so is freed from all subjection to mortal men and had no more need of prayer fasting or such exercis●s of piety Among these Perfectists we reckon also the Papists 3. There be others so contrary to the Papists who would have justifying righteousness inherent in us that these will have none at all affirming that Christ is the new creature and all graces are in Christ as in the subject none in us upon which follow many other strange doctrines Antidote Now we are justified by faith through the free grace of God we ought to follow after holiness with the more diligence 1. That we may glorifie Gods name who hath done so great things for us 1 Cor. 6.20 Mat. 5.16 1 Pet. 2.12 Because 2. it is the will of God 1 Thes 4.3 Because 3. it is the end of our election Eph. 1.4 He hath chosen us that we should be holy 4. It is the end of our Redemption Luk. 1.74 He hath saved us that we should serve him 5. It is the end of our calling 1 Thes 4.7 God hath called us unto holiness and Heb. 12.14 Without holiness we shall never see God Secondly Though we ought to endeavour and follow after holiness yet we can never be perfect or without sin in this life 1 John 1.8 If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us James 3.2 In many things we offend all 1 Kings 8.40 There is no man that sinneth not Prov. 20.9 Who can say I am pure from my sin Eccles 7.10

There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not as is evident by the confessions and examples of holy men of God Noah Gen. 9.21 Abraham Gen. 20.2 Lot Gen. 19.33 David 2 Sam. 11. Paul Rom. 7. and Peter denyed his Master Christ Mat. 26. The Perfectists themselves have enough in themselves to convince them of their folly as pride envy malice c. being subject to sickness death c. which are the wages of sin and therefore they are not without sin Object Our Saviour exhorts us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect Mat. 5 Sol. There is a pattern proposed unto us to imitate and follow not to match equal or overtake which cannot be As noteth the quality not equality Object 1 John 3. Whosoever is born of God sinneth not Sol. The same Apostle says If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves We sin then i. sins of infirmity and we do not sin i. we do not fall back into the service and dominion of sin finally or totally There is a perfection 1. Of degrees and stands opposed to imperfection 2. Of parts and stands opposed to hypocrisy This latter we may have i. be sincere and upright not the former i. be free from all sin defect or imperfection Many men in Scripture are called righteous just perfect not because they were without all vice but because they had many vertues Hieronym For otherwise Noah was drunk David committed Adultery c. Thirdly The righteousness whereby we are justified is inherent in Christ for us that whereby we are sanctified is inherent in our selves from Christ that is in us only by imputation this also by infusion and real Communication by that we are freed from the guilt by this from the pollution of sin that is done al at once this by degrees 2 Cor. 4.16 The inward man is renewed day by day 2 Tim. 1.6 Stir up the grace that is in thee 2 Pet. 1.6 Add to your faith vertue c. For if these things be in you c. the Righteousness then of Sanctification is subjectively in us Fourthly Our Sanctification is an evidence of our Justification Rom. 8.1 1 John 3.10 14. Gal. 5.24 2 Cor. 5.17 Lastly God doth see sin in his dearest Saints as in the example of David who also confesseth the same was punisht and prayed for pardon 2 Sam. 12.10 Psalm 51. If God did not see sin in him how did he send Nathan to reprove him for it why did he punish him for it Our Saviour teaches us to pray for pardon of sins Mat. 6.12 The Apostle 1 John 1. to confess our sins And Mat. 28. Peter wept bitterly for his sin We ought to sorrow for sin and renew our souls dayly by repentance CHAP. XV. Of the Moral Law Truth CHrist hath delivered us from the rigour and curse of the Law not from all obedience unto it but that it still remains a rule of life unto us Errours Antinomians or Adversaries to this truth because it is said We are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6.14 And that the Law is not made for the righteous 1 Tim. 1.9 hold That the Moral Law ought to be cast quite out of the Church that we be no more troubled or our Consciences terrified with the preaching thereof but that we be gently exhorted by the preaching of the Grace of Christ That the Law and Christ are two contrary things whereof one cannot abide the other That it is of no use to a Beleever no rule for him to walk or examine his life by Antidote Christ is the end of the Law finis perficiens not interficiens August A consummating not consuming end not destroying but fulfilling the same So our Saviour himself says Mat. 5.17 19. I came not to destroy the Law or the Prophets but fulfil Whosoever therefore shall break the least of these Commandments and teach men so c. Rom. 3.31 Do we then make voyd the Law through Faith God forbid yea we establish the Law 1 Cor. 7.19 Circumcision is nothing nor uncircumcision but the keeping the Commandments of God We are not under the Law but under Grace not under the Law as a Tyrant but now as a Father being freed from the curse and rigour of it not obedience unto it which we yeeld now not of compulsion or fear but love with all cheerfulness and willingness our hearts being enclined and disposed thereunto by the work of Gods Spirit 1 Joh. 5.3 This is the love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous and so the Law unto the Regenerate becomes as it were Gospel even a Law of liberty The Use of the Law is two-fold 1. Civil to punish and restrain sin 2. Spiritual to reveal it Luther in Galat. In the first regard it is not given to the righteous because good men are a Law unto themselves Rom. 2.14 The most proper and principal Use of the Law is to reveal sin and so the Law is light not to discover grace and life this is the office of the Gospel but to discover sin and death therein as in a glass we may see our own blindness c. For our natures are so corrupt that we should not know they were corrupt but by the Law Rom. 7.7 The Law then serves to humble us and drive us unto Christ to make us know sin and so know our selves and so renounce our selves and fly unto Christ And so the Law is our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ Gal. 3. And Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that beleeves Rom. 10. because the end of the Law is perfect Righteousness which we cannot attain of our selves but by Christ who hath fulfilled the same for us And when the Law hath brought us unto Christ it goeth no farther the coactive power of it ceaseth but not the directive it is still a guide and rule of life unto us which we follow not to seek Righteousness to our selves but to testify our thankfulness unto God we endeavour to keep the Law not to justify our selves but to glorify God and edify our neighbour by our good example And therefore we are still exhorted to do the works of the Law though we shall not be justified by the same CHAP. XVI Of good works ALthough we are justified freely by the Grace of God through the redemptio● that is in Jesus Christ. Rom. 3. Truth yet we ought still to maintain good works 1. Out of thankfulness unto God for so great a benefit and to glorify his name 2. To assure our selves of the truth of our faith by the fruits thereof 3. To edify win and provoke others also by our good example Adversaries are 1. The Papists Errours who think good works are meritorious and so overvalue them 2 The Libertines that undervalve them and think they are repugnant and contrary unto faith that understand our liberty that

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

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