to them nor worship them An error whereof they are so consciously guilty in themselues that in their Catechismes and confession of their penitents they commonly leaue out that Commandement And their professors being charged with this errour are so ashamed of it that they in plaine termes deny that they doe any such religious seruice to Images therein indeed denying their owne Religion and incurring the curse of their Trent Councell which anathematizeth all those that hold against their Decree heerein namely That duc honour and worship ought to bee giuen to Images But doth not their reall practice crosse their verball excuse for if they doe not worship Images why doe they performe so many religious seruices vnto them they vayle and bow downe vnto them they set vp before them lights in honour of them they offer vp incense and other oblations vnto them they expand and spread foorth their armes before them in Prayer What can they do more for outward seruice to God himselfe This Idolatrous practice is not onely condemned in sacred Scripture as expresly as Blasphemy witchcraft murther adultery or any other sinne and auoyded of all the faithfull of both Testaments but is renounced as impious by the Fathers for many ages after Christ affirming Images in the Church to be contrary to the authority of the Scriptures that there is no Religion where an Image is And S. Gregory about 600. yeeres after Christ forbiddeth vtterly the adoration of Images onely allowing the Historicall vse of them as wee doe at this day whereby we may see that this foule errour had not as yet in so long time possessed the Sea of Rome 5. Their Priests in the Masse offer vp a propitiatorie sacrifice both for the quicke and the dead and their blind followers are bound so to beleeue and doe both pray and pay to bee had in his mâ—mento Whereas all propitiatory sacrifices haue their period and end in Christ who is the end of the Law and the onely Sacrificing Priest in the Gospel being a Priest for euer according to the order of Melchisedech This Sacrifice is onely one and once onely offered and that by himselfe alone and therefore is called The offering of the body of Iesus once for all and this Man saith the Apostle after he had offered one sacrifice for sinne for euâ—â— sate downe on the right hand of God For by one offering hee hath perfected for euer them that are sanctified How sacrilegious then and blasphemous is that daily propitiatory sacrifice of theirs where is their warrant for it seeing Christ ordained no sacrifice to bee offered by any sacrificing Priest but onely a Sacrament commemoratiue to bee administred by the Pastours of the Church and receiued together with them by the people Where in the Gospell can they finde the calling of a Sacrificing Priest The Commission is onely Goe teach and baptize and the subiect of their teaching must be no other thing but that which Christ hath commanded other ordinary Priesthood our Lord ordained none but Pastors and Teachers The name Sacrifice we deny not to the Sacrament but with the Fathers wee call it a Sacrifice for diuers good respects and namely because as the Master of Sentences saith out of S. Augustine and S. Ambrose It is the remembrance and representation of the true Sacrifice offered vpon the Altar of the Crosse. As for any proper reall and propitiatory Sacrifice wee may see by this that it was not knowne in Peter Lumbards time about twelue hundred yeeres after Christ and therefore is farre from being truly Catholicke 6. Their Transubstantiation which they oblige euery Christian soule to beleeue not onely vpon paine of their fagot fire but of the fire of hell thaâ— is that after the words of Consecration there ceaseth to be the substance of Bread and Wine that there remaine only the outward accidents shew and shâ—pe thereof vnder which the very body and blood of Christ is substantially and corporally inclosed How directly contrary is it to the expresse words of Christ in the first Institution For our Lord Iesus after the consecration and blessing testifieth the elements to remaine in their substance calling them by their right names Bread and The fruit of the Vine The like doth S. Paul and that often in one short Context It is an errour indeed against common sense For let the senses of sight smelling taste and feeling report if there remaine not the substance of Bread and Wine after consecration insomuch that if a man haue sufficient quantitie of them he may well for a proportionable time sustaine nature with no other food which could not be if there remained nothing but the externe accidents and meere shew of Bread and Wine It is against the nature of a true body which is to be onely in one place at one time and that in his due dimension and substance Now we know and beleeue that Christ is true man in all things like vnto vs sinne onely excepted and therefore to make him to bee without dimension in so many hundred nay thousands of places at one instant doth manifestly imply a tacite denyall of his humane nature It is against our Christian Creed where wee beleeue that Christ leauing the world in regard of his bodily presence ascended into heauen and sitteth on the right hand of God and from thence hee shall come to iudgement which S. Peter aptly interpreteth in these words Whom saith he the heauen must receiue vntill the times of restitution of all things But there is no one euidence more apparantly conuincing this errour then if wee consider that at the institution of the Sacrament Christ sate visibly before the Apostles that they might plainely see with their eyes where his true body was And withall did expresly signifie vnto them that hee spake not simply of his body but of his body crucified and blood shed which as yet was not then done This saith our Lord Christ is my body which is giuen for you or as S. Paul relateth it which is broken for you Againe of the Cup he saith This is my blood of the new Testament which is shed for many adding also for the cleering of all doubt heerein the commemoratiue vse of the Sacrament which euidently confuteth all carnall and corporall presence This doe saith he in remembrance of me that is of me crucified For saith the Apostle as often as you shall eate this bread and drinke this cup ye shew the Lords death till he come Now whereas he calleth the bread his body and the wine his blood it is according to the vsuall manner of Scripture speaking euery where of Sacraments it calleth them by the name of those things whereof they are Sacraments Thus Circumcision was called the Couenant because it was the signe and seale of the Couenant So the Paschall Lambe is called the Passcouer because it was the signe of the Passcouer
It is said in the same sence by Saint Paul that the rocke was Christ because it typically and sacramentally represented Christ. Thus the ancient Fathers did speake and thinke of the Sacrament The Lord doubted not saith Saint Augustine to say This is my body seeing hee appointed it to bee the signe of his body Yet forasmuch as our Romish aduersaries harden themselues in their error vpon a conceit they haue entertained that we hold Sacraments to be onely bare and naked signes it must be knowne for their conuiction that it is but a meere slander which they take to be true vpon the bare report of their guides without so much as either hearing or reading what wee hold The truth is wee hold no such thing neither is the question betweene them and vs whether Christ be substantially present in the Sacrament but de modo concerning the manner of his presence They say by conuersion of the bread into the very body of Christ so that whosoeuer eateth y e consecrated bread eateth carnally the very body of Christ whether it be man beast or vermine that eateth We according both to Scripture and Fathers teach that Christ is pabulum mentis non dentis foode for the minde not for the mouth and is as truely receiued of euery true beleeuer as the bread and wine it selfe Our Church of England is in no point more cleere and plaine then in this affirming that such as rightly worthily and with faith receiue the same partake of the body and blood of Christ. And withall determineth de modo de medio both of the manner and of the meanes in these very words The body of Christ is giuen taken and eaten in the Supper only after an heauenly and spiritual manner And the meanes whereby the body of Christ is receiued and eaten in the Supper is faith Yea and Caluin himselfe at whom their spight is most and whom they most scādalize in this matter doth so plainely deliuer the truth herein with vs that Bellarmine is constrained to confesse that Caluin teacheth that the body of Christ is truly giuen vnto vs in the Supper That our soules are fed with the substance of the body of Christ and that it is not an empty and vaine signe But for the full conuiction of this error the nouelty of it may be sufficient for it is so farre from any Catholike antiquity that Erasmus affirmeth transubstantiation to bee but a late definition And their owne subtill Doctor Scotus auerreth that before the Councell of Laterane it was no Doctrine of faith Which was aboue twelue hundred yeeres after Christ for that Councell was held in the yeere of our Lord 1215. 7. Vpon the former error dependeth another and that is the adoration of the consecrated Host. For vpon this false ground that there remaineth no more substance of bread and wine but the very body and blood of Christ by conuersion they prostrate themselues before it and worship it as God himselfe with that kind of religious worship which they call latria peculiar onely to God And this they doe not onely in the vse of the Sacrament at the eleuation or lifting vp of it by the Priest to that very purpose but to the same end they make reseruation of it and vse circumgestion or carrying of it about in open shewes and processions contrary to the expresse institution of Christ who ordained no Sacrament extra vsum out of the vse of it nor euer said This is my body This is my blood but with an Edite bibite Eate ye and drinke ye so that they can pretend no bodily presence out of the vse of the Sacrament And in it as hath beene shewed before there is no conuersion or transubstantiation And therefore the adoration must needs determine and rest in the creature and so is none other but a meere artolatrie or bread worship and abominable Idolatrie The very heathen could say Who is so mad as to beleeue that to be God which he doth eate And indeede this madnes hath made the heathen abhorre Christian Religion and in contempt of it to say Seeing Christians doe eate the god whom they worship let my soule bee with the Philosophers 8. Their priuate or solitary Masse wherein the Priest onely doth participate the people as in a Theater gazing and looking on which they so highly extoll and make the most eminent part of their Religion and publike seruice consider we it seriously and wee shall finde it without all ground and warrant of Gods Word nay ex diametro directly aduerse and opposite to Christs ordinance For our Lord in the Supper did ordaine a communion of many together not a solitary eating and drinking of one alone by himselfe His mandate is Take ye Eate ye Drinke ye all of it And Saint Paul accordingly calleth the Sacrament The communion of the blood of Christ The communion of the body of Christ And yeldeth a reason from the correspondence betweene the elements and the Communicants For saith he wee being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread And this goodly Masse is so farre from hauing any acquiantance with antiquity excepting only the name that it was not knowne in S. Gregories time so many hundred yeeres after Christ. For then the voice of the Deacon openly in the Church was this Whosoeuer doth not communicate let him depart 9 Their dry diet in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper wherein they depriue the people of the Cup how sacrilegious is it and iniurious to the people In the prime institution our blessed Lord gaue this expresse charge Drinke ye all of it And S. Marke noteth their answerable obedience And they all saith he dranke of it And S. Paul faithfully reporting the institution and according to the practice of the Church often repeateth as well the receiuing of the Wine as of the bread by the people and so exhorteth Let a man saith he examine himselfe and so let him eate of this bread and drinke of this Cup. Here we may see was no drie feast heere was no lame Sacrament like theirs hopping vpon one legge Nay it is a truth so euident that it is by their owne Cassander ingenuously confessed that for the space of a thousand yeeres since Christ in the Romane Church it selfe it was ordinarily dispensed to euery mēber of the Church in both kinds and that saith he by the testimonies of innumerable Ancients both Greeke and Latine 10. Their inuocation of Saints offering vp vnto them as solemne and set praiers as to the sacred Deity it selfe what is it but a manifest derogation and robbing of God euen of his peculiar right which is to be the sole hearer of the prayers of his creatures O thou saith the Psalmist that hearest prayer vnto thee shall all flesh come For we must know that it is the act of
new Ierusalem That great Citie The holy Ierusalem So againe it is called The Citie of the liuing God The heauenly Ierusalem It is compared to a Citie in two respects that is to say Defence and Priuiledge We know that Cities are places of refuge to defend the inhabitants from the force of enemies So is the Church to the true members of it the onely place of eternall safetie Therefore it is that the faithfull in their triumphant Song doe to the praise of God sing in this manner Wee haue a strong Citie saluation will God appoint for walls and bulwarkes And the Prophet Ioel foretelling the state of the Christian Church saith In mount Sion and in Ierusalem shall be deliuerance So that in this heauenly Citie entred into heere vpon earth is our onely securitie of saluation without it there can be no safetie at all Heereupon Saint Augustine alluding to those words of the Psalme Praise the Lord O Ierusalem praise thy God O Sion for he hath made fast the barres of thy gates When saith he the barres of the gates are fast as none can come in so none can goe out intimating thereby that they that belong not to this Citie of God the Church but remaine without cannot haue the benefit of Defence but lye open to eternall ruine whereas on the contrary they that are so in it that they are also of it can neuer be surprized by any enemy but may sing comfortably with Dauid Blessed be the Lord for he hath shewed me his marueilous kindnesse in a strong or fenced Citie Againe Cities or Common-wealths haue their priuiledges immunities and freedomes wherein the Citizens and Freemen onely are interessed To this purpose that Father citeth the definition of Scipio in Tullie de Rep. Respublica est res populi That is The weale-publike is the peoples wealth Or thus The common-wealth is the wealth or wellfare of the Commons It is so with the Church Therefore of this immunitie and freedome the Apostle speaking of the Catholicke Church saith Ierusalem which is aboue is free and telling the Ephesians that before their conuersion they were without Christ and were aliens from the common-wealth of Israel and were strangers from the couenant of Promise and had no hope and were without God in the world he saith But now in Christ Iesus yee which were farre off are made neere by the Blood of Christ and afterwards addeth these words Now therefore ye are no more strangers and Forreiners but Citizens with the Saints meaning heereby that they had now being entered into the Church attained vnto the immunity and freedome of the Citie of God But wherein consisteth this freedome Among other priuiledges it doth mainely and principally consist in freedome from sinne and condemnation for sinne Hence it is that S. Paul assureth the faithfull That sinâ—â— shall haue no dominion ouer them and that being freed from sinne they haue their frâ—â—ie in holinesse and the end euerlasting life Againe that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus By this it is euident that the priuiledge of eternall life and happinesse is the peculiar right of the Citie of God the Church It is also likened vnto a Mother So saith the Apostle That Ierusalem which is aboue is the mother of vs all This semblance standeth in two things First the Church as a Mother doth conceiue and bring foorth children to God by the immortall seede of the Word of God in the Ministery of the Church whereunto S. Paul alluding saith to the Galatians My little children of whom I trauell in birth againe vntill Christ bee formed in you Secondly the Church as a Mother doth after her children are borne and brought foorth feed and nourish them with the sincere milke of the Word of God out of her two brests the sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testament and as they grow in strength giueth them not onely milke but also strong meate As therefore no man can liue the life of nature but hee must haue a mother by whom hee must bee conceiued and brought foorth into the world and must withall haue conuenient nourishment for preseruation of life So no man can liue the life of grace heere and the life of glory for euer vnlesse he be borne of his Mother the Church and nourished in it to euerlasting life To this purpose is that noted saying of an ancient Father Hee shall neuer haue God for his Father that hath not the Church for his Mother The Church is againe compared to a Vine as wee may see by the complaint of the faithful vnto God in the Psalme Thou hast brought a Vine out of Egypâ— c. why hast thou then broke downe her hedges And by Gods complaint concerning his Church O Inhabitants of Ierusalem and men of Iudah iudge I pray you betweene me and my Vineyard When I looked that it should bring foorth grapes it brought foorth wilde grapes Our Sauiour Christ vnder the Parable of the Vine describeth the Church likening himselfe to the body or stocke and the members of his Church to the branches I am saith he the Vine ye are the branches It is inferred vpon the words going before noting the due proportion betweene the Vine and the Church As the branch saith Christ cannot beare fruit of it selfe except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me This he further amplifieth in these words He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth foorth much fruit for without mee ye can doe nothing If a man abide not in me he is cast foorth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned All this importeth thus much That vnlesse we be ingrafted into Christ the true Vine and so become liuely branches in the body of the Church wee can haue no hope of life and saluation For saith S. Augustine out of this body the holy Ghost quickneth no man This Doctrine of saluation in the Church onely is not onely thus illustrious by the bright-shining light of so many Diuine Similitudes and Parables but is also warranted by euident and inuincible reason grounded vpon the Word of God 1. It is a Principle vndenyable That there is onely one sauing truth And therefore the Apostle saith that all men whom God will haue saued he will haue to come to the knowledge of the Truth Now this truth is no where to be found but in the Church of God Hence it is that the godly are termed The righteous nation that keepâ—th the truth And S. Paul stileth the Church The pillar and ground of truth And for this cause the Spirit whereby the Church is guided is called The Spirit of truth and it was promised by our Lord Christ
an infinite Maiesty at one instant to heare the manifold variety of petitions of all men vpon the face of the earth yea and to know the very thoughts and desires of euery heart praier being principally the act of the heart Vpon this very ground wise Salomon takes for granted that all praier ought to bee made to God onely Heare thou in heauen saith he to God thy dwelling place and forgiue and doe and giue to euery man according to his wayes whose heart thou knowest for thou euen thou only knowest the hearts of all the Children of men Againe prayer to Saints wanteth that threefold prop that must support euery true and acceptable seruice to God that is to say Precept Promise and Paterne For Inuocation of Gods name we haue expresse commandement Call vpon me And our Sauiour commandeth that when we pray we should direct our prayers to Our Father in heauen We haue also a sure word of promise Whatsoeuer ye shall aske the Father in my name he wil giue it you And Whosoeuer shall call vpon the name of the Lord shall be saued We haue no such precept no such promise to warrant and incourage vs to inuocate the Blessed Virgin S. Peter S. Paul or any or all of the Saints Againe for praier to God only we haue expresse paterne both perâ—onall in all the Fathers from the first Adam in the Patriarkes Prophets Apostles and prime Orthodox Fathers of the Church who did suffer Martyrdome for this very point That God onely in Christ is to be adored and called vpon We haue also a reall paterne in that Heauenly Manuall of praier and praise the Sacred Psalter or Psalmes of Dauid together with the set formes of the faithfuls praiers recorded euery where in Scripture and all directed to God only not on paterne of prayer to Saints This is ingenuously confessed by their own Eccius and other Pontificians that inuocation of Saints hath no warrant in sacred Scripture not in the Old Testament because the Fathers were then in Limbo nor in the new Testament lest the Gentiles should returne againe to their old Idoll-worship and leâ—t the Apostles should bee charged with arrogancy as be speaking beforehand their owne glory and worship to bee done to themselues after their death Nay more they confesse that it is the safer and better way to call vpon God onely in the name of Iesus Christ. And one of them out of a work ascribed to Saint Augustine concludes the question thus More safely and more sweetly do I speake in prayer to my Iesus then to any of the Saints The storie of George Duke of Saxony is herein memorable Lying vpon his death-bed the Monkes like Locusts swarming about him and beholding his agony exhorted him one to inuocate the Virgin Mary another to call vpon the Angels another to pray to these and these Saints for helpe in that extremity but a Noble man one of his familiars standing by directed his speech to the Duke in this manner Your Highnesse saith he was wont in your politicke affaires to take vp this prouerbe To goe the direct way without ambages or circumstances is the most compendious course Why then should your Highnesse in this most dangerous passage goe about the furthest way and not rather goe the direct way vnto God himselfe by Christ who both will and can certainely helpe Erasmus among other his pleasant conceits doth merrily glance at this error reporting a story of one at Sea where as their manner is euery man in a wracke flyeth to his Saint as it were his Tutelar God There was one saith he among the rest when he saw the present and imminent danger and that there was no delaying in the midst of his distraction thoght with himself If I should pray to S. Nicholas it is vncertaine whether he heare me and it may be he is busy in hearing dispatching other petitioners or if not so yet it may be that he cannot haue so speedy accesse to God to mediate for me as my present necessitie requires I will therefore saith he take the safest and surest course and goe the direct way to God himselfe by Christ because it is written in the Psalme Call vpon me in the day of trouble I will deliuer thee and thou shalt glorifie me And in the Hebrewes Let vs therefore come boldly vnto the Throne of grace that we may obtaine mercy and find grace to helpe in time of neede If any stumble at this that some Fathers are alledged to countenance this error let him remember that of S. August We must not hearken to This say I This say you but This saith the Lord. And distinctly first of himselfe he saith I would not haue you follow my authority that you should therfore thinke any thing necessary to be beleeued because I say it And of other Fathers what he held may appeare by that which he writeth of S. Cyprians Epistle viz. That it hath no authority to bind him For saith he I do not hold Saint Cyprians Letters to be Canonicall Scripture but I examine them by the Canonicall and what I finde thereunto agreeable I imbrace with his praise what is not consonant by his leaue I will leaue This is the true profession of a Doctor concerning the Scriptures at his inauguration Quod tenet teneo quod respuit respuo What the Scripture doth hold I hold what it doth reiect I reiect If any harp vpon the long custom of this error in the ChristiaÌ„ world let him consider as one saith wel that Christ said not I am custom but I am truth And that custome without truth is but an old error or the antiquity of error Which like an old sore is so much the worse and more incurable the older it is 11. Their prayer for the dead to deliuer them out of that fearefull and hell-like torment in Purgatory wherein they are made to beleeue they lye boyling as in a fierie fornace What an antithesis and plaine opposition is there betweene the Word of truth and this grosse error We know and are assured by the Word of God that the blood of Iesus Christ clenseth and purgeth vs from all sinne So that there is no neede of humane purgatiues either for veniall sinnes or for temporall punishment of sinnes mortall For our Lord Iesus assureth the faithfull departing this life that he that heareth his Word and beleeueth is passed from death vnto life and that they that die in the Lord are in a blessed estate rest from their labours Yea the poorest Lazarus that dieth in the faith of Abraham is immediately in his precious soule conuaied by the Angels into Abrahams bosome there possessed of heauenly ioy not afflicted with hellish torment This may be a sufficient conuiction of this error that there is not one sentence not one word not one syllable no not one letter in