Leo the Second changed this symbole of reconciliation into a superstitious vanity instituting that Plate of Silver or Copper which after Consecration is presented to be kissed And in this very particular one may perceive how much the antient Ceremonies have been either diverted or perverted through successive alterations therein Anno 790. BUt behold the Idolatry which under the vail of darkness was propagated in the Church even to the very Sanctuary Images were only as so many memorative objects in Churches yet did the vulgar begin to exhibit honour to them whereupon disputes were commenced In this difference reasons of State offered themselves which are to be seen in History for upon other accounts are Images pretended in subserviency to their interest The Latines and the Greeks and afterwards the Greeks amongst themselves took occasion from hence of much altercation one while demolishing and breaking down the Images another while re-erecting of them Finally Irene Empress of Constantinople a Pagan both by Nation and Religion a Woman of many notorious enormities assembled a Council at Nice excluding from it the best Doctors and employing menaces violence and all manner of artifice whereby she might compass her design Thus this Conventicle moulded and model'd according to her own mind producing instead of offers of reason nothing but impertinencies in behalf of the Images concluded upon adoration contrary to the judgment of all solid Antiquity and the opposition then generally made to a piece of such palpable impiety For at the same time the Emperour Charles the great converted a Council at Frankefort wherein that of Nice was condemned being declared false and abusive and the Decree touching Images incassated and made null thus was their resolved Adoration suppressed But being that Images were always continued in Churches this Superstition whereunto the People were strongly inclined did at last recover it self and prevail This second Council of Nice was held towards the year 790. Anno 880. POpe Adrian was the first that advised the Canonization of Saints imitating herein the Apotheoses or Consecrations used amongst the Romans under Paganism a thing which till then was unheard of in the Church The Authority of canonizing Saints was afterwards confirmed by Decree as we shall see in its proper place Anno 965. POpe John IV. baptized the great Bell of St. John Lateran in Rome nameing it after his own name Thence came the custome of baptizing Bells and giving them names Anno 1000. c. FRom the time above mentioned till about the year 1000. those corruptions were not only continued but likewise gradually multiplied To the consecration of Churches they added sprinkling of holy Water with a Nose-gay of Hyssop pronouncing these words of the Psalmist Attollite portas c. Lift up your Gates c. the Bishop in the mean time rapping at the Gate with his Pastoral-staff the mingling of the Ashes and Water of the Salt and the Wine of Exorcisme of painted and graven Characters and certain confused Prayers Finally the anniversary Feast of every Church in memory of the day of its dedication And like as the Sacrament of the Eucharist was changed into a Sacrifice even so the Priests which were called to preach the Gospel were then ordained to sacrifice they began to create them with these words Accipe potestatem c. Receive thou power to offer sacrifice to God to celebrate Masses as well for the living as for the dead Anno 1003. POpe John xix instituted the Feast of All-Souls appointing it to be celebrated upon the Morrow after All-Saints Anno 1050. BUt behold the summe of the whole matter That they might defend the Sacrifice which they pretend to offer in the Mass they behoved to deny the whole Essence of the Sacrament and falsify and bely all that ever Antiquity hath believed in the case whose sense and several judgments therein do here ensue S. Ignatius Bishop of Antioch and a Disciple of the Apostles in the 72 d. year of our Lord expresseth himself thus There is one only Flesh of our Lord Jesus and one only blood which was shed for our sins one only Bread also was broken for us and one only Cup was distributed to us Could he possibly make a more manifest opposition between the Body of Christ broken upon the Cross and the Bread broken in the Supper Justin Martyr towards the year 130. Our Christ hath vouchsafed to make and use the Sacramental Bread in Commemoration of his Body formed for such as believe in him for whose sake he became passible the Cup also he ordained to be made and used with thanksgiving in Commemoration of his Blood Ireneus Bishop of Lyons in the year 160. When once the Chalice being fill'd and the Bread being broken hath received the benedictive word of God it becomes the Sacrament of the Blood and Body of Christ whereby the substance of our flesh is augmented and compounded Certainly none can say that our flesh is augmented nor compounded of the real flesh and blood of Christ but only of the substance of the bread which this Father plainly acknowledgeth to continue in the Eucharist even after the Consecration of the same Clemens Alexandrinus in the year 190. Christ took of the Wine and blessed the Wine saying take drink This is my blood the blood of the Vine denominating by way of Allegory the Word which shed his blood for the remission of sins a sacred liquor of joy and gladness c. Now that that which he blessed was true Wine he further sheweth saying to his Disciples I will drink no more of the fruit of the Vine c. This very same reason do we urge to prove that they drank Wine at the Supper Briefly it is remarkable that he disputes against the Encratites who held the drinking of Wine to be unlawfull alledging for their conviction the example of Jesus Christ who drank Wine at the Supper which were a ridiculous Argument if so be Wine had ceased to be Wine after that Christ had drank thereof Tertullian in the year 205. doth thâ—s explain the words of Jesus Christ This is my Body that is to say the Figure of my Body Moreover Jesus Christ called Bread his Body to the end that thou might'st thereby understand that he appointed Bread to be the Figure of his Body Cyril Bishop of Jerusalem in the year 320. declares to us that The Flesh is now absent and that that which we are commanded to tast of is the Figure of his Body and Blood Eusebius Bishop of Cesarea saith that our Lord hath taught us to serve him with Bread as a sign of his Body Gregory Bishop of Nazianze in the year 350. in his second Oration concerning Easter speaketh thus of Sacramental participation We partake indeed of the Christian Pass-over in a Figure albeit more clearly than at the ancient Pass-over for the ancient Pass-over I dare say so was a more obscure figure of a Figure Macairus the
Egyptian speaking of those who lived before Jesus Christ It never entered into their hearts that there should be a Baptisme of Fire and of the Holy Ghost and that they should offer in the Church Bread and Wine as a Figure of his flesh and of his blood and that those who partake of the Bread which is visible should feed spiritually upon the Flesh of our Lord. Ephraim of Syria in the year 360. in his Treatise against the curious Inquisitours into the nature of the Son of God Observe heedfully how that taking the Bread into his hands he blesseth and breaketh it in Figure of his immaculate Body and blesseth the Cup in figure of his precious Blood Ambrose or the Author of the Book of Sacraments See that this offering turn into an acceptable and reasonable account to us which is the figure of the body and blood of our Lord. Gaudentius Bishop of Bress in his second Treatise upon Exodus The figure of Christs body is received in the bread Moreover the blood of the Lamb is fitly represented under the species of Wine Chrysostome Bishop of Constantinople in the year 386. in an Epistle to Cesarius the Monk doth thus unfold this great Mystery Before that the bread be sanctified we name it bread but it being once by Divine grace sanctified it is certainly freed from the appellation of bread and is dignified with the name of the Lords body howheit the true nature of bread doth still continue therein Turrianus and Gregory of Valence both Jesuits perceiving themselves to be wonderfully racked and puzled with this passage do most groundlesly aver that it was none of Chrysostome's but of one John of Constantinople which is confession sufficient since that it bears the mark of its antiquity This Epistle hath been seen by many in a Manuscript in the Bibliotheque of Florence by which if not stifled by our Adversaries the common fate of what ever is contrary to themselves it may be easily verified to be of a truth the genuine testimony of the great Chrysostome But it is high time that we hearken to holy Augustine who flourished in the year 410. behold how he explains himself in his 12 th Chapter against Adimantus The Lord doubted not to say this is my body when as he gave the sign of his body and upon the third Psalme The Lord admitted Judas to the Banquet at which he recommended and gave to his Disciples the figure of his body and blood The same Father upon the 98. Psalme wherein he expoundeth these words of our Lord If yee eat not the flesh of the Son of Man ye shall not have life brings in our Saviour speaking thus Vnderstand spiritually that which I have told you ye shall not eat this body which ye see neither shall ye drink that blood which my Crucifiers shall shed I have recommended to you a sacred signe which being spiritually understood shall give you life And in the third Book of Christian Doctrine Chap. 16. When the Lord saith if ye eat not the flesh of the Son of Man and drink not his blood ye shall have no life in your selves he seems to command an impiety or great crimâ—â— This then is a Figure whereby he enjoyneth us to communicate in the Lords death and Passion and delightfully and profitably to remember that his Flesh was crucified and bruised for us And in his first Treatise upon the first of St. John The Lord comforteth us who can no longer feel him with the Hand but only by the touch of faith And in the 53d Sermon upon the words of our Lord Every one almost calls that the body of Christ which is a sacred sign thereof Theodoret Bishop of Cyre in the year 420. in his first Dialogue entitled the Immutable speaking of these words This is my body saith the Lord hath dignified the visible signes with the appellation of his own body and blood not changing of their nature but adding grace to nature a little before he had said the Lord hath confer'd upon the sign the name of his own body And in the second Dialogue entitled The Inconfused The Divine Mysteries are signes of the true body And a little after he brings in an Eutychian Heretick maintaining Transubstantiation to whom he answereth in these words Thou art caught in a Net of thine own twisting for even after Consecration the mystical signes change not their nature but remain for subâ—â—â—nce form and figure the same as before Cyril Bishop of Alexandria in the year 440. Christ gave to his Disciples morsels of bread saying take eat this is my body He saith also that the faithfull believe that though he be absent from us in the body yet are all things and even our selves governed by him Again though he be absent in the Body appearing before his Father and sitting at his right hand yet nevertheless he is present in his Saints by his Spirit The same Father speaking of Nestorius Hath he not turn'd saith he our mystery into an Anthropâ—phagy that is to say a manducation of Man's flesh through an irreligious entangling of the spirits of the faithfull through vain conceits and attempting to subject to humane ratiocinations things which surpass all manner of scrutiny save that of faith only Gelasius himself Bishop of Rome about the year 590. speaketh thus Certainly the Sacraments which we receive of the body and blood of Christ are a Divine thing whence also we are by them made partakers of the Divine nature yet nevertheless the substance or nature of the â—read and the Wine doth uncessantly continue such and the Image and resemblance of the body and blood of Christ is infallibly celebrated in the exhibition of those mysteries Facundus an African Bishop who in the 550th year of our Lord wrote in defence of the three heads or points of the Council of Chalcedon The Sacrament of Adoption to wit Baptisme may be called the Adoption upon the very same account that we call the Sacrament of Christs body and blood which consists in the consecrated Bread and Cup his own body and own blood Not that the Bread is indeed his body and the Cup his Blood in proper speech but hecause that the mystery of his body and blood is contained therein Dionysius falsely surnamed the Areopagite an Author of whom we know not certainly in what time he lived howbeit to procure the greater Authority to his writings he assumed the name of Dionysius the Areopagite mentioned in the Book of Acts chap. 17. vers 34. But divers reasons move us to believe that he flourished about the end of the fourth Age others make him more ancient whoever he was he doth more than ten times in one Chapter tearm that which is given to us in the Supper Images Signes and Symboles and saith that the Communion of Bread and Wine is a commemoration of that most Divine Supper at which the signes of things therein celebrated were first of all instituted
all the Provinces under its command The Western Churches had then the form of Divine Service in this Language which was at that time understood by all but in process of time through the intercourse of barbarous Nations dispersed throughout the Empire new tongues offering the Latine became estranged Yet notwithstanding they still retain'd the use thereof in Churches though the People had already lost the knowledge of the same And indeed not only are the Mysteries of Religion in Churches but likewise matters of Justice in Palaces and Judicatories still managed in Latine like as all contracts and agreements are also written in the same Language nor is it as yet an hundred years since this barbarism was expel'd France Anno 605. HItherto was the Church governed by divers Patriarchs each of whom had his several Jurisdiction apart Every one of those within his respective Patriarchy enacted Laws and assembled Councils in which quality He of Rome acted but only as the rest to wit within the limits of his own Jurisdiction yet notwithstanding so it was that he frequently affected an universal preheminency over all the Churches sometimes labouring by might and main to transfer to himself the appeals of the other Bishops sometimes prevailing upon the addresses of such as in hopes of succour from him implored his assistance yea sometimes alledging forged and spurious Acts as at the sixth Council of Carthage which crushed that attempt Now in that of Chalcedon held about the year 450. it was said that the Bishops of Rome and of Constantinople were of an equal dignity nevertheless they procured the Primacy the one in emulation of the other and many were the contests and controversies commenced between them upon this occasion yea in the year 472. the Emperour Leo determining in favour of him of Constantinople confer'd upon him the precedency to all the other Bishops and from thence he was stiled Oecumenick But when once â—hocas attain'd to the Empire by murdering of Mauricius his Predecessour this same Parricide was on the one side offended with Cyriacus Bishop of Constantinople who refused to countenance his inhumanity on the other side he feared lest that the condigne hatred of his actions might occasion a revolt against himself in Italy insomuch that Boniface III. through offers made of his good services obtained of him that the Church of Rome should be the Capital Church and that the Bishop of Rome should be called the Soveraign and Vniversal Bishop thus by an Imperial Edict and not by any Divine Right was there an Vniversal Bishop created in the Church the quality which Gregory himself declined none could possibly affect but the Fore-runner of Antichrist It was under colour of this specious Title that the Bishops of Rome hath ever from thence forwards exerted and executed all the Acts of their pretended Primacy Boniface IV. soon after opened the Pantheon at Rome and erected therein the Images of all the Saints in the room of the Pagan-Gods This is the Temple which is at this day called St. Mary the Round And it is observable that at the same time namely in the year 610. that Monster Mahomet the scourge of Christianity shewed himself Anno 690. TIll about the year 690. the Church used only the figure of the Cross consisting of two traverse pieces of wood and they were wont to represent Jesus Christ under the form of a Lamb which was only a symbolical Picture But the fourth general Council ordained that the Image of Christ in his humane shape should be affixt to the Cross only to re-mind us say they of his conversation in the flesh his passion and death Thus began the use of the Crucifix but without any kind of adoration Anno 700. c. THen also were Private Masses obtruded wherein the Priest communicated all alone This corruption sprung from the luke-warmness of the People heretofore when as zeal was as yet vigorous the whole Assembly did communicate and that every day of the Week but this devotion waxing cold the Communion was restricted to the Sabbath and the more solemn days The Clergy nevertheless still communicated every day but in fine the Clergy likewise neglecting the Communion there was none but the Priest alone that did communicate From hence it came to pass that instead of one great Bread which they were accustomed to break for the use of the whole multitude they now consecrated only one small one of the bigness of a penny as being sufficient for one individual Person Likewise instead of the great Vessels used for the Sacramental Wine they used Viols in their Mass-Service But forasmuch as the People having once abandon'd the Communion did withall decline the presenting of any more Offerings that they might oblige them to a continuance 〈◊〉 that liberality they gave them to undeâ—â—stand that though they did not any moâ— communicate yet Divine Service shoulâ— not cease to be usefull and available tâ— them provided they would continue the assistance of their customary Offerings and instead of the Communion they gave them Bread over which they prayed called hallowed Bread Thus were private Masses substituted in the room of the holy Supper and yet nevertheless the Priest when he communicates all alone by himself doth still use the same tearms which he was wont to pronounce when there were many Communicants for he prays that the Sacrament might tend to the Salvation of all the receivers even then I say when as himself is the sole and only partaker Moreover from the relinquishing of the Eucharist another change proceeded for when that this exercise was more than ordinarily frequented the whole was pronounced with a loud voice save that in the first antiquity after an Exhortation made by the Pastour every one present prayed with a submissive voice to the end that God might vouchsafe to bless the work but the remaining part thereof especially the institution of the Supper was pronounced very loud so as that the whole Assembly might hear afterwards there being but a small appearance of persons that offered themselves to the Communion the Priest began to speak with a more low voice and finally there being none present but the Priest himself only who communicated he did at length utter the words of Consecration so low as that none but himself could understand them This is called the secret of the Mass sprung from a misprision of the Sacrament held at this day for a mystery Anno 780. IT hath been said that it was an ancient custome in the Church that Christians before the Communion did interchangeably give each other the kiss of peace in token of fraternal union and concord for the Lord's Prayer ended they said Peace be with us and with that the Christians did mutually salute one another But forasmuch as many acquitted themselves herein more out of Ceremony than true Charity they checkt and severely rebuked those whose kiss of peace was only matter of lip-labour Now about the year 780.
as the whole Kingdome of Bohemia was through means of their Preaching and Doctrine reduced from obedience to the Pope and the Ceremonies of the Romish Church the Council of Constance required King Wenceslaus to send the said Huss thither to whom the Emperour Sigismond gave very ample Letters of safe-conduct to the end that he might not scruple to surrender himself yet notwithstanding without any regard had thereunto he was within twenty six dayes after his arrival committed to Prison and after an hard and tedious incarceration most unjustly condemned to be burnt alive as an Heretick howbeit he had clearly demonstrated to them the truth of his Doctrine by the Word of God and the pregnant Testimonies of Christian Antiquity in pursuance whereof he maintained that the Church of Rome had departed from the Doctrine of the Apostles in pursuit of the riches and delights of the world hunting after Dominion and Primacy embezeling Church-goods which did of proper right belong tâ— the Poor in pomps and filthy and infamous expences confounding herewith the Ordinances of God or at leastwise guilty of a voluntary and deliberate contempt of the same That the Pope hath no such Authority as he challengeth over the Church and that Indulgences are null That the Bread and the Wine remain untransubstantiated in the Supper and that the Communion should be equally distributed to all under both kinds That there is no such thing as Purgatory That Saints departed ought not to be invoked nor Images worshipped and that all those things with their like appendants have no other foundation than that of the corruption and vanity of a humane spirit But forasmuch as the Truth doth ever purchase hatred from the Wicked as being naturally averse and adverse thereunto this was the cause of that cruel usage which he met withall from his Enemies which he endured with a truly Christian-Constancy rehearsing as he was going to the place of Execution or rather of Triumph diverse verses of the Psalms especially of the 31st and 51st and oftentimes these words taken partly out of the 31st I recommend my spirit into thy hands for thou hast redeemed me Lord Jesus thou God of Truth and as the Executioner was setting fire to the Faggots he said three times with a strong and loud voice Jesus Christ thou Son of the living God have mercy upon me Thus did this holy Martyr finish all his labours resigning his soul to God upon the 6th of July 1415. That other faithful Witness of the Truth Jerome of Prague did likewise seal the same with his blood upon the 30th of May 1416 after many sharp conflicts with his Adversaries whom he confounded and struck dumb with the same weapons namely the Word of God and the Testimonies of the ancient Doctors of the Church being endued with an admirable eloquence and vigour of spirit He encountred death with such an extasie of joy that when-as they began to kindle the Faggots he began to sing Divine Praises with a holy hymn which by the very relation of Aeneas Sylvius who was afterwards Pope called Pius II and of Pogius of Florence who was one of the Spectators he continued in the midst of the flames till that his blisfull soul took wing for Heaven there to bear a part in the harmonious new Song in the presence of its Saviour and the company of Angels and all the Saints and faithfull ones whose tears are all for ever wip'd away in that beatisick Sabbatism of Glory and eternal bliss But what shall we say more for the time would fail us should we instance in all who after those two saithful Witnesses espoused the defence of the same Truth which the greatest part of them have as they before them sealed with their blood We behoved to make mention of that great Assembly of persons at Doway in the year 1421 who held the Doctrine of the Waldenses of whom a great number as is reported by Monstrelet was sacrificed to the flames of William White and Alexander Fabrice English-men who in the year 1429 wrote in the defence of Wickliff's Doctrine which Reynauld Peacock Bishop of Chichester in like manner maintained in the year 1457. We behoved likewise to shew that George Poggebrach King of Bohemia together with his Subjects owned to the day of his death the profession of the Truth against the Determinations of Rome and that the King of Poland stood inclined to its defence Likewise that in the year 1480 John of Vessalia Basil of Groningue Stephen Bralfer and Paul Notary of Tubinge Doctors in Divinity did in like manner in Germany withstand the Doctrine of the Romish-Church for controlling of whose vanity and many corruptions Jerome Savonarole was burnt at Florence in the year 1498 notwithstanding which John Francis Picus Count of Mirandula failed not to write in his behalf and in like manner to reprehend the very same abuses That in the year 1505 Paul Scriptoris did in his Lectures in the University of Tubinge publickly declaim against Transubstantiation And that in the year 1507 Thomas More of Brockford an English-man was burnt at Norwich for preaching against the then prevailing Superstitions of the Church We behoved moreover to produce that goodly Confession presented in the year 1508 to King Vladislaus by the persecuted Waldenses in Hungary which was exactly conformable to that of the Protestant and Reformed Churches And likewise observe all that is recorded by that great Lawyer Charles du Moulin in his History of the French Monarchy on purpose to give the World to understand what reception the Doctrine and Life of those of Cabrieres and Merindol found with King Lewis XII which gave such ample satisfaction to that great Prince as that upon the report therein made to him of the same he swore that they had more goodness and worth in them than himself and all his subjects besides Finally we behov'd in like manner for the honour of that incomparable Monarch to add how that after the example of Philip the Fair one of his Predecessors he quell'd the sauciness and petulancy of Julius II who had excommunicated him having assembled a Council at Pisa in order to the reforming of the Church both in its Head and Members and caused batter the Golden Species with this Inscription PERDAM BABYLONIS NOMEN C A D. I will utterly destroy the name of Babylon and had not injurious Death suddenly snatch'd him away he had undoubtedly put an happy essay to a thorow Reformation But enough of that we being now arrived at Anno 1517. MArtin Luther together with those his Contemporaries whom God raised up for the same work did in this year strike that great blow which did so mightily shake the Papal Power and restore to Soveraign Princes who heretofore trembled under the Censures of Rome that lawful though controll'd Authority which they hold of none but God himself and this was so marvellous that after that time the greatest part of Germany the