Pen and Fancy will be such as to eat or penetrate into every cleft of it and not onely break it into shivers but multiply them into heapes of Sand which being washed away by the Spring-tyde of his ingenious approaches and irresistible force of his argumentative assaults their building must needs fall and be carryed into an Abyss or Ocean which they can never fathome or sound the depth of Archbishop Cranmer in his Answer to Smith's Preface speakes not home enough to their purpose where he sayth Truth it is indeed that the Church doth never wholly erre for ever in most darkness God shineth unto his elect and in the midst of all iniquity he governeth them so with his holy word and spirit that the gates of Hell prevaile not against them This Church is the piller of truth because it resteth upon God's word which is the true and sure foundation and will not suffer it to erre and fall Pag. 405. 406. It is the invisible Church his Grace meanes for of the outward and visible he absolutely denies it and this proves I confess rather the perpetuity then infallibility of the Church Bishop Field recollects several acceptions of the Church Book 4. Ch. 2. First as it comprehendeth the whole number of believers that are and have been since Christ appeared in the flesh which Church he sayes is absolutely free from all errour and ignorance of Divine things that are to be known by revelation The second acception is as it comprehendeth only all those believers that are and have been since the Apostles time which in things that are of necessity to be expresly known by all that will be saved that it should erre is impossible And further thinkes it as impossible that any errour whatsoever should be found in all the Pastours and Guides of the Church thus generally taken Touching the Church as it comprehendeth onely the believers that now are in the world he sayes In things necessary to be known and believed expresly and distinctly it never is ignorant much less doth it erre yea in things that are not absolutely necessary to be known and believed expresly and distinctly it never is ignorant much less doth it erre yea in things that are not absolutely necessary to be so known and believed we constantly believe that this Church can never erre nor doubt pertinaciously c. But because I doubt whether our Princess made reflexion upon the Church in such a diffusive sense and supposing that she wanted such an Oracle of Infallibility as to which there could be access for imediate resolve of scruples and doubts upon all occasions which I fear had her H. lived longer to make triall would have been as much missing in the Roman Church as in ours I must lay aside many other excellent Writers upon this point I have before me or at hand and take up one so learned and Orthodox as the best and him the rather because he useth not to be so nice in uttering his mind freely and learnedly and yet making it consistent with the Article of our Church though in appearance point blanck contradictory to what he resolutely concludes it is Bishop Mountagu I mean who in his Appeal where he justifies what he had said in his answer to the Gagger his Position is this The Church Representative true and lawfull never yet erred in Fundamentals and therefore I see no cause but to vouch The Church Representative can not erre The Church Representative is a Generall Councel not titularly so as the Conventicle of Trent but plenarily true generall and lawfull Points Fundamentall be such as are immediate unto faith Let any man living shew me sayes he any historicall mistakings misreportings where when in what any Generall Councell according to true acception or Church Representative hath so erred in the resolution and decission of that Councell for in the debating of doubts questions propositions the case is otherwise and not the same I conceive and acknowledge but four Councells of this kind that of Nice of Constantinople of Ephesus of Chalcedon The Church of England may seem to have been of a contrary mind in her determinations For Artic. 21. we read thus Generall Councels when they be gathered together forasmuch as they be an assembly of men whereof all be not governed with the spirit and word of God they may erre and sometime have erred even in things pertaining unto God Which decision of the Article is not home to this purpose as he particularly proves and hath the approbation of the Reverend Dr. Francis White afterward Bishop of Ely that he found nothing therein in that and his whole Book but what is agreeable to the Publick Faith Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England of whose Doctrine the said 21 Article is a noted part But because the Bishop leaves this Infallibility at above a thousand yeares distance viz the last Generall Councel of Chalcedon attributing no such thing to any the pretended Generall Councels since it is necessary I go seek a supplement somewhere else for the guidance of doubting persons who may be at loss what to think the state of the Church hath been in so long an intervall and if they take Posterity into their care what it may be in a much longer yet to come before such another Generall Councel meet now the Latine Church seemes to be finally settled upon the Lees of the Decisions in the Councel of Trent Among those many I have turned over I find not where to furnish my self better then from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that most glorious Martyr now a resplendent starr of magnitude among the Saints above in his famed Book commended by that Royall Martyr not long before he drank of the same Cup that bloudy Brook in the way to his celestiall Crown Archbishop Laud's Conference with Mr. Fisher the Iesuite where his Grace sayes Whether a Generall Councel may erre or not is a Question of great consequence in the Church of Christ To say It can not erre leaves the Church not onely without remedy against an errour once determined but also without sense that it may need a remedy and so without care to seek it To say It can erre seemes to expose the members of the Church to an uncertainty and wavering in the Faith to make unquiet spirits not onely to disrespect former Councels of the Church but also to slight and contemn whatsoever it may now determine I said the Determination of a Generall Councel erring was to stand in force and to have External Obedience at least yielded to it till Evidence of Scripture or a Demonstration to the Contrary made the Errour appear and until thereupon another Councel of equal Authority did reverse it Pag. 146. 147. In the following Considerations is added with submission to our Mother the Church of England and to the Mother of us all the Universall Catholick Church of Christ That the Assistance of the H. Ghost is
if not articulate complaints and much astonishing us whose attendance in our stations drew us within notice of it there being as it were an absolute desertion of her little Oratory which before whether her H. were there or not us'd to be well frequented by a comfortable Audience that assisted at our Mattins and Even-Song which beside that it pleased God gave countenance to the Chaplain in the performance of his Offices at the houres appointed I calling to mind the strictness of her Commands formerly and the steadiness of her personall example in time of Health found it necessary for her R. H. to have knowledge of it in some seasonable intervall of her griefs assuring my self her Goodness would not take amiss such a dutifull and devout expression of a religious desire she should be daily prayed for by us when in that weak condition she could not present her self before the little Altar she had erected to pray there with us This I did with that caution as became me in the present circumstances and committed the care of it to a discreet Lady of her Chamber who was seldome absent from her Bed-side desiring her in the summe of all to say plainly That the Chaplain was in this streight without her H. suddenly found some expedient either to set open the doores of her Oratory and read Common-prayer to the painted Wain-Scot or keep 'em shut and read none at all whereof what sence the Court and City would have must be left at adventure The very next day when I went into the Privy-Chamber at the wonted hour I saw no cause at all either of complaint or enquiry after her H. pleasure and new Order it being appointed before my coming that the Reading-Desk and Books should be made ready and when the Bed-Chamber door should be opened our Common-Prayer should be read at the very entrance thereinto whither assembled not only a considerable number without the door and within such Ladies as were either in immediate attendance or others priviledged to be there but her H. personally as she lay in bed found I hope some comfort and benefit by our Prayers read in her hearing wherein I doubt not but at that time she joyned in Communion with us or else would have ordered it otherwise This course for ought I remember continued while her infirme condition could comply with it throughout my time After my dismission what Method therein was observed my Reverend Successor in that employment can best report But this on all hands I believe will easily be yielded That her Highnesses Sickness more and more every day prevailing and consequently the strength of Nature as much decaying little abatement in that anxiety she had of mind and little better satisfaction of doubts and scruples or settlement in Religion considering her sad condition can reasonably be supposed Whether in this deplorable state she might send for her Spirituall Physician the Ecclesiastick Person mentioned by her or some other I can with assurance neither affirm nor deny nor will I doubt more if he came of her Highnesses patient attention and submission to all he said at a time when she wanted somewhat to allay or charm the tumult of her Spirits then I do of what a Learned and well Practised Civilian has sometime told me That many Testaments are brought in Court truly Signed by the Testators in a dying condition but upon no other account of will or consent then to be rid of their importunate Kindred Allies or Friends that they may be free to dispose their Soules to a calm and serene departure out of this unquiet World And whether the good Father were sent for or no very well known it is how the Ecclesiastikes of that Communion use not to be over-modest as opportunity may serve in offering their Assistance to exspiring persons of what Church or of what Quality soever where they may have admission Which puts me in mind of what happened many years since at Bruges in Flanders about the Decease of my Noble Patron the Lord Hopton who on his last fatal day being taken speechless somewhat early in the morning and so continuing to the great grief and disappointment of his few Domestiques then about him In the afternoon the Reverend Mother or Lady Prioress of the English Nunnery sent a Message in great haste to me that I must needs attend her immediately at the Grate as if she had praepared some speciall Cordiall for our good Lord whom she and all her Votaries respected highly that would not only recover his Lordships Speech but renew his Age or protract his life some years longer when I went to know her pleasure the good Lady told me somewhat to this purpose That understanding my Lords condition she could not be at rest untill she had finished the great Devotion her whole Monastery had for his Lordship by recommending two grave Franciscan Fryars to do their last religious Office for him in their way i. e. according to the Rituall of the Roman Church Whereat I was so much surprized that I had almost forgot the sedate temper I came to her in being more prone upon that her motion either to smile or be angry then to lament the loss I every hour apprehended might befall me and my fellow-servants in a Forreign Countrey by our Lord's Decease At length being somewhat recomposed I minded her Reverence of what she knew very well the free converse my Lord had often in time of Health with their Fathers and Fryars of any Order declining no discourse on any points in controversy they could mention to him in a Calm and Christian way how acceptable it had been on both sides though neither Party could convince the other and how incongruous it would be after all the aforesaid frankness and plain-dealing now to give his Lordship the trouble of a faint dispute if he could have us'd his Tongue but now he could not how false I must needs prove to him and to my trust in permitting such religious Offices to be practised upon him at the point of Death which he approved not of toward any other person when in perfect health and vigour of understanding Whereupon the over-courteous Lady whether satisfied or no acquiesced and retired as I returned to my languishing good Lord to perform my last duty at his Bed-side as his Chaplain according to the Form or Permission of our Britannike Church Whereas had I taken other measures it most certainly would have been reported That the Lord Hopton if but by reason of that very ancient Ceremony their extream Unction without a word spoken had died so good a Roman Catholique as the best and his surviving Chaplain or Director in Mr. Iones's sense had been no other than a Papist in Masquerade and for his treachery to so noble and so good a Protestant had deserved no less then present death by his Martial Sentence But I proceed To make good my word and produce my second particular upon better credit then
along with a finall renunciation of the Pope's usurpt Supremacy and tyranny over our King and Nation after 400 years dispute about the point with intervalls and variety of success on either side And an Oath may be tender'd to maintain the Kings Independent Praerogative in Church affairs quoad extra without any offence or resistance of the said H. Spirit Of which Praerogative yet if a King which I put at large because all Christian Kings are alike concern'd in the case will at any time remit and deliver freely or with some reserve his Ecclesiastike Power into the hands of the Church or into his whom he will constitute for the time Caput unitatis the Head of unity in his Realm as many have done and do at this present I know no reason why the Subject should not submit to that derivative power which being held of the King is ordained of God For to say That before the Reformation made any Subject might have withdrawn his obedience to the King because the King had vested that part of his power in the Pope I fear had been little less than resisting or at least declining the ordinance of God to go on no further in that Text. But I return to our most unhappily perplexed Princess who takes offence at the Bishops that were of the first Reformers for pretending their sole design to have been re-establishing the Doctrine and Discipline of the Primitive Church after Henry 8. had enterpriz'd a separation from Rome upon no other account but his own satisfaction in criminall pleasures What K. Henry 8's principall or less principall intents were I know none but the ghost of his Confessour if raised again could assure her The most Reverend Archbishop Cranmer no doubt knew most of his mind from beginning to end in the matter of divorce and what annexes it had of his criminall pleasures c. but in what I have seen of his Grace's writing I met with nothing at all which in that particular could have gratified her Highness yet be K. Henry's meaning alltogether so bad as suspected I understand not why the Reverend Bishops who were better inclined should be involved with him in the sin being instruments under God of bringing good out of evil and who by such degrees as K. Henry's other policies would permit made good that pretence both the rest of his and in the few years of Edward 6. his Reign howsoever managed by that covetous Lord Protectour in his minority as in a great part beside other instances our Historians have mentioned does undeniably appear in that little Code of Reformation as I may call it entituled The institution of a Christian Man composed and published by and with the consent of many pious and prudent persons Anno 1537. viz the two Archbishops at that time nineteen of the Bishops eight Archdeacons and seventeen Professours of Divinity Ecclesiasticall and Civill Lawes which book and some other like beside many Dedicatory and Praefatory Epistles praefixed to them if her H. had neither in possession nor seen she was strangely destitute of due assistance and not well praepared for so severe a censure in a praecipitate Declaration Nor yet much better I fear for the application she next made to instruct her self in the controversiall points between us and the Roman-Catholiques having not read as may be presumed the Primitive Fathers and Councels but relying upon sole Scripture without the Conciliators of Texts if not opposite inconsistent in shew nor other authentike Interpreters but her own private spirit perhaps forearmed with prayers and teares but not praeassured by promise of Divine assistance and all desired success in the revelation of truth the solemn objection thrust upon us successively by the Papists and a too forward adventure which most commonly imports more haste then good speed as is here manifested by the sequel in her own Confession That the Scripture she believed not her self by her self capable to understand Yet on her H. went and notwithstanding the distrust she had of self and solitary abilities to her astonishment in the most difficult points of all drew with her own Bucket more truth as she was mis-perswaded from the bottom of the Well then the woman of Samaria could do with hers who went her way and left her water-pot behind her having her thirst quencht indeed yet not with the water she her self had drawn but with that of the Spirit infused from the mouth of the Messias the infallible Prophet the Christ as the Samaritan so good as confessed to the Citizens she earnestly called upon to come and see not to suddainly believe until better attested to 'em Venite videte not venite credite as Aquinas has it from St. Chrysostom And proijciat hydriam qui vult Evangelizare He or she that will evangelize or interpret the Gospell rightly must leave his Bucket behind him or break his Water-pot in pieces I' ay tronve neantmoins c. Yet notwithstanding her distrust her H. found what she could not promise her self so soon to discover severall things which now appeared so plain and according to her judgment so easie to comprehend that she wondred a thousand times how so long time had passed without reflecting on 'em The particulars whereof she now was strongly convinced fortement convaincue were 1. The reall presence of Iesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar 2. The infallibility of the Church 3. Confession Auricular she meanes And 4. Prayers for the Dead Of all which could I be convinced by the strongest argument I have heard or read in their Controversiall Writers I would soon be so far converted too Of the first so many volumes have been written on both sides that I am perswaded there can be little argument invented new on either to avoid transcript or the Author's disrepute of being plagiary but what is futile in so serious a quaestion or what makes the Schisme and Distance between us unnecessarily if not affectedly greater for setting aside the History of opinions in the severall ages of the Church the quotations of Fathers and other modern Authors the variety of expressions every man desiring to utter his own mind in his own words I really believe the substance of what we mean as relating to the whole controversie might be as well and as intelligibly contracted into one single sheet as spread upon so many thousand quires of Paper which fly about the world But to the point The reall presence la presence reelle in the Sacrament of the Altar was the first thing her R. H. missed in the Church of England I hope the Reverend D. Sutclive did not whose book she ever had in her hand when we approached to administer the body and blood of our Saviour to her upon her knees If he did I am sure his equalls and his superiours our Church Dignitaries and others have not declined the term Real from the beginning of our Reformation to this day nor to declare what is meant by
the same according to the sense and acception of the Primitive Fathers whom they cite in multitudes to authorize the Doctrine of our Church therein Of some the most eminent I shall render their own words and afterward apply my self to what follows Let the most Reverend Archbishop Cranmer be the first who in the Preface of his Answer unto D. Stephen Gardiner p. 1. sayeth Where I use to speak sometimes as the old Authors do that Christ is in the Sacraments I mean the same as they did understand the matter that is to say not of Christ's carnall presence in the outward Sacrament but sometimes of his Sacramentall presence That Christ and his holy Spirit be truely and indeed present by their mighty and sanctifying power vertue and grace in all them that worthily receive the same Again pag. 8. of his first Book of the Sacrament As he giveth the Bread so giveth he his very body to be eaten with our Faith And therefore I say that Christ giveth himself truely to be eaten chawed and digested but all is Spiritually with Faith not with mouth The Reader is to take notice That when his Grace useth the termes verily and indeed which are the same in our Church-Catechisme I understand his sense aequivalent to theirs after him who say really upon the like occasion neither he nor they meaning more or less then our Church does nor all otherwise then did the Primitive Fathers for when really is extended to denote transubstantially his Grace afterward utterly disclaimes it As does likewise the Right Reverend Bishop Iewell of Sarum our Church Apologist against the Papists pag. 319. of his Reply to Mr. Harding's Answer We teach the people not that a naked Sign or Token but that Christ's Body and Blood indeed and verily is given unto us that we verily eat it that we verily drink it that we verily be relieved and live by it Yet we say not either that the substance of the Bread or Wine is done away or that Christ's Body is let down from Heaven or made Really or Fleashly Present in the Sacrament The most Reverend Archbishop Laud declines not at all the word but commends it for the best that can be used in the matter of the H. Sacrament pag. 188. of the Relat. of his Conf. speaking of C. Bellarmine thus Now if he had left out Conversion and affirmed only Christ's reall presence there after a mysterious and indeed an ineffable manner no man could have spoke better Again pag. 192. And for the Church of England nothing is more plain than that it believes and teaches the True and Reall presence of Christ in the Eucharist And this his Grace declares not only for himself but urgeth that Archbishop Cranmer comes more plainly and more home to it than Frith a Martyr for it that had said enough before For if you understand saith he by this word really Reipsa that is in very deed and effectually so Christ by the grace and efficacy of his Passion is indeed and truly present c. but if by this word Really you understand Corporaliter Corporally in his natural and Organical Body under the Forms of Bread and Wine 't is contrary to the Holy Word of God And so likewise Bishop Ridley Nay Bishop Ridley addes yet farther and speaks so fully to this Point as I think no man can add to his Expression Both you and I saith he agree in this That in the Sacrament is the very true and natural Body and Blood of Christ even that which was born of the Virgin Mary which ascended into Heaven which sits on the right hand of God the Father which shall come thence to judge the quick and the dead Only we differ in modo c. With the aforesaid Prelates the learned Bishop Mountagu thus accords pag. 250. of his Answer to the Gagger He gave substance and really subsisting essence who said This is my body this is my Blood It. pag. 251. Poor Woodcock or Catholique Cockscomb that sendest a Protestant to seek a figure who is as reall and substantiall as any Papist Id. afterward in his Appeale pag. 289. speaking to the Informers Which Reall presence in your Divinity is flat Popery but not in the Divinity of the Church of England for this he cites Bishop Bilson Andrews Morton and for the easie accommoding the difference between them and us were it not for the Jesuites faction on their side and the Puritans on ours the incomparable Hooker that Puritanomastix as he calls him To this effect is the late Bishop of Durham's first Chapter in his accurate History of Papal Transubstantiation where the Reall that is the true and not imaginary Presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist is asserted out of the Sacred Scriptures according to the very words praefixed in the Title of it And the most acute no less solid Bishop Ier. Taylor in his larger Tractate entituled The Reall presence and Spirituall of Christ in the blessed Sacrament Proved against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Which Doctrine is that no question her H. meanes though couched in the word Reall not considering perhapps that Real-Spiritual may alltogether as well be in conjunction as Real-Carnal or Corporeal otherwise her complaisance in the discovery had not been such as to deserve her astonishment or wonder when of so many learned Writers we have upon that Subject she could scarce have taken a book in hand which would not have set the terme or true sense and meaning of it in her view with the concession of our Church if she had read or heard other of it the Authours were not well studyed in the point but took on trust the expressions of our early Writers after the Reformation whereas the true state of the Controversy was not so clearly understood at first on either side as it is now Sayed the Bishop of Derry Sch. Gard. p. 378. And being so in the opinion of those I mention'd and many more may the difference so formidable as it looks be much more easily reconciled then heretofore both sides contributing their symbol to a happy peace and not struggling for that which never will be made good and evident on either For had her H. known or consided what the Authour of Fiat lux saies there have been fifty or threescore several interpretations of these few words Hoc est corpus meum This is my body which it may be upon further search he might have multiplied to a hundred by variety of paraphrase in every man's peculiar distinct way of expression and did all those vanish or return to their first origen the literal sense at last by fixing a more steady eye or serious thought then formerly upon the Text Bishop Mountagu who had many Bibles and Interpreters of all sorts about him after a thorough search could not so determine it but much otherwise viz. Transubstantiation or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord cannot be proved
without errour that 's no quaestion and as little there is That a Councel hath it This in the abstract is as home as need to be in the point but this afterward is somewhat moderated by distinguishing the infallibility of the after-Councels from that of the Apostles themselves Acts 15. where they say of themselves and the Councel held by them It seemes good to the Holy Ghost and to us who might indeed well say it but he does not find that any General Councel since though they did implore as they ought the assistance of that Blessed Spirit did ever take upon them to say in-terminis in express terms of their Definitions Visum est Spiritui Sancto Nobis It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Acknowledging thereby as I conceive a great deal of difference in the Certainty of those things which a Generall Councel had after determined in the Church and those which were settled by the Apostles when they sate in Councel But then again though he did not find That they used this speech punctually in terms yet the Fathers when they met in Councel were Confident and spake it out That They had assistance from the Holy Ghost yet so as that They neither took Themselves nor the Councels They sate in as Infallibly Guided by the Holy Ghost as the Apostles were And he saies Valentia is very right in concluding That though the Councel say they are gathered together in the Holy Ghost yet the Fathers are neither arrogant in using the speech nor yet Infallible for all that If other their Writers had used the like moderation perhaps her R. H. had not been so much concerned about it I expect nothing more will be obtained from other our Controvertists towards the satisfaction of any in like condition yet because Mr. Chillingworth had a more peircing eye of reason then most of the rest I will summe up his method so short as I can and see what we can make good out of it This he layes as the groundwork of his Discourse with F. Knott That the distinction of Points Fundamental and not Fundamental is in this Controversie good and pertinent And that the Catholique Church may erre in the latter kind of the said Points 2. That it is not so prodigiously strange as his adversary thinkes That we will never be induced to give in a particular Catalogue what points be Fundamental Pag. 119. 3. That may be Fundamental and necessary to one which to another is not so Which variety of Circumstances makes it imposible to set down an exact Catalogue of Fundamentals and therefore we must content our selves by a general description to tell what is Fundamental 4. It is sufficient for any mans salvation to believe that the Scripture is true and containes all things necessary for salvation and to do his best endeavour to find and believe the true sense of it without delivering any particular Catalogue of Fundamentals Pag. 120. 5. Though the Church may erre in some points not Fundamental yet may she have certainty enough in proposing others 6. He that grants the Church infallible in Fundamentals and ascribes to the Apostles the infallible guidance of the Spirit in a more high and absolute manner than to any since them limits not the Apostles infallibility to Fundamentals 7. The Apostles were led into all Truths by the Spirit efficaciter The Church is led into all Truths by the Apostle writings sufficienter Pag. 131. led so as that she may follow but not so that she must These assertions of his influence the most part of his long Discourse with the learned Iesuite If ought more there be to strengthen e'm it may fall in with what I have yet to add relating to the invaledity of her R. Highnesses motive for deserting our Church upon account of any assurance she could have of being more firmely and finally settled in this point upon the grounds and principles thereof in the Church of Rome For yeilding pro dato not concesso what the greatest Doctors there would have more particularly those of ours that went over to them before this good Lady I demand what found they there beyond what they had here at home I will fix upon one or two of them in whose conversion they so good as tell us they are most triumphant Let the first be Dr. Vane Chaplain to his late Majesty who in the very entrance to his sixth Chapter of The Infallibility of the Church begins thus Now that the Catholique Church which Society of Christians soever it be is the onely faithful and true witness of the matter of God's word to tell us what it is and what is not it the only true interpreter of the meaning of God's word and the last and finall judge of all controversies that may arise in matters of Religion and that she is not onely true but that she can not be otherwise seeing she is infallible Our Church which is Catholique too in concurrence with that he went to is he knew extended to the first four Generall Councels to the Fathers of the first five or six hundred yeares from whom we receive the Canon we have of the H. Bible and to whose writings we go for the interpretation of any Texts that any way seem doubtfull if necessary to be resolved In others not so considerable for ought I know we leave every man to his own diligence in comparing Text with Text for mutuall illustration and to his own reason for inference of the best truth from the premises he makes himself or if so ignorant he can make none we send him to the lips of his Parochiall Priest or some other at his choyce which certainly should preserve at least so much knowledge as to determine the little difficulties brought to him according to the sense of our Nationall Church if such as whereof she hath taken any notice For Catholique Tradition we go to the Catholique Writers so truely called For what is unwritten we have no infallible living Oracle to consult no more have they for ought I see whereof any use can be made to present satisfaction and therein we may cry quitts as afterward I shall briefly shew The Conclusion herein lay'd down by D. Cressy is as followeth That it belongs alone to the Catholique Church which is the onely Depositary of Divine Revelations authoritatively and with obligation to propose those Revelations to all Christians c. to interpret the Holy Scriptures and to determine all emergent Controversies and this to the end of the world in as much as the Church by vertue of Christ's promises and assistance is not onely indefectible but continually preserved in all truth Of what Divine Revelations the Catholique Church is Depositary I have already owned viz. of the H. Scriptures and the Primitive Fathers in their Writings as being the best and surest Interpreters The difficulty yet sticks at the determining emergent Controversies which may be multiplied in infinitum by too dubious and
spirit no less disconsolate and diffident upon one account then her own upon another But in this unsteady state of doubts and fears and an unsettled faith being Christmas day her H. goes to the King's Chappell to participate of the Holy Sacrament which contrary to her hopes brought new troubles upon her soul and I wonder not a whitt at it want of the Reall presence or Corporeall in the Roman sense being that which did most afflict her whereof she might be well assured little supply or comfort was to be had from the King's Chappell and so her labour she thought was lost Her next essay was by address to a Catholique for counsell and if possible for cure which now at last was as her H. fancied in some sort effected by a good Priest he sent for me fit venir un bon Prestre with whom conferring about her interiour condition and souls salvation the more she parlied the more she felt her self intrinsecally carried off and fortified by grace of the holy Spirit toward the change of Religion A Gentleman of quick dispatch was this good Priest but I hear nothing yet of his infallibility her H. lately lookt for unless the other Catholick who e're he was that call'd him to her passed his word for it in private which security taken all could not but be oracular that came from his mouth Of the H. EUCHARIST in one or both kindes As I find in the very first place was his decision of receiving the H. Sacrament in one kind in which one element if were not administred both the flesh and bloud of our Saviour Christ would never have suffered the other to be substracted and his Church deprived of half himself who promised to abide with her whole and entire no doubt to the end of the world Nor could her H. think her self free to believe otherwise or that Christ's own words could be frustrate Before I can well apply my self to reflect on this Article of half-communion as our Writers often call it I think it not alltogether impertinent to declare my dissatisfaction at the sodain change I observe of a disconsolate dejected Spirit to an argumentative and active Soul in search so superficiall and so definitive before full discovery as if intent upon contradiction of her own practice so many yeares and not startled at so quick a transition from the unquestionable security of both elements in the H. Eucharist to the hazard of enjoying the intire end and effect of neither when reduced to one I am very prone to suspect something like a chasme or hiatus here a defect in transcript of the Declaration published in her Highnesses name which Mounsieur Maimburg best knowes wherewith it should be and in fidelity to the trust reposed in him ought if so to be made compleat Howsoever to let it pass from hand to hand as delivered to us and to wait upon her R. H. so immediately as she leads the way from her Closet to the publike Schooles I can not but much commend the early exercise of her skill and prudence in selecting that part of the question which best will bear discussion and arresting her upon assurance of his word who never did nor being Truth it self can ever break his promise For no notice at all is taken how many yeares the Church persisted in submission to the express words of our Saviours institution without substracting or altering ought in the celebration of this H. Sacrament Whence Bishop Iewell sayes the Question that standeth between us is moved thus Whether the Holy Communion at any time within the space of six hundred years after Christ were ever Ministred openly in the Church unto the People under one kind Repl. to Mr. Hard. Ans. pag. 96. Which extent of time he might have drawn out much further by the concession among others of Cassander a man professing himself a Roman Catholique though of wonderfull modesty moderation and learning sayes Bishop Mountagu whose words are these as by his Lordship cited It is manifest that in administration of the sacred Sacrament of the Eucharist the Universall Church of Christ untill this day and the Western or Roman Church for more then 1000 yeares after Christ especially in their solemn and ordinary dispensation of this Sacrament did exhibit and give unto all faithfull Christians not one only but both the kinds of Bread and Wine as it is most clear and evident out of innumerable testimonies of the old Writers both Greek and Latine which I can make good c. This he did in part and the rest we may safely take upon his honest word and credit and 300 yeares more then he voucheth upon Bishop Mountagu's who saith after him too This is every where the custome in all the World unto this day but in the Roman exhorbitant Church and was not quite abolished in that Church till about 1300 yeares after Christ and by much art colluding and fine forgery was retained from being cast out of that Church in the late Conventicle of Trent onely kept in for a faction but mightily oppos'd by learned honest and conscionable Catholiques Whereupon this resolute and worthy Prelate joynes issue with all Papists living That it never was otherwise used in all the Church of God for above 1000 yeares after Christ And that if all the Papists living prove the contrary he will subscribe to all Popery Ans. to the Gagger ch 36. which is fair enough So that I shall need call in no more help upon this account except I may that observation of Bishop Taylor and others That the Primitive Church did excommunicate them that did not receive the holy Sacrament in both kinds Pref. to Diss. Pag. 5. I return therefore to her Highnessess argument drawn from the promise and veracity or fidelity of Christ to make it good Which promise being not particular not restrained to his Sacramental presence upon which we differ much less limitted to the Patriarchate of Rome and that under the name or notion of his Universal Church exclusive of all other Christians not taken into her communion he left her free at her own hazard to commit sacriledge in this kind as in divers other and to withdraw her self from him before ever he withdrew from her and to afford his fuller presence by both representatives elsewhere among a greater number of Christians by computation then those within her pale or Communion in both kinds of this H. Sacrament united altho' in some other doctrines ceremonies and customes or national or Provincial civical or rural or in other dissonancy whatsoever more or less divided But her H. had already changed her measures with her Religion and was already principled a new by her good Priest and not permitted to look back upon us unto whom for ever she had bid adieu By this time no doubt she was taught to say That Christ assured us The Holy Sacrament though but a Wafer containeth his flesh and blood because the Church hath at length declared
select particles of his Writings where he expostulates about Christs Institution which being in generall for the whole Church he demands why one of the species or kindes is taken from part of the Church whereof the Romanists gave many reasons such as they were in likelihood the same then as since which how well they will hold is still the question whereof anon This he confesseth Melanchthon added afterward se Ecclesiam excusare quae hanc injuriam pertulit that he excus'd the Church which suffer'd the injurie and that 's well enough for we are on the suffering side Rivet brings up the reer and passeth his word That yet Melanchthon did not excuse those that forbad not onely but excommunicated such as us'd the Cup who said he did not Grotius any where as I remember Who liked well enough where it could be had and no order of the Church wherein he was matriculated interposed to the contrary that the H. Sacrament should be administred in both kindes whereof as himself participated when among them whose use it was so it may be supposed he advised his Family to do the like by choice in a Countrey where both were practised and a third profession preferr'd to both as in France For when at Paris I officiated at the honorable Residents Sir Richard Brownes his widow daughter with a third Lady of quality who understood little of our language after admission asked communicated in both with us according to the forme and ceremonie of the knee prescribed by our Church Concerning M. Bucer Rivet answers directly nothing to what by Grotius was alledged but diverts his Reader another way to the 74 th Chapter of his Defense of the Colonian Reformation which is a usuall shift of his though imputed by him in this very question to his more plain-dealing Antagonist But what find we there whither he sends us why much after the rate as in Melanchthon we find that Bucer sayes Quod alteram speciem Sacramenti in genere auferre grave Sacrilegium est That to take away from all Christians in generall either species of the Sacrament is grievous Sacriledge whereas Grotius denies frequently that they do it but in severall cases both of persons Nations and Countries grant it for the asking and they that will not ask it may go without it whose fault is it if they do And what have we to do with the conditions any foreign Church puts upon the Members of it which I believe was my Lord of Derry's meaning who perhapps on very good reserved reason had as little mind to answer positively were the quaestion thus put as Dr. Rivet Do you beleive or not that whole Christ is present where by order of any Church which beleives not our Saviours Institution or Precept to be so peremptory as we do either element or species is separated from the other My opinion is Mr. Bucer so well as others would have been silent in the case who in all his Writings I have met with that relate to the H. Eucharist useth and adviseth speciall caution against humane thoughts sensible imaginations logicall or philosophicall arguments and deductions flying up above all such on the wings of Fayth after an humble resignation of his Reason which he confesseth alltogether uncapable to comprehend in the least this inscrutable inaccessible mystery in the veil To some part of this purpose peradventure may be reducible those two Axioms in his Exomolog N. 10. and 14. which I shall transcribe for the consideration of the learned without interpreting to the meer English Reader Num. 10. Omnes igitur sensibiles mundi imaginationes omnis cogitatio loci aut continui aut contigui aut commixtionis ab hac communione unitate removendae sunt admirandaque est in verbo Dei apprehensa ex effectis ejus operibus novi hominis suspicienda pensitanda fruenda Num. 14. Cavendum est ne praeceptum Domini dilucidum ubique illuminator habentibus oculos fide ullis superstitionis grandiloquentijs obscuremus Rursus autem cavendum est ne pondus majestatem mysteriorum Christi quae spiritus sanctus credenda magis quam scrutanda nostra quidem ratione proposuit iminuamus interpretationibus quae magis ex nostris proficisuntur cogitationibus quam ex ipsis Dei verbis natura mysteriorum ejus Which in sense seems to accord with that of St. Augustine cited by Bishop Iewel Def. Apol. p. 220. Rerum Absentium Praesens est Fides rerum quae foris sunt intus est Fides rerum quae non videntur videtur Fides And now I have mentioned Bishop Iewel both Grotius and Rivet being foreigners I judge it very pertinent and seasonable here to transcribe what the said learned and Orthodox Bishop hath left us of his judgement impartial concerning those three great Patrons and Promoters of the Reformation in this point It being alleged by Mr. Harding That Luther writeth to them of Bohemia these very words Quoniam pulchrum quidem esset utraque specie Eucharistiae uti Christus hac in re nihil tanquam necessarium praecepit praestaret pacem unitatem quam Christi ubique praecepit sectari quam despecietus sacramenti contendere Where as it were a fair thing to use both kinds of the Sacrament yet for that Christ herein hath commanded nothing as necessary it were better to keep peace and unity which Christ hath every where charged us withal then to strive for the outward kindes of the Sacrament To this our Bishop maketh answer The words that Luther wrote to them of Bohemia were written by him before God had appointed him to publish the Gospel And when Mr. Harding according to the Bishops supposition urgeth his saying opposite to the former thus Si quo casu Consilium statueret c. If in any case the Councel would so ordain we would in no wise have both the kinds but even then in despite of the Councel we would have one kind or neither of them and in no wise both and hold them for accursed whosoever by authority of such a Councel would have both The Bishop makes this fair apology for him There was nothing further off from Luther's mind then upon any determination of any Councel to minister the Sacrament under one kind and so to break Christ's Institution into halfes But he thought it not meet that God's truth immortal should hang of th'autority of a mortal man and stand for true no further then it should please a man to allow of it This was the thing that D. Luther misliked and thought intollerable And therefore he said he would have God's word received only because it is God's word and spoken by him not because it is authorized by a Councel and if the Councel would allow the Ministration in one kind then he said he would use Both because Christ in his Institution appointed Both. But if the Bishops in the Councel would agree upon Both kinds as a matter standing wholly
in their pleasures as though they had full power to controle or to ratifie the will of God then he said he would have no regard unto the authority of such a Councel that setteth it self above God but rather would use one kind only or none at all This latter part I understand not how Luther could make good nor how he could be free from arrogancy wherewith Mr. Harding chargeth him though for the credit of our first Reformer the Bishop takes little notice of it for I perfectly understand not how the parallels that follow of St. Paul the Emperour Tiberius and the Prophet Esai run in an even line with Luthers Case Mr. Harding next would prove Luthers from that opinion of Melanchthon who had been Luther's Scholar and his saying this Sicut edere suillam aut abstinere a suilla sic alterutra signi parte uti medium esse That as it is a thing indifferent to eate swines flesh or to forbear swines flesh so it is also to use which part of the ligne a man listeth Bucer also saith he is of the same opinion Ad controversiam quae est de una aut utraque specie tollendam c. That the controversie of for the one or both kindes may be taken away it shall be very well done that holy Church made it free to receive the Sacrament in one or both kinds yet under such condition as hereby no occasion be given to any body rashly to condemn the use which the Church hath so long time kept nor to judge one another So that Melanchthon and Bucer he sayes accompted it as a thing indifferent To which the Right worthy Bishop makes a more ingenuous answer then did D. Rivet to Grotious about the same point and persons which is this Indeed these godly learned men when they saw that through the malice of their adversaries they could not obtain that Christ's Institution might universally be received yet they desired at the least it might be left free without restraint for every Church to do therein as they should think good and that without murmure or offence of others And thus far forth their desire was it might be judged free not that they thought Christ had not ordeined the Sacrament to be ministred unto the people in both kinds or that in it selfe it is indifferent but that the faithful of God might indifferently and freely use it without controlement and that it should not be judged Heresie to do as Christ had commanded If I may after all be allowed to utter freely a word or two of my own opinion it shall be this in general without restraint or particular regard to this difference or indifference about one or both kinds in the administration of the B. Sacrament If the Church of England had improved as she might her first Lutheran Reformation so far as Lutheran it was or justifiably might have been without permitting Calvin one of another spirit then the meeker and more wary Melachthon and Bucer to put in his foot our controversies had been fewer our people steadier and our domestick peace at least by much more entire It is that Presbyterian Colloquintida that hath spoiled all the weed that Geneva sent us and thither we must remit it there to take what root it will or we shall never be at quiet but in our graves if there which may well be doubted I proceed somewhat further to such cases as on all sides are acknowledged of necessity in abstemijs aegrotis in abstemious and sick persons the former of which are dispensed with for the wine and the latter for either species as they are affected for some have such a drought in their jawes and pallate as they can eat no Bread others so much offended at the fumes of Wine as they nauseate the very smell Here Grotius puts the question home being resolved to extort an answer Interim negare non audet c. presuming Dr. Rivet dares not deny but in the foresaid cases especially that of the sick the Sacrament was received entirely though administred but in one kind which deny he does not nor indeed well can he the argument drawn from thence where any Church hath published a prohibition of the Cup for without doubt it will be owned that the words of consecration made it a Sacrament in the sick mans case and why the same words alike pronounced by a Priest in the other should not have the same effect will be hard for Dr. Rivet to assign a satisfactory reason The little evasions he seemes to make are not such as his Adversary will permit himquietly to go away with as the rarity of one instance or frequency of the other but few are sick to the many the innumerable multitudes of them that from age to age have been denied the Cup by the Church of Rome But the sick have it the other element in voto desiderio in votive wish and desire why the healthy should not have the like fervency of devotion for what they want who can tell the cause or not condemn 'em for their luke-warm indifferency or not pitty such of them who if not persuaded they had the whole would rest content with a half communion though Bellarmine be so courteous as to afford 'em comfort that its better for them to participate of an imperfect Sacrament then none at all Esti enim Sacrificium sit imperfectum sine utraque specie tamen praestat imperfectum habere quam nullum But after all this contest against Sacriledge the violating Christs Institution and positive command the separation of his blood from his body the riffling and robbing so many Christian soules of their hereditary right when of age or juâ—â—ement and otherwise prepared duly to take possession of it who would have thought that 〈◊〉 Rivet of all men should abate the value of that prize he had so much contended for placing it in a lower rank of those motives by which separation was made from Rome and Protestancy atchieved with Fire and Sword Neque tamen haec unquam fuit potissima ratio cur ab Ecclesia Romana secessionem fecerint Ecclesiae Reformatae one it was indeed of the number but many more there were of greater moment plures alias fuisse majoris momenti which he well knew sayes the Doctor that made the objection Apologet. ss 87. but he well knew withall as we have likewise known to our future terrour that for none of those momentaneous motives nor perhapps for alltogether of the rest was more blood shed more lives lost and devastation made every where as one or other party prevailed then for this alone which the pious peace-maker thought might much better have been saved and so the unity of the Church without that rupture have been preserved the contrary whereunto he good man lamented sadly Illos vero miseror qui propter symbolum sanguinis Christi tantum sanguinis per illum sanguinem redemti amarunt effundere let them interpret it whom
he pittieth as most concerned in it Vot pro Pace pag. 81. Now it would be worth enquiry were it not a business of more length then what I am about will well permit Why the Church of Rome is so obstinate in the case if so she be which some endeavour to qualifie to the dissatisfaction of a greater number in a greater part of Christendome then are those in communion with her and to the hazard among them of so many soules who meerly in compliance or fear of censure do they know not what doubting if not denying within themselves that to be a Sacrament which they receive and consequently if it be or be not going away without the effect of it for want of fayth or for having too much presumption upon a moiety of Divine Institution Our great Apologist Bishop Iewell tells us their own Doctors Alphonsus de Castro and Iohn Gerson have laid them out in this wise particularly and at large The danger of sheadding The carrying from place to place The fouling of the Cupps The trouble of men's Beards The Reserving for the Sick The turning of the Wine into Vinegar The engendring of Flees The Corruption or Putrifaction The Lothesomeness that may happen for so many to Drink of one Cupp The impossibility of providing one Cupp that may be sufficient to serve all the People In some places Wine is dear in some other places the Wine will be frome These Mr. Harding be the fairest and greatest of your good causes Def. of Apol. P. 318. And to these such as they are that good Bishop replies nothing but after enumeration leaves them to the Readers censure Bishop Taylor takes notice but of one which Bellarmine suggests about Lay-mens Beards which he sayes is as ridiculous as the Doctrine it self is unreasonable and if they would shave Lay-mens Beards as they do the Clergy it would be less inconvenience then what they now feel and if there be no help for it they had better lose their Beards than lose their share of the Blood of Christ. Collect. p. 469. Alike answer it is supposed might be given to the rest which having no more weight in them require no better D. Rivet sayes they are of no moment futile all quas Modrevius exacte refellit and exactly refuted by Modrevius whose word we will take for it and trouble our selves no further Only because Bishop Iewel in his review of Gerson adds one particular in his Reply before overseen or omitted in his Defence Viz. the incidence of the Palsie which if beyond what the Physicians call a tremour may have somewhat of moment in it and more or less weight with us who have a due veneration for the Elements after Sacramental Consecration We may so far consider it as to say it endures not the test because being incident so well to the Priest as the people an expedient should have been found that might equally have secured both or no notice taken of either but God's providence for preventing or mercy for pardoning be relyed on who foresaw in every particular inconvenience what hath been found or can possibly be apprehended and yet Christ himself instituted the administration in both kinds But to return once again to her R. H. by whom this difficulty was more easily digested and determined according to the decree and practice of the Church of Rome she is pleased it seems to declare that she would not permit her self were she able as she will not pretend to be to dispute the verities of more grandeur nor ingage in any other point beyond some few words for entertainment of discourse and that without any contestation at all but simply to express the motives and reasons of her conversion Which temper of moderation had she been pleas'd to use and observe when with us toward which the upright open dealing of the two Bishops seemed to induce her whose unbiassed judgement I am sorry to see outdone or undervalued by the witty artifice or bolder practice of a single Priest her H. might have lived longer as the only one of her Mother on whose two breasts from infancy she had depended for her spiritual alimony and thriv'd well by it the choice one of her that bare her the daughters whensoe'r they saw her would have blessed her As a wall might she have been with a Palace of silver built upon her as the wisest of Kings allegirizeth most elegantly in his Song of divine love I draw now toward the Conclusion the last Paragraph of her Declaration Pâ—atteste Dieu c. Her H. solemn attestation of God that she had never thought of changing her religion could she have beleeved and why could she not that salvation might have been had here where was her birth and education is a very severe sentence on King and People whom she left behind her not so much as to allow a bare possibility what soever in fine and fact might have become of all God be praised who hath given us more charity toward the worst of them that have least deserv'd it of us And God give her R. H. too in her present state all the mercy that may be by permission wished her before and at the great Day and above all that crowning pardon as Bishop Taylor calls it which surmounts so much the absolution of her good Priest so joyfully pronounced over her when she first did throw her self into the armes of his all-comprehensive Church as is the highest Arch of heaven from the very centre of the earth What follows at last being left at her Highnesses judgement will pleasure ought to have little contradiction from her quondam Chaplain who in good manners will but lightly glance or gloss upon it 1. That she beleeved it not necessary for her to declare in publick That it was neither interest nor prospect of honours nor of the fading and perishable goods she might have by it that carryed to their Church since on the contrary all the world she sayes needs must know that by the change of Religion she exposed her self to the peril of losing both her friends and credit I am none of the world that know it nor do I believe them to have been her Highnesses friends who would be lost upon account of her passing from a state of sad perplexity and disquiet to one of certain assurance satisfaction and peace within if so she found it Other friendship in or with the world is enmity with God Religion is not to be chosen or adhaer'd to against perswasion of Conscience be it right or wrong by the deceitful weights or measures of worldly friendship The standard of it is more sublime and credit ought not to be so considerable as a good conscience in the case which I have charity to hope she had and exercised without prejudice or partiality in her new choice 2. Pay balance et examine plusteurs fois c that her R. H. had balanced and examined often Whether it were not more expedient
he or it shall be so understood Else we know not where to find any words of Christ that import the real subsistence of both elements in one wine in bread or bread in wine eating his blood or drinking his flesh His Institution was otherwise and so was accordingly the practice of the Church for 1300 years together And Dr. Cressey confesseth Exom Pag. 602. This is not a matter of Doctrine but meer practise The Church sayes not it is unlawful to take it in both kindes Nor do we know where Christ ever sayd It is lawful or allowable to take it but in one Extraordinary Cases come not under consideration here and therefore he might have refrained to mention either the sick or antipathetick people As the Councel of Basil ought to have granted the poor Bohemians their dispensation without so hard I say not onely but most impious condition if in their Consciences they were otherwise perswaded as is believed they were I shall transcribe it from Archbishop Laud Conf. pag. 198. That it may be lawfull for them to receive the Sacrament as Christ commanded them but not unless they will acknowledge most opposite to Truth that they are not bound by Divine Law to receive it in both kindes At this rate our departed Dutchess might very well undertake for Christ's both promising and performing when her good Preist whom now she must say after has the like effrontery as others to make him say what they will Like the Heretick Severus in Anastasius Sinatia who maintained it lawfull and even necessary according to occasions and emergent heresies to alter and change the Doctrines of Christ and the Cardinal of Cusa affirmed it lawfull diversly to expound the Scriptures according to the times See Bishop Taylor Reall Pres. Sect. 3. Where his Lordship very pertinently observes That in the sixth Chapter of St. John's Gospell is earnestly pretended that our Saviour taught the mystery of Transubstantiation but with some different opinions And yet very many of the Romanists affirm That in this Chapter Christ does not speak of sacramental or oral manducation or of the Sacrament at all And Bellarmine going to excuse it sayes in effect That they did not do it very honestly for he affirms that they did it that they might confute the Hussites and the Lutherans about the Communion under both kinds And if it be so and not be so as it may serve a turn It is so for Transubstantiation and it is not so for half-Communion we have but little reason to rely upon their Judgment or Candor in any exposition of Scripture And here sayes Archbishop Laud their building with untempered mortar appears most manifestly For they have no shew to maintain this but the fiction of Thomas of Aquin That he which receives the Body of Christ receives also his Blood per concomitantiam by concomitancy because the Blood goes alwaies with the Body of which Term Thomas was the first Author I can find Conf. p. 198. Who was born says Bellarmine Anno 1224. and died Anno 1274. And as he was the first that invented it so the Councel of Constance was the first that decreed it after the year 1400. sayes my Lord of Derry in his Answer to Mounsieur de la Militiere But be the invention whose it will Bishop Taylor sayes it is a new whimsie of theirs which will not serve their turn for which he gives four reasons which are to be found in the forecited Section And the Bishop of Derry speakes slightly of it and good reason why because we need it not being secure without it Let what will become of Concomitance sayes he whilest we keep our selves to the Institution of Christ and the Universall practice of the Primitive Church p. 92. But I know his Lordships Christian charity was ever such as not to condemn so many millions of devout Souls as after the Councell of Constance if not after the more early invention of Thomas Aquinas neither had nor could have participated the H. Sacrament of the Altar otherwise then under one kind as at that time was and ever since has been the standing Decree or Practice of the Latine Church to all the ill effects and unhappy consequences of a perpetuall profanation and sacriledge in a half-Communion the fruition and benefit but of a meer Skeleton a bloodless carkass nor vivified nor vivifying body of Christ which carrieth horrour in the very conception and where beleeved utter affrightment from all future so imperfect so insignificant if not altogether a null-participation I am well assured neither of their Lordships were unacquainted with that special Treatise upon this subject written by the pious Cassander Dignissimus lectu A book most worthy the reading sayes Grotious to whose judgement our moderate Divines are prompt enough favourably to attend beside what Modrevius hath in his on the same Argument Vid. H. Gr. Annot. ad Consult Cassand Artic. 21. where he shews how easily this difference might be accorded were it not for the sin of Sacriledge so fiercely laid to the charge of the Roman Church in denying the Cup to the Laiety Which Luther Melanchthon and Bucer three leading men in the Reformation thought need not discourage well prepared Communicants from receivng the Sacrament in one kind which might be done they thought without sin What may be replyed to this sure enough that great Doctor and amphibious Calvinist Andr. Rivet on whom I affix that Epithet because of his living so long in France and Holland whence he contracted a perfect knowledge of all that Sect in either Nation had to urge in any point of Controversie against all others in Communion with the Church of Rome had in readiness what apologies could be made for those three too indulgent Patrons of the Reformation which he seperately and singly thus allegeth 1. That Luther when he came fresh from the Papacy confessed se fuisse Monachum Papistam insanissimum That he had been a Monk and a most mad Papist I think it was but by dilucid intervalls when he and his rigid followers became the soberest party of the Protestants and requested therefore that his writings might be read with commiseration no wonder then that he saw not alltogether at one prospect or intuition Certainly if he thought it Sacriledge in good earnest and properly so called he could not but know it at first sight to be a sin and the good Doctors apology in his behalf is but weak and accordingly the learned Grotius in his turn takes no notice of it What more for Luther Dr. Rivet addes Gr. Disc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 375. That he had brought in excuse his infirmity and as it were infancy and that when his mind was more illuminated he learned to be wise mends not the matter much it takes not off what Grotius affirmes at first he said 2. Let us therefore see what more he can say for Melanchthon To shew his better opinion in the Case he remits us to some