the Holy Scriptures is a total denial of them 2. Secondly if any sort of persons who call themselves Christians under the dispensation of the Gospel do set up allow and maintain the Order of Priesthood Material Altars and also Material Sacrifices then those sort of Christian do deny that that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh and so they deny the whole Gospel of God and are turned back to the Mosaical Law therefore no such person or persons that are of this Principle can or ought to be Judges and Interpreters of the Holy Scriptures 1 Cor. 2.14 15 16. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned But he that is spiritual judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord that he man 〈…〉 Christ There is no more reason for such a Man that is of Antichristian Principles not excepting Antichrist himself to be Judge of the Holy Scriptures than there is for a Thief or a Murderer to be his own Judge But there are a sort of persons which call themselves Christians now under the dispensation of the Gospel that do set up allow and maintain the Order of Priesthood material Altars and also material Sacrifices therefore these sort of Christians do deny that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh and so they deny the whole Gospel of God and are turned back to the Mosaical Ceremonial Law and are not competent Judges nor Infallible Interpreters of the Holy Scriptures but he that is spiritual judgeth all things 3. Thirdly and lastly If any pretended Religion or Principle does teach men and women to be worse than their natural dispositions and corrupt inclinations then that Religion or Principle must be both false and dangerous to themselves and others and is of the Devil But the pretended Religion and Principles of Antichrist doth teach men and women to be worse than their natural dispositions and corrupt inclinations therefore that Religion or Principle must be both false and dangerous unto themselves and others and Satan is the founder of that Opinion and Principle It may be that you will say that our Scriptures are not rightly translated and especially that passage of Job's Wife where it is said that she said Curse God and die I will not say that every Iota of it is rightly Translated but yet this I will say That all the fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Faith which contain matter of Eternal Life and Salvation by the Righteousness and Merits of Jesus Christ alone are rightly Translated and every true Believer that hath the Grace of God in him can set to his Seal and bear witness unto the Truth of it There may be some things that are not rightly Translated that do not contain matters of Salvation in them as for instance in that of Job's Wife it is no matter of Salvation to know certainly whether she said Curse God and die or Bless God and die for as she might speak it it might be much at one as many of the Learned do understand it no doubt but that she spoke it Ironically and so consequently Atheistically or else Job would not have replied Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh for if she haâ— spoken sincerely then Job had been to blame tâ— have given her such a tart reproof as to call oâ— count her a Fool for if she had given him this advice cordially and sincerely to Bless God and diâ— he ought not to have rejected it for it is a great Duty as well as a great Mercy for people to diâ— blessing of God as well as to live so Now whether Job's Wife was a good Woman or no that is 〈◊〉 question for if she were a good Woman she waâ— in a very carnal frame of heart even as St. Petâ—â— was when he denied his Lord and Master or else she would never have spoke after that manner Thus I hope I have by God's assistance sufficiently proved the Holy Scriptures which we Protestants of all sorts do own and believe to be oâ— Divine Authority by the power and strength oâ— Arguments drawn and deduced from Reason only And all other Scriptures of mens inventing to be false and preposterous and of Antichrist And 〈◊〉 hope I have said enough if not to reclaim some oâ— those poor Souls that are fallen into their Snare yet I hope it will be of use to deter others from following their pernicious Example And I hope now I have done you of this Principle will begin to consider not how to be avenged upon the Author do not count me your enemy for telling you the truth for I do neither wish nor mean any hurt unto you in the least no more than I do to my own Soul I will assure you but do heartily wish and desire that all men might come up to the true knowledg of Christ and be saved and to love the Truth as it is in Jesus I humbly beg and beseech you for Christ his sake and for your own precious immortal Souls sake seriously to consider oâ— these things so as to exercise your Senses Reason and Understanding also upon what I have here iâ— faithfulness to your Souls declared unto you especially that are insnared in these false Antichristian Doctrines for it is a dreadful Judgment for aâ—â— poor Soul to be led away with false Teachers Isa â— 16 and also to be led away with fundament Errors in Judgment about Spiritual things where the Soul is concerned it is as much as your Soâ—â— are worth And what has a Man more to lâ—â— than his Soul For when that is gone all is goâ—â— as our Saviour Christ hath said What shall it prâ— a man if he should gain the whole world and 〈◊〉 his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for a soul POSTSCRIPT NOw Beloved Protestant Friends of all sorts I would not have any person so uncharitable as to destroy or knock any of those persons on the head that are of this corrupt Principle merely for the sake of their Principle who do believe this Doctrine of Transubstantiation nor abuse them in the least but let the Tares grow with the Wheat until the great Harvest I would both advise and desire all good Christians to pity and pray for them nay it is my Lord and Master's command that we should do so Matt. 5.44 But I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you O! Sirs Let us carry it with all Christian sweetness of Spirit and tenderness of Affection towards them so that if possible we may win them by Christian love Let us heap Coals of fire upon their heads and melt them down into oneness of spirit with us And on the other hand I would never be willing nor consent to have it in their power to make a â—est of this Doctrine to Burn Protestants for Hereticks who cannot by any means come up to that degree of this kind of Faith as to believe such a complicated pack of Asurdities before they believe the Word of God or their own Sense and Reason Now I do here in the last place humbly yet boldly Challenge by the Power and in the Name of that God by whose Word and Spirit I have written this Any or all of those persons that teach this Doctrine of Transubstantiation and other the like Doctrines sutable to it that find themselves aggrieved or offended at this Christian friendly Discourse to give a fair ample and satisfactory Answer unto it But if they cannot Answer it then if I might advise them it should be this viz. That they would desist and leave off Preaching up any such kind of Doctrine among us which they â—an neither prove nor maintain either by Scripture or Rational Arguments FINIS ERRATA PAge 7. Col. 2. l. 21. r. of me p. 8. col 2. l. 43. r. and p. 9. col 1. l. 43. for without r. with p. 11. col 1. dele and Ibid. col 2. l. 19. r. is p. 12. col 2. l. 33. r. being come p. 13. l. 44. col 2. dele yet p. 15. col 2. l. 54. r. also but it is p. 17. col 2. l. 49. r. broacht Ibid. col 1. l. 29. dele with and to it Ibid. l. 32. r. bow p. 20. col 1. l. 13. r. jo now Ibid. col 2. l. 14. add it was not Ibid. l. 17. r. could not p. 21. col 2. l. 4. r. Heb. 1.7 Ibid. l. 51. dele yet p. 22. col 2. l. 8. for and Sacrifices r. and therefore Sacrifices Ibid. l. 43. r. after p. 23. 〈…〉 p. 24. col 2. l. 44. r. they p. 29. col 2. l. 31. add that p. 31. col 2. l. 27. r. Sacrament p. 37. ADVERTISEMENT THis Book is to be Sold at Randall Taylors and most Booksellers in the City Price Sticht 6 d. which is very necessary to be fixed in your Families and to be Read often unto your Children and Servants that they may acquire the principal Arguments by heart which will enable them to confute those who creep up and down to pervert the Truth and to vindicate the veracity of the Holy Bible in which the Universal or Catholick Apostolick Gospel-Church is founded under Christ
God so he could not die for his Godhead could not suffer nor die But as he was Man and surety for all sinners that ever did or that ever should believe in him so he died and as he was ordained and appointed by God the Father so to do in the Confederal Covenant between the Father and the Son Zech. 16.13 Now I pray Sir How can you Romanists eat and drink Christ personally and substantially in his Body Soul and Divinity but that Christ at the same time must of necessity suffer and die And then how many Millions of times must Christ have suffered and died by your hands according to this Doctrine of yours since you first brought it into the World For the Apostle saith plainly That if Christ be offered up often that then he must suffer often which clearly infers that as often as he is offered up so often he suffers and he also saith that Christ died but once Rom. 6.10 For in that he died he died but once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God. And I pray Sir do you Roman-Catholicks look into your own Creed and there you will 〈…〉 of the Articles of your Faith that Christ suffered once under Pontius Pilate and was Buried and Descended into Hell and Rose again from the Dead the third Day and is Ascended up into Heaven and is sat down at the Right hand of God from whence he shall come to Judge the Quick and the Dead Which is very true I do own it to be so And the Holy Scriptures say clearly and positively That Christ is ascended up into Heaven and is sat down at the Right hand of God and there he is to sit until God has made his enemies his footstool And Antichrist the Man of Sin is the greatest enemy that our Saviour Christ hath upon Earth whom Christ will consume with the spirit or rod of his mouth and destroy by the brightness of his coming Tho Antichrist have usurped Christ's Throne for a long time in the Temple of God and Reigned and Ruled over the Souls and Consciences of men which is Christ's peculiar Prerogative yet the time is at hand that he shall be made his footstool this was spoken Prophetically by David of what was to be in the last times at the period of Antichrist's Reign Psal 110.1 And our Saviour himself gives it further Sanction in Matt. 22.44 The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand till I have made thine enemies thy footstool Mark 12.36 Luke 20.42 43. Hence we may observe That from Christ's state of Humiliation and Ascention into Glory until he comes again in Triumph in his state of Exaltation all that time that Christ sits at the right hand of God the Father by God's permissive will his enemies were to be uppermost in the World first the Heathen Emperors and after them then Antichrist the Man of Sin he got into the Temple of God and his Reign there was to be One thousand two hundred and sixty days which is so many years Ezek. 4.6 until Christ comes again and makes him his footstool But whether he will come personally as some are of opinion he will or otherwise I will not determine but I will leave the Reader to the Scriptures Acts 1.9 10 11. And when he had spoken these things while they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up behold two men stood by them in white apparel which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into heaven This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven Rev. 20.4 Rev. 1.7 Job 19.25 26 27. Now Does Christ so come in your Mass But now if Christ be in person sitting at the right hand of God the Father in Glory as you see clearly proved by the Holy Word of God he is and that he is not to come from thence untill his enemies be made his footstool and that when he does come from thence he is to come in like manner as he ascended 〈…〉 shall 〈◊〉 him so come and that his Body is a finite Body Why if this be so then Christ cannot be personally and corporeally present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist in so many thousand places at once as the Mass is or may be said and yet at the same time to be personally and corporeally at the right hand of God the Father in Glory making intercession with him for poor Sinners Tho Christ as God is in all places both in Heaven and Earth and excluded from no place But yet as he is the only Mediator between God and Man so he is fixed in Heaven at the right hand of God until his enemies measure of iniquity be full and then they shall all be made his footstool He is entred into Heaven as the forerunner for his people he entred into Heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us as an Advocate He is the first fruits of the resurrection of the dead So that this Doctrine of Christ's Personal and Corporeal Presence in the Sacrament does even contradict and destroy your own Faith or Creed as well as it does overthrow the whole current of the Holy and Sacred Scriptures As for the former I will appeal even unto you your own selves who are Romanists that do say and pretend to own and believe your own Creed whether it be not so or no And as for the latter I will appeal unto all sorts of Christians whatsoever that do own and believe the Holy Scriptures to be the revealed word and will of God whether it be not so or no And also I will appeal to their own Sence and Reason Again secondly Let us hear further what the Apostle saith for more light into this dark matter in 1 Cor. 10.1 2 3 4. Brethren I would not that ye should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed thorow the sea And were all baptized unto Moses who was a type of Christ And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea And did all eat the same spiritual meat And did all drink the same spiritual drink For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ These were all true Believers in Christ which were among the Children of Israel in Moses's days and all of them did live by Faith upon Christ and they all fed upon the same spiritual food then as we do now under the Gospel this is that hidden Manna Rev. 2.17 This is that meat which God gives his Children to eat which the World knows nothing of By Faith Moses forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him who is Invisible That was by an eye of Faith Moses saw Christ in his day that could not
But now hath obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant which was established upon better promises For if that first covenant had been faultless then should no place have been sought for the second Heb. 7.19 I do believe the Apostle Paul in Heb. 8.4 spake Ironically of those Priests that were so ignorant then Ay and that do now offer up material Sacrifices both of Jews and Gentiles in Gospel times for it does signify that Christ is not come in the flesh but that he is yet to come and die which is a down-right denying that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh in Works For says the Apostle if he were on earth he should not be a priest seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law If he that is Christ the only high Priest were on Earth he should not be a Priest because these Priests that offer Sacrifice under the Gospel are all Invaders and Usurpers of Christ's Priestly 〈…〉 under the Mosaical Law were all but Types and Shadows of Christ of his Coming and Dying for Christ is the High Priest and Priest of the most High God Heb. 7.15 16 17 23 24 25 26 27. For this Melchisedec King of Salem Priest of the most High God who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the Kings and blessed him And it is yet far more evident for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another Priest who is made not after the Law of carnal commandment but after the power of an endless life for he testifieth Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec and they truly were many Priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death but this man because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable Priesthood wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them for such an high Priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens who needeth not daily as those high Priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the peoples for this he did Once when he offered up himself Here you see is the durable Priesthood Rev. 8.3 4. there Christ is the Golden Altar on which all our Gospel-sacrifices of Prayers and Thanksgiving must be offered up to God or else neither the person nor the offering will ever be accepted by the Lord. And look into 1 Cor. 5.7 and there you have the Sacrifice Thus you see clearly made out unto you that Christ is the only Priest Altar and Sacrifice of which all these Priests and Altars and Sacrifices and the Passover under the Law were Types and Figures and therefore the Apostle did as it were expose and ridicule or even laugh to see the ignorance of those Priests that do offer Sacrifices under the Gospel-Dispensation for a remembrance of Christ's yet coming to die for sin for that is the signification of all those material Sacrifices when as Christ was then come and had suffered and was gone to Glory this is more tolerable in the Jews who do not believe that Christ the Messiah is come than it is for any that profess themselves Christians and believe that Christ is already come for the Jews do not believe that the Messiah is come and therefore they keep up their Sacrifices and Offerings thâ— they have lost the very sense and meaning of them and the End and Design of God in his first ordaining and appointing of them but for any that pretend to be Christians and yet to offer up these kinâ— of material Sacrifices and yet do own that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh why I do say that thâ— they do confess in words that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh yet in these Sacrifices they do plainâ—â— deny it for it is a turning back again to the Jewiâ—â— Law for these Sacrifices say plainly that Jesus Christ is not yet come in the flesh because his 〈◊〉 in the flesh put an end to that Ordinance as well as to the Passover and all other carnal Ordinances and Ceremonial Rites when he had finished the work which God the Father gave him to do Again another Scripture for Illumination is that in Heb. 9.8 9 12. The Holy Ghost there signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first Tabernacle was yet standing for that first Tabernacle was the Ceremonial Law of Types and Shadows and material Sacrifices for Christ is the way into the holiest of all who was not then come nor manifested in the flesh when these Sacrifices were in force 1 Joh. 1.1 2. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and manifested unto us What was this manifestation why it was Christ when he came in the flesh as you may see 1 Tim. 3.16 And without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into Glory Christ was justified by God the Father and acquitted from all the sins of his people when he had suffered and died and rose again But Christ was not so manifested then under the Law when this Covenant was standing which was not faultless and all these Sacrifices in force and being which was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both Gifts and Sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to Conscience Heb. 7.19 for â—he Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did c. Here you see all these Sacrifices and Services under the Law were all imperfect they could not â—each the Conscience to purge and sanctifie that neither could they purifie nor cleanse the heart â—hey were all but Figures and Types of that which â—as to come which was of the Lord Jesus Christ â—he great and only Sacrifice who was to come and â—e offered up who is said to be our Passover and is â—â—crificed for us And it is moreover said Neither by â—he blood of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling â—â—e unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh No â—othing but the Blood of Christ the Lamb of God â—â—n cleanse a soul from the guilt and pollution of 〈◊〉 Joh. 1.29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming â—â—to him and saith Behold the Lamb of God which â—â—keth away the sin of the world Again Fourthly and lastly one Scripture more â—â—t the utter overthrowing of all pretended material â—â—crifices short of Christ and