God who super-added the word to the sign The Relation is mutual betwixt the Word and the Sign as betwixt the Form and the Matter The Word as the Form the Sign as the Matter Conjoyn them and they are a Sacrament By the Word we are to understand the Mandate of Christ enjoyning us to use them and to expect spiritual Grace thereby So we think we have good right to root out the other two and whole five supernumerary Sacraments since Confirmation and Extreme Unction have indeed the Element but wanting the Word ought not to be accounted Sacraments since Absolution and Ordination have no Element since Matrimony has no promise of Grace And thus we may more than ghess at the just number of Sacraments Wherefore laying aside the Supposititious we find but two Sacraments of the Gospel Baptism and the Lord's Supper In the first of these we have no Dispute with the Church of Rome but will I hope in some sort be cleared by our Disquisitions concerning the latter save about such trifles as their mixing of Salt and Spittle their Exorcisms their suffering Women sometimes to administer it c. Come we then to that which is commonly called the Communion How far the real Presence of Christs Body is allowed by us I shall in the first place declare We are then to distinguish betwixt the outward and inward Act of the Communicant In the outward with our bodily mouths we receive really the Elements of Bread and Wine In the inward we do by Faith really receive the Body and Bloud of the Lord that is We are truly and indeed by Vertue of the Covenant where the Sacrament is a Seal made partakers of Christ crucified to the spiritual strengthening of our souls Our Adversaries of the Roman Perswasion have made such a confusion of these things that for the former they deny that after Consecration there remains any Bread or Wine at all to be received though Paul does in my mind give a strong intimation 1 Cor. 11. 26. 10. 16. That it is Bread at breaking or distribution at eating or participation Then for the second they affirm That the body and blood of Christ is in such a manner present under the outward shewes of Bread and Wine as whosoever receives the one be he good or bad Believer or Infidel does therewith really receive the other A Tenent not consistent with that place in John 6. where our Saviour saith He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath Eternal life abiding in him and I will raise him up at the last day Hence hath that Reverend Usher often before quoted in that Answer to the Jesuits Challenge where you may find many clear testimonies out of the Fathers to this purpose framed this Syllogism The Body and Blood of Christ is received unto Life by all that do receive it and by none unto condemnation But that which is outwardly delivered in the Sacrament is not received by all unto Life but by many unto Condemnation Therefore that which is outwardly delivered in the Sacrament is not really the Body and Blood of Christ. What was his last shall be my first proof out of St. Augustin handling this very place The Sacrament of this thing viz. of eating the flesh of Christ is taken from the Lord's Table by some unto life by some unto destruction but the thing it self whereof it is a Sacrament is received by every Man that doth receive it unto Life and by none that is made Partaker thereof unto destruction Now seriously if Protestants could adde no more Arguments to this and my self were as much an Adorour of that Way and Church as ever I was I am perswaded that it alone had been sufficient by the blessing of God to have gained me to the Reformed Belief But let us ponder well the Words of Institution 'T is true This is my Body and This is my blood is the Phrase used But were not the Sacraments of the Old Testament instituted with the same manner of Speech This is my Covenant and the slaying of the Lamb called the Passover The former is presently expounded by God himself when he says It shall be a Sign of the Covenant The other is known to have been the Commemoration of passing by the Israelites when the first-born of Egypt were slain Thus our Saviour having said This is my body goes on This do in Remembrance of me Luke 22. 19. The Disciples having been trained up to the meaning of the Old Sacraments could not and we if we will compare them with the New need not think the Expression at all obscure As the Lamb was the Passover As the Sign of the Covenant was the Covenant As the Rock was Christ So we acknowledge the Bread to be his body In the Institution of the other part of this Sacrament the Words are clear Matth. 26. He took the Cup blessed and gave it them saying Drink ye all of this for it is my Blood of the New Testament or as St. Paul and Luke relate it This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood How is the Cup or that conteined therein the New Testament otherwise than as a Sacrament of it And generally for all Sacraments the Rule is thus laid down by St. Augustin If Sacraments did not some way resemble the things whereof they are Sacraments they should not be Sacraments at all for this resemblance they do often bear the names of the things As therefore the Sacrament of the Body of Christ is after a certain manner the Body of Christ c. In another place he tells us the seven Ears of Corn were seven years and the Blood is called the Soul of Man after the manner of Sacraments It 's Evident the Fathers though they delighted to imitate our Saviour's manner of locution yet their meaning even when they followed the Metaphor through large discourses were not dissonant from that of Origen who after he had playd the Rhetorician in this sort concludes Et haec quidem de typico symbolicóque Corpore If you will but observe what strange relations my Authour gives you have full lieve to examine the truth of them though for my part I believe them What can you think but that some by-ended Priests the better to increase their esteem with the People such as Marcus Radbertus Damascen and Amalalarius there named wrought up the Vulgar Ignorance to an amazed Admiration of those mens power who could perform such great wonders and were the Makers of that they were taught to adore In Charles the Bald's time this Phansie had got some ground and several Questions and Debates arose about it That Emperour required Ratrannus to deliver his thoughts upon it whereunto he obeyed in such terms as Turrian the Jesuite is forced to say That to cite Bertram so is Ratrannus more usually named What is it else but to say The Heresie so he thinks fit to phrase it of
Oratio ad M. V. Mariam pro Cordis Puritate Per sanctam Virginitatem immaculatam Conceptionem tuam Purissima Virgo Emunda Cor Carnem nostram In nomine Patris ✚ Filii ✚ Spiritus sancti ✚ Amen Juxta Exemplar Romae incisum This is subscribed to a Cut black and white which serves for a Chimney Piece at a Gentleman's house I know very well Touching it I cannot but make two Observations 1. That it is not true what some Papists when they would insinuate to such as they endeavour to make Proselytes that their Doctrine concerning Prayer to Saints is an innocent safe thing do affirm viz. That they never pray to them for spiritual Grace immediately 2. That it is a strange thing they should publickly authorize in a prayer such a Clause as is very stiffly denied by one half I believe of their Church viz. That the blessed Virgin was not born with Original sin or That her own Conception was immaculate Such a Reverence towards the Saints departed as exerts it self in thanks to God for them and excites in us a desire to follow their good examples all Christians doubtless are bound to retain But with such Sacrifices as the voluntary and culpable humility of Multitudes have it seems obtruded on them 't is as certain they themselves are far from being well or at all pleased If the present Romanists will owne practices like these above their next Task is to defend them If they disclaim them they must disprove the relations In both Cases we are not without something more to say Of Prayer for the Dead THere is no Controversie wherein I found it more difficult to give my thoughts a settlement than this It was strongly the dictate of my Nature not to omit any Office which might possibly avail a dear departed friend It was hugely my inclination to subject my Judgment to the Dictates of Antiquity And indeed the Writings of some justly to be reputed Fathers old enough are not without Expressions such as taken in gross and at first view may seem to lean towards the practice of the Romish Church But upon the most sollicitous scrutinies I have been able to make little is the Conformity betwixt its Doctrine and the Notions of those Venerable Persons Bellarmine in his second Book and 18th Chapter of Purgatory will have it to be most certain that Prayers bring no advantage either to the blessed or damned only then to such as he places in Purgatory But a man with half an eye may discover That those laudatory Nominations those gratulatory Commemorations those benevolent Options which here and there occurr in the Antient Doctors with reference to the deceased had no design to kindle that imaginary Fire which hath since been made so terribly to Flame in the faces of departing Souls unless by a liberal Donation they would make the Pot to boil lustily in the Pope's Kitchin St. Augustine seems lib. 9. cap. 13. of his Confessions rather to indulge himself newly got from under some extraordinary transports upon the death of his Mother than to give determinate Laws for a necessary rite For having signified his full belief that the thing he prayed for was done already He intreats Almighty God not without something of hesitancy to approve Voluntaria cordis sui words too feeble to sustain half the superstructures that Rome would rear thereupon In another place he solemnly professeth That having wearied themselves to find out what manner of sins those could be which should impede our Admission into Heaven and yet receive pardon by the Intercessions of our friends remaining on this Earth he was not able to attain the knowledge thereof and gives us lieve elsewhere to dissent from him where there is not evident Scripture to resolve our Faith into of which sort their own Bredenbachius doth acknowledge the Oblations and Sacrifices for the dead to be Vide Morton's Appeal lib. 2. cap. 8. Since Nazianzen praying for Caesarias since Ambrose praying for Theodosius do at the same time profess a confidence that the Persons did possess Christi requiem Nay since we read of certain Liturgies wherein not only Supplications for Patriarchs Prophets Apostles but even for the blessed Mother of our Lord were inserted yea and termed Sacrifices too what can we judge but that those addresses were either merely gratulatory or proceded more from the Zeal they had of expressing their Affections to those parties than from any settled opinion of their necessity The truth is a Phancie had then got some footing which will not now generally pass for Orthodox either with them or us viz. That Souls of best Saints departed were reserved in an outward Court of Heaven not in the Verge of Hell nor under Satan's Jurisdiction let this be noted by the way before they were admitted to the full fruition of God nay even till the Resurrection of the Body This might occasion some modes of Prayer which yet do not at all justifie that sort of Orasons Oblations Sacrifices Indulgences which we condemn in the present Romanists To conclude Though we should suffer it to pass among the Credibilia That some access of Felicity might accrew to a dead Relation though I need not disclaim that Opinion which tells me a better Resurrection may be procured for him by the multiplied prayers on his behalf made against that time when his Body now in the dust or dust it self shall be reunited to the Soul Yet can I not think well of that Doctrine whereby so dark a Cloud is drawn betwixt the Eye of my Faith and him in whose blood I must be cleansed from all Sin or whereby I may be seduced by a deceivable hope of succour from other hands after death to venture upon the pleasures of Sin for a season under that most deluding expectation of having my Lamp lighted with the Oyl of such Devotions as are not at all mine own Of Purgatory BEcause we find not in sacred Writ a Fire penal after this Life but what is kindled with Brimstone for evermore Therefore we exhort all men to beware they entertain not a vain hope of escaping everlasting Burnings by dwelling in an imaginary Flame for a time Of Penance WHether it be a Sacrament or no is not here the Question The Learned on our side have drawn many Arguments both from its Constitution and Institution which sufficiently evince that it cannot properly be so esteemed nor come within either the nature or number of Sacraments Amongst the Genuine Concomitants of Repentance St. Paul enumerates with godly sorrow indignation fear also Revenge And in some other places and cases we understand Restitution Reparation Satisfaction to take place but in reference to all these there may be a dead flie to make them justly stink in the nostrils of God yea there may be and 't is to be feared the thing falls out too often Death in the Pot. Where the conscience is guilty of and the Church scandaliz'd by enormous crimes
of Justification Those terms Rom. 4. 5 6. of Justifying the Ungodly and of Imputing Righteousness without Works are not so to be taken as if God ever did or ever would save any Person who resolved to continue impious or contemn the practice of good Works but they stand in opposition to all conceit of any Justifying power in good Works and may teach us That no man's holiness can be such in this Life but he will at God's Tribunal stand in need of that Covering which St. Paul fetcheth out of the 32. Psal. and points out to us in ver 7. Ponder too ver 8. and tell me then whether you can conceal from your self the whole Plat-form of the Protestant Doctrine in this point For the not Imputing of Sins and the Imputing of Righteousness without Works make up the Whole of our Belief Secondly a Sinner is not Justified by Faith as it is a Quality which deserves remission of Guilt and the Glory of Heaven nor as it is by God's favourable acceptance taken for the whole and perfect Righteousness of the Law But it justifies only with reference to its Object Christ Faith being that Grace which the Soul makes use of to close in with him receive and imbrace the Promises by it we are ingrafted into that Olive-tree and are made Members of that glorious Head We do not here as some traduce us erect a Justification merely supposititious or state betwixt Christ and the Believer only an imaginary Relation But we hold the Interest we have in him to be of most real and true Participation Forasmuch as having by God's effectual and gratious Ordination taken upon him the Humane Nature so entirely put on he communicates by vertue of the Mystical Union through the Covenant whereto God the Father the Son and Man are Parties really his Satisfaction and Merits to all Believers Joh. 6. 27. Isa. 42. 1. Heb. 5. 4 5. Jer. 31. 31. Thus he who knew no Sin was made Sin for us and we not having any Righteousness in our selves are made the Righteousness of God in him Rom. 3. 26. Who rose again for our Justification as he died for our sins Thus he is the Justifier and thus the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believes Rom. 10. 4. Let but Faith be the Substance of things hoped for the Evidence of things un-seen whereby we Receive and Imbrace as well as are Perswaded of the Promises Heb. 11. Suffer us but to draw Consolation by laying hold on the Hope set before us Heb. 6. 18. Let it be an Eying of Christ offering his Body shedding his Blood and fulfilling the Law perfectly as the Church of England speaks in the Homilies of Salvation very clearly Let it be a Fiducial Recumbence upon our Saviour in his whole Mediatorial Office which is certainly our Duty as well as Privilege And we desire no more Heb. 12. 1 2. The Free Gift which is said to come upon all men to the Justification of Life is held forth as the immediate Consequence and Effect of that exact and complete Justice which was in our Saviour Christ only and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used imports the very Act of Justifyng or judicially pronouncing Just and not infusion into the Soul of any Habit of Justice We have no obscure Intimation what Righteousness is able to appear before God in all those Places where the Scriptures treating of Man's Justification in his sight points out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteousness of God affixing it to the very Person of Christ and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were only derived from him into the Regenerate Thirdly We are Justified by Faith in Opposition to the Righteousness of Works by fulfilling the Law in our own persons or else making Satisfaction for what we come short Paul's Disputations are levelled against the Moral Law as well as the Ceremonial for in the point of Justification he waves even that Law Rom. 7. 12 13. which he terms Holy and Just and Good and which to other uses he is careful to establish Here again if we consult the Original where the Righteousness of the Law is said to be fulfilled in us we may by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 4. never applied to that inherent Righteousness which is our Sanctification but to that Righteousness of Christ whereby he satisfied the utmost Demands of the Law be guided through the Labyrinth of Disputes to a right understanding of this Unum Necessarium wherein having expatiated a little more than the Brevity I at first proposed to my self would permit let me now represent to your view these three former heads copied out in Little 1. Faith is not an Empty Speculation but an Operative Grace of God's Spirit 2. The Righteousness wherewith we shall be clothed in the World to come is both Perfect and Inherent The former in Christ the latter in us 3. The Righteousness which is our Sanctification is indeed Inherent but not Perfect And 1. Justificatio apprehensiva called often Justifying Faith is not properly Justification but an apprehension or knowledge of it 2. Justificatio Effectiva termed Causal Justification none but Christ can have a Claim unto 3. Justificatio declarativa is by St. James styled Justifying by Works as it is the manifestation or testimony of true Conversion Thus those Scriptures do sweetly agree which say we are Justified sometimes by Grace sometimes by Faith sometimes by Christ and that once by Works Let us do Evil that Good may come thereof Rom. 6. 1. was the Devil's Rhetorick in the mouths of licentious men to bring an obloquie upon St. Paul's Doctrine of free Grace But doubtless Satan is a more cunning Sophister than to frame an Argument of so much Inconsequence as to say Continue in Sin that inherent Grace may abound Whence I think we may not improbably conclude That nothing else is intended by all the preceding Discourse but the Gracious Act of Almighty God whereby he absolves a believing Sinner at the Tribunal of his Justice Pronouncing him Righteous acquitting and accepting him to Glory only for Christ's sake Thus when he had assigned to sin its proper Effect due Wages and Merit Death coming to speak of Life Eternal we find no such terms in his mouth but he suddenly cuts off the File of his Contexture and calls it Rom. 6. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Free Gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is Justification by Remission of Sins there is Justification by having the Righteousness of the Law fulfilled in us there is the Justification of Life or the Receiving that Crown of Life All these are laid up in the Person of Christ for the use of his Church and brought home to every true member by the hand of Faith There is too another Sort of Justification viz. At the Bar of Conscience and in Foro Humano by Works of Righteousness which
Calvin is not New One Allfrick of Malmesburie in an Homily writ 650 years ago and publickly read on Easter Dayes before the Communion fully consents with the Reformed Churches herein And in another Book Dedicated to Woulstan Arch-bishop of York he says The Bread is Christ's Body and the Wine his Blood as Manna and the Water out of the Rock mentioned by Paul 1 Cor. 10. 3 4. were of old to the Israelites By these and some others was the right and true Doctrine contended for and in good measure held-forth though in the midst of those times wherein Knowledge both as to the concernments of Religion and of humane Literature was at a low Ebb till at length that Council at Lateran Anno 1215. Decreed That the Body and Blood of Christ must be believed to be in the Sacrament by Transubstantiation I know they will to this answer This Council did but invent a significant word to express what was before the Tenent of the Church But I am in some hopes what has been said will convince you of the contrary If not I wish I could prevail with you laying aside Prejudice to peruse the never enough honoured Primate and a late well writ piece of Doctor Taylor 's But what need we go farther for the Sence of the words of Institution than that place Joh. 6. ver 35. whereby our Lord himself had prepared his Disciples to receive them plainly attributing the quenching of that Appetite he desired to excite in them unto Faith or Believing LETTER IV. LET us in the next place use what means we can to discover that fitting Esteem and Value we ought to put upon the Heavenly Hoste I mean the blessed Quire of Angels and Saints who now rest from their Labours and reign with God You shall find us ready to afford them as much reverence and respect as the Word of God doth either Commend or Command and to deny them no honor which the purest or Primitive times thought requisite to give them We read in the New Testament of divers who made supplications immediately to Christ Rom. 5. 2. Ephes. 3. 12. Heb. 4. 16. John 2. 1. for he is by the Wisdom of the Father appointed to be our Intercessor and Advocate but not of one that prayed to the blessed Virgin Mary or other Saint and with Hierom we fear not to say Non Credimus quia non Legimus We read farther of some who being forward to prostrate themselves before appearing Angels were prevented by a See you do it not Revel 22. 9. We cannot but take notice of that interdictive Precept which disswades us from voluntarie humilitie c. Col. 2. 18 23. And therefore though we doubt not but those glorious Spirits do rejoyce at any access of happiness that befals the Church Militant or any Member thereof Though we should grant that they are instant with God for the consummation of the felicity of his Elect and that perhaps too they sollicite him for the particular concernments of his Servants here below Yet Invocation being a Prerogative belonging to the great Creator only and Intercession being an Office affixed so clearly to the person of Jesus Christ only We hold it safe for us and no way derogatorie from them to propose them to our selves for our Imitation but not for our Adoration 2 Chron. 6. 30. For thou Lord only knowest the hearts of the children of men If I had an express Precept for it really I would do it with all my heart and I am perswaded I could be a great Zealot in the way but in Religious as well as other affairs Sunt certi fines Quos ultra citráque nequit consistere Rectum and Will-worship is no venial Idolatry The Church of Rome has attributed so much of Merit to the Devotions Vows and Pilgrimages made to Saints and their Shrines that they have almost justled all other Piety out of door and drawn a dark cloud betwixt the eyes of the Vulgar and the Offices and Functions of our Saviour Whatever Artifice is used by the great Ones to usher in this very gainful Tenent unto the well-meaning sort of Papists under the Notion of Dulia a sort of worship which they will have to consist of an under-qualification to their Latria Yet the reverend Davenant hath made it apparent enough That the Orisons Vows Dedication of Churches with Altars as they are by Romanists directed to them are inconsistent with Truth Reason or Practice of Antiquity And here I shall insert what I promised in my first Letter an Ejaculation so strange that methinks it is sufficient to turn the stomachs of any and make them nauseating so absurd a practice not swallow down all that 's offer'd to them as wholesome food Mary of Portugal wife to Prince Alexander Farnezes calls upon her Husband in the Church of Scala to joyn in Prayer to the blessed Virgin supplicating Christ That in Obedience to his Mother he would give them another Son This yet hath more of Modesty in it than those particular Applications to her in terms which Erasmus a man that stood enough in awe of the Churches Name hath as before is hinted taxed of both vanity and novelty Such as this found in their Psalters Compel him to have Mercy upon us I am resolved before I end this Letter to rake together a huge bundle of such Applications made to and Appellations obtruded upon her out of Authors you will not disown as the wisest Papists will I believe not approve and the learnedst of them never can prove to be rightly used towards her Which may extenuate if not excuse the tartness of some of ours who seem to have mingled a great deal of Vinegar into their Ink when they inveigh not against her Person but the performance of such Devoyrs as are not due unto her Yet first I will give you in a few places out of the Fathers which speak my very thoughts to the full as to this point Epiphanius askes What Scripture hath delivered any thing concerning this Which of the Prophets have permitted a man that I may not say a woman to he worshipped For a choice vessel she is indeed but yet a woman Let Mary be in honour but let the Father Son and holy Ghost be worshipped This Mystery is appointed I do not say for a woman nor for a man but for God The Angels themselves are not capable of such kind of glorifying Although Mary be most excellent and holy and to be honoured yet she is not to be worshipped the Virgin indeed was a Virgin and honourable but not given unto us for Adoration c. Next Origen against Celsus exhorts us to endeavour to please God and to have him propitious unto us and if Celsus will yet have us to procure the good will of any other after him that is God over all Let him consider That as when the body is moved the motion of the shadow follows