men to deny both their reason and senses to beleive a transubstantiation Here indeed a Faith is necessary strong enough to remove mountaines and though never any Miracles were wrought but were wrought on purpose to convince our senses yet here we must believe one which neither sence nor reason can discover When Christ gave the Sacrament to his Disciples saith the Apostle 1 Corinth 11.24 He brake the bread and said take eat this is my body which is broken for you It is a wonderful thing that the word is in the first Sentence this is my Body should have a litteral sense and in the very next sentence pronounced with the same breath cannot admit of a Litteral sense for the word is in the second senâ—ence must necessarily stand for 〈◊〉 hâ— because Christs Body when he gave the Bread was not yet broken If it will not admit of a Litteral Sense in the very next sentence because of the absurdity that would follow that Christ was Crucified before he was Crucified why should we understand it in the first sentence litterally when the absurdity is far greater Nay that the word is should not be capable of being understood litterally in the second essential part of the Sacrament This cup is the New Testament that here I say it should import and can import nothing else but signifies or is a sign of the new Testament and yet must not be understood so in the first part of the Sacrament is a thing we cannot comprehend And when the Apostle speaking of the Lords Supper or Eucharist 1 Cor. 10.16 The Cup of blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ and the Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ Let the rigidest Papist that hath not quite banished his reason tell me how he will make sense of the word is here except he understand it figuratively most certainly it cannot be understood literally for the Cup is not that Communion but is a sign of it One would admire how mâ—n can be so obstinate in a thing as clear as the Sun and you might as well conclude that Christ is a Door made of boards and nailes because the Scripture sayth he is a Door and that he is a real Vine with green Leaves and Grapes about him because the Scripture saith he is a Vine But suppose the word is in these words This is my body must be understood literally how doth this make for transubstantiation Are the words is and is transubstantiated all one A thing may be said to be a thousand ways and yet without transubstantiation so that if by the word is you understand transubstantiation you your selves must go from the literal sense and assume a sense which is not expressed in that saying All the Jews are so well versed in the sense of Sacramental expressions that by the word is they understand nothing but signifies or represents and therefore it s a horrid shame that Christians meerly for fear of being laughed at for departing from an absurd opinion and losing the credit of a pretended infallibility should make themselves ignorant in that which the meanest Jew even before the Gospel understood without a Teacher for we may confidently beleive that no Jew before Christs time was so sottish to think when it 's said the flesh is the Passeover Exod. 12.11 that the flesh or blood was really the Passeover but only a sign and representation of it or a token to them as Moses calls it ver 13. I will not here put you in mind of the strange absurdities that must follow from this Doctrine of Transubstantiation viz. that Christ when he did eat and drink in this Sacrament must have eaten his own flâ—sh and that the Apostles must have eaten his body while he was at the Table with them and before it was Crucified c. I could tell you that this Doctrine is against the great Article of our Faith that Christ is ascended into Heaven and there sitteth at the Right Hand of GOD until the day of Judgment That it is against the Nature of a real Body to be in a thousand places at once And that from hence it must follow that the Body and Blood of Christ is capable of being devoured by Vermine capable of being poisoned and instead of giving life may be so order'd that it shall kill and murther witness Victor the third Pope of ROME and Henry the VII th Emperour who were poisoned in the Sacrament not to mention a thousand more of such Monstrous consequences But since Madam you do insist so much upon that place of Scripture John 6.53 Except you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you I le but breifly shew you how ill a Logician you are to conclude that this is spoke of the Sacrament or that these words infer a Corporal manducation of Christs real Body and blood if they be meant of the Eucharist it will necessarily follow that Christ oblig'd the Jews and his hearers to come to the Sacrament at the time he spake these words for he speakes of their present eating and drinking Except ye eat c. But this he could not possibly do for the Sacrament of his body and blood was not instituted till at least a whole twelve months after nor did any of his disciples at that time dream of any such thing as his dying and being crucified nor doth Christ speak the least word of it in the whole Chapter which he must necessarily have done if he had intended the Sacrment by it which is all together founded in his crucifixion For this Sermon of Christ concerning eating and drinking his flesh and blood was delivered just about the Feast of the Passeover ver 4. After which feast as it is said John 7.1 2. the Jews celebrated the feast of Tabernacles and after this they kept another feast of the Passeover the last which Christ was at which was no less than a twelve month after John 11.55 John 12.21 So that the Sacrament of Christs Body and blood not being instituted before the last Passover as all the Evangelists agree it was not possible that either the believing Jews or the Apostles could understand it of the Sacrament and I suppose Christ intended to be understood because there was no such thing as yet instituted Besides it is impossible that it can be understood of the Sacramental eating and drinking of the Body and Blood of Christ for without this eating and drinking there is no Salvation to be had as iâ— is said Joh. 6.53 54. and if it were to be understood of the Eucharist we must exclude all Christians from Salvation that are not in a capacity nor in a possibility of receiving it which I am sure your own Church will not do And that these words of Christ cannot possibly be understood of a Corporal eating Christs flesh and drinking his blood but must be understood of a Spiritual
comes nearest to Scripture and which goes farthest off is such an Argument of impatience that you only seem to have yeilded to a dangerous temptation of the Devil If the Controversies between the Church of ROME and us are so intricate as you say and above your capacity to dive into them you have then run over to that Church in the dark and have as little reason to be satisfied with your proceedings as you believe you have with our way of Worship You plead that you have been sitting up whole nights and weeping and praying that God would discover to you which is the true way to Salvation and from that time forward you found inclinations to go over to that Church and is this a sufficient argument to justifie your forwardness when you had already begun to doubt whither our Church were a true Church or no because you found not that satisfaction in it your sickly desires wanted it was then an easie matter to give ear to confident People that magisterially and peremptorily assured you that you would find satifaction in their church and being fed with this hope your inclinations to that church grew stronger every day as Our Mother Eve the hopes of being like GOD suggested to her by the Serpent did egg and spur her on to eat of the fatal Tree We do not forbid people to pray to GOD to lead or direct them into the right way though sometimes it may be a perfect tempting of GOD when People are in the right way to desire GOD to discover to to them by a Sign of their own choice whether they are in it or no. But then if we pray to GOD to direct us we must not neglect the means GOD hath appointed in order to our satisfaction but must compare Scripture with Scripture and Books with Books and Arguments with Arguments and search which Religion agrees most with the Doctrines and Practices of Christ and his Apostles and as the noble Berrheans did examine all the Doctrines obtruded to our beleif by the Scripture and doing thus and continuing this search and these prayers together no doubt but GOD in his own good time will answer us and Direct us But to pray to GOD to direct Us and not to use the means in the use of which he hath promised to direct Us We do in a manner mock him or desire him to work a Miracle for Us or to vouchsafe Us some extroardinary Revelation when we have Moses and the Prophets and may hear them And I am confident had you joyned this way with your Prayer examined the Doctrines of the Church of ROME and compared them with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ seen whether there be any thing like it in the Bible and seâ—â—ched whether Christ and his Apostles ever taught such Doctrines and done all this not slightly but seriously and solidly It s impossible you could ever have turned Papist for if our Gospel be true that Religion can never be true for there is nothing in the World can run more counter to the Gospel than the Doctrines of that Church wherein we differ from them and they had need put the Bible among proâ—â—bited Books for should the people have Liberty freely to peruse it the Church of ROME would grow very thin and despicable I am sensible your Priests find fault with our Translation of the Bible and Cry out that there are great defects in it but when they talk so they had need talk to Women not to men of Learning and that understand Greek and Hebrew the Languages in which the Word was Originally written The Honesty of our Translators appears sufficiently from hence because if any sentence in the Bible be capable of a double sense they express the one in the Text and the other in the Margin and where they do but in the least vary from the Original they either discover it by the Italick Character or give you notice of it in the Margin then which there can be nothing more honest And let any Papist of you all shew Us wherein any thing in our Bibles is ill Translated out of malice or design or expressed in words which the Original will not bear If We examine Translations by the Original then sure I am there is few translations go further from it than the Vulgar Latine or the Rhemist Testament as were an easie matter to prove if I intended more than a Letter You are much taken with their Mortifications and Pennances which you say we have not in our Church But it 's a signe Madam you did not rightly understand our Religion We are so far from condemning Mortification and severity of life that we do commend it provided it be in order to subdue the body of Sin and to raise our selves to a greater pitch of Vertue Provided these severities be sepaâ—ated from all opinion of merit and from an opinion of their being satisfactory and expiatory and used only as helps to work in us a perfect detestation of Sin And I will assure you there are more in the Church of England that use severities in this humble holy way than you are aware of We indeed do not ordinarily inflict them on all persons because we know not their constitution nor what their nâ—ture will bear nor have we any command for it in the word of GOD but these things we leave to every mans discretion Urging that where Sins require stronger remedies there men ought to make use of them and if their corruptions will not be gone by reasonings and Arguments that there they must inflict mulcts and penalties on themselves to drive the Unclean Spirit out Though I must say still that Religious severities and austerities are not certain signs of a true Religion for Heathens do use them as much as Christians nay more than Christians Witness the Brahmanes in the Indies and the religious Pagans dispersed through all the Eastern parts and if you conclude that therefore the Church of ROME must be in the right because they inflict great pennances and severities and make daily use of them I am afraid you only forbear turning Turk or Heathen because you never saw their far greater severities in Religion than the Church of ROME can boast of But still the Protestant Church hath not the real Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Sacrament which the Church of ROME hath And are you sure the Church of ROME hath it I am perswaded you did never tast it nor see it nor feel it nor Smell it and how do you know it what because the Priests of that Church do tell you so No say you It is because Christ saith in express termes this is my Body And here I confess I stand amazed that men with learning and reason about them can sink into an opinion so contradictory that if all the consequences of it be considered there is nothing in nature can be more absurd or irrational and the Church of ROME had need oblige
eating and drinking that is believing in him and obeying him and hoping for pardon through his death which is the Spiritual food of the Soul is evident from the 54 th and 56 th Verse where every one that eats of his flesh and drinks of his blood is said to have actually eternal life in him and Christ dwelling in him and he dwelling in Christ. That is Christ loves him with a love of complacency he is a Child of GOD and beloved of him and an heir of Heaven But since Wicked men come to the Sacrament not only in our Church but even in the Church of ROME it would follow if a corporal eating were understood that Wicked men eating Christs body and drinking his blood have Eternal life in them and that Christ dwels in them and are true Children of GOD and heires of Heaven contrary to the unanimous consent of the Holy Prophets and Apostles who call Wicked men Children of the Devil and blinded by the Devil the GOD of the World and Heirs of damnation And indeed it is strange that people should contend for this corporal and sensual eating of Christs flesh and drinking his blood when Christ himself saith v. 63. That the flesh profiteth nothing and that this eating and drinking must be understood spiritually i.e. of Spiritual eating and drinking which is believing as it is said v. 64. You see Madam what it is not to make use of your own reason but to enslave it to the Faith of a Church which loves to act in the Dark and would have her Children Colliers and believe what the Church believes and know little more than the great Mystery of an Ave Maria or a Rosary Time was when you were pleased to tell our Ministers that though you were gone over to the Church of ROME yet you had liberty not to pray to Saints nor to fall down before Images for that was not thought necessary by the Church of ROME which only recommends praying to Saints and Veneration of Relicks and Images as a thing useful and which men have received much benefit by And indeed I remember I was told you thought that praying to Saints was a kind of Idolatry and therfore were glad they would excuse you from that Worship but since I hear that you are grown as devout a Worshipper of Saints and peculiarly of the Virgin Mary and do prostrate your self before them as much as the most tractable Papist in the World I confess I did smell a Rat at first when your Priests assured you that Invocation of Saints was not a thing commanded but recommended as useful and was then confident that before a year came to an end for all these soft expressions and dispensations with your omission of this worship they would perswade you to that worship which then you thought unlawful My prophecy is come to pasâ— and the Pill which seemed very bitter at first is swallowed and become sweeter than hony and look'd upon as an excellent Medicine And this I must needs say is more than you could have in our Church But this is our Comfort that the more ingenuous men of the Church of ROME confess that this praying to Saints or Angels was not heard of or used in the Christian Church for the first three hundred years after Christ and if the Christian Church for the first 300 years did not think it useful at all it is a strange degeneration from their principles to press it now as useful Certainly if GOD had thought this invocation so useful as your Church pretends it is He would not have so peremtorily commanded Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Psalm 50.15 and it 's probable the Apostles in prescribing so many useful things of far less concern would not have left us in the dark as to the mighty usefullness of this invocation especially when they had occasion to mention the spirits of men made perfect and did so often converse with Angels The Angel Revel 22.8.9 thought it a very useless thing and would not admit of so much as a Religious prostration of the Evangelist before him because it look'd like Sacriledge and robbing GOD of his due But since your Church in this adoration takes pattern so much by the Courts of Princes give me leave to suggest to you how you think a Soveraign Prince would take it if a Subject should give any of his servants the title of Majesty or any other title which properly belongs to him There are few titles that GOD hath and inspired men have given to him but you give them to the Blessed Virgin and though when you are charg'd with it you fall to distinctions and turn and wind your selves to get out yet that shews only a bad cause because it requires so much artifice and cunning to defend it but alas â— it must be Children that are perswaded and coaxed to believe that the Church of ROME onely counts it useful not necessary when it is well known that the generality of that Communion pray to Saints more than to GOD which in the Scripture phrase is honouring the creature more than the Creator and they never leave that person that goes over to them till they have brought him to that Worship of Saints and Angels It s pretty to hear these Men talk that it is only recommended as useful when the Bishops and Preachers of that Church are injoyned and take their oath upon 't to commend this invocation to the People as profitable and the People are obliged to hearken to their Priests in all things so that though a Man at first may think this Invocation not necessary upon the account of its being onely useful yet from that other obligation he hath to obey the Priest in all spiritual things it becomes necesssary But from this scruple we are delivered Madam by the Confession of Faith which the Roman Catechisme doth prescribe for there it is that it is not only useful but that we ought to pray unto Saints and indeed should any man live in that Communion and omit it he would soon be looked upon as prophane and but a half Convert to their Church they would soon let him know their displeasure and either fright or flatter him into conformity And is this the Worship Madam which Christ and his Apostles have injoyned the World Are not you afraid of doing things that do so nearly border upon robbing God of his honour and glory Idolatry is a frightful word and you do not love to hear it and therefore I will trouble you with it as little as I can But when God hath commanded you to come to him directly without mentioning the intercession of Saints and Angels how dares your Church of her own head bring in a Worship so dangerous who should prescribe the way how God is to be worshipped but God himself And if God requires you to address yourself to him without any other Mediator but Christ
not only not Worship them but not so much as fall down before them would make a person that is not taken more with the Golden Legends than with Scripture afraid of prostrations before Images upon the account of devotion it is not all your plea that you do not terminate your worship on the Image but on the person represented by the Image that will excuse you at the great tribunal for not to mention that in the same manner the Heathen used to defend their grossest Idolatry and that you are forced to borrow their very Arguments your own Authors do confesse that the common people are apt to pay adoration and do pay adoration to the Images themselves and why will you lay such a Stumbling block before the people Much might be said of the adoration you pay to the consecrated Hoste you confess that the worship you give to it is the same worship you give to God What if that Wafer should not be turned into the Body and Blood of Christ what if it should remain as very a Wafer as it was before consecration what if it should not be God as you have all the demonstration that sense or reason can give you that it is not changed into another substance what monstrous Idolatry would this be Ay but we believe it to be GOD why Madam doth your belief that such a thing is God or Christ excuse you from Idolatry should you believe a Stone to be GOD and adore it might not you justly be charged with Idolatry you look upon the Heathens as Idolaters because they adore the Sun Ay but they believe that Sun to be God and how then according to your plea can they be Idolaters If there be such a Transubstantiation in the Sacrament as you fancy and an Adoration of the Hoste so very necessary what 's the reason the Apostles of our Lord that saw Christ before their eyes only could not believe that there were two Christs one sitting at the table the other reached out to them What 's the reason I say that they sate still and paid no Adoration to the Bread which according to you was Transubstantiated into Christ If they did not adore it what a presumption is it in you to give the highest Worship to the consecrated bread upon a pretence that that bread is God under the accidents of Bread But of this I have said enough before and could you but find time to read what our Authors have written upon this subject it could be nothing but hardness of heart and resolution to be blind could keep you in a Church that fills your head with Doctrines contrary to the nature of a Sacrament contrary to all that Moses and the Prophets nay and all sound Philosophers have said I will not say any thing here of your strange unbloody Sacrifice of the Mass a thing unheard of in the purer Ages of Christianity and which the Scripture is so great a stranger to that one would wonder how Mankind came to light upon the notion Nor of your Doctrine of Merits because I find your Priests have two strings to their Bow and tell the people one thing and their adversaries when they dispute with them another affirme and deny it as they see occasion and necessity requires Only one thing I must needs take notice of before I take my leave and that is the Gigantick Argument that some of your Gentlemen boast of and which strikes all Protestants dead at the first hearing of it If there be any thing true this must be true that there is a GOD if there be a GOD there must be a true Religion if there be a true Religion there must be a true revealed Religion if there be a true revealed Religon the Christian Religion must be that true revealed Religion and if the Christian Religion be true then the Religion of the Church of ROME must be true for the Argument that proves the Christian Religion to be true proves the Religion of the Church of ROME to be true which is this Either the Christian Religion was propagated without miracles or by miracles if by miracles then it must be divine if without miracles then it is the greatest miracle that a Religion so contrary to flesh and blood should prevail with sensual men The same say they is true of the Religion of the Church of ROME For if it be propagated by Miracles it must be divine if without Miracles it must be so much more because it prescribes things contrary to Flesh and blood as Penances Austerities c. And thousands of People do embrace it I will not make my self merry here in a thing so serious else I could have told you that I have hard of an Argument when I was at School somewhat like this He that drinks well sleeps well he that sleeps well commits no Sin He that commits no Sin will be saved therefore he that drinks well will be saved But I forbear And as to the aforesaid Argument whereby one of your Priests that hath printed it thinks to end all Controversies I will say no more but this First that as there is no Christian but must readily confess that the Miracles Christ and his Apostles wrought were a Confirmation of the Divinity of their Doctrine so there is no man of any brains can admit of the other part of the dilemma as Universally true that a Religion that goes against Flesh and blood if propagated without Miracles must therefore be necessarily Divine Secondly that so far as the Religion of the Church of ROME agrees with the truly Christian Religion so far it is undoubtedly true and it will naturally follow that if the Christian Religion be true the Religion of the Church of ROME so far as it agrees with the Christian Religion must needs be true And the same may be said of the Protestant Religion but that the Roman Religion must therefore be true where it goes away and differs from the truly Christian Religion revealed to us in the Gospel is a consequence which none but Children can approve of Thirdly with this Argument a man might prove the Divinity of almost any Religion in the World He that is no stranger to History must needs know what severities what austerities of life the Brachmans or the Heathen Friers in the Indies do both prescribe and practise and what Proselites they make and how full the Kingdom of the great Mogol is of them how some Wallow in ashes day and night how others go charged with heavy Iron Chaines all their dayes how others stand upright upon their Leggs for whole weekes together c. How in Japan and other places of the Indies the Priests perswade the people to fast themselves to death to go long Pilgrimages to give all they have to the Priests to throw themselves down from steep rocks and break their necks and all to arrive the sooner to the happiness of another World c. I think there cannot be things more