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 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 54th and 56th 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 confefs 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 pass 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 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 necessary 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
THE HONESTY OF THE PROTESTANT AND DISHONESTY OF THE Popish Divinity IN A LETTER TO A LADY Revolted to the Church of ROME By Anthony Horneck Preacher at the SAVOY The Second Edition London Printed for James Collins at his Shop by the Temple Church 1681. A LETTER Of a Protestant Gentleman to a Lady revolted to the Church of ROME Madam AND are you indeed got into the onely Catholick Church And are you sure the Men you have lately believed have not deceived you as you fancy we have done for tho you may be so Charitable as to think that we have not intentionally couzened you yet since you cannot suppose Us to be both in the Right you must necessarily conclude that we have at least ignorantly abused and imposed upon you and did you ever rightly consider what a truely Catholick Church does mean Men of Sense and Reason always believed that a Church which hold's the truely Catholick Faith is a true and sound Member of the Catholick Church and dares malice it self say that we do not hold the Apostles the Nicene and Athanasius's Creed The Church of ROME her self confesses that these Creed's contain the truely Catholick Faith And most certainly when the Nicene Councel was celebrated and in Athanasius's time that Church was counted a sound Member of the Catholick Church that held that Catholick Faith which is expressed in those Creeds and do we not hold that Faith do we not stand up at it to express our readiness to defend it and what have we done that we must not be counted a Catholick Church Is it because we will not receive things which the Church of Rome hath since added to the Catholick Faith Is it because we will not admit of the Doctrines which that Church was first induced to believe by the darkness and ignorance of the Ages it lived in and at last loath to part withal for fear they should be thought to have been so long in an Error Is it because we will not yield to things which we apprehend to be directly against the Word of God and destructive to that Catholick Faith the Christian World hath professed in all Ages Is it because we will not deceive the People of the Cup in the Blessed Sacrament which Christ intended as a mighty comfort to them Is it because we will not believe the Miracle of Transubstantiation against four of our Senses and Reason and Scripture to boot Is it because we will not suffer the Worship of God or that which is very like it to be given to Creatures because of the very appearance of the evil of Idollatry which we are commanded to shun as much as Idollatry it self Is it because we will not believe a Purgatory fire which cleanseth little but peoples Purses of their money Is it because we will not indulge the Pride and Arrogance of a Man at Rome who having first wheadled the Christian Princes out of their means and Power hath at last made that Power and Riches hereditary to his Successors under a pretence of a Legacy from Christ Is it because we will not believe contrary to the Apostles Rule that publick Prayers which are intended for the benefit are understanding of the Multitude must be said in a Tongue unknown to the People These must certainly be the reasons why we cannot now passe with the Church of ROME for members of the Catholick Church That these things were not in the Ancient Catholick Creeds I hope you are convinced for you have read them over and found none of all these Additions in them And now I beg of you in the name and by the mercy of that Jesus in whom you beleive to judge which is most likely to be the truly Catholick Church our's or their's our's that keeps to the truly antient Catholick Faith or their's that hath added things contrary to Scripture and reason and antiquity And dare you continue in a Church where your very Communion with it is an approbation of their Actions which are directly contrary to the command of Christ can there be any thing more contrary to it than their denying the Cup to the Laity And when you receive the Sacrament but in one kind contrary to Christs command do not you Sin and allow of the Sin of that Church you are in Is not your disobedience to Christs Command a Sin or can you imagine that you are more obliged to Obey men than Christ himself You confess you dare not live in any one Sin But how dare you live in this Sin You talk of the benefit of Confession and absolution when that very Priest to whom you confesse and who absolves you lives in that Sin you are guilty of and neither absolves himself nor you from it and you both continue in it as if the Blind had a mind to lead the Blind How dare you act thus against your Reason and Conscience Are you not affraid when you are going to confesse that God will laugh at your Mock Confession since you neither confesse that Sin of living contrary to Christs Command about the Cup nor are willing to part with it Tell me not here that you drink the blood of Christ in eating his Flesh if so to what purpose doth the Priest Consecrate Wine for himselfe if he drinks the blood of Christ in eating his Flesh But suppose the Bread were transubstantiated into the Flesh and Blood of Christ you know that the not giving the Cup of Blessing to those that come to the Lords Supper is contrary to Christs institution who distinctly consecrated the Cup and gave that to his Disciples who were representatives of all Believers as well as the Bread and peremptorily commanded Drink ye all of this and I hope you do not call eating the consecrated Wafer drinking the Wafer But let Us grant you your strange Doctrine that you do participate of the Blood of Christ in eating the Consecrated Wafer who gave your Church Authority to alter Christ's Institution How can Men dispense with an express Law of God Can they annull what God would have Established and continue to the Worlds end And can you consent to so great a Sacriledge Doth not some horrour seize on you when you seriously think that you approve of the Priests sinning against so notorious a Precept and which he that runs may read And pray Madam wherein have you bettered your self in going over to the Roman Church Is this your proficiency in Religion to forsake a Church where you felt the lively Oracles of Heaven coming warm upon your Soul and to joyn your self to a Church where you hear nothing but Latine Prayers and where the Priest if he be not a good man may as well Curse you as Bless you for any thing you understand of his Language or Devotion Is this Your proficiency in Religion to leave a Church where you were taught to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth and now to cleave to one where they teach your Prayers to
of it be considered there is nothing in nature can be more absurd or irrational and the Church of ROME had need oblige men to deny both their reason and senses to beleive a transubstantiation Here indeed a Faith is neeessary 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 sentence must necessarily stand for shall be 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 men 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 flesh 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 VIIth 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 either to believe 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. â—1 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 it 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
several controversies without reflecting on the importance of the points in question without studying a considerable time which Religion comes nearest to Scripture and which goes far thest 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 satisfaction 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 belief 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 searched 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 prohibited 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 separated 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 nature 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
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 thingsmore contrary to flesh and blood than these and yet we see these Doctrines are propogated daily without any force of Armes only by Example and perswasion to be sure without any Miracle but I hope that doth not prove their Religion to be divine It 's a Dictate of the light of Nature that the way to Heaven is strait and therefore people that are religiously inclined are easily won over to those men whom they see exercise such severities upon themselves To Conclude Madam when all is done what the true Church is must be tryed by the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles We see that even in the Apostles dayes corruptions crept into the Church Witness the Churches of Corinth Galatia and Colosse c. and the simplicity of the Gospel began even then to be perverted and mingled with idle and foolish opinions and practises and therefore we must needs think that after the Apostles decease the Church of Christ was subject to the same fate so that if there be any standard or touch stone left whereby the truth and sincerity of a Church can be tried and we must needs think so well of GODS providence that he would not leave his Church without some rule to rectifie their Errors by in case she should be infected with any it must be the Primitive institution of the Christian Religion and that Church as I said before which teaches things that approach nearest to that primitive institution must be the true Church And Madam do but once more for your Souls sake and for your Salvations sake compare the Doctrines and practises of the Church of ROME with the Doctrines and practises of the Gospel the Fountain of Christianity and try whether you can find there the Doctrines of Communion under one kind of publick prayers in a tongue unknown to the people of Purgatory of the Mass of Transubstantation of the Church of Rome's supremacy and infallibility of Worshipping and adoring the Virgin Mary and praying to Saints of Veneration of Relicks and Images of adoration of the Hoste c. Do not force any places of Scripture and try whether you can make sense of any of these Doctrines by Scripture View the Stream of the Gospel and search whether there be any thing like these Doctrines in it why will you make your reason a Slave to your Priests magisterial Sentences How can you answer it to GOD that you did not improve your reason more What have you your reason for but to judge what is agreeable to the Word of GOD and what is not Is not this acting like a Creature void of reason to be guided altogether by what a few blind guides say to you without enquiring at the Law and Testimony whether things are so as they say or no Wonderful stnpidity I stand amazed at it It is not all the seeming Holiness of those Priests you converse withal that make the Church you are in a true Church There is no Sect in the World but when they are under a Cloud necessity and the discouragment they are under and their desire to make Proselytes makes them outwardly Religious There may be and no doubt are Zealous and outwardly pious men in all Religions in the World but that doth not make every Religion true and divine An outward shew of Piety is the only way of propagating any Religion The Devil himself could not propagate Heathenisme and Idolatry but by the pretened Zeal and Piety and Abstinence and Mortification of Apollonius Tyaneus who yet by the confession of the whole Christian world was no better then a Wizard and Conjurer I make no application to any particular Priest in the Church of ROME I do not deny but men may be in great Errors and be very Zealous for their errours and seemingly very pious in their Zeal and when their Errors are not very wilful and destroy not the true Worship of GOD for ought I know they may find mercy in the day of our Lord. I grant there is a great shew of outward Piety in the Church of ROME very dazeling and very moving but the great danger lyes here that the Worship they give to GOD with one hand they strike and pull down with the other I know too well the practise of their Churches and a Heathen that should come into their Temples beyond Sea would verily believe that they Worship a Multiplicity of Gods as well as he whatever their pretentions may be to the contrary It is not what people say so much as what they do that GOD takes notice of and though you should Ten Thousand times protest that you Worship and adore GOD alone yet while GOD sees you adore the Virgin Mary with as great Zeal and reverence as you do him pray to her oftener then you do to him make as many bowes to her and other Saints as you do to him and other things of that nature how can he believe you Religion is a thing that will not bear jests and Hypocrisy GOD will not be put off with contradictions between speeches and Practises Madam I do from my heart Pitty you and as it might be the weakness of your Judgment that might lead you into this Erroneous Church so I beseech you for Christs sake to return to the Church you have rashly left where you cannot run a hazard if you will but follow the plain Doctrines of the Gospel besides which we preach nothing and enjoyn nothing as necessary to Salvation Should these entreaties and beseechings be alledged against you in the last day as things which you have contrary to reason refused and slighted how dreadful would your condition be I have discharged my Duty and given you warning I would not have your Guilt lye at my Door and therefore have let you know my real thoughts and Sentiments concerning your condition and the Church you are in The Great GOD of Heaven open your eyes that you may see and fear Time was when you would have believed us as much as you do now the Priests of the Church of ROME It 's strange that now they should speak nothing but truths and we nothing but falshood Do you think we do not understand the Scriptures and Fathers and Antiquity as well as they And can we all be so besotted with interest and passion that none of us should yied to the dictates of their Church if we could prevail with our sense and reason to believe that the things wherein they differ from us were agreeable to the Gospel sure we have a great many men among us that are great Lovers of Peace and would be glad that the whole Christian world were agreed and would these men stand out against that union if it could be done with a safe Conscience Certainly we have men as learned among us as ever