more plainly that the Eucharist is nothing but a Sacrifice of Commemoration And if it be a simple Commemoration where is the Real Presence where is the Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead They are the same Authors which say That Jesus Christ by his Servants f In Epist ad Heb. cap. 8. vers 4. hath accomplished among men that which respects Sacrifice representing by Bread and Wine the Misteries of his Body and of his Saving Blood. The Author of the imperfect Work upon St. Matthew under the name of Chrysostome sâ—â—â—h That the Christian g Homil. 19. ib. offers the Sacrifice of Bread and Wine And St. Jerome h Jer. lib. 2. Advers Jovin That Melchizedeck did not offer the Victims of Flesh and Blood but that he did dedicate the Sacrament of Jesus Christ with Bread and Wine which is a simple and pure Sacrifice And St. Austine i Lib. 16. de Civit. Dei. c. 22. lib. 17. c. 5. 17. That to eat Bread under the New Testament is the Sacrifice of Christians and that men offer every-where under the High-Priest Jesus Christ that which Melchizedeck brought when he blessed Abraham That is to say Bread and Wine And Isidore of Pelusium k Lib. 1. Ep. 401. That the Oblation of Christians is an Oblation of Bread. And St. Fulgentius l Ad Petrum de Fide cap. 19. That the Catholick Church does not cease to offer throughout all the Earth an Oblation of Bread and Wine And Eucherius Bishop of Lions m In Genes lib. 2. cap. 18. That Jesus Christ hath commanded Christians to offer in Sacrifice not Victims of Beasts as did Aaron but the Sacrifice of Bread and Wine I would willingly know how an Oblation of Bread and Wine can be a true Sacrifice of Humane Flesh propitiatory for the sins of Men They have not spoken otherwise even until the establishment of the Opinion of the Real Presence for venerable Bede in the eighth Age saith n In Psal 133. That the Lord hath changed the Sacrifices of the Law into the Sacrifices of Bread and Wine And Isidore of Seville in the seventh Age o Lib. de Alleg. That the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ i. e. the Oblation of Bread and Wine is offered through all the World. The same Fathers have also said with one consent That the Christian hath no other true Sacrifice but that of the Cross Origen in the third Age did say p Homil. 17. in Numb That when the perfect Oblation and Lamb without spot came to take away the Sins of the World the Sacrifices which were offered to God one after another did seem superfluous seeing that by one only Sacrifice all the Worship of Demons was destroyed It had been natural to say that the Worship of the Sacrifice of the Mass was put in the place of the Worship of Devils And St. Chrysostome a Homil. 17. in Johan That Jesus Christ hath offered one only Sacrifice for Sins and that he always cleanseth us by this Sacrifice alone And elsewhere b Hom. 13. in Heb. There is no other Sacrifice one Sacrifice alone hath purified and cleansed us To speak thus is indeed to forget ones self seeing we have a daily and continual Sacrifice which is that of the Mass It would be to no purpose to quote more Authors for they all speak after the same manner An Article of Controversie A Conclusion of the Matter of Schism the extream Corruption of Popery hath forced us to a Separation IN the preceding Letter we began to make for you a Picture of Popery to convince you of the Justice and Necessity of our Reformation This Corruption of Popery may be either considered in its Guides its Head and principal Members or in its Doctrine We did consider this Corruption in its Head i. e. the Pope in its Guides i. e. the Cardinals Primates Archbishops and Bishops in its principal Members such are the Priests the Monks and the Nuns and in all this we have seen the Characters of the Conductors of Babel and the Emissaries of Antichrist These are the Mouths of Popery but what can proceed out of such Mouths 'T is easie to judge They appoint for you at this day Preachers which speak good things There have been for some time past a number of persons raised up to obtain the use of the Word of God and the Holy Scripture for the people But this is neither ancient nor general you must know the Popish Ministery by what it was not long since and by what it is in all places where 't is regnant hear those which tell you the Holy Scripture is a dangerous Book an obscure Book all full of Traps Snares and Precipieces that an infinite number of men have ruined themselves thereby that 't is from thence that Hereticks have drawn their Heresies that 't is imperfect that it contains not half the Christian Religion that to understand the true sence of this half there needs another which is called the Unwritten Word Tradition the infallible Voice of the Church And a man knows not where to find this Voice However it be they do assure you that the Scripture has no Authority without Tradition that without the Testimony of the Church we were no more obliged to believe the Gospel than Titus Livius or the Fables of Homer Moreover at this day the Jansenists great Defenders of the Holy Scriptures tell you plainly and without scruple or hesitation That by the Holy Scripture we cannot prove the Divinity of Jesus Christ and that it were a Folly more clear than the day to go about to prove the Divinity of the Holy Scriptures by the Scripture itself There is nothing that Popery doth not do to decry this sacred Book Not only 't is insufficient obscure it has no authority by itself but it is maimed imperfect many Books thereof are lost those which remain are corrupt either by the Jews or by the negligence of Transcribers we cannot know with any certainty what is intire or what is not the Translations thereof are spoiled there are none of them conformable to the Original Good God what a Prodigy is this And how great must the patience of God be to tollerate a Religion which makes it its business to annihilate to vilifie and abase those Oracles which ought to be so venerable among all Christians What Christianity is this but that in which for the space of more than a thousand years the Scripture was an unknown Book almost to all Christians and is so yet at this day in all those places where Popery domineers without contradiction Observe also the profound Ignorance in which those people live that are subject to the Popish Inquisition To find among them the Figures of Aretine or some other infamous Work is no fault but to find there a Bible in the Vulgar Language is a crime not to be forgiven for which reason
credulous even to blindness to believe it Therefore if I can prove that the Scripture says nothing at all for the establishment of Popery I have gained my Cause at least for the first Age in which I now am and have proved sufficiently that Popery was then unknown Let us proceed to some of its Articles The Sacrifice of the Mass makes a great figure in the Roman Religion and holds a principal place there It is the Idol for which they have the greatest jealousie We cannot better understand what hath been the Opinion and Sentiment of the Church in all Ages concerning it than from the Ceremonies Actions and Words which have been practised in the Celebration of the Eucharist To search the Sacrifice of the Mass in the Old Testament as the Papists do is an extravagance that hath no example for the Old Testament speaks only of the Worship and Ceremonies of the ancient Religion To search it in other Texts of the New Testament than those which teach us the manner of its Celebration is to search it where naturally it ought not to be found It is therefore precisely in the Institution of that Sacrifice that we must find the Nature of it Now the Evangelists and St. Paul tell us with one consent that what Christ Jesus did in that memorable Action is there The night in which he was betrayed he took Bread he blessed it brake it and gave it to his Disciples saying take eat this is my Body Afterwards he took the Cup blessed it also and said this Cup is the New Testament in my Blood which is shed for you drink ye all of it take and divide it among your selves do this in remembrance of me In fine they sung a Hymn that certain Psalms according to the Custom of the Jews They arose and so the Ceremony was ended On that I beseech you my Brethren call to witness the Consciences of your Persecutors and Converters and enquire a little of them what there is in it that can have any resemblance with the Mass Where is the Gradual the Introit the Canon the Ite Missa est But you will say these are but indifferent Ceremonies which may be added It is a great question whether they might be added yea or no. Nevertheless let us let that Point alone at present Let them shew you at least what is essential therein Where is the Oblation Where is the Elevation Where is the Adoration Where is the Genuflection Where is the Sacrifice and presentation of the Victim Jesus Christ took Bread and gave it to his Disciples saying this is my Body In the Roman Church these words are not said to the Communicant they are said at the Consecration a long time before the Communion Jesus Christ gave Bread to his Disciples to be eaten without Cremony or Mystery They were sitting or rather lying upon Beds at a Table as the manner of the Ancients was It was a prodigious stupidity in the Disciples not to cast themselves on the ground and Adore the great Miracle of Transubstantiation and the Real Presence of Jesus Christ lying hid under the Species of Bread and Wine whilst they bore him in their own proper Hands These ignorant persons so prone to admiration who Adored Christ Jesus when he appeased a storm at Sea which was an action assuredly that a Spirit of a Nature infinitely inferior to God could do would they not have Adored him when he did a Work so great as the Creation of the World. But if the Disciples were so stupid as not to Adore this Mistery would Jesus Christ be so negligent as to suffer them in this state of impiety and indevotion It was that which the Disciples did or rather did not do Hath it any thing in Commune with the Service of the Roman Church with that Action by which the Host is lifted up that it may be Adored with that Worship that all the World give to it by kissing the ground at the sight thereof with the Custom of carrying it in Pomp about the Streets that it may be Adored Press your Converters and enquire of them did the Apostles Adore it If they say yea ask them why they continued sitting and why they never said one word of it If they confess that they did not Adore ask them why they will constrain you to do it Why do you desire that we should do more than the Apostles And as to the Oblation and Sacrifice where are they The Oblation of the Victim cannot be made till after the Transubstantiation after that the Body of Christ is made present by Consecration after these words This is my Body Now after these words Jesus Christ presented nothing to God he presented to his Disciples yea he did not pronounce those words This is my Body but as he was giving the Bread to his Disciples The Oblation therefore is not necessary the Sacrifice is not essential for Christ Jesus did not practise it Stay not there Press these Doctors to tell you whether Christ Sacrificed himself in the first Institution of the Sacrament of the Eucharist You will see them perplexed if they say that he Sacrificed himself Ask them why he Sacrificed himself upon the Cross the next day The first Sacrifice of his Body which he made by breaking the Bread was it not Propitiatory for the sins of the Living and the Dead Behold then the sins of Men expiated before his Death and therefore there was no need of his Death to make that expiation The Sacrifice of the Mass is at this day says Monsieur de Meaux a Sacrifice of Commemoration Now the Sacrifice which Jesus Christ offered in the first Eucharist was no Sacrifice of Commemoration for we do not Commemorate a future event and a thing which is not yet come to pass so that the Sacrifice which is at this day made is not the same thing with that which was made by Jesus Christ in the first Eucharist The Sacrifice of the Mass is the Sacrifice of the Flesh of our Lord bruised and his Blood poured out but in the first Eucharist the Flesh of Christ was not broken nor his blood spilt So that Christ Sacrificed that which yet was not and presented an Oblation under a relation under which he did not yet subsist There be certainly a thousand absurdities in saying that Jesus Christ Sacrificed himself in the first Eucharist many Papists have acknowledged it If your Converters have as much sincerity as many of their Doctors have had to confess that Jesus Christ did not Sacrifice in the first Eucharist demand of them by what right they Sacrifice at this day For they ought not to do any more than Christ did And he has not commanded them in saying do this to do any thing but what he himself did So that if he did not Sacrifice he hath not commanded them to Sacrifice afterward Therefore it ought to remain certain that in the first Age the Sacrifice of the Mass as well as
renews his Excommunications the Sword-men take Arms Aelius commands all the Portugese to go out of the Province whereof he was Governour they came to blows The Party of the King and the Jesuits was the stronger Aelius was slain Simeon the Metropolitan was taken whom they beheaded they made a great Butchery among the People but Jamanaxus was pardoned Behold already how much Bloud hath been shed by Popery But things will not continue there The Jesuits and their King puft up with the success of their Victory proceed to a new Reformation The Prince forbad them the observation of the Saturday-Sabbath and commanded that they should labour on that day upon the penalty of confiscating their Goods for the second Offence 'T is indeed an affair sufficiently small about which it were very possible to have given a tolleration but Popery understands not the meaning of that word they severely chastised for an Example one named Buc a person very eminent in the Kingdom for his Military Employments This new severity gave occasion of a revolt to one named Jonael Vice-Roy of Bageindra All the Court the women and the Favourites interposed in this affair a little to soften and bend the Spirit of the King but the Jesuits prevailed upon him He would not comply with their Perswasions So they came a second time to war Jonael was beaten many times and withdrew from the Kingdom This did not affright others Those of the Province of Damos took Arms for the ancient Religion The Hermites which are there in great abundance were willing to signalize themselves in this Holy War. Nevertheless their Party was beaten but there was great effusion of Bloud on both sides Behold the ordinary Methods by which Popery arrives at Empire After these repeated Victories which cost the King of Aethiopia great part of his Subjects he accomplished his design The Jesuites by his Authority intirely overturned the Religion and Church of the Abyssines all gave way either to seduction or violence They swore Fidelity and Obedience to Urban the Eighth the Pope sent there a Roman Patriarch all those who would not obey were severely chastised The new Patriarch passed through the Kingdom baptizing and confirming an infinite number of persons They established Seminaries of the Children of the Abyssines and Portuguese In one word Popery by its ordinary ways which are violence and the sword became master of all Abyssinia One named Tecla Georgius another Son-in-law of the King put himself at the head of the Malecontents which were in great number but the fortune of the Jesuites did yet accompany the King in this Affair Tecla Georgius was slain and his Sister hanged on a Tree because she had spoken a little too freely against the Rites of the Latine Church The Patriarch Alphonsus Mendez a Jesuit knew not how to use his good Fortune but believing that henceforward he might abandon himself without constraint to that spirit of Tyranny which hath its seat at Rome ill intreated all the great Men of the Court excommunicated the prime Officers of the Kingdom for things which were not Ecclesiastical he domineer'd over all with so much insolence that at length the King himself and all the Courtiers opened their eyes upon the conduct of these new Tyrants Rebellions were renewed in most part of the Provinces Battels were fought and blood spilt under the Authority of the King who was still abused by Popery But a certain person called Ras Seelax a great Favourite of the King 's and a great Protecter of Popery having lost his Reputation the Affairs of the Jesuites and Popery sunk and fell into decay thereby The King being tired by the Troubles which these new Evangelists brought to him every day by their Rigours and seeing that the Hydra of Rebellion after it lost one head found a hundred began very much to abate of his rigour and granted liberty to whosoever would use it to preserve and observe the ancient Religion This goodness of the Prince which agreed very well with natural Equity displeased these imperious Masters they made violent opposition thereunto but favour continued no longer on their side the same Prince which had abolished the ancient Religion doth re-establish it or rather permits that it should be re-established after ten or twelve years interruption Susneus dies a little while after This Protector of the Religion newly established being dead Popery tumbled with haste and violence towards ruine They repaid to the Jesuites the cruelty they had used they took away their Churches and Goods and drove them out of the Kingdom They tried all ways they set their Friends and Creatures on work they intreated they desired the help of Arms and Souldiers from Goa for their Defence but all to no purpose The Patriarch Alphonsus Mendez was put into the hands of the Turks from whence he was redeemed with Money but his Companions the Jesuites Almeyda Father Hyacynthus Lewis Cardyra and many others were hanged as Disturbers of the publick Peace The Congregation for the Propagation of Faith were willing to attempt the Recovery of this brave Kingdom which they had lost they send six Capuchines to try if they could pass once again into Aethiopia but two of them died by the hand of the Cafres two were stoned in Aethiopia the other two returned without doing any thing In conclusion three other Capuchines were willing to make another attempt they came ashore at Suaquene a Port of the Red-sea possessed by the Turks from thence they wrote to the King of Aethiopia as if it had been a thing grateful to him that they were there ready to pass into his Country as soon as he should furnish them with necessary Accommodations For answer Basilides who was then King of Aethiopia after his Father Susneus writ to the Turkish Bassa who commanded the place that he would do him the kindness to send him the Heads of those three Franks This was done they cut off their heads they flead off their skins which they filled with Hay and sent them to Basilides So these poor miserable Wretches bore the punishment of all the Blood which the Jesuites and Popery had shed in the Kingdom of the Abyssines This History as it seems to me is very proper to shew that in all places as well as in all Ages the spirit of Popery is the occasion of Trouble Confusion Tyranny and Persecution and God did permit that Popery should prosecute its usual methods in Aethiopia as elsewhere to hinder the Abyssine Church from continuing under the Papal Tyranny For if these Emissaries of the Court of Rome had proceeded with more Moderation and spared Blood and offered no Violence to the Consciences of men without doubt Popery had this day been regnant among the Abyssines The Liberty of the Reformed Churches of Hungary was established upon very good Foundations the Kings of that Country had granted to the Protestants divers Declarations by which the exercise of the Reformed Religion was permitted in all places On