that we are all the foot when we know that there is and must be a difference between the members themselves wherefore the unity of the body may consist with the difference of members Then as to that other Text out of the Romanes we do acknowledge that all Christians though meerly Lay-mem may offer spiritual oblations and so may be mistical Priests erecting in their hearts an Altar of their affections to God but it does not at follow from thence that therefore there are not nor ought to be external and Hierarchical Priests To the Eleventh We say that our Saviour in that Gospel you urge sinds not fault with praying but praying as the Hepocrites doe who with his words prayes to God not with his deeds which kind of praying shuts the gates of the Kingdome of Heaven against them Then as to a necessity which you say our prayers must impose upon God we do absolutely deny any such thing but yet we know that God is pleased to express himself as if he were necessitated by the importunity of faithfull prayers as he said to Moses let me alone that my fury may wax hot as if he were hindred from his purpose by Moses his prayers he requests him to let him aloue And as to your inference that if prayrs be prevalent with God than good works an necessary we do absolutely deny it for we are to do the one and not toleave the other undone for by fasting and alms giving c. Prayers are carried up to Heaven as with Angels wings To the twelfth To what you urge out of S. Mathew and the Prophet Malachy we acknowled that God foreknowes our wants before we aske him but yet we confess his power in praying to him and beseech him as he is all powerfull to help us we ask therfore onely that which God has ordered us to ask for and has promised to give to our prayers and God will be askt before he gives least we should do that which most in the world do vilify his profered graces Neither is God to be thought to be changed by our prayers that is in his essence but the effects of things are many times changed by holy prayers as that before by Moses You mistake therefore if you think that our prayers are ordained to change the divine disposition but that we may obtein by our prayers what his divine goodness had disposed for us before the world was To the thirteenth and last We say that our Saviour forbids not much speaking in prayers simply but as the heathen doe vain repetitions and babling in prayers is forbiden not prolixity to continue long in prayer it is the superfluity of words that is offensive to God therefore the old Fathers prayers were very short Luke 22.1 Sam. 1. but frequent Christ himself prayed long and Amn prayed long and multiplied prayers Luke 2.6 Nay our Saviour was a whole night in prayer as the Scriptures testify Then that Canonicall hours are not commanded in holy writ I grant but they are sufficiently insinuated and the Church has allways learnt them from its holy Masters the Apostles and we ought to obey those that are set over us in the Lord Then last of all Heb. 11. what can be more edifying to Christians than those collects of holy prayers and homilies made by the holy Fathers of the Church the legands of the Saints and agonies of those invincible martyrs who have seald our Chrsstion faith with their blood if they be well and faythfully writen So now give us leave to reply a little upon you That it is lawfull to build use and adorn Churches and to give lands and possessions to them and to the persons that Officiate in them and that we are not all equally Priests and that our Canonicall hours and prayersure lawfull we prove by Scripture thus First we finde in Exodus that Jacob sayd surely the Lord was in this place Exod. 28 16 17. and I knew it not and again how dreadfull is this place this is no other but the houset of God and the gate of heaven Agayn in Deuteronomy we finde thus Deut. 46.2 Thou shalt therefore Sacrifice the passover unto the Lord thy God of thy flock and of thy heards in the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse to place his name there Therefore God appoints some places for his worship and delights in them more then in others We finde in the Chronicles that it was not permitted to David because he was a man of blood 1 Chron. 17. and had made many wars to build a house to the name of God Heer it is to be observed that the Lord had a great care of the Reverence due to his house when he would not suffer it to be built by a warriour or a man of blood ibid but by a king of peace as Solomon was Then in the same chapter and els where God expresseth himself to have walkt about in Tents 2 Kin. 7. and Tabernacle from place to place observe he that was every where says he was in the Tabernacle 1 Kings 6 7 8. c. How often does the Almighty call Solomons Temple his house to dwell in what infinite care and vast expence was in the building and not so much as the noise of a hammer to be heard about it all the while it was building and you will pull down Temples with noise of Drumes and Trumpets 1. Chron. 17. Then that God is more propitiated and hears our prayers sooner in a place hollowed to his name than in an other place is as plain for it is sayd That King David came and stood before the Lord that is the Arke by which it is plain that God is more present in one place than in another Daniel when he could not pray in the Temple Dan. 6. being a captive in Babylon yet prayed thrice a day with his face towards the Temple in Jerusalem Then the Prophet Isay tells us that God sayes Isay 36. my house shall be called by all people the house of prayer which our Saviour himself repeats confirms and adds upon the Jews but ye have made it a denne of Thieves Mat. 21. so many of your faction have made our Churches lately worse than dennes of Thieves It is said in the Acts Acts 3. how Peter and John went up into the Temple to pray at the ninth hour of prayer observe how the Apostles would pray in the old Temple when there was no Christian Church built 1 Cor. 11. St. Paul rebukes the Corinthians for prophaning of their Churches with eating and drinking and may not we say to you as the Apostles does to them despise you not the Church of God ibid. does not the same St. Paul require that women should hold their peaces in the Church out of reverence 1 Cor. 14.25 and that an unlearned man coming into the Church should falldown upon his face should worship
do I remember that I ever heard of any Heretick so impudent as to say that the flesh of Christ upon the Cross profited nothing Besides is this a consequence the flesh profiteth nothing therefore it is not in the Sacrament truly if that be good Logick it may as well follow in my judgement that the flesh of Christ profiteth nothing therefore it is not in heaven over and above all this it is plain our Saviour speaks not there of his own flesh for he says not my flesh profiteth nothing indeed some of the Jews there had such a foolish oppinion as to think upon our Saviours mystical words that the very flesh of Christ should be visibly under the species of flesh torn by mens teeth that sottishness of theirs our Saviour onely reproves To the third To what you alledge out of Scriptures and Articles of Faith I answer and acknowledge our Lord and Saviour to be in heaven and fitting on the right hand of his Father in visible and quantitative form yet he may lye invisibly and sacramentally under the species of Bread Nor does the verity of our Eucharist clash at all with the verity of our Articles of Faith for we know as the Scripture tells us that with God nothing is impossible His Almighty word sure can as easily make a body to be in divers places as nature his servant can make the essence of a soul to be in divers members Nay we see it plainly and positively said so nor can it chuse but be so for Jesus Christ who as we said is eternally to be at the right hand of his Father yet appeared upon earth to S. Paul Acts 9.22 1 Cor. 15. To the fourth To what you alledge out of our Saviours institution I utterly deny that he said take ye bread but taking bread he said take and eat this is my body Now I would fain know what difference there is betwixt saying take my body and taking bread to say take this is my body nor is it the mumbling or breathing of the Priests mouth that makes this miraculous change but Christ himself when the Priest according to his institution speaks the words of consecration is pleased to assist with his divine omnipotency and convert the substance of bread into his very body and wine into his blood Now this power was delivered by Christ to his Apostles when he gave them Commission to do the like and bid them so often as they did it to do it in remembrance of him and so the Apostle Paul tells us that what he received from the Lord that he delivered to us Then as to the impassibility of the body of Christ we do most humbly acknowledge it nor do our Priests say who know that our Saviour dies no more that his body shall be delivered but they relate onely that our Saviour did use those words at his last Supper which is Truth for then his body was to be delivered and his blood to be shed To the fifth For the Evangelists calling it bread it is always understood before consecration but that being done they do all unanimously call it the body of Christ In like manner the Apostles and Fathers might sometime call it so because before its change it was so as a Serpent in Scripture was called a Rod because it was a Rod but Aarons Rod devoured their Rods Exod. 7. then because the figure of bread and all its other accidents remain as things are sometimes called from their representations 1 Kings 10. so Solomon was said to make oxen and little Lions because he made the images of them Then the Eucharist may still be called bread because in it is the living bread which came down from heaven John 5. To the sixth and last To what you alledge out of the 24th of S. Matthew I answer that you are mistaken cleerly in the Text for those words you make to be spoken of the body of Christ are clearly meant of Christs kingdome of Faith His divine Majesty cleerly foresaw that the Hussits would have one Christ to stand for them the Lutherans one Christ to be for them the Annabaptists one for them the Calvinists one for them the Arminians one for them and Socinians one for them and the like of such bold challengers of Christ as those and other Hereticks are our blessed Saviour gives us a fair warning to beware which good Mrs. N. God give you grace to do Thus I have briâ—fly and punctually as I could answered your alligations out of the Scripture against the mystery of Christs Reall Presence in the Sacrament Now give me leave to mind you of some places of Scripture that do most expresly assert the Catholick doctrine against you First the words of our Saviours institution in all the four Evangelists are most significantly harmonious to a letter Mat. 14.26 27 28. as first in S. Matthew And as they were eating Jesus took bread and blessed it and brake it and gave it the Disciples and said take eat this is my body and he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying drink yee all of it for this is my bloud of the new Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins S. Mark hath it thus And as they did eat Jesus took bread Mark 14 22 23.24 and blessed and brake it and gave to them and said take eat this is my body and he took the cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to them and they all drank of it and he said unto them this is my bloud of the new Testament which is shed for many Luke 22.19 20. St. Luke thus And he brake bread and gave thanks and brake it and gave unto them saying This is my body which is given for you this do in remembrance of me Likewise also the Cup after Supper saying This cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you St. John in his sixth Chapter Joh. 6.51.53 54 55 56 57. makes it his whole business to shew how our Saviour did endeavour to explain this mysterie and therefore is pleased expresly to say I am the living bread which came down from heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world Then upon the Jews murmuring he adds Verily verily I say unto you except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood ye have no life in you whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father So he that eateth me even he shall live by me c. The Gospels themselves
latter end of the Text would have answered the begining for we graunt as aforesayd that the Lord of heaven and earth dwelleth not in Temples made with hands neither is worshiped with mens hands as though he needed any thing that you are pleased I say to leave out and we deny as well as you that God is so to be worshipt in our Churches as if he stood in need of any help of ours To the Third What you urge again out of S. Paul we grant that we are to pray in all places that is to be understood sure of all places of convenience and what place can be more convenient than that which is dedicated consecrated and devoted to that onely use Besides S. Paul said that onely to refute a vulgar errour which was that it was not lawfull to pray any where but in the Church To the Fourth We do not deny but the Temple of the Jews was so destroyed as our Saviour prophesied and that so it ought to be but that signifies nothing to our Churches for as the Evangelical Law succeeded the Jewish Law so the Evangelical Priesthood succeeded the Jewish Priesthood and our Churches their Temple and our unbloody Sacrifice their bloody ones To the fifth We freely grant all that our Saviour sayes as you urge and that the true worshippers of him shall do it in spirit and in truth and we pray you what hinders but that we may do that in our Churches and what is in the text more reougnant to our Churches than to your woods caves and nasty conventicles To the Sixth The Prophet Jeremy whom you urge does most expresly testifie there that the Temple was his most choice and beloved place and addes those words and I will dwell with you in that place Notwithstanding he tells them in the Text you quote that they are not to trust in that for the sanctity of the Temple should not be a priviledge to them if they took wicked courses This is all the scope of the Text and the context To the Seventh We grant it to be true that God is in every place and hears sinners every where does it therefore follow that we must have no Churches This was Jaroboaws argument sure to the Israelites to keep them from their going up to the Temple at Jerusalem when he told them how impertinent a piece of worship it was to take so long a journey to so little purpose You Anahaptists therefore may be very properly in this point called Jerohoites going about to disswade Christians from the use of Churches as he did there the Israelites from their Temple but because we perceive you are a Latinist we shall refet you to a learned Jew to teach you a more Christian religion Joseph lib. 8. c. 12. and that is Josephus who will tell you Deus est ubique sed in uno loco vult orari honorari plusquam in alio God is every where but in one place he wil be prayed to and honored more than another and what you seem to fling against tho riches ornaments of our Churches is nothing to the purpose supposing that we must have Churches at all consecrated to divine use sure common reason tells us that they are not then to be like Burnes nor our Priests to go like Beggars who serve in them what you produce out of Persius is little to the purpose and you shew your self to be a true imitater of your grand Patriarch Martin Luther who when he went about to prove that all things in this world came by a fatal absolute and inevitable necessity produceth a Heathen Poet for his Authority certa stant emnia lege so when we bring clear Scriptures and you are pleased to produce Ethnick Poets we conceive our selves not bound to answer to their authority how valid soever you take it to be for we know they knew not God therefore they are not to be received by us as any authority But of this we shall tell you more hereafter To the Eight I say you have done very bravely to make all Christian Princes and Magistrates to be Pilates and Herodes and whereas you say that Christ asserted Pilates power the contrary is plain out of the Text for our Saviour there clearly taxeth him of sin when he sayes that he that betrayed him into his hands had the greater sin Now that Pilate had a power given him from above our Saviour sayes it but in reference to God that is permissively onely that God did permit to him onely that power for we know it was his own will to offer himself if the Text be understood as in reference to Cesar and the supream civil power you then gain nothing by your argument To the Ninth We will grant you that all saithfull Christians are Priests as they are also Kings that is to be understood spiritually because God reigneth in them by his free grace and they by the unction of his holy spirit do play the Kings over and govern the powers and faculties of their souls and senses hut yet besides those Kings which may be beggars there are and were alwaies Kings and external external Governours In like manner all the faithfull who offer to God their faith and faithfull prayers c. may be said to be spiritual Priests and that Priesthood needs no ceremonies but it is plain that besides this internall Priesthood there is and must be an external one in the Church Take for example every faithfull Christian is the Temple of God for so S. Paul sayes to the Corinthians ye are the holy Temple of God but yet besides those Temples there must be external Temples affixt to certain places in which do meet the Congregations of the faithfull Then as to the words of the Text you quote you may as well infer out of another that all the Jewes were Priests too Enod 19.5 6. for we find in Exodus how God tells them Now therefore if ye will obey my vaine indeed and keep my Covenant then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all peoples and ye shall be unto me a Kingdome of Priests and a holy Nation c. This was said to all Israel and yet you will not deny but there were particular Kings and Priests besides In fine you know well enough the difference between a Priest of your making and a Priest of Gods making a Lay-Priest and a Hierarchical one but you are willing to let your selves be cheated by that sophisme of equivocation that you may do again as Jeroboam did set up your Lay-Priests to hinder people from going to Rome as he did to hinder the Israelites from going to Jerusalem So here again you are Jeroboites To the Tenth We say that you torment and turn that Text of the Apostle to the Corinthians to a most heretical sense for though we are all one body in Christ yet sure it is a most sottish inference to say that therefore we are all the hand or