us God forbid they should We believe and preach That our Ministers are men and mere creatures so that no man can take the kneeling which is before them who give imposition of hands for an adoration addressed to them all the profession of our Churches and nature of the things themselves directly contradicting it In like manner the Church of England believeth and teacheth publickly That the Eucharist is bread in substance and that to adore it were grievously to offend God So that the kneeling which is in their communion cannot be taken for an adoration of ought else but Jesus Christ who is in heaven and not of bread which is upon the earth Did the Church of Rome believe and likewise teach that the Eucharist were bread in substance and not a subject fit to be adored we think that then we might bow the knee in her Communion without wounding our consciences But while she teacheth that which she now believeth while she exacteth of us this kneeling as a true adoration of the Sacrament who is so blind as not to see that we cannot obey her without making our selves according to the judgement of our own consciences guilty of adoreing a meer creature since we believe the Sacrament so to be CHAP. XIII That he who believeth the Eucharist to be bread in substance cannot give it the reverence which is practised in the Church of Rome withoul evident falshood hypocrisie and perfidiousnesse Object FOr to say Though the intention of the Church of Rome be that we should addresse this kneeling and adoration whereof that is the mark to the Sacrament there present That we may neverthelesse use it otherwise and addresse it to J. Christ sitting in heaven at the right hand of His Father lifting up our hearts raising our affections and thoughts to Him and by this means kneel with our Adversaries without adoring as they do that which we believe to be but a creature Answ This is a false and dangerous excuse of the flesh which might it take place would open a large and dangerous gate to impietie and hypocrisie and ruine the foundations of all religion And for the better understanding of it I must begin with it a little higher God being the Creatour and Redeemer of whole man that is to say both of his soul and of his bodie would have him which is but reasonable serve Him entirely using both the one and the other of these two parts to that end Glorifie God in your body and in your spirit both which are Gods saith the Apostle 1 Cor. vi 20. And as in offices which concern our neighbours he commandeth us sincerity willing us to love them inwardly and to edifie and help them outwardly so doth He command that in piety which regardeth Himself we should joyntly make use of our hearts and bodies And as He abominates that man who loving his neighbour in his heart should abuse him with his tongue or hurt him with his hand or contrariwise should give him an almes with his hand and hate him in his heart So will He not approve of that man who pretends to reverence Him in the secret of his soul and yet with his tongue blasphemeth His name nor him who blessing Him with his mouth shall curse Him with his heart 'T will stand one man in no stead to plead for himself That his soul did his duty but the bodie failed of his nor another to excuse the defaults of the soul by the service of the body So that in effect these excuses will be but a meer mockery The union of the mind and the body being so neare that when the mind is disposed as it should the body cannot but perform its devoir and he that abusing God or his neighbour with his tongue would have us believe that notwithstanding all that he loveth them sincerely in his heart is a bold lyar deserving to be punished not onely for his blasphemy or wrong but likewise for his impudence According to these undoubted Maximes we are bound not onely to receive in our hearts the truths which God hath revealed in Religion but likewise outwardly to professe them And we are all bound not onely not to disbelieve with our hearts the errours and impieties which are contrary to the truth of God but likewise not to confesse them outwardly in any kind For if it be enough to retain in the heart the knowledge and love of truth and it be permitted to deny it outwardly sometimes S. Peter had not fell in denying his Master for no man can doubt but that his heart within knew well enough what his tongue disavowed without And so to denie our Lord before men would be no sinne and confession with the mouth would be of no use which all are things evidently false For that action of S. Peter is grievously blamed in the Gospel and his tears if we had no other proof shew us sufficiently that he thought he did extremely offend God And our Lord Matth. x. 33. protesteth expressely that He will denie him before His Father in heaven that is to say that at the great day of judgement He will not own him for His nor put him in the number of His blessed children who will deny him before men And lastly S. Paul Rom. x. 9 10. teacheth us That with the heart men believe unto righteousnesse and with the tongue they make confession unto salvation and to be saved he doth not onely require That you should believe the Lord in your heart but likewise that you should confesse him with your mouth The same reasons do necessarily induce us to believe That it is not enough to banish from our hearts the belief of impietie and such errours as are contrary to the foundations of true Religion unlesse we also banish the confession of them from our mouthes For to confesse an errour which overthroweth the fundamentalls of Religion is clearly to deny our Râ—ligion Since then we are forbidden under pain of an eternall curse to confesse with our mouth the errours which we detest with our hearts T is cleare that if we believe the adoration of the Host of the Church of Rome to be an errour contrary to the foundations of piety as we do indeed That we cannot confesse it without violating the commandment of J. Christ and pulling upon our souls eternall ruine and damnation For where is the Christian who firmly believing that the Sacrament is a creature and being asked if he should give it the adoration of latria will not dread to answer Yes and whose conscience will not feel a thousand remorses if any passion cause his tongue to say so And how can we say that the Sacrament is to be adored or confesse it more clearly then by prostrating our selves before the Host of the Church of Rome and giving it in the presence of men the same outward veneration which is the mark and substance of that which we give to Him Object But you 'l perhaps deny That with
for the true Creatour and Redeemer of the world and if he be of a contrary perswasion he must necessarily grant That he is either out of his senses or a notorious liar abusing the actions of his body to signifie the contrary thoughts of his heart And as the former would be laughed at by any judicious man if to excuse his expression he should alledge that by Pope of Rome he meant not what those words signifie in the common use of men but some other things as for example J. Christ our Lord so the latter would be as ridiculous who should tell us That he useth kneeling before the Host and other ceremonies not to let men know that he adoreth it which is the thing that these actions signifie in the common use of men but to signifie that he adoreth our Lord who sitteth on high in heaven If such excuses might take place if any one might be suffered to use the signes of things to a clean other sense then that wherein they are taken in the common and ordinary use of men all societies publick and private religious and civill would straight be plunged into an horrible confusion We should not hereafter have any credit or assurance among men For as for words every man might abuse them to signifie what pleaseth him the religion and great care that should be taken of oaths contracts promises a thing so absolutely necessary for the subsistence of mankind would quite fall to the ground A woman may think that a man hath promised to be her husband because he hath sworn that he will take her for his spouse but the perfidious dissembling fellow will excuse himself saying That by the word spouse he meant a concubine and not a lawfull wife which is that w ch the word commonly signifieth A Judge in France may believe that a guilty person is innocent because a witnes assureth him upon his oath that he did not tuer that is kill such a man for whom he is accused And according to this rule the witnesse shall quit himself from perjury by alledging That he meant by tuer not to kill as it signifies in French but to keep alive to defend and preserve as it signifieth in Latine by an impudence like that of the French prisoner who being asked whether he ever passed the straight of the sea swore that he never did meaning by the word straight not that between Dover and Calis whereof the question was asked him but that of Gibraltar of which none of the standers-by thought a whit Briefly all the language of men that admirable organ of their discourse by which they discover the thoughts of their hearts to each other so usefully would by this means become a meer ginne a trick to cousen and delude No man would be able by this means to understand his neighbours meaning any more then if the ancient confusion of Babel were again in the world every one would become a stranger and barbarian to his companion And then for actions which signifie any thing If particular men might be suffered to wrest them to another sense and meaning then that whereto the publick hath appointed them the same disorder would take place A subject after he hath done homage to the enemie of his naturall Lord to exempt himself from the punishment due to this undutifulnesse might alledge That he meant by this act not to acknowledge the Tyrant for his Soveraigne which is the common signification of that action but onely to salute him as we do another man And the servant of old time in Israel might have denied the service which he promised to his Master by the signe of his eare pierced an ordinary thing in that nation excusing himself that he meant the clean contrary by that act viz. to renounce his Masters service not to oblige himself to it for the future The Souldier in warre might wear the enemies colours and pretend that he had not for all this renounced his captain But this abuse will be more dangerous in religion by how much that should be kept more holy and inviolable among men For if a man may be permitted to practise actions whicd are instituted to another sense and that he may never intend them to that end for which they are commonly used there will be nothing certain in Religion For as you will presume to prostrate your self before the Host of the Church of Rome and think you may not thereupon be accused of adoring it so another will as well prostrate himself before images and offer to them wax-candles without being taxed of having worshipped them Another may wear a Turbant and enter into the Mosques of the Turks and there perform their devotions without being guilty of Mahumetanisme For he will say 'T is to Jesus Christ that I perform these services and not to the God of Mahomet And another among the inhabitants of China may prostrate himself without scruple before their idols pleading that he addresseth this adoration not to the Pagode there present as the idolaters doe but to God the Father or to Jesus Christ And if they be permitted to wrest actions thus from their true sense and meaning why not words likewise For these are signes of the same nature both the one and the other are instituted by men and to the same end saving that the nature of the words hath oftentimes lesse reference to their signification then the nature of an action or a ceremonie so that a man should make lesse scruple of abusing it According to this account a Protestant might swear boldly that he believeth A man should adore the Host for he will say that by the word Host he meaneth J. Christ fastened to the Crosse and not the Sacrament which they call so at Rome A Christian might answer without infidelity That he is a Muselman or a Jew or a Pagan according as it standeth most for his advantage and may take his oath on it if need be For he ' l say I take these words in a sense different from that wherein they are ordinarily used I mean that I am a Muselman that is a Believer as the word in Arabick signifies of J. Christ and not of Mahomet a Jew spirituall not a carnal one a Pagan by extraction or birth and not by religion For why may it not be as lawfull to wrest words if it be lawfull to use kneeling before the Host of the Romane Church to signifie any thing else besides adoration of the Sacrament Do you not perceive that there is the same reason Since in the use of the Church of Rome it signifies as clearly properly and universally this adoration as the words of Muselman of Jew of Pagan signifie the men of these three sects in our common language It will soon appear how dangerous a thing this libertie is if permitted among men But is it permitted God forbid The laws both of God and men censure them as cheaters treacherous faithlesse persons who offer
to practise it and punish them as the worst Malefactours As for men who knoweth not that their tribunals are for the most part set up to maintain faithfulnesse and honestie in words and other declarative signes of our intentions If one after he have given his promise to a Maid That he will take her for his spouse should refusing to marry her be brought before a Justice and there be so impudent as to plead that he meant onely to take her for his concubine who questioneth but that such a man would be taken not onely for a treacherous person and a perjured but likewise for a mocker and that he should be punished notwithstanding his excuse And the subject who shall leave his Soveraignes colours and shall do homage to his enemy and wear his marks and badges shall he be quitted for saying That his heart was loyall all this while and that he did these things with another intention Shall he not neverthelesse be held for a Rebell and which is more for a mocker and a man that hath a heart and a heart as the Scriptures speak and one whom errour and passion hath transported into the contrary partie against his liege-Liege-Lord And if he fall into the hands of the Princes Officers will these ridiculous excuses possibly preserve him from infamy and that punishment which shamelesse and rebellious subjects deserve or will he not rather fare the worse for them Now if the justice of man in stead of accepting this kind of excuses is offended and incensed by those who have the boldnesse to alledge them how can we hope that the justice of God which is infinitely more pure and more holy shall take such for payment when question is made concerning Truth and His Service I cannot believe that there is any man so brutish as to imagine that after he hath expresly pronounced That we must adore a creature he shall be absolved for saying that by the word Creature he meaneth the Creatour There is no man that hath common sense but seeth that this would be a pure illusion and that so dull and grosse as I cannot think any man should ever dream of making use of it Those very men who are partly of our perswasion and yet think That a man may with a good conscience prostrate himself before the Host of the Romane Church will yet make scruple of pronouncing with their mouthes that they must adore it Now the nature and reason of words and of actions and ceremonies is the same as we have proved Both the one and the other are signes and symboles instituted to signifie our thoughts Since then all Christians agree that in Confessions and declarations of Faith which we make either by the mouth or writing 't is not permitted them to use words in any sense but that wherein they are taken in common use we must conclude That it is not lawfull for us to abuse the ceremonies and actions of one Religion to a sense contrary to what they signifie in the ordinary practise of men Whence it followeth That even as by the confession of those who are our Adversaries in this point he will sinne grievously that believing the Host of the Romane Church to be a creature shall say with his mouth That he must render to it the adoration of latria in what sense soever he pretend to take these words so is it a very sottish fault for any to prostrate themselves before the Host having the same belief as we have the same intention in so doing Since by so doing they pronounce as much or more expresly then if they had said it with their mouth That they must adore the Host The action which they perform signifying the same thing clearly and expresly in the common use of men CHAP. XV. An answer to the example of Naaman the Syrian objected by some Object ANd whereas they object the famous example of Naaman the Syrian who after he was converted to the knowledge of the LORD was wont to bow himself in the temple of the Idol and when the King his Master went to perform his devotions he accompanied him and bowed himself that the King might lean upon him at his devotions Answ In answer I shall not mention the many interpretations of this passage that seem to draw the words 2 Kings v. 18. to another sense then what is now presented Suppose which is yet contended for that Naaman desired leave of the Lord to enter into Rimmons temple and bow himself there That the King might use him to lean on Suppose that Elisha did on Gods part grant him thus much so That this his bowing was no way contrary to his piety to God or charitie to his neighbour all this granted will conclude nothing against what hath hitherto been spoken For Naaman doth not simply entreat the Lord to let him prostrate himself in the Temple of Rimmon in no kind That had been to entreat a thing clearly and expresly forbidden which the Prophet would never have granted But he requests leave to yeild the King that service which he had done formerly viz. to wait upon Him and let Him lean upon him as 't is the custome of Princes and great Personages in state to lean upon their servants or Favourites and That if his Master should require that service of him in the Idol-temple he might give it him without offending God This action if well considered differs excessively from that we now speak of For we treat of such actions as have reference absolutely and simply to the service of that object which men pretend to adore whereas this is terminated directly and immediately in the service of an earthly King and Master Those actions of the Romanists signifie nothing in common use but the adoration and divinitie of the objects to which they are publickly consecrated this on the contrary signifies principally and directly Onely that Naaman acknowledged the King to whom he gave his service to be his Leige-Lord and Master And therefore as much difference as there is between the adoration of a creature and the service of a Master so much there is there between this action of Naaman and those which the Romanists pretend to be permitted them God no where forbids a servant to obey his Master to lend him a hand to move or a shoulder to lean on or to kneel that a man may be the more commodious and serviceable to him therein Nay on the contrary He commands us in his H. Word to keep all the degrees and offices of civil societie inviolably and bids servants particularly beware of abating ought of what obedience is due to their earthly Masters under pretence of giving some to their heavenly But as for adoration of the creature He very rigorously forbids it Whence it appears that though one may lawfully use words and actions that testifie the first kind of submission yet it follows not that he may exercise such as signifie the second I confesse that Naaman's doing
not the same pace that is to say who deal not roundly and plainly with him As for such sly people as would halt with Him and walk awry between Him and the world and varnish over their loosenesse with false and artificiall excuses He surprizeth them in their pretended subtilties leaving them with those whose marks and badges they have accepted of contrary to the judgement of their own consciences There was doubtlesse among the Israelites of old during the corruptions that Ahaz and Jezabel brought into Religion great store of persons who overcome with their tyrannicall threats did bow their knees to Baal sore against their wills and in their hearts detested those idols which through fear they were driven to adore some who comforted themselves with a vain imagination that they might bow indeed to the Idol with their bodies but keep their souls for God and so inwardly addressing to Him all their veneration they should not deserve either the name or punishment of idolaters Notwithstanding the Lord not regarding this excuse excludeth them from the number of His servants counting none for His but onely such as had not bowed their knees to Baal I have left me saith he Rom. xi 4. 1. Kings xix 18. seven thousand in Israel to wit all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal and every mouth which hath not kissed him And then who would not take the rest who did fall before the images of Baal or did kisse them or salute them if not for idolaters or hypocrites yet for such in a word as God rejected from his communion Long time before this while the Israelites were yet in the wildernesse where they cast a golden calf we cannot imagine they were so brutish as to believe That that image which they then cast was truly and really the God which brought them out of the land of Egypt before it was in the world All the circumstances of the fact induce us to say That they took it onely for a visible symbol of the Divinity which should be to them in stead of Moses who they thought was lost so that they should have addressed to God the honours which they gave to that image But because such services were now become the ordinary mark of idolatry over all the land of Egypt where they lived God without having regard to that which they might have said was in their intentions handleth them and punisheth them Exod. xxxii as being truly and indeed idolaters for so they are called by S. Paul where he recordeth their fault 1 Cor. x. 7. And that divine Apostle in the same place is so far from permitting us under any pretence whatsoever to do any of those actions whereby superstitious men use to testifie their devotion to that which they serve as prostration before the subject which they adore that he forbids the Corinthians 1 Cor. x. 19 20 21. to eat the flesh of those living creatures which they knew to have been sacrificed to idols and this under perill of rendring themselves in so doing partakers of devils and of their Altars and of depriving themselves of the Table of the Lord and of his Communion Was it because the Christians who eat of such meats had in so doing an intention to honour Demons or Idols In no wise They eat simply of it for the refection of their bodies as they would have eaten of other meats if they had been at hand Yet because the idolaters esteemed them sacred and sanctified by the altars of their false Divinities and because eating at their feasts was an action which in the common use signified that one had them in esteem and veneration or at least that one did not think That the service which they used was impure and unlawfull the H. Apostle would not suffer Believers to eat as idolaters did But you will say I do it not to be sanctified thereby I will in this repast addresse my thoughts praises and blessings not as the infidels do to Idols upon altars whereon they lay their viands but to God our onely true Creatour and Preserver No saith the Apostle I would not have you be partakers of Devils I know well enough that an Idol is nothing I know well too that you take it to be what it is But what ever your opinion be concerning it you cannot exercise those actions which are the ordinary symboles of honour that idolaters render thereto without defiling and rendring you unworthy of the Cup and Table of the Lord. And 't is observable That entring upon this businesse he useth this preface Finally my dearly beloved flee from idolatryâ— 1 Cor. x. 14. clearly intimating thereby that he held all them guilty of idolatry who with any heart or mind whatsoever exercised any of those actions which in the common use of idolaters signified the honour which they bore to that which they served And therefore what can become of such people unlesse they prevent the day of the Lord by a serious repentance since there is no sinne against which the Scripture threatneth a more horrible damnation then against this of idolatry But lest they should sooth up themselves with an opinion that they are not idolaters it denounceth against them elsewhere the same judgement but gives them a name which agreeth to them so properly as they will not know how to disavow it Rev. xxi 8. As for the fearfull and unbelieving and the abominable and murtherers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars their part shall be in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death I would fain have these people seriously consider what these fearful be that are here thrown into hel-dungeon with the worst and most abominable malefactors For if the word signifie not precisely those who lest they should displease the world do outwardly conform themselves to services and ceremonies which in their heart they acknowledge to be a pernicious errour I know not what other sense this passage can beare The H. Ghost meaneth not those who in this world are called fearfull For He is not used to put valour and warlike force among the qualities that be necessary for inheriting the Kingdome of heaven nor doth He mean those who follow errour and serve creatures with a full heart believing and approving inwardly what they doe outwardly For He is not wont to call them fearfull They are rather such as He calleth a little after idolaters Nor doth he mean hypocrites who under an open profession of vertue hide a filthy and infamous life though to call them so were as bad as to call them fearfull The name of liars which followeth soon after agreeth to them a great deal better Nor is there any likelihood that by fearfull he meaneth profane or Atheists or open sinners and malefactors For who ever heard them set out by this name And then who can be meant by these cursed fearfull persons which are here ranked in the forefront of all that shall be
inheritours of hell fire but those who overcome with some carnall fear do not confesse outwardly that holy truth which they believe inwardly or those who confesse outwardly some errour which inwardly they misbelieve and detest Thus was it in the Martyrs of Christ not imprudence but a very excellent piece of wisdome That they chose rather to suffer the most cruell deaths and punishments than through fear to conceal that opinion which they had concerning piety and errour It was in them not a cruelty but an act of sweetnesse in their loving devout souls rather to undergoe death then to perform any of the actions of Pagan superstition since they had no other way to avoid those punishments which are threatned to fearfull men And on the contrary it will be sound That there are none more sottish nor more cruell to themselves then those pretended Politicians who to preserve as they say the peace of the world and to exempt themselves from temporall punishments that sometimes betide open Believers accommodate themselves to the services of one and avoid the freedome and communion of the other For as it is prudence for a man to lose a small benefit to preserve a far greater and that is truly and indeed to love a mans self when he suffers a little sorrow as a cut of a razour or a Chirurgions lancet to keep himself from death so it is the highest degree of imprudence for a man to loose his Soveraigne good to preserve one that is incomparably lesse the worst of cruelties to suffer a mans self to perish eternally rather then suffer a short and slight inconvenience CHAP. XVIII That this dissembling grievously offendeth God and scandalizeth men BUt to the end that no man may accuse the judgement of God of too much rigour against fearfull people Let us briefly consider the greatnesse and the weight of their fault First they are evidently guilty of a grievous and inexcusable lie For by their action they make profession of believing that which they do not believe in realitie As for example he that through fear prostrateth himself before the Host of the Church of Rome declareth highly and expresly that he taketh it for a Deity deserving adoration since in common custome that is the sense of this action And yet he telleth us privately that his heart believeth it is not a Deity but an insensible and inanimate creature Who discerneth not here a manifest contrarietie between the mind and the body between the heart and the tongue And though all lying be unpleasing to God and unbecoming a man of worth and reputation yet this is the most vilainous and enormous of any other sort For if lying be farre more blamable in a serious then in a slight subject who can describe or imagine how highly detestable it is in Religion the most important thing in the world how abominable in the most solemn and sacred act of Religion where the question is concerning rendring to a Deity that Soveraign service which we owe him Is it not â—pparently a reproach to the Divine Majestie who hath so expresly protested that He hateth nothing upon earth neare so much as a lying soul and to the holy Angels who are spectatours of our actions and to Men our neighbours that are assembled with us for Us in the presence of them all to say and impudently declare a thing directly contrary to what we think to swear and protest as it were with the hand lifted up that we take a thing to be our Creatour and Redeemer which in reality we esteem to be as farre below the nature of Him as earth is below heaven The most desperate knaves will seldome endure to heare of their having sworn falsly that the Oxen of another man belong to them or they come to do it with a soul full of remorse and a face covered with confusion The reason is because the Authoritie of the Judges the dignity of the Assembly the holinesse of the Place the hand which they lift up and the tongue which they move cometh into their mind and privately chastizeth them for violating the truth So deeply hath Nature imprinted in all mens hearts the hatred and horrour of a lie Ye then who before the face of heaven and earth before the eyes of God Angels and Men have sworn against your conscience not a slight businesse but the most important that concerneth not this present and sading life but that other which is eternall who have sworn not with two or three words let slip between the teeth but highly and expresly with the gesture and motion of all your person who have affirmed and as it were sealed this lie by the most authentick act that is in the Religion of your Countreymen how can you have the face after such a dreadfull perjury to look again up to Heaven How can your conscience choose but trouble you and avenge it self for the horrible outrage that you have committed on it for your having so violently and wretchedly stifled its thoughts If after this it do not prick and torment you night and day I know not how you can make appeare that it is alive For besides the enormitie of the lie such faults are infinitely contrary to the respect which we owe to God and extremely injurious to His Soveraigntie For is it not one of the greatest crimes that a subject can possibly be guilty of towards his Soveraign openly to bestow upon another beside Him the Name and Honour which is due to Him alone I know the Romanist will say That his intention is far from doing it but 'T is enough to make him faulty either to have said or to have done the least thing like it so holy and sacred is the Majestie of Soveraigns that no man may without impietie violate or profane the respect that is due to Them with any intention under any pretence whatsoever Now to give unto any thing which you do not believe to have a Divine nature the services which are given to such and under this notion by those among whom we live is clearly to testifie that you give to another besides God the honour which belongeth to him alone As to bring in our example for You to prostrate your selves before the Host of the Church of Rome or to go on Procession after it on the day of its Feast is to declare that you give it the name and adoration of a Deity I do not affirm that you really adore it I presuppose that you know in your heart that it is but a creature and that your heart addresseth all its service to God onely But because you make this declaration with your body you witnesse and make it appeare that you hold this for your God Do you not in your conscience take it to be an horrible crime to commit so grievous an offense against our Soveraign Lord And here tell not me I beseech you that you do not make such a declaration in prostrating your self
before the Host For I have sufficiently shown before that this is the true cleare and precise signification of that action and others like it and he that will interpret them otherwise must overthrow the laws and communion of all civil and Religious Societies among men And to partake of such actions against our consciences is not onely an offence against God but likewise a most cruell outrage and scandall against our Neighbours For first one cannot abuse a man or mock him in a serious businesse without deeply violating the holy and respective charity which we owe to a creature that beareth the image of our Lord and hath the same nature that we are of And I do not see how one can more apparently mock his neighbours then by making shew of adoring that which they serve and approving their devotion as good and usefull to salvation and yet to believe nothing lesse and in our consciences to hold that to be a mere creature which they adore and the honour which they give it to be an unlawfull service and unpleasing to the true God What greater affront can men possibly put upon them than thus to abuse and sport with them questionlesse did they discern through the mask under which we hide our selves the thoughts of our hearts and the gullery that we put upon them when we present our selves to them in this false visage they would extremely abhorre us for brazen faced Couseners Did we disguise our selves thus for their good or did not our dissembling doe them a mischief they would have lesse reason to complain But 't is quite otherwise This our vain dissimulation and fond conceit is a very great scandall to them This masking and disguising our selves is to assassinate and destroy them For do you not by exercising the acts and services of Superstition in their presence plainly embolden or as S. Paul phraseth it 1 Cor. viii 10. edifie them in it Is not this to recommend the same things to them by your example and effectually to preach to them the belief and practise of them For example when you are prostrate before the Host of the church of Rome doth not your action authorize their belief do not you thereby warrant them to be more confident in it You tell them in a language that is dumbe indeed but yet more intelligible cleare and significative then all the words which you can use in this subject That this Host is not at all a creature That it is the Creatour and Redeemer of the world That we should adore it and give it the same honour which is due to the Soveraign Deity This and such language as this doth your action speak to your Neighbours nor can they otherwise read or understand what is the sense and meaning of your heart Seeing then that in your conscience you firmly believe that this Host is but a plain creature do you not see how you perswade them to adore a creature which is a pernicious and dangerous errour as I have shewed above You lay before them that which you esteem mortall poyson and seem to take of it your self that you may make them confidently swallow it down which is the most hurtfull and detestable treachery in the world Now if those who poyson the bodies of men are deservedly reckoned amongst the most abominable malefactours consider how great the horrour of your crime is who plunge not their bodies onely but as much as in you lyeth their souls also into that which is in your judgement a dangerous and deadly poyson And if he who offendeth the least of Believers never so little deserveth a rigorous punishment and one more grievous then to be thrown alive into the bottome of the sea as our Lord saith expresly Matt. xviii 6. what thunderbolts and hells shall he be thought worthy of who casts so enormous a scandall before all the congregation And if those who through errour mistake a creature for a Deity are neverthelesse inexcusable as we have proved before what pardon can you expect who knowing well that this is a creature cease not to prostrate your selves before it For the Lord protesteth that the servant who knoweth his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with more stripes than he who doth it not because he knew it not Luke 11. 47. And common reason teacheth us that it is a very equitable sentence and determination Seeing then that the fault of those who outwardly practise the services which they hold in their consciences to be false and unlawfull is so many wayes contrary both to our piety toward God and our charity toward men let none think it strange That our Lord condemneth them with an eternall curse who are so mischievous as to commit it For should He do otherwise He would forget his own nature and rob Himself of all those properties wherewith the H. Scriptures invest Him He would be no longer the Father of truth if He left a lie unpunished He would not be zealous of His glory if He did not avenge so evident an affront Finally He would not be the Prince Protectour of mankind if He did not condemne those to the greatest punishments who do so insolently and cruelly abuse poor men And now let every equitable person judge whether it be possible for Us in any manner to prostrate our selves before the Host of the Church of Rome to deck our houses against it passe by and to do other the like actions instituted to the honour of it believing as thanks be to God we do that it is a plain inanimate creature and not as some pretend our Soveraign Lord and God and whether we are not obliged by all the rules of Christs Doctrine rather to suffer most grievous extremities then to comply with what the Church of Rome requireth of us in this particular Indeed if it were lawfull to lie sometimes and outwardly to witnesse any thing contrary to what we believe in our hearts or to make profession of taking from our Lord the glory due to Him alone to give it to a creature or finally to abuse men and induce them to be confirmed in a belief of that which we esteem pernicious and destructive to their souls If I say it were at any time lawfull for us to doe any of these things for fear of separating from our countreymen I confesse that we should doe amisse in refusing to perform the honour which Rome commandeth us to her Sacrament But if all Laws divine and humane for the most part command us under pain of damnation rather not to fear undergoing all sorts of mischiefs then to fall into any one of these faults 't is evident that having the belief which we have of the Eucharist in the Church of Rome we cannot perform those services thereto which they require of us without incurring the anger of God and destruction of our own souls So that if there were no other difference between them and us but this alone it were