us she would have us receive with the same faith and respect all the traditions which she approves of Besides the repose and rest in the Kingdome of heaven which she with us promiseth to the faithfull she will have us to believe another in Limbo a prison for children that die without baptisme And besides the torments of hell which she with us threatens to the wicked she denounceth to the faithfull another like it in purgatoric These and severall others like to these are the positions which she addeth to the true and fundamentall Articles of the good Old Christianity and which are the points that divorce us from her Communion For every one knows how carefully she hath established them in her Councels how daily she recommendeth them in her Schools and pulpits how rigourously she exacteth them in confession having long since pronounced and oft since daily still proclaiming and repeating That she esteems them Hereticks Enemies of Christ and worse then Infidels that reject these opinions or any of these And which is more offensive yet not content to teach them by the voice of her Doctours she imprints them in the hearts of her people through continuall observation and use so that among them of her communion the practise of these additionall Articles makes more then a full half of what they esteem Christianity For the greatest part of their service consists in invocation of Angels and Saints in adoring the Sacrament in worshipping images in offering up the Sacrifice of the Altar or in partaking of it in making Confessions and exercising other ceremonies But as for us all the world knows that we have quite another opinion of these matters We content our selves with the intercession sacrifice and monarchy of J. Christ and can joyn to Him neither Saints nor Priests nor the Pope in any of those three qualities which the Scripture of the New Testament attributes to none but Him alone We deem His bloud sufficient for the purgation of our souls having never learnt that either S. Paul or any other Saint was crucified for us nor That after this life the Saints shall enter into any other place but onely one of repose and rest After Baptisme and the Lords Supper we desire no other Sacraments not having heard in His Word that he hath obliged us necessarily to go to the eare of any Priest to receive his absolution or to the hand of any Bishop to have his chrisme We dare not adore the bread which we break nor the cup which we blesse because all confesse That it is not permitted us to adore any but God onely We can neither invocate creatures since we have in the Scripture neither commandment nor example for it nor prostrate our selves before images since we have expresse commands therein against it We scruple at making any thing an Article of our Faith which we have not heard in the Word of God be he an Apostle or an Angel that evangelizeth So that since we find nothing in the Scripture of abstinence from meats distinction of times and other Romane ceremonies nor of the Limbus of infants or purgatory we cannot yet be perswaded that it is necessarie for us to believe them CHAP. VI. That our Separation ariseth not from particular matters of fact or private opinion but from such things as are believed generally by all the Romane Church and so that it is not like to the schisme of the Donatists I Might yet alledge many other differences but this little may suffice to let you see what are the main reasons which oblige us to separate from Rome Whence it appears how unjust a comparison it is that I say not impertinent and silly which some make of our Separation to that of the Donatists For they pretended not to find any thing in the doctrine of the Catholick Church from whence they separated which was contrary to their belief Both the one and the other taught the same faith read the same books exercised the same services The Donatist entring with the Catholicks found nothing either in their belief or discipline which he had not seen and learn'd in his own But as for us 't is impossible that we should enter into the Communion of the Church of Rome without swearing to many doctrines which we formerly never learn'd in the schole of the Scriptures without receiving Sacraments which are utterly unknown to us without bowing our knees before images which is absolutely forbidden without adoring a thing for God whose Deitie we know not without acknowledging him to be the Head and Husband of the Church whom we know to be but a mortall man without subjecting those consciences to an humane which are taught and wont to submit unto none but a divine Authority And as for that which the Donatists alledge That Felix the Ordainer of Cecilian Bishop of Carthage did in former times deliver up the Holy Scriptures to the Pagans during the persecution though it had been true as indeed it was not the Catholicks having clearly justified their innocence in this point by many irrefragable testimonies supposing I say it had been true that he had committed this fault who seeth not that this is not a cause in nature like to those for which we make our separation For this was a matter of fact and not a doctrine a fact of one man that is of Felix alone and not of the whole body of the African Church So that it should have given the Donatists no occasion or cause of separating from Cecilian much lesse any just cause of breaking communion with all Africk For suppose that Felix the Ordainer of Cecilian had committed this fault yet 't is cleare That he did not teach or think that it was lawfull for him to deliver the H. Scriptures up to Infidels but on the contrary by denying that he committed it and standing upon his defence as he did he confessed plainly by consequence that it was a fault The Donatists then might have continued in that communion without any way staining either their Creed or their manners without being forced either to do or believe any thing against their consciences But for all that supposing which yet is manifestly false that Cecilian had defended and preach'd publickly in his pulpit That it was permitted Christians in times of persecution to deliver up the books of HOLY WRIT to the enemies of the Church and supposing again which 't is not fit now to examine that this errour were pernicious and inconsistent with a true faith I cannot discern how the Donatists had any just cause of avoiding the communion of the successours of Cecilian or other Bishops of Africk who unanimously held taught and preached that to commit such a fault was a weaknesse unbefitting the soul of a Christian and made all such submit to the rigours of Ecclesiasticall discipline whom they found guilty of it This crime or what ever you will imagine it was onely Felix's or perhaps Cecilians but not any mans else The
Marcellus which was CCC and old yeares there were not two hundred Bishops made in all by all the Popes of Rome One in a yeare was a rare matter He saith not a syllable of the erecting any Arch-Bishoprick or Patriarchate all that time Not a word of forreign Bishops travelling or sending to Rome to beg Priviledges and Confirmations or to take an oath of fidelity and obedience But to come closer home and to the purpose The story of the seaven British Bishops and many other very learned men but especially the Monks of Bangor is very remarkable and may be read at large in the history of Bede set forth by our learned M r Whelock from p. 110. to 119. whâ—re it is said that these Monks of Bangor were divided into seven parts see also Bromton's Chronicle p. 780. the least whereof consisted of three hundred and That they told Augustine plainly that they would not relinquish their ancient customes without the consent and leave of their Countrymen And when Augustine had made a long speech to perswade them to be subject to the Pope of Rome Dinooth their Abbot answered him briefly in these words Bid ispis c. S r H. Spelmans Councels p. 108. Be it known unto you and without doubt that we are all and every one of us obedient and subjects to the Church of God and Pope of Rome and to every godly Christian to love every one in his degree with perfect charity and to help every one of them by word and deed to be the children of God And other obedience then this I do not know due to him whom you call the Pope or that he hath right to challenge or to require to be the Father of Fathers This obedience we are ready to give and to pay to him and to every Christian continually Besides we are under the government of the Bishop of Kaerleon upon Vske who is to oversee us under God to make us keep the spirituall way Would you know what became of these Monks hereupon Episcopi Abbates Doctores contra morem Ecclesiae Romanae viventes à Rege Ethelfrido vastante gentem Britonum ad nihilum redacti sunt cum tribus millibus Monachorum monasterii de Bangor qui in campum bellatorum adducti sunt ut Regi adversa imprecarent Hi omnes ut fertur de labore manuum suarum vivebant c. Thus far Gervasius printed by M r Bee p. 1632. See the sixteen immunities p. 1386. And S r H. Spelman citeth out of the ancient Annals of Gisburn these words p. 26. Till the time of K. Hen. 1. the Bishops of S. Davids were there consecrated by their own Welsh Suffragans VVITHOUT MAKING ANY PROFESSION OF SUBJECTION TO ANY OTHER CHURCH Not to insist upon the translating the Pall into little Britain he that would reade more to this purpose may peruse RR. Armach his discourses of the Religion anciently professed by the Irish and Brittish chap. 8 9 10. de primordiis Eccles Britan. the eight first chapters ERRATA In the Preface p. 6. l. 3. which by consequence over p. 7. l. 17. indispensable p. 9. l. 14. be in schisme or heresie p. 10. l. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 14. l. 34. intreat him for p. 16. l. 35. Cellot de Hierarchia p. 17. l. 9. the Christian Moderatour mentioneth p. 18. l. 15. Beza Luther ibid. l. 17. dele Luther p. 31. l. 30. dele John of Leiden p. 32. l. 30. chymes In the Apologie p. 22. l. 27. not to S. Paul p. 26. l. 11. unbeseeming at the least p. 62. l. 23. dele not p. 40. l. 13. nature among unintellectual beings p. 73. l. 13. Rimmon In. p. 83. l. 5 7 ate p 87. l. 3. in a slight ibid. l. 24. alone p. 88. l. 28. his conscience To the most vertuous Lady MARY de LANOU wife to the Marshall of THEMINIS MADAM HAving a designe to justifie in this Book That it is not permitted to a conscience which is satisfied in the knowledge of our Religion to continue in the profession of the Romane and desiring to confirm that by example which I think I have proved by reason I have not found any more illustrious than that which you have been pleased to give in the sight of heaven and earth in quitting the Romane Communion which is so sweet so pompous and advantageous in worldly respects to cast your self into the lap of the true Church as low and desolate as it appeareth in carnal eyes This brave and gallant action highly befitting your Name and Bloud hath demonstrated more evidently than any words of mine are able That the souls of those who believe as we do cannot enjoy the peace of God nor assurance of his grace nor hope of his glory in the communion which You have quitted For these things are all that you find among us worth speaking of all other advantages do far more abound among them nothing but these can you look or hope for ' midst us who are destitute of all the rest But You have judged that this rich pearl of the Gospel is alone worth far more then all other commodities beside so have rather chosen to hazard the rest to assure your self of this than to endure for assuring the rest to run any the least danger in the world of missing this jewell MADAM It is the Almighty who hath inspired into You so holy and so wise a resolution and hath given You strength to put it in execution at so unfavourable a time Whereat the Angels in heaven rejoyce whereat the Church on earth praiseth Him Amidst so many evils which she suffereth and more which she foreseeth 't is matter to Her of great comfort that in an age so full of ill examples she can find some souls of your quality and merit that have courage to disdain reproach and can rank themselves under the Crosse of their Saviour Even they who approve not your change admire your vertue and cannot deny but that 't is a rare and singular generositie which causeth you to preferre the contentment of your conscience before all other considerations But besides the joy that your conversion hath brought to those of the Church and the admiration that it affects them with who are out of it I hope that your example will be to the great edification of all strengthening the one in the Communion wherein they live and drawing in the other Which MADAM is the cause of my mentioning this to you in my entrance most humbly beseeching you to take it in good part and to suffer your name to shine in the front of this small book to give weight and light to its discourse and to invite all such as shall read it to imitate You in preferring the grace of Heaven before the interests of earth and the solid hopes of Eternity before the petty joyes of these few moments which we passe here below Which favour if I may as I hope I shall obtain from your
who did not likewise hold the conclusion viz. that the soul is mortall With what face dare you venture to assert it since Tertullian and many other Authors of very great esteem were of that opinion and S. Augustine did rather approve it then condemn it since I say they did openly believe the first of these positions and expresly deny the second So S. Hilary according to the true consequences of that opinion which he held concerning the impassible nature of Christs body seems to me to have been obliged to denie the truth and realitie of our redemption And yet who dare impute so grievous an impietie to such a Saint I should never have done should I resolve to set down here all the examples that may be alledged to this purpose These two suffice to shew that whoever maintains an ill opinion is not therefore to be held guilty of the consequences of it Sâ—ppose then it were true as it is not That from the belief of the Lutherans concerning the Eucharist it would follow That we must adore the Sacrament Since they own not this consequence nay on the contrary strongly reject it It would be an extreme injustice to ascribe it to them And as it would have been a want of charity in the primitive Christians to have avoided the Communion of Tertullian or S. Hilary upon protence that from their opinions touching the originall of the soul of man and the nature of the body of Christ there followed many propositions which are impious and contrary to our faith since they rejected and abhorred them so would it be in my mind a great oversight now to separate from the Lutherans upon this pretended consequence from their opinion concerning the holy Sacrament if it could be deduced thence as it cannot Since they themselves protest that they will not acknowledge it But as for them of Rome 't is quite otherwise For the adoration of the Eucharist is a consequence of their doctrine concerning this point both de jure and de facto that is it plainly follows from it and they expresly professe and practise it 1. De jure it follows from it For if the subject which we call the Sacrament of the Eucharist be in its substance not bread as we believe but the body of Christ as they hold 't is evident that men both may and ought to adore it seeing that the body of Christ is a subject adorable And then it follows from it 2. De facto they practise it For who knows not that there is not any one Article in all the Romane religion which is professed more publickly pressed more severely exercised more devoutly then this of adoring the Host Since then they hold this article both de jure according to the plain consequences of their belief in the point of the Eucharist and de facto in their confessions and practises and That the Lutherans on the contrary hold them not neither in one manner nor the other neither in thesi nor hypothesi 'T is cleare That our bearing with the latter without separating from them for the diversitie that is between them and us about the point of the Eucharist doth no way inferre that we should do as much with the former CHAP. X. That the dignitie and excellency of the Eucharist doth not hinder it from being a grievous and deadly offense to adore it if it be bread in substance as we believe Object BUt you 'l say That you esteem it a rude comparison to liken the adoration which the Church of Rome gives the Eucharist to the services that the profane Pagans or debauched Israelites gave to mere creatures For they adored idols whereas the Eucharist is a divine Sacrament So that it seems an abuse of the Scripture to scare us with those threats and curses that it denounceth against such kind of people seeing the object which they served was so different from that which Rome will have us to adore We confesse we perform this action but 't is to one of the Institutions of our Master and for you to equall that and compare it with an idol 'T is very unbeseeming Answ Thanks be to God we have a clean other opinion of the Eucharist We hold it as it is indeed a very holy Sacrament of the body and bloud of our Lord to be one of the most precious instruments of his grace which being lawfully and rightly celebrated communicateth to us all the treasures of heaven the flesh and bloud of Christ the pardon of our sinnes the peace of our consciences the sanctification of our souls and the right to a blessed immortalitie Farre be it from us to give it the profane and infamous name of an idol We will not say that it is simply and onely bread and if any of us do chance to speak so in saying that 't is bread he means in regard of the substance of the thing not in regard of its vertue or dignity in regard of which we believe that it is quite another thing from bread We should take the word in the same sense that Gregory Nyssen doth on the like subject who speaking of the water in Baptisme Orat. in Bapt. Christ p. 803. tom 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith That it is nothing else but water he means in its nature For in the grace 't is another thing beside water and both the Scriptures teach it to be so and all Christians believe it and this holy Doctour particularly witnesseth it in divers places Id. ibid. p. 801. c. 4. orat Catech. c. 33. We therefore do willingly give to the Sacrament all those advantages and respects that justly belong to it and not to any idol But if this be a creature as we believe it to be the excellence and dignitie thereof as great as you set it forth will not at all excuse their crime who adore it For the Lord forbids us to adore not base or vain things onely as onions and the Cats of the Egyptians and the idols of the Pagans which have not any subsistence in nature or any where else except in their false imaginations but he forbids us generally and absolutely to adore any creature what ever it be whether it creep upon the ground or shine in heaven whether it swim in the water or flie in the aire animate or inanimate visible or invisible corporeall or spiritual profane or sacred comprehending under the same condemnation all those who worship any creature what ever it be as guilty of the same crime and subject to the same punishment And de facto the thing is very evident for this adoration which we give to God being an acknowledgement of his Soveraignty a duty like to the love which a woman oweth to her lawfull husband Who doth not perceive that it is a manifest crime to give it to any other but to him that the differences of the subjects to which men give it are no way considerable in this particular seeing though they
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
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
enough to shew that we were not transported out of an humour or frowardnesse or other small cause but forced by an extreme and irresistible necessitie to separate our selves from them Whence it followeth that in this case our separation was just That which is necessary being not to be blamed as unjust CHAP. XIX That there are many other beliefs in the Church of Rome which overthrow the foundations of our faith and salvation as the Veneration of images the Supremacie of the Pope c. BUt besides this Article there are great store of others to the profession and practise whereof they will oblige us against our wills which are of so great importance in religion that we cannot confesse them nor observe them any more then that of Transubstantiation without violating our consciences and exposing our souls to an evident danger of offending God and losing that portion in his grace and glory which we desire and hope for For example Believing as we do That there is nothing divine in images and That we are very severely forbidden by our Lord to prostrate our selves before them under pain of moving Him to jealousie and stirring up His indignation against us and our posteritie How and with what conscience can we bow our bodies before those in the Church of Rome offer to them wax-candles dresse them and carry them in procession and go in pilgrimage to places where they are consecrated and perform such other acts as she demandeth of us in her Communion to testifie that adoration which she thinketh due to them in Religion In times past when a report was spred among the Donatists That one Paul and one Macarius both Catholicks would come into those parts and set an image upon the altar where the Eucharist was to be celebrated the Christians were much astonished saying one to another That to eat there was to eat of a thing sacrificed to an idol And Optatus who recordeth it saith lib. 3 pag. 356. E. that if this rumour was true they had good reason to say so If the holy Fathers permitted the Donatists to abhorre the Churches of the Catholicks to avoid communicating with them in the Eucharist as an unclean and profane meat in case they could find any image upon the altar where they consecrated it How can they be excused who communicate at the Altars of Rome partake of her Devotions frequent her Churches where we know not by an uncertain rumour but by the report of our eyes and other senses that every one is full of images where we see them daily consecrated anew and the people crowding to prostrate themselves before them Believing as we do that Christ is the sole Head of the Catholick Church with what conscience can we give that title and this dignitie to the Pope of Rome and kisse his feet and render him all other honours which Rome is wont to give him in relation thereto Believing as we do that the truth of the heavenly doctrine is the onely foundation of our faith with what conscience can we depend upon the Authority of Pope or Councels submitting to them even the books of H. Scripture which are divinely inspired Believing as we do that the sacrifice offered by Christ upon the Crosse hath perfectly expiated our sinnes with what conscience can we swear That there is a necessity and efficacy in the sacrifice of the Romane Altar Believing as we do that invocation by prayers makes part of the service of God and not having learnt in the schole of the Scriptures to pray to any but Him how and with what conscience can we addresse to so many severall creatures those prayers and invocations which Rome commandeth us to addresse to them And particularly how can we invocate Dominicus a Monk Ignatius Loyola Charles Borromeus late Bishop of Millain and others like them who we know hated and persecuted that holy Faith whereof we by the grace of God make open profession By the considerations already represented about the point of the Eucharist it is easie to see that these articles and divers others which for brevity sake I omit overthrow the foundations of Faith and Piety so that it is not lawfull for us to comply with those which hold them CHAP. XX. A conclusion of this Treatise That They who are of our perswasion are obliged to forsake the communion of Rome and They who are not are to prove and trie their own faith before they condemne our separation from them THus I think I have sufficiently justified our Separation from the Church of Rome Whence it appears how lamentable the condition of them is who having the same opinion which we have concerning her doctrine and services do not depart from her Communion but accuse us for so doing For who doth not see that it is a necessary prudence and not a vain superstition to avoid that which men judge to be pestilentiall and mortall and that on the other side it is an unexecusable carelesnesse to doe and exercise continually what men acknowledge to be contrary to the glory of God the edification of their neighbours and the salvation of their selves If I may be permitted to addresse my self in this particular to those who are in so dangerous an errour I shall conjure them by their pietie to God by their charity to men by the care which they should have continually of their own and others souls to think seriously of joyning themselves hereafter to those whose belief they hold and quitting the communion of those whose Faith they disapprove And let them not slatter themselves to think that the Church of Rome retaineth the Apostles Creed and the summe of Christian doctrine since it is evident That one at least of those errours which they adde thereto are mortall For as those good and wholesome meats which a man eateth at his refreshment hinder him not from dying if by and by he swallow some poyson semblably true and wholesome doctrine doth not preserve those which believe it if together with it they entertain some pernicious and damnable errour in other particulars Evil hath this advantage above good that it spreads much farther and is farre more active For neither truth nor vertue can save a man unlesse they be pure and sincere without the intermixture of any ill and dangerous habite whereas errour and vice damne a man be they mingled with never so many truths and vertues For as a man though he be chaste and modest shall not inherit the Kingdome of heaven if he be covetous or a slanderer of his neighbour so shall he not be exempted from hell torments for believing some principall truths of the Gospel if it be found that after all he hath adored creatures or made profession of adoring them But as for you Sirs who continue sincerely in the Church of Rome verily believing all that she teacheth you I shall beseech you That if you do reject our belief you would be pleased at least not to condemne our separation imputing