Of the institution of the sacrament of the blessed bodie and blood of Christ, (by some called) the masse of Christ eight bookes; discovering the superstitious, sacrilegious, and idolatrous abominations of the Romish masse. Together with the consequent obstinacies, overtures of perjuries, and the heresies discernable in the defenders thereof. By the R. Father in God Thomas L. Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.

Our Last Advertisement followeth.

Of the Mixture of many old Heresies with the former Defence of the Romish Masse.

SECT. V.

THe more odious the Title of this Section may seeme to be, the more studious ought you to shew your selves in exami∣ning the proofes thereof; that so you may either confute, or con∣fesse them, and accordingly re-assume, or renounce your Romish Defence.

Heresie hath a double aspect: One is when it is direct, having the expresse termes of Heresie; the Other is oblique, and by consequence, when the Defence doth inferre, or imply necessarily the same Hereticall Sence, even as it may be said of Treason. For to say that Caesar is not King, is a Treasonable speech Directly, in a plaine Sence; and to say that Tribute money is not due to Cae∣sar, is as Treasonable in the Consequence. Thus much being premi∣sed, we are now to recognize such Errrours, wherein your Dispu∣ters may seeme to have accordance with old Heretiques, which point we shall pursue according to the order of the Bookes.

BOOKE I. Wherein your Church is found altering almost the whole forme of Christ his Institution, and the Custome of the Catholique Church, descended from the Apostles; which Pre∣sumption Pope a 1.1 Iulius condemned in divers, who sopped the Bread in the Chalice, and squeezed Grapes in the Cup, and so received them: even as did the * 1.2 Artoryritae in mingling Bread with Cheese, censured for Heretiques by your Aquinas. In which Comparison your Aberration from Christ's Example is so much greater than theirs, as you are found Guilty in defending b 1.3 Ten Innovations, for one.

2. Your Pope Gelasius condemned the Hereticall Manichees, for thinking it lawfull not to receive the Cup in the Administration of the Eucharist, judging it to be c 1.4 Greatly Sacrilegious: notwith∣standing your d 1.5 Church authorizeth the same Custome of forbid∣ding the Administration of the Cup to fit Communicants.

3. As e 1.6 you pretend Reverence, for withdrawing the Cup; so did the f 1.7 Aquarii forbeare wine, and used only Water, under a pre∣tence of Sobriety.

4. Sometime there may be a Reason to doe a thing, when as yet there is no right, nor Authority for him that doth it: Wee therefore exact of you an Autority for altering the Apostles Cu∣stomes, and Constitutions; and are answered that g 1.8 your Church hath Authority over the Apostles Precepts. Iumpe with them, who being asked why they stood not unto the Apostles Traditions,

replyed that h 1.9 They were herein above the Apostles, whom there∣fore Irenaeus reckoneth among the Heretikes of his Time.

BOOKE II. It is not nothing, which hath beene observed therein (to wit) your Reasoning, why you ought not to interpret the words of Christ [This is my Body] i 1.10 literally; and why you urge his other saying [Except yo•…•… eat my flesh] k 1.11 for proofe of Bo∣dily Eating; so that your Priest may literally say in your Masse, that The Body of Christ passeth into your bellies and entr••ils, be∣cause (forsooth) the words of Christ are l 1.12 Doctrinall. And have you not heard of one Nicodemus, who hearing Christ teach that every man must be * 1.13 Borne againe, who shall be partaker of God's Kingdome; and that hee expounding them in a Literall Sence conceited a new Entrance into his Mothers wombe, when as nothing wanted to turne that his Errour into an Heresie, but only Obstinacie? But of the strong and strange Obstinacies of your Disputers, you have received a full m 1.14 Synopsis.

BOOKE III. After followeth your Article of Transubstan∣tiation. I. Your direct profession is indeed to beleeve no Body of Christ, but that which was Borne of the Virgin Mary. But this your Article of Transubstantiation of Bread into Christs Body, ge∣nerally held, according to the proper nature of Transubstantion, to be by n 1.15 Production of Christs Body out of the Substance of Bread, it necessarrly inferreth a Body (called, and beleeved to be Christ's) which is not Borne of the Blessed Virgin, as S. Augustine hath plain∣ly o 1.16 taught; diversifying the Bodily thing on the Altar from the Body of Christ borne of the Virgin. Therefore your Defence sym∣bolizeth with the heresie of Apollinaris, who taught a p 1.17 Body not Borne of the Virgin Mary.

Secondly, you exclude all judgement of q 1.18 Senses, in discer∣ning Bread to be tr•…•… Bread, as did the r 1.19 Manichees in discerning Christ's Body, which they thereupon held not to have beene a True, but a Phantasticall Body. Tertullian also challengeth the Verity of Sense, in judging of Wine in the E••charist (after Consecration) in confutation of the same Errour in the Mar∣cioni••es.

Thirdly, for Defence of Christ his invisible Bodily Presence, you professe that (after Consecration) Bread is no more the same, but changed into the Body of Christ: which Doctrine in very ex∣presse words was bolted out by an E••tychian Heretique, and in∣stantly condemned by s 1.20 Theodoret, and as fully abandoned by Pope Gelas•…•….

BOOKE IV. Catholique Fathers were in nothing more zea∣lous, * 1.21 than in defending the distinct properties of the two natures of Christ his Deity, and Humanity, against the pernicious here∣sies of the Manichees; Marcionites, E••tychians, and E••nomians; all of them diversly oppugning the Integrity of Christ's Body,

sometime in direct tearmes, and sometime by irrefragrable Con∣sequences; whether it were by gaine-saying the Finitenesse, or So∣lidity, or else the compleat Perfection thereof: wherein ••ow farre yee may challenge affinity or kindred with them, be you pleased to examine by this which followeth.

1. The Heretiques, who undermined the property of Christ's Bo∣dily Finitenesse, said that it was in divers places at once, (as is u 1.22 con∣fessed) even as your Church doth now attribute unto the same Body of Christ, both in Heaven, and in Earth, yea, and in Millions of distant Altars at the same time; and consequently in all places whatsoever. Now whether this Doctrine of Christ's Bodily Pre∣sence in many places at once was held of the Catholique Fathers for Hereticall, it may best be seene by their Doctrine of the Exi∣stence of Christ's Body in one only place, not only Definitively, but also Circumspectively: both which doe teach an absolute Impossi∣bility of the Existence of the same in divers places at once. And they were as zealous in professing the Article of the manner of Christ's Bodily Being in place, as they are in instructing men of the Article of Christ's Bodily Being, lest that the deniall of it's Bodily manner of being might destroy the nature of his Body. To which end they have concluded it to be absolutely but in one place, some∣time in a x 1.23 Circumspective Finitenesse, thereby distinguishing them from all created Spirits; and sometime by a Definitive Ter∣mination, which they set downe first by Exemplifications, thus: y 1.24 If Christ his Body be on Earth, then it is absent from Heaven; and thus, Being in the Sunne, it could not be in the Moone: Se∣condly, by divers Comparisons, for comparing the Creature with the Creator God, they a 1.25 conclude, that The Creature is not God, be∣cause it is determinated in one place; and comparing the humane, and divine Nature of Christ together, they b 1.26 conclude, that they are herein different, because the humane and Bodily Nature of Christ is necessarily included in one place: and la••tly comparing Creatures with the Holy Ghost, they c 1.27 conclude a difference by the the same Argument, because the Holy Ghost is in many places at once; and all these in confutation of divers Heretiques. A thing so well knowen to your elder Romish Schoole, that it confessed the Doctrine of Existence of a Body in divers places at once (in the judgement of Antiquity) to be d 1.28 Hereticall.

2. The property of a Solidity likewise was patronized by An∣tient Fathers, in confutation of Heretiques, by teaching e 1.29 Christ's Body to be necessarily Palpable, against their Impalpabilitie: and to have a Thicknesse, against their feigned subtile Body, as the Aire: and furthermore controlling these opinions following (which are also your Crotchets) of a Bodies f 1.30 Being whole in the whole space, and in every part thereof; and of Christ's Body g 1.31 taking the Right hand, or left, of it selfe.

3. The property of Perfection of the Body of Christ, where∣soever, in the highest Degree of Absolutenesse. This (one would thinke) everie Christian heart should assent unto, at the first hearing; wherefore if that they were judged Heretiques by Antient Fathers, who h 1.32 taught an Indivisible Vnion of mens soules with their Bodies naturally, still subiect to corruption after the resurrection; who can imagine that the holy Catholique Fa∣thers would otherwise have judged of this your generall Tenet, (viz. to beleeve a Body of Christ, now since his Glorification, which is destitute of all power of naturall motion, sence, appetite, or understanding) otherwise than of a senslesse, and Antichri∣stian Deliration, and Delusion? Yea and that which is your only Reason you alleage, to avoid our Objection of Impossibilities in such cases, (to wit) i 1.33 The Omnipotencie of God, the same was the Pretence of Heretiques of old, in the like Assertions, which occasioned the Antient Fathers to terme the Pretence of Omnipo∣tencie, k 1.34 The Sanctuary of Heretiques: albeit the same Heretiques, (as well as you) intended (as a Father speaketh) to magnifie God thereby; namely, in beleeving the Body of Christ, after his Ascension, to be wholly Spirituall. To which Heretiques the same Father readily answered, (as wee may to you) saying, l 1.35 When you will so magnifie Christ, you doe but accuse him of falshood: not that wee doe any whit detract from the Omnipotencie of Christ, (farre be this Spirit of Blasphemy from us!) but that (as you have beene instructed by Antient Fathers) the not attributing an Impossibility to God, in such Cases of Contradiction, is not a di∣minishing, but an ample advancing of the m 1.36 Omnipotencie of God.

BOOKE V. Your Orall Eating, Gutturall Swallowing, and Inward Digestion (as you have n 1.37 taught) of the Body of Christ into your Entrails hath beene proved out of the Fathers to be in each respect sufficiently Capernaiticall, and termed by them a Sence both o 1.38 Pernicious, and Flagitious. Besides you have a Con∣futation of the Hereticall Manichees, for their p 1.39 Opinion of Fast∣ning Christ to mens guts, and loosing him againe by their belchings: Consonant to your Romish Profession both of Christ's q 1.40 Cleaving to the guts of your Communicants, and r 1.41 Vomiting it up againe, when you have done.

BOOKE VI. This is spent wholly in examining the Romish Doctrine of Masse-Sacrifice, and in proving it to be Sacrilegiousnesse it selfe, as you have seene in a former s 1.42 Sy∣nopsis.

BOOKE VII. This containeth a Discoverie of your Masse-Idolatry, not onely as being equall with the Doctrine of some He∣retiques, but in one respect exceeding the in••atuation of the very t 1.43 Pagans; besides the Generall Doctrine of the power of

your Priests u 1.44 Intention, in consecrating, hath beene yoaked, by your owne Iesuite, with the Heresies of the x 1.45 Donatists.

When you have beheld your owne faces in these divers Synop∣ses, as it were in so many glasses, we pray to God that the sight of so many and so prodigious Abominations in your Romish Masse may draw you to a just Detestation of it, and bring you to that true worship of God, which is to be performed in Spirit and in Truth, and to the saving of every one of your soules, through his Grace in Christ Iesus. AMEN.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Booke 1. Chap. 3. Sect. 3.
• * 1.2

  Ibid.
• b 1.3

  Booke 1. thorow-out.
• c 1.4

  Booke 1. Chap. 3. Sect. 7.
• d 1.5

  Ibid.
• e 1.6

  Booke 1. Chap. 3. Sect. 10.
• f 1.7

  Ibid. Sect. 10.
• g 1.8

  Booke 1. Chap. 3. Sect. 4.
• h 1.9

  Ibid.
• i 1.10

  Booke 2. Chap. 3. thorowout.
• k 1.11

  Ibid.
• l 1.12

  Booke 2. Chap. 3. Sect. 2.
• * 1.13

  Iohn 3.
• m 1.14

  See above in this Booke, Chap. 2. Sect. 3.
• n 1.15

  Booke 3. Chap. 3. Sect. 2.
• o 1.16

  Booke 4. Chap. 4. Sect. 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• p 1.17

  Booke 3. Chap. 3. Sect. 2.
• q 1.18

  Booke 3. Chap. 3. Sect. 9.
• r 1.19

  Manichaei dice∣bant Christum 〈◊〉〈◊〉 esse verum hominem, sed phantasma quod∣dam. Pr•…•…l. Ele••ch. Haret.
• s 1.20

  Booke 3. Chap. 3. Sect. 12.
• * 1.21

  Ibid. Sect. 13.
• u 1.22

  Booke 4. Chap. 4. Sect. 6. & Chap. 5. Sect. 3. & Chap. 6. Sect. 1.
• x 1.23

  Chap. 4. thorowout.
• y 1.24

  Ibid. Sect. 6.
• a 1.25

  Ibid.
• b 1.26

  Chap. 4. Sect. 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• c 1.27

  Chap. 6. Sect. 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• d 1.28

  Ibid.
• e 1.29

  Chap. 7. Sect. 6.
• f 1.30

  Chap. 7. Sect. 6.
• g 1.31

  Chap. 4. Sect. 9.
• h 1.32

  Prateol. El••nch. ••••res. Tit. Philoponus Alexandrinus. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Sta∣tuit mor•…•…m re∣surrectionem esse, viz. rat••onalium animarū cum corruptibili cor∣pore indissolubilem unionem.
• i 1.33

  Booke 4. Chap. 4. Sect. 6.
• k 1.34

  Ibid. Chap. 3. Sect. 2.
• l 1.35

  Chap. 4. Sect. 6. at (b & c).
• m 1.36

  Ibid.
• n 1.37

  Booke 5. thorowout.
• o 1.38

  Chap. 5. Sect. 2.
• p 1.39

  Booke 5. Chap. 6. Sect. 3.
• q 1.40

  Booke 5. Chap. 7. Sect. 4.
• r 1.41

  Booke 5. Chap. 7. Sect. 1.
• s 1.42

  See above in this Booke, Chap. 1. Sect. 2.
• t 1.43

  Booke 7. Chap. 8. Sect. 2.
• u 1.44

  Chap. 5. Sect. 3.
• x 1.45

  Chap. 9. Sect. 5.