A defence of our arguments against kneeling in the act of receiving the sacramentall elements of bread and wine impugned by Mr. Michelsone

Defence of our eleventh Argument. (Book 11)

KNeeling in the act of receiving, is dan∣gerous, being an occasion and provo∣cation to idolatry. He sayth, we called it before idolatry, and now onely an occasi∣on or provocation to it. We call it so now in a new argument: first giving and not granting that it were not idolatry. Next, we say, it is dangerous, because it is a provoca∣tion to another kinde of idolatry, beside that we spake of before, to wit, the grossest sort of worshipping the transubstantiated bread, or Christ bodily present. He sayth, we are prone to prophannesse as well as idolatry. But we should not give dangerous provoca∣tions, either to the one, or to the other. He

sayth, the Belgick Kirks making a Canon a∣gainst kneeling for feare of bread worship, feared where there was no need of feare: for it hath been used in the Kirk of England without any such danger. Mr. Cartwrights* 1.1 report in a matter of fact, will get credit e∣ven with his adversaries. He sayth, That in divers places the people have knocked on their breasts, and holden up their hands, whilest the Minister was in giving of it, and not onely those who received it, but also those who looked on, and were in the Kirk. Peter Martyr after the revolt of England in Queen Maries dayes, writing to the Poloni∣an Ministers. (a) Let the evill seed and rotten* 1.2 roots be plucked up at the first beginning: for if they be neglected at the first (I know what I speak) they are more hard to be taken away afterward. And this is to be seen unto, as in the sacraments, so speci∣ally in the Eucharist, that it be most sincerely done. For there are there, beleeve me, pestilent seeds of ••dolatry, which except they bee taken away, the Church of Christ will never be beautified with pure and sincere worship. Let not the sacraments be con∣••emned, as empty and voyd signes: and on the other 〈…〉〈…〉▪ let not men give greater honour unto them, then their institution will suffer.

And before that time, even then when he wrote against Gardiner, he often fore warn∣eth of the danger of it. b 1.3 Vt, quod mihi vide∣tur, dicam, ad evitanda superstitionum pericula no∣lim hoc tempore. adorationis externae signa in Eucha∣ristiae perceptione adhiberi, utut non ad symbola pa∣nis & vini, sed ad ipsum Christum in coelis regnan∣tem derigerentur. Howbeit they should di∣rect their worship, not to the symbols, but to Christ; yet he sayth there is danger of super∣stition in it. This was the best that ever Martyr could make of it, for throughly he could never digest it, and in that Epistle to the Polonians he is more free. Where he testifieth upon his own experience, what such pestilēt seeds of idolatry have wrought. I know what I spake, meaning no doubt the revolt of England: and who knoweth if there were the like triall, what the formalists would doe. So howbeit Papists are harde∣ned, and increase to the feeling of all men, yet all the danger is not seen not felt, till the time of triall come. Beza sayth, c 1.4 Ado∣ration in the very act of receiving, how dangero 〈◊〉〈◊〉 it is, it being that which hath opened an occasion to breadworship, from whence at last Satan cast men down headlong to transubstantiation, the matter it selfe maketh manifest. And in his eight Epistle he sayth, that the event, and lamentable face of the Kirk, doth more then sufficiently teach us, how hurtfull it is; and commendeth these Churches which have abolished it, with no lesse care, then other apertas idole∣manias manifest mad idolatry. What need I cite many testimonies, when as all the Di∣vines

in well reformed Kirks do think the same; and yet he will say, that the Belgick Kirks feared where there was no need of feare. At last he telleth us, that a Synod in Pole made standing or kneeling indifferent, but sitting they condemned. That Synod was a confused or mixt Synod of sundry sorts of professors, some adhering to the Au∣gustane confession, some to the Helvetian, some to the Bohemian. Next, they thought that the Arrians had been the first authors of sitting after the reformation, when as both the Scottish and Belgick Churches at that same time, and many yeares before, did use the gesture of sitting; and as worthy a Polonian, as that Church bred in his time, Iohannes Alasco, a Polonian Baron, wrot before the holding of that synod many years more amply, and more earnestly for sitting, then any other man els, and did put it in practise in the kirkes, where he bare office. So it was in them a grosse ignorance in a matter of fact, which was so publick in the view of all men. Thirdly, howbeit there was at that mixt Synod a great number of Lutherans, yet they consent with the rest, that no man should be urged to kneel; be∣cause it was neither the will of God, nor custome of the purer Kirk to censure, or pu∣nish godly men for externall rites. The Lu∣theran, yee may see, is more favourable in this poynt, howbeit he maintain Christs bo∣dily presence, then these who would seem to be of our own profession. d 1.5 It is to be mar∣ked, that in this place the Doctor esteemeth

bread-worship to be no error in the founda∣tion.

Notes

• * 1.1

  (z) 1. Part. p. 164.
• * 1.2

  (z) Loc. com. p. 1111. A∣verruncentur sub ipsis ini∣tijs mala se∣mina & pu∣tres radices, nam si è principio negligantur (scio quod loquo▪) po∣stea multo difficilius ••lluntur, Idque providendum est ut in sacramentis, & praecipue in ••ucharistia, quam sincerissime fiat. Ibi sint mihi crede idololatriae estifera semina, quae porro nisi sublata fuerint ecclesia Christi puro ••ceroque cultu nunquam erit ornata. Non contemnantur sacra∣menta ut inania & vana signa, rursumque non illis plus tribuant omines quam ipsorum institutio ferat.
• b 1.3

  Col. 160
• c 1.4

  Quaest. 243. In ipsa panis sump∣tione adora∣tio apud nē∣sam quam sit periculosa, utpo••e quae artolatriae occasionem aperuerit, unde tandem homines ad metousian praecipitavit Satan, res ipsa demon∣strant.
• d 1.5

  Sol. pag. 36.