The Lords Supper or, A vindication of the sacrament of the blessed body and blood of Christ according to its primitive institution. In eight books; discovering the superstitious, sacrilegious, and idolatrous abomination of the Romish Master. Together with the consequent obstinacies, overtures of perjuries, and the heresies discernable in the defenders thereof. By Thomas Morton B.D. Bp. of Duresme.

That the Pretence of Morall Certainty of worshipping of Bread, instead of Christ, cannot free the Romish Church from Formall Idolatry. SECT. II.

OVr Confutation is grounded upon divers impregnable [ 30] Reasons, one whereof is taken from the Iealousie of God in his worship; the second from the Faith required in a true worshipper; the third from the nature of an Oath; and the last from the Vncertainty of that, which you call Morall Cer∣tainty.

First then, although Morall and Conjecturall perswasions might excuse mens Actions in divers Cases, yet in an Object of Divine Worship it is utterly condemnable, even because of the Iealousie of the Almighty, who expresseth himselfe to be a Iealous God, Exod. 20. signifying, asb 1.1 you know, that Hee [ 40] will not indure any consort in his worship; his Motto being this, I am, and there is no Other. Even as in the Case of mortall Ma∣jesty, when as a subject, building upon a Morall Certainty one∣ly,

shall question the Title and Right of his Soveraigne establi∣shed in his Throne, hee becometh guilty of High Treason.

Secondly, all Divine Worship must be performed with a Di∣vine Faith, which is an Infallible perswasion of the God-head of that which wee honour as God, as it is written: Hee that com∣eth to God, must believe that God is, Heb. 11. 6. and againe, You must aske in Faith, nothing doubting, Iac. 1. because this is the nature of Faith, as the Apostle describeth it; Faith is the Hy∣postasis of things not seene. Heb. 11. That is, (to take yourc 1.2 owne [ 10] Comment) Faith ••aketh those things, which are believed, no lesse certaine than if they did subsist: whereby wee are taught both the nature and necessitie of Faith in Divine Worship. But Morall and Conjecturall Certainty is not an Hypostasis, which im∣plieth an Infallibilitie of Truth, but an Hypothesis, and supposi∣tion of that which may be otherwise, and hath in it nothing but Vncertainty at all; of which more* 1.3 hereafter.

Thirdly, God himselfe commandeth his People by his Pro∣phet, saying, Thou shalt worship mee, and (in* 1.4 Greeke, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) shalt sweare by my Name. Swearing then is an Adoration, by [ 20] Invocating of God; and his owne peculiar Prerogative. Hear∣ken now. By this Law of God, none may sweare by any thing as God, which hee dare not sweare is God: But your Romish Professors, in your Masse, Invocate this Sacrament thus,d 1.5 O Lambe of God, which takest away the Sins of the world, have mercie upon us. And what Romish Professor is there who sweareth not By the Masse (meaning the Consecrated Host) as by Christ himselfe? Notwithstanding, no one of your Romish Priests (by reason of the manifold Defects incident thereunto, as you have heard) durst ever sweare that this, which is now Consecra∣ted [ 30] by him on the Altar, is not substantially Bread, or that it is the Body of Christ. It must therefore follow, that your Adora∣tion having no better Certainty, than (as you have confessed) to adore it with an [If it be Christ,] is a faithlesse prophanation of the name of the Son of God, and of his Worship. This Point, concerning Faith in every Worshipper, will be confes∣sed * 1.6 afterwards.

In the last place (that wee may ruinate the very foundation of your Excuse) your Pretence of Morall Certainty cometh to [ 40] be examined, which you have exemplified by one giving an Almes to a poore man, who peradventure hath no need: and of Iacobs lying ignorantly with her that was not his wife. These, say wee, are Cases farre different from this which wee have in hand, because Gods Almoner (you know) is not bound to enquire of a man, whom hee seeth to appeare to be miserable and poore, whether hee be a Counterfeit or no; for Charity is not suspicious, saith the Apostle Saint Paul. Iacob, indeed, was bound to know onely his owne wife, but if hee had had any probable

or Morall Cause of doubt, would that holy Patriarke (thinke you) have beene so deluded, or over-reached a second, and a third time, to defile his body by an unchaste Bed? But the Causes of your Doubtings are see forth and numbred by threes, Sixes, Twenties, Hundreds, untill you come to a Thousand, and (as your Iesuite hath said) Almost infinite Defects. For in∣deed if there be (as appeareth) a Thousand hazards in every Masse of any one Priest, then in two Priests, as many more, and so forward; so that if one should heare in his time the Masses of Ten, and Twenty Priests, what multitudes of Thousands of [ 10] Defects would the reckoning make? But wee need say no more, than hath already been confessed of Almost infinite, and (con∣sequently) as many Doubts of an Idolatrous worship; wherein there cannot be so much Morall Certainty, as that, in any one ge∣neration of men from Christ's time, each one of that off-spring hath beene chastly borne, whereunto what Christian is there that dare be sworne?

CHALLENGE. [ 20]

COnsider (wee beseech you, for Gods Cause, for wee are now in the Cause of God) whether our God, who will be knowne to be transcendently Iealous of his owne Honour, would ever ordaine such a worship of a Sacrament, whereby men must needs be still more obnoxious to that, which you call a Materiall Idolatry, by many hundred-fold, than possibly any can be to any materiall Parricide, or materiall Murther, or materiall Adulte∣ry, or any other hainous and materiall Transgression, that can be named under the Sun. Thus much of your first Pretence, for this present, untill wee come to receive the* 1.7 Confessions of [ 30] your owne Doctors in this very point.

Notes

• b 1.1

  [Ego sum Deus tuus fortis zelôtes, Exod. 20. 5.] Dicitur Deus Zelôtes, id est, zelum tenens: zelus autem est amor priva∣tus, nolens habere consortium in amato. Et sic viri dicuntur habere zelum de uxoribus suis, quia volunt quòd uxores suae solos illos ament, & solis illis copulentur. Sic etiam Deus volebat quòd Idaei eam solum colerent, & eum ut Deum cognoscerent: & quando alius colere∣tur ut Deus, dolebat, tanquam si vir videat uxorem suam amantem alium virum. Et sicut cùm mulier alteri quàm viro suo copulatur, fornicari dicitur: ita qui alterum quàm verum Deum colebat, fornicari dicebatur in Scriptura cum Dijs alienis. Abulens. in Exod. 20. pag. 273 col. 2.
• c 1.2

  Graeci optimè interpretantur Hypo∣stasin per substanti∣am, quia fides essicit ut ea, quae credit, non minùs certa habea∣mus, quàm si subsiste∣rent. Ribera Ies. Com. in Heb. 11. pag. 514.
• * 1.3

  Chap. 9. Sect. 4.
• * 1.4

  Septuagiots.
• d 1.5

  Sacerdos incli∣natus Sacramento, junctis manibus, & ter pectus percutiens, dicit, Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. Et rursus, Agnus Dei, &c. Missal. Rom. pag. 24. Rursus. Inclinato ca∣pite versus Sacramen∣tum, dicit intelligibili voce, Da nobis pa∣cem: Et rursus se∣cretè, Domine Iesu Christe, &c. Missal. Rom. ibid
• * 1.6

  Thorow-out the 7. Chapter.
• * 1.7

  See Chap. 7. thorowout.