Institutions of Christian religion framed out of Gods word, and the writings of the best diuines, methodically handled by questions and answers, fit for all such as desire to know, or practise the will of God. Written in Latin by William Bucanus Professor of Diuinitie in the Vniuersitie of Lausanna. And published in English by Robert Hill, Bachelor in Diuinitie, and Fellow of Saint Iohns Colledge in Cambridge, for the benefit of our English nation, to which is added in the end the practise of papists against Protestant princes.

What is contrarie to this doctrine?

First, the error of the Aquarians, who vnder pretence of so∣brietie, vsed not wine, but water in the Lords Supper.

Secondly, the errors of the Papists, who doe horribly profane the Supper of the Lord, and disdaining the name thereof.

1 Borrow the name of the Masse from the rites of Isis.

2 They faine that the Masse, as it is now retained among them was celebrated by Iames the brother of the Lord, or by the o∣ther Apostles.

3 They adorne it with Gold, Siluer, and pretious stones, as if it were a whorish Thais, to allure the more to loue and af∣fect it.

4 They doe superstitiously vse bread, that is, meerely without leauen.

5 They doe necessarily mingle water with wine.

6 They transforme the words of the Lords Supper into Ephe∣sian letters, or into such a consecration, as nothing differeth from magicall inchantments.

7 They whisper the words of the Eucharist with a low voice, blowing the crosse vpon the elements, turning their face from the people, that so the people might with more religion adore the E∣lements.

8 They referre consecration onely to those fiue word, Hoe est enim corpus meum, for this is my bodie, and this is my bloud.

9 They say that the outward signes doe vanish away, and that they are conuerted and turned into the substance of the bodie, and bloud of Christ: or, that, by force of the consecration made by the Priest, the bodie of Christ doth succeedc and come into the place of the substance of the bread, the bare accidents still remayning, and hanging in the ayre without the subiect: and they fayne that Christ is corporally contayned in the hand of the Priest.

10 They haue taken away the breaking of the bread, and haue brought in wafer cakes printed with the Image of the Crucifixe vpon them, to maintaine superstition, keeping still the shadow of the breaking in the Priests masse.

11 They affirme that the sacrificers are creators of the Creator, from whence are these saying that are to be found in their books, He is made food, flesh of bread, God of the element. Also, Hee that created mee gaue mee power to create him. And hee that created me without mee is created by my meanes. And in this respect they pre∣ferre themselues before the blessed virgin Marie, inasmuch as she onely once conceiued Christ, but they can create him as of∣ten as they will themselues.

12 The Sacrament of the supper which they call the masse, they turne into a sacrifice, true, proper, and propitiatorie, or ex∣piatorie, without bloud, for the sinnes of the quicke and the dead, yea more for the dead then the quicke, for whom it is celebrated, and all this for gaines sake.

13 They say there is application of this sacrifice, made for o∣thers by the very worke wrought.

14 They teach that this sacrifice doth not onely merit for those

that are aliue, that they should be freed from their sinnes, and the punishment of them, and from all wants whatsoeuer, but also that it doth auaile for the deluerance of the dead out of their fai∣ned Purgatorie,

15 They faine that the Priest doth offer Christ vnto his eter∣nall father, and that the Priest is the mediator betweene Christ and the Father; by which meanes the sacrifice of the crosse of Christ is made altogether of none effect, his alone perpetuall Priesthood is denied, the merit of his death is drowned and swal∣lowed vp, and Christ himself is againe crucifieda 1.1. As the Paschall Lambe was to be sacrificed, so say they is Christ sacrificed in the Eucharist, & yet he was but once to be sacrificed vpō the crosseb 1.2. That which Malachy. 1.11 after the manner of the Prophets spoke metaphorically, or allegorically in generall of the reasonable wor∣ship, of the inward spirituall worship, or of the spirituall oblation accepted by the God of the Church of the new Testament vnder the shadows of ceremonial worship (as of the incense & pure ob∣lation) vsed in the old Testament (In euerie place they offer sacrifice vnto mee) and they offer to my name a pure oblation) they take this to be meant properly of the particular, reall & outward oblation of the bodie of Christ in the supper. That which the Apostle Hebr. 5.1. speaketh of the leuiticall Priests by Enallage of the time present, (Euerie high priest is appointed of men that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sinnes) they doe vnskilfully expound it of the mi∣nisters of the Gospell. They say that Melchisedech the priest of the most high, who was a type of Christ, did offer vnto God for a sacrifice bread and wine (that so they might proue that the Priesthood of Christ doth consist in the offering of bread and wine) which notwithstanding like a bountifull king he brought forth, Hotsi, that is to say, hee caused to come forth, that is he drew out, he brought forth food, that is to say, of euerie sort some, for the refreshing or nourishment of Abraham, and his seruants, who returned wearie from the battell, to whom he would thus congratulate for the victorie, that he had obtained: and moreouer he blessed him as a Priest, and receiued tithes of him. Gen. 14.19.

They vnderstand Christ to bee called a Priest after the order of Melchisedech, chiefely in respect of the daily sacrfice, which is

offered vnto God vnder the shew of bread and wine, which in∣deed is not so, (for the Apostle maketh no mention of it when he setteth downe the comparison betweene Melchisedech and Christ) but in that he is a Priest farre aboue all the leuiticall Priests, and an euerlasting Priest, and his Priesthoode is without succession, as Melchisedech hee is brought in by Mo∣ses, as without father, without mother, without beginning of daies (as farre as wee know, as Chrysostome saith) as if he were sodainly come downe from heauen, and by and by had beta∣ken himselfe thither againe, making no mention of his ancestors, nor of his death. Also because his sacrifice being once finish∣ed vpon the Crosse, hath a continuall and perpetuall force Hebr. 7.3.24.

16 Moreouer one part namely the Cuppe, notwithstanding (saith the Counsell of Constance) the institution of Christ, and the practise of the ancient Church they doe most wickedly keepe backe from the Laitie.

17 Those things which Christ hath indeed distinguished and separated, they by their fained Concomitancie, will needs haue to be signified, and to be both together.

18 The bread being magically inchanted, they stirred vp and downe, and adore it as God, and by and by deuoure the same: not remembring what Cicero saith, Whom doest thou thinke to bee so madd, as to beleeue that to be God which he eateth?

19 They faine a separation of the bodie of Christ and of vs, saying that Christ is forthwith receiued into heauen assoone as the signes are torne with our teeth.

20 They abolish the communion, which ought to be of many, and teach 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 an eating alone, one hauing his owne proper and priuate feast at one alter in one corner apart by him∣selfe.

And therfore although none of the people, or of the Cleargie be present and communicate with him, yet they teach that priuate Masses, and that many in one temple in diuers places at once, ••nd continually may bee celebrated, that so there may be made an oblation of the sacrifice of Christ, and that the Priest may communicate himselfe; which is all one as if a man should

baptise himselfe, and should say that it were auaileable for others that are not baptised.

21 They proclaime their Masse for gaine.

22 They celebrate it with a stage-like, and Histrionicall or∣nament, gesture, bellowing, murmuring, lisping, gro∣ning, singing, and other fashions like the Orgian sacri∣fices, or Bacchanalls, without a Sermon, or declaring of the Lords death (which Paule would haue to be vsed in the Lords supper.)

23 By hearing, or rather by looking vpon the Masse, they thinke themselues armed against God, and as it were with an Ammulet or preseruatiue against poyson safe from all daunger.

24 That the Sacrament is once a yeare to bee deliuered, or communicated to the people.

25 They teach that auricular confession is necessarie for those that will be communicants.

26 They celebrate the Masse in a strange and vnknowne language.

27 In the Canon of the Masse, besides the offering of their sacrifice, they vse inuocation of Saints departed, and they mixe withall imaginarie merits.

28 They celebrate Masses for the honour of Saints, and for the obtayning of their intercession with God, whereby the remembrance and intercession of Christ is obscured and ouer∣throwen.

29 They thinke that the vse of the Supper is of ab∣solute necessitie to those that are readye to depart this life.

30 They vse consecrated bread for the quenching of fire, and for the calming of tempests.

31 They doe superstiously include it in their Armories and Cupbords.

32 They burne candles before it.

33 VVhen they please (euen as in the olde time, the Persians did the fire) they carrie it about to bee wor∣shipped.

Thirdly the errors of the consubstantiators, who doe not ad∣mit the true doctrine of the letter and the spirit, but thinke that the sacramentall speeches are to be interpreted literally according to the letter, and rationallie, as they meane.

2 That it is offered bodily, or essentially or ioyntly, or after an admirable and vnspeakable manner, and yet by the hand of the minister.

3 They say that the bodie of Christ is cast into the mouthes euen of the wicked.

4 They commend the recantation of Berengarius which was set downe to him, by Pope Nicholas, wherein he professeth that not onely the Sacrament, but euen the verie true bodie, and bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ, is sensually and in truth handled, and broken by the hands of the minister, and torne in peeces by the teeth of the faithfull.

5 They teach the reall omnipresence of the verie bodie of Christ vpon earth, in many places, nay in euery place.

6 They attribute to the flesh of Christ many sortes of beings.

7 They holde that there is a communion made by a mu∣tuall, reall, and actuall conioyning of the substances

8 The doe not acknowledge the spirituall presence onely of the bodie and bloud of Christ.

9 They reckon the papisticall eleuation and lifting vp of the hoast among things indifferent.

10 They doe wickedly confound the twofold eating, name∣ly the one outward of the bread, the other inwarde of the bo∣die of Christ to be but one and the same.

Fourthly, the errour of them, who haue taken away the brea∣king of bread in the supper of the Lord, and in stead of bread broken or cut, doe distribute vnto euery one that commeth to the Lords table so many in nomber of whole and severall breads, or round and thin cakes.

2 They haue abolished the deliuerie of the signes into the hands of the receiuers, and the taking of them by their hands.

Fiftly the error of those who doe very seldome make mention of the sacramentall changing of the bread and wine.

2 They teach that the onely merit of Christes obedience is to

be accounted for the thing signified in the holy Supper of the Lord, and thinke that onely the commemoration, and remem∣brance of the death of Christ and of his benefits is taught therein, and doe not vrge vs to bee, by communion, incorporated into Christ.

Sixtly, the errors of them who first denie the presence of Christ in the Supper.

2 They hold them to be but common signes which doe not effectually and powerfully moue.

3 They account the sacramentall signes, but as bare pictures, and things to looke vpon, whereby they may onely be stirred vp to renue the memory of Christs death.

4 They take these holy mysteries, but as outward notes or badges, whereby they that professe themselues to be Christi∣ans, may be distinguished from other profane people.

Seuenthly, the error of them who doe vnreuerently vse these holy actions, and in no other manner but as common and daily matters.

2 They that thinke it is free for them eyther to come to the Lords Supper, or to abstaine from it at their pleasure, and there∣fore vse it verie seldome, whereas indeed it is no small part of Gods worship, and by God commaunded.

Eightly; the error of some who alleadge that the Supper of the Lord succeedeth not the Paschall Lambe, but Manna (which was not an ordinarie and perpetuall sacrament, nor ioyned in time with the Supper; neyther had it any signe of the merite of Christ, which is the chiefe thing in the Lords Suppe) con∣trarie to the manifest institution of the Lorda 1.3.

Ninthly, the error or rather the dreame of a certaine libertine Iodochus, Harchius, a Montensian Belgan, who holdeth that wee doe not eyther corporally, or spiritually take, and eate the verie bodie of Christ crucified; but making a twofold flesh of Christ, one naturall, and taken of the virgin Marie now glo∣rious in heauen; the other spirituall, intelligible, and made by the diuine power of God, of bread and wine to bee tasted and conceiued chiefely in the minde, this hee imagineth to goe into the nourishment of the mysticall bodie, that is to say, of all the faithfull being daily taken with the mouth and by faith; or other∣wise

he dreameth, that there is a certaine power proceeding from the flesh of Christ, and after a wonderfull, and vnspeakeable sort infusing it selfe into the bread, doth nourish the flesh of a Christian man; which is cōtrarie to the expresse words of our Sauiour Christ, which is giuen, which is powred out; which words doe euidently shew that the true bodie of Christ and the true bloud of Christ, are signified, and spiritually exhibited vnto the beleeuers.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Durand, I. 4. Heb 5.6.7 24.9.12.10 12 Math. 26.28
• b 1.2

  1 Cor. 5, 7
• a 1.3

  Luk. 12.19