[The principal points which are at this daye in controuersie, concerning the holly supper and of the masse.]:

Chapter. x.

Of the first general point which is of the whole matter of the Masse, and of the additions vvhich men haue giuen to the supper of the Lorde in the same, by the vvhich they haue cleane ouerthrovven his institution.

THe first point then that we doe condemne in the Masse, is, that ingeneral there are so ma∣ny inuentions, traditions, and humane additiōs to the Lordes institution, & so many chaunges and disguisings of the same, and so many cere∣monies and foolish and doultishe superstions, and insufferable Idolatries, that there remai∣neth in the same no kinde of forme of the pure ordinance of the Lord, but that it is there wholy ouerthrowen. And by the same meane the ex∣pressed word of God is there openly violated, in as much as it is so often and so expressedly for∣hidden by the same, in y^e holy scriptures, to adde or to diminish any thing to or from the lawe, sta∣tutes and ordinances of the Lorde, or to go out either on the right hand or els on the left. For the which cause Saint Paul meaning to correct the abuses which were already in his time com∣mitted in the supper among the Corinthes, said plainely, setting foorth the institution of Iesus Christ: I haue receiued of the Lord that which also I haue deliuered vnto you. And after ward

he expoundeth it point by poynt, in what sorte Iesus Christe did institute and administer this holy Sacrament, and ordeined it to be admini∣stred afterward in his Church, wherein he ment to giue plainely to vnderstand, not onley to the Corinthes, but also to the whole Churche of God, as well for that present time as for all the time to come, that the institution of the Lord is pure, whole and perfect, & what rule there was and is to be obserued in such matter, without adding any thing to it, or diminishing, chāging, and disguising any thing from it or in it. For if Saint Paul which was plucked vp euen to the third heauen, and who sawe there secrets incom∣prehensible to man, and hath so faire and excel∣lent a testimonie of his vocatiō by Iesus Christ him selfe, neither would nor durst take in hande such a matter, but did content him selfe with the simple ordinance of the Lord, and tied him selfe to the fame rule, and did drawe thereunto the whole Church, what pride is this in those which dare vndertake more then he, yea more then the very sonne of God him selfe did: These which are so audacious, ds they not feare at all the cur∣ses which are denounced by Saint Iohn in the A∣pocalypse, to all those which either adde or dimi∣nish any thing to or from the doctrine reuealed by the Lord? for that which he saith in his Apo∣calypse, doth no lesse agree to all the rest of the

body of the holy scriptures then to it selfe, for so much as there is no canonicall booke which is of lesse authoritie. And if Saint Paul did assub∣iecte the very Angels to the Gospell which he had preached, [Note.] who dare set him selfe vp aboue them?

Notes

• Deut. 4.1•• Apoc. 22. Jos. 1. Eze. 10.
• 1. Cor. 11.
• ••or. 12.
• ••oc. 22.