a proclamation anent pedagogues, chaplains and others england and wales. sovereign (1660-1685 : charles ii) 1683 approx. 6 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2009-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a32363 wing c3229a estc r2452 12129571 ocm 12129571 54701 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a32363) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 54701) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 760:28 or 1339:36) a proclamation anent pedagogues, chaplains and others england and wales. sovereign (1660-1685 : charles ii) charles ii, king of england, 1630-1685. 1 sheet ([1] p.) printed by the heir of andrew anderson ... ; reprinted by george croom, edinbvrgh : [london] : 1683. broadside. "per actum dominorum secreti concilij. wil. paterson, cls. sti. concilij." reproductions of original in bodleian library. item at reel 760:28 identified as wing c3229a (number cancelled). created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng test act (1673) broadsides -england -london -17th century 2008-03 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2008-07 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2008-08 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2008-08 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-09 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion c2 r diev et mon droit honi soit qvi mal y pense royal blazon or coat of arms a proclamation anent pedagogues , chaplains and others . charles , by the grace of god , king of great-britain . france and ireland , defender of the faith , to macers or messengers at arms , our sheriffs in that part , conjunctly and severally specially constitute , greeting : forasmuch as in the whole course of our government , we have manifested our pious and princely care , and zeal to maintain and promote the sacred interests of the established religion , together with the order and unity of the church ; and considering the danger arising to the church , to religion , and to our government , by the undutiful practises of some of our subjects , in intertaining disaffected , and irregular persons in the offices of chaplains , pedagogues , and school-masters , who are apt to corrupt and poyson the families wherein they serve , and the children whom they teach and instruct , with the principles of schism , sedition and rebellion , instilling into the minds of our people ( under the specious colour of piety ) sinful prejudices against the setled religion , and begetting in them a disloyal aversiion from our authority and government : notwithstanding that by the 4th . act of the second session of our first : parliament , it is statuted , that none be allowed to teach any schooles , or to be pedagogues to children , or chaplains in any family , without a licence from the respective ordinaries : and that by the 6th . act. of our third and current parliament , all such pedagogues , school-masters and chaplains , are appointed to swear and sign the test , under the certification therein contained : as also , by our royal proclamation , of the date at edinburgh , the first of march 1676. we did require and command , that none thereafter should intertain any school : master , pedagogue or chaplain , or person for performing family-worship , who have not a licence for that effect , under the hand of the bishop of the respective diocesse under the penalties therein exprest . and now being informed , that some to elude the laws , and proclamations foresaids , do intertain disaffected and irregular persons , for teaching their children , and overseeing of their learning , manners and education , or exercising family-worship in their houses , under other names and designations , as of physicians , factors , chamberlains , attendants , or ordinary servants , whose influence in corrupting the youth , and debauching of families from their duty to god , and to us , is most apparent , and of very pernicious consequence : we do therefore , with advise of our privy council , strictly prohibite and discharge all our subjects , of what quality soever , to intertain any person or persous , to be chaplains in their families , or to be governours , teachers or instructors of their children , or pupils , or minors , under their tutory or curatory , or to be school-masters within their lands or jurisdictions : or who shall perform the duties and offices of teaching , and instructing their children , or pupils , or minors , under their tutory or curatory , by overseeing them in their learning . manners and education : or who shall exercise religious-worship in their families , or shall perform the duties belonging to the places or offices of pedagogues or chaplains , under the names and designations foresaid , or under whatsoever other colour , name , title , or designation , except such only as shall swear and subscribe the test foresaid , before this respective ordinaries : and who shall be allowed by licences , under the hands of their respective bishops , for performing and exercising of these offices , certifying all those who shall contemn , or contraveen this our royal will and proclamotion : that every nobleman so offending , shall be fined in three thousand merks , every gentleman in twelve hundreth merks : and each burgesse or other subjects in six hundreth merks , toties quoties , as they shall he found guilty conform to the certification contained in our said proclamation dated the said first of march 1676. and shall also be esteemed persons disaffected to the established religion , and to our royal government ; and the magistrates of all burghs , of royalty and regality , are discharged to permit any school-masters to teach schollers in their burghs , except they be qualisified as aforesaid , under the penalty of being pursued and punished before the council , as their contempt and neglect shall deserve . and to the effect , our royal will and pleasure in the premisses may be publickly known ; our will is , and we charge you straitly and command , that incontinent , these our letters seen , ye passe to the mercat cross of edinburgh , and other places needful , and thereat , in our name and authority , by open proclamation , make publication of the premisses , and that none pretend ignorance . the which to do we commit to you , conjunctly and severally , our full power , by these our letters , delivering them by you , duly execute , and indorsed again to the bearer . given under our signet , at hallyrudhouse , the fourth day of june , one thousand six hundred eighty and three : and of our reign , the thirtieth fifth year . per actum dominorum secreti concilij . wil. paterson , cls. sti. concilij . god save the king . edinbvrgh , printed by the heir of andrew anderson , printer to his most sacred majesty , anno. dom. 1683. reprinted by george croom , in thames-street , over against baynard's castle , 1683. a letter form [sic] a gentleman in the country to his friends in london upon the subject of the penal laws and tests penn, william, 1644-1718. 1687 approx. 14 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 7 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-12 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a54166 wing p1318 estc r32176 12353359 ocm 12353359 60049 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a54166) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 60049) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1025:8) a letter form [sic] a gentleman in the country to his friends in london upon the subject of the penal laws and tests penn, william, 1644-1718. 12 p. s.n.], [london : 1687. attributed to penn by wing and nuc pre-1956 imprints. place of publication suggested by wing and nuc pre-1956 imprints. reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng test act (1673) dissenters, religious -legal status, laws, etc. -england. 2005-07 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2005-08 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2005-09 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2005-09 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter form a gentleman in the country , to his friends in london , upon the subject of the penal laws and tests . quod tibi non vis fieri , alteri non feceris . printed in the year 1687. gentlemen , i wonder mightily at the news you send me , that so many of the town are averse to the repeal of the penal statutes ; surely you mean the clergy of the present church , and those that are zealous for their dignity and power : for what part of the kingdom has felt the smart of them more , and at all times , and on all occasions represented their mischeif to the trade , peace , plenty and wealth of the kingdom , so freely as the town has always done ? but you unfold the riddle to me , when you tell me , 't is for fear of popery , tho i own to you , i cannot comprehend it , any more then you do transubstantiation : for that we should be afraid of popery for the sake of liberty , and then afraid of it because of persecution , seems to me absurd , as it is , that liberty should be thought the high way to persecution . but because they are upon their fears , pray let me tell you mine , and take them among the rest in good part . if the romanists seek ease by law , 't is an argument to me they desire to turn good countrymen , and take the law for their security , with the rest of their neighbours ; and a greater complement they cannot put upon our english constitution , nor give a better pledge of their desires to be at peace with us . but if we are so tenacious as we will keep on foot the greatest blemish of our reformation , viz. our hanging , qua tering , plunder banishing laws ; is it not turning them out of this quiet course , and telling them if they will have ease , they must get it as they can , for we will never conceed it ? and pray tell me if this be not thrusting them upon the methods we fear they will take , at the same time that we give that , for the reason why we do so . if law can secure us , which is the plea that is made , we may doubtless find an expedient in that which may repeal these , if the danger be not of liberty it self , but of our loosing it by them at last ; for there is no michief the wit of man can invent , that the wit of man cannot avoid . but that which i confess makes me melancholy , is , that methinks we never made more haste to be cous●ned ; no not in the business of the declaration of indulgence , when in the name of property that was actually damn'd , which at least reprieved it ; and the price the church of england gave for it , viz. her promise of a legal case , actually failed us : for instead of saving our selves from popery , we are by these partialities provoking it every day , and methinks foolishly for our own safety ; because there can be no other end in doing so , then securing that party which calls it self the church of england , that is in her constitution none of the best friends to property ; for mens liberties and estates are by her laws made forfeitable for non-conformity to her : and i challenge the records of all time since popery got the chair in england , to produce an eight part of the laws , to ruin men for conscience , that have been made since the other has been the national religion , which is , i say , a scandal to the reformation . she says , she is afraid of popery , because of its violence , and yet uses force to compel it ; is not this resisting popery with popery ? which we call loving the treason but ha●ing the traytor : she would have power to fo●ce or destroy others , but they should not have power to force or destroy her , no not to save themselves : shift the hand never so often , this weapon is still the same . 't were happy therefore that all parties were disarm'd of this sword , and that it were put where it ought only to be , in the civil magistrates hand , to terifie evil doers , and cherish those that do well , remember●ng st peter's saying ( in cornelius's case ) for an example , i perceive now of a truth that god is no respecter of persons , but those that fear him , and work righteousness in all nations shall be accepted : else what security does the church of england give to the great body of her dissenters , that she will not do what she fears from popery , when she has a prince of her own religion upon the throne , that has made so fair a progress these last six and twenty years in ruining families , for non-conformity under princes of an other perswasion . come , interest will not lye , she fears liberty , as much as popery : since those that want , and plead for the one , are an hundred times more in number then the friends of the other , and all of her side , that popery should not mount the chair : so that she would get more then she would lose by the repeal , if an equal desire to subject both popish and protestant dissenters to her power and government be not the principle she walks by in her present aversion . and to shew you that this is the case , and that her aversion to popery is a sham to the liberty desired , the dissenters are of no use to her , while the penal laws are on foot ; for by them they are put in the power of a prince of the religion of the church she fears ; but the moment they are repealed , so far as concerns the preventing popery to be national , the dissenters are equally interested with the church of england against it . but then here is the mischief ; this liberty takes the rod out of her hand ; she can no more whip people into her churches , and she perhaps may modestly suspect her own vertue and ability to preach them thither . in short , if she were in earnest against popery , more then in love with her own power and grandure ; that is , if the world were not in the way , she would rejoyce to deliver men of her own religion , that are so much more numerous then the papists , that they might ballance against her fears of their prevailing : but to cry she is for liberty to protestant dissenters , and make the demonstration of it , her keeping up the laws that ruin them , and then say it is for fear of the religion the prince owns , and yet force them into his hands by doing so , is , i must confess , something incomprehensible . besides , properly and naturally speaking , the church of england is the people of england , and when it s apply'd to a party , 't is a faction to the whole ; and that title has no more truth in it , then 't is sence to say the roman catholick church , which in english , is a particular universal church : and pray is there no room left to consider this hard case of the kingdom ? i hope the civil magistrate will , who is the supream pastor of this civil church on earth . is she then no more then a party ? no certainly . and how great a one , a true liberty of conscience would best tell us , and that is the true reason , and not popery , that she is tender in the point . i conclude then , that whilst those of that religion only desire to be upon the level with others ; i mean upon native rights , the great charter , what we all of us call , our birth-right , let us not refuse it , lest god suffer them to prevail to curb our partiallity . there are laws enough to punish offenders against the state , if these were repealed , and not condemn people by anticipation . that law which catches a protestant , will catch a papish traytor , riotor or seditious person . again , let us reflect , that we have a prince of age , and more honour ; the prospect of three excellent princes of the protestant religion , the paucity of the papists , the number of the enemies of their commnion , their unity in that aversion : what greater security can we have in the world ? policy , honour , religion , number , vnity , ●ay , necessity too , conspire to make us safe : for all these are concerned in the means of our preservation ; unless our fears and our follies should prevail : which i confess i apprehend most ; for they will be deserted of god , that forsake him and themselves too ; who dare do a certain evil that a supposed good may come of it , contradict their own principles deny what they expect , sow what they would not reap , do to others what they would not that others should do to them : but there is a god in heaven , and he is just : he will meet to us what we measure to one another , and his judgment is inevitable . i therefore advise the church of england to be as ready in her christian complyances as is possible : first , because it is impious to keep up distroying laws for religion , when her saviour tells her upon this very question , that he came not to destroy mens lives but to save them . secondly , because by this she will wipe off rhe reproach she throws by continuing them , upon her own apologies for liberty of conscience , when under the wheel of power . thirdly , because liberty to the papists by law , is bringing them into the legal interest of the kingdom , and will prevent the force , they may else be driven to , by being made and left desperate : for ' its not to be thought they will willingly pay the reckoning in another reign , if by any means they can prevent it ; and keeping up the penal laws can be no security to the church of england from such attempts , though they may provoke them upon her . fourthly , she hereby saves her dissenters ; and if it be really her inclination to do so , she has no other way , and this unites them to her in affection and interest , if not in worship . but if on the contrary she persists obstinately to refuse this national paciffick ; the dissenters , i hope , will consider their honest interest , conscience and property , and imbrace those oppertunities to secure them , that god in his all-wise providence is pleased to yield them in this conjuncture . thus gentlemen , you have my thoughts upon your news , pray communicate them to our acquantance , and believe that i am , yours , &c. post-script . for the tests that are so much discoursed of , i shall only say , that 't is , an other mystery of the times to me , how the church of england , that was against the exclusion , can be for them that were design'd for a preamble to it ; since in so doing , she is for that which was contrived to introduce the exclusion she was so zealously against . i confess i never understood her very well , and she grows more and more unintelligible ; but this i know , that she must either be sorry for what she has done , or she did not know what she did . the first reflects upon her loyalty , the last upon her understanding ; and because i think that the least , and likeliest evil , i conclude she is no infallible guide upon the question . another thing you tell me , that gives great offence , is , his majesties turning out protestants , and putting in people of his religion . this i conceive a fault , that the church of england is only answerable for . other princes have been so unhappy as to suffer tests and marks of distinction that have broken and disorder'd their kingdoms , by depriving those of their temporal comforts , that would not receive them ; and this people esteemed a mighty grievance ; and were frequent and elegant in their complaints about it . we have a king now , that would remove these marks of distinction , and secure all men upon their native right and bottom , that all parties might sit safely under their own vine , and under their own fig-tree ; so that now , who is for liberty ? becomes the test . are they then fit to be trusted that are out of his interest , and against the liberty he is for , and the nation wants and craves ? or is it good sense , that he ( who is mortal as well as other men ) should leave the power in those hands , that to his face show their aversion to the friends of his communion tho he offers to maintain her still ? she had the offer to keep them , upon that principle that must heal and save the kingdom liberty of conscience : which shows the king was willing to be served by her sons to chuse , if upon the same general principle with himself : wherefore 't is the gentlemen of the church of england that turn themselves out of power , rather then endure liberty of conscience to others ; and shall this vice be their vertue . they must be heartily in love with persecution that can sacrifice their places to the upholding of penal laws for religion , because they would not let others , not only , not come in , but not live at their own charges : a fine thing to suffer for . their ancestors were martyers by penal laws , but these for them . the cause is chang'd whatever they think , and i am afraid they are chang'd too for want of thinking . i profess i pitty them with all my heart and wish them more wit , and better consciences against next time , if ever they have it , for these , if they will believe me , will hardly ever make so good a bargin for them , as they have lost by them . more of this , if you like it , next time , and till then , adieu . finis . a letter writ by mijn heer fagel, pensioner of holland, to mr. james stewart, advocate giving an account of the prince and princess of orange's thoughts concerning the repeal of the test, and penal laws. fagel, gaspar, 1634-1688. 1688 approx. 21 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-12 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a41295 wing f89 estc r17342 12011391 ocm 12011391 52422 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a41295) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 52422) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1009:30) a letter writ by mijn heer fagel, pensioner of holland, to mr. james stewart, advocate giving an account of the prince and princess of orange's thoughts concerning the repeal of the test, and penal laws. fagel, gaspar, 1634-1688. stewart, james, sir, 1635-1713. 8 p. [s.n.], london printed : 1688. caption title. imprint from colophon. reproduction of original in the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng test act (1673) dissenters, religious -legal status, laws, etc. -england -early works to 1800. 2005-05 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2005-06 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2005-07 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2005-07 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter , writ by mijn heer fagel , pensioner of holland , to mr. james stewart , advocate ; giving an account of the prince and princess of orange's thoughts concerning the repeal of the test , and the penal laws . sir , i am extream sorry , that my ill health hath so long hindred me from answering those letters , in which you so earnestly desired to know of me , what their highnesses thoughts are , concerning the repeal of the penal laws , and more particularly of that concerning the test : i beg you to assure your self , that i will deal very plainly with you in this matter , and without reserve , since you say that your letters were writ by the king's knowledge and allowance . i must then first of all assure you very positively , that their highnesses have often declared , as they did it more particularly to the marquis of albeville , his majesties envoy extraordinary to the states , that it is their opinion , that no christian ought to be persecuted for his conscience , or be ill used because he differs from the publick and established religion ; and therefore , they can consent , that the papists in england , scotland and ireland be suffered to continue in their religion , with as much liberty as is allowed them by the states in these provinces ; in which it cannot be denied , that they enjoy a full liberty of conscience . and as for the dissenters , their highnesses do not only consent , but do heartily approve of their having an entire liberty , for the full exercise of their religion , without any trouble or hindrance ; so that none may be able to give them the least disturbance upon that account . and their highnesses are very ready , in case his majesty shall think fit to desire it , to declare their willingness to concur in the setling and confirming this liberty , and as far as it lies in them , they will protect and defend it , and according to the language of treaties , they will confirm it with their guaranty , of which you made mention in yours . and it his majesty shall think fit further to desire their concurrence in the repealing of the penal laws , they are ready to give it ; provided always that those laws remain still in their full vigour , by which the r. catholicks are shut out of both houses of parliament , and out of all publick employments , ecclesiastical , civil and military : as likewise all those other laws , which confirm the protestant religion and which secures it against all the attempts of the roman catholicks . but their highnesses cannot agree to the repeal of the test , or of those other penal laws last mentioned , that tend to the security of the protestant religion ; since the r. catholicks recieve no other prejudice from these , then the being excluded from parliaments , or from publick employments . and that by them the protestant religion is covered from all the designs of the r. catholicks against it , or against the publick safety ; and neither the test nor these other laws can be said to carry in them any severity against the roman catholicks upon account of their consciences : they are only provisions qualifying men to be members of parliament , or to be capable of bearing office ; by which they must declare before god and men , that they are for the protestant religion . so that indeed , all this amounts to no more than a securing the protestant religion from any prejudices that it may receive from the r. catholicks . their highnesses have thought and do still think , that more than this ought not to be askt , or expected from them : since by this means , the roman catholicks and their posterity will be for ever secured from all trouble in their persons or estates , or in the exercise of their religion ; and that the roman catholicks ought to be satisfied with this , and not to disquiet the kingdom because they cannot be admitted to sit in parliament , or to be in employments ; or because those laws , in which the security of the protestant religion does chiefly consist , are not repealed , by which they may be put in a condition to overturn it . their highnesses do also believe , that the dissenters will be fully satisfied when they shall be for ever covered from all danger of being disturbed , or punished for the free exercise of their religion , upon any sort of pretence whatsoever . their highnesses having declared themselves so positively in these matters , it seems very plain to me , that they are far from being any hinderance to the freeing dissenters from the severity of the penal laws ; since they are ready to use their utmost endeavours for the establishing of it : nor do they at all press the denying to the r. catholicks the exercise of their religion , provided it be managed modestly , & without pomp or ostentation . as for my own part , i ever was and still am very much against all those , who would persecute any christian because he differs from the publick and established religion : and i hope by the grace of god to continue still in the same mind ; for since that light , with which religion illuminates our minds , is according to my sense of things , purely an effect of the mercy of god to us , we ought then , as i think , to render to god all possible thanks for his goodness to us : and to have pity for those who are still shut up in error , even as god has pitied us , and to put up most earnest prayers to god , for bringing those into the way of truth , who stray from it , and to use all gentle and friendly methods for reducing them to it . but i confess , i could never comprehend how any that profess themselves christians , and that may enjoy their religion freely and without any disturbance , can judge it lawful for them to go about to disturb the quiet of any kingdom or state , or to overturn constitutions , that so they themselves may be admitted to employments , and that those laws in which the security and quiet of the established religion consists , should be shaken . it is plain , that the reformed religion is by the grace of god and by the laws of the land , enacted by both king and parliament ; the publick and established riligion , both in england , scotland and ireland ; and that it is provided by those laws , that none can be admitted either to a place in parliament , or to any publick employment except those that do openly declare , that they are of the protestant religion , and not roman catholicks ; and it is also provided by those laws , that the protestant religion shall be in all time coming secured from the designs of the roman catholicks against it : in all which i do not see , that these laws contain any severity , either against the persons or estates of those who cannot take those tests , that are contrary to the roman catholick religion , all the inconveniences that can redound to them from thence , is that their persons , their estates and even the exercise of their religion being assured to them , only they can have no share in the goverement , nor in offices of trust , as long as their consciences do not allow them to take these tests : and they are not suffered to do any thing that is to the prejudice of the reformed religion . since , as i have already told you , their highnesses are ready to concur whith his majesty for the repeal of those penal laws , by which men are made liable to fines or other punishments . so i see there remains no difficulty concerning the repealing the penal laws , but only this , that some would have the roman catholicks render'd capable of all publick trusts and employments , and that by consequence , all those should be repealed that have secured the protestant religion against the designs of the roman catholicks , where others at the same time are not less earnest to have those laws maintained in their full and due vigour ; and think , that the chief security of the established religion consists in the preserving of them sacred and unshaken . it is certain , that there is no kingdom , common-wealth , or any constituted body or assembly whatsoever , in which there are not laws made for the safety thereof ; and that provide against all attempts whatsoever , that disturb their peace , and that prescribe the conditions and qualities that they judg necessary for all that shall bear employments in that kingdom , state or corporation : and no man can pretend , that there is any injury done him , that he is not admitted to imployments when he doth not satisfie the conditions and qualities required . nor can it be denied , that there is a great difference to be observed in the conduct of those of the reformed religion ; and of the roman catholicks towards one another : the roman catholicks not being satisfied to exclude the reformed from all places of profit or of trust , they do absolutely suppress the whole exercise of that religion , and severely persecute all that profess it ; and this they do in all those places where it is safe and without danger , to carry on that rigour . and i am sorry that we have at this present so many deplorable instances of this severity before our eyes , that is at the same time put in practice in so many different places . i would therefore gladly see one single good reason to move a protestant that fears god , and that is concerned for his religion , to consent to the repealing of those laws that have been enacted by the authority of king & parliament , which have no other tendency but to the security of the reformed religion , and to the restraining of the roman catholicks from a capacity of overturning it ; these laws inflict neither fines nor punishments , and do only exclude the r. catholicks from a share in the government who by being in employments must needs study to increase their party , and to gain to it more credit and power , which by what we see every day , we must conclude , will be extreamly dangerous to the reformed religion , and must turn to its great prejudice : since in all places , those that are in publick employments , do naturally favour that religion of which they are , either more or less . and who would go about to perswade me or any man else to endeavour to move their highnesses , whom god hath honoured so far as to make them the protectors of his church , to approve of , or to consent to things so hurtful , both to the reformed religion , and to the publick safety . nor can i , sir , with your good leave , in any way , grant what you apprehend , that no prejudice will thereby redound to the reformed religion . i know it is commonly said , that the number of the roman catholicks in england and scotland is very inconsiderable ; and that they are possessed only of a very small number of the places of trust : tho even as to this , the case is quite different in ireland : yet this you must of necessity grant me , that if their numbers are small , then it is not reasonable that the publick peace should be disturbed on the account of so few persons , especially when so great a favour may be offer'd to them ; such as the free exercise of their religion would be : and if their numbers are greater , then there is so much the more reason to be affraid of them ; i do indeed believe that roman catholicks , as things at present stand , will not be very desirous to be in publick offices and imployments , nor that they will make any attempts upon the reformed religion , both because this is contrary to law , and because of the great inconveniencies that this may bring at some other time both on their persons , and their estates : yet if the restraints of the law were once taken off , you would see them brought into the government , and the chief offices and places of trust would be put in their hands ; nor will it be easy to his majesty to resist them in this , how stedfast soever he may be ; for they will certainly press him hard in it , and they will represent this to the king , as a matter in which his conscience will be concerned ; and when they are possessed of the publick offices , what will be left for the protestants to do , who will find no more the support of the law , and can expect little encouragement from such magistrates ? and on the other hand , the advantages that the roman catholicks would find in being thus set loose from all restraints , are so plain , that it were a loss of time to go about the proving it . i neither can nor will doubt of the sincerity of his majesties intentions , and that he has no other design before him in this matter , but that all his subjects may enjoy in all things the same rights and freedoms . but plain reason , as well as the experience of all ages , the present as well as the past , shews , that it will be impossible for r. catholicks & protestants , when they are mixed together in places of trust and publick employments , to live together peaceably , or to maintain a good correspondence together . they will be certainly always jealous of one another ; for the principles and the maxims of both religions are so opposite to one another , that in my opinion i do not see how it will be in the power of any prince or king whatsoever , to keep down those suspitions and animosities , which will be apt to arise upon all occasions . as for that which you apprehend , that the dissenters shall not be delivered from the penal laws , that are made against them , unless at the same time the test be likewise repealed : this will be indeed a great unhappiness to them ; but the roman catholicks are only to blame for it , who will rather be content that they and their posterity should lie still under the weight of the penal laws , and exposed to the hatred of the whole nation ; than he still restrained from a capacity of attempting any thing against the peace and the security of the protestant religion . and be deprived of that small advantage ( if it is at all to be reckoned one ) of having a share in the government and publick enjoyments ; since in all places of the world this has been always the priviledge of the religion that is established by law ; and indeed these attempts of the roman catholicks ought to be so much the more suspected and guarded against by protestants , in that they see that roman catholicks , even when liable to that severity of penal laws , do yet endeavour to perswade his majesty , to make the protestants , whether they will or not , dissolve the security which they have for their religion : and to clear a way for bringing in the roman catholicks to the government , and to publick employments : in which case there would remain no relief for them but what were to be expected from a roman catholick government . such then will be very unjust to their highnesses , who shall blame them for any inconveniency that may arise from thence ; since they have declared themselves so freely on this subject , and that so much to the advantage even of the roman catholicks . and since the settlements of matters sticks at this single point , that their highnesses cannot be brought to consent to things that are so contrary to laws already in being , and that are so dangerous and so hurtful to the protestant religion , as the admitting of roman catholicks to a share in the government , and to places of trust , and the repealing of those laws , that can have no other effect but the securing of the protestant religion from all the attempts of the roman catholicks against it would be . you write , that the roman catholicks in these provinces are not shut out from employments and places of trust ; but in this you are much mistaken . for our laws are express , excluding them by name from all share in the government , and from all employments either of the policy or justice of our countrey . is it true , i do not know of any express law , that shuts them out of military employments ; that had indeed been hard , since in the first formation of our state they joyned with us in defending our publick liberty , & did us eminent service during the wars ; therefore they were not shut out from those military employments , for the publick safety was no way endanger'd by this , both because their numbers that served in our troops were not great , and because the states could easily prevent any inconvenience that might arise out of that ; which could not have been done so easily , if the roman catholicks had been admitted to a share in the government , and in the policy or justice of our state. i am very certain of this , of which i could give very good proofs , that there is nothing which their highnesses desire so much , as that his majesty may reign happily , and in an intire confidence with his subjects , and that his subjects being perswaded of his majesties fatherly affection to them , may be ready to make him all the returns of duty that are in their power . but their highnesses are convinced in their consciences , that both the protestant religion and the safety of the nation , would be exposed to most certain dangers , if either the tests , or those other penal laws , of which i have made frequent mention , should be repealed ; therefore they cannot consent to this , nor concur with his majesties will ; for they believe they should have much to answer for to god , if the consideration of any present advantages should carry them to consent and concur in things which they believe would be not only dangerous but mischievous to the protestant religion . their highnesses have ever pay'd a most profound duty to his majesty , which they will always continue to do ; for they consider themselves bound to it , both by the laws of god and of nature : but since the matter that is now in hand , relates not to the making of new laws , but to the 〈…〉 those already made both by king and parliament ; they do not see how it can be expected of them , that they should consent to such a repeal , to which they have so just an aversion , as being a thing that is contrary to the laws and customs of all christian states , whether protestants , or papists , who receive none to a share in the governments , or to publick employments , but those who profess the publick and established religion , and that take care to secure it against all attempts whatsoever . i do not think it necessary to demonstrate to you how much their highnesses are devoted to his majesty , of which they have given such real evidences as are beyond all verbal ones ; and they are resolved still to continue in the same duty , and affection ; or rather to encrease it , if that is possible . i am , sir , yours , &c. nov. 4. 1687. london printed in the year 1688. a second letter from a gentleman in the country to his friends in london upon the subject of the penal laws and tests. penn, william, 1644-1718. 1687 approx. 24 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 10 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2006-06 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a54211 wing p1361 estc r38198 17203886 ocm 17203886 106228 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a54211) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 106228) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1621:22) a second letter from a gentleman in the country to his friends in london upon the subject of the penal laws and tests. penn, william, 1644-1718. 18 p. printed for j.s. and t.s. and to be had of most booksellers in london and westminster, london : 1687. attributed to penn by wing and nuc pre-1956 imprints. reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng test act (1673) dissenters, religious -legal status, laws, etc. -england. religious tolerance -early works to 1800. 2005-07 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2005-12 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2006-01 judith siefring sampled and proofread 2006-01 judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-04 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a second letter from a gentleman in the country , to his friends in london , upon the subject of the penal laws and tests . licensed , april the 11th 1687. london , printed , for j.h. and t.s. and to be had of most booksellers in london and westminster . 1687. gentlemen , i am not much lifted up , or cast down at the news you send me , for that my letter should be liked by some , and as ill taken by others , is but the fate of all things offer'd to publick censure ; tho without vanity , the reasons are unequal . but before i enter upon that , you 'l give me leave to observe the humor of the party in the proverbs you sent me , that methinks looks so much like a green ribband , that it hardly becomes the fall of the leaf , they conceit they are under . you say , the usual answer to the letter is this ; there is a snake in the grass ; all is well that ends well , that a more moderate sort , allow it both witt and truth , but ill timed , considering the melancholy circumstances the church of england is under . to all this , you have here my answer , which i beseech you to communicate with that cander ; that you know has alwayes been the companion of my life . and for the proverbs , i must say first , that a wise sentence , may be sillily apply'd ; and next , i am apt to think that these are so ; for pray what is the snake , and where doe's it lie . a snake without a sting hurts no body , let it lie where it will ; and a snake with a sting is dangerous every where . now to find out who is the snake , let 's consider what 's the sting , the penal laws certainly ; and you are not ignorant who 's tayle they belong to . but to be sure they sting all that won't come to church , and that every where . for a man can't walk in his own land , mow his own grass , enjoy his own shop , barn , chamber , closet , chest or cubbard ; no not his pot , pan or skillet , but the snake will get into it , and when it has swept his fields and house clean with its tayle , by the teeth it draws him to its dark holes and dungeons for a further prey . the history of this snake out-does all the giants of the old world , and it had been happy it had perish't with it : wherefore liberty of conscience is so far from being the snake in the grass , that there is in it neither snake , teeth , sting , or grass to hide them . on the contrary , it spies out the snake , cuts the grass , ketches it , and pulls out the sting , that it may do no more mischief : 't is upon this principle that one party cannot hurt ' tother . and for the other proverb , 't is certain , all 's well that ends well , but for that reason all will end ill that begins so , without repentance . and such beginnings i call penal laws for religion , let who will make them , or use them . and i beseech god to touch the hearts of the church of england with a sence of this ; for his justice we can't corrupt . all parties as well as private persons will meet with their own from him ; 't is a decree as old as the world , stamp't in our natures , and prov'd by the records of all time , and god knows but too plainly in ours . but since these gentlemen are upon their proverbs , with their leave i will oppose a couple to them , and i hope a little better suited . let every tub stand upon its own bottom ; and a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush . these are the texts , i 'le now give you the comment . by the first , i mean , that the government should stand upon its own legs , and the church upon hers . the legs of the civil government , is the civil interest of the government , which is that of all the people under it , so that the government is obleiged to secure all , because all are for their own interest bound to secure it : for the church in question , of which all the people are not members , nor yet the greatest part , is a thing of another nature , and relates to another world , and christ has provided her another bottom , if she really makes his law the rule of her actions and authority . let every one walk as he is perswaded , was divine doctrine in st paul's time , and our glo●ying was to be in our selves , and not in another ; and we were to stand and fall to our own masters , and not judge , much less persecute others , no , not tares , for they were to grow with the wheat , ( tho never like to change their nature ) till the harvest , which our saviour interprets , the end of the world : and the apostle tells us , every one must appear before god , and give an account for the deeds done in the body ; so that you see the proverb is true , that every tub ought to stand upon its own bottom . for the other , 't is as obvious & reasonable in this case ; for why should it be taken ill that the poor fanaticks accept the liberty the church of england refus'd , and has driven them to such extreamities for . she would have them to stay till she can give what she would not when she had power to do it . nay , she has it still , & yet will not for a reason that exposes them more then before . but which way can she ensure it to them ? first , can they with honour or conscience refuse what they have sought , or reject that by declaration the church of england will not allow by law ? secondly , how are they assurd , while the church of england is by law secured , that by those very laws they shall not be ruin'd in the mean time ? is it not natural enough to expect at the hand of the king , that they will not , shall not have liberty of conscience ? and that at any rate , they shall conform thorowly , that will not at an other time conform at all , when they do it now only to bob the goverment ? but what is faction if this be not ? if conform , why just now ? if now , why not before ? if not before , why then now ? if things are the same , why are not they ? and if they are , that is , if their opinion of the discipline and ceremonies of the church be what it was , they can't be honest men and conform : they may set up for men of art , and managers , that have given by their own consciences such a proof of their skill ; but i should lament extreamly any dissenter in england should have so little wit or truth . and to be free , it would not look candid in the church of england , that gives her fear of poperies having the power to destroy others , for the reason of her keeping the penal laws on foot , if she takes it ill , that the dissenters are for the same reason for their repeal ; for she can't but think that popery actually has that power over them , by the oppertunity of the laws she will manintain to secure herself . so that light and darkness are not more opposite then the safety of the dissenters , and the reason the church of england gives for the keeping up the penal laws for her own . to remove this difficulty , and to make the methods of their security meet , has , god knows , been my only drift , that so false notions of preservation might not destroy us , when the means of our common safety are so obvious to us . the general and deep prejudices men entertain against popery will hardly suffer them to diliberate for their own benefit . if a ship be near a rock , i think the danger should not frighten away the masters wits , when he has most need of them for a common safety . i beg the gentlemen of the church of england but to think , and i am sure they will find me less criminal in my other letter to you : for is any thing truer then that the papists court a legal ease ? need they this , if they design force ? or were it worth their labouring ? again , cannot a law be made to fix liberty of conscience , that they shall as uneasily violate , as these the church calls her bulwark ? if the laws in question were defensive only , god forbid that i should attempt to lessen her security , i declare in the presence of god i would not ; but when they are offensive and destroying to other people , and those of the most peaceable principles , who have neither interest nor arts to defend them , she must pardon me if i oppose my self to their teeth and sting . it is also as true that her dissenters are of no use to her unless these shackles are taken off ; that if she does not fear liberty more then popery , she must yeild the point desired for their sake , because her own . that for every enemy she releases by it , she has an hundred friends to secure her against him. that she must remember she is but a part of the whole , and should not flatter her self with numbers not of her communion ; especially while they sleep with naked swords hanging by hairs over their heads , and so are made uncapable to serve her . again , pray , can she think that force becomes a gospel church ? that it is not using against popery what she accuses it for , and by it condemns her self ? is it not taking sanctuary in human strength instead of divine truth , that is al-sufficient to its own support ? that the laws that remain , secure the state , and if any be wanting , they may be added without keeping up the ball of vengeance by partial provisions , directed by one party , of the same people , against an other , under one and the same government ; for this is puzling , not serving government : nor can any be great , easie or successful where the heads and hands , that should make it so , are zealously disabled from that duty and service . it seems a day wherein god is pleased to make use of the necessities of men to effect what vertue and wisdom should have taught us long ago to have done ; agree i mean upon our civil common interest . and now we have a king , who has so gracious a regard to liberty , ( and that chuses to recommend himself by so honest , so tender and so equal a principle , and whose own party , tho they may want it most hereafter , do least need it now , and are the most feeble in number to make the use of it dangerous to the rest ) let us by no means loose the oppertunity of our own happiness . nor can the church of england refuse me my petition to her , but upon this single account , the insincerity of the king ; that must be her snake in the grass , that popery's at the bottom ; mark the end of this liberty ; all 's well that ends well : but this plainly implies my arguments to be good , and that if the king holds as he begins , we shall all be happy . le ts see then why he should not do so , tho it looks very ill in the high sons of the church to blow upon that honour they have so often and so highly recommended for our security . first , the king has given her his word to maintain her at his coming to the crown , and has now repeated it to her for the whole time of his reign , in the most solemn manner that was possible out of parliament , secondly , if he be willing , to turn this promise into a law at the repeal of those he would abolish when they meet , and that to be sure he is ready to do , there can be no room to doubt his sincerity . thirdly , he is compell'd to be sincere , for popery without him is but a name in england , and lives by him , and must otherwise expect to expire with him . so that if it were possible for the people of his communion to prevail with him to force his religion upon the kingdom , tho i think it as impracticable , as to set westminster-abby upon bow-steeple ; he must leave them to make satisfaction for the attempt in the next reign ; or conclude , he never intends his lawful heirs to succeed him : and they must take him for the worst of men to be guilty of an injustice and irreligion he has so often and solemnly , and earnestly spoken against . but if that were no security to us , yet the ruin of those that in all probability must follow that attempt , for whose sakes we suppose him to endanger us , would obliege him to the soft & obleiging methods he now takes . so that we have his honour , conscience , nature , and the security of his own party for ours . come , 't is disingenious to call liberty of conscience the snake in the grass , that like the balm of gillead cures the gaps and sores that time and private interests have made . and since he offers to confirm it by law , he only changes the secvrity , he does not destroy it ; and which is more she is a gainer by it : for whereas she is now the national religion by compulsion she will then keep her station by consent ; both extreams yeilding a preferrence to her , and so she is neither hated nor envied by them . i would have her further reflect , that the keeping the penal laws on foot will not answer the end she does it for , since she believes they will be suspended during the time she fears most , and of the next reign , she has no apprehension , and in the mean time she and the protestant dissenters have the hands . so that the only reason for maintaining them , is the awe they ought to give the papists in this kings time , and yet if what she suggests be true , that the papists aim at all , pray , how far will those laws awe them , that for that reason should rather aim at all . i say , what good will that do her , that must be the greatest argument of the force she fears they will use against her ? and if they have no such design , there is no reason to keep them in awe , but much to soften and engage them , that we may all meet upon our common civil bottom , and as one people with one heart fear god , after our own perswasion ; honour the king , according to our allegiance ; and love and serve one another as becomes the members of the great civil family of this kingdom . but some , you tell me , think it had been better the laws where repealed in a pro●estant king's reign , then in this ; but can any shew it is not fit in this ; for that 's the question . let us suppose ours were a protestant , and they were repealed accordingly . how could we assure our selves our next heir would not turn ; ay , the prince in possession ? and unless the principles of exclusion prevail'd , 't is clear the delemma would be the same , because the security upon that notion is uncertain . i confess it had been better for us , it had been done before his coming to the crown , but since he forgives us that deficiency , and offers to supply it , in ways the most assuring , why it should not be good to do it now i cannot imagine : it is to say , it is not fit to be done , when it is most fit to make us best with him . we will have him trust us , but we will not trust him , where his interest secures us . well , but you add , that it is generally agreed , the penal laws should he repeal'd , but not the tests . i must tell you , i do not agree with you in that fact ; for i hear there are divers schisms in the church about it : some for their repeal , and keeping of the tests : some for repealing neither : some for their repeal to papists only : some for dissenters only ; and a few for a general repeal of both ; so that the church is yet unresolved what to do : but i will attend the great question . for the penal laws , no matter if they go ; but if the tests be repealed too , the government is lost to the romanists ; for they may pack a parliament of their own religion , that in all probability will make it national ; and so liberty of conscience will not serve them , nor save us . you see i am fair in the objection , i le give you my answer as freely . i cannot imagine the councils that engage them to take a fair way , can lead them to be foul in it ; for that 's giving a pail of milk , and kicking it down with their foot . if they had number to chuse , or could be returned without it , they must naturally search the most durable means of their safety : now , that connot be making their religion national , both because they are not the two hundred and fiftieth man , and that the attempt would eternally ruin them with the kingdom , whose kindness , in a future raign , their discreeter conduct in this must secure . nor could any thing be so odious , faithless and immoral , then for them to attempt it ; for if ever they should teach the nation that arithmatick , that thirteen is more then three and twenty , they will make true prophets of those they have taken pains to prove false witnesses . but besides their discretion and interest , the kings faith is given us , for his whole raign , in his great and gratious declaration , that he will not exceed the bounds of liberty of conscience . by this , every party is secured with his in their religion and property ; and this tyes him against any concurrance with the people representatively , contrary to this made to them universally : we may assure our selves , he is not like to break it in either of those respects , since we don't think that will so easily become the religion of the kingdom , or that whilest the people are of another , they will chuse a representative of the roman communion . lastly , the law that shall repeal these laws , may be so drawn , as to make it impracticable to return a parliament that is not chosen ; as well as i dare say , it is below the glory of our king , to use ways so unlike the rest of his open and generous principles . my former argument was ad homenem , for , what ever the church of england men think , 't is certain , the answer they gave for a popish successor , we must trust god and do our duty , is still cogent . for if providence was strong enough to secure us then against our fears of such a successor , can an act of parliament , be a better defence to us now . i fear such are fallen from their faith , and change their devotion , for carnal securities . let us be all of a piece ▪ not hot and then cold ; one while for relying on providence , and another time jealous to death , and beating our brains for safety , as if there were no such thing as god in the world. the question is not about the king 's imposing his religion upon us ; for so i should have almost ador'd the gentlemen that left their imployments ; but whether we will not impose our religion upon the friends of his communion ; and this shows no bigottry in the king , that he gives all parties liberty to muster & exercise themselves according to their own principles , that he knows to be so very contrary to his : an odd way of advancing popery , especially by foul play . i wish any thing would satifie us . and yet after so gratious a declaration , both to church and dissenters , and that has so decent a regard to the concurrance of a parliament too , who can be displeased ? have we been hunting , hawking gaming , and marrying with roman catholicks these six and twenty years ! and did they engage on the same side for the king's father , help to support the king abroad , and labour the restoration of the royal family to their inheritance ; and are we now afraid of them for the religion they had then , or that they should have a few offices with us , in the reign of a prince of their own way , that were the companions of our sufferings and pleasures ? methinks it looks ill natur'd at all times , and indiscreet at this ; since 't is certain we may roundly and securely tell them , you are upon your good behaviour : be moderate at your perril : you are but a morfel of men ; and therefore as little feared as loved : 't is in your own power to be well with the kingdom : know when you have enough ; and let us see you aim at no more then securing your civil property and interest in that of the nation , from any violence , on the score of religion , and that meer matters of faith and worship of god shall disable no man of his birth-right . this bottom is broad enough for all the interests of this kingdom to meet upon ; and till god from heaven send us with miracles an higher principle of union ; let us not neglect this lower , but sure means of our peace and happiness . to conclude , let us have a care of the snake every where ; in the grass , in the square , in the coffee-house , in the church , ay , and in the meeting-house too ; for 't is ill company at all times , and in all places . let us remember that not only the four , but the seven last raigns have prov'd penal laws an enemy to the peace and wealth of the kingdom , and the strictest tests no security to the government of it against the weight of its own miscarriages . let us forgive one another , and look forward . i am for having the church of england keep the chair , but let the rest subsist . to fix government upon any mode of religion , convulses it as often as that changes , at least hazards it . that which takes in all interests is the best foundation for any government , because it is least exposed to state contingencies . let us then bend our thoughts towards such an expedient as may secure property to all , the first reason of civil government , and that which every party for its own interest must close with . three things strictly speaking make an english man ownership , consent in parliament , and right of juries . we all know what laws have been made , and by whom to destroy these several capacities , that frame an english man ; amongst which , pray let not that against conventicles go for the least ! let us see then what it is that divests us of these native priviledges , and like true english men , & christians , let us remove it ; that in the raign , of a king so ready to disapoint the enemies of his glory , by repairing the breaches of his people , and of the old true civil government of his kingdom , we may not be wanting to our selves and our posterity , in another great charter , to bury all our prejudices , and establish a lasting civil union among the inhabitants of this ancient and famous kingdom . yours more then my own . finis . sam. ld. bp. of oxon, his celebrated reasons for abrogating the test and notions of idolatry, answered by samuel, arch-deacon of canterbury. phillips, john, 1631-1706. 1688 approx. 32 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 15 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2003-01 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a54782 wing p2100 estc r32293 12619938 ocm 12619938 64497 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a54782) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 64497) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1533:19) sam. ld. bp. of oxon, his celebrated reasons for abrogating the test and notions of idolatry, answered by samuel, arch-deacon of canterbury. phillips, john, 1631-1706. the third edition. [2], 22 p. [s.n.], london printed : 1688. "samuel parker was archdeacon of canterbury in 1686 when he became bishop of oxford"--nuc pre-1956 imprints. attributed by wing and nuc pre-1956 imprints to phillips. reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng parker, samuel, 1640-1688. -reasons for abrogating the test imposed upon all members of parliament. test act (1673) great britain -politics and government -1660-1688. 2002-09 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2002-10 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2002-11 judith siefring sampled and proofread 2002-11 judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion sam . l d. b p. of oxon , his celebrated reasons for abrogating the test , and notions of idolatry , answered by samuel , arch-deacon of canterbury . the third edition . it 's better to indulge mens vices and debaucheries , than their consciences . sam. park . eccles. pol. pag. 54. london , printed in the year , 1688. there is nothing hereby intended to impugn the abrogation of the test : may his majesty's sacred will and pleasure be fulfill'd ; and may the rights of the english peerage remain inviolable . but there seems to have been an absolute necessity , for the author of the reasons for abrogating the test , to have repeal'd his most bitter invectives against the nonconformists , and his tempestuous indignation against dissenters in general ; so diametrically opposite to the serene and pious desires and resolutions of his majesty , to make his subjects happy , and unite them to him as well by inclination , as duty ; and to have shew'd his compliance to his majesty in all his most laudable and generous designs , before he had singl'd out that particular point of the test , meerly to hook in a plea for transubstantiation , and his own new modell'd notions of idolatry . but let others , whom it may concern , dispute those controversies : the present question is , whether his lordship of oxon , have retracted his discouses of ecclesiastical polity , or at least , those passages in them , which run so apparently counter to his majesty's gracious declaration for liberty of conscience ? otherwise he may seem to have calculated his writings for the various meridians of state ; and his arguments will not bear that weight , which ( tho' the same , yet ) coming from another person , they would have done . now , there cannot be a more certain touch-stone of truth of the bishop's , or arch-deacon's ( which you please , for they are both the same person 's ) ecclesiastical polity , than the declaration it self : only , out of his christian charity , the arch-deacon has peopled the kingdom with such a dreadful canaille , ( all but those of the church of england ) that astonishment it self might wonder well , were his unconscionable epithetes to be allow'd , that so gracious , so indulgent , so soft and calm a declaration , should come forth in kindness to such a rabble : for those whom his majesty calls his good subjects , the arch-deacon continually strigmatizes with the foul epithetes of iugglers , dissemblers , wicked rebellious , hypocrites , sons of strife and singularity , and most notorious hereticks . and , upon this supposition , as the foundation of his pile , that the generality of the people of england are such , ( for he excepts none but those of the church of england ) he rears the fabrick of his ecclesiastical polity ; wherein he had only this misfortune , to be of a quite contrary opinion to his prince ; and that his draconicks were not repeal'd , before the declaration came forth . the declaration expresses his majesty's earnest desire to establish his government on such a foundation , as to make his subjects happy , and unite them to him as well by inclination , as duty ; which he thinks can be done by no means so effectually , as by granting them the free exercise of their religion . but the arch-deacon's politicks are of another strain : for , in his preface to his ecclesiastical polity , p. 12. he say ; that the aim of his discourse is , by representing the palpable inconsistency of phanatick tempers and principles , with the welfare and security of government , to awaken authority to beware of its worst , and most dangerous enemies , and force them to modesty and obedience by severity of laws . pag. 52. of the same preface : if princes ( says he ) would but consider , how liable mankind are to abuse themselves with serious and conscientious villanies , they would quickly see it to be absolutely necessary to the peace and happiness of their kingdoms , that there be set up a more severe government over men 's consciences , than over their vices and immoralities . pag. 54. of the same , he boasts his having prov'd , that indulgence and toleration is the most absolute sort of anarchy ; and that princes may with less hazard give liberty to men 's vices and debaucheries , than to their consciences . but the declaration is quite of another temper : vve humhly thank almighty god , it is , and hath of a long time been , our constant sense and opinion , which upon divers occasions vve have declared , that conscience ought not to be constrain'd , nor people forc'd in matters of meer religion . but this will not be admitted by the arch-deacon : for , ( says he , ecclesiast . pol. pag. 321. ) when men's consciences are so squemish , that they will rise against the customs and injunctions of the church , she must scourge them into order and chastize them for their troublesome peevishness , pag. 324. ( eccles. polit. ) he pretnnds to have prov'd the vnavoidable danger of toleration , and keeping religious differances , that religion must be govern'd by the same rules , as all other transactions of human life ; and that nothing can do it but severe laws ; nor they neither , unless severely executed . ecclesiast . pol : pag. 311. if princes ( says he ) will suffer themselves to be checked in their laws spiritual by every systematical theologue , they may as well bare to see themselves affronted in their laws civil by every viliage-attorney . pag. 284. but to indulge ideots in their folly because they threaten authority to be peevish and , scrupulous , and to infest the government with a sullen , and cross-grain'd godliness , ( an artifice not much unlike the tricks of forward children ) is to suffer ignorance to ride in triumph ; and therefore such humorsom saints must be lash'd out of their sullenness , into compliance , and better manners . this ( as the arch-deacon calls it , preface to brambal 's vindication ) was one his rhapsodies of hasty and huddled thoughts . most divine words , and most seraphick charity ! but the arch-deacon will have tenderness of conscience to be pride ; vanity , and insolence , though all the seven champions should contradict him . pag. 273. he that pretends conscience to vouch his humour , and his insolence , is a villian , and an hypocrite ; and so far from deserving pity , especially from authority , than no offenders can more need or provoke their severity . this may be true : but , where the supream government , which must of necessity be absolute , uncontroulable , and unlimited , as well in matters of religion , &c. more sagaciously discerns beyond the arch-deacon 's , that same conscience to be neither humouor nor insolence nor will comprehend it under that notion ; there , it is to be hoped , the man is not a villian , nor an hypocrite , and so not liable to the fury of correction . pag. 271. and therefore , if princes will be resolute , they may easily make the most stubborn consciences bend to their commands ; but , if they will not , they must subbmit themselves , and their power , to all the follies and passions of their subjects . probatum est . s. p. pag. 270. governours must look to the publick , and let tender consciences look to themselves . laws must be of an unyielding , and unflexible temper , and not soft and easie things . princes must not be diffident in their maxims of policy ; but , as they must set up some to themselves ; so they must act roundly up to them dii te donent tonsore . — quaere , why this counsel was not taken , since the counsel was given so long before the declaration came forth ? answ. because it was ever contrary to his majesty's inclination , pag. 269. 't is all one to the concernments of government , whether tenderness of conscience be serious or counterfeit : for whether so or so , 't is directly contrary to the ends and interest of government . better unsaid , than not believed . pag. 263. and what can be more destructive to all manner of government , than to make all the rules of order and discipline less sacred , than the whimsies of every phanatick zealot ? pray be patient , sir , there 's no such thing done . ibid. when to pick quarrels with the laws , and make scruple of obeying them , shall be made the specifick character of the godly : when giddy and humorous zeal shall not only excuse , but hallow disobedience ; when every one that has fancy enough to fancy himself a child of god , shall have license to dispise authority . who would have been at the trouble of all this rhetorick , had he known what would have followed ? pag. 253. in brief the only cause of all our troubles and disturbances , is , the inflexible perverseness of about an hundred proud ignorant , and seditious preachers ; against whom , if the severity of the laws were particularly levell'd , how easie would it be to reduce the people to a peacable temper ? there were just three more than his number , and that spoild the project . pag. 187. what can be more apparently vain , than to talk of accommodations , or to hope for any possibility of quiet or settlement , till authority shall see it necessary to scourge them into better manners , and wiser opinions ? pag. 219. t is easie possible for well-meaning people , through ignorance or inadvertency , to be betraid into such unhappy errors , as may tend to the publick desturbance ; which , though it be not so much their crime ●as infelecity ; yet is there no remedy , but it must expose them to the correction of the publick rods and axes . surely , rhadamanthus 's own chaplain could not have preached more severe divinity ? pag. 271. in brief , there is nothing so ungovernable , as a tender conscience ; or so restiff and inflexible , as folly or wickedness , when hardned with religion : and therefore , instead of being comply'd with , they must be restrain'd with a more peremtory and unyielding rigor , than naked and unsanctify'd villany . pag. 223. nay , so easie it is for men to deserve to be punish'd for their consciences , that there is no nation in the world , ( were government rightly understood , and duly manag'd ) wherein mistakes and abuses in religion , would not supply the galleys with vastly greater numbers , than villany . 't is a comfort , curst cows have now short horns . however , to this the tender declaration makes a reply , declaring one of the reasons of his majesty's indulgence to be , because he finds , that force in matters of meer religion , tends to the depopulating of countries . on the other side , the arch-deacon in opposition to the king 's reason , is for depopulating the land , and peopling the galleys ; and arraigns that government for want of understanding , and due management , that does not observe his method of cruelty . he is for pillories , whipping-posts , rods , axes , scourges , &c. as if no government pleas'd him , but that described by virgil in hell : hinc exaudiri gemitus , & saeva sonare verbera ; tum stridor ferri , tractaeque catenae . — accincta flagella tisiphone quatit insultans , torvosque sinistra intentans angues vocat agmina saeva sororum . this , in the arch-deacon 's ecclesaistical polity ; and to shew , that no other government will content him but this , pag. 18. i leave it , ( says he ) to governors themselves to judge , whether it does not concern them , with as much vigilance and severity , either to prevent the rise , or suppress the growth , ( of phanaticks he means , that find themselves aggrieved by the penal laws ) as to punish any the foulest crimes of immortality ? and if they would but seriously consider into what exorbitances peevish and nntoward principles about religion improve themselves , they could not but perceive it to be as much their concernment to punish them with the severest inflictions , as any whatsoever principles and rebellions in the state — well! the business is consider'd , and his ecclesiastical polity is found to be deficient . nay , he goes farther , and arraigns all kings and princes for their folly , under the title of governors : for , says he , in the following pag. 19. this certainly has ever been one of the fatal miscarriages of all governors , in that they have not been aware of this fierce and implacable enemy , ( meaning the phanaticks , who care no more for whips and scourges , than the devil does for holy-water ) but have gone about to govern unruly consciences by more easie and remiss laws than those that are only able to suppress scandalous and confess'd villanies ; and have thought them sufficiently restrain'd , by threatning punishments , without inflicting them . and indeed , in most kingdoms , so little have princes understood their own interests in matters of religion , &c. hearken , o ye princes of europe , and go to school again to the author of the discourses of ecclesiastical ●●lity . but , here is another bold touch : prohibition disobliges dissenters , and that is one evil ; impunity allows them toleration , but that is a greater ; and where governors permit what their laws permit , ( this is not the present case ) there the commonwealth must at once feel all the evils both of restraint and liberty . so that , as they would expect peace and settlement , they must be sure , at first , to bind on their ecclesiastical laws with the streightest knot ; and afterwards keep them in force and countenance , by the severity of the law. their restraint must be proportion'd to their unruliness of the conscience ; and they must be manag'd with so much the greater strictness , than all other principles of disturbance , by how much they are the more dangerous . gratias domine , now princes understand what they have to do . yet a little more of the arch-deacon 's ecclesiastical polity . beloved , in his preface to bishop bra●hal 's vindication , ( for it is not pag'd ) you shall find it thus written : they ( meaning the phanaticks , or complainants against the penal statutes ) have been so long accustom'd to undutiful demeanor , that it is to be fear'd , they are grown too head-strong and incorrigible , to be aw'd into a more modest behaviour by threatnings of severity . therefore , it will be thought necessary to bridle their ungovern'd tongues and spirits with pillories and whipping-posts . and at the bottom of the same page : to this peevishness of their humors , i might add the restlesness of their minds , that is always displeas'd with the settled frame of things , ( innuendo , the settled penal laws ; ) and that no alterations can satisfy . if you condescend to their first demands , you only encourage them to be making new remonstrances : appease all their old complaints , and they are immediately picking new faults to be redress'd . they that at first only request indulgence , will , when strong enough , demand it . in short , give the non-conformists an inch , and they 'll take an ell. but , ( in the same preface ) should it ever so happen hereafter , that any king of england should be prevail'd with to deliver up the church , ( that is to say , to dispence with the penal laws and test ; for the test , notwithstanding the reasons against it , must be included in this long parenthesis , because the church fram'd it ) he had as good , at the same time , resign up his crown . and thus you see the danger of the present government , through the non-conformity to the arch-deacon 's ecclesiastical polity . there is another reason , why his majesty was graciously pleas'd to think , force in matters of meer religion directly contrary to the interest of government ; and that is , spoyling of trade . trade ! cries the arch-deacon : trade ! no. let grass grow about the custom-house , rather than abate one tittle of my ecclesiastical polity : for , ( in his preface to his ecclesiast . pol. pag. 49. ) 't is notorious , ( says he ) that there is not any sort of people so inclinable to seditious practices , as the trading part of a nation ; and their pride and arrogance naturally increases with the improvement of their stock . and if we reflect upon our late miserable distractions , 't is easie to observe , how the quarrel was hatcht in trade , men's shops , and cherisht by the zeal of prentices : ( by the way , this is plausible nonsense all over . ) but he goes on , pag. 50. 't is a very odd , and preposterous piece of policy , to design the enriching this sort of people , while their heads are distemper'd with religious lunacies . and , pag. 51. he is a very silly man , and understands nothing of the follies , passions , and inclinations of human nature , who sees not there is no creature so ungovernable , as a wealthy phanatick . and therefore , ( pag. 48. ) i confess , i cannot but smile , when i observe how some , that would be thought wonderful grave and solemn statesmen , labour with mighty projects of setting up this and that manufacture , in their several respective towns and corporations ; and how eagerly they pursue these petty attempts , beyond the great affairs of a more publick concernment , ( meaning the dreadful and terrible execution of the penal laws ; ) and how wisely they neglect the settlement of a whole nation , for the benefit of a village or burrough ? very pleasant ecclesiastical polity ! no man must eat or drink , or maintain his family : the grand relation of human necessities , depending one upon another , must stand still , to oblige the arch-deacon 's ecclesiastical polity . here 's a quietus est for above the third part of the nation . none but those that can swallow a surplice , and adore the parochial levite , must weave camlets at norwich , make bays at colchester , spurrs at rippon , nayls at brommigeham , or saddles at burford . for why ? there is not any sort of people so seditious , as the trading part of the nation . so that , supposing the greater part of the trading part of the nation be , as the arch-deacon calls them , phanaticks , and nonconformists , ( that is , men conscientiously scrupuling the ceremonies of the church of england ) they must either be scourg'd into better manners with bryars and thorns ; or else the nation must be laid waste and desolate . for , to tell you true , as good have no people , as those that will not pay tithes ; 't is no matter for the king's duties , nor how the nation may be otherwise weakn'd and expos'd . there is yet behind one more reason urg'd in the declaration , and that is this ; that force in matters of meer religion , never obtain'd the end for which it was imploy'd ; wherein his majesty declares himself the more confirm'd , by the reflections he had made upon the conduct of the four last reigns . now , here 's the utter subversion of the arch-deacon 's ecclesiastical policy ; all meer labour in vain , abundance of ranting , raving , reviling expressions , insomuch , that the arch-angel was more civil to the devil , than the arch-deacon to the dissenters ; and yet all to no purpose . he has been at a great deal of pains in setting up pillories and whipping-posts in all parts and corners of the kingdom ; and now he may e'ne go , and pull 'em down again . what are now become of all his politick let but 's ? in his preface to bishop bramhall 's vindication ; let but the government think it seasonable at any time to reprieve them ( meaning the dissenters ) from the severity of the laws , and they immediately start up into that confidence , as to imagine themselves the only darlings of state. let but the publick rods be removed from their backs , and they are presently full of expectations to have them put into their own hands . if they are not always scourg'd and chastis'd , they will grow sawcy , and must by all means become cronies to kings and princes . many other passages might have been collected out of his several bitter ( if they may not be said to be scurrilous ) invectives against the dissenters ; but here are sufficient to make it apparently manifest , that the author of the ecclesiastical polity , was as great a dissenter from the mild and tender maxims of his majesty's government , and his constant sense and opinion , of a long time professed and declared upon several occasions in matters of religion , as the dissenters were dissatisfied with the rigid severity of the church of england ; or , at least , with the principles of his ecclesiastical polity . which makes it seem questionable , whether a person , who has brandish'd his pen with that virulency , against the dissenters in general , and his majesty's royal opinion , and the mature results of his most serious deliberations , may be a proper champion against the test ? for most certainly , there has been much more said already , and much more to the purpose , than he has produced . on the other side , he has most dogmatically avouch'd , that if ever the boisterous and unreasonable opposition ( as he calls it ) of the nonconformists to the church of england , be re-erected it must be upon its ruins : and that if ever the roman catholicks get any ground , or advantage of the church of england , they will be bound to make their acknowledgments to the puritans , and the strength of their assistance . whence he draws his conclusion , that it would be a pleasant spectacle , ( that is to say , a ridiculous over-sight in government ) to see either the classical or congregational discipline establish'd by authority . moreover , in the 721. pag. of the vindication of his eccles. pol. he appeals to all men , whether liberty of conscience be any better , than a license for anarchy and confusion ? pag. 238. he says , that to grant subjects a lawless and uncontroul'd liberty of conscience , in all matters and pretences of religion , is to dissolve one half of the government into perfect anarchy , and yield up the constitution of all publick affairs , to the humor of every wild enthusiast . and pag. 553. you find it thus written ; so that , seeing an ecclesiastical iurisdiction ( of pillories and whipping-posts , thorns and bryars ) is absolutely necessary to prevent all confusions , arising from unrestrain'd liberty , it is better that mankind should be sometimes exposed to the miseries of tyranny and persecution , than always groan under the intolerable disorders of anarchy , or reluctancy to penal statutes . if then the church of england be establish'd upon such a firm foundation , that nothing can endanger it , but indulgence to the dissenters , 't is to be admir'd , that a man , so knowing in ecclesiastical policy , and so great a friend to th● church of england , would open such a gap as to plead for the abrogation of the test , which the church-men of england fram'd and set-up , as the only bulwark to prevent her dissolution . so that , to use his own words , 't is very hardly credible , that a person , who has lately appear'd so vigorously in her cause , should , notwithstanding all his seeming zeal and earnestness , be really i● good earnest , in his pretences , against the test. for what signifies the abrogating the test , if there be no way to shake the otherwise immovable church of england , but by making two bridge● of dissenters , one between callice and dover , the other between diepe and rye , for popery to return into england : for , when he comes to tha● part of his preface to bishop bramhall 's vindication , where he considers what likelyhood , o● how much danger there is of the return o● popery into this nation : for my own part , says he● i know none , but the nonconformist's boisterous an unreasonable opposition to the church of england ▪ if he think , that the abrogation of the t●●● may be a means to unite the papist , and the di●senter , which he seems to intimate , by saying that the faction of the dissenters may be made use of , ●● instruments ( iourney-men tools ) to dissolve and unravel the establish'd frame of things , and destroy the church of england ; and so make an unobstructed passage for the return of popery in glory and triumph ; then he has left his cause in the lurch , and relinquish'd all his ecclesiastical polity at once . as for the papists , he deals with them after such a rate , that no man living knows where to have him . in his preface to bishop bramhall 's vindication , he seems neither to love nor fear 'em : for that , as long as the church of england stands in power and reputation , it will easily beat back and baffle all the attempts of rome , and its adherents ; their plausible reasons being evidently no more , than little tricks and sophisms , and seem intended by themselves , rather to abuse the simple , than satisfie the wise , their innovations are so undeniable , and the design of the church of england's reformation , so apparently apostolical , that those people must needs argue at a strange wild rate , that will be demonstrating against experience , and ocular inspection . so then , the reformation made by the church of england , in the points of transubstantiation , worship of images , adoration of the host , and invocation of saints , being apostolical ; what must be thought of his reasons against the test ? nay , there is nothing could preserve the papists from being hiss'd out of the pit , but that they are extreamly confident , and most readers sufficiently ignorant : so that the church of england may safely defie all their opposition . she does not stand upon such trembling foundations , as to be thrust down with bull-rush spears , and oral traditions , with labyrinths , and castles in the air. but then his heart misgives him again , and he begins to fear the return of popery into the nation , should the nonconformists joyn with the papists : and therefore , at the end of his preface , he begs the hearty prayers of his friend , for the peace and prosperity of the church of england ; for when that is gone , ( farewel frost ) 't will he hard to find out another , with which any , that are either honest or wise , will be over forward to joyn in communion . notwithstanding all this , upon better consideration , as it were in compassion of the despis'd weakness of the church of rome , and her adherents , he undertakes to furnish them with better arguments of his own , than any they have themselves , to vindicate transubstantiation , and clear them from idolatry : for which he strains an argument deduc'd from the cherubims , that cover'd the ark. and yet , in his defence of his ecclesiastical polity , pag. 285 , 286. he condemns both turk and pope together in a breath ; the one for giving divine worship to a lewd impostor ; the other , to a senseless piece of matter . and thus , what , by vertue of apparent , apostolical reformation , he call'd ( before ) a senseless piece of matter , he has ( now ) cover'd with the cherubim 's golden wings , and render'd adorable by scripture warrant : but , bene scribit , qui bene intelligitur ; what he has written , he has written . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a54782-e180 ecclesiast . polit , pag. 241 , 242 , 273 , 319 , 187. eccles. pol. p. 27 , 28 , 36 , &c. declar. p. 2. preface to bramhal 's vindication . preface to bishop bramhall's vindicat. an enquiry into the reasons for abrogating the test imposed on all members of parliament offered by sa. oxon. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 1688 approx. 38 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a30368 wing b5813 estc r4008 13677299 ocm 13677299 101254 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a30368) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 101254) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 839:7) an enquiry into the reasons for abrogating the test imposed on all members of parliament offered by sa. oxon. burnet, gilbert, 1643-1715. 8 p. s.n., [london : 1688] written by gilbert burnet. cf. wing. a reply to samuel parker's reasons for abrogating the test imposed upon all members of parliament. caption title. place and date of publication from wing. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng parker, samuel, 1640-1688. -reasons for abrogating the test imposed upon all members of parliament. test act (1673) 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 john latta sampled and proofread 2003-12 john latta text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an enquiry into the reasons for abrogating the test imposed on all members of parliament . offered by sa. oxon. when the cardinals in rome go abroad without fiocco's on their horses heads , it is unstood that they will be then incognito , and they expect nothing of that respect which is payed them on other occasions . so since there is no fiocco at the head of this discourse , no name nor designation , it seems the writer offers himself to be examined without those nice regards , that may be due to the dignity he bears : and indeed when a man forgets what he is himself , it is very natural for others to do it likewise . it is no wonder to see those of the roman communion be stir themselves , so much as they do , to be delivered from the test , and every thing else that is uneasie to them : and tho othres may find it very reasonable to oppose themselves , in all the just and legal ways that agree with our constitution , to this design , yet it is so natural to all that are under any pressure , to desire to get free from it , that at the same time that we cannot forbear to withstand them , we cannot much condemn them : but it raises nature a little , to see a man that has been so long fatned with the spoils of our church , and who has now got up to a degree so disproportioned to his merit , to turn so treacherously upon it . if he is already weary of his comfortable importance , and will here give her into the bargain , and declare himself , no body will be surprised at the change of his masque , since he has taken much pains to convince the world , that his religion goes no deeper than his habit : yet tho his confidence is of a piece with all his other vertues , few thought it could have carried him so far ; i confess i am not surprized , but rather wonder to see that others should be so ; for he has given sufficient warning of what he is capable of ; he has told the world what is the worst thing that dr. burnet can do . p. 50. but i am sure the dr. cannot be quit with him , to tell what is the worst thing that he can do ; it must needs be a very fruitful fancy that can find out all the degrees of wickedness to which he can go : and tho' this pamphlet is a good essay of his talent that way , yet that terra incognita is boundless . in the title page it is said that this was first writ for the author 's own satisfaction , and now published for the benefit of all others whom it may concern . but the words are certainly wrong placed ; for the truth of the matter is , that it was written for the author 's own benefit , and that it is now published for the satisfaction of all others whom it may concern : in some sense perhaps it was written for the author 's own satisfaction ; for so petulant and so depraved a mind as his , is capable of being delighted with his treachery and a poor bishoprick with the addition of : presidentship , being too low a prize for his ambition and avarice . he resolved to assure himseif of the first great bishoprick that falls ; the liege letter let us see how far the iesuits were assured of him , and how much courted by him : and that he said , that none but athiests supported the protestant religion now in england ; yet how many soever of these may be among us , he is upon the point of lessening their number , by one at least : and he takes care to justifie the hopes which these father 's conceived of him. they are severe masters , and will not be put off with secret civilities , lewd jests , entertainments , and healths drank to their good success ; so now the price of the ●residen●ship is to be pay'd , so good a morsel as this deserved that dr. stillingfleet , dr. tillotson , dr. burnet , and some other divines should be ill used , and he to preserve the character of drawcansir , which is as due to him as th●t of bays , falls upon the articles of the church , and upon both houses of parliament . it is reproach enough to the house of lords , that he is of it ; but it is somewhat new , and a character becoming sa. oxon , to arraign that house , with all the insolence to which he can raise his wanton pen. laws that are in being are treated with respect , even by those who move for their repeal ; but our draw●ansir scorns that modest strain , he is not contented to arraign the law , but calls it barbarous , and says , that nothing can be more barbarous and prophane than to make the renouncing of a mystery , so unanimously received , a state test ; pag. 133. pag. 64. but he ought to have avoided the word prophane , since it leads men to remember , that he had taxed the praying for the king , as under god and christ , as crude , not to say prophane : when in the prospect he had then [ 36 ] of a bishoprick he raised the king above christ , but now another prospect , will make him sink him beneath the pope , who is but at best christs vicar . but this is not all , there comes another flower that is worthy of him , he tells us , that the test was the first-born of oats 's plot , and brought forth on purpose to give credit and reputation to the perjury , pag. 5. and because this went in common between the two houses , he bestows a more particular mark of his favour on the house of lords : and tells them that this was a monument erected by themselves in honour of so gross an imposture . ( ibid. ) but after all , the royal assent was added ; and here no doubt it itched somewhere , for if it had not been for the manner of the late king's death , and the papers published since his death , he would have wreaked his malice upon his memory , for he will never forgive his not advancing him : and the late king being so true a judg● of wit , could not but be much taken with the best satyr of our time ; and saw that bays's wit , when measured with anothers , was of a piece with hi● vertues , and therefore judged in favour of the rehearsal transpros'd : this went deep , and though it gave occasion to the single piece of modesty , with which he can be charged , of withdrawing from the town , and not importuning the press more for some years , since even a face of brass must grow red , when it is so burnt as his was then ; yet his malice against the elder brother was never extinguished but with his life : but now a strange conjuncture has brought him again on the stage , and bays will be bays still . he begins his prologue with the only soft word in the whole piece , i humbly conceive , but he quickly repents him of that debonarity , and so makes thunder and lightning speak the rest , as if his designs were to insult over the two houses , and not to convince them . he who is one of the punies of his order ▪ and is certainly one of its justest reproaches , tells us pag. 8. that to the shame of the bishops , this law was consented to by them in the house of lords : but what shame is due to him , who has treated that venerable bench , and in particular his metropolitan , in so scurrilous a manner . the order has much more cause to be ashamed of such a member : tho if there are two or three such as he is among the twenty six , they may comfort themselves with this , that a dozen of much berter men , had one among them , that i confess was not much worse , if it was not for this , that he let the price of his treachery fall much lower than sa. oxon does , who is still true to his old maxim , that he delivered in answer to one who asked him what was the best body of divinity ? which was , that that which could help a man to keep a coach and six horses , was certainly the best , but now i come to examine his reasons for abrogating the test . the first is , that it is con●rary to the natural rights of peerage , and turns the birth-right of the english nobility , into a precarious title : which is at the mercy of every faction and passion in parliament , and that therefore , how useful soever the test might have been in its season , it sometime must prove a very ill president against the right of peerage : and upon this he tells a story of a protestation made in the house of lords , against the test , that was brought in , in 1675 , together with the resolution of the house against that penalty upon the peers , of loosing their votes in case of a refusal : he represents this , as a test or oath of loyalty , against the lawfulness of taking arms upon any pretence whatsoever against the king. but in answer to all this , one would gladly know what are the natural rights of peerage , and in what chapter of the law of nature they are to be found , for if those rights have no other warrant , but the constitution of this government , then they are still subject to the legislative authority , and may be regulated by it . the right of peerage is still in the family , only as the exercise of it is limited by the law to such an age , so it may be suspended as oft as the publick safety comes to require it : even the indelible character it self , may be brought under a total suspension , of which our author may , perhaps , afford an instance at some time or other . 2. votes in either house of parliament , are never to be put in ballance with establish'd laws : these are but the opinions of one house , and are changeable . 3. but if the test might have been useful in its season , one would gladly see how it should be so soon out of season : for its chief use being to secure the protestant religion in 1678. it does not appear , that now in 1688. the dangers are so quite dissipated , that there is no more need of securing it . in one sense we are in a safer condition than we were then : for some false brethren have shewed themselves , and have lost that little credit which some unhappy accidents had procured them . 4. it was not the loyalty in the test of the year 1675. that raised the greatest opposition to it : but another part of it , that they should never endeavour any alteration in the government , either in the church or state. now it seemed to be an unreasonable limitation on the legislative body , to have the members engaged to make no alteration : and it is that which would not have much pleased those , for whose satisfaction this book is published . the second reason was already hinted at , of its dishonourable birth and original ; pag. 10. which according to the decency of his stile he calls the first sacrament of the otesian villany , pag. 9. this he aggravates as such a monstrous and inhuman piece of barbarity as could never have entred into the thoughts of any man but the infamous author of it ; this piece of elegance , tho it belongs to this reason , comes in again in his fourth reason , pag. 6. and to let the house of lords see their fate , if they will not yield to his reasons , he tells them that this will be not only an eternal national reproach , but such a blot upon the peers , that no length of time could wear away , nothing but the universal conoagration could destroy , which are the aptest expressions that i know to mark how deeply , the many blots with which he is stigmatized are rooted in his nature . the wanton man in his drawcansir humor thinks that parliaments and a house of peers are to be treated by him with as much scorn as is justly due to himself . but to set this matter in its true light , it is to be remembred that in 1678. there were besides the evidences of the witnesses , a great many other discoveries made of letters and negotiations in forreign parts , chiefly in the courts of france and rome , for extirpating the protestant religion ; upon which the parts that was most united to the court , set on this law , for the test , as that which was both in it self a just and necessary security for the establish'd religion , and that would probably lay the fermentation which was then in the nation : and the act was so little acceptable to him , whom he calls its author , that he spake of it then with contempt , as a trick of the court to lay the nation too soon asleep . the negotiations beyond sea were too evidently proved to be denied ; and ( which is not yet generally known ) mr. coleman when examined by the committee of the house of commons , said plain enough to them , that the late king was concerned in them ; but the committee would not look into that matter , and so mr. sacheverill , that was their chair-man , did not report it ; yet the thing was not so secret but that one to whom it was trusted , gave the late king an account of it ; who said , that he had not heard of it any other way , and was so fully convinced that the nation had cause given them to be jealous , that he himself set forward the act , and the rather because he saw that the e. of s. did not much like it . the parliament as long as it was known that the religion was safe in the kings negative , had not taken any great care of its own constitution , but it seemed the best expedient that could be found , for laying the jealousies of his late majesty , and the apprehensions of the successor , to take so much care of the two houses , that so the dangers with which men were than allarm'd , might seem the less formidable , upon so effectual a security : and thus all the stir that he keeps with perjury and imposture , ought to make no other impression , but to shew the wantonness of his own temper , that meddles so boldly with things of which he knew so little the true secret : for here was a law passed of which all made great use that opposed the bill of exclusion , to demonstrate to the nation that there could be no danger of popery , even under a prince of that religion ; but as he would turn the matter , it amounts to this , that that law might be of good use in that season , to lay the jealousies of the nation , till there were a prince on the throne of that communion , and then when the turn is served , it must be thrown away , to open the only door that is now shut upon the re-establishment of that religion . this is but one hint among a great many more of the state of affairs at the time that this act of the test was made , shew that the evidence given by the witnesses , had no other share in that matter , but that it gave a rise to the other discoveries ; and a fair opportunity to those who knew the secret of the late king's religion , and the negotiation at dover , to provide such an effectual security , as might both save the crown , and secure the religion : and this i am sure some of the bishops knew , who ( to their honour ) were faithful to both . the third reason he gives for repealing the act , is the incompetent authority of those who enacted it ; for i● was of an ecclesiastical nature : and here he stretches out his wings to a top flig●t , and charges it with nothing less than the deposing of christ from his throne , the disowning , neglecting and a●fronting his commission to his catholick church , and entrenching upon this sacred prerogative of his holy catholick church : and then that he might have occasion to feed his spleen with railing at the whole order , he makes a ridiculous objection of the bishops being present in the house of lords , that he might shew his respect to them , by telling in a parenthesis that ( to their shame ) they had consented to it . but has this scaramuchio no shame left him ? did the parliament pretend by this act to make any decision in those two points of transubstantiation and idolatry ? had not the convocation defined them both for above an age before ? in the 28 th article of our church these words are to be found : transubstantiatien ( or the change of the substance of bread and wine ) in the supper of the lord , cannot be proved by holy writ ; but it is repugnant to the plain words of scripture , overthrows the nature of a sacrament , and hath given occasion to many superstitions ; and for the idolatry of the church of rome that was also declared very expresly in the same body of articles : since in the article 35 the homiliys are declared to contain a godly and wholesome doctrine necessary for those times : and upon that it is judged that they should be read in the churches by the ministers , diligently and distinctly , that they may be understood of the people . and the second of these , which is against the peril of idolatry , aggravates the idolatry of that church in so many particulars , and with such severe expressions , that those who at first made those articles , and all those who do now sign them , or oblige others to sign 'em , must either believe the church of rome to be guilty of idolatry , or that the church of england is the impudentest society that ever assumed the name of a church , if she proposes such homilies to the people , in which this charge is given so home , and yet does not believe it her self . a man must be of bays's pitch to rise up to this degree of impudence . upon the whole matter then , these points had been already determined , and were a part of our doctrine enacted by law : all that the parliament did , was only to take these out of a great many more that by this test it might appear whether they who came into either house were of that religion or not , and now let our reasoner try what he ●an make out of this : or how he can justifie the scandal that he so boldly throws upon his order , as if they had as much as in them lay destroyed the very being of a christian church , and had profanely pawned the bishop to the lord : and betraied the rights of the church of england as by law established in particular , as well as of the church catholick in general . p. 8.9 . all this shews to whom he was pawned both the bishop and the lord , and something else too , which is both conscience and honour , if he has any left . when one reflects on two of the bishops , that were of that venerable body , while this act passed , whose memory will be blessed in the present and following ages , those two great and good men that filled the sees of chester and oxford , he must conclude , that as the world was not worthy of them , so certainly their sees were not worthy of them , since they have been plagued with such successors ; that because bays delights in figures taken from the roman empire , i must tell him , that since commodus suceeded to marcus aurelius , i do not find a more incongrous succession in history . with what sensible regret must those who were so often edified with the gravity , the piety , the generosity , and charity , of the late bishop of oxford , look look on , when they see such a harleguin in his room . his fourth reason is taken from the uncertainty and falsehood of the matters contained in the declaration it self , pag. 9. for our comedian maintains his character still , and scorns to speak of establish'd laws with any decency ; here he puts in a paragraph , as was formerly marked , which belonged to his second reason , but it seems some of those to whom he has pawn'd himself , thought he had not said enough on that head , and therefore to save blottings , he put it in here . after that , he tells the genty , that transubstantiation was a notion belonging to the school-men and metaphysitians , and that he may bespeak their favour , he tells them in very soft words , that their learning was more polite and practicable in the civil affairs of human life , to understand the rules of honour , and the laws of their countrey , the practice of martial discipline , and the examples of great men in former ages , and by them to square their actions in their re●●●●tive station● , and the life . but ●ine the bishop is here without his fiocco , yet at least for decencys sake he should have named religion and virtue among the p●oper studies of the gentry : and if he dares not trust them with the reading the scriptures , yet at least they might read the articles of our church , and hearken to the homilies , for tho it has been long one of the first maxims that he has infused into all the clergy that come near him , that the people ought to be brought into an 〈…〉 ance in matters of religion , that prea●●ing ought to be laid aside , for a preaching church could not stand , that in sermons no points of doctrine ought to be explained , and that only the rules of human life ought to be told the people , yet after all , they may read the short articles : and tho they were as blindly implicit as he would wish them to be , yet they would without more enquiry , find transubstantiation to be condemned in them . next he triumphs over the renouncing of it , pag. 11. as too bold and too prophane an affront to almighty god : when men abjure a thing which it is morally impossible for them to understand . and he appeals to the members of both houses ( whom in a fit of respect he calls honourable , after he had reproach'd them all he could ) if they have any distinct idea or notion in their minds , of the thing they here so solemnly renounce . i do verily believe none of them have any distinct notion of transubstantiation , and that it is not only morally , but phisically impossible for them to understand it : but one would think thet this is enough for declaring that they do not believe it , since the test contains no declaration concerning transubstantiation it self , whether it is a true or a false doctrine : but only concerning the belief of him that takes it . and if one can have no distinct notion of it , so that it is morally impossible for him to understand it , he may very well declare that he does not believe it . after a far●e of a ●light story , he concludes , that there seems to be nothing but a prophane levity in the whole mat●er : and a shameless abuse put upon god and religion , to carry on the wicked designs of a rebel-faction . for he cannot for his heart , abate an ace of his insolence , even when he makes the king , lords , and commons , the subject of his sco●● . certainly whatever his character is , it ought not to be expected that a man who attacks all that is sacred under god and christ , should not be treated as he deserves : it were a feeble weakness , to have so great a regard to a character that is so prostituted by him . he tells us ▪ pag. 47. that all parties agree in the thing and that they differ only in the word and m●nner ▪ and here he makes a long excursion to shew his learning , in tacking a great many things together , which passes with ignorant readers as a mark of his great reading : whereas in this , as well as in all his other books , in which any shews of learning appear , those who have searched into the fountains , see that he doe● nothing but gather from the collection of others : onl● he spoils them with the levities of his bu●●o●n-stile , and which is worse , with his dis-ingenuity . i leave all these matters to be exa●ined , by those who have leisure for it , and ●hat think him worth their pains ▪ but asfor tra●substantiation , the words that i have cited from out of our articles , shew plainly that it is rejected in our church , so that he is bound either to renounce it , or to renounce our church : therefore all that shew he makes with our history , comes to nothing , since whatever he may say with relation to edwar● the sixth's reign , it cannot be denied , but they were enacted by the convocation in the beginning of queen elizabeth's reign , and t●ey have been ever since , the doctrine of our church : so that without going further , this is now our doctrine , and since sa. oxon carries the authority of the convocation so high , he will find the original record of these arti●les in corpus-christi college in cambridge , subscribed by the members of both houses , in which there is a much more positive decision then is in the prints , not only against transub●tantiation , but against any corporal or real pre●●●ce of the body and blood of christ in the sacra●●●● : and if he will give himself scope ▪ to rail at those who suppressed this , i leave him to his liberty . but here is the formal decision of this church , and the pretending that there was no evidence of cranmer's opinion , but in an unknown manuscript , or a famous invisible manuscript , p. 49 , 47. when there are two books writ on this matter by cranme● himself , and when all the disputes in queen mary's time , besides those that were both in oxford , and cambridge , in king edward's time , shew so clearly , that this was his doctrine , is a strain becoming his since●ity , that gives this among many other essays of the trust that is due to him . but it seems he thought that dr. tillotson , dr. stillingfleet , and dr. burnet , besides some others w●om he does not name , had not reputation enough in the world , and therefore he intended to raise it , by using them ill : which is all the effect that his malice can have . he had set on one of his poor under-workmen , some years ago , to decry the manuscript which dr. stillingfleet had in his keeping for above twenty yea●s , and which d● . burnet had in his hands , for many months , and which ●hey shewed to as many as desired to see it , but th●t had turned so much to his shame that first vented the calumny , that it seems he summoned sa. oxon to appear his second in the slander : and he whose brow is of so peculiar a composition ▪ will needs bring it here , tho ever so impertinently . but i forgive the hatred that he bears both to that manúscript , and to those doctors , since nothing could be less to the satisf●ction of those for whom he published his book , then to see the mature and regular methods in which the reformation was advanced , for the bishops and divines were appointed , to examine all points with much care , and to bring every man his opinion in writing , all which were compared very faithfully , and upon these the decisions were made . there are many other papers yet extant , which by comparing the hands shew these to be originals : and they were in the salisbury family probably ever since they were at first brought together . their ancestor the lord burghly who was secretary of state in edward the sixth's time , gathered them up ; and as appears in a letter ●nder his own hand yet extant , he had 6 or 7 vol●mes of them , of which dr. stilling fleet had only two , but dr. burnet saw two more of these volumes . the history of the reformation sells still so well , that i do not believe mr. chiswell the printer of it has made any present to this reasoner , to raise its price : for to attack it with so much malice , and yet not to offer one reason to lessen its credit , is as effectual a recommendation , as this author can give it . he pretends that dr. burnets design was , to make cranmer appear a meer sacrame●tarian as to doctrine , as he had made him appear an erastian , as to discipline : and he thinks the vain man was flattered into all the pains he took , that he might give reputatio● to the errours of his patrons , and that those two grand forgeries are the grand singularities of his history : and the main things that gave it popular vogue and reputation with his party . so that were these two blind stories , and the reasons depending upon them retrenched , it would be like the shaving off samsons hair , and destroy all the strength peculiar to the history . but to all this stuff i shall only say , 1. that the charge of forgery falls back on the reasoner , since as to cranmers opinion of the sacrament , his own books , and his dispute at oxford are such plain evidences , that none but bays could have questioned it : and for his being an erastian , dr. burnet had clearly proved that he had changed his opinion in that point , so that tho he shewed that he had been indeed once engaged in those opinions , yet he proved that he had forsaken them : let the reader judge to whom the charge of forgery belongs . 2. dr. burnet has indeed some temptations to vanity now , since he is ill used b● bays ; and put in such company ▪ but i dare say if he goes to give him his character he will never mention so slight a one as vanity , in which how excessive so ever he may be , yet it is the smallest of all his faults . 3. these two particulars here mentioned , bear so inconsiderable a share in that history , and have been so little minded , that i dare say of an hundred that are pleased with that work , there is not one that will assign these as their motives . he censures dr. burnet for saying he had often heard it said that the articles of our church were framed by cranmer and ridley ; as if it were the meanest trade of an historian to stoop to hear says . p. 55. but the best of all the roman historians ( salust . in ●ello catil . ) does it , and in this dr. burnet maintains the character of a sincere historian to say not●ing that was not well grounded : and since it has been often said by many wr●ters that these two bishops prepared our articles , he finding no particular evidence of that , delivers it with its own doubtfulness . it is very like sa. oxon would have been more positive upon half the grounds , that dr. bu●net had , but the other chose to write exactly : yet h● adds , tha● it is probable that they penned them : a●● if either the dignity of their sees , or of their persons be considered , the thing will appear reasonable enough . but i do not wonder to see any thing that looks like a modesty of stile offend our author . he is next so kind to dr. b●r●et as to offer him some counsel , ( p. 50. ) that he would be well advised to imploy his pen in writing lampoons upon the present princes of christendom ( especially his own ) which he delights in most ; because i● is the worst thing that himself can do , then collecting the records of former times : for the first will require time and postage , to pursue his malice : but the second is easily traced in the chimney corner . one would think that this period was writ by mr. louth , it is so obscure and ill expres●ed , that nothing is plain , but the malice of it : but he of all men should be the furthest from reproaching any for writing lampoons , who has now given so rude a one , on the late king and the lords and commons ; if bold railing without either wit or decency , deserves that name . i will only say this further , that if one had the ill nature to write a lampoon on the government , one of the severest articles in it , would be . that it seems writers are hard to be found , when such a baboon is made use of . it is lampoon enough upon the age , that he is ● bishop : but it is downright reproach that he is made the champion of a cause , which if ●t is bad of it self , must suffer extreamly by beïng in such hands . and thus i think enough is said in answer to his impertinent digression upon transubstantiation , let him renounce the article of our church , and all that he possesses in consequence to his having signed it , and then we will argue all the rest with him upon the square : but as long as he owns that , he is bound likewise to own the first branch of the test , which is the renouncing of transubstantiation . in this discourse he makes his old hatred to calvin and the calvinists return so often , that ít appears very conspicuously . i believe it is stronger now than ever , and that for a particular reason : when the prince and prircess of orange were married , he was perhaps the only man in england that expressed his uneasiness at that happy conjunction , in so clownish a manner , that when their highnesses past thro canterbury he would not go with the rest of that body , to which he was so long a blemish , to pay his duty to them , and when he was asked the reason , he said , he could have no regard to a calvinist prince . now this calvinist prince has declared his mind so openly and fully against the repeal of the test , that no doubt this has encreased bays's distemper , and heightned his choler against the whole party . the second branch of the test is the declaration made of the idolatry committed in the roman church : upon which he tells us , pag. 71.72 . that idolatry is a stabbing and cut-throat word , a●d that it is an inviting and warranting the rabble whenever opportunity favours to destroy the roman catholicks ; and here bays will outdo himself , since this was a master-piece of service , therefore he makes the taxing the church of rome with idolatry , a piece of inh●manity that outdoes the savages of the canibals themselves ; and damns at once both body and soul. he charges dr. stillingfleet as the great founder of this , and all other anti-catholick and antichristian and uncharitable principles among us , and that the test is the swearing to the truth of his unlearned and fanatick nation of idolatry . pag. 130.135 . and the result of all is , that idolatry made the plot , and then the plot made idolatry , and that the ●ame persons made both . he has also troubled the reader with a second impertinence to shew his second hand reading again upon the notion of idolatry . but all this falls off with a very short answer , if he is of the church of england , and believes that the homilies contain a godly and wholsome doctrine , all this clamour against idolatry , turns against himself , for he will find the church of rome charged with this , almost an age before dr. sti●lingfleet was born ; and tho perhaps none has ever defended the charge , with so much learning as he has done , yet no malice less impudent than his is , eould make him the author of the accu●ation . it will be another strain of our authors modesty , if he will pretend that our church is not bound to own the doctrine that is contained in h●r homilies , he must by this maxe our church as treacherous to her members , as sa. oxon is to her , or to deliver this doctrine to the people , if we believe it not our selves , is to be as impudent as he himself can pretend to be . a church may believe a doctrine which she does not think necessary to propose to all her members ; but she were indeed a society fit for such pastors as he is , if she could propose to the people a doctrine , chiefly one of so great consequence as this is , without she believed it her self . so then he must either renounce our church and her articles , or he must answer all his own plea for clearing that church of this imputation : which is so slight , that it will be no hard matter even for such a trifling writer as himself is , to do it : as for what he says of stabbing and cut-throat words , he may charge us with such words , if he will , but we know who we may charge with the deeds . i would gladly see the list of all that have been murdered by these words , to try if they can be put in the ballance , either with the massacre of ireland , or that of paris ; upon which i must take notice of his slight way of mentioning coligny , and faction , and telling us in plain words , pag. 45. " that they were rebells , this is perhaps another instance of his kindness to the calvinist prince , that is descended from that great man. if idolatry made our plot , it was not the first that is made ; but his malignity is still like himself , his charging dr. stillingfleet , who he says is the author of the imputation of idolatry , as if he had suborned the evidence in our plot. i should congratulate to the dr. the honour that is done him by the malice of one who must needs be the object of the hatred of all good men , if i did not look upon him as so contemptible a person , that his love and his hatred are equally insignificant . if he thinks our church worse than canibals , i wish he would be at the pains to go and make a trial , and see whether these salvages will use him as we have done . i dare say they would not eat him , for they would find so much gall and choler in him , that the first bit would quite disgust them . finis a letter from a gentleman of the romish religion, to his brother, a person of quality of the same religion, perswading him to go to church, and take those oaths the law directs proving the lawfulness thereof by arguments not disagreeable to doctrines of the roman church. gentleman of the romish religion. 1674 approx. 80 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 24 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2008-09 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a48008 wing l1399 estc r9395 13111126 ocm 13111126 97636 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a48008) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 97636) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 744:31) a letter from a gentleman of the romish religion, to his brother, a person of quality of the same religion, perswading him to go to church, and take those oaths the law directs proving the lawfulness thereof by arguments not disagreeable to doctrines of the roman church. gentleman of the romish religion. 47 p. printed for john starkey ..., london : 1674. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng test act (1673) 2007-01 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2007-01 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2007-08 elspeth healey sampled and proofread 2007-08 elspeth healey text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter from a gentleman of the romish religion , to his brother a person of quality of the same religion ; perswading him to go to church , and take those oaths the law directs , proving the lawfulness thereof by arguments not disagreeable to doctrines of the roman church . london , printed for john starkey , at the mitre within temple-bar . mdclxxiv . dear brother , the business of your pleasant letter i can no ways judge could be the motive of its jocular style : is conviction for recusancy so slight a matter , that it is only to be laught at , or is it that you have a mind to give his majesty two of your three thousand a year ? i fear not but it may be then you have been reading mr. cowley's verses out of hesiod lately . vnhappy they to whom god han't reveal'd by a strong light , which must their sense controul , that half a great estate 's more than the whole ; vnhappy from whom still conceal'd does lye of roots and herbs the wholesom luxury . but truly , brother , believe me , if these verses were canonical scripture , yet would they be too little to keep body and soul together , when the seisure is made by the sheriff . yet is not 2000 a year worth inquiring after , at least to know some small reason for parting with it ? methinks it should be so ; i 'm sure , if it was mine , i should cry two words to a bargain before i parted with a souse of it , except some body would secure me terra firma in heaven for reprisals . and for your sake i am resolved to argue the point with our holy father the pope , a little to know why we his poor despised children in england are bound to do some things at his commands , he no ways expects from his more indulged ones in other nations ; and such things too that practised produce our utter ruines . now good honest friend mr. jesuit , mind not me , but follow your more necessary imployments of answering the doctors stilling fleet , tilleson , and floyd , with the rest of the papist-grinders : for i am no ways denying the popes infallibility , but will give him fair play , and allow him to be a more considerable person of honour than consists with the posture of the times , or my present affairs . nay , if it will do him any service , i will grant him at present to be not only supreme bishop , chief ruler , universal head , or sole head of the universal church ; but let him be as great , magnificent , and powerful as his most flattering courtiers would have him , that is , as great indeed , as the devil himself pretended , when he proffered the whole earth , and consequently universal monarchy to our saviour for a little worship . let him be all this at present , if he pleases , say i , yet i hope to prove that an english roman catholick , and consequently you , brother , may go to church as the law directs , nay ought to do it notwithstanding any commands or pretended commands from him or his holy predecessors to the contrary . for let us consider , that this omnipotency of his power , be it more or less , must needs terminate in this , that he has no power where he will have no power , and cannot command where he will not command : nay , i may safely conclude , that a good catholick may believe he does not command where he plainly , openly , and solemnly says , he will not command , till he unsays that saying . this in plain terms is the popes fate now in england ; they have long since by an unrepeal'd publick act of their authority , excommunicated in the highest manner this whole nation ; interdicting to the very ground that feeds us , and the air we breath , any spiritual blessings or benefits . now this solemn excommunication not only casts out of the fatherly protection and care of the pope , those who fall under it ; but deprives them of the use of sacraments , masses , indulgences , churches , succession of bishops , priests , and holy orders , and all other christian rights and priviledges whatsoever , as plainly appears from the very form used in doing it ; as likewise in the practice of this kingdom in king john's time , as is proved by our histories , when for six years this kingdom remained under it ; and lately in venice , when the jesuits left that state rather than obey the senate , in performing holy offices contrary to his holinesses intention , which act of theirs they to this day justifie . i might instance many more examples , to prove the sad condition of countries excommunicated , if the exalters of the popes authority were infallible , heavenly oracles : but i having nothing to do in that point , shall only glance at those things necessary to my present purpose , which is , to save your estate , brother , and therefore shall still allow the pope his most extended infallibility , since that makes not at all against me in this argument . for 't is not material to me that father paul , author of the history of the council of trent , does in his defence of the state of venice , against the proceedings of pope paul the seventh , prove , that excommunication is a spiritual punishment , which implies there ought to be an offence , and that except there be , the censure cannot reach the person against whom it was intended . i say , though this be reasonable , nay , may be unanswerable as to the thing then pleaded for ; yet it will be no ways satisfactory to the point now in hand , which is , whether the pope has any authority left in england or no , for that is plain he has not ; for though at first it may be all our grandfathers did not justly incur so rigorous a sentence , as to be wholly lopt off from the catholick church : yet that pope that excommunicated them , and those ever since , have absolutely refused to have any spiritual care of them , and consequently command over them ; renouncing it then , and annually renewing that renunciation ever since ; so that there has been no continuation of bishops in this kingdom , nor cannot be according to the institutions of the roman catholick church , till that solemn excommunication be taken off . in this condition is england and scotland put by the pope , whilst ireland our neighbour and fellow subject kingdom still continuing in his holinesses good grace , enjoys all the priviledges from him of the most catholick country . so that i conclude , the pope's infallibility will certainly reach this , at least ; that he has power to refuse to govern , command , or protect all he pleases , and wheresoever he pleases : amongst which places , i take england to be ; since he , and all his predecessors since pius quintus's time , have solemnly declared it to be so . then , good father clement , since you will have nothing to do , i desire you will still stand by , and let us shift for our selves as well as we can . as for the gentlemen missionaries you have sent to convert us , i hope we shall be able to deal with them well enough , for all we go to church ; which i am about to prove to you , dear brother , we may lawfully do . first , the thing in it self is by all casuists in the world allowed to be no sin , but wholly indifferent ; as is plain from the practice in france , and all other nations . but this is such a truth , that should i bring arguments to prove it so , it would appear as impertinent in me , as a long harangue would be to prove there are such things as penal laws against recusancy in england : which , i suppose , to you , brother , would be very needless . now this granted , that it is not malum in se ; how then can it be a sin ? certainly it must be against some express command to the contrary ; and so it will fall under that head of malum prohibitum . now if i prove it not under this last , then it can be no sin at all : and this will be no hard task to perform . for , dear brother , do but bestow a very little thinking ( half as much as a meditation before a mass , will serve ) of that authority which the pope has left himself in england ; and you will find , that all bulls formerly sent , or hereafter to come from rome , during the continuance of this excommunication are to be lookt on here as fraudulent , false , and forged ones , no ways binding the most zealous of his holinesses children , nay rather as things that in a most abusive manner give the lye to the solemnest discipline and rights of holy church . for in no action can his holiness so clearly express his intention and power as in those of solemn excommunications against nations , they being the most visible and publick demonstrations of his pretended omnipotency in governing the earth . now is it not more than schismatical insolence to affirm , that his holinesses empire and the church is so divided in it self , as that one personal act of his should positively contradict and give the lye to another , as it must plainly do , if he after the solemn excommunication of a nation , shall , during that censure , send any bull of direction to guide the people thereof in their journey to heaven , whither he openly declares they never shall arrive , having as much as in him lies , sealed up the gates of glory to them ? for to this purpose or none tend all excommunications , which are pursuant to the promise of binding and loosing . therefore from this reason i gather that several things done and taught by the jesuits and missionary priests here , not only fall under protestant laws of treason and catholick national laws of praemunire ; but are also contrary to the fundamental rules and practices of the roman catholick church it self . for an instance , indulgences given by his holiness to the catholick church in general , these are often published at mass and in sermons by missionaries here , and the means to obtain the benefits of them zealously pursued and performed by catholicks . now allowing the utmost benefit to be really in them that ever pardon-seller in spain pretended , yet to english roman catholicks they can be nothing worth ; for by that infallible power resides in the church best exprest in lawful general councils , of which sort we all say the council of trent was . i say by this infallible power and in that council is taught , that the intention of the agent is absolutely necessary to the performance or end of any religious action , or the benefits to arise thereby . insomuch that the intention of the priest , directed to the contrary , shall null or rather make absent the sacrament of baptism or any other rite , notwithstanding all ceremonies necessary were performed . now if this be truly so , as you and i , nay all roman catholicks are bound to believe , how much more will it operate in this trick of indulgences , which flow only from the fountain of the popes good pleasure , and can certainly operate no farther than he intends them , which cannot be to england , or any english man , they being put wholly out of his fatherly care and protection by his grand interdiction , the best discovery of his intention that can be , except when he expresses himself in a general council ? pardon this short digression concerning indulgences , it being only to illustrate this infallible truth , that these indulgences or any other bull in general or directed in particular to this kingdom , cannot be supposed to flow from the popes intention , since they so palpably are against his more solemn declared pleasure , which he annually renews . nor ought any roman catholick here look on them but as the tricks of private missionaries for their own advantage , since they perfectly contradict , not only the laws of the nation , but the fundamental laws of the romish church it self . we may indeed speak of popes bulls , brother , as of letters patents obtained from princes of course , which though , when according to law , are binding , not only to subjects , but against themselves and successors ; yet when they proceed contrary to the fundamentals of their government , then are they of no value , but in themselves void , mankind always in such cases supposing the prince to be deceived in his grant : so stands the case here . till his holiness takes off the excommunication of this nation , which is an effect of his plenitude of power , and accords with the fundamentals of his regiment ; no bull sent hither ought to be taken notice of , they being in themselves apparently void , as well as contrary to the laws of the nation , made in catholick times , near two hundred years before the pope cast off it , or it the pope : bringing in a bull to this kingdom without the kings leave , being then made praemunire , which law was for all that time complied with by very many , and as we say , good popes . to sum up all , it comes to this : things in themselves no sins , cannot become such , but by some lawful prohibition . going to church in it self is no sin , nor can it become so by the popes command to a country in which he renounces all power : england is such a country ; therefore till he or his successors take off the excommunication , no catholick is obliged to take notice of that , or any other pretended command sent from him hither , but perfectly ( è contrà ) therefore going to church is lawful in england for roman catholicks . but not to leave the point thus : i begin to doubt extremely , whether we are not obliged in conscience to go to church as the law directs , or at least when we omit it , freely to pay the penalty . for it is granted on all hands , that a thing not malum in se may become malum prohibitum , if commanded by lawful authority , which i hope none of us will deny the government in england to be : i 'm sure he that should , would deserve the severest execution provided by the most sanguinary law. now the government of england requires all the subjects thereof to meet together at such a time and such a place , no matter where , suppose it salisbury plain ; doth any man think he would deserve the protection thereof that should obstinately , without lawful excuse , refuse to come thither ? no certainly he would not , only incur deservedly the penalty provided ; but speaking like christians , who are directed to obey for conscience sake , he would commit a grievous sin against god. now what excuse can we make for our obstinacy , in refusing to go to the churches at times commanded ? the popes pretended commands will not do ; for were they more binding than the laws of a nation , which certainly they are not , yet can we have none such from him , having no bishops or spiritual superiours left , whom we might or ought to trust for the truth of them when they came , and we have his too too solemn promise , that he will have nothing to do with us . this being so , i am afraid the private discourses and false pretences of private mercenary jesuits and missionaries will not be a sufficient basis to rely upon before the last tribunal for such obstinate resistance against lawful authority in things in themselves wholly indifferent . now , brother , i know mr. politick the jesuit , if you shew him this , will presently bless himself with the sign of the cross , desire all to joyn in a pater noster and ave maria against the infection , and then dogmatically affirm i am turned a rank , nay dangerous heretick . your daughters must be desired to visit me no more , for fear of perversion ; nay you will be perswaded to double my annuity , on condition i never see your face again . well , if these afflictions should happen , i cannot help it ; but for the mind i am in , it must be stronger arguments shall hinder me from avoiding conviction , as long as with a safe conscience i can . and i think there are none such ; for i have considered all i ever hitherto have heard , and to me they appear weak and impertinent . but that i may not be thought only to affirm this , i will sum up all i know any thing to the purpose . to begin first then with scandal , which is one argument mainly urged , i suppose it can never be intended , that if a weak brother , id est , perhaps a fool , shall be troubled in mind that i have six dishes of meat at my table , and himself and many better christians than i , have , it may be , scarce half a one ; that i must therefore , for fear of being an eye-sore to him , retrench my self to his fragments . and yet s. paul , as to his own practice , seemed to resolve this , since he says , he would never eat meat whilst he lived , rather than offend the weak brethren : so i suppose , and reasonably , that his doctrines of scandals were calculated for the use of christian teachers , and those that sought to be rulers in the church . for had he intended them for all christians , i am afraid they would have proved heavier burdens on believers than ever were imposed on the primitive observers of the mosaical law , and would have but ill accorded with the great argument for conversion , which was christian liberty from duties which they and their forefathers were not able to undergo . nor is it reasonable to think i am bound to part with two thirds of my estate , because some fool my neighbour may think me an heretick by my going to church ; no , let him think on , the sin is his , not mine , who do nothing but what in it self is lawful , and what becomes my duty by the laws commanding it . but he judges amiss of my interiour faith by my outward actions , though lawful , and therefore sins in want of charity . thus much i believe may serve for scandal , though much more might be said . the next objection proceeds from this , that it is made the sign of faith , and therefore he that complies in it , owns the church of englands doctrine : but this must be by all rational men positively denied , if they will consider these following circumstances . first , when going to church was commanded in england by a penal statute , it was designed rather for opportunity to instruct people , educated roman catholicks , in the principles of the protestants , than as an act of general uniformity in faith , which could not so suddenly be expected . next , it would have been a vain way of trying the faith of papists by a thing they might lawfully , according to their own religion , do : nor can we believe the people of england assembled in parliament could be so ignorant , had they been minded then to have known the hearts of persons , as to have fallen upon so impertinent a test . for to my sorrow we find , when they intended , that they knew a ready and infallible way to do it . but suppose the worst , that the law designed it as a tryal of faith , and a discovery of persons popishly inclined ( permitting still the thing in it self to be no sin ) that can no ways oblige you to the refusal of it ; for i would desire mr. jesuit to tell me , why you are more obliged openly to declare your self a catholick , than he is to owne himself a priest ? fear of death i am sure should not deter him , since , if he dyes , his faith calls it martyrdom , which gains a crown of glory , a temptation sufficient , and much beyond what any of them will secure you for your estate . but if he , like s. paul , thinks it lawful to get down in a basket , you may as advisedly come to christ by night . for is it reasonable , that because the law says , every popish recusant shall be convicted , that therefore i should be bound presently to run and confess my self a papist at the next sessions ? for 't is as rational to affirm that , as to say i am bound , when the law prescribes a thing to be done for tryal of my faith , which i may in conscience do , presently to cry out against it , and refuse it for that cause only . if that were so , then it would be no hard matter , by another trick , to banish us all the realm , by declaring , whosoever should be within this kingdom on the 25 of march next , should be esteemed to all intents and purposes no roman catholicks , but good sons of the church of england , whether they communicated in it or no. now i am afraid , brother , if such a sign of faith as this were by the law made , yet mr. jesuit would find many excuses for staying after that time . but if he would not , i wish with all my heart the parliament would make such a statute , that we might be rid of them . but they know better their principles , than to hope so fair a riddance by so easie a way ; no , these are but weak arguments to lead the too believing laity by the noses , it must be stronger toyls that shall catch their elephant understandings . therefore , good brother , let you and i be no longer held by them . for 't is plain , neither scandal nor signum fide ought to be a hindrance to me from doing a thing in it self indifferent , and which becomes my duty by the law 's commanding it . the next material objection i have from some of our spiritual misleaders met with , is , that as faith comes by hearing , so does heresie ; therefore we ought to avoid the place where it is taught , lest we should be misguided into it . if you answer this , by saying the argument would hold all the world over , and so make it a sin as well in france as here , then they reply , that in catholick countries , though you hear heresie in a protestant sermon , yet you have a catholick sermon presently clears the point , and makes it indubitable on the churches side . now this by the prohibition of religion is prevented in england , and therefore the case very different . one would think this a very subtile argument , so notably put together , that there would be no possibility of answering it , if one did but very much stand in awe of the magisterial mountebank , that it may be with a world of rhetorical flourishes , and grave quotations out of scotus , doth positively affirm this to be the opinion of all school-men , nay the catholick church it elf . but heaven knows , examine it a little , and you will find it a meer rope of sand , as solidly compacted as their ridiculous , though politick doctrine of probabilities , and no better . for will not they , or any observing man confess , that the romanists of england , take them one with another , are ten for one more learned and confirmed in the principles of their religion , than those of france , or any catholick country indeed are ? he that considers that most of the natives of this kingdom , who are of that faith , be either persons of quality , who have had great advantages by education , or converts from the protestants , will easily believe there must be a great disparity between such and the general herd of vulgars , bred in countries under a religion no ways famous for making the common people too knowing . but suppose it is not so , and that those who have so long strugled under difficulties in their fortunes for conscience sake , have done it more out of ignorance , the mother , as some say , of popish devotion , than of understanding ; yet will the former argument wash away in that part which says , those in catholick countries have more opportunity of being untaught what they might prejudicially have suckt in . for none will deny , but more doctrine is collected from rational discourses pro and con , than from such set speeches as sermons are . therefore considering there are few gentlemen in england of the romish religion , who have 500 l. per ann. but keep a priest in their houshold ; how is it likely , if good arguments be to be found against every thing the protestants teach contrary to the romish faith , but that they should presently , upon inquiry , have their new-raised scruples at church by such sooner and stronger wip't off , than a person that it may be in a catholick country may go to church both sunday and other holy-day a year before he hears any sermon , casually to glance upon that point , whereon such doubt of his arose ? and i dare affirm , so sweet is the profit the jesuits and missionaries find in england , that there resides , and is like to do constantly so many here , that few papists need to be a day from speaking with one of them , and that is an advantage equal to the most catholick nations . but suppose all here said nothing to the purpose , but that 't is likely many would be changed in time , and become protestants ; what is that to you or i , brother , or indeed to any rational lay catholick in england ? for he whose case it should be , need not much repine that his conscience should lead him into a more advantageous religion as to this world : and for the other , he would no doubt be as confident of a good place there , if he acted purely upon the score of faith , as ever he was whilst he remained papist . but i confess many such accidents as those would shrewdly inconvenience the priests , and in time lessen their number : but still what is that to you or i , brother ? i find no canon of any general council commanding you to give two thousand pound a year to increase the number of priests , or to maintain those that be . nor can i believe christian religion ever obliged its professors to such remote considerations . no , all men were not bound , like s. paul , to love to that extremity , as to wish damnation for their country-mens sakes . they that can , let them ; but still say i , brother , keep your money , you 'l repent it else one day , take my word for it . another argument i have heard started , which is , that if catholicks should go to church , yet the parliament would at last find out something like the late test for imployments , by which they would be found out , and so consequently be no ways the better , but suffer equally to what they should do by recusancy . to this i answer , that i ought as a christian to obey the government , as far as i can in conscience , and that for conscience sake , and to trust the divine providence , in whose hands are the hearts of princes and rulers , for any thing by them for the future to be commanded ; which if i cannot then comply with , i must either follow the direction of flying in persecution from city to city , or patiently suffer for my sins what god shall please by the law to impose upon me . but this supposition , how well grounded soever it may seem , ought not to hinder me from complying , as far as i am able at the present ; such test , when , if ever , it comes , will then with its penalties be time enough to submit to . but i am of the opinion , and not without some colour of reason , that such a test may never be , especially if catholicks would leave off recusancy . the grounds for my conceptions are these . the people of england boast of this priviledge beyond most european nations , if not all , that no person is bound by torture or oath to accuse himself of any thing , which by the law is penal ; but that proof ought to come of matter of fact before he suffer . now this so rational a priviledge , which frees us from the slavish subjection of those governed by the civil law , all english parliaments hitherto have been extremely tender of , as appears by those laws provided for security of religion since the reformation . for every person knows , they who incur punishment by not complying in forms of worship , or matters of faith , do it out of tenderness of conscience , though it may be misguided . now such persons one may well believe would scruple above all things a false oath : therefore if our law-makers had not been very careful of this english free-mans priviledge , they might have quickly left a latitude to judges , and other inferiour magistrates by interrogatories upon oath to have found out all persons , that had through conscience offended against any ecclesiastical law ; as , whether have you heard mass within a year or no ? have you asserted or taught the popes supremacy , or brought in crosses , beads , or images , &c. but we find no such method allowed ; which can spring from nothing but the care of this sacred english priviledge , always firmly rooted in the breasts of the compilers of english statutes . for i should think , if ever they would have strained the point , it would have been in detection of jesuits and roman priests , a people they have long strove wholly to extirpate , as appears by the punishment provided for them , which is not only made capital , but of the highest nature any english law has yet prescribed ; yet they never went so far as to force them that were suspected upon oath to purge themselves : which had they done , none could have been left alive in the nation . for i have this opinion of them , not one would , upon such examination , deny himself , except he intended to desert his faith : and this the makers of those statutes as well knew as the late usurpers over all the laws , rights , and priviledges of this nation did , when they took that never-failing method of examining them upon oath ; and detected , though not executed , all they tryed that way . but the lawful princes and parliaments of this kingdom have always avoided opening so dangerous a gap to perfect slavery ; for it would be less unreasonable for men on corporal oath to declare whether they were guilty of treason , murder , theft , forgery , adultery , or any other notorious crime against the law of nature and the nation , than that they should be forced to discover thoughts , which if not reduced into practice , could concern the good or ill of no person but themselves , and yet when known , should bring them under heavier penalties than some of the other crimes . for this reason , till i see it , i may justly believe there will never be such a way appointed in our law for searching mens soles , whatsoever probability there hath been of it lately . as for the late test , that can no ways be brought in objection against me , since nations may prescribe what gates they please , through which any person is to arrive at preferment in it . and it is not at all unnatural or unpracticable , that a proper oath be provided for any one that takes an imployment ; nay , it hath always been the law and custom of this nation , since christianity , if not before , for every person to submit to some sort of oath before he entred upon any trust in the common wealth ; insomuch that the kings themselves are not wholly exempted from it . now it is not at all more unreasonable , that one general form over and above such particular ones , should be prescribed by the law-makers at their directions , for all such as seek preferments to comply with , or not be capable of them ; for what i receive , but of grace cannot be called a penalty , if i want : and under that head fall all imployments in a kingdom that are either of profit or honour . for i suppose the being hindred from those of trouble will by no person be esteemed a grievance . so the imposition of the late test cannot be called a purgation of men by their personal oaths , to bring them under legal penalties . nor can indeed the oaths of allegiance and supremacy , it having been the method of all common-wealths to prescribe some form to the subject , whereby to own the government ; and that is in themselves discretion all . nor ought we to suppose a government can be malicious to its members , or that it would lay snares for them , but rather that whatever they prescribe , proceeds from the desire of general security , they still framing their oaths so , that they know all good subjects may take them : if any cannot or will not , it lies upon such to quit the protection of that state , and no ways obliges the state to comply with their obstinacy : and this last word for ought i know , doth too much belong to those that first brought up the custom amongst catholicks , of refusing the two aforesaid oaths , of which more hereafter . in the mean time i only affirm , that we ought not to omit doing our duty to the laws , as far as they now bind us , because there may come such as we may no ways be able to comply with . but it is an hundred to one too , that may never happen from the reason aforesaid ; and it would be more unlikely , if there was a general compliance in the mean time to those things all rational men know roman catholicks might do , nay which many known , wise , and devout men of them have in former times , and do at this present practise , as i could instance beyond all controversie , if i pleased , in this thing at present treated of , which is going to church . but , brother , i know it would be needless to you , as well as prejudicial to them , and therefore i shall forbear names in a thing so notorious ; only be you as wise , and do not be led by the nose to infallible ruine , by the bold , nay sawcy assertions of fellows , whose business is to secure themselves , command over your conscience no ways belonging to them , that they may thereby be masters of such part of your remaining estate , as shall be necessary to their plenty or prodigality ; which if they , contrary to their duty and function , sought not , why should they study false positions , and impose them on you meerly to insnare your estate ? they ought surely to open the narrow way to heaven at least as wide as it might be , and not lay stumbling-blocks in our ways , never found out but in this miserable nook of the world , nor no where taught or thought on , but by our missionaries from rome , and our traiterous fugitives , that on religions first alteration fled thither . for such being guilty of hainous treasons against our princes , sought first to justifie their villanies by pretences of religion , having by their pernicious , false , and damnable doctrines and positions , not only done vast hurt to the honest professors of that , but have placed upon it scandals not to be wip't off but with the end of time it self . and these wretches being grown desperate with the ill success of their damnable designs , daring not to return into that kingdom , against which they had so traiterously practised , sought to involve all the moderate party , which stayed behind , into ruine , in revenge of their not unanimous joyning with them in their black attempts on the persons of our lawful princes and governours . these were the persons that suggested to the popes motives , for those idle bulls so sent in contradiction of their more solemn declared intention , if any such did come , which we are now ways obliged to believe , did or could ; but if they had or did , 't is not at all material , they being no more significant in england , than a letter mandatory from the grand signior would be . and indeed some of these pretended bulls contained such commands to their beloved catholick children here ( as they were pleased to call them in contradiction to their excommunication ) that they should unanimously have petitioned the king , that both the original and all the copies of them might have been solemnly burnt by the common hangman . nay , any person that knew him , ought upon pain of damnable sin , to have discovered the bringer of them ; in that if a priest , he might have received the well-merited death of a traitor ; or if a lay-man , all the law has in that case too easily provided . i need not instance which bulls i mean , they are so often brought against the catholick religion it self by protestant writers , and sufficiently to the shame , though not of the popish religion , yet of those popes who granted them , and of those papists that adhere to , or defend such roman court doctrines . but from such catterpillers of the christian faith as those , did arise , amongst many more dangerous new positions , this of being not lawful for roman catholicks to go to church , as the law requires in england and for the sakes and on the wise authority of such desperate casuists , have many of our foolish forefathers lost two thirds of their estates , rendred themselves suspected to the people , and incapable of serving , as they ought to do , their lawful prince in his extraordinary occasions ; which when they have attempted to do , this their open unnecessary dissention has cast an odium unjustly both on himself and his actions for imploying them . now if it be inquired by you or your confessaries , what arguments could move pope pius quintus , or his immediate successor , to send a bull of prohibition to the catholicks in england for going to church , the thing being in it self no fault , and as i affirm so positively against the rules and practices of their predecessors , nay against the fundamentals of their government : to this i must answer , there were divers motives in policy , as they observed things of this island in rome , though none in religion . first , they were perswaded by such traitors as fled hence thither , that almost the whole nation remained catholicks , notwithstanding the queen had altered the government . and that they would find them such ignorant ones too , as their holy predecessors had known them , when they made this nation the pack-horse to their pride , and a perpetual fountain of money to their treasuries , which some of them with admiration boasted could never be exhausted . upon these suppositions they were made to believe , that such a bull would cause this mighty party to be visible , not only to their enemies , but themselves , to the terrour of one , and incouragement to the uniting of the other party . this was one , and it may be the grand motive of that proceeding , so contrary to all president . the next , and in all likelihood not the least motive might be the perswasion of those traitors , that there would be found in england many as desperate as themselves to bandy together , take arms against , or assasinate the queen , when they saw their party so considerable as this would prove it , besides the blessing , must needs attends such pious endeavours , warranted by his holinesses care and direction . but all these policies and practices did by the wisdom of that queen and her council , only tend to the discovering such desperates , as being of the like principles , thereon took arms , and were for it deservedly executed , or forced to increase the numbers of those fugitives in voluntary banishment . but notwithstanding this might , like a message from heaven , sufficiently have warned the catholicks of england from hearkening any more after news from rome , at least till the popes should have been so charitable to re-admit them into the congregation of the faithful , by taking off the excommunication from them ; yet have the private missionaries ( being all sent into the nation under the title of traitors by the law ) so adhered to the tenets of the court , as well as church of rome which sends them , that they have by degrees instilled into the laity here many principles of adherence to the pope , that would be laught at in france , and some few other rational catholick kingdoms . amongst which , this of thinking the popes commands can make that a sin , which in it self is none , ought to be accounted one . upon which ground alone they refuse to obey the law in the thing now in debate ; for which i think they are but justly punisht with the loss of their estates . but , brother , be you wiser , study the catholick doctrine , as it is taught by fathers and councils , and not as it would fain be made by the novel positions of ignatius's followers , between whom and you there is a vast difference ; both in the duty you owe to the king and his laws , as likewise in those you stand obliged in to rome . for first , they and all other missionaries , being the hour they set foot here , become traitors , and so consequently in all the business they come about , not only out of the protection , but under the severest censure of the law ; no wonder they have not the same respect for it other subjects ought to have , but dare practise lesser contradictions that offend in the greater . nay it may be against their going to church scandal would prove a good argument , since they pretend to be ready always to lay down their lives for the increase of their faith ; but this is no ways your or any other lay catholicks case , the law , if you obey in some particulars prescribed , giving you equal protection with others of the national principles . another thing to be considered , is , that the hour they receive holy orders , they take an oath of subjection to the pope , and so by the same act become renouncers of their allegiance to the king , and subject to his holiness . now how far this may be consonant to christian religion , i will not examine here ; but i am sure it puts them in a very different posture , as to the popes designs , to what any other catholicks are in : they being , according to their vow , upon the least summons to leave the country , and to go where his holinesses good pleasure appoints them ; which i hope none of them will be so impudent to say you are obliged to do , brother , except it be such as hold the mad doctrine of popes having power to depose princes . for though the other doth not sound so ill , yet is it in effect the same ; for to be able to command a princes subjects out of his dominions , doth imply a power of leaving him none there , which would produce an effectual deposing of him in the end . another considerable difference between lay catholicks and missionary priests in this kingdom , arises from the ones having estates , and the other none . for no body can blame the last sort of gentlemen to desire their power over the consciences of the other should be as far extended as might be , if one consult , as most of mankind does , their private interest . alas , what is it to mr. politick your ghostly father , that you shall lose by your conviction 2000 l. a year ? his allowance will be never the less , he knows , but his power will be much more . for in the first place , that is a sure sign you are as firmly resolved to live and die a catholick , as if he saw you at the stake to receive martyrdom for it . do you think after that he will not take upon him to direct you what servants it is proper you keep , how many horses , and when you may use them for recreation , and when not ? at what hour mass shall be , and what is the critical minute for dinner , supper , and bed-time in a well ordered house ? if i had not seen the domineering domine's extend their spiritual dominion in a devout family , much beyond these small matters , i would have been silent ; but heaven knows , and so do you , brother , that in such popish families , where the hen crows , these are but the least of their insolencies : for such women as are very ill-natur'd to their husbands , and perhaps something ugly , have little to imploy their time in but masses , litanies . rosaries , jesus psalters , and juniper-lectures ; and these are generally great friends of the priests , with whom they share the dominion of the hen-peckt gentleman , till poor man he is glad to make the confessaries an advocate to his devout bed fellow for a play-day , that he may have leave to meet some few neighbours to dust a stand of ale , which he wishes may prove bottomless , that he might not be forc't to return again to keep company by stealth with his fellow-servant the steward in his own cellar , where he bribes the butler with a stollen tester to keep counsel . now in this condition , dear brother , on my next visit i expect to find you . by that time i suppose all things will be put in due discipline in your houshold , where , no doubt , i shall be welcom'd with friday-fares , and new appointed fasting-days for my conversion , or at least driving me out of doors again ; but be it as it will , i cannot for bear telling you , that the priests , who have nothing to lose , will animate you by false pretences to incur the sequestration that will suddenly succeed your late conviction , whereby they will confirm their yet doubtful tyranny over your conscience , and then see what will follow . besides the loss of that goes into the exchequer , you will find a strange growing charge for indulgences , masses for your grandfathers , fathers , brothers , sisters , and all your departed relations souls . nay , if i should be so unkind to you as to die too , 't is not twice my annuity would pay for all the conditional masses they would say were absolutely necessary for my terribly to be doubted soul. alas , brother , you cannot consider what a chargeable thing devotion in our religion is , if it be accompanied with visible ignorance , and that the priest once know the blind side , all goes , and there is no sign of it neither , the jesuits having a bottomless bag , into which they throw all they ever have or shall get from the foolish penitents of their order . i could , nay would , and if provoked , will name several particular cheats acted by the fathers of the society on devout catholicks that were their penitents , and had good estates , but were almost undone by them in these late times . but i am as loth to scandalize them , as i am sure they will think me by this paper willing to do it : and therefore i shall omit mentioning any of them particularly , especially to you who i know are sensible of some of them your self . but leaving all these particulars , or any thing else that may too much reflect , i will return to the matter in hand , which is the lawfulness of going to church , whatsoever they or any of their predecessors have , or can say to the contrary . i think i have made it plain , that neither the popes commands , scandal , sign of faith , want of opportunity to be satisfied in the scruples sermons might raise , nor the fear of some future test , can oblige any lay catholick to disobey the law by recusancy : but rather notwithstanding these priestly inventions , they are all obliged in conscience to go to church , as long as the magistrates , who gives vigour to the law , requires it . now i will a little touch upon those things that the law farther requires to be done by lay persons , not seeking imployments , and so leave you afterterwards , brother , to your prayers and tears , that god would turn the hearts of the rulers , if you shall still obstinately persist in your resolution of rather suffering in a crowd without reason , than save your self by it . first then , let us consider the oath of allegiance , against the taking of which there want not numbers of jesuits and priests that do exclaim , nor many catholicks that thereupon fear to take it , though as king james well observed in the compiling it , there was particular care taken as well by himself as others , that there might not be one word in it , which might raise a scruple in a person willing to obey the civil magistrate . yet notwithstanding , this is so certainly true , that i never yet could meet with one rational argument against any sentence , word , or syllable in it ( except such as were grounded on that , not only heretical , but diabolical doctrine of the popes having power to depose princes ) notwithstanding this , i say , yet had and have the missionaries such full dependence on the court of rome , that a great part of them , but especially the jesuits and their devotes did always both then and lately strive to raise scruples in the consciences of the more confiding sort of lay papists , to hinder them from taking it ; by that means striving as much as in them lay , to keep some ready for the execution of any desperate attempt they might have opportunity to design upon the state. now , brother , i desire you would not take me to be too uncharitable in this assertion of mine . for to what purpose else should they strive to deter men from taking an oath , the refusal whereof is of the direst consequence , both to life and estate , and yet wherein there is not the least thing contrary to religion , except the renouncing all rebellious designs be such ? i wish with all my heart i could frame some other less reflecting excuse , both for those persons of quality and lesser persons sake , that have formerly and very lately by their insinuations , not only scrupled , but too notoriously refused giving the kingdom that small satisfaction of their future loyalty by taking it ; but i fear it is impossible . now what in the name of wonder can the meaning be , that when the law , religion , reason it self , and the example of many noble , many wise , many devout , many , nay most zealous catholicks of the kingdom 's readiness to take it , should concur to perswade all to do it , yet that there should be still a party so led away by the dogmatical authority of the jesuits , that without shewing a reason , dare boldly affirm it not lawful , it may be , as a strong argument , adding a forc't sigh , with a miserere for those that do take it ? i say that there should be still such a party amongst us , that on no better grounds have , and do refuse so justifiable and necessary an oath , is not only a great wonder , but a terrible scandal to all those of a contrary religion . they no doubt ( and it may be not without justice ) do believe there wants only opportunity for catholicks to renew all those bloody stratagems against the state the predecessors of the refusers of that oath did unsuccessfully attempt , though we in our private discourses do never so much pretend to abhor them . for when they reflect , that few or none of us but hold the pope can absolve us from any oath we have or can take , and that many of us resolve not to stand in need of that , but to refuse all oaths that should oblige us to the performance of our duty to the king ; how can such , not having any violent propensity of love to us , but believe that there is some damnable design lockt up in the breasts of such refusers , in which the others may close when it is ripe , there being no more hold of them than of a wet eel by the tail , since an absolving bull upon the gates , or for a need on the ruines of pauls , makes the government and us as much strangers , as if we never had seen one the other ? now i protest , when i have seriously reflected on ancient popish plots , on some sorts of tenets , which we almost think catholick , as this of the popes power of absolving from oaths , which protestants believe , nay and some catholicks too , means from allegiance , and on the obstinacy of us to refuse the commands of the law in things indifferent ; i say , when i have reflected on these things without the prejudice given me by my education , i have wondred the laws against us have not been more severe than they are , nay that they almost suffered a people , of whom they could have no more certainty in state-affairs , and so apparently declared humble servants to a foreign authority , to live at all amongst them . now , brother , i will not at all dispute the lawfulness in religion to take the oath of allegiance , since i know you have taken it , and are not yet so absolutely bigotted to the obedience of the spiritual commands of your ghostly tyrant , but that you be ready on requiring to do it again ; so that a discourse of that nature would be needless to you . but for all that , i will a little glance on that proposition so generally accepted of , the popes having power to absolve at pleasure any person from an oath he hath taken . now that he has undertook to do this , is beyond contradiction , and that several changes and revolutions in affairs of the world , both private and publick , have thereupon happened , is as plain . but by what authority he at first assumed that power , i believe is not , and may be worth a rational catholicks inquiring after , that he may the better know how with a good conscience ( that will hold test before the popes superiour at the last tryal ) to demean himself in a country , whose magistrates are of another religion . now as a step towards this matter , i will beg leave of his holiness to believe there were men in the world , and governments too , before there were popes ; and that there were too amongst them certain moral rules , by which they began , continued , and increased in the world. now no doubt amongst many others there were solemn compacts confirmed by overt acts , which they accounted sacred ; and whosoever , after having entred into such holy obligations , did violently break them , were by the rest of mankind either extirpated , if dangerous , or despised , and never more trusted , if weakly so perjur'd . now it will as certainly follow , that new accidents and revolutions in common-wealths or families , might make it morally necessary , that the obligations lying upon one or many persons therein , by such sacred tyes , ought to be broke for the safety it is possible of the whole . an observation of which mankind soon found out methods to distinguish persons so necessarily acting against those sacred tyes which we call oaths , from such as wilfully despised them ; that the first sort , though breaking their vows literally , might be kept from the scandal and punishment of covenant-breakers , whilst the last should remain still under the lash of the law , or contempt of their fellow creatures . humane nature falling necessarily under these circumstances , it was requisite to appoint or agree upon some judgment , which should be absolute in the point of determining when men were perjur'd by breaking their vows , and when not , to which persons naturally would have recourse before they attempted the doing of it . now these compacts , oaths , or vows were usually either in temples , with the assistance of the sacred ministers made , or at least sworn by the deity or deities , to which such people were devoted ; and therefore consultations concerning the necessity of altering those resolutions , were usually had with the chiefest of those heavenly officers : and for this reason amongst some , other princes of large kingdoms did in ancient time keep the chief celestial character united to the regal . for experience shewed , that men naturally seeking liberty , began to pervert that obligation which nature taught , of omitting the performance of vows , extremely prejudicial to society , into a belief , that there resided a power in these spiritual judges of the necessity absolutely to absolve at their discretion any person they pleased : so quickly the one through ambition of having such an authority , and the other finding a convenience to satisfie their loose appetites , if they bribed the possessors of this divine good pleasure , did almost acquiesce in this unreasonable belief , that there was a power delegated from heaven to certain men , which made them gods below : and that such persons had a power to make that at their good pleasure no sin , which in it self , if there be any good thing or bad , must naturally be so . this indeed was the general practice of the ancient world before christianity ; insomuch that moses the most divine law-giver amongst them , did take it to himself , though he is far from being commended for it by our saviour , when he speaks of the jewish priviledge or general dispensation from one natural oath , which is marriage , that moses was pleased , by virtue of this authority he assumed to himself , to leave to that whole nation . for our saviour plainly says , this power did not come from god , but was assumed by moses for the hardness of their hearts , and that all that dispensation notwithstanding to put away a wife , except for the case of adultery ( which seems a natural dissolution of the compact ) was a sin . so that i conclude : our saviour who had almost as much authority as the pope , never did pretend to any like that of making things in their own natures sinful , to become none ; but taught , that it was not in the power of moses , nor any man else to do it . then let us descend to times succeeding that fulness of it which produced the redemption of mankind . s. paul teaches sufficiently the necessity of keeping vows ; and i do not find his holinesses predecessor s peter very frequent with his dispensations . but leaving them , and hastening to those ages , in which through the piety of christian emperours , the popes had arrived to a competency of temporal , as well as plentitude of spiritual authority in the world ; we do not find for some ages after , that though several emperours turned arrian , any pope pretended to an authority of dispensing their subjects from the oaths of fidelity they had taken to them . but it is possible some may , and not impertinently , answer , there was then scarce such a thing in the world as an oath of allegiance ; therefore dispensations from what were not in being , could not be expected . to this i assent , and do well know christian religion in its primitive innocency taught obedience from the laws of nature , which some called conscience , and did not suppose any persons truly toucht with its divine doctrines , could need any other obligation to perform their duties either to god or their neighbour , than what their sacred initiating vow of baptism laid upon them . and so far i believe the quakers , not without a true hint , that they needed one amongst another no other affirmations but yea and nay , and that they guided their conversations by the true rule nature had taught them , which the quakers call the light within them . but when religion became national , and that many wicked people took the name of christianity more for worldly than heavenly advantage , then were they forced to have recourse to new sort of solemn oaths , taken either in publick churches , where kings did likewise condescend to take new invented coronation oaths , and the people oaths of subjection in return . in the management of which ceremony , the bishops were the chief officers , which by degrees hankt a great respect to them , and they not a little ambitious of more , taught the dependency of subjects and princes one upon the other , not to be from the laws of nature , but from these compacts , which their authority and nothing else could make sacred . these dangerous tenets princes not only at first connived at , but made use of . for the greatest part of the world being then shifting subjection from the roman empire to native or more neighbouring dominions , was shatter'd into petty regencies ; so that the bishops , who preserved a kind of unity of their distinct authorities in that of the roman sees , had a greater power over the common peoples minds , than those kings of counties had . so that indeed dominion was often transferred from lawful princes that durst stomach these spiritual usurpations , to usurpers that would truckle to the clergy for their good word to prefer them . thus all things becoming again as in the first corruruption of humane nature , where every body were forced to secure themselves from violence and oppression by obligations , they believed most sacred oaths invented or formed by popes and other bishops became the method ; which when there was a necessity of breaking , then they were consulted with as persons best able to judge of that necessity , and above all of them the pope , as the most eminent , and then thought most disinterested bishop , he being well provided for in temporalties , and very much eased from such entire subjection to the civil magistrate , as other bishops in particular still remained under ; so from an unprejudiced assistant to conscience , he by frequency of addresses became at length an umpire , then in a manner sole judge of what oaths or compacts remained sacred , and what by contingencies ceased to be obligatory . so by degrees , as naturally all men aspire after power , he took upon him to give , and the world accepted from him of course dispensations from any vows were troublesom either to their affairs or appetites ; and it may be , if he could have stopt here , the world and most princes in it would have been contented still to have made use of this impossible power he had assumed ; but at last they flew to such practices , as disturbed , nay destroyed their own soveraign , the emperours that opposed their insolencies , and attempted no less against most christian kingdoms : nay to such a height were they arrived , that few kingdoms but must owne they did at one time or other receive a new race of kings from their appointment . and though several of them , as particularly this kingdom , have by gods providence received again their natural princes , yet was it long first , and perhaps not truly in this nation , till king james's assuming the crown . but this excess , as well in their extention , as execution of their usurp't authority , alarm'd the world , and put that upon new consultations for its safety against a power which pretended to the deposing of princes , and alteration of governments , without so fair a warning as the beat of drum. this produced our statute of praemunire against any person that should bring a bull from rome , and that as early as richard the second's days , wherein it is likewise provided , that if any nuntio , legate , &c. should presume to set foot in this nation on a message from the pope , without having first procured the kings licence , he should be proceeded against as an enemy to the state. this and many other laws of the like kind made both in this nation and other kingdoms about those times , sufficiently shew how weary and afraid the catholick world were grown of the popes pride and usurpations . but to return to the matter : if we will be so foolish to allow all things may lawfully be done , that have successfully been so , then the popes have not only a power to absolve all persons from their oaths and compacts , but likewise to alter the government of nations , and dispense to subjects their natural obediences to their lawful soveraigns , which are tenets few roman catholicks in the world do hold to the full , and such as do , it is pity should be suffered to breathe any air in safety but that of s. john's de lateran , or the vatican . but not to leave the matter fully as i found it upon doubtful suppositions , whether they have any authority or no to dispense with any sort of vows whatsoever , i will proceed to divide all sorts of oaths in the world under these three several kinds . first , oaths to declare ones assent , or to strengthen ones duty in performance of such things as the law imprinted in every rational soul does require , should however be done . secondly , oaths of compact between prince and prince , state and state , or private person and private person , &c. thirdly , voluntary vows or oaths to perform some religious exercise or function , &c. under these three heads i conceive all oaths that have ever seemed to need or require dispensation , do fall . as from oaths in evidence , those come not under our consideration . now in the first kind , neither the pope , nor any power that is , or ever was visible on earth , could or can dispense ; for that implies an authority to give leave to commit things malas in se , and under this head does clearly fall obedience of subjects to their princes , children to their parents , &c. things that , if there never had been religion , would have no sooner lost their respect , but humane nature would have lost its being by running into perfect confusion , which would quickly have produced its perfect extirpation . so that oaths of this kind were not invented to create , but to keep in memory our duty : and where , upon great confusions in , and alterations of a common-wealth , they have seemed to be otherways , in such cases they will fall under the next head. which are compacts ratified by oath for mutual convenience . these no power on earth , neither ever could or had authority to dispense with , except by consent of all parties to the bargain or agreement ; for to affirm the contrary , would imply some one person still remaining in mr. hobbs state of nature , presiding over all his leviathans , who should not only have ▪ a right to every thing in the world , but to break and dissolve all the government of it at his pleasure , and indeed to annihilate humane nature it self . but though no single person simply can have this power of dispensing the performance of compacts , yet have the compactors themselves the undoubted right of releasing one the other without consultation of any person unconcerned in the world. yet have popes not only in the first , but likewise in the last , often put in their fingers , as particularly in the hungarians fatal breach of solemn faith , to the which punishment visibly showr'd from heaven on the perjur'd army , owned by many catholick divines almost as miraculous , has sufficiently evidenced to the world what little confirmation above is of such impious and destructive dispensations . but when the compactors themselves dispense one the other , no body bogles or starts at the breach of the oath , as we see lately in holland , where the states general dispensed the prince of orange , themselves and the country of an oath taken against state-holders , which i have not yet heard of any man so say was not lawful for them by mutual consent to do . though i know , had it been a popish country , there would have been some fees expected at the apostolick chamber for his holinesses unnecessary dispensation . thus we see , that oaths in themselves dispensable , are easily by the proper persons dispensed , without the authority of a heavenly delegate , who can never arrive to a greater dominion rightfully in the matter , than as a person whose discretion is proper to advise with , and can only be that too to such as are pleased freely to think him so . but as for the last branch of religious vows , the author or prescriber of the form and fashion of the thing to which they swear , may have power to absolve at discretion from the performance of it ; and i will not say but in our church this may be the popes province , which if he pleases to keep within , he may ; but if he will be still medling , without being called , with other mens concerns , let him for me ; but i fear it will be but to very little purpose ; kings and governours being now wiser than to be over aw'd too much by his pragmatical censures . dear brother , think not i have treated thus long upon vows and dispensations to inform you or any man else in this age , who are wise enough without my help to know that all this boasted power of the popes to dispense men from oaths or their allegiance , has no foundation in reason or religion , and is only bolster'd up with examples of the success of some former bishops of rome in their insolencies ; which way of arguing is just of the same authority , as if i should , to prove the piety of high-way robbing , tell you the story of the late famous hind , who living many years on that profession , yet had the honour to dye for his loyalty to his prince , and not as a thief . but passing all these things over , i do conclude , it is not only lawful to take the oath of allegiance , but to keep it when we have done , nay that we are obliged to do the last under pain of eternal damnation , let the pope say or dispense the contrary how he please . and further i do affirm , no rational man can prove the contrary sufficiently of the other oath , notwithstanding its bugbear name of supremacy . nay now he 's quite gone beyond recovery i am afraid you your self will say notwithstanding all brotherly affection , and then you 'll go on in crying there was some hopes of recovering me to the catholick religion , whilst i only pleaded for going to church and the oath of allegiance , but to say it is lawful to take that horrible terrible oath of supremacy , shews me a confirmed heretick , ready to take the test on the first opportunity for an imployment . but , brother , i desire you to suspend your censure of damnation against me , lest you prove as rash in it , as the pope was that first excommunicated this whole nation in queen elizabeth's time . for no doubt he and several of his successors since have in their minds secretly repented so inconsiderate an act , though they will not acknowledge it , by taking off that censure , till some previous action of the nation requires it , which i am not like to live to see . my reason for this supposition is one of the motives of my asserting the lawfulness for us of taking the oath of supremacy . for what reason can there be for our refusing to do so , since he refuses all spiritual superiority over us , and the king accepts it , and in these two points consists the whole scope of this oath ? it requires me to swear the pope has no authority over this kingdom . and if ▪ i will take his own honest word , he has not , nor will not have . what can be better than his own most solemn excommunication to prove it ? the next point i am to swear , is , that the king is head of all persons and affairs as well ecclesiastical as civil in these his dominions , which no person that hath his right wits i think can deny , as the case now stands . for if ever the popes were heads or supreme in ecclesiastical affairs within this nation , they have long since , by an act of their own as well as of the nations , ceased to be so . therefore if any be , it must be the king , since the law says so ; though it be worth inquiring as to this point , how the law means him head of ecclesiastical matters . first , i suppose it means head of that church and the ecclesiastical affairs therein that is established by law. for it cannot mean any other , since we see a power of dispensation contrary to law for the most minute dissenters , to meet in another form of serving god , has been controverted . not to say more of the point therefore : if there must be but one religion established , and no other tolerated , then the law only intends him head of that , which the pope himself will not deny him to be . so i suppose i may lawfully swear him that , which no other person ever did or can pretend to besides . now this matter having been excellently well treated of and handled in former times by some learned casuists , when the intention of the law , in the point which commands the oath , was not so plain as the law-makers by late passages seem to make it ; i say , since many good catholick casuist priests have writ in defence of the taking it in former times , i will omit to press that further , which to me appears plain ; resolving however , if you shall send me your doubts , of this or any other point discussed herein , that i will readily answer them to the best of my skill , being satisfied in my conscience , that i have said nothing herein scandalous to catholick religion it self , nor to any one but such that make that the sheeps raiment for wolvish designs . so , brother , once again i desire you to take into your serious consideration , what it is to lose a good estate , not for conscience , but ignorance , to make your self uncapable of doing service to your prince , when there may be occasion ; but above all , what scandal you stamp on the ▪ religion you profess , if you obstinately and without reason shall persist in disobedience to every thing the law appoints the subjects of this nation to do . as for your expectation of assistance from the king , it is one of the most unreasonable things , examine it rightly , that can enter into the heads of men , whether you take it quadrate to his personal or rational interest . for alas , to say the catholicks of this nation were all loyal , or rather truly not disloyal to his father and him , is but to make a history of a very short age. for all the world knows , that it is as possible for catholicks to be rebels , if it consists with their interests , as any other men ; for he that should deny this , might as well affirm we had no such thing as rebellions in england before henry the eighth's time , which i suppose , if he would consider how king johns charter of priviledges was extorted from him , he would by no means assert . but alas , let us say what we will on this side the water , our brethren in ireland , we know too well , led the dance to all the late mischiess , except now i reflect on it , they were out-posted by the covenanters of scotland . but indeed it is a folly to expect that any religion , being once become an art , will refuse to have recourse to the sword against being opprest , and i am afraid it is much for want of numbers proportionable , the best of them are quiet in such circumstances . but however supposing the best , that all catholicks were loyal , and that their principles made them so , is that an argument sufficient to make the king provoke all his other subjects to be otherways by his indulgence to them , who are not as one man to a hundred of the nation ? which is most reasonable , that you , dear brother , should strive as far as you can by the rules of your religion to comply with the law for your own advantage , or that the king should be forced to stop the course of it to his own prejudice to comply with your nice obstinacy , meerly because he has your bare word , that you will be very serviceable to him ? if another rebellion shall on that account arise , i am confident the case thus stated , as certainly it does at present stand , all rational men , nay the pope himself , would conclude , that the king in not medling , but letting the law and you tug for it , is much in the right . nor could he himself , were he a subject of any catholick country , expect more friendship or favour . so for whose sake this happens to you is not material , so it is , and is like to be . therefore let me once again advise you , go to mass at seven , to church at nine , and if mr. politick scruples giving you absolution for your sins , except you confess that for one , send to me , i 'le find you one shall venture his neck in the point to serve you for twenty pounds a year , which you may easily save out of the two thousand that is demitia except you follow my counsel , and deal with none but honest catholick priests , not roman courtiers , men that aspire to be provincials , nay perhaps general of their orders for their sturdy tricks in opposition to our laws . these things i have said are great truths , that you will thank me for one day , if you follow the advice ; if not , you will repent your self , when you shall be ashamed not to persist contrary to reason in what you so unreasonably began . i could , brother , have said much more to the point , which it may be i will add as i find you relish this ; till when i shall remain , saying paters and aves for the opening of your understanding to your own good : so farewel . finis . an answer to the bishop of oxford's reasons for abrogating the test impos'd on all members of parliament anno 1678, octob. 30 in these words, i, a.b., do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of god, profess, testifie, and declare, that i do believe that in the sacrament of the lord's supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of christ at, or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever, and that the invocation of adoration of the virgin mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the dais, as they are now used in the church of rome, are superstitious and idolatrous / by a person of quality. lloyd, william, 1627-1717. 1688 approx. 118 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 31 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-10 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a48813 wing l2673 estc r977 11875565 ocm 11875565 50209 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a48813) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 50209) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 501:9) an answer to the bishop of oxford's reasons for abrogating the test impos'd on all members of parliament anno 1678, octob. 30 in these words, i, a.b., do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of god, profess, testifie, and declare, that i do believe that in the sacrament of the lord's supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of christ at, or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever, and that the invocation of adoration of the virgin mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the dais, as they are now used in the church of rome, are superstitious and idolatrous / by a person of quality. lloyd, william, 1627-1717. [2], 6, 46 p. [s.n.], london : 1688. preface signed: drawdereve rofmada. signed, p. 46: dra. locnil. attributed to william lloyd, d.d. cf. halkett & laing. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng parker, samuel, 1640-1688. -reasons for abrogating the test imposed upon all members of parliament. test act (1678) 2003-11 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-12 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2005-02 andrew kuster sampled and proofread 2005-02 andrew kuster text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an answer to the bishop of oxford's reasons for abrogating the test , impos'd on all members of parliament anno 1678. octob. 30. in these words , i a. b. do solemnly and sincerely , in the presence of god , profess , testifie , and declare , that i do believe that in the sacrament of the lord's supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of christ , at , or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever ; and that the invocation , or adoration of the uirgin mary , or any other saint , and the sacrifice of the mass , as they are now used in the church of rome , are superstitious and idolatrous . by a person of quality . london , printed in the year 1688. to the kingdom in general . his majesty , having with a grace exemplary not onely to all his subjects of this naiion , but to all christian princes and states , ( however they may be themselves of the roman persuasion ) design'd it , as the avowed glory and stability of his reign , to settle such a liberty , that there may be free discourses , and debates concerning the truths of christian religion , and the dissents of christians in them , as from the pulpit , so proportionably from the press ; as therefore the ministers and fautors of that church ( which would be known by the name of catholick ) have always ( and will be while they are ) always active with their pens to the utmost in their sphaer . and as we see they have publick freedom , so is it not to be doubted of the princely so vniversal grace , but that he intends a freedom on the other side to answer ; that there may be no inequality in holding the beam , but that it may alike incline to all in this matter , specially now that he is making credence of those his royal favours to all his protestant subjects , who cannot but be deeply concern'd at such a time as this ; because of the great advantages , the interests of the counter-scale hope for from a sovereign of their own sentiments . but in no case is this liberty more desirable , than when an amphibious-ambidextrous bishop , who assumes , like that angel of the revelation , to set one foot on the sea , and the other on the earth : one foot on the protestant church , ( which he calls one as if his self were of it ) and the other on the roman : in favour of which he so openly appeareth ( to speak the most honourably of him ) to conciliate toward it , at lest a cassandrian temperament : which , as it will never be yielded by the protestant , so would it not be accepted , if it were offer'd , by the papist . for he hath published ( with what intentions is best known to god , and his own conscience ) a palliation of the most irreconciliable points of the popish religion , transubstantiation , the sacrifice of the mass , the invocation and adoration of the virgin mary swoln to such a monstrosity in that religion , together with other saints , and all with images too ; points wherein the wisedom of the nation thought fit to fix the test , as the security of protestancy ; and that of images of so great infamy in sacred writ , and all these with a multitude of rampant words ; now rather than a multitude of such words should not be answered , or a man of lips be justified , even the very stones would speak : such lies and sophistry will not suffer men to hold their peace , and while he seems rather to mock than argue , should not every one endeavour to make him ashamed ? for , certainly , his ways of discourse are like those of the whorish woman in the proverbs , so moveable , one cannot know them , he comes out in this time , that he esteems a twilight , and with a prostituted subtilty he treats of sacred things : he is loud and stubborn ; his feet abide not in the house of his own church , as he his self styles it ; but now he is in the streets of the strange religion , and layeth wait in every corner with a new sort of ecclesiastical polity , or in a new edition , and his great temptation is , i have , saith ●e● peace-offerings with me , that carry at the same time reconciliableness to rome , and likewise a blessing himself in a design'd indulgence to his own genius , and caressing himself in the thoughts of his comfortable magdalen importances , and though at a high water of papacy he would be burnt for a heretick , if he did not speak more out , which without doubt he is prepar'd to do on congruous occasions , yet so much , at this seeming return of the water , is enough to beatifie and then canonize him in that present kalender , where , i doubt not , he stands markt with a red letter , and it may be a just reason to all sincere protestants to spue him out of their mouths : the observation of his double dealing and appearing more like the atheist than the learned and ingenuous , though mispersuaded , papist , sowetimes transports my style beyond its own intention and resolution , when i first essaid to consider onely the rational part of discourse in those matters ; and i am much the bolder , because i hear from all , his book hath much disserv'd his majesties gratious purpose , and created in all minds a nausaea ; specially observing his odd aspersions on so eminent a person , as dr. st. who in the thoughts of all the world is incomparably ( and beyond all possibility of being nam'd together , ) ten thousand times more , the apostolick bishop . if i have offered too largely to a just indignation here , i having the treatise it self mostly applied my self to the rational part , and minded chiefly to possess the reader with the true sense of things : i have therefore wav'd the persuit of his history of transubstantiation in the several stages of it , leaving it to more learned persons , who , i doubt not , may observe in their usual walks and dail-y paths , through the whole course of ecclesiastick times many of his erratick motions : but however the main point of truth , or falshood on that head , or article rests in this little room whether it is possible to believe such sublime spirituality ( as our lord alway breath'd ) so little of kin to sense , to matter , to flesh , should in his holy dying institution , forsake him so , that he should , intend to engage his blessed body , that was so suddenly to become a spiritual glorious body , and to asscend far above all heavens , to so inglorious , insipid , inefficacious a desscent , as onely to dispossess a small roll os bread , or wafer of its whole substance , and as by a trick to leave its accidents still intire to fool and baffle all the sense and reason in the world : and yet to so little effect as to suffer the bodies and the souls too , of the greatest number of the eaters to be without any evidences of good , as notorious and certain , as the miracle is supposed to be stupendous ; whoever can believe this , need not go to visit the dark and too oft impure cells where so strange a docrine was conceiv'd and foster'd , he hath a bulimy of faith without more ado of search and inquiry to devour all the absurdities that the name of a church can offer him . and so to the points os idolatry , abating from things pious and learned , ( to which let the utmost allowances of deference and honour be yielded , and paid ) the notions he would imprint of it on the minds of his readers , are an audacious affront ( as he speaks in a more innocent case ) to god the creator of heaven and earth in his word , who therein abhorrs all distributions and parcellings out of any the least particles of the glory of the one god , or mediator to any of the most seraphick of his creatures , angels , or saints , or the mother of god , as he speaks without precedent from scripture , and hardly allowable in a discourse of idolatry although tolerated in the case of the nestorian heresie : even so all address of any beings besides that god and the mediator , his word doth de test specially invisible beings , to whom we can make not the least application , but under the peril of idolatry as communicating them , in any semblances of worship , with those incommunicable attributes and properties of omniscience and omnipresence : he hath indeed allowed and commanded mutuous respects in the lower humane world for the settlement of the order of religious , and civil offices ; but all the figments of men's own brains concerning worship of himself , or of the mediator through the mediation of any of his creatures , and most notoriously , by graven images , or any kind of similitudes comprehending other figments , he declares to be abomination . it is a grand audaciousness therefore to offer such an insolent piece of falshood to christian minds as that the cherub were by his appointment to be worshipped , or to have worship directed to them , because their resemblances were placed as waiting at that throne that was empty of any presence to sit upon it ; but an invisible glory and grace had promised favour to those who , according to his word , praid toward that place , which he having fill'd with a visible sign of his presence of glory he after placed his name there : with as much sense therefore it might have been said that every stone in the building of the temple , or whatever was in the temple , or specially in the holy of holies , was to be worshipped as to say the cherubim were to be worshipped , of god in , through , or by them . a parallell essrontery it is to load the sun and host of heaven , the scripture with all the idolatries brands , and so contrary to the very letter of it , that the visional representation of the jewish idolatries to ezekiel , ch. 7. distinguisheth that of the sun from all the rest , i stand therefore in perfect amaze and astonish what the christian , much more the protestant , bishop should mean , and yet make so open and publick an appeal for his integrity , god and the world in the close . as to what concerns the test and the peerage , i humbly submit the reason of it to the higher judges in these things ; begging pardon of any errors in so great matters , as likewise taking example in that , i beg of all men allowance for mistakes of humane infirmity in so critical a point and in so critical a time . drawdereve rofmada . an answer to the bishop of oxford's reasons for abrogating the test impos'd on all members of parliament . ann. 1678. octob. 30. in undertaking to give an answer to these reasons , i shall choose , as my particular province , to insist onely upon the most substantial principles of reason , and that may most concern , ( as we usually speak ) the merits of the cause , with all due regard to the character of dignity , the laws of this nation , and the constitution of the government thereof ( both civil and ecclesiastick ) have imprinted upon the authour ; as also remembring the admonition the apostle jude gives from the example of the arch-angel , who disputing with the devil about the body of moses , most probably in the cause of idolatry , did not adventure to bring against him a railing accusation , but said , the lord rebuke thee . nor will i assume to make the least reflexion upon the insufficiencies of the discourse , as to its particular frame and menage , or upon the air , meen , or spirit of it , relating to either the roman , or the protestant religion , or to the names of greatest honour , authority and reverence , who have acted , or written in defence of the reformation : but leaving all this part to those , who have both talents , and authority to support them in their just censures of such a manner of treaty of what deserves our highest value and veneration , i will content my self with debating upon the principal matters , taking them in the utmost extent of the offensive , or defensive arguments upon them . the heads therefore according to which this discourse is to be modell'd , must be those reasons , the bishop gives for the abrogating of the test : the firstof which is ; that it doth not onely diminish , but utterly destroy the natural rights of peerage , and turns the birth-right of the english nobility into a precarious title . now in the first place in answer to this , i must observe ; that in the very thought of utterly destroying this right , the episcopal authour does somewhat relent , and recoyl from the height of his expression , and abates it into a turning that birth-right into a precarious title : taking therefore advantage from that so natural , and even necessary recess , or condescension , if not to be thought , as it very much seems a check upon impetuousness of style from a consciousness of its excess ; i shall take the boldness more freely to assert , that the natural rights of peerage are not at all destroyed , but own'd , upheld , and more solemnly acknowledg'd by the test-act . secondly , that the birth-right of the english nobility is no way turn'd into a precarious title by it . and because this is indeed the onely argument for the removing the test-act , that is of true strength , and merit in the whole contexture ; it deserves the more attent consideration . for whatever shall attempt to shake such a main pillar , and fundamental principle of our english government , ought to be both suspected , and feared ; and if it indeed prove to do so , to be surpriz'd and foreclos'd from its effect : but the invalidity of this charge will thus appear . 1. it is most evident the right of peerage in the general stands firm , notwithstanding the test : seeing this principle of government is not onely still , but with strongest confirmations even from this very test-act on all sides preserv'd most firm and undoubted , that there is a most just right that every peer hath to all the privileges of english peerage : accordingly the very act is founded upon that acknowledgment , and supposition , viz. that every peer hath such right to all the honours of peerage , and to that right most unquestionable in it self , for else the very ground of the law were taken away . 2. all and every peer submitting to that law takes that right , and enjoys it without any diminution , and holds it not onely for himself , but for that whole estate : the whole being acknowledg'd in every member : and particularly sitting , and voting in the higher house of parliament , ( which is therefore with honour to that estate call'd the house of lords ) is acknowledged to be the just right of peerage without any infraction upon the right it self . 3. even those noble lords , who do refuse , or do not actually submit to the taking the test , have yet their right of birth , blood , or other title preserv'd undisputed , and inviolate , as it is such a right and on such a claim ; and therefore whenever they please to accept it on that condition , there is no demur upon their right . but untill they so accept , their right is in a kind of abeyance , and custody of law for them ; and never dyes , or is extinguisht . 4. the suspension in the mean time amounts no higher to the defalcation of the priviledge , ( nor indeed so high ) than the minority of such noble persons , which cause 's a suspension of that priviledge of voting in parliament , till they are of age , which is not at their pleasure , but requires the natural course of time to advance them to it ; whereas in this case , they may in construction of law every day remove the obstruction and enjoy their right , seeing the claim is always allow'd , and own'd , and the law takes no notice of the reasons of their refusal . 5. this is made most evident ; in that all other natural rights of their peerage , are notwithstanding the suspension of this particular branch continued to them . 6. it is most undeniable ; their right of blood , or other claim to the priviledge of parliament is unmoved ; because not their taking the test , but that precedent , and still continuing just right , gives them a perfect enjoyment of that particular priviledge whenever they take the test. which is , i hope , a full vindication of the natural rights of peerage from being utterly destroyed ; seeing it is onely one branch , that is in question , and that is onely suspended , or rather deposited in trust with the house of peers , and no way destroy'd , or extinguish'd . 2. i come therefore to make good in the second place , that the birth-right os the english nobility is not turn'd into a precarious title , nor that which in former ages was forfeited onely by treason is now at the mercy of every faction , or every passion in parliament . for that can never be precarious , nor at such mercy , which subsists , and rests upon the common base of the whole world for its security , and that is the law of self-preservation . for when a parliament consists of two houses , and the vpper house of two estates , each estate a convention ( as is to be always presumed ) of the wisest , and most honourable persons of a whole nation , the lower house hath always upon all their proposals , or offers at any bill , the curb and restraint ; that this is to pass the vpper house , or house of lords , and therefore cannot rationally so much , as essay them with any law , that would destroy the rights of their peerage . but suppose the house of commons should make so unreasonable an attempt , it can never be imagin'd , so intelligent a body always provident , and watchfull , so naturally sensible of honour , and of their own interest , should either be impos'd upon , or drawn by whatsoever motives to consent to the destruction of their very constitution , there being no stronger passion , or more binding cement , than that of self-preservation . and yet the preparation of the two houses for the bringing forth a law , does but form the materials , that they may be presented to the royal assent to to give them the form and life ; who as the common father of the countrey will judg ▪ of all bills , whether they are the products of passion , or faction , and so they either live , or are still-born . when all laws are therefore thus winnow'd , and sifted through these several explorations of persons suppos'd to have all manner of talents for judging , and the quickest resentments of their own interest , and concernment whether as the lower , or higher body of a nation , whether civil , or ecclesiastick , and then shall all meet in the common head , who sees , and feels for the whole , it is very adventurous to impute such enactions to the faction , or passion of a parliament . seeing this must needs be the firmest foundation humane affairs can be entrusted to in this world , viz. the law of self preservation ballanc'd by king , lords , and commons , e're any thing becomes a law. and although , it is true , the influence of the supreme prince , the genius , and temper of an age , or particular inclination of times , the configuration of various co-incidents may preponderate to the worse , in some laws , yet there must be submission to suffering , even when conscience , or reason countersways that which we call active obedience to such laws ; or all government must be unhinged , and fall . and seeing it is acknowledg'd there may be a forfeiture by treason of the rights of peerage , and that it hath been in the power of parliaments to declare the nature and kinds of treason , there is , nor can be greater danger to the peerage in trusting themselves with the suspension of one branch of their right than , in trusting themselves with the whole of those rights : and it is very rare , that humane nature ( specially such sapient and honourable part of it ) conspire with a faction , or passion against themselves , or receive a precedent srom a partial infringment of their rights to destruction of the whole ; seeing , if so great an estate hath overseen in a lesser concern , it is to be concluded , it will be the more jealous after , and where the whole is in danger ; and so there is no more consequence from the precedent of the test-law ( which is either unawares , or by the sorce of truth , or of meer grace , it being unlike the rest of this discourse , granted by the reverend authour to have been usefull in its season ) than from a necessary and prudent opening a vein to conclude the person that consents to the one , will therefore consent to the letting out the whole mass of blood. and lastly after all that hath been said ; the instances this authour gives of the first transubstantiation-test , and the protestation , or test of loyalty in which the priviledge of peerage was so carefully provided for against injury by either of those tests , do rather strengthen than weaken what hath been insisted on ; for it confirms , how quick of apprehension the house of peers have always been in that point , and therefore they would not suffer their own peerage to fall under any eclipse , sooner than they found absolute necessity , and such a good arising , as would compensate any so much , as parenthesis of the full beams of that glory on any of their members , and so that it should be no more than a parenthesis ; till such members mov'd themselves to such a position , that no part of their orb of honour should be unenlighten'd . but in the other test they seeing no reason sor the shortest suspension on accounts of loyalty , sufficiently otherwise secur'd , lest there should arise a custom of trapaning peers out of their rights , some noble personages resolv'd to stem that tide ; even as in the wise administration of what pertains to health , extraordinary methods may be resolv'd against ; but when indeed formidable symptoms appear , such resolutions may be rescinded ; and so without any dishonour but great honour , the peers who entred protestations against such superfluous tests , as were projected to ensnare and obtein upon them standing orders of the house against any such tests , and yet might upon pressing vehement urgencies , see it necessary for the safety of the whole body of the peerage to have such a test as might bring some of their members under a suspension , till they gave hostages of their not sufsering such persuasions to have the ascendent of them , as might be destructive to a protestant nobility in all appearance much the major part ; whereas in the case of the designed protestation , the lesser part were probably understood to have design'd by degrees to have disinherison'd through such artificesthe greater number , of which some lords more sagacious , being aware , entred their protestation to awaken others equally concern'd , though not so foreseeing , and whose foresight gain'd upon the rest . and seeing no such protestation was entred in the case of the last transubstantiation-test , it assures the evidence of the reasonableness of it , overweigh'd the very attempt : and so i take leave of the first reason , which i have more diligently attended in all its moments of appearance , because it is urg'd not only by this authour , but by the generality of the zealous for removing the test-act . and it issues into this most equitable maxim of government ; that the major part of each particular body politick in a nation must judg , even as particular persons do , what is best for the whole . and the house of peers being judg for it self , and most tender of it self ; and the king , the father and fountain of honour , having advised with them , and given life to a law for the suspension of the rights of those peers who neglect to take the test ; this law can by no means shake the general rights of peerage , or so much as destroy , but onely suspends the right of particular peers , till they yield obedience to that law , which acknowledging their right expects it from them , and hastens them to a compliance with it self . and this will proportionably flow down upon all parts , and persons concern'd in the test-act . if the major part of each distinct body of men in a nation shall not by their representatives freely chosen , or by the whole body it self summon'd to parliament upon the right of their peerage , conclude the whole , by their most duely weigh'd , and considered acts , presented to the supreme power , and impress'd by him , there can be no possible rest , quiet , or determination of humane affairs in any rational way , or method : and all this being of that nature , and so cautiously suspending , or preseerving , as in abeyance , and not extinguishing any right , it can never be said to destroy , nor so much as to submit to a precarious title , faction , or passion of parliament , * any right , much less the right of peerage , as being a right of blood and of inheritance . i come therefore to the bishops second reason . secondly it ought to be repealed , because of its dishonourable birth , and original ; it being the first born of oates his plot , and brought forth on purpose to give credit and reputation to the perjury . how far the wisedom of the nation in parliament shall concern it self for the honour of both the nation , and its parliaments to give reputation to the cross wounds it may seem to have receiv'd in that unhappy assair , i will not be so bold as to pry ; it being an ark of state that hath its secrets , and sacred retirements , nor at all wade in so invidious a matter ; but wholly wave the paragraph , in which it is handled ; onely i will consider how far a dishonourable occasion may give birth to a law , and the law it self still remain in honour ; and then remark upon the little interest the ( as the bishop calls it ) otesian plot may have in the test-act . as to the test , all laws have this dishonour in their original ( if we might allow things of that class , or rank to be originals ; ) to have such respect to the degeneracy of humane nature , that the apostle hath said ; the law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless ; and it is a known maxime ; ex malis moribus bonae nascuntur leges . out of such manners as cou'd ne'r be said to have been good , good laws have yet been made : sic verè vertit — for grant the birth be base ; don't comets rise from fogs and vapours , 'fore they shine in skies ? and acts amazing by a pesant's son , as by a prince's , ha ve they not been done ? if so , sa . oxon is ( sai not the test is ) gone . — sic justè judicat ehmamp artnocas . aliàs drawde reverofmada . laws therefore are to be weigh'd by the serviceableness , and use they are of to the main ends of vertue , righteous ness and peace , and not by the foulness of their occasional originals . and therefore they have indeed a much higher original , if wise , vertuous and good laws ; and claim their descent from the exemplar-wisedom a nd goodness , and that eternal law of reason , truth and equity , which can never be stain'd , or embas'd by the particular occasions , upon which they are enacted , which give being to them no otherwise , than as those divine emanations exert and direct themselves against those contrary evils and vices which they forbid and punish : so that the birth , or original of this law is not to be inquir'd into ( suppose it oats's plot ) so low as oats's plot , but as the peace and safety of a community is provided for by it ; which is as the arteria magna , in that universal law of righteousness , as it concerns humane affairs , and as it is calculated for the support and security of the national religion , against the vsurpation of a foreign jurisdiction , a nobler part , than that any thing else can come in competition with it . it is then a very petty thing to weigh the goodness of a law by the next occasion of it ; and a manifest blunder upon a non cause for the true cause , to confound an occasion and an original together . let us then consider in the next place , what interest the ( so styl'd ) otesian plot hath in this law : for if in effect it should prove the first-born of that plot , the beginning , and excellence of its strength , and that it hath not a more excellent soul , and spirit , descending from above ; it might be in danger to be condemn'd to the same fate . but whoever considers the test it self , will not find the least cognation , or relation it hath to that plot , nor that any lineaments , or strokes of it enter into its composition : so that however it might receive occasion from it , yet the essentials of it are such sentiments , as the nation hath had for above the last hundred of years , and that it hath upon greatest judgment , reason and experience confirm'd it self in : and according to several emergencies added to its securities by law upon law , against the regurgitations of that usurpation upon it ; not barely because of such emergencies , but because of that grand reason , the very essence of popery hath given it : whether therefore the particular emergent hath had dimensions long and broad enough for the particular laws and constitutions which have been made , was not so much consider'd : but the whole nature of the evil fear'd , and provided against , being large enough to support such acts , it hath given reason to all such provisions ; and that was the danger of the roman religion resettling and re-instating it self in a protestant nation , as the english nation is and hath been for so great a space . thus this last act for the test , setting before it only that so full and comprehensive consideration of the increase and danger of popery in this nation , to which the former good laws had proved ineffectual , does therefore so enact as that act expresses . in all which there is not the least reference to the so much infam'd plot , nor any line looking toward it : till therefore there be a change in the very essential nature of popery , and a perfect nullity of all the fears arising from it made evident , there must be this , or that particular accidental cause quickning the legislative power of the nation to branch out it self into more and more , and further and further particular laws , that may more effectually reach the intended point , and be new in the particulars ; observing where former provisions were deficient and inefficacious : which new laws are not to be charged upon the lesser accidental causes , but on the irreconcileableness of popery , and its growth to the peace and welfare of a protestant nation . and so i have finished what i think necessary upon the bishop's second reason , to shew how inconcluding it is for the abrogating of the test. i proceed now to the third reason . the test ought to be repeal'd , because of the incompetent authority , by which it was enacted , for it is a law of an ecclesiastick nature , made without the authority of the church , contrary to the practice of the christian world in all ages , &c. 1. this reason rests upon these two principal pillars , that the power of making decrees concerning divine verities , is a legislative power , given as the highest act of government by christ's commission , to the officers of his own kingdom , upon which the whole fabrick of the christian church hath hitherto stood , and is to stand to the end of the world , and without which , it must run into confusion ; and that to entrench upon this prerogative of the holy catholick church , is to depose christ from his throne , by disowning , neglecting , and affronting his commission to his catholick church ; so that this power cannot be usurped without sacriledge , and blasphemy , and such a daring invasion of christ's kingdom , as that nothing more imports christian kings and governours , than to be wary and cautious , how they lay hands upon it . 2. that the bishops sitting in the house of lords , and ( to their shame ) consenting to this law , is not sufficient to make this law an act of church authority ; because it ought to have been first decreed by their own proper authority , without any lay concurrence and then to have come into parliament , and as they judged sit , to have been abetted with temporal penalties , a practice never violated , but by aposlates , and rebel parliaments . and lastly because particular bishops sit not in parliament by power deriv'd from our blessed saviour , but by the meer grace and favour of the king , so that the exercising any ecclesiastical authority in that place is scandalously to betray , as much as in them lies , the very being of a christian church , and profanely to pawn the bishop to the lord ; and lastly because the ecclesiastical power is by the law of england setled in convocation , and therefore to enact any thing of an ecclesiastical nature without their consent is to betray the rights of the church of england , as by law established in particular , as well as of the church catholick in general . but as a check and limitation to all this , the episcopal authour interposes ; the civil power may restrain the exercise of this ecclesiastical prerogative , as they shall judge meet for the ends of peace , and the interest of the common wealth , and punish it too at their own discretion , if it shall at any time entrench upon the power of the state , and it may prevent , or correct abuses . i have thus collected the strength of this whole reason without omitting any thing , i could think material ; i have also subjoyn'd the limitation , that it may be of the use the authour design'd it , and may also be consider'd in its place to our purpose . there are three expressions , i desire in modesty and reverence to this r. r. authour to draw a veil over . 1. that parenthetic ( to their shame ) viz. the bishop's shame , who consented to the test-law , because it seems so much to confine on speaking evil of dignities ; and for the same reason , 2 ly . upon that , ( except by apostates , and rebel-parliaments , ) as also because i would not know the direct meaning of those words , but go backward to cast a covering over them . 3. on those words , i draw the curtain ; ( profanely pawn the bishop to the lord ) lest they seem rather , fit to be retyr'd among the bishops ludicra . but to the main purport , and stress of the argument i shall undertake to rejoyn these assertions . 1. that there is no such legislative power given by commission from christ to his church , or made the foundation of it . 2. that all such pretensions of church-power drawn from the practice of the christian church , are very invalid . 3. that the law of the test is not a law of an ecclesiastick nature . 4. and if it were , the church of england hath done enough in convocation , and other church-acts to support it . 5. that the presence of the bishops in parliament not protesting against it , are sufficient proof of the two last assertions . 6. that according to the bishop's own limitation of church-power ; it must remain a good , and necessary law , and for which the parliament had competent authority . i begin with the first . 1. that there is no such legislative power , given by commission from christ to his church , or made the foundation of it , which may be demonstrated in this manner . this legislative power of the church is most contrary to that holy book , from whence we derive our christian sacred religion , and to the soundest reason guided by that ; for by that there is , nor can be any legislative power in matters of divine verity but what is immediately from heaven , either by voice from thence , or by the ministery of angels , or by immediate inspiration given to holy men , prophets and apostles , and consigned by them into the holy writings we call scriptures . all which after revelations are to be tryed , and tested by their compare with , and agreement to former revelations , as is most manifest in all parts of scripture ; and by the constant , and continual appeal of the old testament to the new : so that this prerogativ'd , legislative church , that is pleaded into so high and rampant a power , that all-seeming wavings of its authority must be an invasion of christ's kingdom , a deposing of him , an affronting his commission , smells strong of the pride , and ambition of that city , which , first , as a city , and then as a church hath always aspir'd , to have a kingdom over the kings of the earth ; as also of the luciferian ascent of the beast ; that carries it , with and upon which , i doubt not , the sacriledge , and blasphemy will be found : who exalts himself above all that is called god , or worshipped , who sitteth in the temple of god , shewing himself that he is god. but to us , there is but one law-giver , who is able to save and to destroy . one father , who is in heaven ; one master , who is christ , and all we are brethren ; one legislative-lord ; and the chiefest in his church are servants , ministring his word in the scriptures , the onely law of divine verities . and therefore in this prerogative-sense , dare not receive the title of masters , or fathers ; nor can those who receive the law of christ , made evident from the scriptures to be his law , by their ministry , upon such ministration yield them therefore the names of masters , or fathers in a legislative sense . for they know , they ought to preach christ the lord ; and themselves onely servants for christ's sake , that they have no dominion over the faith of christians , ( who are however called the laity , yet are christ's clerus , ) but only are ensamples of the flock who attends the motion of the chief shepherd , the lamb , christ jesus , whithersoever he goes , and will not follow strangers . princes , and states by light offer'd them by the ministerial labours , and services of the bishops , and elders of the church , who labour in the word , and doctrine are to direct their power according to that light they receive by such ministrations , but together , and not without their own search , into scriptures , and constant meditation therein . and the people are to obey in agreement with that law , and word of christ ; which they are to know for themselves in that light diffus'd by the preaching of the word to them in season and out of season , which , i say , they are to know for themselves , and not others for them , by the deep research of their own minds into scripture , to see whether those things are so , or not . for wisedom hath written to them , even to them , as may be seen by all the epistles of the apostles ; that they might know the certainty of the words of truth , and have their trust in the lord , and not an implicit faith in men , and might be able by apologies for the hope that is in them , to answer the words of truth to those , who send to them either in a way of advice , or challenge . whatever is contrary to this undoubted evidence of the word of god , and sound reason , seeing every one must give an account of himself to god , as well as those , who are set over them , who by faithfull offers of truth discharge themselves , whatever , i say , is so propos'd , as by a catholick church , and its prerogative , i affirm savours of that intoxicating cup of abominations in the hand of that sorceress , that calls her self the mistress of churches , and would sit the lady of the christian world , and of the power that bears it , who under pretence of the kingdom of christ undermines it , and hath , in the unsearchable judgment of god delay'd , thus long its appearance to all the world ; and is the baalam lofty prophet of that romish pergamus . 2. the pretended practice of the church of god in all ages , can give no presidency in this case , beyond what is thus asserted ; for in the times of the old testament , religious princes , did by the general advice , and doctrine of the prophets , and of those priests who kept their faith to the law of god , themselves govern , and reform according to that of which each king was to have a copy written by himself , which was to be with him , and he was to read it all the days of his life . that he might learn to fear the lord his god , and to keep his laws . and whereas in that precedent law , enquiry of the priest in the place god should choose , was commended ; it plainly insinuates , the divine responses , god gave at that time by the vrim , and thummim , immediately from himself were intended , but yet all was to be founded in the written law , there all was to be shown , and from thence to be learnt , or not to be receiv'd , no not under a power of seeming miiracles , deut. 12. in the first times of christianity , for three hundred years , there were no christian magistrates , who would wait for the churches oracle's . but for the determination of the church without a lay-concurrence , it is most apparently opposite to that grand instance of the first council , wherein the people ( if any ) distinguishingly styl'd the church ; and who made most manifestly one of the estates , ( if i may so express it ) in the whole conciliary management ; the apostles , the elders , the brethren ; and the whole consultation , and determination mov'd upon the poles of express scripture , as will be most visible to any enquirer into those conciliary acts ; for he that runs may read , acts 15. in the days of that first and most religious emperour constantine , although he , as all pious princes , and christians would , receiv'd light from the ministers of sacred truth , yet so that he us'd his own judgment together with it ; deploring the weaknesses he observ'd among these who seem'd to be pillars of light , but yet it must be acknowledg'd , that that apostasie , the mystery of iniquity , that began to work in the apostles days was well grown up , and advanc'd , and a legislative church was towring up its power in the christian world at that very time . but it is undoubted , there is nothing so ancient , as divine truth in the law , and in the testimony , consenting with that law of reason engraven in man's heart , and to these we must goe ; fot whatsoever speaks not according to these , there is no morning to it , nor from it ; but a night , even to a midnight , ensues upon it , what antiquity soever it pretends to . 3. that i may yet give a more direct answer to this reason , the test-act is not a law of an ecclesiastick nature ; for it is onely an exploration , and touch upon persons , whether they are romanists , or not : it is no canonical determination of the point of transubstantiation , it binds no decree with a spiritual , or ecclesiastick anathema , or excommunication ; which are of the essence of ecclesiastick laws , as they have been always solemniz'd , and ratified in the christian-antichristianizing world upon light occasions . but this test presumes two things , suppos'd before to be sufficiently certain . 1. that no romanist will deny his transubstantiation , nor consent , that his invocation of the virgin mary , and of other saints , and that the sacrifice of the mass is superstitious , and idolatrous . the test does not determine , nor pretend canonically to define of these things : it onely proposes this , as a certain discovery of the votaries of a foreign church ; nor does it mind to decide the truth of those matters : it is enough to it , to know , who do , or who do not assent to their presumed truth , and thereby to discover men , not to decree points of faith. 2. nor is it ecclesiastick , but purely civil , and pertaining to the state onely , whom it will judg safe to commit the affairs of this nation unto , and into what hands to entrust its interests ; and having by more than a hundred years experience , deemed it not safe for a protestant nation to be overgrown by a papal power , it hath thus resolved , and enacted ; not at that time enquiring after the truth of the things , concern'd in the test : but satisfied with the assurance , that a roman catholick ( as he is call'd ) will not assent to them , as they are there laid . which are here onely taken notice of , as matters of state ; and their doctrinal truth it supposes elsewhere to have been sufficiently ascertain'd , as shall be afterward consider'd . 4. for indeed the church of england hath both in convocation , in continual printed manifestations of its sense , in daily preachings , and ministrations of the truth of the word of god , abundantly , and beyond all controversie open'd , explained , and asserted concerning these things out of and according to scripture , so that not in a humane light , or determination , but in the very beams of scripture , and divine truth , which are plainly to be seen streaming from the fountain of light the word of god , there is warranty enough without any invasion upon christ's kingdom , or the rights of the officers of it , ( supposing them what we can suppose rhem ) for a parliament safely to proceed as it did ; supported by as many assurances , as it could desire ; that if the lips of the ministry of the church of england preserv'd knowledge , and that the law was to be enquired at its mouth ; the resolution of that church , in all those cases , was sufficiently known , and no injury could be done to it . 5. of this the presence of the bishops in parliament , not remonstrating , nor protesting against this law , his consenting ( however the author judges it to their shame ) are security enough : that they understood the test-law to be no invasion of the rights of the church , but according to the whole doctrine and government of it , as by law established . for seeing , as hath been before argued , every body , nor estate of men in parliament knew so quick and feelingly for themselves , and specially such a body as the episcopacy of a nation ; it can never be suppos'd they would , as by a common conspiracy , agree to betray their own rights and priviledges , having at hand always that freedom of entring their protestations of dissent . so that although it is acknowledg'd , they sit in parliament by the grace of the king , and by the constitution of english parliaments , and not by power deriv'd from christ , nor as a convocation according to the laws of england in that case ; yet it is always to be forethought that they sit with their understandings , with their consciences , with their senses , with their sentiments of self-preservation about them : and that therefore they would not be felones de se , by consenting to the destruction of their noblest rights ; and on account of which , they are judg'd worthy to sit as an estate , and to vote in parliament , viz. as bishops of the church of jesus christ. 6. but lastly , it can never be understood , but that according to the bishops own limitation , ( if that be the standard ) of church-power and praerogative , or his setting up another power and praerogative to mute it , the parliament have well done in this test-law . for seeing the civil power may restrain the exer●ise of ecclesiastical praerogative , as they shall judg meet for the ends of peace , and the interest of the commonwealth , and may punish it too , at their own discretion , if it shall at any time intrench upon the prerogative of the state , and that it may praevent or correct abuses ; who can determine , whether the states have not done according to what they might and ought to do , in preventing and correcting abuses : for if they may prevent and correct abuses , they must be able to judg of them ; they must determine when they ly , they must judge also of the best means to prevent them . and what more lyable to such judgment of abuses , and to undergo the best and most effectual methods of praevention , than the things to be declar'd against in the test ; as shall be manifestly prov'd in the following reason . and seeing that upon these very accounts it is notorious , that even in this nation church power and prerogative hath swoln beyond all bounds , and entrench'd with a vengeance upon the power of the state , why then may not the state continue the correction and punishment of it by after acts ( seeing the bishop allows these punishments at their own discretion ) and restrain and lock down men ? certainly all the avenues to such an exercise and notions again of that power , that they hav found in all ages so destructive to the peace and interest of the commonwealth . and here i cannot but reflect upon the strange irreconcileableness of the bishop's church-prerogative , and of the civil power , as he hath stated it . for that such a seeing judging prerogative and legislative power , that can alter , make decrees concerning divine verities , should not know how to keep within its own bounds , nor so to learn its power , but that it must be restrain'd for the ends of peace , and the interest of the commonwealth , and be punish'd too at discretion for its aptness to praesume , and to intrench upon the power of the state ; nay , and beyond all this , to be so extravagant , that its abuses may have need to be praevented and corrected . who can imagine , jesus christ should be so nearly concern'd in such a prerogative and legislative power , as to be disown'd , neglected , affronted , if that he be christ risen , and that the usurpation of it should lie so near sacriledge and blasphemy , as that his kingdom should be invaded , and himself deposed ? and on such an account , that it should be such a seeing and holy catholick church ; and yet that this civil power that is suppos'd to know so little in divine verities , may bind its hands , punish , praevent , correct its abuses . what must christ , so closely importuned in it , suffer in the mean time ? what kind of kingdom and power is here allow'd in the mean time ? what governour would accept such a power as this of christ's ? or how can the king of kings , lord of lords , prince of the kings of the earth , be such an underling ? certainly this is is a precarious power , with a witness : surely in this state of things , there must be a most profane pawning the bishop indeed to the lord , or how can ever one firmament bear two such suns , or the consciences of man ever be at rest between them both ? or serv two such masters ? they must adhaere to one , and despise the other ; but since the bishop must be reverenced as a man of sense and reason , certenly it cannot be the roman holy catholic church , that may be thus treated by the civil power ; nor is it any protestant civil prince , or state that hath these powers , but only a caesar , or state of the roman character , image , and superscription hath this power , and only on protestant churches under their dominion . and so i pass with the fatigue of this confounding , perplexing reason , and com to the last but longest reason , which i shall yet but in brief consider . the fourth reason for which the test-act ought to be repealed , is , because of the uncertainty and falshood of the matters contained in the declaration it self , as , first , that there is no transubstantiation in the sacrament of our saviour's body and blood. and secondly , that the invocation of saints , and of the mother of god , is idolatrie . this reason so plainly divided by the bishop into its two parts , that of transubstantiation , and that of invocation of saints , and of the mother of god , must be distinctly considered . but before i proceed upon either of them , i must needs object , that this test is not fairly quoted , for in so great a concern every word ought to have its due place , and no pretence of keeping the substance , will justifie the variation of an iota from the very letter , except my apprehension exceedingly deceive me : the sence is much more injured , than the letter is varied : indeed the author hath been so fair , as to prefix the text of the act , that his unfair repetition may be convinced by it ; but the unwary , or unthinking reader , may easily slide into errour by it , one being in the title-page , where it may miss being considered , the other in the body of the book . observ then the difference betwixt the text of the test and the bishop's quotation ; the test runs thus : i believe there is no , &c. the bishop quotes as a proposition , there is no ▪ &c. it may be a much more uncertain proposition , and more liable to falshood , to asfirm , there is no transubstantiation in the sacrament of our saviour's body and blood , than so say , i do believe , there is none ; and so proportionably , i believe , is to be supplied to the second member of the declaration , viz. and i believe , that the invocation or adoration of , &c. now although , i make no doubt , that every christian ought to be fully assured of the propositions themselves , to be declared in the test ; yet , plain and down-right doctrinal propositions are not the proper subjects of solemn sincere profession , testification , and declaration in the presence of god. but such solemn sincere professions , testifications , and declarations , properly fall upon the belief of a man's mind ; which he knows , and hath judgment of , as a rational man , becaus they are within him ; for the apostle tells us , the spirit of a man knows the things that are within him . so that a man's belief , that is within him , may be wel declared and testified , even as all matters of sence and of trust ? and becaus they are within him ▪ known onely to himself ; there are therefore many just occasions to declare and testifie it to others : of which the denial of lawful authority , as a qualification for places of trust and power , are justly to be accounted among the principal . and this very observation , ( as it is plain , and grounded on undeniable evidence by a compute of the words of the test , set down by the bishop himself , in the title-page , and fourth reason , page 9. ) does indeed make vain , frivolous , and of no possible avail , or so much as significancie . all that follows , as to the test , which is the thing in quaestion , and under debate , and brings it into this narrow compass , whether persons so devoted to the faith of the church of rome , may for the ends of peace , and the interest of a protestant common-wealth , be secluded from power , and trust by the consent of the major part of their own particular bodies , and of each other body , or estate of the nation , and the supreme prince assenting , in so considerable and solemn an act , as an act of parliament must needs be ; which hath been already discours'd . for which soever side of the propositions should be true , yet stil , what a man within himself believes , he truly knows , and truly may declare and testifie : and the business of the test is not to determine , as hath been said , which part of either of the proposions is true ; but what belief each person admitted to trust , and power is of ; that so the nation , as protestant , may consult its own safety against the growth of popery into a national strength and interest , and further confirms all that hath been said , that it is no ecclesiastic act , but a pure perfect magistratic act , as the administring an oath in all other cases concerning the trust of matters of faith is . so that the affirming , that those two propositions are by this law to be solemnly and sincerely in the praesence of god , protested , testified and declared , is a down-right unfaithfulness ( not to say , out of reverence to the author , falshood ) in the very sight of the sun , in the sight , if i may so speak , of the frontispiece of the book ; which title-page gives of necessity the lye to this ninth page ; and is enough to discredit , and to call into just suspicion , the badness of the whole cause , that is so insincerely handled by a person of such a character of dignity , and sacredness of office , as a christian bishop , who ought to do so much otherwise . but this is not all the unfaithfulness of the episcopal author , in recounting the test , he is arguing against ; for whereas the declaration in the act runs thus : i believe , that in the sacrament of the lord's supper , there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of the bread and wine into the body and blood of christ , &c. the bishop represents his proposition thus : that there is no transubstantiation in the sacraments of our saviour's body and blood. now it is easie for every person , that does but in the lest apply his mind to it , to perceive , that the test leaves it free to every person to frame any mystical , spiritual , analogical , figurative sense in his own thoughts concerning transubstantiation ; and which may sufficiently satisfie and exhaust the sense of more than most words of the greek fathers import , for it is observabl , they have no word strictly greek , for transubstantion . and onely foreprize's that so monstrous contradiction to all our faculties , is the transubstantiation of the elements into the body and blood of christ. and whereas the test runs thus : and that the invocation and adoration of the virgin marie , or any other saint , and the sacrifice of the mass , as they are now used in the church of rome , are superstitious and idolatrouus . the bishop thus : that the invocation of the mother of god , and of saints , is idolatrous . leaving out adoration , and as in the church of rome , and for superstitious and idolatrous , putting in the word , is idolatrous . but although greater exactness in this proposition , had been more becoming ; yet , i must confess in my own sense , the amount is the same . these things being thus adjusted , how empty of sound sense and reason must that tragical harangue , that follows , be in ; of the monstrousness , and inhumaneness of the barbarity , that could never have entred into the thoughts of any man , but the infamous author , to oblige the whole nobility of a nation , to swear to the truth of such abstruse and uncertain propositions , which they neither do , nor can , nor ought to understand ; and this upon the penalty of forfeiting the priviledges of their birth-right . of the same nature is , that which comes after , for what immediately follows , i will be , as uncertain in , as the argument it self is , as also in the two famous burgesses of oxon. but those words , ( viz. what is meant by transubstantiation is altogether unknown to the nobility , and gentry of the nation , being onely the wars between school-men , who have quarrelled about nothing more , than the notion of transubstantiation : and that therefore , it is more uncapable to impose upon the nobility , and gentry of the nation , to abjure a thing that is morally impossibl for them to understand ; and therefore it must be a profane affront to almighty god in whose presence they swear , and shews men will swear to any thing before the searcher of hearts , rather than lose any worldly interest ) are to be cast into the main heap . together with all this , an appeal is subjoyn'd to the honourable members of both houses , whether they have any distinct idea , or notion in their minds , about what they renounce ; and that if every man gave his own account of transubstantiation , it would be a babel ▪ this is what is declaim'd with relation to the first proposition , on which fallacie the historical account of transubstantiation , design'd certainly on purpose to amuse , for it doth not add one cubit to the stature of the argument , above , and beyond what is here summ'd up . taking therefore the words of the test , as they stand in the test it self ; i will sum up the answer in these two heads . i. that all the abstruseness , darkness , and difficultie in the notion of transubstantiation , and this bishop's amusing historie of it , doth not in the lest prejudice the reasonableness of the test , but make it more reasonable . ii. that the very point of transubstantiation is the most reasonabl of all others , to settle the test upon , and the more reasonable , because of the difficultie of that notion . 1. let the first be consider'd with relation to the most unknowing , and uninquiring men of all , who can be suppos'd to be concern'd in the taking the test. and after the word made common english to them , which very ordinary use does to most men in the nation , much more to any likely to be concern'd , whether they can sound the word , or hammer the notion or not , is not material ; for still , what is more easy then to declare their belief according to their senses ; and that the bread and wine that they see before the words of consecration , and in which they are agreedly not mistaken , are the same bread , and wine after consecration . who would be afraid to declare , and profess , they believe it so ? and that it is unchang'd , vntransubstantiated into the flesh , and bloud of a human body . let a man be unprejudic'd , unprepossess'd , and what the least shade of doubt could fall upon him in this matter ? call in thousands together , to observe the progress from the beginning to the end of the celebration ; and would they not consent upon oath , that they fully believed there was no such transubstantiation ? let but their minds be free , undisturb'd , unperplex'd , and the whole world of touch , of taste , of sight , of smell , of hearing ( so far as hearing can have interest in the trial ) would be at perfect agreement concerning it , their minds and understandings judging by the senses alike in all . let such persons hear there are many disputes , and much variety of opinions concerning it ; and how little would it affect them , except with wonder at the folly and madness of any difference ? and let them know , some of the wisest and most learned men in the world , are of their opinion , or rather of their knowledge , by their senses , although there are others of a contrary opinion , men of name too for knowledg and learning ; and it is easie to know whose minds they would be of , viz. of theirs whose learning and senses go together . thus let the thing be brought within the verge of scripture-judgment , and upon that so very controverted ; this is my body , and discussed before the most plain and inartificial apprehensions ; and let the general manner of scripture expressing it self oft in familiar figures be laid before them : they would easily conclude on the side of their senses , and that scripture intended no violence on their faith , against their senses , on the side of so incredible a change of the elements into a humane body . nothing but the charms or inchantments rather of a false religion , and the sorcery of it , which are the things to be discover'd by the test , the slavery of an implicit faith , ( except under the terror of a severe persecution , for a contrary perswasion ) can endanger any mans falling into such an unaccountable , wilful , professed blindness . the test therefore requires not onely the easiest , most unperplexed assent , belief , and declaration , but that which all mankind with violence runs into ( if not bewitcht with superstition ) upon the lest motive of apprehension about the matter . 2. if sense goes thus far with the plainest and most unthinking men , how much more doth reason and rational faith assure the thinking and intelligent ? who not onely by sense determine the bread is bread , and the wine wine ; but know , it can be no other , and the whole circle of absurds , that crowd in upon the change into the body and blood of christ , that have been so often arang'd against such a figment , encompass them , that with highest reason and assurance , they can declare their belief , as the law of the test requires them to do . whatever then may be the various shapes this proteus , or camelion of transubstantiation hath put on throughout the long historie of the metamorphos'd notion , whatever dress of representation , the eloquence of the fathers , the canon of the ecclesiastics , or the difficiles nugae or the vain curiosities and subtilties of the school-men have attyr'd it in ; the sincere honest mind , and the intelligent christian , leaving all the cramping difficulties of transubstantiation to its slaves , can declare freely with the test , there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine , in the lord's supper , into the body and blood of christ. whatever spiritual communion there may be between christ in his death , and the true believer , is most humbly in the mean time owned and prayed for : which is the first thing that was to be shewn . the second head is , that the very point of transubstantiation , is of all others the most reasonable to settle the test upon , and the more reasonable in all regards , because of the so exceeding difficulty of the notion . 1. what can a civil power have greater indignation against , or be more willing to settle upon , as an exclusive test of all from places of honour , trust , and power ; than the being vassals to such an imposture as destroys all the truth and certainty that is in the world ? who can be believ'd upon oath , ( which the apostle says is the end of all strife ) if there be no more credit to sense , then that bread may be a humane body , and wine blood , though it hath all the evidences to sense possible , it is what it judges it to be , and that is bread ? and what more heed can be given to reason , if its main foundations can be thus overturn'd , so that all the principles of government , and humane converse , are overthrown ? what may not such bigots be screwed into , who leave themselves naked of the defences of sense and reason , at the command of a tyrannic church , and pope , and become meer tools in such hands ? who can concredit to them the interest of their country , who couch down like asses under such a burden , and especially for a notion so dark and slippery , that no one knows where to have it ? and what would become of humane commerce , if such things multiplied ? 2. upon transubstantiation , the test-act doth most deservedly fall ; because , when the foundations of general reason , and common sense are laid , religion , and the reason , and honour of that , as it is national , comes next to be consider'd ? that it may bear up it self , and invite both the people of the nation , and even the nations round about , to a just veneration of it : but transubstantiation being made the great , and most tremendous mystery of the roman religion , yet carrieth in the very judgment of sense , the countenance , mean , and appearance of the most notorious cheat , and juggle , that the name of religion ever offered to the world ; for there being a most contemptible , poor , and low outside onely , without the least of power , or puissance , or any the thinnest resemblance of a miracle ; demands a belief of the highest , and most constant miracle , daily to be performed by the most profligate oftentimes , and most ignorant of mankind , and depending upon their intention too , which may defeat the miracle . all this dishonours the very name of christian religion , and is so heavy , and intollerable a gabel , excise , and tax upon the religious sense of mankind , as must needs eat out the whole life , power , and reverence of it . and therefore it is worthy the notice , prevention and correction of so grand an assembly , as the king , the lords , spiritual and temporal , and commons of the nation met in parliament ; and the seclusion of all persons from so sage and awful a convention , who are under so great a slavery , as not to renounce it : for as moses testifies , the wife laws of a nation in religion give it an estimation of a wise , great , and honourable nation . if therefore a parliament secures the rights and properties of the nation , from any impositions upon their estates , but with their own consent : how justly may it doe the same against any illegal impositions upon their faith ? and whereas this transubstantitaion is attempted to be brought into parallel , and placed in the rank of other great mysteries of the christian religion , as of the blessed father , son , and spirit , one god , of the hypostatical vnion , and incarnation of jesus christ , besides the intrinsick difference of the one , and of the other : there is this vast distance , that those supreme revelations are heavenly , divine , retir'd in meditation , holy rational discourse , and spiritual adorations . but this of transubstantiation , while it does nothing , offers nothing to sense ▪ to reason , or so much as to faith from divine revelation , but by gross letter , a figurative , spiritual proposition into condensating , pressing , and incrassating , it pretends to a real operation , or conversion of bread into the body without any such thing . but yet , as if such a thing were seen to be indeed done ; mercenary priests play all the tricks of gesture , posture , elevation , geniculation , with the whole train of attendant frauds , too many to be mention'd , upon the score of a dull coarse cheat even in handicraft , and legerdemain in mechanicks . all which imposture is indeed , not onely morally , but naturally impossible ever to be understood . 3. it ought above all other points in popery , to be the subject of a test-act , because it hath above all other points of popish falshood , been made the test of vassalage and slavery , and as it were that very mark of the beast joyn'd with the idolatrie of adoration , and image-worship ; and of the receiving his name , and worshipping his image , which all must receiv , or be kill'd ; and none must buy or sell , that the psuedo spiritual excommunication may be pursued with secular anathema's upon all who will not bear this cognisance of the bestian usurpation . in short , this hath been the central point , from which , and into which have flowed all the cruelties , persecutions , massacres , deluges of bloud that have been pour'd out : bloud of men , women , and children , sacrific'd at this altar , that have made it indeed an altar of bloud , an altar where real flesh and bloud have been offered , and to say , the bread and wine have been so transubstantiated into the body and bloud of martyrs , were much nearer truth . here have been the so-much unheard-of barbarities and inhumanities , that would make a historie of transubstantiation truth , indeed , could it be had , worth th' having , to justifie the test , and such a one , that certainly could never upon the account of so blessed a religion , and of a sacrifice of such infinite grace , as that of jesus christs offering himself once for all for mankind , have entred into the heart of any man ; were it not that such a very detestable bestial power , that bears at this very time , and hath long born a citie , or false church , in which wil be found the bloud of prophets , and apostles , and that is drunk with the bloud of saints , and of the martyrs of jesus , is made known unto us in the revelation . now all this is matter of known historie , and of evident fact ; how justly therefore is power , and trust , endeavour'd to be surprized by a protestant parliament , from such hands that dare not disown principles so doub le dyed in bloud , on the account of which such butcheries , and burnings of men alive , have been committed ; that the so mis-stil'd barbaritie and inhumanitie of the test-act compared herewith , is not only mercie andhonor to the persons concerned , but a monument of greatest equitie and philanthropie or love to humane nature , to endeavour to extinguish out of the nation the very principles of so much bloud-guiltiness , and bloud-thirst , of the greater heinousness , becaus if the bishop be to be credited in the case , it was for not believing a transubstantiation , which it was morally impossible for those martyrs to know , and such abstrusities which they neither did , nor could , nor indeed ought to understand . 4. to press and force a litteral sense upon the holy scriptures free familiar condescension to our weakness , in expressing things of a high spiritual nature in such language , as we in humane bodies most easily take things into our minds by , as in the sacrament , the real spiritual union , and communication of the value , vertue , and efficacy of the sacrifice of christ himself , and in the union of , and communion , and communication of his spirit to us , is express'd by eating his body , and drinking his bloud : now i say , to force , a litteral sense upon this , is such a piece of rudeness , barbaritie , and ingratitude , that if the same measure were meeted to all other parts of scripture , would even in the judgment of those very men , who are either atheists or bigots in this matter , not only turn it into horrible , and abominable burlesque , but even martyr and murther those two witnesses , as some have expounded them * . to vindicate therefore , those sacred volumes , the pandects of our most holy religion , from having to do with so mid-night , and sphingian a riddle , in so plain , and merciful an institution , so humble , and even domestic ( in a spiritual sense ) as the lord's supper is ; a riddle , set on work to so much cruelty and bloud-shed , is worthy the spirit of a truely christian , and nobly english senate , and to set the danger of its return into use , at the utmost impossibility , humane providence could attain , without the expectation of miracle . for what is meant by transubstantiation , the bishop himself says , is altogether unknown and uncertain , especially to the persons chiesly concern'd , viz. the nobility and gentry of the nation ; and which they neither do , can , nor ought to know : what obligation can they then have to believe it , except with such a blind faith as all religion and reason abhors ? however , if they have no faith concerning so fugitive a thing , that like a shadow , cannot be catch'd , or like the phantom of a body that hath no flesh and bones to be seen and felt , as all bodies have , and as christ , as it were prophetically , expos'd his body to the experiment of , when it was really there , that no such imposture concerning it should be palm'd upon the world : i say , if the nobility and gentry have no faith of such a thing , why may they not profess and declare , they do not believe it ? for the bishop seems either not to be awake , or to dissemble a slumber , that his discourse of mens swearing to any thing , his burlesque on the famous burgesses of oxon , and his appeal to the honourable members concerning their idea's of transubstantiation , and the babel thence arising , [ the whole notion is indeed a babalism , or pertaining to babylon the great ] had been very good , if the test had requir'd them to declare their belief of such a transubstantiation . but now his arguments hunt counter , and impeach the roman tyranny of horrid murthers upon persons , for not believing what they neither do , can , nor ought to know , what they can so hardly pronounce the sound of , much less hammer the sturdy sullen notion it self : for who can know what there is no knowledge of ? but what more innocent than to declare , when lawfully requir'd , though before the searcher of hearts , a man does not believe what he cannot nor ought to know , nor so much as anvil a notion of ? if it were never so true , real , knowable , and worthy to be believed , any one might , without guilt , ( when justly demanded to do so ) declare he did not believe it , while he knew it not so as to find reason to believe it ; it were double hypocrisie to do otherwise : and all the bishop's arguing and storying , can never make it otherwise . indeed the whole recoyles upon himself , and dashes out the brains of all he hath writ upon it ; which , sure , he crasly oversaw , or thought all his readers were such fools as to be couzen'd with the gloss . for if the infidelitie were ever so culpable , it were a dutie , when adjur'd by a law to declare it ; but how can the infidelitie be blam'd , when after the bishop's hunting down the notion through the whole historie of the controversie , he hath prey'd only upon a ghost , miss'd of all comprehension , and he pronounces the summ , and result of all to be what is meant by that transubstantiation is a thing altogether uncertain and unknown ; and there is no one thing in which christendom more both agrees and differs ; all parties agree in the thing , and differ in the manner . now it so happens , the test was so sagaciously compos'd , though it might lawfully have done much more , that it modestly leaves the thing free , and requires only to declare a belief of such manner of transubstantiation , as of the elements of bread and wine , into the bodie and bloud of christ ; and requires the declarers own belief alone , and nothing of censure upon any others belief in this branch of the test ; which surely any man may lawfully make , that makes it truly : and seeing the whole issue of the notion is scepticism , the bishop himself being judg , ( and what can the man do that comes after the ishop ? ) may not every man then say , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i do not comprehend it , therefore i do not believe it . indeed if there were revelation for it , like what there is concerning the father , word , and spirit , one god ; concerning the incarnation and hypostatic vnion of the eternal word with humane nature , leaning not on figurative expression , but plain assertion , wrought into all the discourse , and whole argument of scripture , all disputes were silenc'd . but when there is no pretext of revelation , but such a manner of speaking , as if it were press'd alike into a literal sense , through the whole book of god , it must overthrow all theologie . to refuse then a figure there where it is so absolutely necessary , that else christ must eat his own flesh , while it remain'd entire before the apostles , and drink his own bloud , while it was circulating in his veins , and no amaze nor so much as question upon it , is such a setting the scripture to be broken upon the wheel , such a barbarity , as exceeds a thousandfold all the barbarities and inhumanities spoken of throughout the bishop's whole book : especially when our lord declares in a like manner of speaking , and doubts upon it ; his words were spirit and life , and the flesh profited nothing . why then should men bring the scripture to the engine , to torture it into the confession of what ( as god speaks ) never came into his heart ? and so i may fairly dismiss the bishop's longsom historie of transubstantiation , seeing the mouth of his canon turns upon himself for what he can ; and what should a man be shie of in declaring his non-belief of what is against all the sense and reason of mankind , what hath no ground in revelation , and what all the wits and subtilties the canonists and school-men , yea the very councils of the roman vassalage can , when set upon the utmost stretch , make nothing of , but a meer babel , if we may believe the bishop , in what he determines upon the whole search in favour of it . not like solomon's conclusion of the matter into the whole of man , but like the conclusion of babel , all was jargon , nonsense , confusion , and rubbish ; and worse than that , the conclusion will be like that of babylon the great , a perpetual desolation and burning . they therefore who have like slaves bor'd their ears to this spiritual egyptian slavery , and under the plague of its darkness to be even felt , how just is it to disengage them from taking the rights of their prince and country into their trust , whether their contented slavery rise from some weak part , or a worse depravedness , which inclines their always bowed down backs , and their eyes laden with slumber under such a monstrous bigottism . i come therefore to consider of the second proposition , which , however it runs in the bishop's text , is thus express'd in the test : and that the invocation or adoration of the virgin mary , or any other saint , and the sacrifice of the mass , as they are now used in the church of rome , are superstitious and idolatrous . in which , although i confess in my own judgment , the very extremity , as of sense , that the words can reach , are supported by the demerit of the things declared against : yet , because it is a test , publickly offered , the refusal of which suspends so great an interest , as all share in government , as the bishop expresses it . it will not be unfit to observe all the lenitives , that are by the prudence of the composers , ( whoever they were , it makes no matter ) contriv'd into it . 1. therfore , i do believe is prefix'd to the whole test , by common equity of construction to be supplyed . i do believe the first proposition , that in the sacrament , &c. and in the second , i do believe , that the invocation , &c. now it is evident , a man may swear to his own belief , if he knows he does really so believe , although he be mistaken in the grounds of his belief , because it is onely matter of fact within himself . 2. there is a limitation , as these things are us'd , and now us'd in the church of rome , whether by express command , or by approbation , or connivence ; so that the very grossness and stupidity of the most dull and ignorant , who stick in the very thick matter , and are able to extricate themselves , as the finer wits pretend to do , are to be taken into that vsage , and that most meritoriously , seeing if the church of rome leads such unwary , and unapprehensive persons in obedience to it , to the very brink of the precipice into so deep , and impure a mud , and that so unnecessarily ; it is to be chang'd with the vsages , as in it self . and then those words of the test , as it is now used ; signifies the first beginnings of these things were not so fresh , as now they are arriv'd to be . 3. in that , the word superstitious is first set , as the lesser , and most undoubted , and then not the downright full-out word idolatry , but idolatrous . it takes off the full blow of the censures , for idolatry imports a great danger , suspicion , and nearness to idolatry , but not absolute idolatry it self . and this the bishop ought in all candid dealing to have taken notice of , and to have allowed the caution , with which the test is worded ; for the stabbing , and cut-throat word idolatry is not used , and so the piquancy of that his remark false . but letting slip all things that do not enter into the substance of the matter , it is first to be observed , that absolutely and in earnest , all that dreadful representation of the punishment of idolatry in this world , is disown'd by all sober christians : and those rigid laws , or any such zelotic spirit of elias , as among the jews on the account of idolatry , are reversed under the milder temper , and more moderate climate of christian religion , and the compassionate spirit of it , as repeated by our saviour expresly in those words to the disciples , that were for demanding fire from heaven upon the samaritans , luke 9.54 . to which our lord rejoyned , ye know not what spirit ye are of : the son of man came not to destroy mens lives , but to save them ▪ we disown all such torrid enthusiasm where-ever it is found , upon this authority , and such ravagings upon the lives of men meerly for their ( notwithstanding so great ) delusions in so plain a point of divine worship , are not so much as thought of in the test : cruelties and inhumanities of that kind , are left as the proper inheritance of the idolatrous , who indeed cut throats , and cause innocent persons to pass through the fire alive , in the rage of their moloch-sacrafice : and i am fully perswaded the principal end of the test-act was to secure the lives and fortunes of a protestant nation from the fury and blood-thirstiness of that name of religion , by which it is as much known ( as the scarlet and purple it is arraied in ) and that in the historie of some ages past , and so cannot but be still suspected . the prevention indeed of such , the public practise of those superstitions and idolatrousnesses , is worthy the care of a protestant magistracy to prevent , and to take care the contagion may not spread , much less that a protestant kingdom should come under the girdle of its ministerial government , ( although with all loyalty , it owns their soveraign , according to the christian law , and of the nation ) and then for to set such bounds to it , as may most indemnifie it self . but for the securities of divine justice upon idolatry , whenever they com to be manifested ; they wil be just , and bring their conviction along with them ; which may be speedier than men are aware , the measure of iniquity growing now full , as of more then one god , is idolatry , so of more than one mediator is a parallell idolatry . and as letting fall any glances of respect upon any creature , person , or thing , angel , or diamon , sun , moon , or stars , or the inferiour creatures , as partial gods conveying the benifits of the supreme god to us , is foul idolatry : so any partial or inferiour mediators , are alike idolatry , under the gospel . and as the making to our selves any likeness either in heaven above , or the earth beneath , &c. as a medium to worship god by : so the making to our selves any likeness of the mediator ; ( for though we had known him after the flesh , yet ( saith the apostle ) we know him so no more . ) are alike idolatrous . how certainly then are the invocations of the virgin , of saints idolatrous , as giving them a share of the incommunicable mercy , omnisciency , omnipresence , seeing they are not visible to us , we cannot speak with them at certain times or places , we know them not , we know not they know us ; there are no kinds of communion between us ; a vail of thick darkness is spread betwixt us , which nothing but infinity can pierce . the infinity of the father , the infinity of the mediator , god-man : men indeed whom we see , whom we converse with , to whom we can make our selves and our condition known , we are allowed by god to address , to give and receive mutual religious respects , and of civility and kindness , according to the stations of honour and subordination we stand in one to another . but how both senseless , and idolatrous , would it be with hope of good to pray to any person upon earth , at great , or even at the smallest distance one from another , where no communication passes by word , messages , and letters , as in our private closets , and thoughts ; this were to make them , as god omniscient , omnipresent . and to pray to saints or angels , as mediators , is idolatry committed against the mediator , as if he had not that whole sum of mediatorial mercy , grace , priviledges in himself . how certainly then are their invocations continually us'd at rome , not only superstitious , but idolatrous : and indeed all superstition is idolatry , against the second commandment ; devising an image , a likeness to go to god by them . how certainly are those abundance of images , pictures , statues , representations , us'd at rome : their incensing , bowing , kneeling , uncovering the head , to images and pictures , us'd at rome , idolatrous ? for even job's mouth kissing his hand , was an indication sufficient of an enticed heart . their elevation , adoration , geniflexian , given to the bread , as the body of christ , are of the same guilt , seeing christ was never worshipped bodily on earth , when his apostles were daily with him , but in the emanations of his divinity , how much more ( now we are to know him no more after the flesh ) therefore are we not to worship him bodily , not in an imaginary transubstantiation of the elements ) into flesh : doth not he abhor such a worship ? for whatever we do in pretence of worship to god and christ , that is not either the pure issues of that law of the mind , or of the natural conscience it self , or is revealed to us in his word : the worship ( call it how you will , dulia , or an inferiour worship ) not so warranted , passes before god for no other , but superstition and idolatry . even the worship of the man christ jesus onely , as united to the eternal word , is justified by divine revelation : so tender and severe a thing is the worship of the holy jealous god , who as he is separated from all creatures in his purity and perfection , so in his worship , and tne manner of his worship appointed only by himself . and so holy , holy , holy , and infinitely separate from all creatures is iehovath the mediator , with whom none can be named ; even as none can know but by the revelation of the father . all worship therefore given to creature-mediators , all worship given to him not according to his word , is but superstitious and idolatrous in his account . how near therefore is it to the blasphemy , of which the author confesses , idolatry is a principal instance ; when he speaks of the cherubins being worshipp'd ; who indeed , had by god's immediate command , a place of attendance , by the mercy-seat : this type of christ , over which god filling the tabernacle , and so the temple after with his glory , that none could enter , and so only gave a remaining symbol of his presence there ; but likewise of god to be seen ; but the people are warn'd over and over , to take notice they saw no likeness or similitude of god ; nor is there the least shadow of any direction of worship to those cherubins ; but to that god , who was pleas'd to promise his presence there , where his glory had appear'd , in christ the propitiation ; so that by pure spiritual acts , they might pray towards that place , call'd by his name , without any prophaning god by sense : from which he is always in an infinite retirement , for sense is the foundation of idolatry . and agreeably what was in the holy of holies , not being seen , was a warning to retire all into a spirituality , and a sense of the incomprehensibleness of god , the enjoyment of him being in pure spirituality . and as false it is , that the scripture speaks onely of the idolatry of worshipping the heavenly body . for from the heights above , to what is most below , the changing of the glory of the incorruptible god , with any corruptile image , or the worship directed by the mediation of any image , is abomination to him , as in numberless places of scripture ( besides the second commandment ) particularly duet . 4.16 . rom. 1.23 . for that i can hardly believe my eyes in reading the bishop's definition of idolatry , and so it is as to the redeemer , or one mediator , who is not to be worshipped , by any image of his humanity , nor by so despicable a thing as bread , which he made only the element of a spiritual communication of himself , as a most familiar emblem , without the least design of worship to it , most abhorred by him . most false it is , therefore , that there is no idolatry if men do not worship images of false gods , or make corporeal images of his divine nature : for angels , thô his servants , and saints departed , become false gods , and names of blasphemy , when worshipped with any sort of worship , as the apocaliptick angel testifies , chap. 21. v. 22. and the host so worshipped , is the symbol of a false god , as turn'd into a likeness , and image , before the jealous god , and mediator , who will have all pure spirituality in the worship of them . and yet in the mean time , i must acknowledge that the bishop hath rightly observed concerning that idolatry , which he is willing to allow to be idolatry , viz. the worship of the heavenly bodies ( and i am sure it will follow of all other idolatry , that it is to be proportionably admeasur'd to ) it is an iniquity to be punished by a judge , viz. by the civil magistrate . and this determination concerning idolatry , is recorded in that admirable book of natural religion , the book of job . now the laws of natural religion are irreversible , and unchangeable ; so that were it not that in the great degeneracie of humane nature , the generality of the nations of the world were early drench'd , and even plung'd in this great evil , natures laws had always so prevail'd : whereas , alas , too too soon that government grew to weak too establish it self ; and were that government , the government of the law , written in mans heart restor'd , it must proceed with all efficacy to the extirpating this evil ; and where it was so much restored , as among the jews , and enforced with further positive and ceremonial sharpness of laws , the rigors on offenders were so great , as the bishop has recounted : but yet the mercy of the gospel , and of christian religion , is such , that although in governments able and equal for it , there ought to be no abatement of severity against the sin it self , yet there is by christ , a relaxation , as to persons lives , where the most guilty circumstances of presumption , obstinacy , danger of bad example , do not inflame the account of the evil : all means of conversion and reformation being first used ; which is a great justification of the lawfulness , and necessity of the test , in a protestant government . nevertheless , the generality of the sin , hath been at no time too big for divine vengeance ; but that it hath appeared from heaven upon idolatrous powers , and nations , when he saw good ; and the time is approaching , when a better state of the renewed world growing on , will , by degrees , but with signal vials powred out upon the whole race of idolaters and their idolatries , make way for the perfection of that renovation , and such a thing as idolatry will not in one single example be endured . for satan , that old serpent , that hath deceiv'd the nations into it so long , will be seal'd up into his own abyss at the same time . but this hath been by way of digression . it is time to return now to the just remarks , that are to be made upon the bishop's discourse upon idolatry ; so contriv'd , as to lead the unthinking , yea , the not closely observant reader , thorough a variety of matter , far off from suspecting the roman worship of idolatries , where yet scripture-prophesie hath settled it upon its own base , in that land that is spiritually called shinar , or mystical babylon : his discourse , indeed , is blended sometimes with better , that it may convey more artificially the intollerably bad , sometimes with things doubtful and uncertain , that the notoriously false may hope to skulk among them . i cannot , according to the brevity i have resolv'd , retail to the reader , so ambagious , or tedious an account of idolatry . there are two things among his own notions , that if he had taken his measures by , they would have steerd him much better , viz. first , the observation of the great care god took by all his dealings with his people , descendants from abraham , to secure them by the mosaick mediatorship in the acknowledgment of the one god , creator of heaven and earth , the universal and most natural standard against idolatry , together with those particular assurances of himself to them ; by his covenant with abraham , by bringing them out of the land of egypt , speaking to them out of the cloud , and fire on mount sinai , by his filling the tabernacle with his glory , which is especially to be remark'd , both in moses's tabernacle , and solomon's temple , as being the true reason of the worship toward the holy of holies . and secondly , the observation of the sabbath , as a peculiar commemoration of the creation , as also of the further manifestation of the same true god , creator of heaven and earth , who was so particularly the god of abraham's posterity . had these two observations , together with the types , which the episcopal author , with dr. spencer , and other learned men , not without reason , make fences between israel and the idolatrous nations , and their idolatries ; or , as the apostle calls it , partition-wall ; these would have led to the one mediator jesus christ , who is that very propitiation and mercy-seat , of which , that in the holy of holies was but the type , and for which type sake the shecinah , or glory once came , and sate in its filling the temple ; as between the cherubims , or attendant angels , simbolycally represented in an adoring posture , stooping down , and prying upon the mercy-seat , as that type of christ , as the apostle peter alludes , 1 pet. 1.12 . worshipping ; but the spirits , whom they resemble , would have abhor'd to be worshipped ; as he most injuriously to truth , would bear his readers in hand , if they would be deceived by him . now , as redemption parallell's creation ; so the one mediator , the one god ; as our lord himself teacheth . this is life eternal , to know thee the onely true god , and whom thou hast sent , jesus christ , and so the apostle tells us : there are gods many , and lords many in the world , counterfeits of the one god , and one mediator . as the heathenish gods , and baalim , or daimons , who were esteem'd a middle region of gods , or mediators ▪ but to us , saith he , there is but one god , the father of whom are all things , and we in , or for , or unto him ; and one lord jesus christ , by whom are all things , and we by him . so to timothy , there is one god , and one mediator , between god and man , the man christ jesus , which one god is now known to us , as the god and father of our lord jesus christ , which title drinks up , as the antitype doth the type of the former titles , of the god of abraham , &c. of the god that brought from egypt , that sits between the cherubins : that title , indeed , of creator , lord of heaven and earth , is not in the least ececlips'd , but shines together upon , and with , and in the redeemer , the lord jesus christ. and as a testimony and standing plea of all this ▪ the sabbath of creation , is remov'd from the seventh , into an union with the first day , the sabbath of redemption , or lord's day . thus there is , as the apostle john speaks , the true god , and eternal life , in the very mention of which , as foreseeing the great antichristian idolatry coming upon the christian world in other mediators , ( the same thing with other gods ) he makes the conclusion and farewel of his epistle , little children , keep your selves from idols : and seal's it with a passionate , amen . now this one god , and this one mediator , we are to worship , and only to know , and only to serv , all introducing other mediators , either of man , or of other creatures , as in honour to god , to worship him , or jesus christ by them , join'd with some ceremonies of a service , as kneeling , bowing , incensing , invoking , &c. is idolatrous . and now to draw the whole matter of idolatry to a conclusion ; i confess , it seems necessary , that whoever takes the test , being , as the bishop truly observes , of the alloy of an oath , it is necessary he should take it in judgment , as well as in righteousness , and in truth . that any one may so do it , he must carry about him a gauge , or certain notion of idolatry , and some general knowledge of the usages of rome , as to the invocation of the virgin , of saints , the adoration of them in their images , with the sacrifice of the mass ; which by a little enquiry will be easily known , if it can be at all unknown to any persons , who can be suppos'd to have possible obligation to take the test : for the roman church does not hide its sin ; but carries the title on its forehead , the title its idolatrous fornications ; and its papal prince carries his names of blasphemy , idolatry , on her heads ; and it is to be earnestly prayed , these things may not be more vulgerly known among us , against which the test is one great security . to give then in the second place , a very short , and portable gauge of idolatry , i should chuse to do it best , by all i have said ; as encas'd , or ench●s'd , in the very words , superstition and idolatry , truly explain'd . the first of which imports any religious act ▪ either to persons dead , as if they were now alive , and conversant with us , though above , as the virgin mary , or saints departed or else and ( as may most agree ) super statutum , above the rule and law of all religious actions , viz. the very law and light of nature , teaching us natural religion , which consists only in the religion of the mind , and expressed only in the most necessary rational latria , or service of our bodies ; or else which best explains all religion to us : the word of god ; seeing , there we find nothing of such invocation , or adoration , so much as in any dark line of either of these laws ; but much written , as with a sun-beam against them , who even knows , and believes the word of god , may boldly call the usages of rome superstitious . and as to idolatry , it is the service to an apparition of a god , to our dark and foolish imagination , for the one god , that made heaven , and earth ; or the apparition of a mediator , besides jesus christ , the one mediator , who redeem'd us by his death : both which are against the first commandement , for idolatry is a worship of any thing whatever that is believ'd to be god , and christ , from the highest heavens to the lowestcentre , by any image , or sensible representation , ( as against the second commandement . ) now he may be sure of this idolatry , whoever considers the romish church , ( falsely so call'd ) the spiritual babylon , the city made of graven images ; so certainly that headed babylon , that in the days of john's receiving the revelation , reign'd over the kings of the earth , and was then ( five of its governments so notorious in history , being fallen , or gone off from their principality ) under its sixth king , the heathen emperor ; and for a little space under the christian emperor its seventh king , but no head , and hath been under its eighth king , that was of those seven kings , who were ever heads , ever since the expiration of augustulus's line , the late emperor , an. dom. 475. for till rome be utterly destroy'd , and sink like a milstone into the sea ▪ that eighth king , the beast , or pope ▪ shall not be utterly destroyed ; but rome , and its eighth king ▪ shall fall within few years , from its ten-king'd principalities ▪ all which may be thus demonstrated , the bounds of the prophesies stand eminent and unmoveable , even to demonstration , viz. the heathen empire therein being at one end , and the final ruin of rome at the other ; in the middle just as the short liv'd christian empire expiring , run forty two prophetic months , or times of the moon , amounting to 1222 prophetic years , which accounted from 475 , must end 1697. now this rome , and it s so call'd church , is mysteries of idolatries ▪ and the pope its balam , or high priest , or prophet carrying it , and so describ'd in the revelation , and the thing there prophecied , so fulfill'd in all eyes , and ears , in the blasphemies of god , and of all that dwell in heaven , by these idolatries ; that then can be no hazard , if there was liberty to demonstrate the thing , as it may be demonstrated : it would put transubstantiation , the worship of the virgin , of saints , and the adoration of the mass , and its sacrifice out of all dispute , although the things may be otherwise set , enough beyond controversy , yet not so suddenly or surely , as by this prophecy is well explain'd . in the mean time , to say all in a word , i cannot but make great doubt , whether the bishop with so great pretence , and yet such thin sophisms in the room of reason , and with those unepiscopal , unchristian , ungentile , as well as highly senseless reflections upon a person of so great learning , gravity and piety in the eyes of the whole nation , ( as dr. st. ) did indeed design any more , than to ridicule what he would seem to favor , things so false , so fallacious , so inconclusive , could never else have been so laid together , and to carry , as it were a fresh remembrance . at the last he concludes his book under a transparent tiffany , with a downright falshood , viz. as if the not taking the test , did wrap up the refusers in a conviction of recusancy ; to which purpose he foist's in a part of the test-act , leaving out what would have convicted him of sensless fraudulency : for he well knows , not the refusal of the test , but the refusal , and yet invading offices contrary to the test , brings any one under that conviction : whether therefore he was in earnest , or in a sathanic fanaticism , when he writ all this , i much doubt ; but if he were , indeed , in earnest , he deserves the character of the weakest of men , in a disguise of a man of parts and learning ; if not , of the most infidelious and dishonest sophister in the lawn of a protestant bishop . but without any railing accusation against him , or any such , i pray as i begun , the lord rebuke them . dra . locnil . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a48813-e1470 reas. 1. * ( words most injurious to the very nature of parliaments . ) reas. 2. reas. 3. assert . 1. deut. 17. * rev. 11. reasons for abrogating the test imposed upon all members of parliament, anno 1678, octob. 30 in these words, i a.b. do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of god, profess, testifie, and declare, that i do believe that in the sacrament of the lord's supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of christ, at, or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever, and that the invocation or adoration of the virgin mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the mass, as they are now used in the church of rome, are superstitious and idolatrous : first written for the author's own satisfaction, and now published for the benefit of all others whom it may concern. parker, samuel, 1640-1688. 1688 approx. 200 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 69 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-08 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a56393 wing p467 estc r5001 12187543 ocm 12187543 55847 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a56393) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 55847) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 615:1) reasons for abrogating the test imposed upon all members of parliament, anno 1678, octob. 30 in these words, i a.b. do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of god, profess, testifie, and declare, that i do believe that in the sacrament of the lord's supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of christ, at, or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever, and that the invocation or adoration of the virgin mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the mass, as they are now used in the church of rome, are superstitious and idolatrous : first written for the author's own satisfaction, and now published for the benefit of all others whom it may concern. parker, samuel, 1640-1688. [3], 135 p. printed for henry bonwicke ..., london : 1688. marginal notes. signed: sa. oxon. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng england and wales. -parliament. test act (1673) great britain -politics and government -1660-1688. 2004-02 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2004-03 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-04 rina kor sampled and proofread 2004-04 rina kor text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-07 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion let this be printed , whitehall , decemb. 10. 1687. sunderland p. reasons for abrogating the test , imposed upon all members of parliament anno 1678. octob. 30. in these words , i a. b. do solemnly and sincerely , in the presence of god , profess , testifie , and declare , that i do believe that in the sacrament of the lord's supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of christ , at , or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever ; and that the invocation or adoration of the uirgin mary , or any other saint , and the sacrifice of the mass , as they are now used in the church of rome , are superstitious and idolatrous . first written for the author 's own satisfaction ; and now published for the benefit of all others whom it may concern . london : printed for henry bonwicke at the red lyon in st. paul's church-yard , mdclxxxviii . reasons for abrogating the test . the test imposed upon all members of parliament , october 30. 1678. ought ( i humbly conceive ) to be repeal'd for these reasons ; first , because it doth not only diminish , but utterly destroy the natural rights of peerage , and turns the birth-right of the english nobility into a precarious title : so that what was in all former ages only forfeited by treason , is now at the mercy of every faction or every passion in parliament . and therefore how useful soever the test might have been in its season , it some time must prove a very ill precedent against the rights of peerage ; for if it may be allow'd in any case , there is no case in which it may not be imposed . and therefore i remember that in the first transubstantiation-test , anno dom. 1673 , the rights of peerage are [ indeed according to constant custom ] secur'd by proviso . provided always , that neither this act , nor anything therein contained , shall extend , be judged , or interpreted any ways to hurt or prejudice the peérage of any péer of this realm , or to take away any right , power , privilege or profit , which any person [ being a péer of this realm ] hath or ought to enjoy by reason of his péerage , either in time of parliament or otherwise . and in the year 1675. when this test or oath of loyalty was brought into the house of peers , that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up arms against the king , and by his authority against his person , it was vehemently protested against as a breach of privilege . no body could except against the matter of the test it self , much less the nobility , who had generally taken it upon the account of their several trusts in the militia . so that the only debate was , whether the very proposal of it , as a qualification for a right to sit in parliament , were not a breach of the fundamental right of peerage ? and after some debates upon the point of peerage it was , without ever entring into the merits of the cause it self , thrown out by an unanimous vote of the house , april 21. 1675. before the putting of the question , this protestation is entred . a bill to prevent the dangers which may arise from persons disaffected to the government . the house resolv'd into a committee to consider of it , and being resum'd , the question was put , whether this bill does so far intrench upon the privileges of this house , as it ought therefore to be cast out ? it was at first resolved in the negative with this memorandum , that before the putting the abovesaid question , these lords following desired leave to enter their dissents , if the question was carried in the negative , and accordingly did enter their dissents , as followeth . we , whose names are underwritten , being peers of this realm , do according to our rights , and the ancient usage of parliaments , declare , that the question having been put , whether the bill , entituled an act to prevent the dangers which may arise from persons disaffected to the government , does so far entrench upon the privileges of this house , that it ought therefore to be cast out , it being resolved in the negative , we do humbly conceive , that any bill which imposeth an oath upon the peers with a penalty , as this doth , that upon the refusal of that oath they shall be made uncapable of sitting and voting in this house : as it is a thing unpresidented in former times , so is it in our humble opinion the highest invasion of the liberties and privileges of the peerage that possibly may be , and most destructive of the freedom which they ought to enjoy as members of parliament . because the privilege of sitting and voting in parliament is an honour they have by birth ; and a right so inherent in 'em , and inseparable from 'em , as that nothing can take it away , but what by the law of the land must withal take away their lives , and corrupt their blood ; upon which ground , we do here enter our dissent from that vote and our protestation against it . qvaere , how many of those noble lords voted for the test in 1678. and then , whether if they have preserved their rights of peerage , they have preserv'd its honour too ? but the debate was kept up many days , till at last , april 30. 1675. it came to this issue . it was at last resolved , that no oath shall by this bill be imposed ; and pass'd into a general order by the whole house , nemine contradicente , as followeth . order'd by the lords spiritual and temporal in parliament assembled , that no oath shall be imposed by any bill or otherwise , upon the peers with a penalty in case of refusal to lose their places and votes in parliament , or liberty of debates therein ; and that this order be added to the standing orders of this house . secondly , it ought to be repealed , because of its dishonourable birth and original ; it being the first-born of oats's plot , and brought forth on purpose to give credit and reputation to the perjury . now i should think that when the villainy of that is so fully laid open to the world , it should not a little concern the honour of the nation , but very much concern the honour and wisdom of the house of peers , to deface so great a monument erected by themselves in honour of so gross an imposture . it is shame enough to the present age to have given any publick credit to so enormous a cheat , and the greatest kindness it can do it self , is to destroy , as much as may be , all the records of acts done by the government to abett it . what will posterity judge of the present nobility , to see such an unpresidented law , not only enacted upon so foul an occasion ; but after the discovery of the cheat , asserted with heat and zeal , though to the subversion of their own fundamental rights and privileges ? besides , the roman catholick peers have suffered severely enough already by their own honourable house's giving credit to so dull an imposture : and i think it is the least compensation that they can in honour make them , only to restore 'em to their natural rights . what will foreign nations and future ages think of the injustice and barbarity of the present peerage , to suffer english noblemen to be stript of the greatest privilege of their birth-right by so unheard of a villainy ? and when it is in their power to see their injur'd peers redressed , that they should not only suffer 'em to be so basely robb'd of their peerage , but should for ever establish and ratify the fraud by authority and force of law. this wou'd be an eternal national reproach , and such a blot upon the house of peers , that no length of time cou'd wear away ; nothing but the universal conflagration could destroy . thirdly , it ought to be repealed , because of the incompetent authority by which the law was enacted : it is a law of an ecclesiastical nature , made without the authority of the church , contrary to the practice of the christian world in all ages , and indeed to our saviours own commission , who setled all power of government , and especially the legislative ( which is the highest act of it ) upon the officers of his own kingdom ; so that for any other order of men , to assume the exercise of any such authority to themselves , is no less than to depose him from his throne , by disowning , neglecting , and affronting his commission to his catholick church . this power of making decrees concerning divine verities , is the very foundation upon which the whole fabrick of the christian church hath hitherto stood , and is to stand to the end of the world. for if it be once taken away , as here it is , there is no peculiar government left to the church it self , and without government there can be no society , or band of union ; and without that , there remains nothing but confusion : so dangerous a trespass is it for the temporal powers to entrench upon this sacred prerogative of the holy catholick church . the civil power may restrain the exercise of it , as they shall judge meet for the ends of peace , and the interest of the common-wealth , and punish it too , at their own discretion , if it shall any way presume to entrench upon the power of the state. but tho' it may prevent or correct abuses , yet it cannot usurp the power it self without manifest sacrilege and blasphemy ; in short , this is such a daring invasion of our saviour's own kingdom , that nothing more imports christian kings and governours , than to be wary and cautious how they lay hands upon it . neither can it be pleaded this law was consented to by the bishops ( to their shame ) in the house of lords . for first , it being an ecclesiastical law , it ought to have been antecedently enacted by them , without any lay-concurrence ; and when they had first decreed it by their own proper authority , then , and not before then , was it lawful for the parliament to take it into their consideration , and as they judged fit , to abett it with temporal penalties . which practice ( as i have before mentioned ) was ever most religiously observed by all christian kings and princes , and never before violated , but by apostates and rebel parliaments . but then secondly , the bishops sit not in the house of lords as bishops , but as temporal barons , and so act not there by virtue of any power derived from our blessed saviour , but from the meer grace and favour of the king ; and if they themselves should pretend to exercise any ecclesiastical authority in that place , they would most scandalously betray , and as much as in 'em lyes , destroy the very being of a christian church , and profanely pawn the bishop to the lord : besides , that lastly by the law of england the ecclesiastical power is setled in convocation ; so that to enact any thing of that nature without their consent , is to betray the rights of the church of england as by law established in particular , as well as of the church catholick in general . fourthly , it ought to be repealed because of the uncertainty and falshood of the matters contained in the declaration it self ; as , first , that there is no transubstantiation in the sacrament of our saviour's body and blood. and secondly , that the invocation of saints and the mother of god is idolatry : both which propositions are by this law to be solemnly and sincerely in the presence of god professed , testifyed , and declared , which in conscience is the same thing with a formal oath , whatever it is in law. now to oblige the whole nobility of a nation , to swear to the truth of such abstruse and uncertain propositions , which they neither do nor can , nor indeed ought to understand , and this upon penalty of forfeiting the privileges of their birth-right , is such a monstrous and inhumane piece of barbarity as could never have enter'd into the thoughts of any man , but the infamous author of it , neither into his ( as malicious as his nature was ) but in his fierce pursuit of princely blood ; for that was the only design of all his actions after the starting of the otesian villainy ( of which this test was the first sacrament ) to pursue and hunt down the heir of the crown , which all the world knows , and is now satisfied , he sought by numberless perjuries , tho' by nothing more than this test , by which he stript his royal highness of the guards of his most faithful friends ; and when he was left alone , it was an easy matter to come to his person , and in him to the monarchy ; so that the very next thing that followed immediately upon it , was the black bill of exclusion : and next to that it was the very master-piece of little achitophel's wickedness . but to return to my argument . what is meant by transubstantiation is a thing altogether unknown and uncertain , especially to the persons chiefly concerned , the nobility and gentry of the kingdom : it is a word and a notion chiefly handled by the schoolmen and metaphysicians skill , in whose writings is the least part of a gentlemans education , their learning is more polite and practicable in the civil affairs of humane life , to understand the rules of honour and the laws of their country , the practice of martial discipline , and the examples of great men in former ages , and by them to square their own actions in their respective stations , and the like ; but for the wars between scotus and thomas aquinas , the nominalists and the realists , and the several common-wealths in the metaphysical world , they are not more beyond than they are below their knowledge , and yet these numberless sects of disputers do not quarrel and differ more about any one thing , than the notion of transubstantiation . how unreasonable a thing then is it , to impose it upon the nobility and gentry of a whole nation under forfeiture of all their share in the government , to abjure a thing that is morally impossible for them to understand ? this seems too bold and profane an affront to almighty god , in whose presence the protestation is made ; and only declares that men will swear any thing , they know not what , before the great searcher of hearts , rather than lose any worldly interest : and i dare appeal to the honourable members of both houses , if ( when they consider seriously with themselves ) they have any distinct idea or notion in their minds of the thing they here so solemnly renounce . i fansie if every man were obliged to give his own account of it , whatever transubstantiation may be , it would certainly be babel . the two fathers or rather mid-wifes of the first transubstantiation test , in the year 1673. were the two famous burgesses of oxon , who brought it forth without so much as consulting their learned vniversity . how much the gentleman burgess understood , i can only guess ; but i am very apt to believe , that his brother , the alderman , ( if the tryal were made ) cannot so much as pronounce the word , much less hammer out the notion . in short , there seems to be but a prophane levity in the whole matter , and a shameless abuse put upon god and religion , to carry on the wicked designs of a rebel faction , as the event hath proved . but for the true state of this matter , i find my self obliged to give a brief historical account of the rise and progress of this controversie of transubstantiation ; which when i have done , the result and summ of the account will be , that there is no one thing in which christendom more both agrees and disagrees . all parties consent in the thing , and differ in the manner . and here the history will branch it self into two parts : i. as the matter is stated in the church of rome . ii. as it hath been determined in the protestant churches . where the first part will sub-divide it self into two other branches . 1st . the ecclesiastical account of the thing ; that is , the authoritative definitions and determinations of the church about it . and , 2ly . the scholastical account , or the various disputes of the school-men among themselves in their cells and cloysters , none of which were ever vouched by the authority of the church : and when i have represented the whole matter of fact , i may safely leave it to the honour and wisdom of the nation to judge , whether of all things in the world transubstantiation be not the unfittest thing in it to set up for a state test ? in the first place then it is evident to all men , that are but ordinarily conversant in ecclesiastical learning , that the ancient fathers , from age to age asserted the real and substantial presence in very high and expressive terms . the greeks stiled it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and the latins agreeable with the greeks , conversion , transmutation , transformation , transfiguration , transelementation , and at length , transubstantiation : by all which they expressed nothing more nor less than the real and substantial presence in the eucharist . but to represent their assertions at large , would require much too long a discourse for this short essay . and therefore i shall only give an account of it from the time that it first became a controversie . and the first man that made it a publick dispute , was berengarius , archdeacon of anger 's , in the eleventh century , about the year 1047 , who pleaded in his own behalf , the authority of a learned man , iohannes scotus erigena , who passed without censure in the ninth century ; but , to pass him by , it is certain , that berengarius publickly denyed the doctrine of the real and substantial presence of the body and blood of christ , and resolved the whole mystery into a mere type and figure ; for this he is condemned of heresie in the year 1050 , in a council at rome , under leo the ninth ; and in the same year , in a synod at verselles , and another at paris ; and afterwards by victor the second , in the year 1055. upon which berengarius , in a council held at tours , in the same year , submitted , and solemnly recanted his opinion . but soon relapsing , pope nicholas the second , summons a council at rome , of 113 bishops , in the year 1059 , where berengarius abjures his opinion in this form , viz. that he anathematizes that opinion , that asserts , that the bread and wine , after the consecration upon the altar , is only a sacrament , and not the true body and blood of our lord iesus christ ; and that it is not sensibly handled , and broke by the priest's hands , and so eaten by the communicants . and this declaration he seals with an oath to the blessed trinity upon the evangelists . but upon the death of pope nicholas , or rather of king henry the first of france , a vehement enemy of berengarius his doctrine , ( who therefore had summoned the fore-mentioned several french councils against him ) berengarius returns to his old principles , and publickly justifies them , in writing , to the world. for which he is censured by several provincial councils . but then gregory the seventh , succeeding in the apostolick see , calls a council at rome in the year 1078 , in which berengarius abjures again , much after the same form with the former abjuration . but pope gregory ( not satisfied with the same general confession , of the substantial presence , that he had already eluded ) in a second council , held the year following , he imposes this from of recantation upon him . i berengarius believe in my heart , and confess with my mouth , that the things upon the altar , by virtue of prayer and consecration , are changed into the true and proper flesh and blood of christ , and are the true body of christ , that was born of a virgin , and sacrificed upon the cross , for the salvation of the world , and that sits at the right hand of the father ; and the true blood of christ that was shed out of his side , not only as a sacramental sign , but in propriety of nature , and reality of substance . this is indeed a pretty bold assertion of the substantial presence ; but as to the modus of it , it is evident , that he durst not venture to desine it , as himself declares in his commentaries upon the gospels , where after having recited several opinions about it , he concludes , but these several surmises i shall not pursue , it is enough that the substance of the bread and wine are converted into the substance of the body and blood of christ ; but as to the modus of the conversion , i am not ashamed to confess my ignorance . and so ended this controversie at that time ; berengarius ever after living peaceably ; and about eight years after dying in the communion of the church . but about this time aristotle's philosophy was brought into europe , out of arabia , as it was translated into the arabick tongue by averroes , avicenna and others , and out of them translated into latin ; for the greek language was at that time utterly lost in those western parts of the world. this being then a mighty novelty , the school-men , that were the only pretenders to learning at that time , embraced it with a greedy and implicit faith , supposing it the very gospel of all philosophick knowledge ; and therefore set themselves to mix and blend it with the doctrines of the christian schools ; and by its rules and maxims to explain all the articles of the christian faith. among the rest , he had one very odd notion , singular to himself , from all the other philosophers of greece , viz. that every substance was compounded of matter and form ; and that these two were really distinct from one another ; and then that the quantity of every body was really distinct from the substance of it , and so distinct as to be separable from it : and lastly , that all other qualities , accidents , and predicaments were founded not in the substance , but in the quantity ; and therefore in all change of affairs ever fol'owed its fortunes . now the catholick church having in all ages asserted the real and substantial presence ; oh , say they ( to shew their deep new learning ) that is to be understood in the aristotelian way , by separating the form of the bread from the matter ; but chiefly by separating the inward substance of bread , from its outward quantity , and its retinue of qualities . this was the rise of philosophick or scholastick transubstantiation , that the quantity and accidents of the bread are pared off from all the substance , and shaped and moulded a-new , so as to cover an humane body : and after this they run into an infinite variety of disputes and hypotheses among themselves ; so that till the last age , it hath been the chief entertainment of all pretenders to philosophy in christendom . rupertus abbot of dentsch , a village upon the rhine , lying on the other side of the river , against the city of cologne , a man of great reputation for learning in that age , makes out the philosophy of the thing , by the vnion of the word , or divine nature , that is omnipresent with the bread and wine ; and it is that vnity ( he says ) that makes it one body with that in heaven : and withal , that it is as easie for our saviour to assume , or unite himself to one as the other ; and when that is done , they are both one body ; because they are both his body . this was fine and curious , but not aristotelian enough for that age ; in which that philosophy was set up as the standard of humane wisdom , by the beaux esprits : among these , petrus abelardus gain'd a mighty name and reputation for his skill in these new found philosophick curiosities , tho' otherwise a man versed ( much beyond the genius of that age ) in polite learning ; but being of a proud and assuming nature , he soon drew upon himself the envy of the less learned monks ; which cost him a long scene of troubles , as he hath elegantly described them , in his book of his own persecutions . but among many other singularities to maintain the separation of the matter from the form , and the substance from the accidents in the sacrament of the altar he is forced to make use of this shift , that upon the separation of the substance , the accidents that cannot subsist of themselves , are supported by the air. but then comes peter lombard , anno 1140. grand master of the sentences , and father of the next race of school-men , who indeed proves the real and substantial presence out of the ancients ; particularly st. austin and st. ambrose ; but when he comes to explain the manner of it , whether it be a formal or material change ; whether the substance of the bread and wine be reduced into its first matter , or into nothing , and the like , his conclusion is , definire non sufficio : i presume not to determine ; and therefore quitting these uncertain things , this i certainly know from authorities , viz. that the substance of the bread and wine , are converted into the substance of the body and blood of christ ; but as for the manner of the conversion , we are not ashamed to confess our ignorance . but if you inquire in what subject the accidents subsist , he answers problematically ( mihi videtur ) that they subsist without any subject at all . but it was agreed in all schools , that whatever became of the substance the accidents remained : and that all outward operations terminated there ; and that only they were broken and eaten . but as for the substance of the bread and wine , some were for its permanency with the substance of the body and blood , some for its annihilation , some for physical conversion . but then these curiosites were kept in the schools , where witty men , for want of more useful imployment entertained and amused themselves , with these fine subtleties of thought : but then they were confined within the schools and never admitted so much as to ask the authority of the church . in the next age comes that young and active pope , innocent the third , who succeeded to the see , anno 1198. in the thirty seventh year of of his age , having been made cardinal in the twenty ninth . in the eighteenth year of his reign he summoned the famous fourth , or great council of lateran , at which were present above 400 bishops , metropolitans and patriarchs , besides embassadors from all princes in christendom , for recovery of the holy land , extirpation of heresies , and for reformation of the church . in this council the word transubstantiate is first used in a decree of the church , to express the real or substantial presence of the body and blood of christ in the sacrament , under the species of bread and wine : where , in the decree against the heresie of the albigenses , who denied the real presence , it is enacted , that the body and blood of christ , are really contained under the species of bread and wine : the bread being transubstantiated into the body , and the wine into the blood , by the power of god. but though the council used the word to express the mystery , they did not so much as define its signification , much less the nature of the thing . it was a word that at that time ( it seems ) was in fashion , having been made use of by some of the more polite writers of the age. some give the honour of the invention to paschasius radbertus , some to petrus blesensis , and some to others ; but being a word in vogue among learned men , the council made use of it as a term of art , instead of the old word , transelementation , that had hitherto kept its possession among both greeks and latins . it is pity the greek copy of this canon is lost , whereas all the rest are preserved : for if we had the greek word that answered to the latin , it might have given us some more light into the thing . however , this was all that was defined by innocent the third , or by the council of lateran ; for it is much disputed by learned men , who was the author of those canons , many contending that they were drawn up after the council , because they often quote , and appeal to its decrees . this is the chief argument of the learned and the loyal william barclay , and others against them . but if these learned men had considered a little further , and looked back to the third council of lateran , they would have found all the canons cited in this extant in that : so that only some canons of the third council , are revived and ratified in this fourth : and after the clearing of this objection , i can see no other material exception against them . but to proceed ; this word having gain'd the authority of so great a council , and being put into the decretals of the church , by gregory the ninth , in honor of his uncle innocent the third , it soon gained universal usage among the latins , and was adopted into the catalogue of school terms ; and was there hammer'd into a thousand shapes and forms , by those masters of subtlety : and upon it st. thomas of aquin erects a new kingdom of his own , against the old lombardian empire ; but long he had not reigned , when scotus , our subtle country-man , set up against him . and whatever st. thomas of aquin asserted , for that reason only , he contradicted him ; so that they two became the very caesar and pompey of the schools , almost all the great masters of disputation from that time , fighting under one of their commands ; and what intelligible philosophy both parties vented about the substantial o● transubstantial presence , upon supposition of the real difference between matter and form , substance and accidents , would be both too nice and too tedious to recite ; only in general the thomists maintain the transmutation of the elements ; the scotists , the annihilation ; and they proceed to abstract so long , till they could not only separate the matter and form , and accidents of the bread from one another , but the paneity or breadishness it self from them all , and founded a new vtopian world of metaphysick and specifick entities and abstracts . thus far i have , as briefly as i can , represented the scholastick history of this argument ; in which the authority of the church is not at all concerned ; having gone no farther than to assign or appropriate a word to signifie such a thing ; but all along declaring the thing it self to be beyond the compass of a definition . i know 't is commonly said , that the council of trent hath presumed to define the modus ; and learned men ( i know not by what fatal over-sight ) take it up on trust one from another ; and the definition is generally given in these terms : that , transubstantiation is wrought by the annihilation of the substance of the bread and wine , the accidents remaining : to the which annihilation succeeds the body and blood of christ , under the accidents of bread and wine . so the bishops of durham and winchester represent it ; so mr. alix , and the writers of his church , and not only so but contrary to the sence of all other churches , they confound the real presence with transubstantiation , as this learned man hath done through his whole disputation upon it , using the very words promiscuously ( as indeed all the modern followers of calvin do ) and charging the same absurdities upon both , and imputing the first invention of the real presence to nicolas the second , and gregory the seventh , in their decrees against berengarius . but i cannot but wonder how so many learned men should with so much assurance fansie to themselves such a definition in the trent council , of the modus of transubstantiation , by the annihilation of the substance , and the permanency of the accidents , when the fathers of that council were so far from any such design , that they design'd nothing more carefully , than to avoid all scholastick definitions . the subtil disputes about the modus existendi ( as they termed it ) between the dominicans and franciscans in that council are described at large by father paolo himself in the fourth book of his history . but withal , he says , they were extreamly displeasing and offensive to the fathers , but most of all to the nuncio himself ; and therefore it was resolved in a general congregation to determine the matter in as few and general terms as possible , to offend neither party , and avoid contentions ; and when , notwithstanding this decree , they fell into new disputes , they are check'd by the famous bishop of bitunto , who was one of the chief compilers of the canons , telling them they came thither to condemn heresies , not to define scholastick niceties . and accordingly in the very first chapter of the 13th . session , in which this article was defined , when they determined the real presence ; they at the same time declare the existendi ratio to be ineffable ; and in the 4th . chapter , where transubstantiation is decreed , the canon runs thus : that , by the consecration of the bread and wine , there is a conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of christ , and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood , which conversion is fitly and properly called by the holy catholick church ; transubstantiation . in all which the council only appropriates the word transubstantiation to express the real presence , which it had before determined in the first chapter , not to be after a natural way of existence , as christ sits at the right hand of god , but sacramental , after an ineffable manner . tho here some peevishly object , the inconsistence of the council with it self , when it declares , that the thing is inexpressible and yet appropriates a word to express it : whereas all christendom knows that the procession of the eternal word from the father is ineffable , and yet is expressed by the word generation ; and that the vnion of the divine and humane nature is ineffable , and yet is called the hypostatical vnion ; and that the vnity in the trinity is ineffable , and yet is expressed by the word consubstantial : so that this council seems to have defin'd no more than the council of nice did in the doctrine of the blessed trinity , in expressing the unity of the three persons by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the distinction , by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which amounted to no more than this , that as it is certain from the holy scriptures that in the unity of the god-head there is a trinity , so the holy fathers to avoid the niceties of contentious men , such as arius was , determine that for the time to come the mystery shall be expressed by the terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; but as for any philosophical notion of the mystery , the church never presum'd to define it , and this is the definition of the council of trent , of the real presence , that there is a conversion of the substances under the species or appearances of bread and wine , which the church hath thought convenient to express by the word transubstantiation . and yet tho the council approve the word , yet it does not impose it , it only declares it to be convenient , but no where says 't is necessary . and as for the term conversion , it is much older than the word transubstantiation , familiarly used by the ancient fathers ; and so is the word species : i know indeed it is usual with school-men and protestant writers to translate the words under species of bread and wine , by these words , under the accidents of bread and wine , as particularly the late bishops of durham and winchester have done . but this is to impose philosophick niceties upon the decrees of the church . and tho perhaps all the fathers of the council believed the reality of the new substantial presence under the old accidents , yet they had more temper and discretion than to authorise it by conciliar determination , and therefore use only the word species ( and no other word is used by nicolas ii , gregory vii , and innocent iii , that are thought the three great innovators in the argument of the real presence ) that properly signifies appearance , but nothing of physical or natural reality , so that tho the presence under the species be real , yet as the council hath defined it , it is not natural but sacramental , which sacramental real presence they express by the word transubstantiation , and recommend the propriety of the word to the acceptance of christendom . this is the short history of the real presence in the church of rome , where , as far as i can discern , the thing it self hath been owned in all ages of the church , the modus of it never defined , but in the schools , and tho they have fansied thousand definitions to themselves , their metaphysicks were never admitted into the church . and so i proceed to give an account of it , as it hath been defin'd in the protestant churches , where we shall find much the same harmony of faith and discord of philosophy as in the church of rome . and first we must begin with the famous confession of ausburg , that was drawn up by melancthon , and in the year 1530 presented to charles the fifth , by several princes of germany , as a declaration of the faith of the first reformers , and as the only true standard of the ancient protestant religion . the confesion consists of two parts . i. what doctrines themselves taught . ii. what abuses they desired to be reformed . as to the later , the emperor undertook to procure a general council . as to the former , particularly this article of the presence in the sacrament , they have published it in two several forms : in the latin edition it is worded thus : concerning the lords supper , we teach , that the body and blood of christ are there present indeed , and are distributed to the receivers at the lords supper ; and condemn those that teach otherwise . in the german edition it is worded thus : concerning the lords supper we teach , that the true body and blood of christ are truly present in the supper , under the species of bread and wine , and are there distributed and received . and in an apology written by the same hand , and published the year following , it is thus expressed : we believe , that in the supper of our lord , the body and blood of christ are really and substantially present , and are exhibited indeed with those things , that are seen , the bread and wine . this belief our divines constantly maintain , and we find , not only the church of rome hath asserted the corporeal presence , but that the greek church hath anciently , as well as at this time , asserted the same ; as appears by their canon missae . the same author explains himself more at large in his epistle to fredericus myconius . i send you ( says he ) the passages out of the ancients , concerning the lord's supper , to prove , that they held the same with us ; namely , that the body and blood of our lord are there present indeed . and after divers citations he concludes , that seeing this is the express doctrine of the scriptures , and constant tradition of the church , i cannot conceive how , by the name of the body of christ , should only be understood the sign of an absent body ; for though the word of god frequently makes use of metaphors , yet there is a great difference to be made between historical relations , and divine institutions . in the first , matters transacted among men , and visible to the sence are related ; and here we are allow'd , and often forced to speak figuratively : but if in divine precepts , or revelations , concerning the nature or the will of god , we should take the same liberty , wise men cannot but fore-see the mischiefs that would unavoidably follow . there would be no certainty of any article of faith. and he gives an instance in the precept of circumcision to abraham : that upon those terms the good patriarch might have argued with himself , that god never intended to impose a thing so seemingly absurd , as the words sound ; and that therefore the precept is to be understood only of a figurative or metaphorical circumcision ; the circumcision of our lusts. so far this learned reformer . now the authority of melancthon weighs more with us of the church of england , ( as the learned dr. st. very well observes ) that in the settlement of our reformation , there was no such regard had to luther or calvin , as to erasmus and melancthon , whose learning and moderation were in greater esteem here , than the fiery spirits of the other ; and yet few writers have asserted the substantial and corporeal presence in higher terms than this moderate reformer ; and though he may sometimes have varied in forms of speech , he continued constant and immovable in the substance of the same doctrine . for in the confession of the saxon churches ( at the compiling of which he was chief assistant ) drawn up in the year 1551 , to have been presented to the council of trent ; a true and substantial presence is asserted , during the time of ministration . we teach ( say they ) that sacraments are divine institutions ; and that the things themselves out of the use desing'd are no sacraments ; but in the use , christ is verily and substantially present ; and the body and blood of christ are indeed taken by the receivers . there seems to have been one singular notion in this confession , that the real and substantial presence lasts no longer than the ministration ; but that is nothing to our argument , as long as a substantial presence is asserted . in the year 1536 an assembly of the divines of the ausburg confession on one side , and the divines of vpper germany on the other , conven'd at wirtemberg , by the procurement and mediation of bucer , who undertook to moderate between both parties ; where they agreed in this form of confession . we believe according to the words of irenaeus , that the eucharist consists of two things , one earthly the other heavenly ; and therefore believe and teach , that the body and blood of christ are truly and substantially exhibited and received with the bread and wine . this is subscribed by the chief divines of both parties , and approved by the helvetian ministers themselves . the bohemian waldenses in their confession of faith presented to ferdinand , king of the romans and bohemia , declare expressly , that the bread and wine , are the very body and blood of christ ; and that christ is in the sacrament with his natural body , but by another way of existence than at the right-hand of god. in the greek form of consecration , this prayer was used : make this bread the precious body of thy christ ; and that which is in this cup , the precious blood of thy christ , changing them by thy holy spirit ; which words are taken out of the liturgies of st. chrysostom and st. basil. and ieremias the learned patriarch of constantinople , in his declaration of the faith of the greek church in answer to the lutheran divines , affirms that the catholick church believes , that after the consecration the bread is changed into the very body of christ , and the wine into the very blood , by the holy spirit . in the year 1570. was held a council in poland of the divines of the ausburg , the helvetian , and the bohemian confessions , in which they agreed in this declaration . as to that unhappy controversie of the supper of our lord , we agree in the sence of the words , as they are rightly understood by the fathers , particularly by irenaeus , who affirms that the mystery consists of two things , one earthly , and another heavenly . neither do we affirm , that the elements and signs are meer naked and empty things signified to believers . but to speak more clearly and distinctly , we agree that we believe and confess the substantial presence of christ is not only signified to believers , but is really held forth , distributed and exhibited , the symbols being joined with the thing it self , and not meerly naked , according to the nature of sacraments . this confession was confirmed at several times , by several following synods in the same kingdom , at cracow 1573. at peterkaw 1578. at walhoff 1583. the first man that opposed the real and substantial presence was carolostadius , archdeacon of wirtenberg , of whom the candid and ingenious melancthon gives this character : that he was a furious man , void both of wit , learning , and common sence , not capable of any act of civility or good manners ; so far from any appearances of piety , that there are most manifest footsteps of his wickedness . he condemns all the civil laws of the heathen nations , as unlawful , and would now have all nations governed by the judicial law of moses , and embrac'd the whole doctrine of the anabaptists . he sets up the controversie about the sacraments against luther , meerly out of envy and emulation , not out of any sence of religion , and much more to the same purpose : the truth of all which ( he says ) a great part of germany both can and will attest . tho the greatest proof of his levity is his own writing , when all that disorder and schism that he made in the church , of which he profess'd himself a member , was founded upon no better bottom than this slender nicety , that when our saviour said this is my body , he pointed not to the bread but to himself . but in this he is vehemently opposed by his master luther , in behalf of a true corporeal presence , especially in his book contra coelestes prophetas seu fanaticos ; wherein he lays down this assertion , that by the demonstrative pronoun hoc , christ is declared to be truly and carnally present with his body in the supper , and that the communication of the body of christ , of which st. paul speaks , is to eat the body of christ in the bread , neither is that communication spiritual only but corporeal , as it is in the personal vnion of christ : so we are to conceive of the sacrament , in which the bread and the body make up one thing , and after an incomprehensible manner , which no reason can fathom , become one essence or mass , from whence , as man becomes god , so the bread becomes the body . and in a sermon preached by him the same year at wirtemberg , against the sacramentarian hereticks , as he calls them : the devil opposes us by his fanatick emissaries in the blaspheming the supper of our lord , that dream the bread and wine are there only given as a sign or symbol of our christian profession , nor will allow that the body and blood of christ are there present themselves , tho the words are express and perspicuous : take , eat , this is my body . in this controversie he was engaged all his life , against carolostadius , and other apostates from the ausburg confession , giving them no better titles than of fanaticks , hereticks , betrayers of christ , blasphemers of the holy ghost , and seducers of the world. and in his last book against the divines of lovain in the year 1545 , the year before his death , he makes this solemn declaration . we seriously believe the zuinglians , and all sacramentarians , that deny the body and blood of christ to be received ore carnali , in the blessed sacrament , to be hereticks , and no members of the church of christ : so that hitherto it is evident , that the whole body of the true old protestants , both in their publick confessions and private writings , unanimously asserted the corporeal and substantial presence , as they use the words promiscuously . as for the calvinian churches , grotius hath observed very truly , that the calvinists express themselves in a quite different language , in their confessions , from what they do in their disputations , where they declare themselves more frankly . in their confessions they tell you , that the body and blood of christ , are taken really , substantially , essentially ; but when you come to discourse'em closer , the whole business is spiritual , without substance , only with a signifying mystery ; and all the reality is turned into a receiving by faith ; which , says he , is a perfect contradiction to the doctrine of the whole catholick church . so they declare in the conference at presburg with the lutherans , that in the sacrament , christ indeed gives the substance of his body and blood by the working of the holy ghost . and when luther signify'd to bucer , his jealously of the divines of strasburgh and bazil , as if they believed nothing to be present in the sacrament , but the bread and wine . bucer returns this answer , in the name , and with the consent of all his brethren ; this is their faith and doctrine concerning the sacrament , that in it , by the institution and power of our ▪ lord , his true body and his true blood are indeed exhibited , given and taken , together with the visible signs of bread and wine ( as his own words declare . ) this is the doctrine not only of zuinglius , and oecolampadius , but the divines of upper germany have declared the same , in their publick confessions and writings . so that the difference is rather about the manner of the absence and presence , than about the presence or absence themselves . and the reformed french church in the year 1557. declare themselves much after the same manner , to a synod of reform'd german divines , held at wormes . we confess that in the supper of our lord , not only all the benefits of christ , but the very substance of the son of man , the very flesh , and the very blood that he shed for us , to be there not meerly signify'd , or symbolically , typically , or figuratively , as a memorial of a thing absent , but truly held forth , exhibited and offered to be received , together with the symbols , that are by no means to be thought naked , which by virtue of god's promise , always have the thing it self truly and certainly conjoin'd with them , whether they are given to the good or to the bad . but what need of more witnesses , when calvin himself , the very vrim and thummim of the calvinian churches , declares his sence in these express words . i affirm that christ is indeed given by the symbols of bread and wine , and by consequence his body and blood , in which he fulfilled all righteousness for our iustification , and as by that , we were ingrafted into his body , so by this are we made partakers of his substance , by virtue of it we feel the communication of all good things to our selves . but as to the modus , if any man inquire of me , i am not ashamed to confess that the mystery is too sublime for my wit to comprehend , or to express ; and to speak freely , i rather feel than understand it , and therefore here without controversie i embrace the truth of god , in which i am sure i may safely acquisce . he affirms that his flesh is the food of my soul , and his blood the drink . it is to these aliments that i offer my soul to be nourished . he commands me in his holy supper , under the symbols of bread and wine to take , eat , and drink , his body and blood , and therefore i doubt not but he gives it . here , besides the express words themselves , if there be so much mystery in the thing as he affirms , there is much more than meer figure . and in another passage he thus expresses himself . that god doth not trifle in vain signs , but does in good earnest perform what is represented by the symbols , viz. the communication of his body and blood , and that the figure conjoined with the reality , is represented by the bread , and the body of christ is offered and exhibited with it , the true substance is given us , the reality conjoined with the sign , so that we are made partakers of the substance of the body and blood. this is express enough . but yet in his book de coena domini , he declares his sence much more fully . if notwithstanding ( saith he ) it be enquired whether the bread be the body , and the wine the blood of christ ; i answer , that the bread and wine are the visible signs that represent the body and blood , and that the name of the body and blood is given to them , because they are the instruments by which our lord iesus christ is given to us . this form of speech is very agreeable to the thing it self , for seeing the communion that we have in the body of christ is not to be seen with our eyes , nor comprehended by our vnderstandings , yet 't is there manifestly exposed to our eye-sight ; of which we have a very proper example in the same case : when it pleased god that the holy ghost should appear at the baptism of christ he was pleased to represent it under the appearance of a dove ; and john the baptist , giving an account of the transaction , only relates that he saw the holy ghost descending ; so that if we consider rightly we shall find that he saw nothing but the dove , for the essence of the holy ghost is invisible : but he knowing the vision not to be a vain apparition , but a certain sign of the presence of the holy ghost represented to him in that manner , that he was able to bear the representation . the same thing is to be said in the communion of our saviour's body and blood , that it is a spiritual mystery , neither to be beheld with eyes , nor comprehended with humane understanding , and therefore is represented by figures and sings , that ( as the weakness of our nature requires ) fall under our senses , so as 't is not a bare and simple figure , but conjoin'd with its reality and substance : therefore the bread is properly called the body , when it doth not only represent it , but also brings it to us . and therefore we will readily grant , that the name of the body of christ may be transferr'd to the bread , because it is the sacrament and emblem of it ; but then we must add , that the sacrament is by no means to be separated from the substance and reality . and that they might not be confounded , it is not only convenient , but altogether necessary , to distinguish between them , but intolerably absurd to divide one from the other . wherefore when we see the visible sign what it represents , we ought to reflect from whom it is given us , for the bread is given as a representation of the body of christ , and we are commanded to eat it . it is given , i say , by god , who is infallible truth , and then if god cannot deceive nor lye , it follows that he in reality gives whatever is there represented : and therefore it is necessary that we really receive the body and blood of christ , seeing the communion of both is represented to us . for to what purpose should he command us to eat the bread and drink the wine , as signifying his body and blood , if without some spiritual reality we only received the bread and wine ? would he not vainly and absurdly have instituted this mystery , and as we frenchmen say , by false representations ? therefore we must acknowledge that if god gives us a true representation in the supper , that the invisible substance of the sacrament is joined with the visible signs , and as the bread is distributed by hand , so the body of christ is communicated to us to be partakers of it . this certainly , if there were nothing else , ought abundantly to satisfy us , when by it we understand , that in the supper of our lord , christ gives us the true and proper substance of his body and blood. thus far calvin : and i think it is as high a declaration of the real and substantial presence , as i have met with in any author whatsoever . and if in any other passages the great dictator may have been pleased to contradict himself , that is , the old dictatorian prerogative of that sect , as well as the old romans , that whatever decrees they made , however inconsistent , they were always authentick . neither doth beza at all fall short of his adored master in the point of substantial presence : in his book against westfalus a sacramentarian , de coena domini . he declares freely that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or grammatical sence of our saviour's words , this is my body , cannot be preserved without transubstantiation , and that there is no medium between transubstantiantion and a meer figure : and yet the whole design of the book is to prove the real presence in the sacrament , in opposition to the figurative . and in the year 1561 , the protestant churches of france held a synod at rochel , and the year following at nimes , in both which beza sat as president , where the substantial presence was maintain'd , and defin'd with great vehemence against the innovators ( as they were then esteemed ; ) for when morellus mov'd to have the word substance taken out of their confession of faith , beza and the synod , not without some indignation , decree against them . this decree beza declares in his epistle to the ministers of zurick , dated may the 17th . 1572 , to extend to the protestants of france only , least they who were zuinglians should take offence at it as a censure particularly designed against themselves . but the highest declaration of the french protestants is that sent by their embassadors to the german divines assembled at wormes anno 1557. in which business beza was chief manager . we confess , say they , that in the supper of our lord , not only all the benefits of christ , but the very substance of the son of man , the very real flesh , the very blood that he shed for us , not only to be signified or symbolically , typically , or figuratively to be proposed as the memorial of a thing absent , but to be truly represented , exhibited and offered to be received ; the symbols by no means to be thought naked , being annexed , which because of the promise and engagement of god , always have the thing it self truly and certainly conjoin'd , whether given to the good or to the bad. but these civilities and condescentions were made in their low ebbs of fortune : for whenever they could flatter themselves with any advantage of interest , no accommodations would serve their turn . thus at the famous conference at poissy , before charles the ninth , anno 1561 , where they supposed themselves warm , and powerful enough , by the favour of the queen-mother ( who supported them for her own ends of state ) and some great ministers of state , who ( by the way ) soon after proved rebels , i mean coligny and his faction ; beza , who was the chief manager in behalf of the protestants , runs high in his demands . as to the eucharist , says he , the body of christ is as far distant from it , as the highest heaven from the earth : for our selves and the sacraments are upon the earth , but christ's flesh is in heaven so glorified , that it hath not lost the nature , but the infirmity of a body . so that we are partakers of his body and blood only after a spiritual way , or by faith. this boldness highly offended the queen ; and therefore he afterwards endeavoured to excuse himself by palliations and softning expressions , but after all , to avoid farther equivocation , he is hardly pressed to it by the cardinal of lorrain , whether they would stand to the confession of ausburg . beza demurs and consults calvin ; calvin defies it , and commands him to protest against it . upon which occasion osiander , a plain protestant , in his history makes this remark upon the calvinian honesty . heretofore ( says he ) when peace was granted to the protestants in germany , the calvinists put in their claim to their share in it , because they own'd the ausburg confession ( and it was subscrib'd by calvin himself ) notwithstanding that at the same time they held contradictory opinions . but in the conference at poissy , when they presumed that they had strength and force enough to defend their own doctrines , they openly rejected the ausburg confession , when it was offered them by the cardinal of lorrain , to subscribe as the only article of pacification . and yet after this , when they had not obtained their ends , they again in affront to their own consciences , cry up the ausburg confession as their only standard of faith , not that they approved it , but under that false guise to impose calvinism upon the plain meaning lutherans . so far the historian , though the matter of fact is its own best proof . this is the short account of this controversie in all foreign churches . all parties of christendom agree in the substance of the doctrine , even the calvinists themselves , who , tho they sometimes attempted to deny it , had not confidence enought to be steady to their own opinion , but were often forced to submit it to the consent of christendom . from all these premises it is evident , that no one thing in the world is more unfit to be set up for a test than transubstantiation , seeing all parties agree in the thing , tho not in the word , and yet tho they do , they again disagree in numberless speculations about it , and when they have done , all parties unanimously agree that the modus is a thing utterly unknown and incomprehensible . so that take it one way ( i. e. ) as to the thing it self , or the real presence , the test is a defiance to all christendom ; take it the other way , as to the modus , it is nothing at all but only imposing an unintelligible thing upon the wisdom and honour of a nation under the severest penalties . as for the church of england , she agrees with the tradition of the catholick church both roman and reformed , in asserting the certainty of the real presence , and the vncertainty of the manner of it ; tho the true account of it hath been miserably perplexed , and disturbed by the oblique practices of the sacramentarians . the first account we have of it is in our celebrated church-historian out of dr. stillingfleet's famous invisible manuscript , whereby as he had before made archibishop cranmer a meer erastian as to discipline , so now here he makes him a meer sacramentarian as to doctrine . a committee of selected bishops and divines being appointed in the first year of king edward , for examining and reforming the offices of the church . the first , because most material point , was the eucharist , concerning which all things were put into certain quaeries , to which every commissioner gave in his answer in writing . and to the question concerning the eucharist , what is the oblation and sacrifice of christ in the mass ? cranmer's answer is , the oblation and sacrifice of christ in the mass is not so called , because christ indeed is there offered and sacrificed by the priest and the people , ( for that was done but once by himself upon the cross ) but it so call'd , because it is a memory and representation of that very true sacrifice and immolation , which before was made upon the cross. this is pure zuinglianism , and in opposition to it , it is asserted by six bishops in a body . i think it is the presentation of the very body and blood of christ , being really present in the sacrament , which presentation the priest makes at the mass in the name of the church , unto god the father , and in memory of christ's passion , and death upon the cross , with thanksgiving therefore , and devout prayer , that all christian people , and namely they who spiritually join with the priest in the said oblation , and of whom he makes special remembrance , may attain the benefit of the said passion . and to these agree the several answers of carlisle , and coventry , and litchfield , by which ( as the historian well observes ) the reader will perceive how generally the bishops were addicted to the old superstition , and how few did agree in all things with cranmer . now this old superstition that he finds in this passage , is nothing but the true old protestant doctrine of the real presence , in opposition to meer figure and representation , which is all that is here asserted by the bishops . but this is the bold practice of this bold writer , to make cranmer the standard of the reformation ; and this unknown manuscript the standard of cranmer's opinions ; and these two grand forgeries concerning no church government ; and the meer commemorative presence in the eucharist , are the two grand singularities of his history ; and the main things that gave it popular vogue and reputation with his party ; and were these two blind stories , and the reasons depending upon them retrench'd , it would be like the shaving of samson's hair , and destroy all the strength peculiar to the history . the design was apparently laid before the work was undertaken , that industriously warps all things into irenical and erastian principles , and the vain man seems to have been flattered by his patrons into all that pains to give reputation to their errors . and here lay the fondness for the stillingsteetian manuscript , that it so frankly and openly asserted erastian and sacramentarian principles as the bottom of the reformation . but if such an unprov'd and unwarrantable piece of paper , without any certain conveyance or tradition , without any notice of so publick a transaction in any contemporary writer , without any other evidence of its being genuine , than that it was put providentially into the hands of dr. st. when he wrote his irenicum , must be set up for undoubted record , against all the records of the churches , our great historian would be well advis'd to employ his pains in writing lampoons upon the present princes of christendom ( especially his own ) which he delights in most , because it is the worst thing that himself can do , than collecting the records of former times . for the first will require time and postage to pursue his malice , but the second is easily trac'd in the chimney corner . and therefore i would desire these gentlemen either to give a better account of the descent and genealogy of the paper , than that it came to dr. st. by miracle ; or else to give it less authority . but to proceed , a new office for the communion-service was drawn up in the same year by the bishops , in compiling of which cranmer had the chief hand , and by his great power over-ruled the rest at pleasure ; in this service he retains the old form of words used in the ancient missals , when there was no zuinglianism or doctrine of figurative presence in the christian world , and the real presence was universally believed as appears by the very words of distribution . the body of our lord iesus christ which was given for thée , preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life . and the blood of our lord iesus christ which was shed for thée , &c. this was the form prescribed in the first liturgy of edward the 6th . and agreeable to this are the king 's own injunctions published at the same time , where the eucharist is call'd the communion of the very body and blood of christ , by which form of words they then expressed the real presence as oppos'd to zuinglianism . this liturgy being thus established , and withal abetted by act of parliament , for some time kept up its authority in the church against all opposition ; though it was soon encountred with enemies enough both at home and abroad out of the calvinian quarters . at the end of the year ensuing peter martyr , a rank sacramentarian , came over , and after much conversation with cranmer , he was plac'd regius professor in oxford , where he soon raised tumults about the zuinglian and sacramentarian doctrines . but bucer , that prudent and moderate reformer , came not till some time after , though invited at the same time : and so either came too late or departed too soon ; for as he came over in iune so he dy'd in ianuary , so that tho he were a great assertor of the real presence ( as our church-historian himself often observes ) he had not a season to sow his doctrine , and martyr reigning alone , and being a furious bigott in his principles , it is no wonder if zuinglianism spread with so much authority . but the most fatal blow to the reformation of the church of england was given by calvin's correspondence with the protector , and afterwards with dudley , taking upon him to censure , expunge , reform , impose , at his own pleasure ; the malignity of whose influence first discovered it self in the ceremonial war against a cap and a tippet , but soon wrought into the vitals of the reformation , especially , as to the liturgy and the eucharist ; both which must be removed to give way to the zuinglian errors . this alteration was made in the 5th . year of the kings reign , tho precisely when , and by what persons , is utterly unknown , only it is remark'd by our church-historian to have followed immediately after the consecration of hooper . when ( as he observes ) the bishops being generally addicted to the purity of religion , spent most of this year in preparing articles which should contain the doctrine of the church of england . among which the 29th . condemns the real presence , as the new liturgy , to which they are annexed , had before almost run it up to the charge of idolatry . for they were not content to abolish the old missal form of distribution . the body of our lord iesus christ which was given for thee , preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life . take and eat this , &c. but instead of it appoint this zuinglian form , take and eat this ( without any mention of the body and blood of christ ) in remembrance that christ died for thée . &c. neither were these innovators ( whoever they were ) satisfied with the alteration of the old form ; but add a fierce declaration to bar the doctrine of real and essential presence . whereas it is ordered in this office of the administration of the lord's supper , that the communicants should receive the same kneeling ( which order is well meant for a signification of our humble and grateful acknowledgment of the benefits of christ therein , given to all worthy receivers , and for avoiding such prophanation and disorder in the holy communion , as might otherwise ensue . ) yet least the same kneeling should by any persons , either out of ignorance and infirmity , or out of malice and obstinacy be misconstrued and deprav'd , it is here declared that no adoration is intended , or ought to be done unto any real or essential presence of christ's natural flesh and blood , for the sacramental bread and wine remain still in their very natural substances , and therefore may not be ador'd , ( for that were idolatry to be abhorr'd by all faithful christians ) and the natural body and blood of our saviour christ are in heaven , and not here . it being against the truth of christ's natural body , to be at one time in more places than one . and whereas a body of articles was composed at the same time , it is declared in the 29th . article , that since the very being of humane nature doth require , that the body of one and the same man , cannot be at one and the same time in many places , but of necessity must be in some certain and determinate place ; therefore the body of christ cannot be present in many different places at the same time . and since as the holy scriptures testifie christ hath been taken up into heaven , and there is to abide till the end of the world , it becomes not any of the faithful to believe or profess , that there is a real or corporeal presence ( as they phrase it ) of the body and blood of christ in the holy eucharist . this declaration , though it seem'd to be aim'd with a particular malice against the lutherans , and their peculiar manner of asserting and explaining the real presence , yet it strikes at the general doctrine it self , held in all churches . and as these were the great alterations made at that time ; so who were the authors and contrivers of 'em is so utterly unknown to historians , that they are not so much as able to conjecture . doctor heylin would ascribe it either to the convocation it self , or some committee appointed by it . but this is the officious kindness of the good man to help out the poor oppressed church at that time , at a dead lift , having no record or authority for his assertion . doctor burnet has often heard it said , that the articles were fram'd by cranmer and ridley . but whoever told him so , knew no more than himself ; i am sure it is the meanest trade in an historian to stoop to hear-says . all that can be conjectured of it , is , that it was done at that unhappy time when dudley governed all , who when he form'd his great and ambitious designs , first ( as the historian remarks ) endeavoured to make himself popular ; and to this end , among other arts , he made himself head and patron of the calvinian faction , and entertain'd the establish'd church with neglect and contempt ; and therefore i find not ecclesiastical matters referr'd to the advice of the regular ecclesiastical order , but were either transacted by himself , and his agents in private , or some incompetent lay-authority . as to this matter of the new liturgy and articles , there is no record but an act of parliament , by which they are impos'd and authoriz'd . whereas there hath been a very godly order set forth by the authority of parliament for common-prayer , and administration of the holy sacraments , to be used in the mother tongue within this church of england , agreeable to the word of god , and the primitive church , very comfortable to all good people , desiring to live in christian conversation , and most profitable to the estate of this realm ; upon the which , the mercy , favour , and blessing of almighty god is in no wise so readily and plenteously pour'd , as by common-prayers , due using of the sacraments , and often preaching of the gospel with the devotion of the hearers ; and yet this notwithstanding a great number of people in divers parts of this realm , following their own sensuality , and living either without knowledge , or due fear of god , do willfully and damnation before almighty god , abstain and refuse to come to their parish churches , and other places where common-prayer , and administration of the sacraments , and preaching of the word of god , is used upon sundays and other days , ordain'd to be holy-days . ii. for reformation hereof be it enacted by the king our sovereign lord , with the assent of the lords and commons in this present parliament assembled , and by the authority of the same , that from and after the feast of all-saints next coming , all and every person and persons inhabiting within this realm , or any other the king's majesty's dommions , shall diligently and faithfully ( having no lawful or reasonable excuse to be absent ) endeavour themselves to resort to their parish church or chapel accustomed , or upon reasonable let thereof , to some usual place , where common-prayer , and such service of god shall be used in such time of let , upon every sunday , and other days ordained and used to be kept as holy-days , and then and there to abide orderly and soberly during the time of the common-prayer , preachings , or other service of god there to be us'd and ministred , upon pain of punishment by the censures of the church . iii. and for the due execution hereof , the king 's most excellent majesty , the lords temporal , and all the commons in this present parliament assembled , doth in god's name earnestly require and charge all archbishops , bishops , and their ordinaries , that they shall endeavour themselves to the uttermost of their knowledges , that the due and true execution thereof may be had throughout their diocesses and charges , as they will answer before god for such evils and plagues , wherewith almighty god may justly punish his people , for neglecting this good and wholesom law. iv. and for their authority in this behalf , be it further likewise enacted by the authority aforesaid , that all and singular the same archbishops , bishops , and all other their officers , exercising ecclesiastical iurisdiction , as well in place exempt , as not exempt , within their diocesses , shall have full power and authority by this act , to reform , correct , and punish by censures of the church all and singular persons which shall offend within any their iurisdictions or diocesses , after the said feast of all-saints next coming , against this act and statute ; any other law , statute , privilege , liberty , or provision heretofore made , had , or suffered to the contrary notwithstanding . v. and because there is risen in the use and exercise of the aforesaid common service in the church , heretofore set forth , divers doubts for the fashion or manner of the ministration of the same , rather by the curiosity of the minister and mistakers , than of any other worthy cause ; therefore , as well for the more plain and manifest explanation thereof , as for the more perfection of the said order or common service , in some places , where it is necessary to make the same prayer and fashion of service , more earnest and fit to stir christian people to the true honouring of almighty god , the king 's most excellent majesty , with the assent of the lords and commons of this present parliament assembled , and by the authority of the same , hath caused the aforesaid order , or common service , intituled , the book of common-prayer , to be faithfully and godly perused , explained , and made fully perfect , and by the aforesaid authority hath annexed and joined it , so explained and perfected , to this present statute , &c. in this new office , beside the forementioned alterations in the liturgy it self , there was order'd in the rubrick , the abolition of copes and hoods ; neither is it altogether unobservable , that at this time hopkins his psalms broke in upon the service of the church . but in the beginning of queen elizabeth's reign , when the reformation was setled in that state , in which it ever after continued , that new declaration of the second liturgy of king edward was rejected , together with the 29th . article , and the first old form of distribution was restored . and that 's a clear declaration of the sence of this church for a real and essential presence , when it was so particularly concern'd to have all bars against it remov'd . and from that time forward , the most eminent divines in it , were successively from age to age the most assertors of it . it were in vain to recite the numberless passages to that purpose , it having been so often done by other hands . a list of the names of the principal authors may be seen in the late bishop of durham's historia transubstantiationis , iohn poinet , bishop of winchester , who wrote a very learned book upon the argument , entituled diallacticon , to explain the sence of the church of england about it ; iohn iewel , bishop of salisbury , the learned bishops andrews and bilson , isaac casaubon in the name and by the command of king iames the first , in his answer to cardinal perron ; mr. hooker ; iohn , bishop of rochester ; montague , bishop of norwich ; iames , primate of armagh ; francis , bishop of ely ; archbishop laud ; bishop overal , and the archbishop of spalato . to this catalogue variety of other writers might be added , but either here are witnesses enough , or there never can be . neither need i produce their testimonies , when they are so vugarly known , and have been so frequently recited . i shall content my self with the two principal , the most learned and reverend prelates poinet and andrews . the first wrote his diallacticon concerning the truth , nature and substance of the body and blood of christ in the eucharist . a book much approved and often commended by grotius , ( tho he knew not the author ) as the best discourse upon the argument , and the most proper method to restore the peace of the christian church in that point , which he further says was for that purpose translated into french by a reformed divine , by the advice of his brethren . i have not the book by me , but the design and fundamental assertion is to prove ( as dr. cosins recites it ) that the eucharist is not only a figure of the body of our lord , but contains in it the verity , nature and substance ; and therefore that these terms ought not to be exploded , because the ancients generally used them in their discourses upon this argument . but bishop andrews his passage , though grown vulgar and thread-bare , by being so continually quoted , best deserves our observation , because by that means it is made not only a declaration of his own sence , but of all that followed him in it , and that is of almost all the learned men of the church of england , that have succeeded from that time . the passage is in his answer to bellarmine in these words . the cardinal is not ignorant , except wilfully , that christ hath said , this is my body . now about the object we are both agreed ; all the controversy is about the modus . we firmly believe that it is the body of christ , but after what manner it is made to be so , there is not a word extant in the gospel , and therefore we reject it from being a matter of faith. we will , if you please , place it among the decrees of the schools ; but by no means among the articles of religion . what durandus said of old , we approve of . we hear the word , feel the effect , know not the manner , believe the presence . and so we believe the presence too , and that real no less than your selves : only we define nothing rashly of its modus , neither do we curiously inquire into it ; no more than how the blood of christ cleanseth us in our baptism ; no more than how in the incarnation of christ the humane nature is united to the divine . we rank it in the order of mysteries ( and indeed the whole eucharist it self is nothing but mystery ) what remains beside , ought to be consumed by fire , that is as the fathers elegantly express it , to be ador'd by faith , not examined by reason . this was his state of the controversie , that was then perus'd and approv'd of by king iames , and ever after retained by the divines of the church of england down to the rebellion and subversion of church and state , and then it was carried into banishment with its confessors . for whilst his late majesty resided at cologn , it was there commonly objected , in his own presence , by the roman divines against the church of england , that all its members were meer zuinglians and sacramentarians , that believed only an imaginary presence . upon this dr. cosins , who was then dean of the chapel royal , by his majesties command writes a discourse to vindicate the church of england from that calumny , and to give an account of its sence concerning the true and real presence ; in which he declares himself to the same purpose with all the forementioned authors , all along vehemently asserting the true reality of the presence , and still declaring the modus to be ineffable , unsearchable , above our senses , and above our reason . so that still all parties are agreed in the thing it self , were it not for that one mistaken supposition , that the church of rome hath not only defin'd the matter , but the manner , which she is so far from pretending to attempt , that before she proceeded to decree any thing about it , she declar'd that it was so incomprehensible , that it was not capable of being defin'd , as we see all christendom hath done beside . now after all this i leave it to the common sence and ingenuity of mankind , whether any thing can be more barbarous and profane than to make the renouncing of a mystery , so unanimously receiv'd , a state test . and that is my present concernment about it , not as a point of divinity , but as turned into a point of state. thus far proceeded the old church of england , which as it was banished , so it was restored with the crown . but by reason of the long interval of twenty years between the rebellion and restitution , there arose a new generation of divines that knew not joseph . these men underhand deserted and undermined the old church , as it stood upon divine right , and catholick principles , and instead of it crected a new church of their own contrivance , consisting partly of independency , partly of erastianism , with the independent , leaving no standing authority in the christian church over private christians , but leaving every man to the arbitrary choice of his own communion ; with erastus allowing no jurisdiction to the christian church , but what is derived from the civil magistrate . these principles being pleasing to the wantonness of the people , these men soon grew popular , and soon had the confidence to call themselves the church of england : but the principal object of their zeal was the destruction of popery , and the only measure of truth , with them , was opposition to the church of rome . and therefore they assum'd to themselves the management of that great and glorious war. and as they managed it upon new principles , or indeed , none at all ( never writing for our church , but only against that church ) so they advanced new arguments to represent the church of rome as odious as possible , to the people . among these the two most frightful topicks , were transubstantiation and idolatry . one was a very hard word , and the other a very ugly one . these two words , they made the two great kettle-drums to the protestant guards . they were continually beating upon them with all their force , and whenever they found themselves at any disadvantage with an enemy ( as they often were by pressing too far , for they never thought they did enough in the cause ) by making a noise upon these two loud engines , they could at pleasure drown the dispute . now , ever since this alteration of the state of the war between the two churches , we hear little or nothing at all of the real presence in the cause , but it is become as great a stranger to the ( i.e. their ) church of england as transubstantiation it self , but the whole matter is resolved into a meer sacramental figure and representation , and a participation only of the benefits of the body and blood of christ by faith. i know not any one writer of that party of men that hath ever own'd any higher mystery , but on the contrary they state all the disputes about the eucharist upon sacramentarian principles , and with them to assert the true reality of the presence of our saviour's body and blood in the sacrament , as naturally resolves it self into transubstantiation , as that does into idolatry . and the main argument insisted upon by them , is the natural impossibility of the thing it self to the divine omnipotence , which beside the prophane boldness of prescribing measures to god's attributes in a mystery that they do not comprehend ; 't is , as appears by the premises , a defiance to the practice of all churches , who have ever acknowledged an incomprehensible mystery , not subject to the examination of humane reason , but to be imbraced purely upon the authority of a divine revelation . and therefore that ought to be the only matter of dispute . for if it be a divine revelation ( as all christendom hath hitherto believed ) that determines the case without any further enquiry ; and if any man will not be satisfied with that authority , he makes very bold with his maker . and men of those principles would no doubt , make admirable work with the definitions of articles of faith by the four first general councils . but to let their new way of arguing pass , it is these men that first set up sacramentarian principles in this church , and then blew them into the parliament house , raising there , every session , continual tumults about religion , and it is to their caballing with the members that we owe these new and unpresidented tests . perhaps to have their own decrees and writings established by law , and imposed upon the whole nation as gospel . in short , if they own a real presence , we see from the premises how little the controversie is between that and transubstantiation , as it is truly and ingeniously understood by all reformed churches . if they do not , they disown the doctrine both of the church of england and the church catholick , and then if they own only a figurative presence ▪ ( and it is plain they own no other ) they stand condemned of heresie by almost all churches in the christian world ; and if this be the thing intended to be set up ( as it certainly is by the authors and contrivers of it ) by renouncing transubstantiation , then the result and bottom of the law is under this pretence to bring a new heresy by law into the church of england . and yet upon this foot i find the controversie stands at this present day between the bishop of rome , or the bishop of condom on one part , and little iulian in the back-shop with his dragoons on the other part : the bishop establishes the real presence in opposition to the figurative ; his answerer turns the whole mystery into meer type and figure , by seting up a figurative interpretation of the words of institution , and yet confesses it at the same time to be somewhat more than a figure . to this it is reply'd , i would gladly know what that is , which is not the thing it self , but yet is more than a meer figure of it : to this it is answered , that the presence is spiritual , but yet real ; but how a corporeal substance should have a real spiritual presence , is a thing that requires more philosophy to clear it up than transubstantiation , or in the words of the author himself : we suppose it to be a plain contradiction that body should have any existence , but what alone is proper to a body that is corporeal . this is their last resolution of this controversie , that a true real presence is a contradiction ; and so i think is a real spiritual presence of a bodily substance . this scent the whole chace follows , and unanimously agree in this cry , that there is no presence , but either meerly figurative , and that shuts out all reality , and is universally condemned by all the reformation ; or meerly spiritual , ( i.e. ) the present effects and benefits of the absent body and blood of christ , which hath been all along equally cashiered by all other reformed churches , as the other grand scandal of zuinglianism . thus the london answerer to the oxford discourses : there can be no real presence , but either figuratively in the elements , or spiritually in the souls of those who worthily receive them . so dr. st. all which the doctrine of our church implies by this phrase , is only a real presence of christ's invisible power and grace , so in and with the elements , as by the faithful receiving of them to convey real and spiritual effects to the souls of men. the oxford answerer to the oxford discourses allows no other real presence but the virtual presence , that is the meer effect . so the popular author of the discourse against transubstantiation , makes no medium between the meer figurative presence and transubstantiation , so that all other presence , that is not meerly figurative , comes under the notion of transubstantiation . now the gentlest character he is pleased to give of this monsieur , is this , that the business of transubstantiation is not a controversie of scripture against scripture , or of reason against reason , but of downright impudence against the plain meaning of the scripture , and all the sence and reason of all mankind . but besides the intolerable rudeness of the charge against all the learned men of the church of rome , as the worst of sots and ideots , if there be no middle real presence between transubstantiation and the figure , he hath cast all the protestant churches into the same condemnation of sots and fools . but howsoever rash and preposterous it may be for presons that believe the real presence to abjure the word transubstantiation , ye to determine any part of divine worship in the christian church to be in its own nature idolatry , is inhumane and barbarous . idolatry is a stabbing and cut-throat word , its least punishment is the greatest that can be , both death and damnation ; and good reason too , when the crime is no less than renouncing the true god that made heaven and earth . thus exod. 22. 20. he that sacrificeth unto any god , save unto the lord or iehovah only , he shall be utterly destroyed . deut. 13. 6. if thy brother the son of thy mother , or thy son , or thy daughter , or the wife of thy bosom , or thy friend which is as thine own soul , entice thee secretly , saying , let us go and serve other gods ( which thou hast not known , thou nor thy fathers ) namely of the gods of the people which are round about you , nigh unto thee , or far off from thee , from the one end of the earth unto the other : thou shalt not consent unto him , nor hearken unto him : neither shall thine eye pity him , neither shalt thou spare , neither shalt thou conceal him . but thou shalt surely kill him ; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death , and afterward the hand of all the people . and thou shalt stone him with stones , that he die : because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the lord thy god which brought thee out of the land of egypt , from the house of bondage . this was the crime , and this the punishment of idolatry , and the sentence was so severely executed , that for the setting up the golden calf , or symbol of the sun , that the aegyptians worship'd , as the supreme deity , as will appear in its proper place , three thousand of the ring-leaders , were put to the sword by the command of moses , exod. 32. 27. and for this reason it pleased god to destroy the canaanites from off the face of the earth , ( i.e. ) for giving divine worship to false and created deities in defiance to the eternal creator of it . so black a crime as this , that is no less than renouncing god is not lightly to be charged upon any party of christians , not only because of the foulness of the calumny , but the barbarous consequences that may follow upon it , to invite and warrant the rabble , when ever opportunity favours , to destroy the roman catholicks and their images , as the israelites were commanded to destroy the canaanites and their idols . but before so bloody an indictment be preferr'd against the greatest part of christendom , the nature of the thing ought to be very well understood . the charge is too big for a scolding word . and how inconsistent soever idolatry may be with salvation , i fear so uncharitable a calumny ( if it prove one ) can be of no less damnable consequence . it is a piece of inhumanity , that out-does the salvageness of the canibals themselves , and damns at once both body and soul. and yet after all , we have no other ground for the bold conceit , than the crude and rash assertions of some popular divines , who have no other measures of truth or zeal , but hatred to popery ; and therefore never spare for hard words against that church , and run up all objections against it into nothing less than atheism and blasphemy , of which idolatry is the greatest instance . but if they would lay aside their indecent heats , and soberly enquire into the nature and original of idolatry ; they would be as much ashamed of the ignorance of their accusations , as they ought to be of its malice . and therefore i shall set down a plain and brief account of that argument , that when we understand the easie , obvious , and natural notion of idolatry , it will for ever expose the vanity of these men's fanatique pretences . i pray god there be nothing worse at bottom , seeing it has ever been set up as the standard against monarchy . it is a subject that hath entertained the most able pens in the world , but i shall not presume or pretend to be so learned , but shall confine all my knowledge to the word of god , chiefly to the mosaick writings , for there it is fully and clearly stated , the mosaick law being enacted purely in opposition to idolatry . now nothing can be more obvious , than that the notion of it there is neither more nor less than this : the worship of the heavenly bodies , the sun , the moon , and the stars , or any other visible and corporeal deity , as the supreme god , so as to exclude all sense and apprehension of a spiritual and invisible godhead . this evidently appears both by the almighties several revelations that he made of himself to the children of israel to preserve them from it , and from the several characters and descriptions , that himself hath upon numberless occasions made of it . most learned men would trace its original from before the flood , but they follow their chase without any scent , as generally all antiquaries do , when they pursue into the first source and original of things . the iewish robbies ( that are of too late a standing to pretend to any authority in such antient matters ; for as they lived not above six ages before us , so they had no other records than what we have , the writings of moses and the prophets ) derive its original from the age of enos ; but as their conjecture is founded upon an ambiguous word , so it is contradicted by the state of the world at that time ; for by reason of the long lives of the patriarchs from the creation to the flood , it is not easie to conceive , that the memory and tradition of the late creation of the world should be worn out in so short a time , enos being adams's granchild , and living in the same age with him for some hundred years . but the plain demonstration that there was no such impiety before the flood , is , that moses , when he reckons up the causes that provok'd god to bring that judgment upon the world , makes no mention of the sin of idolatry , of which , if they had been guilty , as it is a sin of the first magnitude , so it would have held the first place in the indictment . others make cham the father of this monster , as they do of all other crimes , but for no other reason beside his ill name . others derive it from the tower of babel , which they will have to have been built for an altar to the sun , after the custom of after-times , when they worshiped him upon high towers for altars . maimonides , and his followers , find deep footsteps in the time of abraham , who was born in ur of the chaldees that is , say they , the country of the antient zabii , the founders of idolatry ; and for that reason he was commanded out of his own country to the worship of the true god. but this dream of the zabii is so modern , and so void of the authority of any antient record , that it proves it self a fond imposture . tho in abraham's time ( and that was many centuries after the flood ) we meet with the first traces of this apostacy : for that extraordinary discovery that god was pleased to make of himself as supreme lord of all things , was made to abraham in opposition to the idolatry of his own country , i.e. chaldea , who seemed to have been the first founders of it , and for that reason god commanded him to leave his country , his kindred , and his fathers house , and sojourn in the land of canaan , where the tradition of the knowledge of the true god seems to have been much better preserved . so that tho there were some decays from the true old religion , yet they were as yet very far from an universal apostacy . that the plague was then broke out in chaldea , is evident from the words of ioshua , ( 24. 2. ) your fathers dwelt on the other side the river in old time , even terah the father of abraham , and the father of nachor , and they serv'd strange gods. but when abraham came into canaan ; i find no records that the customs of his country had pass'd the river , but on the contrary evident instances of their knowledge of the true god , as creator of heaven and earth . what can be more plain than the story of melchisedeck , priest of the most high god ( a term appropriate in scripture to the supreme deity ) in his blessing abraham . blessed be abraham of the most high god , creator of heaven and earth . and when god consumed sodom and gomorrah with fire from heaven , idolatry is no where reckoned among the causes and provocations of that severe and unusual judgment ; and had it been one of their crying sins , it would have been the loudest , and so never have been omitted by the sacred historian . and when isaac was forced by famine into the country of the philistines , abimelech their king entred into a solemn and religious covenant with him of mutual defence and offence , upon this inducement , that he was the blessed of the lord , or the peculiar favourite of iehovah ; so that as long as himself and isaac were of a side , the supreme gods immediate mediate providence would be engaged in his protection . the first plain intimation we find of it in palestine is in the history of iacob , after his conversation with the shechemites , where , upon his departure from that city by god's especial command , he builds an altar at bethel to god , and commands his family to put away their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or strange gods. and from this time we read of nothing of this nature till the deliverance of the children of israel out of egypt , after they had been deteined there four hundred and thirty years , according to the hebrew , or two hundred and fifteen according to the seventy , the greatest part of which time was spent in slavery and bondage . but at , and after their deliverance , we hear of nothing else but cautions against idolatry or worship of strange gods , as if in that long tract of time and misery , they had lost the tradition of the god of their ancestors , and by long conversation with the egyptians , had taken up their masters religion together with their burdens ; and it was scarce possible to be otherwise for men in their poor condition , after so long a tract of time , than to take up the religion in publick practice . long custom and conversation naturally inures men to the manners of the country , but slavery breaks men to them : and what could be expected from miserable people , who spent all their days in carrying of clay , gathering straw , making bricks , and all offices of servility , than that they should serve their masters gods , as well as their masters themselves ? and that this was their case , is evident from the whole series of the story . the first discovery that the almighty made of himself , was to moses , in the burning bush , where he tells us , i am the god of thy fathers , the god of abraham , the god of isaac , and the god of jacob : but this seems to be a new language to moses ; for he replys , when i come unto the children of israel , and shall say unto them , the god of your fathers hath sent me unto you , and they shall say to me , what is his name ( or what god is he ) what shall i say unto them ? to this he is commanded to answer , i am that i am hath sent you ; that is , the only self existent being , that is , the only supreme deity , and god of your fathers : and for the truth and demonstration of this , he refers both him and them to the following miracles . and when moses was discouraged by the complaints of the people , because of their severe usage , the almighty gives him encouragement upon this powerful motive , i am jehovah , or i am the lord , who will deliver you with a strong hand , or stretched out arm , i.e. i am that omnipotent , self-existent being ; and that shall be the proof of it , the great miracles that i will work for your delivery . and at the time of their deliveranee he immediately institutes the passover , not only as a memorial of the thing , but as i shall prove afterwards , the strongest bar against idolatry . but as soon as they sat down at the foot of mount sinah , which was their first place of rest , god's first care was to make further provision against idolatry , where after a fearful and glorious representation of his presence , he gives the ten commandments , whereof the four first are directly levell'd against idolatry . first , he enjoyns the worship of himself , who by his almighty power had delivered them from their egyptian bondage . in the next place , he forbids them the worship of all idols , i. e. as himself describes them , the likeness , or similitude , of any thing that is in heaven above , or in the earth beneath , or in the water under the earth . a plain and indeed logical definition this , that idolatry is giving the worship of the supreme god , to any created corporeal or visible deity , or any thing that can be represented by an image , which nothing but coporeal beings can , and to suppose such a being the supreme deity , is the only true and proper idolatry . and tho there may seem to be two sorts of it : first , either to worship a material and created being as the supreme deity : or secondly , to ascribe any corporeal form or shape to the divine nature ; yet in the result , both are but one ; for to ascribe unto the supreme god any corporeal form , is the same thing as to worship a created being , for so is every corporeal substance . this is , i say , the true and only notion of idolatry : and all the strange gods mentioned in the scripture , are only some most glorious pieces of the visible creation , as i shall prove at large from undeniable testimonies . and for this reason it was , that the very angels , by whom this affair was immediately transacted , never made any appearance in any visible shape , but only in a cloud , or in a glory , to prevent the very peril of idolatry ; and therefore moses in his dying and farewel speech , reminds them over and over , that at horeb they heard the voice of god , but saw no similitude , with this application to them , lest you corrupt your selves , i. e. by believing that there can be any similitude of the supreme godhead . and as this is the literal and plain sense of the two first commandments , so it seems to be the only design of the third and fourth : for the english of the third , if it were rightly translated , runs thus ; thou shalt not give the name of the lord thy god to a vanity or idol ; and so the septuagint ▪ render it : for the word vanity and idol are synonomous in scripture , because an idol is a vain and empty thing that represents nothing ; for when it is set up as the symbol and image of a deity that is no deity , it is the image of nothing , as st. paul defines it . so that it is not the meer image it self that is the idol , but the image as representing a false god , tho it be only a symbol , and not a picture of him , as most of the heathen images were , of the sun , as the calf , and the ram. these are the vanities or representations of false gods in use , at that time , among the neighbour nations , that seem to be here properly interdicted in this commandment . as for the fourth commandment , it is the very sacrament of the worship of the true god , the creator of heaven and earth , in opposition to idolatry , or the worship of his creatures , and therefore is prescribed , as it were , as the holy day of the creation , continually to mind the iews , that the god that they worship , was the god that made the world , and all the gods that their neighbours worshiped , particularly the sun , moon , and stars , his creatures . this then being set up as the great festival , of the creator of heaven and earth , from hence it was that the precept of not worshiping of idols , and keeping the sabbath , are so frequently coupled together in scripture ; and that the breach of the sabbath is punished in the same manner as idolatry it self . but i shall treat of this more largely when i come to a review . at present i have only given a narrow prospect of the whole matter , but upon a full and open view of the mosaick history , it will appear in full and undeniable evidence , by these two considerations . first , if we consider the great propensity of the israelites to renounce the worship of the one true invisible god , and to return to their accustomed worship of idol gods. secondly , if we consider that these gods were nothing else but the heavenly bodies , and that the sun was worshiped as the supreme deity . as to the first , their continual revolts , and rebellions against that almighty god , of whose power they had had so much experience , could proceed from nothing less than the most inveterate and invincible prejudices . their whole history from their first deliverance to their last captivity , is nothing but a perpetual series of disloyalty against the god of israel , to play the harlot ( as the scripture expresses it ) or commit fornication with the idols of the gentiles . psal. 78. we have an acurate epitome of this whole history , the miracles that god wrought for them in egypt , in the wilderness , in the land of canaan , notwithstanding all which , as they made continual attempts of rebellion , so they at last sunk into an universal apostacy , v. 58. provoking him to anger with their high places , and moving him to iealousie with their graven images ; so that at length he gave them up into the hands of their enemies : and first the ten tribes were lead away captive , and not long after the tribe of iudah , as it immediately follows in the same psalm , god was wroth , and greatly abhorred israel , so that he forsook the tabernacle of shiloh , the tent which he placed among men , and delivered his strength into captivity , and his glory ( that was the symbol of his divine presence ) into the enemies hand . but to trace a few particulars . the first opportunity they could gain in the wilderness , after the miraculous deliverance out of egypt , by the absence of moses , they set up and worshiped the golden calf , a form of worship they were accustomed to in egypt : what this idol was , is variously disputed by learned men ; some will have it to have been made in imitation of the cherubin , when as yet god had made no description of them . others , and almost all the learn'd , will have it to have been the idol of apis , or serapis , or osyris , whom the egyptians worshiped by that symbol ; and that it was the same idol , is certain ; but i take it to be much more antient , for as yet we find not any footsteps of divine worship given to men and women . that folly is of a much younger date , and seems to have been brought in purely by the grecian vanity , to derive the originals of all nations from themselves , and to people heaven with their own country-men . thus they tell us , that this apis was king of the argives , natural son to king iupiter by niobe , who marrying isis , left his kingdom , and went into egypt , who teaching the barbarous people civility , and the art of dressing vines and agriculture , he was by common consent chosen their king ; and after he had reign'd with extraordinary wisdom and mercy , to the great improvement of the nation , when he dyed , they deify'd him , and worshiped him under the image of a calf or ox , all which is pure grecian fable . for egypt had been a famous nation many hundred ages , before any of the grecian deities were born : it was a flourishing kingdom in the days of abraham : i am sure they knew how to dress their vines , and plow their fields , before there was any such nation as greece , or any of its cantons known by any records : there was no news of them till the trojan war , and that is the thing objected by all writers to the greeks both before and since christianity , that their remotest antiquity is meer novelty in comparison of the egyptians , and is confest , by their own best and most antient writers ; at least in these antient times , there were no men nor women deities , gods or goddesses . but when the greeks had stollen their religion from the eastern nations , in requital they furnished them with gods of their own , and clapt the heads of one of their own country-men upon every antient idol , thereby gaining reputation of antiquity , both to their nation and religion , as if they had been as antient as the egyptian and oriental idolatry . thus they fasten this old idol of the golden calf upon king apis , whereas if there ever were any such man ( for the greeks have neither faith nor knowledge enough to be believ'd one word in any matter of antiquity , either of their own , or other nations ) he was born many ages after this idol had been famous in the world : and in that unknown interval of which there are no historical records , and therefore the whole story of him , as well as of all the other grecian gods , is nothing but fable . and much more probable it is , that the greeks were so far from bringing a god apis into egypt , that they carried the very word thence : apis being the hebrew and egyptian word to signifie a calf , or a bullock , and so it is rendred by the septuagint . ieremiah 46. 15. in the prophetick burthen against egypt , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . why did your apis fly , or that your beloved calf desert you , because the lord did drive him ? tho we render it in the english translation , why are thy valiant men swept away ? so that the calf can be nothing else than an old egyptian idol , or symbol of some deity , that they had been accustomed to worship . and therefore thinking themselves betray'd or deserted by moses after forty days absence , ( as for this moses , the man that brought us up out of the land of egypt , we wot not what is become of him ) they force aaron to restore to them the symbols of their old gods to go before them , instead of this new god , that now seem'd to have deserted them , and to those they ascribe their deliverance out of egypt ; and this is the first chearful act of devotion , that they seem to have perform'd since their deliverance . for as for all their worship of the true god , especially at the delivery of the law , it seems to be forc'd and uneasie , to which they were rather over-aw'd by dreadful appearances , than inclin'd by their own choice . and the solemn sacrifice that was made immediately after , was the act of moses , rather than the people , who rather seem'd spectators , than actors ; and therefore as soon as they thought themselves quit of him ( which was immediately after ) they set up their idol , and were transported in their devotions towards it , to a degree of madness they rose up early in the morning , and offered burnt-offerings , and brought peace-offerings , and the people sat down to eat and drink , and rose up to play . this solemnity had been endear'd to them by custom and education , and there could be no other ground of their great joy , than that they were restored to the exercise of their former religion , and the worship of their old gods , of which the calf was one of the most eminent symbols , so that when they say that was the god that deliver'd them out of egypt , their meaning is , the god of which that was the symbol or representation , according to the language of those times , and indeed of the whole old testament , to give the name of the deity to the idol . now at that time we find no other mention of any other deities , than the sun and heavenly bodies ; so that this calf could be the symbol of no other gods than the sun , and therefore was ever reckoned among their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , their holy animals , as the egyptian priest and antiquary manetho informs us , of which aries and taurus were the chiefest , and both of them consecrated in honour of the sun , being the two first signs in the heavens ; but the festival of aries was the most solemn , when the sun entring into that sign , began the joyful new year . in opposition to which the israelites were commanded to cut the throat of the paschal ram upon that very day , with all the ceremonies of contempt , as shall appear more afterward . this invincible obstinacy in their old religion , notwithstanding the mighty works god had wrought for their deliverance , is severely upbraided to them long after by god himself to his prophet amos , have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years , o house of israel ? but ye have born the tabernacle of your moloch , and the star of your god remphan , and their images which ye made to your selves . this is a plain description of their great averseness to the worship of the true god in the wilderness , when god declares , that in reality they never worshiped him at all , but stuck close to their old god moloch , which is but a synonymous word for the god baal , i. e. the sun , and therefore they are promiscuously us'd in scripture to express one and the same deity . thus ieremy , 19. 5. they have built the high places of baal to burn their sons in the fire for burnt offerings unto baal . but chapter the 32. v. 35. the same crime is thus express , they built the high places of baal to cause their sons and daughters to pass through the fire unto moloch ; by which it is undeniably evident , that they were but synonymous terms for one and the same god ; and indeed they are words of the same signification , denoting supreme or kingly power , and so were appropriated by them to the sun , as sovereign lord of the universe . this strange inclination of the israelites to idolatry , or the worship of baal and moloch , is so vehemently upbraided to them in the scripture , as shews it to have been inveterate and impetuous beyond example : so god himself upbraids it to them , that when he did such mighty things for them in their deliverance from egypt , and only required them to renounce the idols of egypt , yet they rebelled against me , and would not hearken to me ; they cast not away the abomination of their eyes , nor the idols of egypt . and when ioshua had setled them in the holy land , he forewarns them to serve the true god sincerely , and to put away the gods which their fathers served on the other side the flood , and in egypt . by which it appears , they had not yet parted with their old gods : but the next generation made a total revolt ; and the children of israel did evil in the sight of the lord , and served baalim , and they forsook the lord god of their fathers , which brought them out of the land of egypt , and followed other gods , of the gods of the people that are round about them , and bowed themselves unto them , and provoked the lord to anger , and they forsook the lord , and serv'd baal and ashteroth . this whole book is nothing else but a narrative of their sin by idolatry , their punishment by captivity , their repentance by imploring of the mercy of the god of israel , till at last after so many relapses , they are thus answered by god in their addresses and supplications unto him : and the children of israel cryed unto the lord , saying ; we have sinned against thee , both because we have forsaken our god , and also served baalim : and the lord said unto the children of israel , did not i deliver you from the egyptians , from the ammorites , from the children of ammon , from the philistins ? also the zidonians and the amalekites and maonites did oppress you , and you cry'd to me , and i delivered you out of their hand , yet you have forsaken me , and served other gods , wherefore i will deliver you no more : go and cry unto the gods that ye have chosen , let them deliver you in the time of your tribulations . but upon their reformation they are delivered , and as soon relapse , of which a train of instances are to be seen in that book . here it may be observ'd all along that the scripture notion of idolatry is renouncing and forsaking the true god , to worship other gods , or baalim , that is , idols of the sun , whom they commonly call'd the king of heaven . and so they sin on , till god suffered his own ark ( the symbol of his own presence ) to be carried into captivity : they apply themselves to samuel to intercede for them ; samuel returns them the old answer that god himself had often made , if ye return unto the lord with all your hearts , then put away the strange gods , and ashteroth from among you , and prepare your hearts unto the lord , and serve him only , and he will deliver you out of the hands of the philistins : then the children of israel put away baal and ashteroth , and served the lord only . and samuel at the resigning of his government , upon the election of saul , upbraids them with their continual ingratitude against the lord their god , from their first deliverance out of egypt to that very day , in for saking the lord to serve baalim . so plain is the practical notion of idolatry through the whole sacred history . under the pious reigns of david and solomon the sin of idolatry was competently well retrench'd , till the dotage of solomon , when his wives and concubines turn'd away his heart after other gods , so that solomon went after ashteroth the goddess of the zidonians , and after milcom the abomination of the ammonites . but the great revolt was made by ieroboam , upon the division of the kingdom , tho rather upon a political than religious account . ieroboam said in his heart , now shall the kingdom return to the house of david , if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the lord at ierusalem ; whereupon he makes two calves of gold , and said to the people , it is too much for you to go up to ierusalem , behold thy gods , o israel , which brought thee up out of the land of egypt . it was only an artifice to oblige the people to himself by restoring to them their old egyptian idolatry . some will have these calves to have been set up in imitation of solomon 's cherubin , but this is fully confuted by the learned visorius . if ieroboam , saith he , by his calves design'd to imitate the establish'd religion of his country , i pray you when he took these counterfeit cherubs , why not also the ark , the propitiatory , the seat of god , where the divine majesty appear'd most conspicuously in giving of oracles , the tabernacle and the temple ? why if they were made only in imitation of the cherubs , why did he not call them by their own name , by which they were known to the people , when that would have been a more easie way to deceive them ? why did he not take the priests of the family of aaron , why did he banish them out of his kingdom , why did not the people comply for three whole years , if it had been an imitation of their old religion under david and solomon ? why if they were nothing but cherubins , are they so often in scripture styled other gods ? why should he sacrifice to them , when in the law of moses no sacrifices were offered to the cherubim ? so that it is plain that these calves were set up by him as idols or symbols of a new or separate religion from the tribe of iudah ; and tho he took up the old egyptian idol for his foundation , yet he seem'd to have erected a motley religion upon it , like that of the samaritans of old , partly to invite the people of all nations into his kingdom , where every man worshiped his own god ; and partly by diversity of religion , more effectually to divide his own kingdom from that of the line of solomon . tho not long after rehoboam and the tribe of iudah revolt from the worship of the true god ( as the scripture aggravates it ) above all that their fathers had done . and from this time idolatry , or the worship of baal , was the prevailing religion in both kingdoms , tho sometimes check'd by the piety of reforming princes . but it spread so fast , that elijah thought himself left alone , tho for his comfort god informed him , that he had the small remainder of 7000 in israel , all the knees which have not bowed unto baal . but the infection soon became universal , and tho god almighty sent his prophets from time to time to reclaim them , yet all in vain , they still continued to worship the host of heaven , and serve baal , till finding them irreclaimable , he first delivered the ten tribes into the hands of shalmaneser , king of assyria , where they continue in captivity to this day , and are a lost nation . but the piety of hezekiah at that time for a while repriev'd the tribe of iudah : but his son manasseh built up again the high places , which hezekiah his father had destroyed , and he rear'd up altars for baal , and worshiped all the host of heaven , and served them : upon this god by his prophets denounces their destruction . because , saith he , they have ever done that which was evil in my sight , and have provoked me to anger since the day their fathers came forth out of egypt , unto this day ; or because they have forsaken me , and burnt incense unto other gods , that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands ; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against them , and shall not be quenched . but the execution of the sentence is suspended during the pious reign of his son iosiah ; but as soon as he is gathered to his fathers , ierusalem and the temple are destroyed by nebuchadnezzar , and king zedekiah with all his people are carried captive into babylon . this is a compendious history of the old jewish idolatry , and i think a sufficient proof both of their strange inclination to it , to the highest degree of madness , and wherein it plainly consisted , their forsaking the true invisible god , to worship created deities ; than which nothing is more evident through the whole series of scripture . to this evidence i might add a more ample proof out of the writings of the prophets , that are almost wholly imployed upon this subject . but i must not be too tedious , and therefore i shall only observe , that they generally express the greatness of this folly under the figure of ungovernable lust. thus ezekiel the 23d . god describes it to the prophet under this scheme . son of man , there were two women , the daughters of one mother , and they committed whoredoms in egypt , they committed whoredoms in their youth ; there were their breasts pressed , and there they bruised the teats of their virginity ; and the names of them were ahola the elder , and aholibah her sister , and they were mine , and they bare sons and daughters ; samaria is ahola , and jerusalem aholibah ; and ahola played the harlot when she was mine , and she doted ( or run mad ) for her lovers , the assyrians her neighbours , with all their idols she defiled her self , neither left she her whoredoms brought from egypt ; for in her youth ( 't is in the hebrew ) before she was ripe of age , they lay with her , and they bruis'd the breasts of her virginity , and poured their whoredom upon her ; wherefore i have delivered her into the hand of her lovers , into the hand of the assyrians , upon whom she doted , and after whom she ran mad . the same is repeated of her sister aholibah , who for her incorrigible adulteries is delivered into the hands of the babylonians ; nothing can be expressed with greater vehemence than this , that is compared to the utmost lewdness of female lust ; and nothing more evident , than that this lewdness consisted in deserting the true invisible god , to worship the false deities of their neighbours , particularly the gods of the egyptians , assyrians and chaldeans . and that is my second head of discourse , that the gods that they worshiped at that time were nothing but the heavenly bodies , or the sun , as the supreme deity . this is evident enough from what hath already been discoursed , idolatry in general being every where described in scripture by the worship of the host of heaven , or heavenly bodies . thus deut. 4. 19. lest thou lift up thine eyes to heaven , and when thou seest the sun and the moon , and the stars , even all the host of heaven , shouldst be driven ( tempted ) to worship them , which the lord thy god created for the use and benefit of all nations under the whole heaven . so chap. 17. v. 2 , 3. if there be found any among you that have wrought wickedness in the sight of the lord your god in transgressing his covenant , and hath gone and served other gods , and worshiped them , either the sun , or moon , or any of the host of heaven , ye shall stone him to death , 2 king. 17. 16. they left all the commandments of the lord their god , and made them molten images , two calves , and made a grove , and worshiped all the host of heaven , and served baal . so manasseh erected altars to ball , and worshiped the host of heaven , chap. 21. 3. so iosiah , when he destroyed idolatry , brought out the vessels of the host of heaven . and the jews , when after their return from captivity , they would enter their solemn protestation against idolatry , they do it in this form — thou even thou art lord alone , thou hast made heaven , the heaven of heavens , with all their host , &c. nehemiah 9. 6. so jeremiah 19. 13. ierusalem and iudah shall be destroyed because they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven , and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods. so zephaniah 1. 5. god threatens to destroy the worshipers of baal , and of the host of heaven : and lastly , st. stephen in his last speech upbraiding the jews with their idolatry , says , that god gave them up to worship the host of heaven . so evident is the practical notion of idolatry , through the whole series of scripture , that it was the worshiping the heavenly bodies as the supreme deities , or as iob emphatically expresses it , chap. 31. ver . 26. if i beheld the sun when it shin'd , or the moon walking in brightness , and my heart hath been secretly enticed , or my mouth hath kissed my hand , this also were an iniquity to be punished by the iudge , for i should have denyed the most high god. what can be more plain than this definition of idolatry , that it is the worship of the sun and moon , because it would have excluded the worship due only to the most high god ? and the very word , that we commonly translate images in general , signifies properly images of the sun. thus leviticus 26. 30. god threatens them i will destroy your images , as we translate it ; but in the hebrew your chamanim , i.e. images of the sun. so the second of chronicles , chap. 34. v. 7. and so it is set sometimes in the margent even in the english translation [ or sun images ] as isaiah 17. 8. ezek. 6. 4. and so all learned men of all nations , all religions , ever understood the old notion of idolatry , till this last age , when folly and passion cast it at any thing that peevish men were angry with . so rabbi maimon , the most learned and judicious of the jewish doctors , discourses at large , that the antient idolatry was nothing but the religion of the eastern nations , who acnowledge no other deities but the stars , among whom the sun was supreme , in opposition to which false principle , he says , god enacted the law of moses . this was the sense of all the other old heathen nations , as may be seen at large in eusebius's collections of their several opinions in his first and third book of the preparation of the gospel , where he proves , that the antient heathens worshiped only the stars , without any notion of heroes and demons . the same is attested by all the historians ; by diodorus siculus of the egyptians , by herodotus of the persians and chaldeans , by strabo and iustin of the arabians , by caesar of the germans ; so macrobius , in his first book saturnal , proves it of all the antient idolaters , that it was the worship of the sun as the supreme deity . so in the antient hymn to iupiter ascribed to orpheus , it is the sun only that is all along adored . in short , so all learned men interpret all the several idols that we read of in the holy scriptures ; particularly those two learned protestants , mr. selden , in his learned book de diis syris ; and gerard vossius , de idololatria , proves all the idols mentioned in scripture to have been only so many several appellations of the sun , whom the antient idolaters believ'd to have been the supreme god and creator of the world , as baal , baal peor , bel , moloch , dagon , baalzebub mythras , &c. in a word , the whole nation of the critiques , that agree in nothing else , are unanimous here ; tho indeed the thing is so evident in all the accounts , histories and descriptions of the antient idolatry , that it is to me the greatest astonishment in the world , that men should apply it to any other purpose . i know there was another sort of idolatry introduced afterward , the worship of men and women , but i find no such practice in the scriptures , but take it to have been much more modern , and a meer invention of the vain and lying greeks ; but whensoever it came in , it was grafted upon the old stock , of giving the worship of the supreme god , not only to created , but to mortal beings . here it were easie to wander into a large field of mythologick mystery ; but besides that , i take all mythology to be much more fable than the literal fable it self : i have resolved to confine my self to the information of the holy scriptures , from whence , as we have the most infallible testimony that can be had , so in this case we can have no other , all other writings whatsoever being by some thousands of years too modern to give any account from their own knowledge of those antient times . and for a more acurate account of this , i shall refer the reader to that admirable book of dr. spencers , concerning the jewish laws and the reasons of them , in which he proves every minute circumstance of the ritual and ceremonial law to have been enacted only for the prevention of idolatry or sun-worship . there any gentleman that delights in antient learning , may have his glut of pleasure and satisfaction ; for beside the great compass and variety of polite literature , he hath brought wit , sense , reason and ingenuity into the synagogue . i will only exemplifie the thing in some few particulars . the first is the institution of some rites peculiar to god's own worship , both as a bar to preserve them from any other worship , in which those rites were not us'd , and as an obligation to bind them the faster to their duty to himself ; among these the chiefest are circumcision and the sabbath , which he instituted , as it were , the two sacraments of the jewish religion , or the worship of the creator of heaven and earth , to distinguish them from their neighbour nations , who worship only his creatures . with circumcision god sign'd his covenant with abraham , which was the first revelation of himself against idolatry , and the foundation of the whole mosaick law , which was seal'd to , by this sacred rite of circumcision ; so that without it , they were esteemed no better than idolaters , and an uncircumcised man signifies no less than an heathen . this reason is expresly given by god himself at the first institution of it in his covenant with abraham : i will establish my covenant between thee and me , and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant , to be a god unto thee , and to thy seed after thee . this is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you , and thy seed after thee , every male child among you shall be circumcised . and you shall circumcise the flesh of your fore-skin , and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt you and me ; and therefore the uncircumcised shall be cut off from his people , as having broken my covenant , i.e. renounced the true religion , which is , as grotius observes , not reasonably to be understood of infants , but of men grown to years of understanding , whose parents had neglected that office in their infancy , and therefore if they did not supply that defect , when they came to age , it was looked upon as renouncing the worship of the true god , of which this was the first sacrament or ceremony of admission into the jewish church , which alone profess'd it , and that is the reason of st. paul's assertion , every man that is circumcised , is a debtor to do the whole law , i.e. he that willingly and knowingly undergoes this initiating ceremony , by vertue of that he obliges himself to the observation of the whole mosaick law , and all things commanded in it . and for this reason no proselyte was admitted to the paschal festival , the most sacred solemnity of the jewish religion , without circumcision . when a stranger shall sojourn with thee , and will keep the passover to the lord , let all his males be circumcised , and then let him come near , and keep it , and he shall be as one that is born in the land ; for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof . this seems to be the meaning of that passage , ioshua 5. 9. when god commanded ioshua to circumcise all the people , that were born in the wilderness , and that indeed is all then living ; for those that came out of egypt were dead , and when ioshua had done it , god tells him , this day have i rolled away the reproach of egypt from off you ; the reproach of egypt was their idolatry , which they had now renounced by the sacrament of circumcision . and accordingly in the persecution of antiochus epiphanes to abolish the jewish religion , and establish idolatry , the jews are commanded to leave their children uncircumcis'd ; and the apostates endeavoured to blot out the marks of their circumcisioni ; and certain women that had taken care to circumcise their children , were put to death , and the infants hanged about their necks . that was the distinctive mark through all ages between a worshiper of the true god and an idolater . so that it was the same thing , not to be circumcised , and to apostatise to idolatry . the second , and indeed the greatest bar of all against idolatry , was the institution of the sabbath in memory of gods creation of the whole visible world , and for that reason this doctrine of the sabbath , was reputed as fundamental an article in the jewish church , as the doctrine of the cross in the christian , because all other articles of their religion depended upon the belief of their god's creation of the world. and therefore when god had given moses a compleat body of laws for his own worship , he ratifies , and as it were comprises them all in a vehement and reiterated pressing that one law of the sabbath , exod. 31. v. 12. to the end of the chapter . and after the children of israel had committed idolatry in worshiping the golden calf , for which god had for some time cast them off , he is at last prevailed upon by moses to renew his covenant with them upon a new contract . first , that they worship none of the gods of the heathen nations , nor ever use any of their rites and ceremonies . and then that they be more careful to observe the passover and the sabbath , exod. 34. 12. and the observation of the sabbath is again enforced in the very beginning of the next chapter , as the bond and epitome of the whole law , and moses gathered all the congregation of the children of israel together , and said unto them , these are the words which the lord hath commanded that ye should do them , six days shall work be done , but on the seventh day , there shall be to you a holy day , a sabbath of rest to the lord , whosoever doth work therein shall be put to death ; as if the sabbath alone were the whole law , according to that saying of the talmud , whosoever denies the sabbath , denies the whole law. because that 's an acknowledgment of the creator of the world , as the author of the mosaick law. and for that reason the almighty upon all occasions styles himself in scripture , creator of heaven and earth , which we ( improperly enough ) translate possessor of heaven and earth ; and indeed the history of the creation it self , and the whole pentateuch , seem to have been written on purpose to prevent idolatry , or the worship of created beings ; and therefore moses doth not set down the creation of the universe in gross , but of every part by it self , particularly of the sun , moon , and stars . and that is in it self a sufficient security against giving them that were meer creatures , the worship that is only due to the creator . and this seems to be the reason of the particular form of words in the fourth commandment , remember the sabbath day to keep it holy , for in six days the lord made heaven and earth , and rested the seventh day ; as if he had said , be sure that you be particularly mindful of this commandment of the sabbath above all others , for it is a day dedicated to the eternal memory of the creation , and therefore enjoyn'd to be observ'd every seventh day , that it may continually bring to mind that great work , and never suffer it to decay out of thy memory . and from hence it is that the precepts of not worshiping idols , and observing the sabbath , are so frequently coupled together in the scriptures , as if they were inseparable . exod. 23. 12 , 13. six days thou shalt do thy work , and on the seventh day thou shalt rest , and make no mention of the names of other gods , neither let them be heard out of thy mouth . levit. 19. 34. ye shall keep my sabbaths , i am iehovah your god ; turn ye not unto idols , nor make to your selves molten gods : i am the lord your god. levit. 26. 1 , 2. ye shall make ye no idols , ye shall keep my sabbaths . ezek. 20. 18 , 20. walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers , nor defile your selves with your idols , and hollow my sabbaths that are for a sign between you and me , that you may know that i am iehovah your god ; for their hearts went after their idols : so v. 24. they polluted my sabbaths . and as these commands are so frequently joyned together , so is the violation of them , as if they could not be parted , ezek. 20. 16. they polluted my sabbaths , and their eyes were after their fathers idols . and king ahaz , when he set up idolatry , he in contempt turn'd the covert for the sabbath out of the house of the lord. 1 mac. 1. 44. and many of the people consented to the command of the king , and sacrificed to idols , and prophaned the sabbath . so necessary was it for the observation of the sabbath , and the worship of the true god , to run the same fate , or stand and fall together ; because the sabbath was instituted in memory of the creation of the world by the true god ; and therefore the belief and observation of it , was an open defyance to all idolatry , as the psalmist joyns them together , all the gods of the heathens are idols : but the lord made the heavens . and this is the distinctive character that god hath given between himself , the only true god , and the heathen idols or vanities ; the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth , and from under the heavens . the lord hath made the earth by his power , he hath framed the universe by his wisdom , and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion . now the observation of the sabbath , as instituted in honour of the invisible creator of the visible or material world , being the fundamental article of faith in the jewish church , in opposition to idolatry , or giving the worship of the supreme deity to created beings , it is for that reason more frequently recited than any other law , and its breach as severely punished as idolatry it self ; the recital of this command is almost half of the law and the prophets , and the violation of it certain death , as a crime of the same nature with idolatry it self . so evident is it through the whole series of sacred history that the sabbath was instituted in opposition to idolatry , and that the idolatry it was opposed to , was the worship of created beings as the supreme uncreated deity . to conclude this argument , tho i designed to confine my self to the testimony of holy scripture , that is the only competent witness in the case ; yet i find such a pregnant passage cited out of st. cyril of alexandria to the same purpose with the premises , from his own observation of the train of scripture history , that it were great pity to rob the reader of so fair an authority , after the israelites , ( says he ) left their own country to sojourn in egypt , in process of time they lost all memory of their ancestors , and descent from the line of abraham ; so that their antient customs being worn out by degrees , and the religion of their forefathers disus'd , they were at length debauched by conversation with the egyptians to idolatry , and gave the worship of the supreme god to the sun , and under him to the heavens , earth , moon , stars . and therefore when god delivered them out of their egyptian bondage , to bring them to the promised land , he peremptorily commands them to discard all their egyptian errors ; but because there was need of an evident sign , by which they should , as it were , be forced to confess , that heaven was made by his almighty power ; and that the sun , moon , and stars , and all other beings , were the works of his hands , he commands the festival of the sabbath as a memorial and imitation of himself and his work ; and therefore they that devote themselves to rest as their creator rested , by that acknowledge , that all other things were the product of his power ; and that is the natural design of the sabbath rest , to affect them with a sense of the supreme deity , or creator of all things . in the second place , a very great and considerable part of the mosaick law was enacted , purely in opposition to the old heathen rites and customs . here i omit the idolatry of the zabii , so much of late insisted upon by learned men , because i find no antient footsteps of any such people in the world. the mahometan arabic writers are the first that make any mention of them , and their divinity ( as the arabians describe it ) is a meer fanatick rhapsody of chaldaism , or astrologick idolatry , iudaism , or the history of the patriarchs turned into fables ; gnosticism , or the worship of demons and angels ; pythagorism , or turning all things into allegories , and therefore must be of a much younger date than christianity . the first time we read of them , is in the alchoran , and mahomet gives them that name of zabii , because they lay eastward from arabia , for so the word signifies easterlings : or more probably from a fanatick imitation of the old testament , that frequently and commonly styles the heathen idolaters by the title of the men of the east , i.e. the chaldeans , who were situated eastward of iudea . after him we have no account of any such nation as the zabii , till about eight hundred years since . for the prophet and his barbarous followers , as they conquered , destroyed all monuments of learning , till being setled in peace and empire , ( as is the manner of all barbarians ) they betook themselves to the humour of learning , and translated books out of other languages , not only greek and latin , but of their neighbour nations into their own tongue . this is the most antient account , after all the noise that has been made of their extreme antiquity , that we have of any zabian writers ; so that setting that modern nation aside , the mosaick rites were instituted in opposition to the more antient idolatry of their neighbour nations , particularly the egyptians and the canaanites , of whom there was most danger by reason of their late conversation with the one , and their new conversation with the other . and therefore against these god arms them with a special caution , after the doings of the land of egypt , wherein ye dwelt shall ye not do ; and after the doings of the land of canaan , whether i bring you , shall ye not do ; neither shall ye walk in their ordinances . this contrariety of the jews to the laws and customs of all other nations is made use of by haman to king ahasuerus to procure their destruction ; esther 3. 8. and haman said unto king ahasuerus , there is a certain people scattered abroad , and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom , and their laws are divers from all people , neither keep they the kings laws ; and therefore it is not for the king's interest to suffer them . if it please the king , let it be written that they may be destroyed . this is perpetually objected by manetho the egyptian priest against the jews , that they aimed at nothing so much in the rites of their religion , as to affront and reflect defiance upon the egyptian devotion . and so tacitus his account of them is this ; moses ut sibi in posterum iudaeorum gentem firmaret , novos ritus contrariosque caeteris mortalibus indidit ; prophana illis omnia , quae apud nos sacra ; rursum concessa apud illos , quae nobis incesta . moses , that he might the better confirm the iewish nation to himself , instituted new rites , contrary to the customs of the rest of mankind ; what is most sacred with us , is most prophane with them ; and what with us is esteemed most abominable , is allowed to them as lawful and innocent . this is the certain ground of that known universal contempt and hatred of all other nations against the jews : and so that passage in ieremiah , cap. 12. ver . 9. is applyed by grotius to the jews , mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird ; the birds round about her are against her : mine inheritance is become like a strange bird , and is pursued by all the birds of the field ; as when a bird of a strange colour , happens to consort with other birds , it is natural for them all to set upon it ; and this was the case of the jews in reference to all their neighbour nations . it were an endless work to recite all the rites peculiar to the jews , and instituted in contradiction to the customs of their neighbours , when it is the only reason that runs through almost all their law , even to the boiling of a kid or lamb in its dams milk ; to the sowing of divers seeds together ; plowing with an ox and an ass ; wearing linsey woolsey , &c. and therefore i shall only instance in two remarkable particulars . the institution of the passover ; and the law against sacrificing in high places , both which are enjoyn'd as most effectual remedies against idolatry . the passover was the first law instituted by god , at , or upon their deliverance out of egypt . in the tenth day of this month , they shall take to them every man a lamb , a male of the first year , according to the house of their fathers . in the observation of this great solemnity , as it is there prescribed , every the most minute circumstance is an express defiance to the egyptian follies . first , the paschal lamb must be a male a year old , that is , a young ram ; and that was the greatest affront that could be put upon the egyptians , that held a ram not only in religious esteem , but the most sacred of all their holy animals in more antient times , as the symbol of the sun entring the sign aries , and beginning the new year : and afterwards of iupiter ammon , whom the greeks planted upon the stock of the old egyptian idol of the sun. now upon the account of the sacredness of these animals , they never offered any of their species in sacrifice . and hence when pharoah bid moses go sacrifice to the lord in the land of egypt , moses answers , that they dare not , because it would be an abomination to the egyptians , so that they would stone them ; that is , it would be a prophaneness and open affront to the religion of the egyptians if they should offer in sacrifice ( according to the custom of their fore-fathers ) those very animals that the egyptians had consecrated to the honour of their gods. and for the same reason they are commanded to sacrifice the passover with a young bullock , as well as a young ram , out of the flock , or out of the herd , as the scripture expresses it . and when king iosiah kept , after a long intermission , a most solemn passover , besides lambs and kids , he gave to the people 3000 bullocks . now next to a ram the bullock was the most sacred of all the holy animals , and therefore made the second sign in the zodiack . and therefore when the greeks , or later egyptians , gave the first symbol to iupiter ammon , their supreme god , they gave the second to osyris , by them commonly called apis ( not understanding that that word only signifyed the image , not the deity ) so that here tacitus his malice is not much in the wrong ; caeso ariete velut in contumeliam ammonis , bos quoque immolatur , quem egyptii apim vocant . they sacrifice a ram in affront to ammon , and a bullock in affront to osyris . beside , it must be a male , not a female , because the egyptians and heathens ( who indeed generally followed the egyptian customs , especially the greeks ) used only females in their sacrifices . but the most observable circumstance in this whole solemnity , is the time of its celebration ; the lamb was to be solemnly set apart for the sacrifice on the tenth day of the month , till the fourteenth , because on the tenth day , on which the sun entred the sign aries , began the great festival of aries , or the new year ; so that beginning the jewish passover at the same time , it was a manifest triumph over the egyptian deity , by cutting the throat of the poor beast , with as much solemnity as the egyptians at that very time worship'd it . and for the same reason a cow that was sacred to isis , or rather to some more antient deity , i suppose the moon , was commanded to be driven out of the camp , and burnt as an unclean beast ; and so because the egyptians addressed their worship to a goat , as the symbol of some deity , probably the sun in that sign , god commanded the jews to make use chiefly of goats in their expiatory sacrifices , and particularly the scape goat , laden with all the sins , and all the curses of the people ; and hence the israelites were strictly forbidden to sacrifice to goats , which we translate devils : and they shall no more offer sacrifice to devils , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) to goats , after whom they have gone a whoring . this shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations . but to return to the paschal ram , all the circumstances of the institution carry a remarkable significancy in them : thus when they are commanded to besmear the side-posts , and upper door-posts or lintal of every house : what could have been a more publick contempt of the egyptian religion , when by it they declared , that the almighty power that had prov'd it self by so many miracles and judgments , especially this last in the death of the first-born , commanded to put all manner of contempt upon those creatures that were consecrated to the worship of their gods , and to leave those bloody posts to the egyptians , as monuments of their baffled deities ? and tho i have no reverence to the authority of the jewish rabbies in the account of antient times , being not only very trifling , but very modern writers ; yet there is cited an excellent passage out of r. abraham seba , that i cannot omit to recite , not for its authors sake , but it s own . the egyptians began the computation of their months from the time that the sun entred aries ; and this whole month was celebrated with extraordinary festival solemnity , and was more sacred than all the months of the year beside . god therefore designing to set his people at as great a distance as could be from the customs of the heathens , commanded them to begin the year , not from the full moon , as the egyptians did , but from the first day of the month ; and whereas the egyptians spared their cattle , and durst not so much as eat rams flesh , therefore they are commanded to kill , roast , and eat it ; so that whereas they offer incense to it , and perform their solemn devotions before it , these are commanded in contempt to sprinkle the blood of this most holy animal upon the very threshold of their houses . so far the doctor . so again they are commanded not to eat the paschal ram raw , in opposition to the customs of the antient and barbarous heathen nations , who eat all their sacrifices raw , especially at their signing of covenants and treaties of peace ; and that is the original reason of the command to abstain from blood. then it is to be eaten in one house , not to be eaten abroad in solemn pomp and procession , as the heathen priests did their raw sacrifices . nor a bone of it to be broken , because the heathen priests in their pretended holy rage were wont to tear their sacrifices in pieces with their teeth . the head with the legs and purtenance to be eaten , because the heathens only eat the viscera , or inwards , nothing of it to remain till the morning , lest it should be abus'd to superstitious uses , as the heathens did the relicks of their sacrifices , who sold them to the people as a charm against diseases and ill luck . all which circumstances are most particularly remarkable in the bacchanalia , or great festival of bacchus , that the greeks stole out of egypt , as well as all their other superstitions , as the most learned of them confess : and concerning the bacchanalia in particular , herodotus tells us by whom they were first brought out of egypt into greece , viz. the famous physitian melampus . lastly , the passover was not to be sodden in water , becaue the egyptians and syrians always boil their sacrifices , especially to horus or the sun ; and for that reason it is , that this little circumstance is so often urged , and so strictly observ'd . and this is particularly objected by manetho the egyptian against the jews , that they were not content only to destroy their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , their consecrated animals , but consumed them by fire , as it were burning their gods in effigie . these are the great reasons , why the divine law-giver laid so much stress upon this solemnity , and all the circumstances belonging to it , when it was the grand diagnostick , or distinguishing character between the worshipers of the true god , and of created deities . and therefore upon all apostasies of the people from their religion , it was the custom of their pious princes to recall them , by reviewing and renewing the laws of the paschal festival . so iosiah , when he set himself to abolish all relicks of idolatry , and establish the worship of the true god for ever : he commanded all the people , saying , keep the passover unto the lord your god , as it is written in the book of the covenant . surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the iudges that iudged israel , nor of the kings of iudea . that was an undenyable proof of their complete reformation . the second law enjoyn'd in opposition to egyptian idolatry , is that against sacrificing upon high places , which were egyptian altars built in the form of high towers , that they might make nearer approaches to the sun in their devotions . and therefore god , on the contrary , commands the israelites to sacrifice to himself upon a low altar of earth , exod. 20. 24 , 26. without steps or stairs ; which laws were given either with , or immediately after the ten commandments , as it seems of equal weight with them . so that to offer sacrifices upon high places , is always represented in scripture as a very high act of idolatry ; and to destroy the high places in scripture as an eminent act of reformation , which must be understood of towers , not of mountains , that are not so easily demolished . so levit. 26. 30. i will destroy your high places , and cut down your images , [ or chamanim ] and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols , and my soul shall abhor you . so numbers 22. 41. balack took balaam and brought him up into the high places , or pillars , as the septuagint always render it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of baal , that thence he might see the utmost part of the people . so numb . 33. 52. ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you , destroy all their pictures and molten images , and pluck down all their high places . in the historical and prophetick writings , idolatry is almost every where exprest by sacrificing or worshiping in high places . the idol priests are styled priests of the high places . this , says herodotus , was the received custom of the antient nations , and of this nature were the egyptian pyramids ; and that which is still standing is built in the form of an altar , i.e. a four square plane , ten cubits broad on every side , ( not as it is vulgarly suppos'd , a point or spire ) to which the priest advanced by 250 ascents , which herodotus , that viewed them above 2000 years ago , says , were so many lesser altars . but that the pyramids were supposed in the more polite times , to have been antient altars , is evident from that known verse of luca● . votaque pyramidum celsas solvuntur ad aras. there are monuments of this antient custom still remaining in the west indies . gage in his survey , describes such a tower in the middle of the great temple at mexico , of an 180 ascents , where their priests offered all their sacrifices . in short , the people of israel were so fond of these high altars , that some princes , who would have demolisht them as pieces of idolatry , were forced to persist for fear of popular tumults and seditions . so asa in his reformation , when he burnt their idols , could not remove their high places . so iehoash could do every thing , but remove the high places . so amaziah was forced to leave them behind him : so his son azariah : and when they were demolished by hezekiah , and some of the more pious princes , they were ever first restored at the peoples return to idolatry . and agreeable to what is here represented is the reason annexed to the divine law , lest ye discover your nakedness ; which words , tho they may be literally taken , yet according to the language of scripture in this matter , they have a much higher meaning , i.e. lest you commit idolatry or adultery with other gods , and expose your shame and nakedness by playing the harlot upon your high places : these two things , idolatry and adultery being so frequently joyned together in scripture , as the same crime . thus far , to mention no more , it pleased god to provide against idolatry , by enacting special laws in direct opposition to the heathen rites . when god had casher'd the more rank and notorious acts of heathen worship , he retained some of their more innocent rites , especially those that were derived from the antient patriarchs , before the later corruptions were crept in , lest if god had given a law altogether new , and abolished all their old customs , people that are always fond of the usages of their fore-fathers , should rather have revolted to the heathen idolatry , than submit themselves to such a new and uncouth religion ; and therefore out of condescention to their rudeness and weakness , god permitted them to retain several of their former rites and ceremonies in his new worship , that by that indulgence he might win them more easily to embrace his new institution . and this seems to be the grammatical sense of st. paul's expression , that god suffered their manners in the wilderness forty years , where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suffered , is taken from the use or language of mothers or nurses , that are forced to humour and comply with the little follies of their children by any way to please them . in allusion to this word , god was pleased to express his treatment of the children of israel , who knowing the weakness of their rude and childish understandings , permitted and indulged them to enjoy not a few of their former conceits together with his own divine law. and so moses lets them know in his farewel speech , that the lord had all along born with them , as a father doth with his child . and so grotius paraphrases that passage of st. paul , when we were children , we were in bondage under the elements of the world , i. e. says he , we were under subjection to those rites and usages that were common to us with the rest of the world , as temples , altars , sacrifices , new moons , to which he might have added , oblations of first fruits , purifications , festival solemnities , tabernacles , dedication of tenths , the ark ; the cherubim or teraphim ( for they are promiscuously used in scripture , and are of very antient use : ) these , and the like old customs were enjoyned the people of israel , lest for want of them they should relapse to idolatry . and because these customs were common to the jews with the rest of the world , therefore they are call'd the elements of the world , and weak and beggarly elements , and carnal ordinances , that were impos'd and born with till the time of reformation , in the apostolical writings , when they would beat down the value of the mosaick law. but to omit the rest , i shall only insist upon the cherubim , that god commanded to be placed over the ark , and all divine worship to be directed towards them , and thou shalt make two cherubims of gold , of beaten work shalt thou make them , in the two ends of the mercy seat , &c. that they were statues or images is out of doubt by their description , but of what particular form is matter of controversie among learned men ; tho what ever they were , i am not concerned ; it is enough that they were images used in the worship of god , and then the use of images is not in it self idolatry . that the word originally and properly signifies an ox , is evident from ezekiel , who uses the words promiscuously , chap. 1. 10. as for the likeness of their faces , they four had the face of a man , and the face of a lyon on the right side , and they four had the face of an ox on the left side , they four also had the face of an eagle : but chap. 10. 14. the same things are thus described , and every one had four faces ; the first face was the face of a cherub , the second the face of a man , the third of a lyon , and the fourth of an eagle and as an ox or a cherub was used by the antients as a symbol of strength or power , so thence came they to signifie the thing it self ; so god tells the king of tyre , that he was his anointed cherub , i. e. that he had made him great and powerful . hence whenever god in scripture is said to sit upon , or dwell between the cherubims , it is when his power particularly is represented . thus when the israelites were defeated by the philistins , they agree at a council of war to send for the ark of god to save them out of the hands of their enemies . so the people sent to shiloh , that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the lord of hosts , who dwelleth between the cherubims . so king hezekiah in his distress calling upon the divine protection and deliverance from his enemy ; and hezekiah prayed before the lord , and said , o lord god of israel , that dwellest between the cherubims , thou alone art god of all the kingdoms of the earth . so psal. 99. 1. the lord reigneth , let the people tremble ; he sitteth between the cherubims , let the earth be moved . and for this reason were these sacred images placed over the ark , as the symbols or hieroglyphicks , to represent the presence of the divine majesty ; so that as the ark is styled god's footstool , the cherubims are called his throne : and so when the ark and cherubims were brought into the temple , this anthem was sung : lift up your heads , o ye gates , and be ye lifted up , ye everlasting doors , and the king of glory shall come in : who is this king of glory ? the lord of hosts , the lord strong and mighty , the lord mighty in battle . in short , these images were the most sacred things in all the jewish religion ; what they were , i will not determine ; some will have them to have been statues of beautiful youths ( as they are now vulgarly represented : ) others , the statue of a young bullock , from the synonymous signification of the words : but the * most learned conclude them , as they suppose with good authority from the scriptures , not to have been any one certain form , but mixt of several forms , in which that of a bullock had the biggest share ; but compounded of these four shapes , a man's face , an eagles wings , a lyons back , an oxes or bullocks thighs and feet . as they are described in the fore cited chapters of ezekiel , 1. & 10. and to this no doubt st. iohn alludes in his vision of the four beasts , rev. 4. 6 , 7. round about the throne were four beasts ; and the first beast was like a lyon , and the second like a calf , and the third had a face as a man , and the fourth was like a flying eagle . and they rest not day and night , saying , holy , holy , holy , lord god almighty , which was , and is , and is to come . in allusion , 't is no doubt , to the representation of the immediate divine presence in the ark by the cherubims , that were made up of these four beasts , that were probably pitcht upon , because of that great preheminence that they hold above all other orders of creatures . a man for understanding , an eagle for swiftness , a lyon and a bull for strength . but what ever they were , they were sacred , images set up by god himself in the place of his own worship ; and he was so far from forbidding the use of images in it , that he would not be worshiped without them . this is the true account of idolatry , as it is stated in the scripture from the grand design of the mosaick law , to restore the worship of the true invisible god , the creator of heaven and earth , in opposition to the idols , or created deities of the heathen world , and by all wise arts and methods to keep them loyal to himself : and this gives us the true rationale of the mosaick law , in which every particular rite had some regard to idolatry . so that the breach of any one ceremonial law was a degree of it ; and to boil a kid in its mothers milk was idolatry , as well as to offer sacrifice to the sun , because the heathens used that form of ceremony in the worship of that god. god did not think it sufficient for their security to forbid them the worship of this false god , but every minute circumstance that belonged to it , lest by degrees they might be reconciled to it . and therefore god calls himself upon all occasions a jealous god , and oftentimes a jealous husband , to let them know , that they must not only avoid idolatry it self , but all the least appearances and suspicions of it by heathen compliances . now if we compare this antient idolatry of the jews , with that of late charged by some men upon all christians of the roman communion , i know not which will appear greatest , the malice or the folly of the charge . it consists of these three heads . i. the worship of images . ii. adoration of the host. iii. invocation of saints . all which are represented to the people as crimes of the same nature with the old egyptian idolatry . but as to the first , the use of images in the worship of god , i cannot but admire at the confidence of these men , to make so bold a charge against them in general , when the images of the cherubim were commanded by god himself . they were the most solemn and sacred part of the jewish religion ; and therefore , tho images , so far from idolatry , that god made them the seat of his presence , and from between them delivered his oracles ; so that something more is required to make idolatry , than the use of images . this instance is so plain and obvious to every reader , there being nothing more remarkable in all the old testament , than the honour done to the cherubim , that 't is a much greater wonder to me , that those men , who advance the objection of idolatry so groundlesly , can so slightly rid themselves of so pregnant a proof against it . it is objected , i remember , by a learned adversary , to the great founder of this , and all other anticatholique , and antichristian , and uncharitable principles among us ; but he turns it off so carelesly , as if it were not worth his notice . first , that they only directed their worship towards the images . yea , they did so , as the symbols of god's presence , and that is to worship god by images , or to give the same signs of reverence to his representations , as to himself . and therefore when david exhorts the people to give honour to the ark , he says , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , bow down to , or worship his footstool , for it , or he , is holy . and if so much outward worship may be given to images , as symbols of the divine presence , it is enough to justifie it . but however the thing stands , the case of all images is the same , and a roman catholique may make the same plea for his church , as this author does for the jews ; and if he accept it in one case , he cannot refuse it in another ; or if he does , he will give but little proof of his integrity . at least god was not so nice and metaphysical in enacting his laws , by distinguishing between bowing to , and towards ; or if these gentlemen say , he was , they must shew us where : but what authority do these men assume to themselves , when by the precarious use of these two little particles , they think to make the same act the whitest , and the blackest thing in the world , towards an image , 't is innocent ; to it , idolatry ? but let them take which they please ( for they are their own carvers in all their own controversies ) if it be no idolatry to worship towards an image , after all their frights , they fairly give up the cause to the church of rome , that requires no more . but the second reply is much more curious and metaphysical , that the cherubims were not seen by the people , and adored but once a year by the high priest : here then we distinguish between the idolatry of the sight and the mind ; an image seen is idolatry , but if covered , 't is none . so that to adore the host exposed , is idolatry ; but in a pix , 't is none . what rubbish is here to stuff out so weighty an argument ! but if they did not see their images in the ark , they knew them to be there , and of what form they were , being described to them by god himself in their law. upon these terms it seems a blind man can never be an idolater ; and if all the romanists would shut their eyes at convenient times , they would quit themselves of this black accusation . but the high priest used this solemnity only once a year . if it were idolatry , it was as unlawful once a year , as if done every day ; and if lawfully done but once a year , it was no idolatry : it s being seldom or frequent , makes no difference ; it is either always idolatry , or it is never so . and yet these little pretences are the last result of this great argument ; and when we have loaded the greatest part of christendom with the foulest crime in the world , we think to make good the accusation by such shameless shifts and pretences as these ; for in these trifles , the dispute , as to the cherubim images , ended ; and yet the clamour of idolatry is kept up as high as ever to this very day . but what images do the roman catholiques worship ? do they worship any image or symbols of false gods , as the supreuse deities ? if they do not , then they are innocent of the worst part of idolatry . or do they attempt to make a similitude of the true god , or uncreated divine nature ? that is the other part of idolatry , and the scripture knows no more ; therefore however superstitious they may be in their use of images , yet they cannot be guilty of idolatry , but upon one of these two accounts , which no man was ever yet so hardy as to charge upon that church . till therefore it be proved that they worship images of false gods as the supreme deities , or that they worship the true god by corporeal images and representations of his divine nature , there is no footing for idolatry in christendom . as for the adoration of the host , when they can prove 't is given to it either as a symbol of a false god , or the picture of the true one , howsoever faulty it may be otherwise , it can be no idolatry . and as for the invocation of saints , unless they worship them as the supreme god , the charge of idolatry is an idle word , and the adoration it self that is given to them as saints , is a direct protestation against idolatry , because it supposes a superiour deity , and that supposition cuts off the very being of idolatry . but to give an account of their precarious notions of idolatry , and their more precarious ways of proving it , would swell to volumes ; and therefore at present i shall dismiss the argument , and shall only observe what a barbarous thing it is to make the lives , fortunes and liberties of the english nobility and gentry to depend upon such trifles and crudities , by remarking the unheard of and unparallel'd penalties that are annexed to so slender a law , viz. that every offender shall be deemed and adjudged a popish recusant convict to all intents and purposes whatsoever , and shall forfeit and suffer as a popish recusant convict , and shall be disabled to hold and office or place of trust or profit , civil or military , in any of his majesties realms or foreign plantations ; and shall be disabled from thenceforth to sit or uote in either house of parliament , or make a proxy in the house of peers , or to sue , or use any action , bill , plaint or information in course of law ; or to prosecute any suit in any court of equity , or to be guardian of any child , or executor or administrator of any person , or capable of any legacy or deed of gift ; and lastly , shall forfeit for every wilful offence the sum of five hundred pounds . here are all the punishments that can be inflicted upon a living man. convict recusancy it self , one would think , is punishment more than enough for any one crime : abjuration of the realm ; returning without leave , felony without clergy ; upon refusing to abjure , forfeiture of all goods , chattels and lands for liofe . forfeiture of sixty pounds per annum , banishment from the kings court under forfeiture of an hundred pounds , and from london on the same penalty , forfeiture of right of patronage , disabled from any practice or office in law , and finally disabled to be guardian , executor or administrator , and legatee . this was thought the utmost severity in the zealous days of queen elizabeth ; but alass ! our modern zeal will not be confined to the gentle moderation of our fore-fathers ; but now we must suffer all those , with many more , to the loss of our birth-rights , and all benefits of law , for no higher act of recusancy , than not swearing to the truth of dr. st's unlearned and fanatique notion of idolatry ; for that in reality is the bottom of all this mischief and madness . and as it is advanced among us into so bloody a charge ; i cannot but declare my utter abhorrence both of that , and its abetters , as sworn enemies to the peace of christendom ; and in the result of all , i find , that idolatry made the plot , and that the plot made idolatry , and that the same persons made both . thus begging allowance for humane infirmities , lesser errors and mistakes , which in so much variety of argument and citation will escape the greatest care , i have declared my present judgment of this unhappy law , as i will answer for my integrity to god and the world. sa . oxon . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a56393-e240 the names of the protesting peers to the number of 23. are to be seen in the journal book . lib. 4. dist . 10. conference , p. 119. institut . book 4. cap. 17. sect. 11. sect. 32. pag. 166. anno 5to . & 6to . edw. 6ti . animad . cass. artic. 10. in animad . riveti . votum pro pace art. 10. rivet . apol ▪ dicuss . answer to t. c. dialogue , p. 66. gen. 12. 1. exod. 3. 6. ver. 13. chap. 6. bochart . dr. hammond . dr. spencer . kircher . exod. 32. 6. gen. 31. 30. chap. 25 , 26. ezek. 20. 7 , 8. josh. 24. 14. judg. 2. 11. ch. 10. 10. sam. 7. 3 , 4. cap. 12. 1 king. 11. 4 , 5. 1 king. 12. 16. vide dr. spencer , p. 773. 1 king. 14. 22. 1 king. 19. 14 , 18. 2 king. 17. ver. 15. cap. 22. 17. 2 king. 25. more nevoch . lib. 3. gen. 17. 7 , 10. gal. 5. 3. exod. 12. 48. 1 mac. 1. v. 15 , 48 , 60 61. 2 king. 16. 18. psal. 96. 5. jer. 10. 11 , 12. hom. 6. de fest . pasch. lev. 18. 3. hist. l. 5. exod. 12. 3. exod. 8. 26. deut. 16. 2. 2 chron. 25. 7. exod. 12. 36 num. 19. levit. 17. 7. 1 king. 15. 14. 1 king. 22. 43. 2 king. 12. 3. chap. 14. 4. chap. 15. 4. act. 13. 18. deut. 1. 31. gal. 4. 3. exod. 25. 18. ezek. 28. 14. 1 sam. 4. 3 , 4. 2 king. 19. 15. psal. 24. 78. * grotius . dr. spencer . villalpandus bochartus . exod. 25. 22. dr. st. of the idolatry of the church of rome . 35 eliz. ca. 1. 3 jacob. ca. 4. 