THESE are all the holy actions we find to have been by Christ and his Apostles, celebrated in the great mystery of this Supper: all other humane accessions and superstructions, that are by the policy of Satan and that carnal affection, which ever laboureth to reduce Gods service unto an outward and pompous gaudiness, foisted into the substance of so divine a work, are all of them that strawa and stubble, which he who is a consuming bfire, will at last purge away. Impotent Christ was not that he could not, nor malignant that he would not appoint, nor improvident that he could not foresee, the needfulness of such actions, which are by some proposed, not as matter of ornament, comeliness and ceremony, (a thing left ever arbitrary to the Church) but are obtruded on consciences (swayed with superstitious pompousness) for matters substantial and necessary to be observed. As if God, who in the first Creation of the world from nothing, did immediately after the work produced cease from all manner of further Creations, ⟨p. 73⟩did in the second creation of the world from sin, not finish the work himself, but leave it imperfect, to be by another consummated and finished. Certainly whatsoever humane Inventions do claim, direct, proper, and immediate subscription of Conscience, and do propose themselves as essential, or integral, or any way necessary parts of divine mysteries; they do not only rob God of his honour, and intrude on his Sovereignty, but they do farther lay on him the aspersion of an imperfect Saviour, who standeth in need of the Churches concurrence, to consummate the work which he had begun. Away then with those Actions of elevation, adoration, oblation, circumgestation, mim•call gestures, silent whisperings, and other the like encroachments, in the supposed proper and real sacrifice of Christ in the Mass, (wherein I see not how they avoid the guilt of Saint Pauls fearful observation. To crucify again the Lord of glory, and put him unto an open shame:) In which thingsg as in sundry others they do nothing else, but imitate the carnal ordinances of the Jews and the Heathenish will-worship of the Ethnics, who thought rather by the motions of their bodies, than by the affections of their hearts, to wind into the opinion and good liking of their Gods.
THESE are all the holy actions we finde to have been by Christ and his Apostles, celebrated in the great mystery of this Supper: all other humane accessions and superstructions, that are by the policy of Satan and that carnall affection, which ever laboureth to reduce Gods service unto an outward and pompous gaudinesse, foisted into the substance of so divine a work, are all of them that strawa and stubble, which hee who is a consuming bfire, will at last purge away. Impotent Christ was not that he could not, nor malignant that hee would not appoint, nor improvident that he could not foresee, the needfulnesse of such actions, which are by some proposed, not as matter of ornament, comelinesse and ceremony, (a thing left ever arbitrary to the Church) but are obtruded on consciences (swayed with superstitious pompousnesse) for matters substantiall and necessary to be observed. As if God, who in the first Creation of the world from nothing, did immediately after the work produc'd cease from all manner of further Creations, ⟨p. 73⟩did in the second creation of the world from sinne, not finish the work himselfe, but leave it imperfect, to be by another consummated and finished. Certainly whatsoever humane Inventions doe claime, direct, proper, and immediate subscription of Conscience, and doe propose themselves as essentiall, or integrall, or any way necessary parts of divine mysteries; they doe not onely rob God of his honour, and intrude on his Soveraignty, but they doe farther lay on him the aspersion of an imperfect Saviour, who standeth in need of the Churches concurrence, to consummate the work which he had begunne. Away then with those Actions of elevation, adoration, oblation, circumgestation, mim•call gestures, silent whisperings, and other the like incroachments, in the supposed proper and reall sacrifice of Christ in the Masse, (wherein I see not how they avoyd the guilt of Saint Pauls fearfull observation. To crucifie againe the Lord of glory, and put him unto an open shame:) In which thingsg as in sundry others they do nothing else, but imitate the carnall ordinances of the Jewes and the Heathenish will-worship of the Ethnicks, who thought rather by the motions of their bodies, than by the affections of their hearts, to wind into the opinion and good liking of their Gods.
- a1 Cor. 3. 12.
- bHeb. 12. 29.
- gDoct. Reynolds conference with Hart. Cap. 8. divis. 4. et M•rnay de Eucharist. pag. 82. in fol.
