THE ORIGINAL OF POPISH IDOLATRY, OR The Birth of Heresies.  
Published under the name of CAUSABON, And called-in the same year, upon misinformation.  
But now upon better Consideration Reprinted with ALLOWANCE.  
Being a True and Exact Description of such Sacred Signs, Sacrifices and Sacraments as have been instituted and ordained of GOD since ADAM.  
With a new source and Anatomy of the Mass, first gathered out of sundry Greek and Latin Authors, as also out of divers learned FATHERS.  
Published by S. O.  
Printed in the Year of our Saviour 1630.   

To the Christian Reader.  
CHristian Reader: this treatise came to my hand, and I have perused it, & I saw it to be but a relation out of other ancient Histories, how superstition was brought into the Church, which made me to wonder, that any, who is not a lover of popery, should suppress it, by reason it doth only show what others have written, who lived in those ages wherein they were brought into the Church, I have therefore got this treatise to be examined and viewed by sundry others, who are not inferior for gifts and learned arts to any who had a hand in suppressing this book, and all of them do agree with me that those things which are related in it are to be found in the writings of those Authors quoted in it, therefore I take it that those which suppressed it, if they be not Papists in their hearts, yet they hold with the Papists, that ignorance is the mother of devotion, which is expressly against the Law of God. And the Scriptures hold ignorance to be no better than Paganism, therefore the Apostle doth tell us, that God shall come to judgement in flaming fire rendering vengeance to all which know not God, 2. Thes. 1.8. Therefore those which contemn this means of knowing God, much more they which suppress the knowledge of God, or his truth, their end shallbe woeful and accursed.  
Our adversaries the Papists do vanut much of antiquity unto such as are not acquainted in ancient Histories, saying that their religion is the true religion of Christ, which hath been in all ages since the Apostles: but this short treatise doth manifest otherwise; if we search the Scriptures and ancient Histories we may find that all their boasting is mere delusion, which doth vanish away, and their Religion shallbe found to be no other, than the Scriptures have foretold, to wit, that Antichrist should arise in the Church of God, and corrupt all the holy ordinances of God, & set up his traditions, & command them to be observed above all the ordinances of God. 2. Thes. 2.3.4. Apoc. 12.11.12. 1. Tim. 4. And although they have suppressed the testimonies of the faithful witnesses of the truth, which we produce against them, yet we do find sufficient testimonies out of their own writers, that their religion was not received in many Churches till a thousand years after our Lord's ascension, and since brought to the height by Jnnocentius the third and Honorius.  
Then by their own Author's confession, God did stir up many thousands of witnesses to his truth which we profess against their superstitions: & in all ages since, the Lords truth hath not wanted some which did witness it, even to the death, by giving their lives for it.  
And now this hundreth years the Lord hath given us in our land many excellent truths to be maintained by laws, to be professed and embraced which many thousands have comfortably embraced, and are departed this life in Christ and rest with him. And now for our great sins the Lord doth begin to take it away from our land, as he hath done in other countries which have had it, & we see he hath sent them the sword with famine and great miseries, and he hath shaken his rod against us, to see if we will learn before it be too late, and forsake all our great and heinous iniquities. Christ told the jews that those eighteen, on whom the tower of Siloam fell, were examples to them, that except they did repent, they should all perish; so except we reform our great and crying transgressions we shallbe ruinated and made an astonishment to all the world: and although we are not the first who have drunk of this cup of God's wrath, yet we shall not receive the least part, although the Lord have reserved the Dregges of his cup for the beast and his false teachers.  
We may see the Angel of the Lord is executing of his wrath here, and all the world is in an uproar round about us. The whole frame of nature is out of order, yet we do not lament as we should, therefore it doth prognosticate his plagues shall fall seven times heavier upon us. The gospel of jesus Christ is departing from us, who can love his King and Country, and not lament & mourn & fear lest his fiere wrath should consume us all in this troublesome, cruel, desperate and bloody age in which we live, now that wars & rumors of wars are sounding in every man's ears, and Gods enemies make Havoc of his Churches and Servants, and the Roman Antichrist doth prevail, & God's people at this day be grievously persecuted and murdered, yea some consumed and devoured. Alas it willbe too late to bring water to quench the fire, when the house is burnt to ashes. This short treatise is to manifest the original of the superstitions crept into the Churches, how most of them came from the old heathenish Romans, except their Transubstantiation, which is a grosser kind of Idolatry, them ever was invented by any pagan.  
Christian Reader, if you do observe this treatise, you may have wherewith to stop the mouths of the Papists, and behold whence their idolatrous Mass is derived.  
I have in the end added some thing of my own collecting, most out of their own Authors, to show the truth, how long it is since their idol of their Breaden God came first into the Church. S. O.   

THE AUTHOR'S EPISTLE TO THE READER.  
MOst Christian Reader.  
Considering the Controversies and bloody hatred grown betwixt those (who profess themselves Christians) about religion, for they aspiring to retain these vain superstitions proceeding from their predecessors: and many also not contented, do invent new Sects, Schisms and Heresies: Others (lest in number) divinely inspired, and of God elected, desire to extirpate the Darkness of Ignorance, thereby to cause resplendently to shine, the Light, and clarity of Truth: But it seems, that the most dangerous Poison that Satan useth to entoxicate men with the Venym of sedition, and cruel contention and hatred, derives chief from the Mass, disguised with some good meaning, masked and covered (peradventure) with a good intention. And although that many heretofore have by sundry faithful descriptions endeavoured to discover to the world the deceitfulness, error, & blindness thereof, yet could they not prevail, nor give light to their duskish and heavy sight.  
Therefore now, without any passion, I have faithfully extracted, and lively drawn out, from the Volumes of ELASOPOLITANS COMMENTARIES: (It is a large and faithful description; whereof the second Volume treats of the Constitutions of great Pontiss, Sovereign Priests, and Sacrificers, as have been ordained since the beginning of the World, and their true Number, Power, Riches, and Authority; (all for thy only benefit) this sincere Summary of the Sacrifice, called the Mass.  
In this Treatise (though little in appearance) are designed & set down all such Sacred Signs, Sacrifices, and Sacraments ordained of GOD from time to time: As also the Corruptions that have grown successively in the Church of GOD: whereby I do evidently show the Birth of all Heresies and Jdolatries, and especially the true Original of the Mass; for the which the world is in great strifes, bloody Contentions, cruel Divisions, Hatred, and lamentable  Wars: for some do Invectivate and Inveigh against it, alleging that it is newly divised and invented; others defend it by prescription, and long possession; and thus by such like altercations the Christian Church is sore afflicted with the yoke and Terror of Sedition. But if thou art a Christian (beloved Reader) of what Sect soever, Papist, or Evangelicall; I pray thee hearty, for thine own good, to have patience to read this Work; for by it thou mayest evidently know, and plainly discover the very truth of whatsoever thou standest in doubt of, what Sacrifices, Sacraments, and Sacred Signs have been instituted of GOD since ADAM; what is the Mass and Original thereof; who were her Founders, Augmenters, & Inventors; & to the end thou mayest firmly believe with assurance, all the Contents herein mentioned, have recourse to those Authors out of whose Books & works I have drawn end derived it: their Names and Books are quoted in the Margin. So aiming at GOD'S glory and thy own Benefit, I rest with my prayers to GOD, to inspire thee with his Holy Spirit, by the intercession of our only Saviour, Redeemer, and Mediator jesus Christ.  
AMEN,   

THE TRANSLATOR TO THE COURTEOUS READER, wisheth all Saving health in jesus Christ.  
WIse Politicians (favourable Reader) in their Jnstitutions, and Government of Commonwealths, do hold for an infallible maxim, that to reform Corruptions and abuses in States, better course cannot be taken, then often to reduce things to their primitive Original; Because Laws at first enacted with good and profitable intention, in the Revolution of few years, by men's instability and inconstancy of mind, or the peculiar interest of Avarice by Injustice, are abrogated and neglected.  
The Venetians being a people at this day celebrous, and famous for their Government, have a supreme Magistracy, which they call A Syndicate, that once in a few years, survey all the Offices and Dignities in their Commonwealth, the Duke himself not there excepted, to look in the abuses, and prevent their deep root and plantation; that so all things may continue and stand entire, according to the rules and precepts of their first Constitutions and ordinances.  
Also a Garden-plot, though never so curiously drawn or distinguished into borders, and set with all manner of odoriferous flowers, and wholesome herbs, yet every shower of rain brings forth new weeds, the which if they be not carefully, and daily supplanted, will soon overgrow the good plants, and bring the same to a wild and savage plot of ground. And though the inevitable depravation and corruption of man's nature carry so strong a hand in things transitory and mutable, yet one would think they should be more stable and provident in those courses tending to eternal salvation, and soul's reprobation, in observing those Laws and Commandments, uttered by GOD himself, & commanded to all Posteries for a square Rule, whereby to measure our faith & actions.  
Notwithstanding men are more prone to Declination & Corruption, in that from the very beginning, and first institution of the Law Mosaical, till the present times, that for many ages have received the clear and manifest Truth, and doctrine Evangelicall; Heresies have ever crept in and carried too powerful a hand, as Verity itself, like gold in the bowels and entralls of the earth, is encumbered with a wonderful deal of oar & dross, which is not like to be separated till the last sire of trial, which shall prove every man's work, and cast out the dross to be trampled & trodden under foot; Wherefore (Christian Reader) for the better satisfaction and general good of all God's Church, I have laboured to translate this curious and admirable Master piece, most worthy and necessary to be observed and read: for thou mayest, as in a Mirror, clearly see and discover the Birth and the Original of this foul Monster Heresy, in the Church, even from the first ages before the written Law, as also during the force and efficacy of the Mosaical Sacrifices, and now in these later times more pertinent under the Law and precepts of Christ's holy Gospel, wherein are deduced the Authors and Founders of the Roman Mass.  
And what conformity it holds with the Ethnicke-Rites and ceremonies, and how far a digression it hath made from the doctrine, life, and practise Apostolical, and the ages of the Primitive Church, wherein the Author ever hath abandoned all passion and partiality, and in full proofs, cited none but either approved and authentic Authors, as the ancient Doctors and Writers of the Church, that lived before the present Inundations of superstitions Traditions.  
Bring them to the Text of God's Word, compare them with the example of the Prophets and Apostles, observe the customs of the Primitive churches, & thus, by reducing them to their beginnings it will be easy to judge whether they stand still in that unspotted integrity, or have not adulterously profaned the sincere worship of GOD, with many, and mere humane inventions.  
If thou dost but vouchsafe the diligent and careful reading hereof, I make no doubt but it will yield great comfort to thy Conscience, & confirmation to thy Faith, as that which will clearly delucidate many hidden passages, that have not hitherto been revealed: and if it may take this happy effect, I shall think my pains sufficiently requited and recompensed in all things, aiming at God's glory, and not mine own. And thus I rest.  
ABR. DARCIE.   

THE ORIGINAL OF POPISH IDOLATRIES: etc. Published under the name of Casaubon, Anno Domini 1624.  
Called in (the same year) upon misinformation: But now (upon better consideration) reprinted with allowance.  
Together with the Original and true Anatomy of the Mass: As also the corruptions and abuses of all these holy things from the beginning.  

CHAP. I. Of Sacred Signs.  
IN the time preordained of God by his inscrutable and incomprehensible Wisdom, (when he had created man to his true Image and likeness, the better to move and incite him to fear and obedience, as also to make him partaker of his blessings, he gave him sme exercise of virtue whereby he might acknowledge him his Almighty God, and omnipotent Creator) were ordained many Signs, Sacrifices, and Sacraments: First, to our first Father Adam, to whom with his Successors, corporal men, God allotted corporal signs, to approve the better of their obedience: to wit, trees planted in the midst of the Orchard, & earthly Paradise: which although they were not of any other quality than the other plants, yet notwithstanding being dedicated & consecrated of God for Sacraments, or Sacred Signs, their quality was then for to serve as Seals for the Testimony and approbation of his divine will and pleasure, which was effected by the infinite goodness & bounty of God, to make appear and known, that the Association, Confederation and alliance contracted with man his Creature, was ordained from time to time, yea from the beginning of all times: Thus, I say, were exterior and Corporal Signs, which man could see and contemplate with his Corporal Eyes, constituted to serve for an assurance, pledge, and hostage of the Divine Covenant.  
These Trees and substantial Fruits ordained for our first and common Father, were committed and given unto him to keep, without wasting either, or eating of the one, upon pain of eternal death. Wherefore we must in faith believe, that they were not vain Signs and Sacraments, or as a mere simple Picture: but whereas life or death depended on them, they comprehended both the signs and thing signified; wherein consisted the knowledge and wisdom to fear God, 
Prov. 7.2.3  and obey him. And therefore they were called the Fruits of the knowledge of good and ill, & the Trees of life; For in the careful keeping of these sacred fruits, and obeying God, there was promised eternal life: whereas on the contrary, by abusing the Sacraments, and opposing the will of God, there was intimated to us by exterior signs, that eternal death and damnation was purchased.  
For other exercises required of man towards God, 
Sacrifices before the written Law.  concerning the reverence, honour and adoration of him, many & diverse Sacrifices were celebrated, even before the Law, written by Moses. And though God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, needs not any humane works, or to be nourished with the blood of beasts, or with terrestrial fruits, 
Psal. 50.  yet he had always a desire to draw man unto him, in an external obedience and fear, by Signs, Sacrifices, and Sacraments: so as the Sacrifice of Lambs, offered by Abel, were agreeable and pleasing to God. Noah in like manner, after the inundation of waters past, in sign of his recognition and obedience towards God, erected an Altar, 
Genes. 4. Hebr. 11. Gen. 6.7.5.  immolated and offered sacrifices of unspotted sheep & birds, whereof he made a real Holocaust, acceptable to the Lord. By which examples we may easily discern, that Sacrifices took not their beginning in Moses time, but that Innocent and Just Lamb was prefigured in Abel's Sacrifice, as a type of jesus Christ, slain and offered from the beginning of the world. 
Apoc. 13.   
After the rigour and justice of the deluge was appeased, 
The Rainbow.  that happened for a punishment of Tyrant's offences on earth, in sign of a reconciliation, and Covenant renewed, our God ordained the sign of the Rainbow, for a pledge & assurance of his Divine mercy. This sign and celestial Bow, 
Genes. 9  though it formerly appeared in thick clouds, being a notice of rain to ensue, notwithstanding it was not as yet constituted nor appointed to serve man for a sign or Sacrament, until the time that it was by God ordained for an assurance of the Covenant contracted with the good Father Noah, and his successors.  
After this, with the faithful Patriarch Abraham, 
Circumcision in the year of the world 2048.  there was another confederation & alliance contracted by the wisdom of God, who, for a pledge and assurance to him and his posterity, constituted the external sign of Circumcision, to serve him for a Sacrament, & a perpetual notice of God's holy will and pleasure: and so he was enjoined to circumcise the male infants within the eighth day of their nativity, upon pain of being rejected from the number of those people whom God had adopted. 
Gen. 17.   
Then followed to his posterity afterward, called the people of Israel, the sacrifice of the immaculate Lamb, which was ordained by the shedding of blood, to preserve them from the appointed slaughter in Egypt: 
Exod. 12.  As also the flesh thereof was appointed to be eaten, and celebrated festival every year, on the day called The Pascha, or Easter; for a sign & commemoration of their Deliverance from Pharaohs servitude: and to the participation of the flesh of this Paschall Lamb, was annexed the unleavened bread for seven days, on pain of Death. 
Exod. 22.   
Other sacred signs were sent by God to his Elect people, to win them continually to his fear and obedience: as the sign of the Cloud, 
The Cloud. The Pillar of fire. Exod. 13.  to conduct the people by day; and the flaming and fiery Pillar, for their guide & direction by night; and all to deliver them out of the hands of the Tyrant Pharaoh.  
Then followed the sign of the division of the Arabic Red Sea, 
The division of the Arabic red sea, in the year of the world, 2403.  over which the elect people of God passed. By all which admirable signs, it pleased God to institute Sacraments having an analogy to the holy Sacrament of Baptism, instituted afterwards by the elemental sign of water, which is the washing of Regeneration, and the renovation of the Holy Ghost.  
Now during the time that this elect people of God were detained in the Arabian Deserts, 
1. Cor. 10. Titus 3.  and barren Wilderness, they had provision of heavenly bread, wherewith they were nourished for forty years, which was also an holy Sacrament, instituted by the power and will of God, 
Heavenly Manna. Exod. 16. 1. Cor. 10.  and held in so high an admiration, that each one amongst the people said, Man-hu, what a wonderful thing is this? They saw celestial Manna exhibited to them without travel, a Figure of the Bread of Life, which came down from Heaven, giving life to all the faithful.  
Another wonderful sign there was ordained by God, of the Rock gushing out with clear water in Mount Horeb, 
john 6.  to quench the people's thirst, who were very dry, and almost stifled with heat.  
This was a sign and figure of the true Rock jesus Christ, out of whom came blood & water, to quench perpetually the thirst of sinners, and refresh our souls.   

CHAP. II. Of Sacrifices.  
BEsides these signs and Sacraments , 
Divers sacrifices ordained by God, in the year of the world 2455 Holocausts.  which were only by God ordained: there was also a Law enacted and published for sacrificers by Moses, as Signs, Figures, and Shadows of that absolute Sacrifice, consummated by jesus Christ; so that Sacrifices were either public, or private; general, or particular. Some were Holocausts, being Sacrifices that were wholly consumed with fire: Others consisted of beasts slain and immolated to eat, there were earthly and airy Creatures. Amongst those terrestrial, 
Division of sacrifices, extracted out of Exedus, Leviticus, & Numbers. Beasts appointed for sacrifice.  were the most obedient and obsequious beasts; as the Ox and the Calf, the He, and She Goat: and so likewise amongst Fowl, the most mild and gentle; as the Pigeon, and Turtle.  
Of Sacrifices again, some were public, and others private or particular: those public were either quotidian or every seventh day, either at New Moons, or in times of Fasting: but they were chiefly celebrated at three festival times of the year which were: 

First, the days of unleavened bread, 
Days appointed for sacrifices.  when the Paschall Lamb was offered, and eaten.  
Secondly, the time of Harvest, and the first Fruits.  
And thirdly, at the Feast of Vines, and Olives, towards the end of the year. 
Exod. 23.  They were commanded to immolate every day two Lambs; one in the morning, another in the evening, after the Altar was first perfumed, with Incense and Odours.    
Some of the Sacrifices also were ordained, 
See the books of Philo the jew, and of josephus.  for corporal things, which were celebrated with shedding of blood, other sacrifices were without blood for things incorporate. Sacrifices named Holocausts concerned only the honour of God, because the whole oblation was consumed in the fire. For which Holocausts, the Male, and not the Female was received as an oblation, 
Holocaust: Philo the jew in his Treatise of Beasts, appointed for sacrifice. joseph. lib. 3 c. 20. De Antiq. judaic. Leu. 9.2.3.4. Sacrifice for health.  that is to say, the Ox, the Lamb, or Goat of a year old.  
In the sacrifice for Health, it was a matter indifferent, whether the oblation were Male or Female: but of the victim offered, three parts were reserved for the Priest, which was the fat, the two Rumnions, and the Kidney, or Fillet of the Kidneys.  
There was another difference between the Sacrifice for Health, and that celebrated for sin: for in the one, they were enjoined to eat up all the oblation in two days; and in the other for sin, the Priest was commanded to eat it up in one day: and by this means some Sacrifices were termed Holocausts: 
a Sacrifices for sin. Sacrifices for sin out of ignorance. Sacrifices for the high Priests, sin, for the Princes, for the Magistrate, and for particular men. Leu. 3.4.5.6. Sacrifice for a polluted man. Sacrifice for a delivered woman. Leu. 12. Sacrifice for the Leprous. Levit. 14. Sacrifice for menstrual pollution.  some were ordained for health, other some for sins.  
Sacrifices for sin were diverse, both in respect of the persons, and of the oblations.  
For he that offended out of ignorance, his expiation was celebrated with a female Sheep or Goat: but the expiation for voluntary and wilful sin, was with a Male sheep.  
The High Priests sin was expiated by the sacrifice of an immolated Calf: that of the Prince with an He Goat, or Bull: that of a Magistrate, with an He Goat; and the sin of a particular man, with a female oblation.  
The Sacrifice for expiation of offences towards God, was with a Ram.  
The Sacrifice of a man polluted, was also with a female Sheep or Goat: & for a woman's expiation after childbed, was a Lamb of a year old, a young Pigeon, and a Turtle.  
For the cleansing of the Leprous, were appointed two living Fowls, pure and clean, Cedar-wood, and Hyssop, two whole Lambs, and a female sheep of a year old, with Meal and Oil.  
Another Sacrifice was celebrated for a man or woman polluted, by shedding his Seed, or her menstrual blood; with two Turtles, and two young Pigeons.  
If the great Oblations failed, they had recourse to Doves, Pigeons, or Turtles, or for Holocausts: others, maintenance.  
In all Sacrifices there was pure Flower, without Leaven, 
Leaven and Honey forbidden in all sacrifices. Sacrifice for a woman suspected of Adultery. Numb. 5. Sacrifice of Nazareans. Numb 6. Philo the jew in his Treatise above named.  Incense, and Oil: and nothing was permitted to be offered upon the Altar, with Leaven or Honey.  
Notwithstanding in the Sacrifice constituted for the Purification of a woman suspected of Adultery, there was neither Incense, nor Oil, as in other Sacrifices; but it was offered with water, mingled with the dust, or ashes, gathered up from the floor of the Temple.  
There was also another Sacrifice, celebrated for those that had made some great Vow, called Nazareans, when the time of their Devotion was expired, wherein they were appointed to offer three Victimes, a Lamb of a year old, a Sheep, and a Ram: the one, that is, the Lamb, to serve for a Holocaust: the other, of a female Sheep, for Salvation, and the third oblation for Health. Furthermore, his hairs that made the oblation, were to be cast into the fire, to be burned together with the Holocaust.  
I was willing particularly to discourse of the diversity of Sacrifices, that hereby I might make known the great goodness, and bounty of our God: who in the Law of sacrifices, published by Moses, meant to curb and reign in the rude people of Israel, as it were with a Bridle, who could not forget the Egypt an Idolatries, wherein they had been nourished and bred, for about four hundred years, under the tyranny of the Pharaohs. 
Exod. 12.  But what rigorous Laws soever enacted: what Ceremonies or Sacrifices soever he did ordain them: this people ever made a relapse into their Idolatry, abusing the Law of God, and corrupting the holy Sacraments, and sacrifices, as hereafter shall be expressed. But if any man desire to know more at large, the multitude and variety of sacrifices: let him read the books of Philo the jew; and of josephus in his Antiquities of the jews, according as Moses hath expressly written in the books of Leviticus, & Numbers.  
There was another sign & Sacrament instituted of God, 
Ark of Covenant, Exod. 25.26.27.28.  by the Ark of Covenant, described in Exodus, being a sacred sign, and dedicated to receive celestial divine Oracles, to the end to induce the people to a remembrance, fear, & obedience of God. To accompany and honour the Ark of Covenant, many other external signs were constituted by God, as the ornaments and consecrations of the Priests; especially that ornament called the Ephod: 
Ephod.  both which and the Sacrifices, the Israelites abused and profaned with their Idolatries.  
Another sacred sign there was, 
Water of Purification consecrated. Numb. 15.  of cleansing water, or Water of expiation, instituted by God, for Moses and Aaron the High Priest. This cleansing or purifying Water was consecrated, with ashes taken up by an unpolluted man, of the oblation offered in the Holocaust, that is to say, of the whole Red Cow, without spot, not having ever been exposed to labour.  
The Fire; for the burnt-offering was ordained to be of Cedar-wood, 
Exod. 38.  Hyssop, and of Purple-Crymosme. Polluted men were sprinkled over with this Water, for an expiation & purgation of their corporal blemishes.  
At the entry of the Tabernacle, or Temple, there was a kind of Laver like a Font of Brass, forged at first of seeing Glasses, of the Israelitish Women. In this Laver or Holy-water Font, was put this Water of Purification, wherewith the Priests besprinkled themselves, before they celebrated their sacrifices, to the end they might be purified, and obtain grace and remission of sins.  
After the death of the High Priest Aaron, the Israelitish people, ingrateful towards God, for the benefit he sent them, murmuring when they were weary of the heavenly Manna, which he gave them bountifully for their sustentation, they were punished with the stingings of venomous Serpents. 
Brazen Serpent. Numb. 27.  But God being merciful, gave them a sacred sign, to be preserved and restored to health, that is to say, the sign of the Brazen Serpent erected up on high, which was a Figure of jesus Christ crucified. 
john 3.7.   
This in brief is the greatest part of the Signs, Sacrifices, and Sacraments, instituted by God, in the first Church of the Israelites, being figures of the true and perfect sacrifice, accomplished and immolated by jesus Christ, the true Messiah, the Eternal Priest, who sits at the right hand of God his Father.   

CHAP. III. Of Corruptions.  
NOw we must succinctly produce how Man by his own fault falling into oblivion and disobedience against God his Creator, 
Corruption began first in Adam.  abused herein divine favour and grace, and corrupted the sacred signs, sacrifices and Sacraments, by him ordained and instituted. For else what persuaded our first Father and his Wife Eve to hide themselves, when they heard and were set in the way of God, but that they had abused his sacred signs, and violated the Law of those Fruits prohibited & forbidden them?  
This holy sign which our first Parents so alienated & abused, was the original of other Vices and corruptions hereafter described, whereinto men are fall'n, having a relish of the corrupt mass in Adam.  
Omitting the particular corruptions of signs, sacrifices, 
Corruption of the sacrifices by Aaron. Exod. 32. Deut. 9  & Sacraments, before the Law written by Moses, we will begin in setting down briefly, the most notable errors committed by the greatest sacrificers, Kings and Priests, with others, that had the government and charge of the people. When Moses remained in Mount Sinai, to receive the Commandments from God, his brother Aaron the High Priest caused a golden Calf to be framed, of the earing delivered unto him by the people of Israel, he built an Altar, offered Incense, and celebrated sacrifice, causing the common people to adore this Image. Was not this an abusing of the sacrifices ordained by God, & a corrupting of their true use, procuring the same to be ado●'d, which before was itself offered, and immolated, according as the custom was?  
His sons also, 
Corruption of sacrifices by Nadab & Abihu. Levit. 10. Numb. 11.  Nadab, and Abihu, were they not consumed with fire, because they adulterated the true use of sacrifices, and took unconsecrated wood, by corrupting the instituted Law?  
The people of Israel ingrateful for the benefit received, in being delivered from Pharaohs captivity; did they not murmur against the holy Sacrament of celestial Manna, when they contemned and despised this Bread of Life, crying out for flesh to eat? Achan the son of Charms, did not he violate the Law of sacred signs, when he committed sacrilege, by detaining the spoils of Jericho, which were vowed & consecrated for sacrifices to God? 
Iosh. 7.   
If any man more curious, 
Observe this.  desires to see the abuses and corruptions continued by the same people, let him read the Histories of the judges of Israel, and he shall perceive, 
jud. 6.3.6.8.9.  that in all age's men have never been content with the true adoration instituted by God; but in stead of external signs constituted by God, to draw the people to his fear, and obedience, they have forged and brought-in their own inventions: and in stead of reverencing the Altars, 
jud. 10.  and the Ark of Covenant, in the name of the only one God, which were external sacred signs, the Israelites misled by the Idolatries of their neighbours, 
judg.  the Syrians, Sidonians, Moabites, Ammonites, and Palestines, erected Altars to strange gods, to Baal & Astaroth.  
Jephta judge, 
Inhuman sacrifice of jephta. judg. 11.  and Conductor of the Israelites, did not he corrupt the Law of sacrifices, when he offered up his own daughter, excusing himself by a Vow he made, which was not so enjoined him by God?  
The sacred sign ordained for the High Priest, & Sacrificer, in celebrating of sacrifice, 
judg. 8.  called the Ephod, serving for an external ornament, was it-not abused by Gideon, Captain of Israel, when of the spoils of the Madianites, and their earrings, he forged an Ephod of gold, by means whereof, the people fell to great Idolatry?  
How long was this external sign of the Ephod abused, 
Idolatry by the golden Ephod.  when an Image was thereof erected in Siloe, by the Mother of Michas? so that Priests were expressly instituted to sacrifice thereunto, and an Altar edified; and thus was the true use of holy sacrifices corrupted, While the Temple continued in Siloe, into what depraved, and adulterate Rites did the Priests and sacrificers fall, who were appointed, and ordained for the celebration and Ministry of holy sacrifices, and Sacraments, when by long custom, they usurped this privilege over the people, that when the sacrifice was solemnised, and the flesh of the oblations was a boiling, their son or servant having a trident or iron hook in his hand, he had the liberty to rake out of the pot or Cauldron, whatsoevet he could bring up with his hook? Moreover, 
1. Sam. 2.  with more extreme levitical Tyranny, this servant of the Priests had the privilege, to demand of the Celebrater some flesh to roast for the Priest, or else he might violently take whatsoever he listed.  
Were not these wonderful abuses, and detestable corruptions practised by the sacrificers and High Priests, under the pretext and colour of sacrifice? What grosser corruption can be mentioned, then that of the children of Eli the High Priest, named Ophni, and Phinees; who, 
Ophni and Phinees corrupters of sacrifices. 1. Sam. 2.  under the colour of devotion, committed infamous Whoredoms, with the women that watched near to the holy Oraculous sign, instituted by God. For which sin, they were lamentably slain, and the Ark of Covenant violently taken away by the Philistines, who erected it in the Temple of their Idol Dagon. 
1. Sam. 4.  But God not permitting this sacred sign to be thus profaned, he caused the Image of Dagon to fall down, 
1. Sam. 5.6.  and sent grievous punishments upon the Philistines, so as they were constrained to redeliver up again the Ark of God's Covenant.  
This sacred sign was so precious and estimable, 
Ark of sacred Covenant.  that being but abused and profaned by the Bethsamites, that were not of the Order of the Levites, fifty thousand of the common people, and seventy of the most apparent and remarkable amongst them, were by divine revenge cut off by sudden death.  
This example may make them tremble, 
Against the corruption of sacred signs.  that presume to profane the signs and Sacraments instituted by God, Vzza also, for abusing the same sacred sign, though it were with a good intention, to ease the Ark of the Covenant, that leaned too much of one side, was he not punished with death? For other profanations committed by the Israelites, there are examples of Osias punished with Leprosy; 
2 Sam. 6. O●as.  for adulterating the sacrifices, and assuming the Ministry of incensing, allotted only to the Priests.  
Saul the first elected King of the Israelites, 
2. Chron. 26 Saul.  was put to the Sword, and his Kingdom succeeded to another, as was foretold him by Samuel, in that he profaned the sacrifices, and permitted his subjects to commit the like abuses. 
1. Sam. 13. joseph. lib. 7 cap 4. de Antiq judae.  His successors to the Kingdoms of the jews, and Israelites, did they not persever in their abuses and corruptions of the sacrifices and Sacraments ordained by God, when they celebrated sacrifices to the gods, 
1. Kings 11.  Astaroth the god of the Sidonians; Chamos, of the Moabites; and Melcom, or Moloch of the Ammonites: building Temples & Oratories for them, offering incense, and solemnising sacrifices to them?  
Jeroboam King of the Israelites, 
jeroboam. 1. Kings 12.  did not only erect a golden Calf, as the high Priest Aaron formerly did; but he set up two golden Cows in the two Temples of Bethel, & of Dan: he instituted strange Priests, corrupted the Law of God, and caused sacrifices to be celebrated after the manner and form of Aaron's.  
This Idolatry and corruption of sacrifices was continued by the Israelites for more than four hundred years, 
1. Kings 14.  during the reigns of their Kings, who had taught them to adulterate the true manner and form of sacrifices, in particular Chapels & Oratories, edified on the tops of hills, & consecrated in shady forests, violating the law of sacrifices ordained for the holy Temple, in the sacred City of God: for particular examples of abuses committed against the true use of sacrifices, we read an history of Maacha, 
2. Kings 16.  the mother of King Asa, who caused an Image to be erected to god Pan: she consecrated & dedicated unto him a shaddie Forest, & celebrated to him sacrifices.  
Achab another King of the Israelites erected an Altar, 
Achab. 1 Kings 16.  and procured sacrifices to be solemnised to god Mars, otherwise called Baal; to whom he dedicated an umbragious Grove, 
joseph. lib. 8. cap. 10.  to please herein his wicked wife Jezabel. He also built another Temple and Altar to the god of the Tyrians, ordained sacrificing Priest, and instituted about 40. false prophets. His son & successor Ochosias, 
Ochosias.  instructed by his father in corrupting the true use of the sacrifices, caused men not only to immolate to Baal, who signified Mars, but persevering still in fare greater corrupt on's, he built another Temple to the god of the Acaronites, 
2. Kings 1. joseph. lib. 9 cap. 1.  called by Josephus, Myos; and by the Grecians Priapus, to which god he offered sacrifice.  
And to be sho●t, what more abominable corruption can be imagined, than the invention of Purgatory fire, 
Purgatory fire. 2. Kings 16.  which the Israelites abused, causing their children to pass through the midst of the fire, in Tophet, a valley belonging to the sons of Ennon, sacrificing to god Moloch?  
This corruption of sacrifice, 
In the book Alcoran. Asoar. 29. li. 46. & Asoar. 5. Ignem gehounae, non nisi numero dierum praeterminato. Animas sentire docet Alc●van liber, & ad diem Veritatis omnis. accedere ●perum suorum mercedem accepturos A●oar. 5. The cause of corruption in Sacraments. Ap●●. 1. ●.  though it had been practised since Moses time, notwithstanding the idol of Moloch, in the valley of Ennon, was not demolished till the reign of good King josias, more than nine hundred years after Moses. Nevertheless, this abuse hath been continued by the Arabians and Africans, even to this present day; for the Alcaronists and Mahometans are of this belief, that the souls of the dead shall pass through fire, to be purged & purified of their offences. By this brief collection we may clearly discern, how from the beginning of the world man hath fallen by his own defect into this gulf of the error and corruption of sacred signs, sacrifices, and Sacraments instituted for him, by God. But the most capital abuses, from whence the original of all Idolatry derives, have proceeded from this, in that carnal and fleshly men have been always more addicted to visible signs, and external ceremonies, then to things signified and intimated in Sacraments; for in stead of circumcising their hearts, & casting off the old skin of sin, to be regenerated, and purified by the blood of the heavenly oblation offered up before all ages, they have taken & understood the circumcision carnally, for nothing but the corporal foreskin circumcised. 
Dent. 10.50  For did they follow the interpretation of God hereof by Moses, which was to circumcise the prepuce of their hearts? Did the people of Israel give credit to the good Prophet jeremias, who admonished them of the spiritual Circumcision, and to circumcise the foreskin of their hearts, 
jerem. 4.  in casting off the old skin of their corrupt nature? The like hath happened in sacrifices and sacred signs instituted by God, for signs of that sacrifice consummated in the sacred person of jesus Christ: for carnal man had reference to the corporal blood of the terrestrial beasts, whereas man should have raised up his spirit to heaven, to have apprehended what was prefigured & signified, by the Immolation & Oblation of beasts. And therefore divine justice is denounced by the Prophets; 
Esar 7.  What need have I, saith the Lord God, of your sacrifices? I am angry with the oblation of your sheep; I take no more delight in the blood of Oxen, nor of Lambs, and sacrificed goats. Why labour you to erect Altars to me? I'll none of your vain Offerings and Oblations, I abhor your Incenses; I cannot endure your New Moons, your Sabbaths, your assemblies, nor your feasts: all this is but vanity. I have conceived an hatred against your Feasts of New Moons, O you Israelites, and your solemn celebrations. I am weary with having endured so much: 
Psal. 41.  you are ready to address unto me your prayers, but I will no more hear you, for the abuses you have committed, by your hands full of blood: I will accept of no Bull hereafter, from the house of Israel, because sacrifices are not pleasing to me. 
Esay 65.  I take as much delight in the sacrifice of an immolated Ox, as in the murder of a man slain: & in the Oblation of Incense, 
jerem. 6.  as the adoration of an Idol: Wherefore then, saith God, take you so much pains to hunt after Incense from Saba, and for odours out of a fare Country to me, to celebrate sacrifices that are not pleasing to me?  
Who incited you, O Israelies, to erect Images to the god Moloch, and to the star of Remphan, during the time you were in the deserts, 
A●●● 5.  where I fed you with heavenly Manna? Your Feasts are odious to me, your Holocausts, Oblations, and Sacrifices for safety I will reject; your Offerings displease me. By what means therefore must we present ourselves before God? Must it be by oblations of Heifers of a year old? Doth God take pleasure in the great number of sheep sacrificed to him, or in the abundance of consecrated oils? Shall I offer unto him, saith the Prophet, the first born for remission of sins?  
Our good God herein clearly expresseth what he would have us to follow; which is equity, to love mercy, 
Psal. 51.  & to humble themselves before him with a contrite heart: Obedience is better than sacrifice, or the fat of sacrificed sheep. What moved God to refuse the Sacraments and Sacrifices by himself ordained, but only the abuses and corruptions the Israelites had committed, understanding too carnally, the signs & ceremonies therein concurring to draw them only to true fear and obedience? For, instead of comprehending what was figured in the signs and corporal sacrifices, they relied on the flesh of immolated beasts: whereas they should have circumcised the prepuce of their hearts, they depended merely in carnal circumcision, and in the mean while strayed from the true adoration of God, in repairing to the Creatures, as to the Stars, & the Queen of Heaven, and to other strange gods, offering Incense to them, building of Temples, instituting of Priests, Chaplains, and Sacrificers, making Oblations, and celebrating sacrifices to them.  
And then further, to heap up all corruptions, they offered sacrifice with the blood of Innocents', offering, and causing them to pass thorough the Purgatory fire, in the valley of Tophet. For the abuses also committed in the holy Sacrifices, sacred signs, and Oblations constituted for God, it was said to the people of Israel by Prophets, 
4 Esdras 7,  that God would have no more of their Feasts, of their New Moons, nor of their celebrated sacrifices, by bloody and idolatrous people.   

CHAP. IU Corruptions punished.  
AFter that the inscrutable Wisdom of God knew the obstinacy and infidelity of the Israelitish people, which persevered still in committing Idolatry, by corrupting the sacred signs, sacraments, & sacrifices; and in stead of acknowledging Gods infinite goodness, that had freed them from the tyranny of Pharaoh, and fed them in the Desert; who had brought them into a promised fertile Land, and had so many times assisted them in the wars, against their neighbours, the Canaanites, Moabites, Madianites, Philistines, Ammonites, Syrians, Sydomans, and other envious people, and enemies: This rude and ingrateful people continued still in their Idolatry, instructed by their Priests, sacrificers, Princes, & Kings, without returning to the true adoration of one only God: For this cause, after great mercies showed, and long expectation of a Just and rigorous judge, who by all courses of correction was desirous to reduce his people by divine particular inflictions; which was, by excited wars, by captivities, & servitudes, by divisions of the Kingdom, distributed between Roboam and jeroboam, successors to Solomon. who fell to extreme Idolatry, by intestine and civil wars, growing between the same people, divided in themselves, and by other usual scourges, to chastise those whom God meant to favour, for the reducing of them under his fear and obedience. At last, this people being too much obdurate, and inveterated in their Idolatries, were brought into miserable servitude under the Tyranny of the unbelieving Assyrians, 
4. Kings 15.24.  the Idolatrous Babylonians, and their Kingdoms wholly extirpated.  
But some pretty while after, when the same people by the special mercy of God, were delivered out of the hands of these infidel Tyrants, restored to their liberty, and Country of promise, they again fell from God more than before, under the government of their sacrificers & high Priests, which confounded the Spiritual and Temporal together, so fare as to invest themselves with the Royal Sceptre, and Diadem.  
Then came in the Heresies of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, 
joseph. lib. 13 cap. 16. de Aut. jud.  the Esseans, Galileans, Masbutheans, Hermerobaptists, and Samaritans, corrupted through the diversity of strange Nations, having subdued, and inhabited the Country of Samaria next to judea.  
For the Babylonians worshipped Succobenoth for their god The Cutheans of Persia had for their god, 
joseph. lib. de Antiq. jud.  Nergal, or Nergel. The Hamathensians called upon their god Asima. The Ananoys worshipped Nebahaze, & Thartace. The Sepharvamensians held for their gods, Adramelech, and Anamelech; to which gods they sacrificed their children, causing them to pass through the fire.  
Wherefore, when all kind of Idolatry was thus spread among the Israelites, when the sacrifices were absolutely corrupted, the sacrificers became mercenary, avaricious, tyrants & Idolatrous. The people made tributary to the Tyrants of Rome, the Country of judea reduced to a Province, 
joseph. lib 15 cap. 3.  next to that of Syria, under the subjection & power of the Romans; as also the Order and Law of electing high Priests adulterated, and their dignity quite bastardized, 
joseph. lib. 8 cap. 8.  so as without any respect made of the race levitical; the sacrificers were constituted by the Consuls, and Deputies of Rome at their pleasure, 
Entros. 1. cap. 12.  and whereas before they were permanent during life, they now became Annual.  
When the Royal Sceptre was alienated from the Progeny of judea, their Kingdom wholly subverted, 
Gen. 49.  as before was prophesied: the incomprehensible power of God was revealed by his Son, begotten before all ages, who humbled himself to take upon him humane flesh, in the womb of the Virgin, to redeem his people, and to restore them to grace and favour with God.   

CHAP. V The Ceremonial Law accomplished by Jesus Christ.  
NOw, 
Comparison between Adam and jesus Christ.  as in Adam, through his prevarication and sin, & in abusing the sacred signs committed to his guard and custody, as the whole mass of humane flesh was tainted with the leaven of sin; so by the second Adam jesus Christ, we were again by grace purged from all our offences. To our first and general Father Adam, was given the sacred sign for an exercise of obedience, and other sacred signs to his successors, Sacrifices, and Sacraments instituted by God, the Tree of Life, the Fruits of the knowledge of Good and Ill; the Rainbow; Circumcision; the unspotted Lamb; the unleavened bread; the Cloud; the Pillar of Fire; the Red sea divided; Heavenly Manna; Water out of the Rock; the Oblations and Holocausts of beasts for sacrifice; the Ark of Covenant; the Brazen Serpent; the Temple edified in the holy City: All which sacred signs, sacrifices and Sacraments, were figures of that which was accomplished in jesus Christ.  
For first he was the true Tree of Life, 
jesus Christ the Tree of Life. Apoc. 2. Rom. 12.  planted in the midst of the Paradise of God, in and by whom, we that were bastard slips, have been engrafted, to obtain eternal life: He committed to our keeping his holy Gospel commanding us to preserve it entirely, without adulterating or corrupting the same, without adding or dimishing therefrom, upon pain of eternal death.  
He was as the Rainbow, 
The Rainbow.  extended all over the Air, to assure us of the League and Covenant contracted between God and us, that we should no more be drowned in the deluge of sin: He was circumcised, that the Law in him might be accomplished, that so the prepuce of our hearts might be circumcised, and to make us cast off our old corrupted skin in Adam. 
Circumcision. Galat 4. The flaming Bush.   
He was like the flaming Bush, incarnate in the womb of the Virgin, conceived by the Holy Ghost, without the seed of Man; the sacred Virgin, like the Bush, remaining notwithstanding entire, and not consumed.  
He was sacrificed, like the just & Innocent Lamb, 
paschal Lamb. john 1. Heb. 13.  and his Blood shed, to preserve us from the Tyranny of Satan, and to open unto us a passage, whereby we may enter into the Land of Promise, the Heavenly Kingdom.  
He is that true unleavened Bread which came down from Heaven, incorrupt and unspotted; 
The bread of Life. 1. Cor 5.  of whom we must eate for our spiritual nourishment; that we may celebrate the Feast of that miraculous passage from Pharach, in the Land of true Liberty.  
He was the Cloud, the fiery Pillar, the divided Red Sea, 
The cloud, the Pillar of Fire, the Red Sea. 1. Cor. 10. joh. 19 Heavenly Manna. The flowing Rock, Living Water. 1. Cor. 10. Sacrifice. Heb. 1.8.9.10. Heb. 9 Ark of Covenant.  which conducted and delivered us out of the hands of our enemies; out of whose opened Side, came Water and Blood for our Salvation.  
He was the heavenly Manna, sent from Heaven, to feed us for ever; & the true Rock, out of which issued Water, to quench their thirst for ever, which believe in him.  
It was He, that only offered up the saving Sacrifice for the expiation of our sins; both Priest and Sacrifice, both the Offerer, and the Oblation; remaining an Eternal Highpriest, at the Right Hand of God, his Father; being entered into the Holy and Heavenly Sanctuary, not built with men's hands, but by the Hand of God.  
He was the true Ark of Alliance and Covenant, by which God revealed and manifested his Oracles; and in him he did reside, to accomplish his divine and incomprehensible Mysteries.  
He was like to the Brazen Serpent, fastened to the Cross, 
Brazen Serpent. joh. 3. Temple of God. joh. 2.  to give health unto the sick, which return to him, and contemplate on him by Faith.  
He was the true Temple of God, wherein the Holy Ghost dwells, one God in Trinity; in, and by whom God is only adored.  
He was the true and sacred Oblation, 
Holocaust, and water Purgatory.  of whom the real water purgatory was made, for the purgation of every blemish. Himself, with his own Ashes, that is, with his immolated Body, besprinkled and wet with water issuing out of his Side, all People and Nations that believe in Him. 
john. 15.    

CHAP. VI Of Sacraments ordained by jesus Christ himself.  
THe Law Ceremonial being by this means accomplished, not in Figures, but really executed, by the Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection of jesus Christ, our Saviour, our Mediator, our Eternal Priest and Propitiator; the infinite goodness of God was yet further revealed, by the new Covenant, new Alliance, and new coming of the Son of God, Incarnate: For, 
Heb. 9  by his New Testament, ratified and confirmed in the death of the Testator, He hath constituted us as heirs and coheirs to God, in his heavenly Kingdom.  
For assurance of this celestial succession, 
Rom. 8.  purchased for us by grace, after the Consummation of the Law Ceremonial, & the same abolished (as we have formerly declared) through that perfect Sacrifice of the Priest Eternal; there were left unto us two sacred signs or Sacraments, wherein God bestowed greater favour, and more special grace, than he had done before his Incarnation: 
St. Augustin. lib 3 de doct. Christ. cap. 9  For he hath freed us from the servile Law of Circumcision, from the difference of meats, and diverse sacrifices ordained in the first Church of the Israelites: And by easing us of this weighty burden, He further conferred upon us a greater comfort; in constituting, for a memorial and remembrance of our regeneration and eternal life, two holy Sacraments, under two sacred signs; which are, the water of Baptism, and the Bread and Wine in the Communion of his Body.  
Now, that his Grace might be extended to all Nations, 
Sacraments of the New Testament.  God thought good to make choice of the most familiar and ordinary signs and Symbols: For Circumcision was a special mark for Abraham and his Posterity; to which Circumcision, 
Distribution of the Sacraments to all Converts. Herod. lib. 2,  other Nations were not accustomed; though Hereditus, a Grecian borne, in an History he wrote of the Egyptian manners, specifies their manner and custom of being circumcised, but especially the Priests: and we may easily conjecture, that he had heard of the time when the jews dwelled in Egypt which was about 400. years, & observed Circumcision.  
Moreover, Circumcision was appointed only for the Males, and not for Females: there was a limited time appointed for Circumcision; which was, within ●ight days after the Nativity; and the cutting of the foreskin, was with grief and pain.  
But the Grace of God, by his Incarnation and plenary Sacrifice, 
Gen. 17.  having abolished the rigour of the Law Ceremonial, as well for difference of meats, as of days; He left unto us by his New Testament, and new Alliance, the sacred sign of Water, common to all, both Male and Female, without any distinction of days; and the Infant, by the Sacrament of Baptism, feeling no pain, as it did by the Circumcision of the foreskin.  
This sign of Water, intimating unto us the purgation and expiation of our sins, through the Blood of jesus Christ, was common, not only among the jews, who used ordinarily, Water purgatory, and of expiation; but the Gentiles also, and all other Nations, 
Numb. 19  were accustomed to a Lotion and purgation of cleansing, and purgatory Water, as we may perceive in reading Ancient Histories. Wherefore, to the end that God's Grace in jesus Christ, might generally be spread over all the Earth; to all Nations, Regions, and Provinces; both to the circumcised & uncircumcised; to the jews, and to the Gentiles; God made election of the most common sign of Water, the more freely to expose himself unto Man, and to win him to His feat and obedience.  
By which Sign, he hath instituted his holy Sacrament of Baptism, for an assured note and mark of our regeneration and purification, which is really conferred by the power of the Holy Ghost: In which Sacrament, God doth warrant us so engrafted and incorporate in jesus Christ, to be made and renewed the members of his Church, 
●at. 3. Gal. 3.  and to receiveus, as clothed anew, and reincorporated by and through him.  
The like reasons may be produced, for the other holy Sacrament instituted by God in his New Testament, which is that of Bread and Wine: Which Signs, Symbols, and external Elements, all Nations were accustomed to use, in their Sacrifices, Oblations, and Ceremonies belonging to their Religions; both Circumcised and uncircumcised, both jews and Gentiles: As also, the two specifical Refections for the nourishment and sustentation of men, are comprehended under these signs of Bread and Wine.  
Our good God therefore, for these reasons, desiring to draw all Nations to himself; to nourish, and minister unto them most necessary provisions, He instituted the Communion of the Body and Blood of our Saviour jesus Christ, under the symbols, sacred signs, and Sacraments of Bread & Wine: And look how we are assured by the outward mark and Character of Water in Baptism, to be regenerate and incorporated into the Body and Blood of jesus Christ, represented in this Sacrament of consecrated Water, by the power of the Holy Ghost; so are we nourished by the Communion of his Body and Blood truly presented to us, by the consecrated Bread and Wine, for our spiritual food, living and eternal, by the virtue and power of the Holy Ghost: Wherein God hath showed us this special favour, to discharge us of all bloody sacrifices, ordained in the first Church of the Israelites, who were charged with sundry & diverse sacrifices, celebrated with the blood of many carthly beasts shed, according to the diversity of sins & offences, and of persons that had offended.  
All which Sacrifices were consummated and abolished, by shedding of the blood of that just and Innocent Lamb, jesus Christ; who, by his perfect sacrifice, hath absolutely abolished all other Sacrifices, reserving to himself, the dignity of High and eternal Priest, placed at the right hand of God the Father.  
But so much he hath favoured us, that in stead of abolished sacrifices, he hath instituted two holy Sacraments heretofore mentioned, for an infallible assurance of our Regeneration, Purgation, Adoption, and of our nourishment & eternal life, bestowed upon us by the Blood of our Saviour jesus Christ.   

CHAP. VII. Of the Corruption of the Sacrament of Baptism.  
AS the Israelites being too gross and carnal, relied too much on external signs, having corrupted the true use of Sacrifices, and Sacraments appointed for them by God; so such like abuses, yea, fare greater corruptions have happened in the two holy Sacraments, left unto us by the New Testament of jesus Christ. 
Corruptions of the holy Sacraments.  For in the Sacrament of Baptism, which succeeded in the place of Circumcision, man conceived of a foul and wicked mass, could not be contented with the holy Institution from God, but quickly depraved and defiled the use of the holy Sacrament of Baptism, by Conjurations, Exorcisms, mixtures of Salt and Oil, 
Sacrament of Baptism corruted.  wax Candles, Extreme Unctions, Breathe, Babies, or Puppets, with a thousand Cruzadoes in the forehead, in the eyes, on the back, on the stomach, on the shoulders, and at the mouth, & all to drive away Devils.  
For the Messalian Heretics, 
Theed. in the book of the tables of Heretics.  Authors of Exorcisms of Cruzadoes, affirmed, that every borne Infant, was borne with his peculiar Damon, or Devil, which cannot be driven away, but by Conjutations and Exorcisines.  
By this means the holy Sacrament of Baptism came to be corrupted, 
Ca sine, & ca postquam d● concrat. distinct. 4.  even to the adding and annexing of Syriac word, of drivel, and Purgatory Spittle.  
What greater corruption can be imagined, than such abominable inventions; as if the blood of Christ jesus were not sufficient for our Regeneration and purgation; 
Epheta. Per. Satyr. 2.  and that God of himself were not powerful enough to engraft and regenerate us, by the sacred sign of Water, representing the Blood of jesus Christ, 
Ga●at. 3. Ephes. 4. 1. Cor. 15.  but that there must be exorcised Spit●l●, and D●ivell, Oil, Salt, Puppet-Images, Creames, Torches, Waxe-Candles, Milk, or Honic, invented and devised by other Heretics?  
Some also there be more subtle Magicians, Plthagorcans, instructed in the Messalian Heresy, have added to all this, the pronouncing of the Devils name twenty times, to exorcise & conjure him, as he that associates the ●●ale Infant when he comes to be baptised; and thirty times they utterst, it the baptising of a Daughter. Was there ever so detestable 〈◊〉 reption in the Sacrament of Circumcision?  
Wherefore, O you Messalians, have you foisted in Oils, into the holy Sacrament of Baptism; immating herein the Heresy of Marcus, and Marcusus, who commanded that Infants to be baptised, 
Epiphan. lib. 1. tom 3. ●●cres. 38.  should been a●●o●●ted? The sacred sign of Water, instituted by the hand of God, was it not sufficient to signify the precious blood of jesus Christ, for our regeneration and purification, without intruding of Fats, Oils, spittle, and other mixtures invented by the corrupters of Sacraments?  
The Body and Blood of jesus Christ, wherewith we are clothed anew by the sacred Water of Baptism, was it not powerful enough, and efficacious, to preserve us from all tempests, without borrowing of your Exorcisms and Unctions?  
And yet, for a further corruption and abuse, Women were permitted to baptise, conformable to the error of the Marcionists, Quintilians, Cataphrigians, Montanists, Pepuzians, 
Epiphan. lib. 1. tom. 3. haeres. 42. & lib. 2. tom. 1. haeres. 49.  Priscilians, and Artotirites. Were Women ever admitted by the Law of God to minister the holy Sacraments, or sacrifices instituted in the first Church of the Israelites? or in the New Testament of jesus Christ?  
In the History of Moses it is reported, 
Exod. 4.  that his wife Sephora excited with feminine fury, took the stone or knife wherewith she circumcised her son: But it is not written, that she, or any other like her, were ever permitted to administer the holy Sacraments.  
Out of these corruptions in the holy Sacrament of Baptism, many Heresies were raised by the Catabaptists, Anabaptists, Antipedobaptists, with other Heretics, & Schismatics, who were not satisfied with God's pure and sincere Institution, but regarded more exterior signs, then that which in them was spiritually represented.  
Whosoever desires to understand more particularly, the abuses and corruptions, invented and devised in diverse ages, out of the variable humours of men, let them read our Ecclesiastical Commentaries. We must now at this present descend to the corruptions in the other holy Sacrament of the Supper, and Communion of the Body and Blood of jesus Christ.   

CHAP. VIII. Of the Corruption of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper.  
We may evidently discern by this succinct discourse, how weak and mutable man is, ever abusing & aliemating the graces of God. For as the people of Israel, from the beginning of the Law and Institution to them recommended, corrupted the true use of sacrifices, sacred signs, and Sacraments ordained of God, so hath it fall'n out to the Law of God by jesus Christ, having consituted a form of communicating his Body and Blood, under the symbols and sacred signs of Bread and Wine: which holy Sacrament began to be alienated, 
Sacrament of the Supper corrupted. 1. Cor. 11.  even in the very times of the Apostles, by the Corinthians; against whom Saint Paul wrote Epistles, to reduce them to the sincere and true observation of this holy Sacrament.  
Wherefore, let no man hereafter think it strange, if the Apostles successors have from time to time adulterated the true Use and Rite of this holy Sacrament; and the further off they were in the present age of their living, from the time of the Apostles of jesus Christ, the more easily they fell into corruptions; yea, such as were most abominable; having converted the sincere Use of this Sacrament, into a Gulf and Precipice of all Idolatry.  
First of all, 
Hist. Eccl.  what an alteration happened in the Church, next and immediately succeeding the Apostles, touching a controversy of days, when this holy Sacrament was to be celebrated.  
Sabatius the Heretic instituted the celebration of the Passeover, 
Hist. tripart. lib. 9 ca 37. & lib. 11. cap. 5. Enseb. lib. 5. cap. 24.  with unleavened bread, after the manner of the jews.  
Some of his sect ordained, that this holy Sacrament should be solemnised the fourteenth day of Month, as the jews did. Polycrates, 
Hist. tripart. lib 9 cap. 38 & 39  Bishop of the Ephesians, was said to be of this sect; Philip Hiropolitan, Policarpus, Truscas, Melitus, & Narcissus Bishop of jerusalem; Victor Bishop of Rome, Eleutherius his predecessor, & Theophilus Bishop of Palestina were of a contrary opinion. This difference continued for more than three hundred years after the Apostles time.  
Others celebrated the Passeover after the Equinoctial season, when the sun entered into the sign of Aries: and others observed the Month Xanthicke, called by the Romans, April. Some affirmed for example the Quartodecumans, how they were informed by S. john, to celebrate it in the fourteenth day of the Month.  
The Romans vaunted that they were taught by S. Peter and S. Paul, whereof notwithstanding no manifest proof appeared. The Phrygian Montanists condemn the Quartodecumans, which observed the fourteenth day of the Month; and that they ought herein to be governed by the course of the sun, and so to begin it at the springs Equinoctial: And for this reason they celebrated it the eight of the Ideses of April, which was the fourteenth of the said Month, though it fell upon a Sunday.  
And there was not a contention only touching the administration of this holy Sacrament, 
Euseb. lib. 5. cap. 24.  on the several days assigned for celebrating thereof: but there was likewise a notable division among the Christians, about the Ceremonies invented, whereby worthily to receive the same. For some, as in particular, the Romans, observed the Fast, or Even, three weeks before the day itself of Easter. The Illyrians, and all Greece, as likewise the Alexandrians, instituted a Quadragesima, to fast for six weeks. Some others ordained a seven week's abstinence, with an Intermission from five to five days.  
Then was another jewish Ceremony restored, 
Hist. Tripar. cap. 38.  the more to corrupt the holy Sacrament of the Supper, through differece and distinction of meats. For some prohibited during the Feast, the eating either of Fish, or Flesh: Others forbade the use of Flesh only, permitting men to eat Fish, or Fowl; which they said, according to Moses, did participate of the substance of the Water. Some in like manner ordained, that men should only eat bread and water: Others fasted till noon, without any distinction of meats. And to resolve briefly: there was in the beginning, an infinite number of Corruptions and Customs, in the Communion of the holy Sacrament of the Supper, by means of the Ceremonies renewed, about difference of days and meated, abrogated by the Grace and Law of jesus Christ.  
But was there any holy Apostle of God, 
Col. 2. Galat. 4. Heb. 7.  that ever left in writing any Law or Commandment, for distinction of days and meats, in celebrating the holy Supper of jesus Christ? Their intention was not to institute a Religion of Feasts, a distinction of days and meats: Their Doctrine only aimed to instruct men how to live well; and that only God was to be adored and worshipped.  
Wherefore, we must necessarily hereupon infer, that the Ceremony and Festivity of the Pascha, or Easter, proceeded from a custom; for none of the Apostles left any thing thereof in writing.  
To qualify such Dissensions and Corruptions, many Counsels were assembled; 
Hist Tripar. lib. 9 cap. 38  one, at Sangaria in Bithynia; by which, to avoid all contentions, every man was permitted to celebrate the Passeover, when he would. Another Council was held in Caesarea, 
Euseb. lib. 5. cap. 23.  by Theophilus, Bishop in that place, and by Narcissus, Bishop of jerusalem. Another Council there was in Achaia. And another Council was convented at Rome, by Victor, Bishop of the same place.  
After these petty corruptions, there succeeded greater from time to time, according to the humours and affections of the Bishops of Rome. 
In the year of Christ, 114. Platina Sa●ells.  Alexander, 1. of that name, being raised to the superintendency of the Roman Church; one of the first successors to the Apostles of jesus Christ, and one of the first corruptors also of the holy Sacrament of the Supper; invented the mingling of water with Wine, before the Communion: wherein, he went about to reform the holy Gospel of jesus Christ, which instituted the Communion of his Body and Blood, under the two kinds of Bread and Wine; but Alexander added thereunto a third kind, which was water.  
He also renewed the jewish ceremony of unleavened bread, wherewith to celebrate the Passeover, as the jews did, following herein the opinion of the Ebionites, who taught, that the Ceremonial Law of Moses was necessary for falvation: as also, Symmachus the Heretic in Palestine, taught the like.  
If jesus Christ was circumcised to fulfil the Law of Moses, 
Euseb. lib. 3. cap. 27. & lib. 8. cap. 14  must it therefore be requisite to use Circumcision? As also, if it were His pleasure, for accomplishing the Law of Ceremonies, to use on days appointed unleavened Bread, must we needs therefore return to the rigour of this Ceremony, abrogated by the complete sacrifice of jesus Christ? In what place of Scripture did Alexander learn to mingle water with Wine? and to restrain Christians to unleavened Bread; as also his other invention, of driving away Devils with salt water exorcized?  
As for the Purgatory Water by him ordained, we will hereafter derive the original thereof from Numa Pompilius, that great Magician, and Roman Idolater. 
Celestina lib. 39 cap. 21.  But touching the mixture of wather with Wine, he might peradventure be instructed by the ancient Idolaters; who, 〈◊〉 celebrating their sacrifices, were wont, in a Chalice, to consecrate Water with Bread: especially upon the Festivals dedicated to the Sun, which the Persians worshipped, called by them, Mythros. And in the Feast of the Nephalies, they also used Water for sacrifice.  
With this comparison, 
justin in Apolo. 2.  justine Martyr relates the custom observed amongst Idolaters, & by Christians, in the consecration of Bread, Wine, and Water: by the one, which is to say by the Idolaters, in the name of their Idols; and by Christians, in the Name of their True God.  
And yet this first corruption in the administration of the holy Sacrament, by the mixture of water with Wine, persevered not without contradiction: 
Inno. lib. 4. cap. ●●de officio Dissal.  For the Greeks' were of a contrary opinion; and that it was not requisite to brew water with Wine, neither would they herein follow the Alexandrian corruptions.  
Amarcanus was of the same opinion as Alexander; affirming, that the mixture of water with Wine was necessary. Scotus the subtle Sophister, absolutely denied, that it was necessary to mingle the water with the Wine: because, saith he, it cannot then be changed, nor transubstantiated into Blond, except the same were first changed into Wine.  
Some others, more ingenious, laboured to interpret this Institution of Alexander, by alleging, that the wine was converted into blood: but as for the water, it was transubstantiated into the water that came out of Christ's side.  
This first corruption of Alexander's, gave occasion of many other succeeding abuses: For some other more profound Impostors devised to mingle with the wine, blood, that was taken from young Infants, wherewith to besmear the bread of the holy Supper of jesus Christ as the Cataphtigians, 
August lib. d. H●cret. ca 26 & 64.  who brought in a kind of transubstantiation of wine into blood, really and corporally.  
Some others added cheese thereunto, 
Epiphan. lib. 2. tom. 5. haevet. 49.  called Artotirites; which is to say, Cheese-bread-mongers. Certain also abusing this holy Sacrament, in stead of wine, put in water, under pretext of the greater abstinence. Others had an Institution of steeping bread in the wine, the which custom the Messalians also retained in their Missal sacrifices.  
For another detestable corruption of this Sacrament, some Popes of Rome forbade their Messalian sacrificers, not to administer to Christian people, whom they call Laymen, the Body of jesus Christ in both kinds, but only under the sacred sign of Bread, and not of Wine; which they reserved for their Messalian sacrificing Priests.  
Is not this corruption directly against the holy Gospel, and Institution of the Supper of jesus Christ, ordained and commanded, that all faithful men should eat his body, & drink of his blood? When he took the Cup, did he not use these proper words? Drink all this Wine, in memorial of my Blood shed? Used he any other words for the eating of his Body in the symbol of Bread, than he did of his Blood, under the sign of Wine? 
Matth. 26. Marc. 14. Luc. 22. 1. Cor. 11.  For if we compare the sacred sign, ordained by God in the Church of the Israelites, being a Figure of the Communion of the body of jesus Christ, which was the true Paschal Lamb, whose flesh was ordained to be eaten without exception of persons, so they were circumcised: was there ever any difference in the eating of the Paschall Lamb, and the celebration of the Passcover among the jews; between the Levites being of the race of sacrificing Priests, & others of the common people?  
To bring in another odious corruption, the Messalians instituted in their Missal-Idolatries, to sacrifice and offer the Body and Blood of jesus Christ, reiterating by this means the sacrifice fully consummated by jesus Christ, which cannot be reiterated, because it was, not according to the form of Aaron, but of Melchizedec, the Eternal Sacrifizer and Priest, 
1. Cor. 11.  without leaving any successor. As also when the Apostle admonished the Corinthians to celebrate sacredly the Supper of jesus Christ, were they commanded to sacrifice? No; but to eat, & communicate together of the Body, & to drink of the blood of jesus Christ.  
The beginning of the Supper, was not to kill or immolate, or to sacrifice any beast, or oblation to God; but only to eat and drink at his holy banquet, prepared for us by jesus Christ, the Eternal sacrifice, and sacrificer; who reserved only for himself this Eternal Priesthood; yet nevertheless, he left unto us a sacred Institution of a banquet, set before us in the Bread & Wine, which represent his Body and Blood.  
After these  corruptions, Satan; a diligent Babylonian Architect, employed all his power and means, to raise an inexpugnable Fort of Idolatry; to the end that he might wholly demolish and subvert the kingdom of jesus Christ, when he undertook to suborn the Mass, in stead of the holy Sacrament of the Supper, as we will briefly produce, and so clearly, that the most hard-hearted Pharaohs inveterated in their ancient Idolatries, shall by the truth of Histories acknowledge their errors, and abominable Heresies.   

CHAP. IX. The ancient Religion of the Roman Empire.  
BEfore my deciphering of this labyrinth of Error, 
The Roman Emperors and their Priests  wherein the Messalians did so lose themselves, I think it very requisite succinctly to lay open the ancient Religion of the Romans, during the reign of the Occidental Empire: and of the Emperor's usurping both the Temporal sceptre, & the dignity of high Priests, superintendents over the Roman Church and Religion.  
All of them, as well as myself, will confess, that the ancient Roman Religion was either wholly, or for the greatest part instituted by Numa Pompilius, the second King of the Romans, about seven hundred years before the Incarnation of jesus Christ. 
Titivill. lib. 1. deca. 1.  Then were your high Priests invested, which afterwards were reduced to a certain number, even to four: then the number was augmented to eight: and afterwards by Silla to fifteen.  
In the College of Priests, 
Ecuestell. lib. de Magist. Rom.  there was one Pontifex Maximus, who was chosen by the other inferior Priests, of their Order and dignity; even as the petty Priest purple-Cardinals make the election of their great Roman Pope, out of their place, order, and dignity.  
This Pompilian Relig on was so religiously observed by the Romans from father to son, as it was never possible to irradicate, or supplant it: but it continues even to this day, as every one shall manifestly discern by this succinct Narration.  
To confirm this point, no man can be ignorant, if ever he read the Roman Histories; but that, before the Incarnation of Christ, there was not so much as one King, conful, Dictator, or Roman Emperor, instructed in the Law of God, but all were Idolaters and Infidels, observing the Religion of that Magician, Numa Pompvius. For since the Incarnation of jesus Christ, for the space of three hundred years, or thereabouts, there was not likewise any Emperor, 
Euseb. in his books of the Eccl. H●st. Anno Dom 34 & 68 Anno Dom 34 & 68 Anno Dom 94.112 & 183 167.202.238.254.257.276.292.  or Roman Consul, that changed his Religion, to en brace the Law of jesus Christ: but, on the contrary, they strained all their might & power, to put in practice what cruclties soever against the Church of jesus Christ; which may be justified by the Ecclesiastical Histories: wherein are explained, about eleven several great persecutions, under the Roman Pontifes; which were, Claudius Tiber. Nero, Claud. Domitian. Nero, Flau. Domitian. Traian. Elia. Adrian. Antonine the Philosopher, Septimius Severus. jul. Maximin Mar: Quint. Traian. Decius, Licinus, Valerianus, Valerius Aurelianus, & Dioclesian. All which Emperors governed both the Empire, and the superintendents over the Roman Religion for three hundred years after the Incarnation of jesus Christ; and in their Coins, Sepulchers, Monuments, Titles, & Letters Patents, they retained the style of great Pontifes, & high Priests: as is most diligently collected in a book of the Antiquities of Rome, wherein are specified the Medails, Coins, and Monuments of the ancient Roman Emperors, 
Pontifex Ma ximus. In a book entitled, A discourse of the ancient Religion of the Romans, by William de Chove Bayly of Dolphsnois.  all which were enstiled Pontifes, under these Titles: jul. Caesar. Pont. Max. Tiber. Nero Pont. Max. Vesp. Caesar Pont. Max. Marc Aurel. Antonine Aug. Pont. Max. Heliogabalus high Priest. Aug. Adrianus Jmp. Pontif. Max. Tit. Caes. Pont. Max. Commod. Imp. Pontif. Max. Galerius Maximianus Pont. Max. Flavianus Constantinus, Aug. Pontif. Max. being therefore in this manner Emperors, and Roman Pontifes, they never would permit any other head above themselves, in the Church and religion of Rome, which in all ages was an enemy to jesus Christ. For when the Apostles preached Christ to be the high and Sovereign Priest, the Eternal and Great sacrificer, without successor, after the order of Melchizedee, the Roman Tyrants took occasion, or at least their Lieutenants, to condemn jesus Christ, for fear of impairing the authority of the Caesar's high Roman Pontifes.  
With what fury for the space of three hundred years, 
Catalogue of the Caesars, at the end of Nicephorus history. Anno Dom. 410.  were they excited against Christians, & the Religion of jesus Christ, to maintain their ancient Pompilian Religion? What answer was given to the Emperor Theodosius, by the Senate & Senators of Rome, when they were moved to change their Religion, and embrace that of jesus Christ? They shown how they had been in possession of their Pompilian Religion for more than a thousand years, and that the alteration of Religion, was the ruin of Commonwealths. For these reasons persisting in their old Roman Religion, they forbore to receive the Law of jesus Christ.   

CHAP. X. How the Bishops of Rome began their Corruptions.  
BY these Histories we may easily resolve, that during four hundred years and more, 
In the Canons collected by Clement Bishop of Rome, 21.22.62. & 95. Anno Dom. 93.  the Bishops of Rome, who termed themselves Christians, could never draw the Senate nor Senators of Rome, to entertain the holy Gospel. As also they could hardly convert the Roman Idolaters from their old and inveterate Idolatries. For the Bishops of Rome were too busy in restoring the jewish and heathen Ceremonies, about difference of meats, touching ordinances, not to fast on Sundays or Thursdays; to invent Table clothes, Veils, 
Alexander the first, Bishop of Rome, in the year of our Lord 110.  Vessels of gold and silver, on Hang, Tapestries, and other ornaments of the Altar, worn out with old age, and to be burned, and the ashes to be laid up in Fonts. Some also were mightily busied to renew the jewish Ceremonies of unleavened bread, having their minds greatly turmoiled to corrupt the true use of the holy Sacraments instituted by God, by the mingling of water with wine, and seasoning water with salt, 
Sixtus Bishop of Rome, in the year of our Lord 127. Sylvester Bishop of Rome. Higinus Bishop of Rome, in the year 140. Fabian Bishop of Rome, in the year 240.  to make it purgatory, and exorcized for the repelling of devils. Othersome in like manner took great pains to ordain Ephods of fine linuen, wherein to wrap the sacred Host: also to constitute Aubes, and other vestments for the Priests in their sacrifices, of white, and no died colours. Some had their brains troubled to devise Feasts of dedication, and Consecration with Exorcisms, to drive away devils with salt: and othersome to invent Oils and Unctions, wherewith to corrupt the holy Sacrament of Baptism.  
Then afterward during the time of these tyrant Emperors, & great Pontifes, the Bishops of Rome, desiring to perpetuate their names, they wore out their brains in building of Temples, not to the honour of God, but to the names of men, 
Pius Bishop of Rome, in the year 144. Zephc ●in: Bishop of Rome, in the year 200  and women, Saints by them cannonized, at their own pleasure.  
Others were occupted in ordaining and decreeing, that the consecrated Bread or Wine falling to the ground, should be licked up by the Priests, and the rest remaining to be burned in the fire: and the ashes to be reserved in a reliquary.  
Some look out for Chalices, that they should be of Glass, 
Calixtus Bishop of Rome, in the year, 280.  and not of Wood  
Others instituted solemn ceremonies for the four several seasons of the year, to bring Christians by this means under the servitude or distinction of days.  
Others were studiously employed in ordaining the oblation, 
Eutiches' Bishop of Rome, in the year 262; Red robes of Cardinals.  and consecration of Beanes: to solemnize Funerals with Purple habits, after the form of a Vestment called Trabea, which Idolaters used in their Triumphs celebrated to the honour of their Gods. The like purple Ornament is in use at this day amongst the Cardinals.  
Others were occupied in devising confirmation for little Infants, & to consecrate the Cream for Bishops only, also to honour extraordinarily the Bishop of Hostia, by whose hands the Bishop of Rome is to be consecrated, 
Sylvester Bishop of Rome, in the year 314.  with a kind of Mantle called Pallium: & to invent a number of other unnecessary Ceremonies, yea such as were opposite to the Evangelicall liberty, given unto us by jesus Christ.  
How was it possible therefore, for the first Bishops of Rome to draw the Princes and Roman Senators, to the Law of the Gospel, for three or four hundred years after the Incarnation of Christ, when they laboured so much to corrupt the use of the holy Sacraments, to restore the jewish ceremonies, & the Idolatries of the ancient Heathen Romans?  
They may here object one Philip, which some vaunt, was converted to holy Baptism, whose depraved manners gave occasion to the most authentic Historiographers, 
Cronic. of john Bapeista Ignatius.  to esteem him unworthy of the name of a Christian; Whereunto they add Constantine the Great, that assembled the Counsel of Nice, but his residence was in Greece, called the Empire of the East, & yet he would never embrace the character of Baptism, to be regenerate by the blood of Christ, till he was threescore & five years old, 
Hist. tripart. lib 3. cap. 12  when he was Baptised by an Arian Bishop of Nicomedia, named Eusebius: When the same Constantine was at the point of death. Wherefore Silvester Bishop of Rome need not vaunt of converting this Emperor to the Faith. For the same Silvester likewise would not be present in the assembly of the Counsel held at Nice, in the year of jesus Christ 327. Howsoever the matter stands, we must ever have recourse to the truth of Histories, wherein is recited the answer which the Senate, and Senators of Rome made to the Emperor Theodosius more than threescore years after the death of the said Constantine the great: to wit, that they would not receive the Law of jesus Christ, but rather observe their ancient Pompilian Law, to avoid the ruin of their Commonwealth through a change, & alteration of Religion: Wherefore it must needs be inferred, that the Law of GOD was not received nor approved at Rome, by the Senate and Senatots.  
Now we must come to the subsequent times. 
Paul. Aenul. lib. 1. In the year 412. In the year 434. Bloa. lib 2. Decad. 2.  After the decease of Theodosius, the Roman Western Empire began so much to decline, that in a short space, it was clean extirpated by the Vandals and Alands, who were the first that sacked Rome, in part burned it, and carried away the Emperor Theodosius own daughter, whom they married to Atolphus King of the Goths. Not long after succeeded the Huns, and then Attila King of the Goths, which usurped Jtalie. About this time the Occidental Roman Empire was stripped of all Germany, Dacia, Sarmatia, and all other tributary Provinces even to Danubius. Spain also, Aquitane, Gascoigne, Burgundy, and all the Gauls revolted from the Roman Tyranny.  
Then came the Astrogothes with their Kings, 
Procop lib. 3. Of the wars of the Vuamdales in the year 486. In they are 550.554.  Valamir, and Theodomir, Theodoric, with other Barbarians and Infidels, as I kewise the Visigothes, all usurpers successively in Jtalie.  
After this reigned Totilas, who entered, sacked and burnt Rome, and all Sicilia. At last the lombards came to reign, conducted by their King Alboim, who usurped over all Italy.  
These barbarous, Idolatrous, 
Paul. Aemil. lib. 1. in the year 568.  and Infidel Nations were as God's scourges, ordained to punish the Roman defections committed by them, who had received the knowledge of the holy Gospel: and yet ran astray from the true adoration and worship of God, violated and corrupted the holy Sacraments by their humane inventions and fictions: in like manner to punish the obstinacy, and infidelity of the Emperors and Senators of Rome, who first by their Officers, and Lieutenants Deputies, had caused jesus Christ, and his holy Apostles to be crucified: daily persecuted the Christians, and ever opposed the Law Evangelicall, to maintain their Pompilian Religion.  
We may therefore resolve, and conclude, that for the space of four hundred years, the Roman Church of Emperors and Senators were always opposites and enemics to the Law of jesus Christ.  
Afterwards when the Western Empire was extinguished for three hundred years or thereabouts, that Rome, & all Italy was ruled and governed by Kings, Princes and Dukes, that were Infidels, and Idolaters, which was by the Wandales, by the Goths, by the Huns, Ostrogothes, Visigothes, & Lombard, for the space of seven hundred years or thereabouts after the Incarnation of jesus Christ there was no Emperors, Kings nor Princes at Rome, that would embrace the Law of jesus Christ. The which I desired briefly to produce, to the end the Reader might not think it strange, though I here set down how the sacrifice of the Mass took original, from the ancient Ethnic Religion, Instituted by Numa, more than seven hundred years before the Incarnation of jesus Christ: and that since also the same sacrifice hath been continued by the Roman Idolaters, hardened & inveterated in their Pompilian Religion, which they would never abandon nor give over.   

CHAP. XI. The first greatness of Popes; proving Antichrists, and bringing in the sacrifice of the Mass.  
NOw, to the end nothing might be concealed out of the Roman histories, to obscure the clearness & sunshine of truth, during the Tyranny and usurpation of the above mentioned Nations, 
In the year, 572. Platin Blond. volaterad. Paul. Aemil. lib. 10. Blond lib. 10  there was erected in Italy a petty Exarcate at Ravenna, which stood for an hundred eighty three years, till it was suppressed by a Pope, who was invested in the same, and encroacht upon Sant Peter's Chair, by a Donation or Dismission wrought by Pepyn in the year 758. in requital of the Tyranny used by Zacharias, a Greek Roman Pope, who deprived the true heirs of the Crown of France, which were Chilperic, or Childeric, whom he shut up in a Monastery, to confer the Kingdom upon the said Pepyn, 
Blond. lib. 1. Decad. 2. Paul. Enul. lib. 2.  son to Charles Martell the Bastard. This Donation of Pepyns bestowed on the great Roman Pontife, was the first Original of the exaltation & eminency of the Roman Popes, who to this day remain the Exarcate of Ravenna, since about eight hundred years, with many Towns along the coast of the Adriatic, assigned over to them by Pepyn, against the express prohibitions of Constantine, then reigning Emperor of the East in Greece.  
While this petty Exarcate continued at Ravenna a time before Pepyns' Donation, 
The first apparent Antichrist. In the year 588.  the Bishop of the place seeing that there were no more Emperors at Rome, tyrannised & governed by barbarous and miscreant Nations, began to lift up his horns, so as he would be preferred before the Bishop of Rome, and style himself head of the Church, both he and his successor's Bishops of Ravenna, while the Exarcate lasted. This was the first petty Antichrist that assumed a Tyranny in the Church, 
Sabellic.  pursuing the terrestrial Tyranny of his Exarcate.  
After him rose another great Antichrist in Constantinople, 
In the veare 600. Blond lib. 1. Greg lib. 4. of epist. cham 29.  named John, Bishop of the place: who perceiving the Occidental Empire of Rome clean extinguished, & that of Constantinople risen to a great height, he grew also affected to the worldly Tyranny, & conformable thereunto erected one Spiritual in the Church of jesus Christ. By a Council held for the purpose, he denounced himself to be ecumenical Bishop, which signifies general, & head of all the Church. But presently after, the great Roman Pontifes took so good a course herein, that by treason the Emperor Mauricius was cruelly slain in Constantinople, 
In the year 604. Plarin. Sabellic.  himself, his wife, & family, by that wicked Phocas: who, for recompense of this abominable Murder committed, by the notice & intelligence of their Church of Rome, always contrary to jesus Christ, caused Boniface the third of that name, 
In the year 612,  to be declared head, & General of the Church of God, usurping the Authority of the great & eternal Sacrificing high Priest, the only Spouse, and head of his Church jesus Christ. Who could better resemble Antichrist then he that assumes a Tyranny in the Church of God, a polygamy in the Church, the Spouse of jesus Christ: ascribing to himself that power, 
Matth. 26.  which jesus Christ reserved for himself, to reside perpetually with his Church, by the power & virtue of the holy Ghost, for the conduct & government of the same.  
May not he rightly be termed Antichrist, that labours directly to oppose the holy Gospel of jesus Christ, 
Matth. 23. Luc. 11. Marc. 2,  who forbade his Apostles, when he sent them to Preach the Word, that they should not constitute a Monarchy in the Church, as the Princes, Kings, & Tyrants of the earth are wont to do? That none of them should presume to be called head, or greater than the rest; but that they should all be humbled as brethren: being assured that they had one only Head, & one heavenly Father, who would dwell and continue with them for ever, to conduct & inspire them in his holy will?  
Is not he truly an Antichrist, that will term himself to be jesus Christ's successor to the chief pontificacy, & to the sovereignty of Priesthood by him administered, which dignity he reserved only to himself, he remaining eternal & high Priest for ever; Who left no successor in his dignity, as Aaron and his successors did, to the dignity of the jews high Priesthood; but according to the order of Melchisedeck, King, & high Priest, without any successor in his dignity.  
Wherefore O you Roman Antichrists, why have you assumed the dignity of high Priests, as Heads and Sovereigns of the Church of God, and usurp the authority of jesus Christ, causing yourselves to be entitled, most happy, and most reverend Fathers, and Popes, having founded a College of petty purple Pontifes, to elect a great Pontife or high Priest: but to the end to renew the ancient Ethnic Roman Religion of Numa Pompilius, the first founder and erecter of your Pontifical dignities.  
About the same that this cruel murderer Phocas set up Antichrist in the Roman Church, 
The cause of Mahomet's original.  Mahomet rose up in the Church of Arabia, instructed by Sergius a Monk, about the year 620. For this Apostatical Heritick perceiving the whole Law of God to be corrupted by humane traditions, and the holy Gospel contemned: also the Sects, and diverse heresies, planted as well by the jewish pharisees, Esseans, Saducees, Masbuthians, Galileans, Hemerobaptists, and Samaritans: as also by Christians, the Symoniackes, Nicolaitans, Cerinthians, Menandrians, and Ebionites, the Valentinians, Cerdonians, Marcionists, Montanists, Cataphrigians, Tatians, Eucratites, Severians, Artemonists, 
Look the Ecclesiastical History.  Porphirians, Helchesaites, Novatians, Sabellians, Chiliasts, Paulianists, Manechees, Antomousiastes, Arrians, Eunomians, Macedonians, Eunomiotheophroniens, Eunomeoeutichians, Aetians, Donatists, Luciferians, Patripassians, or Theopachites, 
Heretics in the Church.  Photinians, Marcellians, Paulosomosetans, Apolinarists, jovianists, Pelagians, Platirians, Anthropomorphites, Nestorians, Sabbatians, Acephalians, Acarians, Olympians, Quaternians, Monothelites, and other Heretics, having corrupted the true use of the Sacraments ordained of God. And seeing also, that the Sect of the Messalians, especially prospered in their ceremonies, taken partly out of the jewish Law, and partly from the paynim Idolatries, he invented the high decrees of the Alcoran, wherein he employed many Chapters and Articles called Azoares, which are like Canons & Rules of the Mahometan Religion.  
This brief and compendious discourse of the Roman History, I thought requisite to recite, before I began to describe the original of the sacrifice of the Mass: that thereby I might induce the Reader to understand the truth of the matter: how the Roman Empire was governed till the declination of the same, which was about the year of Christ 410. & how the barbarous Idolaters usurped it since, for the space of 300. years: as also the Antichrists have been raised, which still enjoy it at this day, and have done for some five hundred years past.   

CHAP. XII. Of the Mass in particular, with her true Original.  
FOr beginning to this our brief Missal Treatise, 
Original of the Mass: with exposition of the word. Dan. 11.  we must first express this term of Mass, called by the ancient Ronanes Missa. Some have preferred this Missal Sacrifice, to take original from the Hebrews: alleging that place of Daniel, when he speaks of Maozin, as if by Maozin they would signify the Mass. But this word in sense, stands fare from the Missa or Mass: and there are some Hebrew words which come fare nearer to it, as Messa; which by interpretation is Conculcation: 
4. Kings 11.  of which word mention is made in the History of the Kings of Israel. There is also an other Hebrew word very conformable to the vulgar term of Messel, 
Messa.  which is Missal, & that is hell, or the grave. But I suppose the great Roman Pontifes would not derive the original of the Sacrifice of their Mass, from the Hebrews, because than they must acknowledge the Mass, or their Missell, 
Mesel. Hell.  to be a Conculcation or extortion, an hell, or a grave. And to speak but truth, the Author of the Roman Religion Numa Pompilius, never thought of the Hebrews, when he first instituted the Mass: neither can this word Missa, or Mess, take original from the Greeks'. Because there is no sacrifice of this name or title, though some have brought in a colourable reason from this Greek word Myzein, which is to say in French; to hide or keep in secret: as if the Messalian Sacrificers received from the ancient idolatrous Greeks', to mumble secretly the principal words of their Masses, that the Auditors might not hear them: but they used to murmur & whisper betwixt the teeth, the Canons, & some special words, which neither themselves, nor they that look on understand. Nevertheless, neither the Hebrew nor Greek words cannot properly be applied to the Missal Sacrifice. And therefore we must repair to the true etymology of the word Missa, 
Mass drawn from the ancient Latin Romans.  or Mess, drawn from the ancient Latin Romans, who used these words, Missus, Missa, Missilis, & Missio: even as in French we have Messager, Message, & Messives, for letters sent. Wherefore, when the ancient Romane-Idolaters meant to dismiss the Assistants at the sacrifices celebrated, they pronounced in the end these words. I licet Missa est: depart, 
Amongst the Greeks the Priest having discharged his function, spoke aloud in this manner. Laiois Aphesis, as if he discharged the people. Apui lib. 11. the Asin. anr.  'tis permitted, & so the Assembly was dismissed to go home. But in time, because this note signified a pleasing release of the people, to go home to their houses, being a cheerful, and acceptable sound, it was suppressed, and the Sacrifice honoured with this term of Missa. To confirm this point, two thousand years being now come and gone, these words are pronounced at this present day. Ite, Missa est, which signifies a leave given to the company or assembly, to departed: so as they themselves, which frequent these Temples, so soon as they hear this pleasing note, Jte, missa est, commonly: they skip & leap for joy, being assured that they are then licenced to go to dinner.  
The Arabians, 
In the book of the description of Africa, by john Leo Affricanus.  and Mahumetists, instructed for a long time by the Monk Sergius, as formerly we cited, hold this word of Messa in great esteem. By which word they have nominated three Towns or Cities called Messa, situated upon the Ocean shore, upon the Cape, where Mount Atlas takes his beginning.  
near to the same Towns, in the Suburbs, 
Messa of the Turks.  there is a Templemuch reverenced by the Turkish Idolaters, because they believe, that from Messa should come the righteous Pontife, promised and prophesied of by Mahomet: they also think, that about that quarter or shore of Messa, 
Messelmans. in the book of the great Turk's Court, by Friar Autonie Geffrie.  Ionas was cast up again, after his being swallowed up by the Whale. Furthermore, they so highly esteem this name of Messelmen, as we do the name and title of Christians. Intimating by this word Messelman, as much as saved.  
Moreover, the Mahumetists honoured their Priests with the name of Mess, calling them Messen, and their Temples Messites, or Meschites: Wherefore, 
In the book of the above said, Messen, Messi.  they that published the Anatomy of the Mass, the Centons, the Foundation, Augmentation, and embellishing thereof, could not but write with special reverence, in respect of the ancient Pompilian Religion and the Alcoran, Institutions of Mahumet.  
After we have thus decided the word of Mess, or of in the Roman tongue, to be derived from the ancient Roman Idolaters, & not from the Hebrews nor the Greeks': we must now descend to the vestments of these Missal an Sacrificers. But by the way, we must not omit the name of Pontife, 
Pont. li. 1. of Comment.  or Pontifex, taking also it's original from the Romans, as we denclared in our Commentaries. The style also of Pope proceeding from the ancient Idolaters, who used to enstile their God jupiter, calling him Pope jupiter, but especially the B●thinians and Scythians. Which word Papa, comes from the Greek word Papus: which is to say, great Father. As also the true title subscribed to any suits presented to the great Roman Pontife, is: Most blessed Father. The next purple Pontifes are termed, most reverend Fathers, and petty Bishops, reverend Fathers: 
A Curate. Curio, a Priest, or Curate, who in his Cure, that is, in his Parish had the care of sacred celebrati●̄.  all of them retaining this word Father, or Pope, Great Father, which was wont to be a common name to all Bishops: but afterwards the great Roman Pontifes reserved it only to themselves. Another title is also retained for the Demie Bishops termed Curates, who are suporintendants in every Parish, borrowing this nomination, from the ancient Roman Curates: which is to say, a rasing, or shaving, because the ancient Curious & Sacrificers were cut, 
Tit. Liv. lib. 1. Decad.  and shaved in their heads, after the Babylonian manner, or of the Herculean Pontifes, called for this reason Stephanophores, as wearing a Crown upon their heads. Nevertheless, by the reason that all the members of the Missal Sacrifice, derive from the Pompilian Religion, we should wrong the ancient Roman Idolaters, 
Tit. Liv. Fenest. Pompo. Lett.  to take from them the original of these name's Mass, Pontife, and Curate, as may be justified by the Roman Histories.  
As for the vestment of Missal Sacrificers, Numa ordained that it should be white, called by the Latin word Alba, an Aube: 
Aube. Alex. ab Alex. lib. 4. cap. 17.  which name of Aube continues to this day, for the vestment of him that sacrificeth and celebrates Mass. Moreover, 
Super tunicam ancam pectori regumen. 1. Decad. 1.  above his Aube, the Priest was appointed to wear a Tunickle painted, & above that the ornament of a pectoral of copper or brass, afterwards changed into gold or silver, which the Missalists term a Chasuble. They also used a veil to cover their heads, when they sacrificed called Amictus, first instituted by Aeneas. 
Virg. lib. Acneid. 3. Purpurce vel are comas ad apertus amictu, capite ante arras Phrigius velamus amictu. Titilman. in tract. de expo. Myster. Missx. & Gab. Eiel. in lib. de exposit. Missa   
These are the principal vestments, instituted by Numa more than 700. years before the Incarnation of jesus Christ. 'tis true, that since, there have been many jewish ornamen added, as the Stole, Ephod, Zone, or Conture, the Mitre or There, and some other decorations, the better to pownce, & set forth the great Bab● 〈◊〉 whore.  
But the M●●●lians desirous to alter the original of their Missal vestments, pretend that the Aube is a figure of jesus Christ's conversation in the flesh, or the purity of his body incarnate in the womb of the virgin. Others interpret the white colour, to signify chastity and continency. Some minding to mock, and make Plays sophistically of the Passion of jesus Christ, say, that by the Aube, the white Robe is represented, which was offered by Herod to Christ, when he was sent back again, like a fool to Pylat. Philo the jew, a more worthy Philosopher, in his Treatise of Dreams, subtly deviseth, that the Aube signifies the solidity of the most resplendent light of the Dyetie, which he calls Ens. The linen also whereof the Aube is made, they express for the subtlety of the Scriptures. As for the Amict invented by Aeneas, they adulterate it, for the Veil wherewith Christ was covered, when the jews mocking him in Caiphas' house, did smite him. Titilman one of the subtlest Missalians, deviseth, that in the Amict, Christ's Devinity, concealed in his humanity, was intimated. Some likewise confess that the Amict was subrogated in stead of the jewish Ephod, by the Zone, Maniple, and Stole, which are three Ligantents, they understand the three Cordes wherewith Christ was bound, and drawn before the High Priests: 
Apul lib. 11. le la no anri.  and after that, before the Roman Lieutenants in judea. Biel another pregnant Missalian, by the Zone, 
Procl. in lib. desacraft. & Gag Procl. Flat. Catnl. E●us aquae ●spersione ●eccata prae-  conceives the rods wherewith Christ was scourged: By the Stole, extended in form of a Cross, there was signified the Gibbet or Cross, which Christ bore upon his shoulders. The Maniple also which he wears on his left arm, to figure the band of love, wherewith Christ was bound. Another Mummery they have for the Zone, wherewith the Aube is trussed, and this signifies the band of God's charity. The Stole put over the Amict, at the Missalians neck, in form of a Cross, deciphers Christ's obedience, even to the death of the Cross. The Maniple worn on the left hand, signifies the reward of Christ's eternal felicity. Other sophistries there are upon the Amict, as that it represents faith: the Stole humility and obedience: the Maniple, the vigilancy and hearty devotion of the Missalian Priest. Tittilman hath another subtle devise for the Maniple worn on the Priests left hand; which as he says, doth express the battle and power of Christ, against all visible and invisible dominations, being as a buckler against all temptations: and the Buttons of the Maniple, portend final perseverance.  
He also further sophisticates, that by the left hand is understood the humane infirmity of Christ, which being tied with the Maniple, that Christ is tied and bound by his divinity, like a mad man. Brunus another Missalian Doctor, fantasticates, that by the Maniple is inferred the Missalian Priests special care to drive away bad affections: or else that it figures the Cord, 
Tit. Liv. lib. 1. Decad.  wherewith Christ was bound by the jews; and that the Stole is a figure of the Lords yoke, which the Mass-priest must wear garnished with the Arms of justice on the right and on the left hand. The other painted Ornament instituted formerly by the Magician Numa, they disguise by the name of a Planet, as an errant Vestment; otherwise called a Cap, or Chasuble, 
Tit. Liv. Fenest. Pompo. Lett.  which they say resembles the Purple Robe presented to Christ, in pilate's Hall, when they mocked & called him King of the jews.  
There is another sophistry, how this Vestment implies the Nature of Christ, 
Aube. Alex. ab Alex. lib. 4. cap. 17.  wherein the Deity was couched. Philo the jew imitating Plato, interprets this Vestment so adorned with colours, to be a Figure of the signs, & celestial Stars. Now these Masse-Priest being roabed, 
Super tunicem aneam pectu regumen. 1. Decad. 1.  with his Aube, Amict, Zone, Maniple, Stole, and his Chasuble, or Cap of diverse colours; he must stretch out his arms, to play two parts at an instant, represented by the Chasuble, whose quarter before, is less than that behind, figuring herein the Primative Church, from Abel till Christ, and by the after part more ample, and enriched with the sign of the Cross Christian people are signified. This Chasuble must be joined to the Amict, which was in the beginning in the head, to represent the conjunction of Christ with his Church. The A● be also must be correspondent to the Chasuble: to intimate how Christ applied himself to our infirmities. Besides, the above mentioned Vesiments, Philo the jew adds a Mitre, 
Phi'o in lib. de prosug.  to declare the Messalians royal Diadem, who must have their heads anointed with Cream, or sacred Oil, to signify the Priest's dignity: which Mytrall Ornament, is only preserved for eminent and higher Priests.   

CHAP. XIII. The Mass divided, with the true nature of Holy Water.  
NOw we must descend to the description of several parts of the Mass, 
Apul lib. 11. de la no anri.  whose head & original we will particularly set down according to the truth. First of all in those which are called high Masses, celebrated on Sundays, the Missalian Priests, retain somewhat of the Pompilian Religion, 
Procl. in lib. de sacraf●. & Gag procls. Plat. Catul. E●us aquae aspersione peccata praesertim perjuria, mendati aquae dilui credebant. Blond lib. de Rom. trium. O vid. lib. Fast 3. Fonts of two sorts. Dijs superis sacra faclurus corporis ablutione purgabaetur: cum ver● inferis lijamdum erat, sola aspersio sussicicbat. Blond. lib. 2. de Rom. trium. Macr lib. 3. Satu. chap. 3  as to exercise a lustral water, called holy Water, wherewith to besprinkle the assistants or beholders at the Sacrifice. The conjuration and exorcism instituted by Numa, was of Sea or salt water, because (said he) salt did participate of the fiery Nature, or of Fire, very proper to purify. For this reason, the Ancient Roman Idolaters, besprinkled this salt exorcised water, as a Mercurial expiatory & Purgatory water for popular offences, especially for perjury and lying.  
To preserve this consecrated, and exorcized salt Water, they had two sorts of Holy water Fonts: One was large not movable, but placed at the entry of their Temples, where they adored their Images, that so they might sprinkle those which entered into the same Temples. The other was a portable Font, to convey therein Lustral water into any part of their Temples or houses, that they might be watered with it, for their expiations, and purifications. They that were to celebrate Mass, if it were to the inferior gods, it was enough for the sacrificing Priest to sprinkle himself with that Lustral water. But if the Priest celebrated Mass, to the superior gods, he must bathe his whole body, and wash all his members therewith.  
Furthermore, he was prohibited, not to use this Lustral water for any other purpose, but for expiations, & purgations. Conformable to which Pompilian constitution, 
In Delij Apollinis templo praecipua erat aqua sacrificantium ujui accommoda, quam ad alios u●us hausisse magni criminis instar eras. Alex. ab Alox. lib. 4. cap. 17. Platino. Si crvis vitula aspersus populum ludaeorum mundabat, multo magis aqua sale conspersa populum sanctificat, & innsidias Diaboh avertit ea à quam, de consecrat. distmct. 1. The Law of God corrupted. Numb 19 4. King. 2. Exod 15. Numb. 19  Alexander the first of that name, next successor to the Apostles of jesus Christ, and one of the first corrupters of the holy Sacraments ordained by God, continued this Idolatry, of consecrating & exercising Lustral water with salt, to repel devils. Nevertheless, the better to mask Pompilian Magic, he framed this comparison: so it is, said Alexander, that the ashes of an inviolated red Cow for sacrifice, mingled with Fountain water, purified the people of the jews, and therefore by a more prevalent reason, water exorzed with salt, must needs purify Christians, and drive away devils.  
Was not this a violating, and corrupting of the holy Law of God, to content and please the Romans', tainted with the ancient religion of Numa Pompilius the Magician? If Alexander had not yielded to the use of salt, instituted by the ancient Idolaters for lustral water, he would rather have followed the jewish ceremony, and ordained Ashes to consecrate the water of expiation. For if he thought to disguise it by the Miracle of Elizeus, that purified the water with salt, Moses also did the like, with the wood which was brought him, when the people of Israel were distressed for sweet water to drink. But in these miracles no mention is made, that Elizeus or Moses instituted any lustral water to purify the people of the jews. And we cannot find, that there was ever any lustral water amongst the jewish ceremonies, but only with Ashes of the victim offered for sacrifice. And therefore Alexander & his followers must needs acknowledge, that the invention of salt water exorcized for the remission of sins, took original from Numa Pompilius more than 700. years before the Incarnation of Christ. This lustral water was so religiously observed by the Roman Idolaters, that more than 360. years after the Incarnation of Christ, it is related how Valentinian the Emperor entering in to the Temple of the Goddess Fortune, 
Hist. trip. lib. 6. cap. 3●. Valentivian the Emperor against holy water sprinkle.  a Priest who was Guardian of the same Temple, sprinkled some of this holy Lustral and salted water upon him, which he took out of a Font at the going into the Temple: wherewith the Emperor being angered, strooke the Priest with his Asperges in his hand, alleging how 'twas rather defiled then purified.  
By these true Histories the Missalians may boast, that the first part of their Missal sacrifice is very ancient indeed; and that their holy-water Fonts, and their lustral salt waters of expiation, proceed from the ancient doctrine of Numa Pompilius, but not from the Evangelicall doctrine of jesus Christ, which they term a new Doctrine, 
Say't holy water very ancient.  and the New Testament differing from the ancient jewish ceremonies, and heathen idolatries. And though I cannot sufficiently wonder, wherefore Alexander presumed to renew the Pompilian Idolatry, considering he had means to restore the water ceremonial after the manner of the jews; and in this doing, to follow rather the law of God, then that of Numa Pompilius: 
Against the salt lustral water of Alexander Pope of Rome. Ca Omnes de consecrat. distinct. 4. & cap. Altaria & cap. Vestimenta dist. 2.  for he had easy means to get Ashes wherewith to compound a lustral water after the jewish form: nay, precious and sacred Ashes: which is to say, Ashes reserved in Reliquaries, coming from veils, napkins, and consecrated vessels, which Pope Clement, Alexander's predecessor, forbade to be applied to any profane use, but when they were consumed with time to burn them in the fire, & the ashes to be preserved in the Baptisterie. Yet were these sacred ashes, to incite Alexander to restore cinderal & lustral water after the manner of the jews, if he had not been so addicted to salt, & found a better relish to maintain the ancient idolatrous Roman Religion. Alexander's successors, might have gotten other ashes, that is, from the round azimall consecrated Hosts, which the high Pontife Higinus appointed to be burnt, if falling to the ground, 
Cap. Altaris de consecra. distinct. 1.  they could not be licked up by the Masse-Priest, and the ashes of the said Hosts to be laid up in a reliquary. He might also have had other ashes of Rats or Mice, or other creatures, when they devoured the said Hosts, ordained to be burned, & reserved in a Reliquary. 
In lib. Cantel. Miss.  Wherefore seeing Alexander would not follow the ceremonial Law of God, to institute a salt holy & exorcise water, at least why did he not implore the salt with the host of the Mass Priest, which they say they offer to God as a saving sacrifice? In doing so, 
Levit. 2.5.6  he had imitated the Mosaical ceremony, wherein they were commanded to offer salt in all sacrifices, and to sprinkle therewith the sacrifices that were emmolated for safety. But if Alexander & other his successors had followed the law of God, they could have added nothing of their own brain, they could have no memorial nor renown of their own Institution. And therefore in this respect they would in nothing follow the law of God, but contrariwise, they prohibited the use of salt with their round consecrated Hosts, 
The reason why new Idolatries were invented.  to celebrate their missal sacrifices. They also forbidden the mingling of ashes in their lustral waters, that in all their Institutions, they may not be thought to have taken any thing from God's prescription, neither from the law of Moses, as also much less, from the Law Evangelicall of jesus Christ: they thought to attribute these inventions merely to themselves, though they had their original from the ancient heathen Roman Idolaters 700. years before the Incarnation of Christ.  
To resolve this first Missal part, it were much more expedient; O you Missalians, in stead of your sacrifices and exorcisms of salt water, 
True holy water for Christians.  wherewith you sprinkle the people, to preach purely, & sincerely the holy Gospel, & to teach Christian people, that the true purification & washing away of sins, depends on the blood of jesus Christ, which is powerful enough to repel devils, to deliver us from hell, 
Heb. 9  to preserve us from eternal death, & to wipe out in us every spot & blemish of sin: without using exorcisms, or conjurations with salt, to drive away devils conformable to Pompilian Magic, & the heresy of the Samaritans, 
Epiph lib. 1. tom. 1. see. 9 & 17. Cont. haer.  who thought themselves purified by those, and washing with the same every day.   

CHAP. XIV. The Procession of the Mass.  
AFter the Asperges is sung, 
2. Parts of the Mass, Procession.  the lustral exorcized water sprinkled upon the Altars, the Images, & all the assistants at a Mass, then follows Procession, 
Platina Tit Liv. li● his Decades Supplicationes, quis nos processiones vocamus, fiebaut circa delubra fanaque & pulvinaria, in quibus honos dijs dabatur, pracedentitus pueris ingenuis ac Sacerdotibus coranatis, ac lauream tenentibus manum, voce modulaeta cancntibus carmen, subsequent maximo Pontisice vel curione: deinde sequentibus patritijs ac senatoribus cum consugibus & libcris plerunque coronatis. Apul. lib. 17. de Aso. aur. Blond. lib. 2. de Roni. trium. Alex. ab Alex lib. 5. cap. 27. In the book of the discourse of the ancient Romans' Religion. Lamprid. Apul. lib. 11. de Asin. aur. Alex. ab Alex. lib. 50. cap. 27. Herod in his Histories. jerom. in his Epist. ad judaos in Babylonem abducendos. Ne verticem deraditore, nove barbam vollitote. Levit. 19 Nec in gyrum ac rotundum attondebitis comam vestram, nec radctis barbam. Ezech. 44.  which is attributed to Agapet the Roman Pope: But this was Instituted above a thousand years before him; for the ancient Roman Idolaters called it Supplication. A form Instituted by Numa to go on Procession, either to appease the wrath of the gods, to obtain peace, or to pray unto God for the fruits of the earth; the order was in this manner: First before the Procession walked certain young children, than the sacrificing Priests clad in white Surplesses, singing Hymns, Paeans, & Canticles to the honour of their gods. Then marched the high Priest, or Curio: Then marched the Roman Senators, with their wives and children: and sometimes the common people assisted. There was commonly carried about in Procession, the Shrine or reliquary of god Jupiter, or of Anubis, by some Priests clad in white Surplese, with shaved heads, and thereon wearing crowns. This Crown was of such reverence & esteem, that the Emperor himself Commodus Antonius' high Pontifex, caused his head to be shaved and cut round, expressly to carry the Cabinet of god Anubis. Before the Cabinet or reliquary, went a Cierger, carrying a light taper in his hand. When the Procession went along through the streets, there were seats erected, to serve for stations or places, where the Priests, which carried the relics were appointed to rest and take breath. When the Procession was ended, the Temples were opened, the Altars and Images perfumed with Incense, and the Reliquys of their gods showed. On those days, when the Procession went abroad, a Feast was celebrated, the shops were closed up, the Hall of justice shut in, and the prisonners unshackled: who can better decipher the order of Processions observed even at this day, by the Missalians Instructed from father to son in the Pompilian Religion. What other Author can be alleged touching the Ceremonies performed in Procession, except Numa Pompilius himself? If the Missalians sought not out further, for their crowned shaved crowns, and white Surplesses which the ancient Egyptian Idolaters were wont to use: the Priests of the Goddess Isis, or the Babylonian sacrificers, wearing their heads & beards shaved. As for the Law of God, the contrary therein was observed, and the sacrificing Priests were forbidden, to cut their heads or hair round, & to shave their heads. And as for the Law of the Gospel, there is no such like ceremony commanded by jesus Christ, nor by his Apostles: they must therefore needs proceed from the ancient Pompilian Religion. For other things in the Procession, they have added the carrying of the Cross or Banner: this Banner was termed by the ancient Roman Idolaters Labarum: which was reputed a sacred ensign, so much revered by the Dictator's & Emperor's, as also by the soldiers that went to the wars. Antenor first pictured in that Banner a Sow, by reason of the name Troja, which in the vulgar Italian tongue signifies a Sow: which ensign Antenor vowed and dedicated in the Temple of Juno, 
Exlibris Messalae ad Octavianum Augustum: Apul lib. 2. de Asin. aur.  Queen of the heavens: because the Sow, was the consecrated Victim to the same Goddess. The old Romans afterwards caused a Mercuries Caduce to be drawn upon the Banner whereon was painted the picture of two Serpents coupled together: then was an Eagle portrayed for the Ensign of the Roman Empire: but Constantine the Great, Emperor in Greece, made to be drawn therein a figure of greek letters, a Χ interlaced with an ρ, 
In the said book of the Religion of the ancient Romans'.  and on the two sides α and ω in this sign, signifying thereby this word Christos, or Christ. This Banner was spread upon a pole or staff of wood, made in form of a Cross, the Banner being four square, in the fashion of an Ensign crimosine violet silk, edged about with fringe of gold or silver, & precious stones. In imitation of this, the Missalian Priests have adorned their Pompilian Processions, in which they carry Banners, as if they meant to go to the wars, or conduct a martial Army: but in stead of portraying therein the name of jesus Christ, they paint the effigies & Images of diverse gods and goddesses, saints, men and women, the Patrons of each parish. This in sum is the original of the Missal Procession, standing for the second part of the Mass. Was there ever such palpable Idolatry used by the Israelites, when they would celebrate the Feast of unleavened bread, to eat the Paschall Lamb, which, had analogy with the holy Sacrament of the Supper, which the Missalians have adulterated by their Missal sacrifices? did they ever carry about in Procession the flesh, or the blood of the immaculate Lamb? Did they ever lay it up in a reliquary to be carried in Procession about the streets? The Serpent of Brass, though they much profaned and abused it, yet did they at any time carry any part of it in a reliquary upon the shoulders of their Priests, wearing their heads and beards shaved, as the Greek Pontife Vrban ordained, 
An. Christ. 164.  that the round consecrated Host should be carried in Procession by the Missalians, and instituted a solemn Feast every year on holy Thursday, that so he might convert the use of the holy Sacrament, to a more detestable Idolatry than all his predecessors?   

CHAP. XV. The third part of the Mass, that is, the Altar and Candles lighted.  
AFter the sprinkling of holy-water, and Procession performed, 
The third part of the Mass. Altar, and Tapers Omil. lib. 4. de Fast. Apul. lib. 11. de Asin. aur. Plut. in Numa.  Numa instituted that the Mass Priest, to celebrate Sacrifice, being clad with his Aube, & Chasible, or painted coat, his head crowned, & beard shaved, that he should approach to the Altar, prepared for sacrifice, set forth with a lamp or light Taper, which ordinarily was of Tede or Pine. For without an Altar & fire, no Sacrifice could be celebrated. He also ordained that the Mass Priest should turn himself near to the Altar, towards the East. Porphirius the Heretic did not only continue this Pompilean Magic, but further he constituted, that the entry into the Temple, and the Images should be turned towards the East, to the end that those which went into the Temples, prostituting themselves before the Images, might adore & make their prayers towards the cast: even as the Persians did, who worshipped the Sun in the East. Are not these Missalian & Pompilian Institutions contrary to the ancient ceremonial Law of the jews, wherein they were prohibited to pray towards the East, that so they might be different from the ancient Idolaters? 
Alex. ab Alex. li. 4. cap. 17.  And therefore acknowledge, O you Missalians, that your erection of Altars towards the East, your Lamps and light Tapers, the Pictures and Images worshipped in your Sacrifices, to have had their original from one to another. For those Images and Pictures wherewith your Altars are enriched and adorned, cannot be derived from the law of God: which doth not only prohibit the permission of any Images in Temples, 
Exod. 20. Levit. 26. Deut. 5. Esay 40. Abominable Idolatry.  but the very hewing of them out, and that they should not be renewed. To what can God be resembled? what Image, picture, or portraiture can be devised to his similitude? And yet nevertheless, out of most detestable and abominable heresy, you (O Missalians) draw the Image and form of the Trinity, of one God in 3. persons, in your round hostel, which you cause to be adored.  
Nevertheless, two Missalian Doctors, Titleman & Biel, express the Altar otherwise, when the Mass Priest approacheth with the golden chalice in his hand, they alleging, how this doth figure Christ, bearing his Cross to Mount Calvary. And then the Priests kissing of the Altar, to signify the Nuptials and Nuptial sign of Christ, with his Church. The right side of the Altar to figure the people of the jews, 
Durand. li. 4 rub. de mn●at.  & the left the Gentiles. For this reason, Durand a subtle Missalian, writes, that the Missal Mummery must begin at the right side of the Altar, & conclude in the same: nevertheless, all the principal Monkeries are celebrated on the left side of the Altar. As for the fire and light Taper, they apply them to Christ, as being the fire which purifies the rust of our sins: Or otherwise, the fire of charity environing all Christian people: and the light Taper portends the light of faith, & the joyful coming of Christ's Incarnation. And not these abominable sophistications, which Numa the Magician never dreamt upon, when he instituted the Altar, the fire, and light Taper, wherewith to sacrifice.  
To continue the order of the Missal Sacrifice, 
4. part of the Mass.  when the Mass Priest hath made his approach to the Altar, the Taper lighted, & he adorned with his Aube, & Chasible, turning his face towards the East, & contemplating the guilded, & beautified Images, he must say his Confiteor, & confess himself, 
Confiteor. Rem divinam facturus, ad suam levandam culpam, semi primis reum dicere debebat, & noxae poenitere ac fateri admissum, Vutumque submittere. Alex ab Alex. li. 4. cap. 37. Blond. li. 1. de Rom. Trinmph.  acknowledging his own proper offences, & craving pardon of the Gods & Goddesses; men and women Saints, requesting just & reasonable things, as Pythagoras said in his golden Charms, & Orpheus in his Hymns. It seems that Numa the Magician thought the Mass Priests conscience cleared by Confession, & without the Confiteor, that the Sacrifice could not be worthily celebrated: wherefore Damasus & Pontiam Roman Pontifes, cannot justly take unto themselves the glory, of being the first Institutors of the Confiteor, for the Mass Priest. For above a thousand years before their time, it was forged by the ancient Roman Idolaters: being also upheld to this present day: for when Priests celebrate their Missal Sacrifice, they pronounce or murmur a Confiteor in a language not understood by themselves, nor the standers by, addressing their prayers & supplications to the Gods and Goddesses, men or women Saints: in stead of reverencing, honouring, adoring, and praying to the only true & omnipotent God, Creator of all good things.  
Nevertheless Tirelmen Alcoran applies the Mass Priests Confiteor to the confession of Christ for the sins of the people. 
Chap. 9   
After the Confiteor muttered; 
First part of the Mass. Turn & wheelings about. Hae sunt vertegines in sacris, à Numae institutae, dextram ad osculam far, & see in orbem circum agere. Blond. si. 1. de Rom. Trinmph. Macro in Saturnali.  for better observance of the Pompilian Religion and Ceremonies, the Mass Priest must wheel and rewheele about, turn and return a long the side of the Altar, first lifting up, then abasing his hands, with prayers and meditations towards the East. For Numa the Magician held opinion, that there was great sanctity, in these wheelings, wreathe, and turning about of the Sacrificer: As may be conjectured, it was an occasion of adding this pleasant song to the Missal Introduction, when the Priest gins to make his wheelings and turnings, I will go up saith he, to the Altar of God, which rejoiceth my youth. Hath he not just cause to rejoice, when he sees the cloth laid, the table set, the banquet prepared, the Music of Organs & other Instruments to sound, Odours & Incenses, the Chalice full of wine, the Collation prepared, and chink offertories ready to fill his purse? Are not all these means to exhilerate the Sacrificers youth, 
Introduction to the Mass.  when he goes up to the Altar to say Mass, to dance and turn about, in form to him prescribed by the Magician Numa Pompilius? And not only the Romans but other Idolaters, also in celebrating their Sacrifices, were wont to turn and wheel about, lifting up the hand to their mouth, and then turning the whole body round about, 
Plin, lib. 28.  which windings & wreathe were reputed sacred.  
Titilman in his Alcoran makes mention, that the Mass Priest in making his vagaries along the Altar, dischargeth 7. reverences or salutations to the assistants in his Sacrifice: that he may repel the 7. mortal sins, by the sevenfold grace of the holy Ghost. But in performing the 7. reverences in his Missal dance, he must turn about to the standers by, except before the Preface, and the kiss Pixe, he being then employed in the fraction of his round host, to convert it transubstantiate into an accident without substance.  
When these wheelings, 
The sixth part of the Mass. The second of the Organs. Antems. Collects. Gradualls. Tracts. Sequences. Hymnorum plures species crant, Hypingos, Dianam, Apollini, poean, sit Prosaedia. Dionisio Dithirambus. Caeteri, julus, Veneri, Crotyctus, praeter quos fucre, projadurs, Hypacthema, & Stasimon. Alex. ab Alex. lib. 4. cap. 17. Divers Masses. Dry Masses.  windings, wreathe, & gesticulations, are performed by the Missalian Priest, Numa constituted the sound of Organs, Flutes, & Viols, to sing Hymns, Paeans, and Canticles, to the honour of the Gods, in whose name the Missal Sacrifices was celebrated. This part of the Mass hath been enriched with diverse Antems and Songs, by many Roman Pontifes. Some, as Flaman, and Diodorus, instituted Antems, Prelesporus Collects. Leo, or Gelasius Graduals. Gregory, or Gelasius Tracts. Gottigerus Abbot of Sandal Sequences: which are sundry Musical Notes, to serve for decoration and ornament to the sacrifice of the Mass. But if the ancient Commentaries of the Roman Pontifes, instituted by Numa were revealed, we might find great wariety of Songs, Paeans, Hymns, Canticles, and Odes, dedicated and consecrated to sundry Gods and Goddesses, even as much diversity of Musical songs have been annexed, by reason of different Missal Sacrifices ordained for diverse Gods and Goddesses, men & women Saints. For as the old Idolaters celebrated their Sacrifices to sundry Gods and Goddesses, the Missalians also persever to celebrate their Masses to diverse men & women Saints: some in the name of our Lady, others of St. Sebastian: some of the holy Ghost, and others of Requiem, putting a distinction even between dry, and common Masses, wherein the sop is steeped in wine: so as an infinite company of Missal Sacrifices have sprowted out to diverse Saints of both Sexes, wherein are sung sundry Canticles and Sequences. Were not these horrible and abominable corruptions of the holy Sacrament of Christ's Supper, to make an Idolatry of it, after the manner of the ancient Sacrifices instituted by Numa the Magician? Wherefore Vitellianus the Pontife cannot glory for having enriched the Sacrifice of the Mass, with the sound of the Organs. For above 1200. years before his days, this Institution was published by the Magician Numa.   

CHAP. XVI. Of Jncense and Offertories, with other parts of the Mass.  
But to varnish this Babylonian Sacrifice, the Alcoranist Missalians interpret the variety of their musical Songs by Pythagorical Philosophy. As for the Collects, that is to say, p eced or annexed Prayers; they command them to be sung in uneven numbers; that is, three, five, or seven: three, to intimate the Trinity; five, to represent the five wounds of Christ; and seven, to symbolise the seven words of Christ which he uttered upon the Cross; or else the seven gifts of the Holy-Ghost. Furthermore, for the more subtle Pythagorical Philosophy, the Masse-Priest must not pass the number of seven, by the ordinance of Pope Jnnocent the third of that name.  
The Sophister Biel in his Alcoran of the interpretation of the Mass, adds, That the number of the Collects are equal to that of the secrets; which is to say, to prayers secretly mumbled by the Mass-priest, that they might not be contemned of the people. After the Collects, the Gradual song more sharp and grave, is a figure of the confession of Publicans, when they heard the preaching of Saint john Baptist: notwithstanding, this Gradual note is not sung in the missal sacrifices from Easter till the Feast of Pentecost, to decipher the happy estate of the time to come.  
Besides the sound of the Organs, 
Seventh part of the Mass. Perfume of incense. Blond. lib. 1. de Rom. trium. Alex. ab Alex. lib 4. cap. 17. Iliacis temporibus vete resnon Thure sed Cedri, & Citri fumo, deos adolebant. Alex. ab Alex. lib. 4 ca 17. Platina. Tit. Liv. 3. Decad. 3. Tit. Liv. lib. 9 Decad. 3.  and musical songs, the ancient Roman Idolaters were wont to use in their sacrifices, the perfume of Incense which they preserved in a little vessel called Acerra. In this little Thurall Coffer lay the Odours which the Priest took to incense the Altars, Images, Host or Victim, especially in Masses celebrated to god janus, and to the goddess Vesta, who rejoiced in the Wine and Incense offered to them. For in the Trojans time, in stead of incense they used Cedar or Pomecytron wood for perfume. Wherefore it was not Leo the Roman Pontifex that first instituted the use of incense, and to smoke incense at the Missal Sacrifice: for more than seven hundred years before the Incarnation of jesus Christ, the ancient Roman Idolaters practised mcense in their sacrifices. As also the Romans retained the Latin word which signifies Incense, Thus, from the old Greek word θνω, that is to say, I sacrifice: because the Idolatets in all their sacrifices used incense, as likewise they had a portable Incenser, wherewith to incense: Although some have written, that the ancient Roman Idolaters celebrated sacrifices to the goddess Ceres, and used the gum of the Pinetree called Tede, instead of incense: 
Ovid. lib. 3. jast.  for which cause Ceres was termed by the Poets Tedifera.  
In Titelmans' Alcoran, the incense is interpreted for the prayer of the Mass-priest, that it may mount up into heaven with the odour of swavity: even as the fume of incense steames up on high. He sophisticates also with Biel his companion, averring that the Jncense signified the grace of the holy Spirit. These subtle Alcoranists allege the passage of Tobia, who drove away the Devil by the perfume of a  Liver. The same Biel makes another interpretation of the incense, as that it figures the unction of Christ by Mary Magdalen, because Christ was anointed twice, the incense is also twice offered in the Missal Sacrifice.  
For another part of the Missal Sacrifice celebrated by the ancient Idolaters, the Offertory of the first-fruits comes in, 
The eight part of the Mass. Plin. lib. 11. cap. 3.  which were offered to the honour of the gods, in whose name the sacrifice was solemnised. This offering belonged to the Mass-priest, and he might freely carry it home unto his house, for the nourishment of himself, and his family. Notwithstanding there were other offerings distributed to such as were indigent. Afterwards through the Missalians avarice, this use was converted into an offertory, or offering of gold or silver to line the purse, which some attribute to Leo the Roman Pontifex; though this offertory had been practised more than a thousand years before his time. 
Blond. lib. 2. de Rom. Triumph.  And for a justification hereof by the Roman Stories, when Numa had instituted all the Ministers of his Religion, as Pontifes, Augurs, Saliens, Fecials, Curioes' and others, he also constituted means to nourish and maintain them. 
Sacerdo tiorun sive benesiciorum duo crans genera: unum, quorum eoliatio ad remp. aut principen, aut ad pontisicum eollegium spectavat, alterum, querum collatio ad aliquam familiam, ejusque successores pertinebat: quae beneficia juris patrcuaius censebantur. Blond. li. 2. deRom. triumph. Dispensation to hold many benefices. Tit. Liv. li. 30.  He caused a fundamental allowance to be raised out of the public revenues for the maintenance and entertainment of religious vestals.  
After his example, many particular men did the like, so as their benefices grew rich by these foundations or annuities: & these benefices were of two kinds; one at the presentation and inauguration of a Prince, of the Commonwealth, or of the College of Pontifes: the other were, at the presentation of some particulars, patrons of the same benefices by them founded, and endued with great richesses. Over which benefices the high Roman Pontifes had usurped a power to give dispensation for the holding of two together, as in Titus Livius it is related of Fabius Maximus, who by a dispensation held two benefices when he was created Pontifex, more than two hundred years before the incarnation of jesus Christ. This was therefore the first revenue of Missalian sacrificers, to have benefices richly founded. 
Foundation of Benefices. Offertories' First fruits and vacancies. Tertia, Sacerdetiorum opulentia, à solutionibus provenichat, quas inseriores superioribus Pontificibus impendebant, quale apud nos est, cum Pontifici Romano fructus premos, antistites & his minores Sacerdotes ad obtinenda beneficia pecuniam dissolvunt. Blond lib. 2. de Rom. Triumph. Viventes ut deos haberent propitios, multa Sacerdotibus largiebantur soelicitati animarum consulturi. Blond lib 2. de Rom. triumph. Cic. in oratione pro dono sua Pontisices Blond. l. 3. de Rom. trium. Chap. 35.  Their second revenue or emolument, grew by offertories, offerings or oblations. The third revenue consisted of annual means and contributions, as the first years fruits, which the idolatrous Roman Pontifes were wont to take, for the vacancy of benefices in their gift, or that they sold, and dispensed with. The fourth revenue grew from obsequies, anniverssaries, legacies, and donatives conferred, to pray to their gods for the souls of the deceased. All which is verified likewise at this day, by the monuments and sepulchers of the ancient idolaters. The fift revenue came in by amercements, condemnations, and confiscations, which were adjudged by the Roman Pontifes: As Cicero's house & palace when he was banished, were confiscated to the College pontifical: and specially allotted for sacrifices to be celebrated in the Temple consecrated to the goddess Liberty. I was desirous by the way, briefly to recite the revenues and supportations of the ancient Roman sacrificers, to the end that men might more and more discern that all abuses and idolatries succeeding in the Church of jesus Christ, are not new; but originally derived or revived from the ancient Roman idolaters, as the foundation of Masses, Obits, Anniverssaries, Dispensations for holding sundry benefices, pensions, vacancies, first-fruits, offerings, and the Missalian treasure, all amercements, and confiscations adjudged within the demeans of the Roman Pontife, with other ordinances revived by new Roman Popes, which have descended from one to another. To this purpose we read in the Roman Stories, that during the reign of the Emperor Valentinian the second of this name, there happened a dangerous sedition at Rome, between the Christian & idolatrous Priests, which strove who should amass or heap up together most wealth in the Church by grants, testamentary legacies, oblations and other inventions: so as the Heathen and Infidel idolaters, who retained yet a Temple to themselves, called at this day the Church of Saint Peter ad Vincula, fought with the Christians at Rome, who would have dedicated it to their devotion.  
After the Offertory, Titelmans Alcoran sets down how the Mass Priest should be silent for a time, to figure the flight of Christ, or his disciples fear to confess him before the jews. Then this being performed, the Priest sings aloud, per omnia secula seculorum: because after Christ had hidden himself, he publicly came forth in Lazarus house: Then he sings Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus; to allude to the jews song, when Christ entered unto jerusalem. When this Music ends, the Priest must murmur in secret, and between his teeth, counterfeiting sorrow, without any turne-abouts, but then he must express a kind of mure mummery, by the making of many reiterated croysadoes, as shall hereafter be mentioned.   

CHAP. XVII. Of the round Host, with the Consecration of the same.  
NExt to the Offertory, 
Ninth part of the Mass. Round host of flower. Plut. in Numa.  we must come to the ninth part of the Mass, the most rich and most pleasing for the Missalians. This is the Host or victim, which comprehends the end of all this Missal Sacrifice. In the days of Numa the Magician, the Romans were not yet accustomed to kill, and immolate with the blood of beasts: 
Pollux in onom lib 6. Mysterijs peractis, qui sacris intererant rotundis panibus quos in honorem De●rum adnibebant stantes vesceb. intur, nec nisi facri ficio perfectovesci licebat. Alex ab Alex. li. 4. cap. 17.  but men were appointed to eat and communicate within the Temple, after the end of the Missal Sacrifice, small round loaves consecrated to the honour of the gods, in whose name the sacrifice was celebrated. These little round hosts of fine meal, were earen by the Priest, and by the assistants, standing upright, and not sitting. The flower whereof they were made, was called Mola, and from thence came this word immolare. There were diverse hosts, that is to say; little round loaves dedicated to diverse gods, as there were likewise sundry Missal Sacrifices. With the said round hosts they also offered Wine: the Altars serving for Tables. While the Priests and the assistants in the sacrifice, eat & communicated together of the said little round loaves consecrated to the honour of their gods, hymns and thanksgivings were sung, and some used the sound of the Organs and Cymbals.  
Before the swallowing of this round host, printed with imagery, the Missalian Doctors ordained the Priest, to utter certain exorcisms, and conjurations, with many signs of the cross. First, he must make three crosses upon this round host, to figure the trinall tradition of Christ; that is to say, by the Father, by himself Christ, and by the holy Ghost, in pronouncing these words; Haec dona, haec munera, haec sancta sacrificia illibata. Some other Doctor's Alcoranists and Missalians interpret the third crossing for judas treason, who delivered his Master into the hands of the jews. Besides the above mentioned three Croisadoes, five other follow: to intimate the five days space from the day of Palms, to the day of the Passion, or otherwise to represent the five wounds of Christ; two in the hands, two in the feet, and one in the right side. Of which five Croysadoes, the three first must be made over the Chalice, and the round host; to figure the delivery of Christ to the Priests, Scribes and pharisees, or to signify the price of Christ's sale, that is to say, three times ten, which import the thirty pence. The two other cross are made distinctly; on which is the fourth over the host, & the other over the Chalice, distinctly to manifest unto us the two persons, of Christ & judas: when this is done, the Masse-Priest continuing in his fooleries & mockeries, stretcheth out his arms, to delineate Christ spread upon the Cross: then, he lifts the round host printed with imagery on high, that it may be adored: Afterwards, he returns to make three crosses; one over the host, another over the Chalice, and third over himself: to play herein the part of three estates or conditions of those that are in Heaven, in Purgatory, and in the earth. Then he thumps upon his breast, to play the penitent thief that was hanged upon the Cross. This thumping of his stomach must be performed with the three last fingers of his hand, because the thumb and the next finger are reserved to consecrate and transubstantiate the round host. Moreover, he must beat his breast three times, to figure a triple offence, of the heart, of the mouth, and of real act; exalting his voice, to represent the Thief or the Centurion which confessed God in the Passion. Six other Croisadoes are afterwards reiterated, three over the covered Chalice, to commemorate the three hours that Christ hung alive upon the Cross; and three other crosses are made over the open Chalice, and the round host, being once more elevated, to decipher the three hours, that Christ hung dead upon the Cross. Then does he add two other crosses, after the Massmonger hath kissed his Chalice, to describe the mystery of blood and water issuing out of Christ's sides. Besides all the above mentioned mute mummeries, the Priest must lift the veil over the Chalice, and release it from Plataine, to represent the rend veil in the midst, at Christ's death. This being done, the round host is laid upon the Chalice, and couched in the corporal, to figure the burial of Christ. When the Mass Priest hath played the part of the hanged thief, of the traitor judas, of Christ, of the Publicans, he afterwards comoediates the Centurion, singing the Pater Noster. But Durandus Alcoran, by the petitions in the Pater Noster, expresseth the seven tears of the Virgin Mary, the seven virtues; or the seven mortal sins. When this song is ended, the Priest remains silent for a while, to represent the silence & repose of Christ in the grave. Another apery or Monkery is played by the Mass Priest, with the round host, which he lays upon the Pix to decipher the union of his divinity, with his humanity: but when he plays the secret mystery, the host is hidden out of sight.   

CHAP. XVIII. Of diverse parts and sundry Ceremonies belonging to the Mass.  
WHen the sacrifice was ended, 
Re divina & ceremonijs celebratis, Sacerdos tune, I, licet, succlamabat: qua voce illos qui interfucrant, missos faciebat. Alex. ab Alex. lib. gen. dic. 4. ca 17 Mass instituted by Numa more than 700. years before the Incarnation of Christ.  and the little round hosts eaten, Numa appointed these words to be sung: I, licet, or Ite, Missa est: which is to say, go, you are permitted, the Assembly is dismissed, to repair home to their houses. Are not these all the parts of the Missal sacrifice, most of which were ordained by Numa the Magician, above seven hundred years before the Incarnate on of jesus Christ: that is, the vestments of the Aube, Chasible, Lustral holy exorcised water, with salt, to repel devils: the Altar, the light Taper, the sweep and glance along the Altar, with prayers and meditations towards the East: Procession, with the Relics & shrines carried on men's shoulders by the Priests clothed in white surplices; & crowns upon their heads: the Confiteor addressed to men & women saints; the sound of the Organs, Canticles, Paeans, Hymns, and Odes: the incenser & incense: the Offertory, the communication of little round loaves consecrated to the name of their gods; and at last the note, Ite, Missa est? Will you now at last acknowledge, O Missalians, that you borrowed all these parts and members in your Masses from the Pompilian Religion? Why retain you the name of Mass, which jesus Christ called a Supper, or the Communion of his body? Why have you made choice of the peculiar vestments of an Aube, 
Matth. 27. Luk 20. Mark 14.1. Cor. 11.  and painted Chasible, from the ancient Roman Idolaters; which habits were never appointed you by jesus Christ? Why have you given more credit to Pompilians Magic, for the driving away of Devils with salt, exorcised water, termed holy wate●, 
Mark 16.  then to the sacred Word and Gospel of jesus Christ, who inapted you in his name, to repel devils, and not with the Magic of salt? Who inspired you but the spirit of Numa, to shave your heads round, to put on white surplices, to carry about shrines in Procession with a banner? When jesus Christ celebrated his holy Supper, and instructed his Apostles in the communion of his body and blood, did he command them to follow the rites of the ancient Roman Idolaters? to have Altars set forth with Images, to use windings, and wreathe along the Altar, to be cut round, to have aubes and chasibles; addressing your Confessions to men and women saints, to sound the Organs, to perfume the altars & Images with incense, to gape after the offertory, to bring money to the Coquille for the Priest, to eat little ●ound hosts consecrated and adorned with imagery, and then after all to sing, Ite, Missa est.  
But you Missalists, I foresee your cautels, wherein (Missalians) you will readily confess that the main body, and principal parts of the Mass, were digested and brought in by Numa Pompilius: the further additions notwithstanding and ornaments were invented by other Roman Pontifes; and especially by a Monk called Gregory, the first of that name, who attained to the Papacy: who being instructed in Pythagorical Magic & Philosophy, 
Platina. Volaterra. Kyrie eleyson.  having also studied the laws of King Tullus Hostilius, successor to Numa, to the end to perpetuate his name by some new addition to the sacrifice of the Mass, instituted the singing nine times, these Greek words Kyrie eleyson.  
Gregory held this ninth number in great reverence, 
Quoties prodigium nunciabatur sacrum novemdiale per novem dies agebatur. Tit. Liv. lib. 1. decade. 1. Alleluia.  even as the ancient Roman Idolaters had recourse likewise to the Novemdiall Mass, upon any monstrous prodigies or sights. He also ordained, that at the Missal sacrifice, there should be sung two Hebrew words to accompany the two Greek words: and on some days these words to be sung, Alleluia: being on other days forbidden.  
In stead of which Alleluia is sung another song called a tract, with a loud voice, and a portracted note, in a grave kind of Music, to decipher the miseries of this age. Now, he that sings the Alleluia must sing with a higher voice than he that howls the Gradual, as Titlemans' Alcoran makes mention.  
Was there not Magic enough in the Missalians sacrifice without adding these Grecke and Hebrew words? and foisting in Pythagorical numbers, and the song Novemdiall; instituting a distinction of days, whereon to sing the Hebrew words, on other days prohibiting them? and to invent croysadoes and mute mummeries? Are not these corruptions of the holy Sacrament of the supper ordained by God? 
Platina. Sabell. Gloria patri, Agnus Dei, Kisse-Pix. instimed.  some other augmented this Missal sacrifice, as Damasus the Roman Pontifice, with a Gloria Patri: Sergius with the Agnus Dei song thrice:  
Which Titleman interprets to be a figure of Christ's Ascension. Jnnocent with a kissing of the Pix by the Priest.  
Which Pix of gold signifies the Divinity of Christ, by the doctrine of the Alcoran: the Gloria in excelsis by Symmachus, which must be sung with a low & mild voice, 
Chap. 15.  & it represents as Titlemans Alcoran relates, the weak and infantine voice of Christ while he was yet in the cradle. O blaspemous and detestable mummeries of the Son of God Leo the second instituted the kissing of the Pix, 
Chap. 56. & 57  which Titlemans Alcoran says doth signify the union of Christians, and that the kissing of the Pix was subrogated in stead of the holy Communion observed in the first and next primative Church to the Apostles. This kisse-Pix is sung by the Masse-Priest in saying; 
Kisse-Pix.  Pax Domini: and making three crosses upon the Chalice, when the third part of the Host, is put into the Wine, to intimate the Incarnation of Christ, or to signify the triple peace, of the time, of the Spirit, and of future eternity.  
Furthermore, there is added the forging of the Missal Canon to Alexander, 
Canon of the Mass.  Gelasius, Syricius, Leo, & Pelagius. These be pieces patched together, according to the humour of the Roman Pontifes, Authors, Restorers, Endowers, and augmenters of the Missal Sacrifice.  
We must not omit the greatest enrichment instituted in this Missal sacrifice, 
Platina. Sabell.  which is, to say some passages of the old and new Testament, called epistles and Gospels: which the Missalians have cut out, & mixed with Pompilian Idolatry, & therein profane the Law of God, as Sergius the Apostate Mahomet's Doctor did, 
Epistles and Gospels cut on't in the Mass.  who adorned the Alcoran with many passages of the holy Bible, and forged a gallomawfry of Fables and Heresies, to be of equal authority with the sacred Law of God.  
The Missalians for the song after the Epistles and Gospels, constituted two persons, to solemnize their Missal dance, which is to say, the Subdeacon who marcheth afore, to play the part of the first law of the Jews; and the Deacon who comes after in greater dignity, to represent the Law Evangelicall. Which Deacon caries a pillow against his stomach, to figure an humbled heart: The Subdeacon receives no benediction from the Masse-Priest, as the Deacon doth: because, say the Missalian Doctors, God sent his Prophets invisibly: But the Deacon representing the Evangelicall Law receives benediction, as being sent among wolves, in that Christ sent his Apostles visibly like men. The Deacon is enjoined to wear a crossed Stole hanging down his shoulders cross the reines of the back, to figure force and continency joined together in the Masse-Priest. The Deacon playing his part, and singing some abstracted passage of the Gospel, in a language not understood either by himself, or the assistants, must wheel about toward the North, standing upright: because saith Titleman, the Northern parts are cold & obnoxious: for this reason he must make a cross, to repel Northern Devils. Are not these more blaspemous juggle & incantations, than all the Commentaries of the ancient Idolatrous Roman Pontifes?   

CHAP. XIX. Against the Idolaters Antiquity, and long Possession of the Mass.  
IS not this long Possession, 
Against the long possession and prescription of Idolatries. Against the Turks. Against the Israelites sacrificing to Moloch. 2. King. 16. & 23.  to confirm the Mahometan Alcoran, which the Turks at this day have enjoined, for above nine hundred years; having conquered Countries, Kingdoms, and Empires, prospered in their erterprises, and always observed that abominable law prescribed in their Alcoran.  
Was the people of Israel excusable before God, when they offered sacrifice of the blood of Innocents' in the valley of Tophet to Moloch, by alleging the long possession thereof and inveterate use, for above 1200. years before this idolatry was wholly abolished by good King josias? Did the Israelites murmur against the virtuous King Ezechias when he demolished the brazen Serpent, 
Against the idolatry of the brazen Serpent. Num. 27.  which was instituted by God's express commandment, above 900. years before? Were the people themselves excused of their idolatry committed in the two Temples erected in Dan and Bethel, wherein were the images of two young Heifers of gold, under the pretext and allegation of long possession, for they had continued this idolatry for the space of three or four hundred years? The jews that are at this day vagabonds, 
Against the jews infidelity.  shall they be excused before the Majesty of God, by presenting the long possession of their ceremonial Law, instituted even by God himself above three thousand years ago? 
Against the Missalians.  As likewise yourselves, O Missalians, can you allege against God a long possession and prescription of having celebrated Pompilian Masses for a long time, that you and your predecessers used it, sold and set to sale your missal sacrifices? Is long possession a sufficient and well grounded reason, as your predecessors the Roman Senators alleged to the Emperor Theodosius, that their Pompilian Religion had been observed for above a thousand years? The inducing of long possession, and use observed of long time, will not be a sufficient reason to approve your idolatries. For ●f God out of his unspeakable mercy and patience, 
Prescription takes no place a 'gainst God.  hath tolerated the jews in their infidelity, the Turks in their Alcoran law, and Christians in their Missalian idolatries, we must not argue nor dispute of God's incomprehensible secrets. But in humility re-enter the way of verity, when he is pleased to point it out unto us, after long and palpable darkness, whereinto people in all ages have fallen by straying from God's true institution & worship, as we briefly before declared of the Israelites an elect people of God, who though they had Moses and the Prophets, which admonished them by many miracles and comminations how they ought to honour God, & observe his law, yet would they never cease idolatrizing with their own fund and humane inventions.  
If therefore during the reigns of Princes, judges of Israel, when this people was governed as in an Aristocracy, then yielding to the yoke of Kings, as by a Monarchy: and at last reduced under the government of Priests, embracing the spiritual and temporal, the law of God was corrupted, the sacrifices and sacraments adulterated and violated, and idolatry erected and propagated, for more than sixteen hundred years from the written law, published by Moses, till the Incarnation of jesus Christ, what may be hoped of the people of Rome, instructed and nourished in all idolatry, like a withered tree, like a bastard and heathen people?  
Notwithstanding that the Missalian Heretics may not vaunt of long possession, in their missal sacrifices, except it be by the restauration of the nine parts formerly described, borrowed from Numa Pompilius: the other members of the Mass, were invented at diverse times by sundry Antichrists, corrupters of the holy Sacrament ordained by God. And to understand the peculiar times and ages of these famous Architects; Agapit Roman Pope, reigning in the year of Christ 577. added to the Procession instituted after the prescript form of Numa, the Confiteor, restored by Damasus, reigning in the year 377. the Kyrie-eleyson was annexed by Gregory, reigning in the year 593 the Collects, and Tracts by Gelasius, reigning in the year 493. and the Sequences by Gotherus Abbot of Sandale: the Gloria in excelsis by Symmachus, reigning in the year 508. the Incense and Offertory, renewed out of the ancient Pompilian doctrine by Leo the third of that name, in the year 800. the Kisse-pix by Innocent the first of that name, reigning in the year 408. the Agnus Dei instituted by Sergius in the year 697. Dirges for the dead, were invented by Pelagius in the year 558. the Canon forged by Gelasius, Syricius. Leo & Pelagius, reigning in the year 800. Transubstantiation was instituted by the Roman Pontifes, about the year of Christ 1062. 
* But not ratifyed till Innocent the 3. about the year 1200. who also instincted a new faith for the people to confess & believe.  And therefore what an impudence is it in the Missalian Alcoranist Doctors falsely to aver, that the holy Apostles of jesus Christ celebrated the missal sacrifice? considering that this sacrifice was not restored to its integrity since the days of Numa Pompilius, but above 800. years after jesus Christ. What approved History makes mention that such an idolatry was committed by the holy Apostles of God? How can we possibly believe or imagine it, when this great Babylonish Whore was not restored to her mask and vizard of sanctity but long time after the Incarnation of jesus Christ.   

CHAP. XX. Against the Idolatry of the round Host.  
But we must return to our Roman History, 
Continuation of Histories.  that we may more and more discover the true original of the Mass. In discoursing of the parts and principal members of the missal sacrifice, we related how the ancient Romans, before they were accustomed to sacrifice with the blood of beast, used little round loaves consecrated to the honour of their gods, which they eat standing within the Temples, at the end of the sacrifice.  
These little round Hosts of wheat flower were taken by the Missalian sacrificers, 
Abominable Idolatry.  but they have augmented the magic & idolatry of Numa Pompilius, in that they beautify their little round Hosts with pictures and images printed within the rotundity of the said Hosts, to make them the more sacred, yea that they may be adored, out of Honorius invention a Roman Antichrist, reighing in the year of Christ's incarnation 1226. which Numa the Magician never practised before, neither grow to this abominable idolatry: what more detestable heresy can be laid open, then to paint the Majesty of God in the form of humane similitude as the Anthropomorphites did? 
Against the idolatry of round Hosts.  Who taught you, O Missalians, to corrupt the holy Sacrament of the Supper of jesus Christ, in devising these little round loaves and Hosts, but the Magician Numa? When jesus Christ celebrated the holy Supper with his Apostles, did he appoint them to have little loaves or round Hosts, to print them with humane characters and effigies, to conjure and exorcise them with crosses and croysadoes in equal or unequal numbers, and cause them to be adored? Confess therefore, O Missalians, that the principal part of your Mass, that is, your little round hosts, to be original from the ancient Pompilian Religion, more than seven hundred years before the Incarnation of jesus Christ; who did not institute for you these rotundall hosts, or that they should be rather round than square, tryangle or octangle: so fare he was from ordaining the round figure correspondent to Numaes' form, that on the contrary, when he instituted the Sacrament of the Communion of his body, he used a fraction of bread by morsels, which he distributed to his Apostles, for a Symbol, sign, and figure, signifying sacramentally his body by the power of the holy Ghost.  
And the Missalians have not only made choice of the round form in than consecrated hosts, printed with Images, to make them be adoted after the manner of the ancient Romans: but moreover they have exceeded all other Idolaters. For in the days of Numa and his fuccessors, those that were present at the Missail sacrifice, eat standing together the said little round consecrated hosts, they using no charity towards them that assist in their Missal sacrifices?  
Is this to follow the ordinance of jesus Christ, who broke the bread and distributed it to his Apostles? jesus Christ the eternal Priest, stood he alone near to an altar, munching a little round Host, printed with Images, when he celebrated the holy communion of his body. O you Missalians, more detestable, and less charitable Idolaters, than all the other ancient Romans, can you so sophisticate & juggle, as to procure your Missal sacrifice (wherein the Priest alone devours the little round printed Host with Images, giving no share of it to others) to be taken and received as a communion, causing them that are present at your Mass by an admirable Magic to believe that they have communicated together with the Priest, though they neither eat, nor receive any portion of the round Host.  
And yet further, for a more extreme Idolatry, the Missalian Doctors Interpreters inform, that the round Host must be divided into three parts, one for those that are in Paradise, another for those that are in Purgatory, to obtain remission of their sins, and a third steeped in wine, for those that are living in the world. But Durands Alcoransets down, that the three broken portions of the Host, represents the triple form of Christ's body, sleeping in the grave, lying on the earth, and afterwards raised up from the dead.  
Biel another subtle Doctor, not to confess the body of Christ to be broken or bruised in the round host, deviseth the fraction of the Host to be made of an accident without substance. Are not these abominable Heresies, to make sovies that are in Paradise, or Purgatory communicate: instituted by Sergius a Mahometan Doctor, by the means of a round Host devoured by the Masse-Priest?  
But peradventure (Missalians) you may object unto me, the use of the Primative Church observed in the Communion of the holy Supper, where every one of the assembly in the Temple, took a portion of the broken bread; being also consecrated to eat, and communicate together: which custom was retained till this present day, in your Missal sacrifices, celebrated on Sundays, 
Communion of holy bread. A notable difference between round consecrated hosts and holy bread.  which you cause to be distributed of morsels of holy bread to those present within the Temple. But this ancient commandment, was maintained only in picture; because the Missalians abusing the holy Sacrament, have reserved the round little consecrated Host to be eaten by themselves, distributing no portion of it to the assistants: for whom they leave morsels of holy bread, which for the most part were four square.  
The round Host is azimall, and the holy bread made with leven: the round Host is without salt, and the holy bread seasoned: the round Host is printed with Images, and the holy bread is without characters or effigies: the round Host is adored, and the holy bread received with thanksgiving: the round Host is devoured by the Priest, and the holy bread distributed to every one of the Assembly, to communicate & eat thereof: the round Host is in part steeped in wine, and the holy bread is eaten dry without wine.  
To conclude, there is so great a difference between these two several Communions, as there is between the law of the ancient Idolaters, & the Law Evangelicall: but that they jump in one point: which is that both in the one, and the other, there is a corruption of the holy sacrament of the supper ordained by God.   

CHAP. XXI. The invention of Transubstantiation, with confutation of that labyrinth of Jaolatry.  
WE must now descend to the very bottom of this Idolatrous Labyrinth: 
Transubstantiation instituted.  we did recite the history of the people of Israel, who were not content with the celestial bread, and Manna given unto them by God, while they remained in the desert, but murmured against God, and Moses his Servant, they demanding to eat flesh: the people also of pagan and infidel Rome, were not content with the Pompisian institution in the communion of little round loaves; but that the Roman Idolatrous Pontifes must needs further ordain the kill and immolating of beasts, that they might eat, and communicate of the flesh of victim in their sacrifices, especially the sheep, 
Blond. lib. 1. de Rom. triumph.  the Sow, the Goat, and the Ox: which was first instituted by Evander King of Arcadia. Wherefore, that the Missalians might not degenerate from the idolatry of their predecessors, they must needs follow this communion of flesh: & they are not content with their little round azimall hosts, consecrated, and printed with images; 
Hosts made of flower transubstantiated into flesh, & the wine into blood.  but with time they have invented a new magic to transubstantiate their little hosts of flower, into flesh and bones, the bread being no more bread, but an accident without substance: and by this means to convert the round host of flower into a carnal & sanguinolent host.  
The wine also offered in their Missal Chalices to be transubstantiated into blood, the wine being no more wine, but an accident without substance. 
Detestable Heresy.  Was there ever a more abominable magic, or a more detestable Heresy than this Missaline transubstantiation? When the people of Israel murmured against God, because they were weary of eating Manna and celestial bread, calling for flesh, was the Manna transubstantiated into flesh, 
An. Christ. 1062. in Chronol. Io. Volateran.  bones, and blood? When the ancient Roman Idolaters, meant to change their round hosts of flower, or meal, and grew to eat flesh in their facrifices, did they use this magic of transubstantiation? Wherefore I freely aver, that this Missal addition was lately invented by the Missalians, more than a thousand years after the Incarnation of jesus Christ.  
This Heresy began to spread very much of a Nicholai●an Antichrist climbing up to the Roman pontificacy, by the monopoly & suggestions of Hildebrand, expelling by force the other elected Pope, 
Lanfrac. de sat.  which was Benedict the second of that name, in the year of jesus Christ 1062.  
Afterwards by a Monopoly held in Saint john Lateran in Rome, it was advanced during the ecclesiastical tyranny of Innocent the third of that name, about two hundred years after the palinody canonised by Berengarius Deane of S. Maurice in Angiers. Against which abominable magic and heresy we must briefly by form of a recapitulation compare the institutions of the Sacraments ordained by God.  
First of all, 
Against Transubstantion. Tree of life.  the fruits of the knowledge of good and ill, forbidden to our first father Adam, as sacred signs and sacraments of fear and obedience, whereon depended life or death, were they transubstantiated or converted into knowledge or into death, to leave their nature of being trees or fruits, reduced to an accident without substance?  
The celestial Manna, 
Celestial Manna. The Rock flowing out water.  and the Rock gushing out lively water, sacraments that had reference to the holy Sacrament of the supper, were they transubstantiated into an accident without substance?  
The unspotted Lambs immolated by Abel, 
Lamb's immolated by Abel.  in his acceptable sacrifice to God, were they transubstantiated into any other nature?  
The Foreskin circumcised for a note & mark of covenant to the good Patriarche Abraham and his posterity, 
Circumcision.  was it converted into an accident without substance?  
The blood of the Paschall Lamb, 
Paschall Lamb.  for an assurance of Israel's salvation, was that converted into any other substance?  
The flesh of the immaculate Lamb, to be eaten on the day of the Passeover, having reference to the holy Sacrament of the supper, was it transubstantiated into an accident without substance?  
The brazen Serpent, which being only beheld, 
Brazen serpent.  health was granted to the sick, did it not continue a Serpent of brass? was that transubstantiated, being ordained for a Sacrament & sacred sign to the people of Israel?  
Victi●nes offered in sacrifice, both of beasts of the earth, 
victim sacrificed.  & azimall loaves, with other sacred signs ordained by God, for holy signs & sacraments of expiation & salvation for the people of Israel, were they ever transubstantiated into accidents without substance?  
All sacred signs ordained by God in the Israelitish Church, though they sacramently represented that which was by them figured, and not as a simple picture without real effect, yet did there never live so detestable an heretic, which invented or added thereunto this Magic of transubstantiation. And nevertheless, O Missalians, you must needs confess that the good and holy Fathers of Israel were adopted, engrafted, and regenerated by faith in jesus Christ, begotten before all ages: that they were nourished, & purchased eternal life by jesus Christ: that they and we have but one God, & one only jesus Christ, one Mediator and Redeemer: That by faith, they sacramentally communicated, and participated spiritually of the blood of jesus Christ, for their salvation and eternal life: 
Comparison of the faith of the ancient fathers of Israel with ours.  That there is no difference touching God, between them who did precede the incarnation of jesus Christ, and us that were since his incarnation: but both they and we are equally the Church of God redeemed by the blood of the just and unspotted Lamb Christ jesus. For the rest, they had a faith of the future promise, and observed the holy Sacraments and sacred Symbols of the Sacrifice which should be consummated by jesus Christ: 
D. Aug. contra Faust. 20. cap. 21. & cap. 14. l. 19 & contra Petilian. li. 2. ca 37.77. 1. Cor. 10. August. in Psal.  and we in the new law celebrate the memorial and remembrance of the sacrifice now finished by jesus Christ, having a fruition of the promise accomplished.  
If then the Israelites eat the same celest all bread, & drunk the same saving drink, which we do by faith in one only jesus Christ: If they had sacred signs to represent actually and really the future death of jesus Christ, even as we retain sacred signs of his present, or past death: they for the future, & we for that which is past; why did the Missalians invent this new magic, to convert an holy Sacrament ordained by God, into a magic of transubstantiation, and into an accident without substance? 
Against miracles alleged by the Missalians. Exod. 7. Exod. 8. Exod. 14.  If God to approve his power, and to manifest the hardness & obstinacy of Pharaoh was pleased to perform wonderful things by Moses and Aaron, by converting a Rod into a Serpent, water of the river into blood, and into frogs: the dust of the earth into louse: and then to make the navigable sea dry, performing many other miracles: can we by this infer a transubstantiation of the little round azimall host, printed with images, into an accident without a substance? In what place of the holy Scriptures, when mention is made of sacred signs, and Sacraments, or sacrifices ordained by God, is it said that the sign or sacrament was transubstantiated? But on the contrary, Gods will accommodating itself to man's infirmity, he ordained from time to time common signs, for notes and marks of assurance of the thing signified: wherein God's power is the more renowned & exalted, in really giving us, what by the sacred sign is represented by the virtue of faith, and of the holy Ghost, as if the sign itself had been really transubstantiated by some ocular miracle. For the Sacraments comprehend in them, more spiritual than carnal sense. For this reason God by his Prophets ever blamed his people of Israel, for understanding the sacraments too carnally, as succinctly we have before declared.  
But tell me O Missalians, when jesus Christ made it known how himself was the true bread of life descended from heaven, to confer life eternal; & how these sacramental words of eating his flesh, and drinking his blood, were to be understood, wherewith the Capernaits your Predecessors were scandalised; 
The interpretation of jesus Christ touching the eating of his body.  did he teach us in this interpretation, that to eat his flesh should be meant, by a little round transubstantiated host? that the round host of flower, and the wine, is no more bread or wine, but accidents without substance? Is this your abominable magic, the doctrine of jesus Christ? Nothing less. But jesus Christ like a true and heavenly Lawgiver, who can only sincerely interpret his own law, made answer to the Capernait Doctors, how they were gross and carnal minded, 
john 6,  minding only the flesh, as you Missalians do, though the flesh alone profits nothing: alleging how his sacramental words were spiritual: The flesh saith he, profits nothing: but the spirit quickens. As also, O Missalians, how can you religiously accord your transubstantiation with the doctrine of jesus Christ, which promiseth and assureth eternal life to those, that shall eat his flesh, and drink his blood, if you conceive these words carnally? For you cannot be ignorant, but that your own bodies when they have devoured these round transubstantiated hosts into flesh and bones, drunk and taken down the transubstantiated wine into blood, notwithstanding live & are mortal through the necessity of the law. Wherefore eternal life promised by this communion, cannot be understood by a mortal body, or flesh. And therefore of necessity you must needs acknowledge, for the most sacred interpretation, that to eat the body and drink the blood of jesus Christ, must have reference to a spiritual and heavenly life: and that the flesh profits nothing, but the spiritual words; & the communion of the body and blood of jesus Christ, by faith and spirit give eternal life. This interpretation is many times recited by the holy Apostle Saint john, when jesus Christ himself useth these words, He that comes to me, shall never hunger; he that believes in me shall never feel thirst, but have eternal life. Are not these terms intelligible enough, to express this holy sacrament of the communion of the body & blood of jesus Christ, without running to your magic of transubstantiation?  
Another interpretation of the holy Doctor and author of the sacramental law is described, 
Comparison of Baptism with the Sacrament of the Supper. john 3.  when jesus Christ was interrogated by Nicodemus, of the means how a man might be regenerated, and borne anew. Is it possible saith Nicodemus, that a man can return again into his mother's womb? Did jesus Christ answer this demand, by affirming that in the holy Sacrament of Baptism, the water was converted into the body, into flesh and blood, and transubstantiated in a carnal womb, to be there again engendered and regenerate? Was there not also as great reason, according to your Magic, to have returned this answer, as well as in the holy Sacrament of the Supper? for by the one of these two Sacraments, we are regenerated, and by the other nourished. Now regeneration is as admirable to humane wisdom, as nourishment; for conformable to humane and carnal judgement it may seem impossible, that we can be twice engendered and begotten. But our good God useth the like interpretation of Regeneration, as of the communion of his flesh and blood: which is, that these sacramental terms must be spiritually conceived, and not carnally: for the flesh profits not; but the spirit quickens. What is of the flesh is carnal, what of the spirit, spiritual.  
The holy Apostle, 
1. Cor. 11.  relating to the Corinthians what he had received from God's hand, admonished them of the coming of jesus Christ: during the expectation whereof, he commands them to communicate of the body, and blood of jesus Christ, by the fraction of bread, and the cup of benediction called the new Testament, & new covenant contracted by the blood of jesus Christ: wherefore seeing we are assured of the 2d coming of jesus Christ, being ascended up into heaven, & set at the right hand of God his Father: till the day predestinate that hec shall return to judge both the quick and the dead: how will you reconcile this passage, O Missalians, when by the magic you utter, you make him descend, and return the body of jesus Christ in flesh and bone, before the time preordained for his second coming.  
This Magic was by you restored, since the first author of your Missal Sacrifice Numa Pompilius: 
Numa Pompilius, ut populum Romanorum sacric obligaret, volebat vid●ri sibi cum dea Algeria congre●●us esse noclurnos, ejusque monitu●e quae ccepia dij, immortalibus sacra sorent, insti ●uere. Val. Max. li. 1. cap, 3. john 19 Exod 12. Numb. 9 Corruption of the holy Sacrament.  who by his magic divulged, that he made his Nymph and Goddess Egeria come down fro heaven, as also his Jupiter Elicius, by whose means there were celestial secrets and mysteries revealed unto him. If by your magic the round consecrated host, was transubstantiated into the true & real body of jesus Christ, the bread being no more bread, but the true body, how came you to be so presumptuous, to break and tear in pieces the body of jesus Christ, according to the invention of Sergius the second of that name your predecessor Roman Pontife? Are not you fare more execrable executioners than your predecessors, Lieutenants of the Roman Church, which crucified jesus Christ, & yet they never tore, nor rend his body in pieces, as he prophesied? And notwithstanding you are not contented to have broken it into three pieces, but in your Missal sacrifices you presume to drown & steep one portion in wine, transubstantiated into blood, to be swallowed, and drunk.  
To confirm your Magic of transubstantiation: why took you no order to preserve from corruption your little round printed Hosts, which you keep and lay up so curiously in reliquaries and boxes, after they are transubstantiated into flesh, & bone, and into the real body of jesus Christ? 
Against transubstantiation.  Is it not an abominable heresy to believe, that the body of jesus Christ is capable of corruption? Nay, and oftentimes is eaten, by Worms, Weasels, Rats, and Mice? Can you interpret this, to be an accident without substance? When your Hosts become many times stinking and corrupted in your Cybaries? Many times likewise devoured by bruit beasts of the earth, which you cause to be burned, and their ashes laid up in Reliquaries?  
When Victor the third of that name, Pope of Rome, 
Herman. Cont. Blond. Plati.  received poison by your transubstantiated Wine into blood: was this an accident without substance? Or when the Emperor Henry the seventh of that name, was poisonned, by eating of a little round, consecrated, and transubstantiated Host, was it without substance, when it procured death? There was much more appearance for the celestial Manna, given to the people of Israel, the which though it corrupted, when it was kept; yet that which was reserved in secret, 
Nehem. 9 Ps. 78.104. Psal. 16. john 6.  within the Ark of the Lords Covenant was preserved without corruption: but yet for all this was it transubstantiated into flesh, and bones, to be called celestial bread, bread descending from Heaven, the Bread of Life, or the bread of Angels?  
Now it remanes for us to contest with the subtle reasons of the Missalians, who to make a foundation for their Magic, insist carnally upon the word est, saying, that these words were expressly written: This is my body, this is my blood, when jesus Christ instituted the holy Sacrament of his Body & of his Blood, under the Symbols of bread and wine.  
But I desire all those that are zealous of the honour of God, exactly to weigh the sacred Institution of this Sacrament, by which God meant to symbolise and signify the communion of his body by the bread, and the drinking of his blood by the Wine and Cup. All will confess, that the true and principal nourishment of man's body, is comprehended under the kinds of bread & wine: so that the term of bread is often taken in the holy Scriptures for the nourishment and life of Man.  
Let us enter into an examination of the passages of the Bible. 
Genes. 3.  Was not the first Man, created after God's similitude, for the penalty of his offence, told, that he should eat his bread with the sweat and labour of his body? Can any man be so ignorant as not to confess, that this was understood by the living and life of Man?  
When jacob prayed unto God to give him bread & raiment: 
Genes. 28.  did he not understand by bread, whatsoever was requisite for his whole nourishment? When we hear recited, that God reigned bread upon the people of Israel being in the desert, and that the I raelites were replenished with this celestial bread: 
Exod. 16. Nehem 9 Psal. 78.6.  This term of bread, was it not conceived by the celestial Manna, sent by God to sustain the people of Israel?  
Is this Manna called the bread of Heaven, 
Sap. 16. john 6.  and the bread of Angels, given to the people without labour or travail?  
When Melchisedech meant to furnish good Father Abraham's Army, did he not present him with Bread and Wine? 
Genes. 14.   
When Ahraham was to gratify and refresh three Angels that appeared unto him: 
Genes. 18. Genes. 21.  Did he not expose unto them Bread baked upon the embers? 
Genes. 27.  Did he not give Agar Bread for her nourishment? Isaac's Mother to favour her best beloved Son, gave him bread. 
Genes. 43.  joseph in Egypt offered bread to his Brethren for their nourishment.  
When we go about to describe a Famine and scarcity of victual, do we not say there wants bread? 
Genes. 47. Num. 27.  When God promised any mercy or favour to his people that did keep his commandments: Did he not give them assurance of bread in sufficiency? When he recommends unto us the poor, 
Tob 4. Psal. 104.  as his members, commands he us not to give them bread ⁏ It is bread therefore, which nourisheth and sustains the heart and life of man.  
When Satan enterprised to tempt jesus Christ, 
Mar. 4. Luk. 4.  to testify that he was true man: Did he not make choice of bread, when he n●ited him to make the stones bread?  
When jesus Christ celebrated his banquets to give bodily nourishment, once to five thousand men, and then again to four thousand persons: Did he not show his power under the Symbol of bread? 
Mar. 6. Luk. 2.  When he taught us to address our prayers to God: Did he not expressly ordain in the Lord's Prayer that we should request of God to give us our daily bread? And bread is not only mentioned in the holy Scriptures for vulgar & corporal nourishment: But also in sacrifices celebrated by the Hebrew Priests, 
Exod. 21. Levit. 24.  and the prescript Law of Sacred bread ordained by God: that was azimall bread without Leaven. Other bread was termed the bread of proposition, which the Priests every week renewed and eat, 
Mat. 11. 1. King. 27.  which David used, presented to him by Achimelech the High Priest.  
Contrariwise the term of bread, is appropriated to the bread of iniquity, of lies, of sorrow, to polluted bread of Idolaters, to bread of coinquination offered upon the Altar; 
Ose. 7.  to bread of mourning, and to bread of trembling. The Ephraimites also called ashy and unturned loaves, that is to say: Half baked, half circumcised, and Idolaters.  
And therefore, O you missalian Capernaites, you must not be so obdurate, and inveterate in your carnalities, as not to observe the phrases of the holy Scripture, 
Deut. 8. Mar. 4. Luk. 4. Math. 15.  in which bread is oftentimes taken for terrestrial and corporal bread; as when it was said, that man did not live only by bread, but also by whatsoever proceeded out of the mouth of God.  
Sometimes also bread is taken for the Word of God, and Doctrine. 
Math. 15. Mar. 7.  When jesus Christ commanded his Apostles to keep themselves from eating leavened bread with the Pharises: These terms of bread and leaven, are they not expressed by the Doctrine of the heretical Pharises? When the Cananitish Woman demanded grace and mercy for her daughter's health, detained in a long malady of sickness: did not jesus Christ answer her, how it was not lawful to take the children's bread, and cast it to Dogs? Was not the bread in this answer, taken for life and health, and not only for corporal nourishment?  
Wherefore if bread be taken for the life of Man, which depends principally of Bread and of Wine, and that God's goodness, accommodating itself to our infirmities, made choice of these two signs and symbols, or notable marks, to signify his body and his blood; that is to say: The Bread, the Wine, these two provisions being common to all Nations, was this any reason, to build upon it a carnal transubstantiation, as if God without it were not mighty enough, really to figure, and represent unto us sacramentally, that life was given us: Yea, life eternal, by the communion of consecrated Bread, and Wine of benediction; 
Mat. 26. Mar. 4. john 6.  these being figures and symbols of his body, and of his blood.  
jesus Christ produced these words, that the Bread is his body, and the Wine is his blood: he also said, that himself was the Bread of Life, the living Bread, & that he was the living Bread come down from Heaven. Further he says: That he who eats of that bread, shall live eternally. Doth this infer by the word Est, that jesus Christ is converted and transubstantiated into bread, and that he is no more Christ, but an accident without substance. O abominable heresies! have you any more reason, O you Missalians, to interpret these words carnally: This is my Body, to transubstantiate the bread into the body, then when he testifies, that himself was the bread, to transubstantiate him into bread considering that it is written, how the communion of this bread gives eternal life? jesus Christ said: Hoc est Corpus meum, he also says of himself. 
Math. 15. john 6.  Hic est Panis qui de Coelo descendit: in both these places, is not this word est used? And yet must we needs hereupon infer a transubstantiation, in stead of orthodoxally interpreting the same by a Metonimy and familiar comparison of bread to jesus Christ, that we might apprehend, how eternal life was given us by him, and likewise by him our spiritual food is ministered, even as by bread, a nourishment corporal?  
Howsoever, we must always have recourse to the true expression of jesus Christ, the absolute Lawgiver, and Author of this holy Sacrament, who expounding his own institution, saith in the first place, that he is the Bread of Life, than afterwards he says, that this bread is his flesh & his body, 
john 6  which 〈…〉 offered for the salvation of the world, He said: His 〈…〉 meat, & his blood true drink, he says, that whosoever eaths of his flesh, and drinks of his blood, he will remain in him.  
How doth he himself expound this Manducation? jesus Christ by his own words expresseth himself: Whosoever comes to me, shall never hunger; and he that beleves in me, 
john 6.  shall never thirst. Is not this a true eating, and a true drinking, never again to be hungry, nor never to thirst? Must we not in this have faith, which consists in spirit?  
To address ourselves to jesus Christ, our celestial bread, our spiritual drink, wherewith to be satisfied for ever, to quench our thirst of sin perpetually, must we run to the Magic of transubstantiation, and forge an accident without substance? Wherefore, O Missalians, do you presume to invent any other interpretation, then that of jesus Christ, who witnesseth that the flesh profits nothing; but the spirit quickens? and that his words are not carnal, but spiritual, giving spirit and life, by faith and confidence, that he is the Saviour of the world, incarnate, dead, and crucified, to purchase for us eternal life: 
john 15.  and then raised up again, hec ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of God his Father, remaining an eternal Priest, Propitiator, Mediator, and Redeemer.  
To return to this term, est, that does so molest the Missalians brains, that they dream out of it a transubstantiation. If jesus Christ uttered how he was the true Vine, 
john 4.  that God his Father was the Keeper, & that we are the Branches. Can we hereupon conclude by this word est, a Magic of the transubstantiation of God, into the keeper of a Vine, of jesus Christ into a Vine, and of ourselves into branches?  
If jesus Christ was said to be the immaculate Lamb that wipes out the sins of the word; 
john 16.  can we hereupon induce a transubstantiation?  
If jesus Christ said, that he was the door of the sheepfold, by whom we must enter to be saved: And that he is the good Pastor, and we his sheep; Must we needs so strain & wrest these places of the holy Scripture, as to think it necessary, because the word est is mentioned, to believe a transubstantiation?  
When jesus Christ admonished his Apostles, 
Math. 5.  saying, that they were the salt of the earth; did he therefore transubstantiate or convert them into Statues of pillars of salt, as he did Lot's Wife? 
Genes. 19   
If jesus Christ said by his Apostles, that we are the Temples of God, 
1. Cor. 5. 2. Cor. 6.  in which the Holy Ghost inhabits; must we therefore imagine, that we are transubstantiated into a mass of stone?  
If the holy Apostle writ, 
1. Cor. 10.  that jesus Christ is the Rock, out of whom came living water, to wash and purge us from our sins; must we wrest out of this a transmutation, and transubstantiation of jesus Christ into a Rock, or a material stone?  
If the holy Apostle testifieth, 
1. Cor. 12.  that we are the Body of Christ; may we by this infer, that we are translated, & now no more men, but transubstantiated into an accident without substance?  
I readily foresee, O you obdurate Missalians, that you will object all these pre-alleadged places: wherein this word est, is, & make no mention of the Sacrament, which must the more exactly be observed, in that these be sacred mysteries ordained of God: which is most true.  
And this word est, is not only found in the holy Scriptures formerly cited: but when we speak of holy Sacraments first instituted by God for his people of Israel; it is written, 
Genes. 17.  that Circumsition is God's alliance and Covenant?  
In the other holy Sacrament of the Communion of the Paschall Lamb; was it said that the Lamb was the Passeover, 
Exod. 10 13  which is to say the passage? But shall we induce hereupon a Magic of transubstantiation?  
Will you not confess, O Missalian transubstantiators, that in these passages of the holy Scriptures, speaking of holy Sacrament, that this word est, can not be otherwise interpreted, then to signify some real performance: 
Genes. 17.  and that Circumsition was a sign & a mark of the Covenant and alliance contracted by God with Abraham. The Paschall Lamb was also a sacred sign of the passage, 
Num. 10. Psal. 68.24 Mat. 21. john 2.  for a remembrance of their delivery out of Egypt? The Ark of alliance for another Sacrament, of which it is written, that it is the truth & power of the Lord: Must we understand by this, that it was transubstantiated into the real Majesty of God? We must, we must, I say, interpret the holy Scriptures with discretion, and in humility without sophistication, and without Magic, sound to apprehend the conception of words, and not stick so close to the letter, which kills: but receive the Word of God in lively spirit.  
If then the sacred Ark is called the Lord, and nominated God, because in it he exercised his omnipotent power, and declared his Oracles and mysteries, by exterior signs, to draw the Israelitish people to be mindful of God, and to fear and obey him. If jesus Christ also said that he was bread which came down from Heaven, the bread of life: & the wine was his blood: that the Cup is the New Testament, by the external signs of bread & wine, to give us to understand, that our life and saving nutriment depended only on jesus Christ, and that by his death and bloodshed, we have assurance of eternal life, even as Bread and Wine serve for corporal nourishment, and that he meant and ordained these sacred signs, to be to us for Sacraments, to approve and confirm our faith: Did he determine we should hereby Capernice, and Nicodemize, to inquire, or make doubt of God's power how it is possible to eat the body, or drink the blood of jesus Christ: how we can possibly be regenerated and borne anew? Seeing the promise was made unto us by the word, wherefore have you, O Missalians, conceived a carnal taansubstantion, destrusting in the incomprehensible power of God? May it not suffice you simply to believe, that the body & blood of jesus Christ was really and sacramentally offered, to communicate thereof for our spiritual nourishment, and to grant us eternal life, through the Bread and Wine consecrated, with giving of thankes; the Bread being truly his Body, & the Wine his Blood, which we must worthily receive by faith, & purity of conscience, as sacred signs & marks of the divine Character, without searching too subtly after the means, other than the plain interpretation of jesus Christ, that the flesh profits not, but the spirit quickens, and that his words are spirit and life? Should we doubt whether God hath power, by the symbols of Bread & Wine consecrated, to make us communicate of the body and blood of jesus Christ, though the bread remain bread, & the wine wine? If it were other wise, this could be no Sacrament, but rather called a Miracle. As when jesus Christ converted the water into wine, 
john 2.  he then used the miracle of transubstantitation, changing the water into wine; but he ordained not this for a Sacrament, as he did the communion of his body and blood, by the sacred figures of bread and wine.  
Was it not also as easy for God to change the wine into blood, 
Exod. 4.7.8  or the bread into flesh, as for Moses and Aaron, to change the water of the River into blood, to confirm the hardness of Pharaohs heart,; or when the clouds were turned into the flesh of Quails, 
Exod. 16.  that reigned upon the people of Israel? Nevertheless, God did not ordain, that these miracles should serve for ordinary Sacraments: but herein he applied himself to our infirmity, exhibiting to us sacred, but not transubstantiated signs, & yet are not vain nor fantastical: but signs external that we may behold, touch, eat, and taste, remaining still in their substance: and nevertheless they represent sacramentally what is by them comprehended, and intimated, wherein consists the approbation of our faith, to manifest by a sacramental work and ministration, that we are in the number of the regenerate, and sustained by the holy Sacraments of Baptism, and the Supper.   

CHAP. XXII. Comparison between the two holy Sacraments.  
IF we may presume to make comparison of the two holy Sacraments of Baptism, and of the Supper, 
Comparison of the two holy Sacraments  though there be a difference between it, and regeneration, which is not reiterated; For it sufficeth that we be once regenerate, and begotten a new; but this spiritual nutriment is often renewed, according to the course of nature, and other differences, very amply described by the holy Apostles, and Ministers of God's Word, Notwithstanding the same end, the same jesus Christ is represented as well in Baptism, as in the Supper. 
Tit. 3. john 3.6.  By the Blood of jesus Christ we are regenerated, & by the same Blood nourished. By the Blood of jesus Christ we are renewed, set, and engrafted; and by the same Blood we are entertained, 
Rom. 11. john 6. Gal. 3. Ephes. 4.  and preserved from hongring or thirsting for ever. By the Blood of jesus Christ, we cast of our old corrupt skin, & put on his body, from which likewise we receive nourishment, & eternal life. By the Blood of jesus Christ, we have access and entry into the Kingdom of Heaven: And by the same Blood we have fruition of the same Kingdom.  
In this sense the holy Apostle testifieth, that we were all baptised by the virtue of the Holy Spirit, 
1. Cor. 19 1. Cor. 10.  and we all likewise drunk of the same spiritual drink, given unto us by jesus Christ. Be not these comparisons drawn out of the holy Scriptures? to witness that jesus Christ is the only aim and scope, whereto we must tend both in Baptism and the holy Supper? If therefore that the signs of sacramental water in Baptism, and Bread and Wine in the Supper of jesus Christ, are sacred Signs, Earnests, Gauges, Hostages, Symbols, Seals, and Sacraments, instituted by God for an assurance, and approbation of our faith. 
Against the Missalians.  Wherefore, O Missalians, seeing you have invented a Magic of transubstantiation for the Sacrament of the Supper: why did you not likewise with the same Magic sophisticate the Sacrament of Baptism? Why have you not constituted that sacramental water, after it is by you exorcised and conjured with salt, to repel devils, to be transubstantiated into the blood of jesus Christ; the water being no more water, but an accident without substance, as you have forged by the bread and wine? What difference do you assign, but Sophistries, Sophisms, and Missalian subtleties? If you persevere in your heresy, 
john. 3.4.7 Tit. 3. Gal. 3.  by reason of this word est: This word is also used in the water of Baptism, which is termed renovation, and regeneration; it is named the Holy Spirit, and the Vestment, by, and with which we are revested, renewed, and regenerated in the blood of jesus Christ. Seeing therefore you acknowledge, O Missalians, that you could never yet meet with a second Berengarius, to institute another Decree of a Palinody, for the extending of your Magical transubstantiation, to the sacred water of Baptism, and by the same means likewise to transubstantiate your lustral Phlegm & Spittle; your Oil, your Creames, 
Against the corrupters of Baptism.  your Salt, and other Drugs, wherewith you you have corrupted the holy Sacrament of Baptism; why are you so inveterate, and obdurate in your Pompilian Religion, as to hale jesus Christ from the right hand of his Father, to make him in body and blood to descend by your muttered Magic, like another Jupiter Elicius, before the day preordained for his second coming?  
I may well propound unto you the similitude of the Sun, 
Luk. 1. Mal. 4. Comparison of the Sun to jesus Christ, which 〈◊〉 the Martyr used in his Treatise of the Exposition of faith. chap. 2 A notable comparison of the Sun, utterly to confute the erroneous doctrine of Transubstantiation.  called by some Apostles the Sun of Righteousness jesus Christ, because light comes from Heaven, by this luminous & glorious spherical Planet: and so spiritual light is exhibited to us by jesus Christ, who out of the night and darkness of sin hath brought us into the brightness, & clear sunshine of his grace.  
You may now therefore understand, carnal and gross Capernaites, this sufficient and evident comparison, to intimate that the infinite power of God, is much more complete and perfect, than your abominable invention of transubstantiation.  
Will you not acknowledge, except your eye be blinded, & obfuscated with the palpable darkness of obstinacy, that the Sun gives us his light, his force, his heat and vigour, and yet nevertheless, the body itself of the planetall Sun remains & continues in his spherical Orb? Do you not use to say in ordinary common language, when the window of an house is open on that part where the Sun shines, that the Sun is come into the house, although the Sun remains still in the Firmament? Must we therefore violently hale and pull the body of the Sun, to make it descend, and be transubstantiated into this earthly substance, before it can afford its heat, beams, light and nourishment, to Plants, Trees, Herbs, and Beasts of the earth? Are you so brutish, O Capernaits, as not to recognize that the true Sun of Righteousness jesus Christ, hath more power than this astral Sun, being but mortal, and created?  
If then a mortal creatire hath this power to infuse into us the virtue and efficacy of his body, by his beams, light, and heat, extended really and effectually over the whole earth, the body remaining still in its heaven: and shall we not believe that God an immortal Creator hath much more power to grant us the true Sun of Righteousness jesus Christ: to give us the virtue and power of his body and bloodshed for us by the beams, light, and heat of his holy Spirit, except he be by your Magic plucked from the right hand of God, and his body drawn out of Heaven, to be transubstantiated upon earth? Why should not jesus Christ have this power to afford us his light, and to offer his body and blood to enter intous, if by faith and a pure conscience we be ready to receive him, by the efficacy of his holy Spirit, as well and better, than the spherical Sun can enter into our houses with his force and power, and never be drawn out of its heaven, to be transubstantiated?  
The Snnue is an entire body created, residing in heaven: the cause of the generation of Plants, Trees, & Herbs, which by its force and calidity, gives sustentation to whatsoever lives upon the earth, and in one & the same moment, hath power to quicken, heat, and nourish, an infinite number of Plants, Trees, and Beasts of the earth: and yet his body is never separated, divided, drawn out of his spherre, nor transubstantiated. The body also of jesus Christ which he assumed up into heaven, set at the right hand of God: hath not that more force, more virtue, more power, to regenerate, nourish and sustain us; to give us his virtue, light and beams; to inspire, quicken, illuminate and nourish us, & in a moment to make us all by faith partakers of his body and blood: to make us members of his members, united in, & by him, through his true promise, comprehended under the symbols and sacred signs commended unto us, till the second coming of his humanity be revealed upon earth?  
Wherefore then, O Missalians, have you divised this Magic of transubstantiation, to blaspheme against God, to impair his omnipotency, and disable his virtue more than you do that of the spherical Sun, but his creature?  
Why should you hale the body of jesus Christ out of heaven, before the preordained time, to transubstantiate it into your little round azimall hosts, printed with imagery, which you cause to be adored, 
jesus Christ as God assies all.  seeing Christ as God, there assists his Church perpetually, and hath the power to regenerate, feed, and sustain us: yea, with an eternal life and nourishment, by his most assure promise, testified by the holy Sacraments of Baptism and the sacred Supper.  
For other more familiar and domestical comparisons, consider, O Missalians, how earthly and mortal Princes are reputed, reverenced and honoured by such sacred signe● as they ordain; I will only propound unto you two, which is to say, wax and metals: of one the Prince's seal is composed, with which, grants, pardons, and remissions are sealed, charters, and privileges by the Prince conferred.  
He that falsifies this seal is he not punished as in case of high treason, even as if he had outraged the person of the Prince? Does not this seal represent his own person, even as if himself were present?  
Nevertheless the seal though it be called the seal of the Prince, is not transubstantiated, but still remains wax: 
Familiar comparisons of Prince's seals and coynings, which if they be conterfeited or falfified, the counterfeiters thereof are executed as offenders to the Prince's person.  but otherwise having received the sacred character of the Prince, being then no more called wax, but the Prince's seal.  
Also the metals of gold or silver coined with the Prince's stamp, do serve for money, although they are no more called gold nor silver; but having once exchanged their names at the Princes will, they are either crowns, Angels or Pistols, or else shillings, groats or penies, or other such like names; they are yet notwithstanding metals of the very substance as they were before, there is but that difference, that they have the Prince's impression upon them, by & in which he is represented really: so that whosoever eclipse or falsifies that money, is sorely punished by death as a felon & a traitor to his Prince, for it is in a manner as bad, & as if he had offended & conspired against the Princes own person; by fare greater reason the bread and the wine, consec rated and ordained to be Sacraments of the precious body and blood of jesus Christ, 
1. Cor. 11.13.  represents them really, and not by picture. Wherefore whosoever receives it unworthily, commits a heinous crime against the supreme and Divine Majesty of him, to his eternal damnation, but 'tis not to conclude a transubstantiation by a most abominable conjuration or witchcraft.  
But if you Missalians or Masspriests, Nicolaits and transubstantiators, 
Here is proved by the Doctors, the words of Christ concerning the Sacrament of his body and blood to be spiritually taken not carnally, & so utterly Transubstantiation is confuted.  be not sufficiently satisfied with jesus Christ & his Apostles interpretations, as likewise with those similitudes and familiar comparisons, to reduce and bring you to the sincere way, & certain form ordained of God for to celebrate his holy Sacraments, in abolishing your Pompilian and Missasique Idolatries, ejecting from you your abominable witchcraft of transubstantiation.  
At the least will you not believe at all the interpretations of the ancient Authors of the Church: harken but to the saying of St. Augustin against Adamantine that notable heretic: 
S. August. interpretation. Lib. 3. de doctrine Christ. & in Praes. Psal. 3.  Even as the blood, saith he, in many parts and places of the holy Scripture is said to be the water, the Stone also to be Christ; Even so the bread is said to be his body: which three places must be understood & interpreted to be sacred signs & figures, than when this very author said Christ jesus uttered these words: Hoc est Corpus meum, this is my Body, in presenting and breaking bread to his Disciples, he gave them the sign of his body, for otherwise it should seem to be a thing both inhuman and unlawful, to devour the precious flesh & blood of jesus Christ; if there were not the figure of the bread and wine for to keep in memory his flesh and blood, the body of Christ having been sacrificed to God his Father for our life and eternal nourishment.  
Again the same Author used this interpretation: 
Lib. 10. de Caut. des. cap. 5. ea. sacrificium de consc. dist. 2 Tertul. lib. 1 & 3.4. Etiquid paras dentem & ventrem? crede & manducate, ea. ut quid, de consec. dict. 2 Aug. in lib. demmed paeniteud. & in joan. tra. 25. cap. 6.  The Sacrament visible is the new Testament, that is to say: The sacred sign of the invisible sacrifice: the like interpretations are described by Tertullian against that heretic Martion: Christus acceptum Panum Corpus suum fecit, dicendo: Hoc est Corpus meum, id est, figura Corporis mei.  
Wherefore then, O Missalians, have you not followed the authority of these holy Doctors, of the Church which would not blaspheme against God by the Magic of transubstantiation, bat have freelly and virtuously acknowledged the Sacrament to be a visible sign or sacred figure, signifying by faith & spirit that which is invisible?  
Wherefore do you prepare the mouth & the belly for to devour the body and blood of Christ corporally, really and carnally? Why offer you not yourselves by true and lively faith for to eat worthily Christ jesus? Why have you not understood the manducation of the body of Christ, by the notable distinction of that loarned Doctor St. Jerome, saying: 
S. Hieron. in Epist. ad Ephes. Ca dupliciter eadem distinct.  The flesh of Christ jesus is to be understood carnally, when it is spoken of the shedding his blood, and crucifying of his body for our salvation; but spiritually, when it is said that his flesh is the meat for us to eat.  
For another proof, 
S. Gelase against Entychius and Nestorius.  I will allege that learned Prelate Gelase Bishop of Rome, the which disputing against the heretics Eutichines and Nestorians, doth afirme the bread and wine consecrated and made Sacraments are nevertheless in substance bread and wine, but to be signs of the body and blood of Christ jesus by the mystery of the Sacrament.  
And if ye desire larger testimonies, 
S. Ambrose in the book of Sacraments. cap. 1. & 11.  S. Ambrose upon the Epistle of S. Paul to the Corhintians hath explicated and made manifest, that the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine, doth signify the flesh and the blood of Christ jesus offered for us.  
Origen likewise in his Homilies, 
Origen. in Lev, him. 7.  teacheth the Sacraments to be figures, which we ought to examine really, and not carnally: Because, saith he, that those words: Hoc est Corpus meum, not understood spiritually kills the soul, when he writes to eat the flesh of Christ. Wherefore St. chrysostom admonished the people to honour that holy Sacrament in offering himself, his soul to God, 
S. Chrysost. hom. 31. cap. 15. tont. 1.  for the which Christ jesus was crucified; and that by that holy Sacrament of bread and wine, is signified to us the similitude of the body and blood of jesus Christ.  
For the resolution, we must follow and be ruled, according to the instruction and interpretation of our holy Saviour Christ jesus and his Apostles, to honour and reverence his holy Sacraments instituted of him by extorior signs, to lift up our hearts, and raise our spirits and minds to Heaven, 
Psa. 12.  for to comprehend that which by those signs is represented to us, and not to esteem, hold, and account them a vain picture or apparitions; but endeavour to receive them worthily by lively faith and virtue of the Holy Ghost, to the end to be fed and nourished with celestial bread, to the salvation of our souls, thereby to attain life eternal.  
Let us then be assured in Christ jesus as members of his body, 
1. Cor. 10. 1. Cor. 12.  that we may be reduced and brought all into one unity, for to communicate and eat the same bread & drink the same wine, compounded of many grains united together, to the end that we may say with the holy Apostle: All we faithful are the body of Christ jesus, saved & redeemed by his holy body crucified, and precious blood shed for us, and so remaining permanent in faith in Christ jesus, in eating his body, and drinking his blood, to believe firmly to have been crucified and risen from the dead, 
D. August. in joan. tract. 30. Art. 1. & 3.  ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God his Father, until that he returns as he is ascended with his humanity, and nevertheless his Almighty power and Divinity to be distributed to us and diffused in earth, and in all places, especially in his holy Sacraments, which he hath left us for a pledge, and exterior approbation of our faith, for memory and recordation of the death and passion of our Saviour JESUS CHRIST.  
FINIS.    

Invincible proofs, that Transubstantiation is but of late years, gathered out of authentic Authors and confessed by the most learned of the Papists.  
NOw to manifest that the Church of Christ taught none other doctrine concerning the Lord Supper, than the reformed Churches do teach for one thousend years since Christ, here I do produce undeniable testimonies. First the Book of Alfricus, Archbishop of Canterbury Anno 996. in the reign of Etheldred King of England, which book doth remain in the Library at Exeter, and a copy of part of it dedicated to King Henry the 8. by Doctor Cranmer; And by the same book Alfricus having translated So. Sermons out of Latin into the Saxon tongue, of which he made two books, and he was of such learning and eloquence and of such worthy esteem in the Churches of England, that whereas they made a book of Canons after his death to govern the clergy, they did collect out of some general counsels, & other ancient Fathers, in which they did insert two of the Sermons in that book of Alfrieus his translation into the Saxon language, the one was read in the church on Easterday, before they received the Lords Supper, and there any may read it in the Saxon language or in English recorded by Mr. Fox, and there are two of these books extant, and one of them is to be seen in the Library at Exeter, and the Italians and French did not understand the Saxon language, & I take it that was the cause they did not suppress it, as they did others. For Mr. Fox doth show there, how they have razed out of some of the Latin sermons, which are to be seen in those of the Saxon tongue, and thence he doth show that they were such words, as made against their superstition: So it is manifest that this doctrine of Transubstantion was not received in the Churches of England for fifty years after, for this book of constitutions was in use till Langfrank was Archbishop, & it doth appear that sermon was read in those Churches until William the Conqueror came into England, & had reigned there some years, in likely hood till the year 1070. & Capgrave and William Mamsbery, who were History writers, do both of them affirm, that this Alfricus was Archbishop of Canterbury about the year 996. And by the rehearsed book of Canons & constitutions it doth appear that this Alfricus was holden for a man of found judgement and a Catholic writer, and this book of constitutions was given unto the Church of Worcester, by William Bishop of Worcester, for an especial treasure; as doth appear in the same book. Besides this book, there is another book given to the Church of Exeter, by Leofrious, the first and famous Bishop of that Sea, which hath those two Epistles before rehearsed.  
Many other proofs ye may see in Mr. Fox, for the truth of this Author.  
And it doth appear that Langfrank did alter this doctrine, for before he came into England, I do find that he was one of the four, 
Henry Bulling de ongine erroris cap. 10. Counsel Vercellense do say, many French stood with him, William Mau●●usbury affirm, the same.  which did dispute against one Beringarius, Archdeacon of Angreas in France, who was turmoiled & persecuted by four Popes, for defending in the Lord's Supper, Bread and Wine did remain, and that the faithful received Christ spiritually and not with their carnal mouths, his last recantation he made under Pope Hildebrand, named Gregory the 7. Anno 1079. Upon which he with grief and sorrow did give away his living, and all his goods to the poor, and wrought for his living in his old age, after he had been persecated thirty years: one Author doth say, he did repent his forsaking of the truth before his death.  
These with many other testimonies are to be seen in the answer to the 6. Articles, recorded by Mr. Fox. And Osbon, who did write an History at the appointment of Langfrank Archbishop of Canterbury, doth say, that at that time certain of the Priests and Clergy were deluded and seduced by wicked error, did hold and maintain that bread and wine which are set upon the Altar after the consecration do remain in their former substances, and are but a figure of the body and blood of Christ.  
Thus was the manner of the Popish Priests thus to deprave, where it is certain by that before rehearsed, & this hereafter testified, that this was the judgement of the Church: & the reasons he used to show what made them alter their minds are certain false miracles, which are common in their Legendaries, & may be read in the forenamed History, which if I should rehearse would be thought lying for the Whetstone.  
Whilst this abominable doctrine was in hatching. See how many thousand witnesses the Lord did stir up to maintain his truth, even by their own Authors confessed.  
See rerum Francicarum scriptores about the year 1283. He saith, the heresy of the Waldenses spread throughout Europe.  
Look a Railing Book, written against Mr. Fox his Book, printed 1603. in the 528. Section he saith, the doctrine of the Waldenses was spread in more than a thousand Cities, speaking of the year 1200.  
There is a Chronicle of Lambertus a Monk of Hersfield, 
Anno 1078.  he writ from the beginning of the World to this year, in which he doth much complain of the Clergy, but most of the Monks, he affirmeth them to be proud, and ambitious & destroyers of the Lords Vineyard by their ungodly life, and great iniquities, by which they have polluted the whole Church.  
The Bishop of Florence did teach and preach, that Antichrist was then manifested, as Gabellicus testifieth. 
Anno 1101.  Upon this Pope Pascalos called a counsel and put him to silence, & condemned his books. And Blondus Platina testifieth he also disallowed of many Ceremonies, for which the Pope deprived him of all his goods. See the two former testmonies.  
A counsel holden at Rome, 
Anno 1124.  where was assembled one thousane Bishops & abbots, there they did ordain that this transubstantion should be put for an Article of faith, yet it doth appear that it was opposed, for Innocent the 3 did 86 years after enact it in a counsel, but here by this connsel the Pope sent his Cardinal to the Monks of Caslam, that they should acknowledge the Church of Rome had received power from St. Peter, and he had delivered it from the mouth of Christ, that all Churches and Cloisters are to be planted and established by the Sea of Rome, and all aught in conscience to be obedient to that Sea, and to acknowledge that he hath received power to open the gates of Heaven to whom he would, and also to shirt them against any, and that the Roman Church was builded on the Sun of God, which all aught to believe; and this is builded on the faith of Peter, & that Peter and Paul did plant the Church at Rome with their blood, and that it was the Mother church of all other Churches, and those which did oppose that Church did oppose the Word of God. See the counsel of Cissinences.  
At this time was Arnulphus Bishop of Ludom, 
Anno 1127  a zealous man he rebuked the wicked life of the clergy, & their much pride, and he exhorted all to follow Christ in poverty as his Apostles did, & in holiness of life. This man for his holy life and godly preaching was well accepted of the Nobility, and of the Citizens; but the Cardinal and clergy hated him, and sought to make him away privately: But he having a revelation before what death he should dye, he declared unto them in his teaching, that he knew the clergy would murder him privately, because he told them the truth, in blaming their pride and wicked living, and therefore they were offended with him, he protested he was commanded of God to cry out against their great sins. It doth follow that the clergy murdered him: & there is a book of his, doth inveigh against many superstitions, printed at Collen.  
The Archbishop of Mentzes, 
Anno 1131.  Hildebertus, a man of great learning, did earnestly preach and write against the Sea of Rome, & against the abominable wickedness: He affirmed them to be Tyrants, & the sink of all iniquity, & that they banished away all goodness out of the Church, & for this doctrine he is sent up to Rome, and there cruelly handled, and imprisonned. See Rainul in poli Chrocit.  
Peter Blesensis Archdeacon, 
Anno 1167  he wrote a book very learnedly, in which he proved Rome was that Babylon St. john wrote of in the Apocalypse, and that all their clergy were adversaries to the Gospel of jesus Christ, and the very Calus of bethel and Dan, and Baal's Priests, and Egyptian Idolaters, they selling all things for money. S e Trethinius Gesnerus,  
Peter Construe, a Priest at Troy's, a man of great learning, 
Anno 1182.  and an eloquent Orator, he wrote 20. books, and sundry Sermons, in which he doth prove the clergy neglect the Word of God, and feed the people with their own inventions, and that the Church goods, which belong to the poor they consume wickedly, & he affirmeth them to be false brethren, for which the wrath of God shall fall on them. See Trethemius Vens●nttus.  
I will now set down some testimonies of some of those, 
Of those which were banished & suffered death. Anno 1105.  which did testify the Lord's truth the time this idolatry was in hatching.  
Before there was any general Law to maintain this Transubstantiation. I find under the Bishop of Trare four persons banished, and accounted heretics, for that they affirmed the bread and wine do remain in their former substance at the Lords Supper, after the words of consecration. They denied the Pope to have authority over other Churches. See the Catalogue of the Bishop of Trare.  
Doctor Fulck in his answer to the Rhemish Testament, 
See Reve, 17.4.  doth say, that the church of Leedium, before this was under great persecution under Pope Pascus, for affirming him Antichrist.  
Two Preachers in France, one named Peter Breves, 
Anno 1135.  the other is called Hendrick van de Tollhouse, they were well known in France, and of good estimation for their great learning, and they did much bewail the Apostasy of the church, and they spared no man of any degree, whatsoever they were, affirming that they were fallen from the estate of grace and from Christ, and they affirmed the Pope to be the Prince of Sodom, and the City of Rome to be the Mother of all abomination, that all the Bishops were cruel Wolves, they detested the doctrine of Transubstantiation, and affirmed the Mass, prayer for the dead, was Idolatry before God, and that Images & the Cross might not be prayed unto, nor suffered in the Churches: That the Priest's manner of singing was mockery before God, that praying to Saints and vowing of Chastity, and their manner of building Temples, and observing of Holidays were superstitious and wicked, and all humane inventions in God's worship wicked Idolatry. These men continued in their preaching twenty years, and having great refort coming to their preaching of all sorts and estates, at last they were apprehended by the Pope's command by a Legate of his, and Peter Brise was burned a St. joyls, the other was apprehended & committed to prison, but what came of him we find not: but the followed great persecution, & many of their Disciples went to their death joyfully. Look the 65. and 66. Letters of Barnod to the Earl of St. joylls. There wrote against them Peter Abbott of Clugnam, which Barnod did record, and in likelihood with envy. See the Chronicle of Paulus Meriam.  
Ilyricus in his boock Detesbus, 
Anno 1158.  speaketh of two called Gurhardus and Dulcinus, who did preach diligently against the Church of Rome, affirming, that prayer was no better in one place then another, and that the Pope was Antichrist, and the Prelates and Clergy of Rome were rejected, and the very whore of Babylon, prefigured in the Apocalypse. These two Preachers came into England, and brought with them thirty, in the reign of King Henry the Second, and by means of the Prelates, they were imprisoned, and branded in the cheeck, and banished the land, and after put to death by the Pope.  
This year was Peter Waldus called in question, 
Anno 1160.  for that he taught the truth of the Gospel against the Pope's superstition. The means of his conversion was this: He being a rich merchant of Lions (some say he was a Magistrate) sundry of the Merchants being together merry, suddenly one of them was strucken dead, and so the rest being strucken with great fear, he gave himself to prayer and reading the Scriptures & good books, and instructed his Family in the grounds of Christian Religion, showing them the great superstition of the Romish Church, so that they had forsaken the Heavenly Truth, which the Apostles planted, & in stead thereof they did burden their consciences with superstition: And he being very rich, gave much goods weekly to the poor, instructed them well in the grounds of religion, so that many came to his godly exhortations, and to confer with him concerning the truth of the Gospel. He kept sundry learned men in his house, he caused good books to be translated in the French language. He himself was learned, as doth appear by a parchment writing of his own hand, in which he had collected the Fathers into a good form, as that writing showeth.  
First the Bishops and Priests sent unto him, and forbade him to have any more such meetings in his house upon pain of excommunication; to which he gave this answer: That it was his duty to teach his household the grounds of religion, & whereas his neighbours came to hear him, he did not find where that he ought to forbid them, but he was assured it was his duty to teach his household, & he would obey the voice of Christ, & when he was called into question, that which they laid to his charge was, that he affirmed that the Mass was abominable before God, and that he denied any more Sacraments, than Baptism and the Lords Supper, and that it was an abomination, to offer for the dead, and that Purgatory was the invention of men, & that there was no ground in the Scripture for it, for the Faithful go presently to joy after this life, that honouring of Images & praying to Saints, was idolatry, & that the Church of Rome was the Whore of Babylon, & that Christians ought not to obey the Pope or the Bishops, because they were no better than Wolves to destroy the Church, and that they ought not to meddle with the temporal sword, and that their additions of more Sacraments than two, was wicked. Item, that the Vow of chastity was found to be Sodomitry, & that the many orders of the Monks was the mark of the Beast, & abominable against Christ; 
For friars were not then hatched,  that celebrated days for dead men, & all inventions of men in God's worship were ungodly.  
And because the Pope's champion Bernard, who is sainted for his work, & Peter of Clumin: writ so spitefully of them charging them with sundry heresies, and that they deny children's baptism. I will set down the testimony of one, who was a bloody persecutor of them, as it is in a little book that he wrote against the Waldenses, about the year 1270. wherein when he hath spoken all the evil of them he could, yet God, who opened the mouth of Balaams' Ass, caused him to write these words of them. They are (saith he) more pernicious against the Roman Church, than all other heretics, for three causes. The first is, because they have been of longer continuance, for some say they have been since Silvester, others say, they have been since the Apostles time. The second cause is, because they are more general, for there is almost no land in which this sect doth not creep. The third cause is, because all other sects, do bring a horror, with the heinousness of their blasphemies against God: but this sect of the Lionese hath a great show of godliness, because they live justly before men, and they believe all things well concerning God, & they believe all the Articles, which are contained in the Creed. They blaspheme and hate only the Church of Rome. This is to be found in a little Treatise of Renerius, imprinted near a hundred years since. Who was a bloody Inquisitor, and gave sentence of death against sundry of them.  
The jesuite saith, that one Cesarius writes, that the Doctrine of these Waldenses was spread in more than a thousand cities, 
In a book against Fox 535. fol.  and that they had an army of 70000. that were destroyed by Simon of Momford, with a small army: but there is no mention of an army, which they had in the Chronicles.  
Now we will show what the heresy was for which they were persecuted, as Langfrank saith.  
That the sacrifice of the Church consisteth of two things, the one visible, the other invisible, that is, of the Sacrament, & the the thing or matter of the Sacrament, which is the body of Christ, if it were here present before our eyes, it were a thing visible, and to be seen; but being lift up to Heaven, and sitting on the right hand of his Father, to the time of restoring of all things, as Peter saith. It can not be called down from thence, for the person of Christ consisteth of God and man. The Sacrament of the Lords Table, consisteth of bread and wine, which being consecrated, are not changed but remain in their substances, having a resemblance or similitude of those things, whereof they be Sacraments. See Langfrank.  
The adversaries did teach this Faith following.  
I believe the earthly substances, 
The Pop●●● Faith.  which upon the Lord's Table are divinely sanctified through the ministration of the Priest, to be converted unspeakably, incomprehensibly, and miraculously by the operation of God's mighty power, into the essence of the Lords body, the outward forms only of the things themselves, and certain qualities reserved, & that for two respects. The one lest the sight of the raw & bloody flesh might otherwise make man to abhor from eating thereof, that they which believe things, which they see not, might have the greater merit for their belief. The conversion of which earthly substances into the essence of the Lords body notwithstanding, yet is the self same body of the Lord in Heaven, & there hath his essential being at the right hand of his Father, immortal, inviolate, perfect, undiminished and uncorrupted, so that truly it may be affirmed, the self same body both to be received of us, and yet not the self same, I mean as touching the essence, property and virtue of his true nature, 
So much of Langfrank, Archbishop of Canterb.  and yet not the self same, as touching the forms of bread and wine, & other outward qualities occurring to our outward senses.  
The Doctrine of Guimundus, Archbishop of Aversam, 
Those who will see further, let the read the answer to the 6. Articl.  is as gross, as appears by a Book, printed at Lovan, which saith: That the body of Christ is pressed and torn with teeth, even like as it was felt and touched with the hands of Thomas.  
And further, he answereth an objection put forth, that it is not lawful for Christ to be torn in pieces with teeth, he doubteth not to pronounce, that whether we take tearing for bare biting, it is not repugnant nor disagreeing, but that by the will of God agreeing thereunto, the body of Christ may be b●tten, with mouth crushed, yea & divided in pieces with hard or soft pressing of the teeth, & that as he was brursed upon the cross, according to the Prophets laying, he was bruised for our iniquities, so the same body for the health of the faithful, may devoutly be torn & tent with their teeth, any thing to the contrary notwithstanding. Cuimundus lib. Sacrament fol. 30.  
Let all which fear God observe now these do oppose the word of God, 
Exod. 12.46  which saith: They shall not break a bone of him.  
Thus I have showed how this abominable doctrine of Transubstantiation crept into the church, & that it was hatched by the Monks, & by the Histories we may see how they confirmed it with miracles, and their holy bishop Duaston did triumph over the Devil, when he would have enticed him to lust after a young Woman. He got the Devil by the nose with a pair of red not tongs. Such like miracles are to be read in their Legend.  
Another miracle of a lewish Boy, 
For which testimony he was put into the fire to be burned of his Father, but the fire had no power to touch him, for a beautiful woman, whose the Child was, kept the sire from him with her gown And this was the virgin Marie.  that said, he saw in the Church of the Christians a Child broken and divided.  
And seeing the Papists, do affirm, that the Church of Christ did in all ages teach Transubstantiation to be a Catholic doctrine: We will examine one of their Historie-writers, who wrote in the time this idol was a hatching, called Osbon, who did write the lives of three Archbishops of Canterbury, about the year 1076. in which History he saith: In the days of Odo, certain of the Clergy being seduced by wicked error, did hold and maintain, that the bread and wine, which are set upon the Altar, after the consecration, do remain in their former substance, & are but only a figure of the body & blood of Christ: But (saith he) that holy Father Odo did convert them, which was about the year 951. He reciteth the means which Odo did use, to convert them by a certain miracle. He saith: These Clergy Men being before him, he persuaded them, seeing they could not be convicted by argument, yet he requested them, to stay and see him say Mass, & to communicate, which they did, & seeing, after consecration & breaking of the Host over the chalice, the blood dropped out of the Host into the chalice Odo. (saith he) wept for joy to see his petition accomplished, which he so earnestly prayed for. On the sight thereof, he saith: these clergy men beholding and seeing were converted, and blessed the Archbishop, thanking God that he was borne to manifest his truth to them, and thus they were converted to believe Transubstantiation, and blessed the Archbishop for their conversion, and they desired him to pray again that it might return to the former substance, and presently he returned it into the same substance.  
Now I would gladly know what was the reason, that after this great miracle, and the conversion of this clergy, that this contrary Doctrine should be taught, and that an Archbishop Alfrecus should translate and write against this miracle & doctrine, and that all the Churches in England should with him teach against this Transubstantation, and that for 90. years, if not for a hundred, and yet should not be excommunicated by the holy Father the Pope, & not once proceeded against, seeing that 60. years after, the clergy of England made a book of constitutions to be governed by, in which they did all approve, that in the Lord's Supper, there remained bread & wine, and yet the faithful received Christ spiritually, and yet for all this the Pope did not proceed against them.  
Again what was the reason, there were so many Latin sermons tolerated in the Church, which taught against their superstitions, and they not condemned by some general council for heresy, if the Church had formerly concluded this Doctrine.  
Again what is the reason that these Latin Sermons are all made away, except one, and that that should have some words utterly razed out, & the same Sermon remaining in the Saxon language, hath these words: Notwithstanding this sacrifice is not the same body of his, wherein he suffered for us, nor the same blood of his, which he shed for us, 
Anno 1141.  but spiritually it is made his body and blood, as that Manna, which reigned from heaven, & the water, which did flow out of the Rock, as Paul saith. These words so razed out are restored again by the same sermon in the Saxon language, and is to be seen in a book at Exeter.  
Again I marvel those clergy men were suffered to be so near the Bishop at his celebrating of Mass, and were not rather committed to ward like heretics.  
Again I marvel that this Odo, 
Popish Writer found falsh.  he being a man of so great authority, who had such extraordinary gifts in working miracles, as never any Prophet or Apostle had, yet that he would suffer those Latin sermons in the Church, which Alfrecus did translate 46. years after him into the Saxon language, and not he to have so much as writ against them, and that heresy, and to leave some testimony of his detestation against it.  
Again I do marvel that Osbon doth not make mention of their singing to Deum, seeing it was in the Cathedral Church, where so many singing men were.  
That Jesuit, who can clear these Doubts shall do as great a miracle, as Odo did, when by his prayers caused a sword to come flying from heaven into King Ethelstanes scabbard, when he had lost his own, and he being in fight with Analnus. Or as great a miracle as Odo did, in making that all the time the roof of the Church of Canterbury was a building, he caused that not one drop of rain fell in the Church, nay that jesuite deserveth a Cardinal's hat.  
All these reasons well considered, do show that this Osbon did seek to delude the people, and his testimony is found to be against them, and to manifest the truth for us.  
And this Doctrine was not established by general consent, till Innocent the 3. by the counsel holden at Rome, Anno 1215. It was by 1300, Bishops, and there they did decree, that all must go to confession once a year, and come to the communion, and this was made an Article of Faith.  
About the year of our Lord 1280. lived johannes Scotus, he is called Downs, he was Master of Sciences, & in his 4. book he writes thus of the sacrament of the Lords Supper, the scriptures might be expounded more easily & more plainly, without Transubstantiation, but the Church did choose this sense, which is more hard being moved thereunto, as it seemeth chief because of the Sacrament, men ought to hold as the holy Church of Rome holdeth.  
And in the same place, he doth allude unto Jnnocent the 3. and the counsel holden in the Church at Rome, called the Lateran counsel.  
Erasmus on the 1. Corinth. 7. saith: The Church of Christ hath lately determined Transubstantiation in the Sacrament, it was enough a long season to believe Christ's body to be either under the bread consecrated, or else to be present after any other manner, this he wrote about an 120. years since. He was as great a learned man, as any lived in that age.  
This Pope having (as it is manifested) altered the institution of the Lords Supper, he having ordained a new faith, and having chosen 4. orders of Friars, which brought forth a new Gospel, called Cirillus, by which they taught that God governed in the time of the Law, the Sun in the time of grace, but now by the coming of the 4. orders of begging Friars, the Holy Ghost began to reign, and should reign till the end of the world, and those which believed this new Gospel, should be saved.  
And if the Lord in mercy had not stirred up many witnesses, 
Rev. 16.13  to withstand there croaking frogs, they would have razed out all Christianity, amongst which was that famous divine Gulielmus, Master of Paris, who proved by 39 Arguments, that friars are false teachers, and all the Scriptures, which are against Antichrist, he applied against them. See more in Mr. Fox.  
This Innocentius the 3. came to be Pope Anno 1198. He was Pope 19 years, and he having brought in many superstitions into the Church: He commanded Almericum of Paris to be burned for an heretic, because he disallowed Transubstantiation, and that whosoever did not go to confession at least once a year, should be excommunicate. He ordained the Lords Supper should be celebrated without wine: he ordained that the consecrated Host should be carried to the sick by the Priest in a gorgeous habit, with torches or candles light, and a bell before him, and so to go to the sick, and give him of it.  
It is recorded, this Pope was exceeding subtle and crafty, he brought the Emperor under him, and all the Kings in Europe, as Abas Vespergincs saith. He got all the wealth in the world by his wicked devises. 
He compelled king john to receive his Crown of him. See Fox 253.  He decreed, that whosever spoke evil of the Pope, should lose his life, yea that he should be tormented in hell sire.  
This Pope did first institute the fowr orders of Friars. whereas the order of Monks were made first clergy men by Boniface the third, in a counsel at Rome, Anno 610. There it was decreed that the Monks might preach and baptise, excommunicate and absolve, whereas before they did not attend any such office: 
See Vencenee Belovanses Hist. lib. 30.  and it doth appear, that the Priests did much oppose them. For I do find, that Pope Honorius after did conform them to those degrees.  
To return to this Innocentius, there he did ordain, that the foresaid Friars should refort to all houses, and that they having received from him power to teach, to bind or to lose all which they should judge of, and thus they kept the people in great fear of them. 
Anno. 259.  He ordained, that the Mass should be received with equal authority, as if it had proceeded from the Evangelists or Apostles themselves.  
These Popish orders of these croaking frogs were not lesie then an hundreth sorts of them, and they were in all parts of Christendom, not one village was free of them, and these were established to suppress the heretics, as they did account them.  
These Locusts were prophesied of before by Heldegardis, which Mr. Fox doth record. 
Exod.   
The Holy Ghost hath foretold us, that there should arise a number of Locusts out of the earth, 
●evel. 9  which should have stings like Scorpions, those are the Friars and Monks, who when they could not pervert men from the truth of the Gospel, than they would falsely charge them, and affirm they did maintain certain gross heresies, which they did always detest and abhor, and thus have they slandered these faithful Servants of jesus, as Master Brightman doth well observe.  
And of these false teaching Friars there needs no farther or clearer testimony for their conviction, than the condemnation, that Hildigardis foretold of them, and her testimony touching them, is void of exception, since they hold her for a Prophetess: she prophesied first against the Prelates and Priests, charging them with their abominable living, in neglecting the Word of God, and betraying the truth, and destroying the Law.  
She foretold thereof 70. years before they were.  
And this testimony M. Fox affirmeth, he received in parchment, written in old Characters in Latin, & he doth show certain ancient writers, who have alleged it. And this is M. Brightmen, translated into English, as followeth.  
In those days there shall rise up a sort of Blockish fellows proud, covetous, perfidious, and crafty, 
The Prophecy of Hildegard.  that shall eat up the sins of the common people, carrying a certain show of foolish superstition under a feigned coverture of beggary: preferring theselves before all other men, by reason of a counterfeit Religion; Men of an arrogant disposition, and feigned holiness, void of all shame, or fear of God: In inventing many new mischiefs strong & stout; but all prudent men, & faithful Christians shall curse this pestilent order.  
Men who will shun labour, and give themselves wholly to idleness, rather choosing to get their living by flattery, and beggary, and that will bend themselves with all their might every way they can, perversely to resist the teachers of the Truth, and hinder them, and for this end they will flatter noblemen, that they may assist them in this purpose: They shall also deceive the Nobles, and draw them into error, that they may furnish them with all necessaries, yea with all the delights and pleasures of this world.  
For the Devil shall engraft these four principal vices into their minds. Flattery, Envy, Hypocrisy, and Slander. Flattery. wherewith to purchase great matters to themselves. Envy when they shall see benefits bestowed upon others besides themselves. Hypocrisy whereby they shall seek to please men by means of a conterfait dissembling. Slander, whereby they shall extol & set out themselves with praises, by derogating from others, that they alone might be renowned among men, specially the simpler sort that are deceived by them.  
They shall preach indeed diligently, but without all sense of pietve, and not after the manner of the holy Martyrs of old. They shall derogate from the secular Princes, they shall take away the Sacrament from the true Pastors, and shall take alms of those that are very sick, and miserable, insinuating, and by little and little winding themselves, into the hearts of the common people.  
They shall have familiarity with women, teaching them how to deceive their husbands and friends, with sugared, and dissembling words, how to rob them of their goods, & then to give the same being thus purloined unto these their teachers. For they shall lay hold on whatsoever men get, or howsoever it be gotten, by stealth, robbery, or by any legerdemain; & will say to them, give it unto us, and we will pray for you, so that labouring to cover other men's sins, they shall quite forget their own.  
And alas, they shall receive any thing, from rogues, filchers, Thiefs, Robbers that steal by the high way side, Sacrilegious persons, Usurers, Adulterers, Heretics, schismatics, Apostats, whores and bawds of Noblemen, perjured Merchants, corrupt judges, Soldiers, Tyrants, or any that live contrary to God's Laws. Perverse and wicked men they shallbe, embracing the persuasion of the Devil, the sweetness of Sin, a soft and delicate life, and a certain fullness and abundance of all worldly things, though it be to their own eternal damnation.  
All these things shall manifestly appear to be in them, and they shall every day ware more & more wicked, and that with minds more & more obdurate. But when as once their crafty conveyances shallbe found out, and all their other wickedness, then shall their large gifts cease, and they shall go from house to house like hungerbitten, and mad dogs, looking down upon the earth, and drawing in their necks likes drones & all to get their fill of bread. Then shall the people pursue them with this outcry: Woe be unto you miserable wretches, that are ordained to sorrow, the world hath deceived you, the Devil hath guided you with his raines hitherto, your flesh is frail, your heart is altogether without wit, grace, or wisdom, your minds are unstable, and wavering, and your eyes are blinded with much vanity and folly. Your idle bellies have lusted after delicate dishes of meat: and your feet have been swift to wickedness. Remember the time when you were in sight happy, yet privily envious: poor abroad, but rich at home, covertous in show, but great flatterers in deed, unfaithful, treacherous, perverse backbiters, holy hypocrites, supplanters of the truth, immoderately just, proud, unchaste, unconstant teachers, delicate Martyrs, gainthirsty Confessors, gentle, but yet slanderers. Religious, but yet covetous: humble, but yet proud: merciful: but yet impudent liars, pleasant flatterers, peacemaking persecutors, oppressors of the poor, bringers in of new sects, devised by yourselves, men that were counted merciful, but are found out to be wicked wretches, lovers of the world, conjurers, dronckards, ambitious, patroness of wicked facts, the pollers and pillars of the whole world, unsatiable preachers, that seek to please men, & to deceive women, sowers of discord, of whom that famous Prophet Moses spoke wisely in his Song: A people without counsel, and understanding, would to God they had knowledge & understanding, and could have foreseen their latter end.  
Ye have built your nests on high indeed, and when ye could rise up no higher, ye fell down like as did Simon Magus, whom God destroyed & smote with a mighty plagne; So shall you also be thrown down upon the earth out of the clouds, and that by means of your false doctrine, your wickedness, lies, slanders, and detestable facts. Then the people shall say unto them: Out upon you, get ye packing hence, you Captains of mischief, overturners of truth, ye shunamitish brethren, fathers of heresies, false Apostles, that counterfeited the life of the Apostles, whereof ye have been imitators by no means: You sons of iniquity, we will not follow the manner of your ways. For pride and arrogancy have seduced you, and insatiable covetousness, hath entangled your erring minds. And seeing that you would needs ascend up higher than was meet and equal, ye are fallen back headlong into everlasting shame and reproach by God's just judgement.  
These things wrote Hildegard about the year 1146.  
It is recorded, that the people were so oppressed with them, that they make suit that their number might be less, for they were not able no maintain them all, for they kept the people in fear of them, so that they durst not displease them, for if they did, they would excommunicate them, or else accuse them to be heretics, & those that did obey them, they would flatter, & tell them they would pray and prevail with the Saints, that they should not be tormented in Purgatory. And if they were rich, & lay sick on their deathbed, than they would persuade them to give to their order and house at least a child's portion, that they might not be tormented in purgatory, yea if they gave liberally, they would promise them their souls should go presently into Paradise, and thus they did beguile the simple people, and defrand their posterity of their inheritance; so that in less than 400. years they had got the third part of the wealth in the world.  
To the like effect also prophesied Catharine, whom they have canonised for a Saint. She affirmed that all their Clergy were deceivers of the people, and perverters of the truth.  
And holy Bridget did affirm, that most of the Popes were in Hell torments, for their deceiving the people, and perverting the truth of the Gospel.  
This Pope sent his Legate into France with 12. abbots, to suppress the Waldenses, which taught the Church of Rome was the Whore of Babylon, and his ordinances wicked, and their Mass full of abomination, contrary to Christ and his Gospel, and never known to the Apostles.  
And this Pope did first institute an inquisition, which did condemn the poor lambs for heretics, & the like they did in Spain, & appointed Diedicus a Bishop there, who did persecute them with all cruelty. See the Chronicle of Paulus Merium, Anno 1206.  
The Chronicle of Munster, 
Anno 1210.  written by Harmannia Mutye, doth say, that at Strausborow there was an hundreth put to death in one day, and 80. at another time, and 39 at Mentzes. These were burned for that they maintained the same doctrine against the Pope, which the Waldenses did, and in other countries there suffered many, as in Alvia and Langwedoc, and Narbon Casan. Record at the Tolehouse many suffered.  
Mascias saith, there suffered in the Provinces 140. and at Narborn they suffered great torments in the fire, and at Paris suffered 24. And the year following (as Masays testifieth) there was 400. put to death, 80. beheaded, Prince Americus hanged, the Lady-of the Castle stoned to death.  
I do find by those, who do record this, some difference of the time that this was. See Fox 420. fol.  
The Bishop of Narbon put in a Castle near the Tolhouse 224. of these Martyrs, and burned them to death. 
Anno 124;  See the Creniele illius Temporis.  
I have formerly shown that these Locusts, sting like Scorpions, and those which live in countries, where Scorpions are, do say, they are so bold, that they will set upon a man, and sting him, and for the present, he shall feel but little pain, but if he have not cure within one hour, it will so infect his flesh, that with great anguish he dieth whithin 2. days of it, therefore the holy Ghost hath made a fit comparison, 
Rev. 9  for these Locusts do make show, their abominable Doctrine is not hurtful, but those, which do receive it, it doth so infect their souls, that except they be cured in a short time they become worse than mad, for it doth torment them unto eternal woe for evermore,  
Or if we do understand it of the sting they gave of the faithful witnesses of the Gospel, when they could not pervert them from the truth, they would give out their stings, that they held sundry gross heresies, to make them odious to all indifferent men, as doth appear in their writings.  
Rerum Francarum in scriptorum writeth, 
Anno 128;  there was of the Waldenses heretics in all Christendom, and that they were in all Cities, and although they were slandered to hold sundry heresies, yet I have formerly shown that a bloody Inquisitor did confess, they believed all things well, and their evil he charged them with is, they blaspheme the Church of Rome.   

THE DOCTRINE Of the Church of Christ for one thousand years after his Ascension.  
IRENEUS saith, 
Anno 180. jeven. lib. 5. & lib. 4. cap. 34.  that the bread is broken, and the cup next after the vocation or calling upon God, cease to be common bread any more, but are the Eucharist of the body and blood of Christ, and he manifesteth how, for faith he the Eucharist consisteth of two things, one being earthly, which is bread and wine, the other heavenly, which is the body and blood of our Lord.  
And herunto Tertullian doth teach the Sacrament, 
Anno 200. Tertul. lib. 4  to be a figure, sign and memorial of the Lords body. And elswere, he saith against Martion: He gave his body, that is to say, a figure of his body.  
Dionysius calleth the Sacrament of Christ's body, 
Dionysius.  no otherwise then bread, as Eusebius doth relate.  
Cyprian saith, 
Epist. 6. lib. 1 & 3. lib. 2  in his last Supper, he gave bread & wine, and his body upon the Cross.  
He saith: Christ drunk wine at his last Supper, because he would root out the heresy of certain, who used water in administration.  
Chrisostom saith, 
Anno 350. Hom. 13. on Matth.  that only bread remaineth.  
And Theodoretus in his first Dialogue, bread remaineth, still its former nature.  
At a Counsel holden at Leadium, 
Anno 364.  in the 25. Article they decreed what they should do with that remained in the celebration of the Lords Supper, & there they call them by the same names they were called before the consecration, bread, and how they should dispose it.  
Hesichius, 
Anno 500 Hesechius lib. 20. in Lev, cap. 8.  who was 500 years after our Lord's passion, saith of the mystery: It is both flesh and bread, that is the true believer receiveth Christ and bread.  
Emissenus, compareth a man converted to Christ, 
Emissen. ●e Consee. dist. 2. quia corpus.  by regeneration, unto the holy mysteries, consecrated to the body and blood of Christ, that is outwardly nothing is changed, but all the change is inwardly.  
Augustin saith: The bread doth not lose his first nature after the consecration, but it receiveth another quality, whereby it differeth from common bread.  
And against Maximinus he saith, Sacraments are figures, 
Anno 400. August. lib. 3 cont. Maxins.  being one thing indeed, yet showing forth another thing.  
And in another place he saith: There are no other sacrifices than prayer, praises, and thanksgiving.  
Gelasius saith: The Sacraments, which we receive, 
Anno 492.  are divine things, yet cease they not to be bread and wine in nature.  
Beda writing on the 21 th'. Psalm, hath these words: 
Anno 730.  Poor men, despisers of the world, shall eat indeed really if it be referred to the Sacraments, and shallbe filled eternally, because they shall understand in bread & in wine, being visible before him, a thing invisible, to wit, the true body & blood of Christ are true meat and true drink, which filleth not the belly, but the mind is nourished. Haymo about 850. taught the same Doctrine.  
Now to observe the Article of our Faith: He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God.  
Augustin saith: 
Aug. supper lean. tract. 30. tract. 50.  The Lord is above even to the end of the world, and yet the verity of the Lord is here also, for this body, wherein he rose again, must needs be in one place, but his verity is spread abroad every where.  
Elsewhere he saith: Let the godly receive also that Sacrament, but let them not be careful for the presence of his body, for as concerning his Majesty, his providence is invisible, & unspeakable graces, for these words are fulfiled, which he spoke: I am with you to the end of the world. But according to the flesh, which he took upon him when he was born of the Virgin, and was apprehended of the jews, and was fastened to a tree, taken down again from the Cross, lapped in linen clothes, was buried, & rose again, & appeared after his resurrection, so ye shall not have me always with you & why? Because as concerning his flesh: 
The conclusion of Doctor Ridlye.  He was couversant with his Disciples 40. days, and they accompanied him seeing him, but not following him, for he went up to Heaven, and is not here, for he sitteth at the right hand of God his Father, & yet he is here, 
Math. 28.  because, he is not departed hence as concerning the presence of his Divine Majesty.  
Mark well what Augustine saith, he is aseended into heaven, and is not here, saith he, therefore believe not them, which say he is here still upon the earth.  
Also he saith, doubt not, but that jesus Christ as concerning the nature of his manhood is there, from whence he shall come, & remember well, & believe the profession of a Christian man, 
Aug. Ep. 57  that he rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God his Father, and from that place, and none other, not from the altars shall he come, to judge the quick and and the dead: and he shall come (as the Angel said) as he was seen to go up into heaven, that is to say; in the same form and substance unto which he gave immortality; but changed not nature after this form, meaning his humane nature, we may not think that it is every where.  
And in the same Epistle he saith, take away from the bodies the limitation of places, and they shallbe no where, and because they are no where they shall not be at all.  
Vigilius saith: 
Vigil. contra Vryche. lib. 4  If the word & the flesh be both of one nature, seeing that the word is every where, why then is not the flesh also every where: for when it was on earth, then verily it was not in heaven: And now, when it is in heaven, it is not surely in earth, and it is so certain, that it is not on earth, that as concerning the same, we look for him from heaven, whom as concerning the word, we believe to be with us in earth.  
These few testimonies I have produced to show, that in the main differences of our Religion betwixt the Papists and us, we have proofs not only from the Scriptures, and authentic Fathers: but also from the confession of the Popish writers themselves, and that for one thousand years since the Ascension of our Lord.  
And for these points I have related, I could produce as many more, but I hasten to be brief.  
In the next place I will show the Fathers, 
judgement.  concerning our justification by the free grace of God.  
That we are justified freely by the grace of God, apprehended by Faith, is a Doctrine, taught by the Apostles, & testified by the ancient Fathers.  
And now, this Doctrine was opposed by the Pelagians, 
Anno 420.  against which Augustine wrote snndry large volumes.  
And twelve years after his death, 
Commentary on the Proverbs of Salomen,  wrote Salomus Bishop of Viennen, who used these words: No man is chosen to Salvavation of God for any foreseen goodness he did see in him, nor any man is chosen of God for his good works, but only by his grace and mercy, and of his mere love. See of him Sidonius in an Epistle on Salloman, lib. 7. and Providentia Prosper his Chronicle.  
And the year following there was a council holden in the City Arragon against the Pelagians, which denied this doctrine, and maintained freewill, and it was condemned in this Synod,  
Venerable Beda departed this life, when he was 72. 
Anno 734.  years old, in his time he wrote much. And on the 21. Psalms, he affirmeth: We are justified by the grace of God, and not by works. He dissalowed Images & praying to Saints. He translated the Gospel of S. john into English.  
This Doctrine was maintained by sundry other Fathers, 
Anno 776.  as Falcanus, a man of great learning, Anno 780. & the patriarch of Aquilla and Haymo, Anno 850.  
At a Council holden at Mentzes against Godsaeldius, 
Anno 848.  a Priest of Belgica, where he was charged by the Bishop of that place Rabinus, to hold Erroneous doctrine, in that he affirmed: That no man is chosen of God for any foreseen goodness he saw in man: but we are saved freely by the grace of God. Which doctrine he did maintain very learnedly, there did dispute against him fowr, and because they could not pervert him for to give over, they did banish him. See the Counsel of Anelaus Apetheajedict frodurdes lib. 3. cap. 13.  
And it doth appear, this Doctrine was not yet established.  
For there was a Counsel holden at Valence in France, 
Anno 855.  concerning this Doctrine. Which certain Scottishmen did defend this Doctrine in the said Counsel, the  Godsaldun had defended before, and was banished: Yet we find not there was any proceeding against them, neither did they conclude any thing there against this Doctrine, but there they decreed, that none should be admitted to the ministry before they did dispute, and could defend their ordinances, and that they must take their oath to teach no Doctrine contrary to the Romish Church.  
Remegus, 
Anno 884.  Bishop of Attexerre in France, was accounted of great learning in sundry languages, in his writings he proveth that no man is made righteous by his own works, but only by laying hold on jesus Christ, by a lively faith. He doth affirm no man since Adam's transgression, have freewill to do good. Faith if we take the word amply and largely, signifieth a certain knowledge and resolving of the assurance of witnesses, which cannot deceive.  
justifying faith is a knowledge, which a man doth firmly assent to every word God hath revealed unto him, & resolveth that the promises of God's graces through Christ, belongeth unto him, and he hath a full persuasion, and confidence in the favour of God towards him, so he overcoming all flare and pensiveness.  
For the confidence of justifying faith, is a motion of the will and heart, consisting of a joy conceived for the certainly of the present grace of God toward him, and of the Hope of our future delivery from all evils.  
There is no faith, but that, which resteth on the will of God, revealed in his word.  
All true faith is wrought in man by the Holy Ghost, either by the voice of God's heavenly Doctrine, or by his immediate revelation, and seeing God will kindle, frame, and confirm ordinary faith in us, by the Doctrine of the Church, all are bound to hear it, and meditate thereon.  
Faith always in the ellect, is imperfect in this life, & sometime languisheth, yet howsoever, he feeleth in his heart an earnestness against doubts, which arise in his mind, yet he doth certainly resolve, he is endued with true faith.  
This true faith, being once kindled in our hearts: although often it languisheth, and is darkened for a time, yet it is never wholly extinguished; for by faith only we apply the promises of grace, and we obtain the promises of grace, receiving righteousness before God and the participation or communion of Christ, with all his benefits.  
So true faith is the persuasion of the heart, whereby the soul is truly assured of redemption, and remission of sins, and imputation of righteousness through jesus Christ.  
Let us hereto observe what our Saviour saith: 
Mat. 7.22.  Not every one that saith Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he which doth the will of my Father, which is in Heaven. And hereto saith the Apostle: Make an end of your salvation with fear and trembling.  
And therefore saith the Apostle james What availeth it my Brethren, if a man saith, he have faith, when he hath no works: 
Phil. 2.12. jemes 2.14.  can that faith save him? That is, it cannot save him.  
All which have this true faith, do daily judge & examine themselves of those sins, they have fallen into, and they are truly sorry for them, & they do humbly beseech the Lord, not only for pardon, but they do instantly beg of him for strength of his grace, that he may subdue his natural corruptions, which is an especial work of true faith: & therefore Christ saith: Come unto me all ye, which labour and are laden, 
Mat. 1● 29  and I will ease you.  
For all which have the spirit of regeneration, do not allow that which they do, for they labour to do that, which they are unable to perform, therefore they do as little Children do, who when their Father bids, bring them something they are unable to do, and perform, yet if the Child do his best to do it: his father doth accept it as well, if he had performed it. So is it betwixt us and the Lord, if we subdue our corruptions, and be sorry for our faults, and be earnestly sueing to the throne of grace, for strength of his Spirit, that we may subdue them, then are we those Christ speak of: Blessed are those, which mourn for they shallbe comforted. If we have these effects, then are we those the Apostle speaketh of, saying: He which is borne of God, 
1. john 3.9.  sinneth not.  
The consideration of this, caused the Apostle to charge the servants of God, to mortify their lusts, because the time is come that judgement doth begin at the house of God. And he saith: If it do begin with us, what shall the end be of those, which obey not the Gospel of God, for if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the wicked and ungodly appear?  
For if Christ reign not in our hearts, than he is not our Lord, 
Luk. 19.27  therefore he saith: Those mine enemies, which will not have me reign over them, bring them hither, and slay them before me. For every tree, which bringeth not forth good fruit, shallbe hewn down, and cast into the fire.  
Thus I have pointed at the true justifying faith, which the ancient Church did maintain: But if I should explicate it, it would require a choir of paper to manifest it. But I hasten to other things.  
The jesuite saith in 484. folio, 
That wrote against Mr. Fox.  that the true Church is universal and perfect, and doth haut in no one point of bele●fe.  
From his own affirmation I conclude their Church is false by reason their faith was not known the first thousand years, nay nor till Jnnocent the 3. who was the first Father of it, although there were sundry Popes before him in hatching it 250. years, yet was it not brought forth, till the Counsel of Latteran Aᵒ 1215. where there was decreed sundry other superstitions, and as I have before shown a new faith was enacted, which Langfrank Archbishop of Canterbury did hatch, and bring forth against Baringaris.  
The jesuite doth vaunt that Rome is the Mother-Church, & that she had converted Britain before Paul came to Rome; which is very false by the testimony of records, for St. Luke doth tell us, that at the persecution of Steven, there was great persecution, 
B●nardus Precoris faith, there was put to death 200●.  and the Church was all scattered except the Apostles. And some writ, that there fled out of jerusalem 15000 upon this persecution, & some of them fled into many nations, preaching the Gospel. And that this persecution was very great. Paul saith: He went into every house, & drew out both men and women, and put them in prison, and thus he did even in strange Cities.  
And to this end, I will show what three of the Fathers have written.  
Tertullian, who lived about one hundreth years after, saith: That the faith of Christ was received in the reign of Tiberius, of the Medes, Persians, Messapotanians, jury, Cappadocia, 
See his book contra Ildoes.  Pontus, Asia, Egypt, Pamphilia, Morions, Spain, France, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Suhia, He saith, in all these Countries Christ is received. And Gildas saith: The faith of Christ was received in Britain the reign of Tiberius.  
Gregory speaking of the multitude, which fled out of jerusalem upon the persecution, when Steven was put to death, saith: That the faith of Christ did spread over all the world, by the multitude of them, which fled.  
And St. Paul wrote to the Church at Rome, about 21. years after, & he saith: The faith of Christ was published throughout all the world, which was before Peter came at Rome. 
Act. 28.22. Rom. 1.8. & 16.26.   
And it doth appear that those, which planted the Gospel in Britain, came not from the Roman Church, because they did so much descent in ceremonies, for the observation of Easter day, which is one of the ancientest traditions, they did descent from Rome 700. years, and although Austin the Monk did corrupt the Church with the Roman superstitions, yet he was opposed by many learned Britons, and they sent unto Augustine, to confer with him concerning their differences, & they did agree to have a meeting where Austin came with his learned men; and the Britain Churches sent thither one Donatus with 7. Bishops, where they met at a place called Austin's oak, & there it doth appear, that they could not agree, on which Austin did threaten them with war, if they would not receive his superstitions.  
And as Segebertus saith, Beda, Baleus, Galfridus, and others, 
Beda lib. 2.  Austin would have them to receive Altars, and Gregorius Masse-booken, and the Crucifix and Procession, & observation of Easter-day, as the Romans did, which they did oppose, & that they did so contend, and strive in this contention, that there was bloodshed in this assembly, upon which Austin did threaten to stir up wars against them; the which we find he did, and caused many to be murdered, and although he prevailed against them, 
Fox in folio 131. Anno 798.  yet Mr. Fox doth show, that when Charles the Great did send into England to the King & Bishops and Nobility for to receive the Roman ceremonies & Images in the Churches, they appointed Albinus to answer it, which he did, & when he had answered it, they did well approve of it, & sent it with the book to Charles King of France, and appointed this Albinus to go to him with it.  
And howsoever it hath since prevailed, 
See the Chronicle of Panlus Meriall. Anno 794.  yet there was the same year a Counsel holden at Frankford of 205. Bishops, which did condemn the worshipping of Images, and the second Counsel of Nice for establishing of them.  
But it is objected, Fox's book is a book of lies, & therefore not to be credited. I know the Papists do so charge it, but (we say) how comes it then, that they have wrote two Books against it, and instanced sundry of those stories affirming them to be lies, unto which he hath made answer in great modesty, and so cleared their objections, that all men of indifferent judgement may see they are mere calumniations, 
He being a Noble Man and suffered so many arraignments, and imprisonments, and at last death itself.  and false charges, one I will instance, by reason it is almost as rare as a black Swan; and that is of the Lord Cobham, whom these blasphemous men say, was a rebel, and that he came against the King with an army of men to St. Gyles fields, the which doth very evidently appear to be false, as all may see in his answer, imprinted in both his last impressions, and yet for all this they have wrote a third book after his death, and never answered any thing unto his showing them their false accusations, 
Tit. 3.10.11. 2. Thes. 2.12. 1. Tim. 4.2  but scoffing and wondering at his number of sheets written, & yet a great part of his book is in answer to their slanders. Therefore I conclude, they are such as the Apostle speaks of, which have their conscience seared with an hot iron. 
Anno 600.   
And thereto Galfridus Monumentisis in his centre. 6. Epistle saith: That before Anstine the Monk came to Britain, they had the profession of Christ more purely than he brought from Rome. And Dagonus Bishop in London, coming as he traveled to an Inn, where Austin was, when he understood that he was in the house, refused to stay there, or so much as to drink in the house, by reason, he had so corrupted the worship of Christ. And like as the Pope's champions dealt in our land, 
Anno 752.  so we do find they did in other countries, as here in the country now under the States.  
Boniface Bishop of Vtrecht, accompanied with 52. of which one was a Bishop, and ten Priests and Monks, travailed to Doekum in Friesland, about 60. miles, and there sent for the Officers of the Churches of Lewarden, and thereabouts, and they would compel them to receive the Roman ceremonies, which they refused to do, and thereupon they fell at so great contention, that the Bishops with all their train were killed. Thus they were rewarded for their pains. Look Joan. Baka Lupus Frerariensis epist. 5. on Carolus Magnus.  
Many Preachers or Bishops in Bavaria did much dislike the Bishop of Mentzes, 
Anno 735.  because he brought in the Roman Ceremonies, and they told him, it was contrary to all truth, & equity, for to stand with the Pope in disinheriting the right heir of the Crown of France, and that he did great evil in bringing-in Images, & teaching purgatory, praying for the dead, & forbidding marriage to the Ministers, and that he himself had an evil report in that he had women come in such manner to his house: upon which, this Bishop Boniface was very angry, and he went to Gregory the Pope, and complained of them, & the Pope sent for them, and condemned them for heretics for 14. years before he banished fowr Preachers the land, for refusing to observe his traditions. Look Aventanus lib. 3,  
Kilinus Bishop of Whitzburgh a Schotsman travailled thorough France, England, and Dutchland. 
Anno 687.  for to persuade the Clergy to observe the Roman ceremonies, which he could not accomplish, than he caused to be sent unto him two other Messengers from the Pope, 
Look Otthe Frisingenses lib. 5. cap. 13.  and then they theatened them that they should be forced to receive them, for which the people set upon them, and beat them so sore, that those three died of it.  
And their Histories do show, thus they dealt in most parts of Christendom, between the years 610. and 800. And then they do write, they were converted to the faith of the Roman Church, whereas it is certain they perverted the faith, for by the testimony of Histories, the faith of Christ was professed in those Countries long before, as I have partly related.  
I have alleged some Fathers here, to show how it doth appear, that they have given testimony unto the truth, we confess; not that I do build my faith upon their writings, or upon any man on earth, I do reverence the graces of God, I find in them, but my faith I build upon the word of God, as the Apostle saith: 
2. Pet. 1.19  We have a sure word of the Prophets, to which we shall do well to take heed, as to a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day star arise in our hearts. Seeing the Lord hath charged us, 
Deut. 4.2.  not to add any thing unto his word, which he commands us, neither may we take any thing from it, which he hath appointed, or commanded, and he hath protested, that all, which shall add unto his word, he will add unto him those plagues, 
Revel. 22.18.19.  which are written in his books, and if any shall take away, or diminish any thing of his word, then will take away his part from the book of life, and from the holy City of God.  
For the Fathers themselves, do desire not to be followed, but as they follow Christ. Therefore when the Donatists alleged Cyprian, 
Augustine.  for to prove a doctrine against Augustine He answered thus: We do Cyprian no wrong, when we distinguish any of his writings from the Canonical Scriptures, and therefore was the Ecclesiastical Canon of the Scriptures so carefully appointed, contrary to which we dare not judge, & according unto which we may freely judge all other writings. August, count. Crescon lib. 2. cap. 31. And he saith: I am not hound to the authority of Cyprians Epistles, for I esteem not it as Canonicail, but hexamine him by the Canonical, & as it agreeth with the authority of the Divine Scriptures I receive, with his praise, and what accordeth not with it, I refuse with his leave. Ibid. cap. 32.  
And when he disputed against an Arian, he saith: Now must not I allege the Council of Nice, nor you the Council of Arimine, as to prejudice either, for I am not bound to the authority of the one, nor you of the other. We are bound to the authority of the Scriptures, which are witnesses not peculiar unto any, but common to us both. Let the matter cause and question between us be discussed. Contra Maxim. lib. 3. cap. 14. Also he saith: Let us not bring deceitful weights, by which we may weigh what we will, & as we will at our pleasure, but let us bring the Divine Balances out of the holy Scripture, as out of the Lords treasure. Yea, let us not weigh, but let us acknowledge the things already weighed of the lord D. baptist. contra Donat. lib. 2. cap. 6. Also he saith: Whether it be concerning Christ, or the Church, or any other matter, which belongs to our faith, and life, there we may find what we ought to do: & if an Angel from Heaven should teach otherwise then we have received from the Scriptures, let him be accursed. Contra Petil. lib. 3. cap. 6.  
Chrifostome saith: When the wicked heresy, which is the army of Antichrist, hath prevailed in the Churches, there can be no proof of the Christian Religion, nor any other refuge for Christians, that would know the true faith, but the Divine Scriptures. Whosoever would know which is the true church of Christ, how shall he know it, but by the Scripture only? Whereupon the Lord knowing, that there should come such confusion of things in the last days, doth enjoin the Christians, which would have assurance of the true faith, 
Chrisest on Matth. 24. Homil. 49.  they must cleave to nothing, but the Scriptures, otherwise if they look to any other thing, they shallbe offended and perish.  
And having written on john the 10. he saith: 
On john 50 Homdis,  The Scriptures will not suffer us to go astray: By this door must both the Pastors and all others of us enter in, for whosoever useth not the holy Scriptures, but climbeth up other ways, that is, by a way not appointed, he is a thief, and those are false Christ's and Antichrist. And in another place he saith: It is not absurd to tell money and count it after another hath told it to us, and yet for matters fare greater, some are so simple, to follow the opinions of others, which he doth note for great folly, seeing we have an exact balance, & rule out of the Scriptures, wherefore I entreat & beseech you, to leave of what this man or that man thinketh; and inquire all out of the Scriptures. Chris. on the 2. Corin. 13. homil.  
Hierom saith many Father's both Greek and Latins have erred, 
Hieron. in an Epist. Dammach.  whose names I need not mention. Now seeing I do simply acknowledge their erring, I will so read them as the rest, because they erred as the rest. After he saith: Why dost thou bring forth that, which Peter and Paul would not deliver? Again whatsoever things brought in by any, although otherwise holy and learned since the Apostles, let it be cut of and have no place, on the 86. Psalm.  
Tertullian saith: 
Tertul.  None can prejudice the truth, not the continuance of times, nor the superiority of persons, nor the privileges of Countries, for by means of these is custom made commonly of ignorance; and succession of time, made strong to be used against the truth. Christ our Lord calleth himself Truth, not custom. If then Christ be always and before all, the Truth than it is a thing perpetual and ancient. Let them therefore look unto it, to whom that is new, which to him is old. Lib. de Virgin Veland.  
Again he saith: As for us we may not please ourselus in any thing of our own conceits, neither may we choose that, which others bring in of their own Will. The Apostles of the Lord we have for Authors, who did not themselves choose to bring-in any thing of their own will, but did faithfully assign to the Nations the discipline they received of Christ, therefore although an Angel from Heaven should speak otherwise, we should say he were accursed. Ibid. cap. 6.  
FINIS.   

A TABLE OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK,  

CHap. 1. Of Sacred Signs. Fol. 1  
Chap. 2. Of Sacrifices Fol. 5  
Chap. 3. Of Corruptions Fol. 9  
Chap. 4. Corruptions punished Fol. 16  
Chap. 5. The ceremonial Law accomplished by jesus Christ Fol. 18  
Chap. 6. Of Sacraments ordained by jesus Christ himself Fol. 20  
Chap. 7. Of the corruption of the Sacrament of Baptism. Fol. 23  
Chap. 8. Of the corruption of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Fol. 25  
Chap. 9 The ancient religion of the Roman Empire Fol. 31  
Chap. 10. How the Bishops of Rome began their corruptions in the Church Fol. 34  
Chap. 11. The first greatness of Popes, proving Antichrists, & bringing in the sacrifice of the Mass Fol. 38  
Chap. 12. Of the Mass in particular, with her true original, & from whence it came first Fol. 41  
Chap. 13. The Mass divided, with the true nature of holy Water, derived from the heathens Fol. 47  
Chap. 14. The Procession of the Mass Fol. 50  
Chap. 15. The third part of the Mass, that is, the Altars and Candles lighted Fol. 53  
Chap. 16. Of Incense and Offertories, with other parts of the Mass. Fol. 57  
Chap. 17. Of the round Host, with the consecration of the same Fol. 61  
Chap. 18. Of diverse parts and sundry ceremonies, belonging to the Mass Fol. 63  
Chap. 19 Against Idolaters antiquity, and long possession of the Mass, as also what times the Mass was by pieces brought into the Church Fol. 67  
Chap. 20. Against the Idolatry of the round Host Fol. 70  
Chap. 21. The invention of Transubstantiation, with confutation of that Labyrinth of Idolatry Fol. 73  
Chap. 22. Comparison berween the two H. Sacram. Fol. 85  
undeniable proofs, that the church of God rejected Transubstantiation for 1000 years after Christ Fol. 95  
All the faithful did oppose it, the time it was in hatching Fol. 97  
What their bloody Persecutors confessed on them Fol. 102  
A new Faith invented Fol. 103  
A Popish Writer examined, and found false Fol. 104  
It is confessed of Popish Writers, that Transubstantiation was concluded but of late years Fol. 106.  
A new Gospel Fol. 107  
That great Idolatry was then brought into the church Fol. 108  
The Prophecy of Hildegardus Fol. 109  
The great murdering of the Faithful Fol. 112  
What Faith the true Church did maintain Fol. 114  
The Roman Church got dominion over other lands by tyranny Fol. 122   
Christian Reader impute not Literal faults.  
FINIS.