plea more idle, more frivolous, when it falls under a wise and judicious discussion. For, consider, I beseech you. Did we go about to lay the foundations of a New Church, the challenge were most just. Primum verum, was the old and sure rule of Tertullian. We abhor New Churches, and New Truths: find ours either to be, or to be pretended such, and forsake us. But, when all our claim, all our endeavour is, only the reforming and repairing of an Old Church, faulty in some mouldered stones, and mis-daubed with some untempered and lately laid morter, what a frenzy is this, to ask where that Church was, which we show them sensibly thus repaired. Had it not been before, how could it have been capable of this amendment? and, if it be but reformed by us, it was formed before; and, having been since deformed by their errors, is only restored by us to the former beauty.

As sure as there is any Church, any Truth in the world, this is the true and only state of this controversy; the misprision whereof hath been guilty of the loss of many thousand souls.

To speak plainly, it is only the gross abuses and palpable innovations of the Church of Rome which we have parted from. Set these aside, they and we are and will be one Church. Let this be done, and, if their cruelty and uncharitableness would sever us, our unity of faith and Christian love shall make us one, in spite of malice. If their mis-zealous importunity will needs so incorporate those, which we can convince for new errors, as to make them essential to the very being of their Church, they are more injurious to themselves, than their enemies can be: we can but lament, to see them guilty of their own mischief.

For us, we have erred in nothing but this, that we would not err. To demonstrate this in particulars, were a longsome task; and that, which I have already performed in that my Treatise of "The Old Religion." May it please you, to let fall your eye upon that plain and moderate Discourse, you shall confess this truth made good; every parcel whereof I am ready to justify against all gain

sayers.

When these men, therefore, shall ask where our Church was, answer them boldly, "Where it is."

It is with Churches, as with those several persons whereof they consist. Give me a man, that, having been Romish for opinion, is now grown wiser and reformed, he hath still the same form or essence, though not the same errors: he is the same man, then; yea, I add, he is the same Christian, that he was, while he holds firmly all those Articles of Catholic Faith, which are essential to Christianity. If he now find reason to reject those hideous novelties of the inerrability of a Man of Sin; of the new and monstrous, but invisible, incarnation of his Saviour by charm of a sinful Priest; of marting of sins; of purgatory flames; and the rest of that upstart rabble of the Tridentine Creed; while he undoubtedly believes all those truths, which carried our fathers, who lived before the hatching of these devices, safely and directly to heaven: who can deny bim the honour of true Catholicism and Christianity

No otherwise is it in whole Churches, whereof every believing soul is an abridgment. If any of them find just cause to refuse some newly obtruded opinions, which the rest are set to maintain, while, in the mean time, the foundation remains entire, this can be no ground to dis-Church that differing company of Christians: neither are they other from themselves, upon this diversity of opinion.

But, I hear what some whisperers say: "It is the determination of the Church, which makes what point she thinks fit, de fide, and fundamental:"-Let me confidently say this is the most dangerous innovation, that can fall into the ears, hearts, hands of Christians. If the Church can make another God, another Christ, another Heaven, other Prophets and Apostles, she may also lay another Foundation. But the old rule of the Chosen Vessel, whereon I securely cast my soul, is, Fundamentum aliud ponere nemo potest.

But, that you may perfectly discover the fraud, what Church is it, I beseech you, to whom this power is arrogated? and by whom is it usurped? None, but the Roman: and what is that, but a Particular Church? I speak boldly, there was never so gross a gullery in the world as this. What interest hath Rome in heaven, more than Constantinople, than Paris, than Prague, than Basil, than London, or any other city under heaven? or, what privilege hath the Italian Church, above the Greek, French, German, English? It is the charge of the Apostle, My brethren, have not the faith of God in respect of persons: I may, upon the same grounds, say, in respect of places, the locality of truth is the most idle and childish plea, that ever imposed upon wise men.

Away with this foppery. The true divinity of St. Peter was, and is, In every nation, he, that feareth God and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him. The climate makes no difference: and, if more respect have been anciently given to that See than to others, it was the sovereignty of the City, which then drew on those honours to the Church; which, upon the very same reason, were no less transmitted to Constantinople. Set those aside, and what holiness can Tiber challenge above Rhine, or Thames? Let fools be mocked with these fancies; but you, whom God hath endued with singular judgment and understanding in all things, will easily resent the fraud; and see, that there is no more reason why the English Church should conform in opinion to the Romish, were the doctrines equally indifferent, than the Roman Church to the English. They are but the several limbs of one large and universal body: and if, in respect of outward order, there have been or may be acknowledged a precedency; yet, in regard of the main substance of truth, we cannot admit of any dependance on any Church under heaven.

Here, that, which is the purer from error and corruption, must take the wall, maugre all the loud throats of acclaiming parasites. Yea, so far must we needs be from pinning our faith upon the sleeve of Rome, as that we cannot, without violence offered to our own consciences, but see and say, that there is no particular Church on earth so branded by the Spirit of God in the Scriptures, as Rome.

Insomuch as the best abettors and dearest fautors of that See are 367 glad to plead, that Rome is St. Peter's and St. John's Babylon. We bless God for standing on our own feet; and those feet of stand upon the infallible grounds of the Prophets and Apostles, of Primitive Creeds, Councils, Fathers; and, therefore, we can no more deceive you, than they can deceive us.

ours

The censure, that the enemies of our Church cast upon it, is not Untruth, but Defect. They dare not but grant what we say is true; but they blame us for not saying all is true which they say. Now that, which we say, was enough to serve those Ancient Christians, which lived before those lately-devised additions, the refusal whereof is made heinous and deadly to us. erring! Let my soul be with those Blessed Martyrs, Confessors, How safe, how happy is this Fathers, Christians, which never lived to hear of those new Articles of the New Roman Faith; and, I dare say, you will not wish yours any other where. There can be no danger, in old truths: there can be nothing but danger, in new obtrusions.

man take

But I find how apt my pen is to overrun the bounds of a letter. My zeal of your safety carries me into this length. The errors, into which these seducers would lead you, are deadly; especially, upon a revolt. Your very ingenuity, I hope, besides grace, will suggest better things to you. Hold that, which you have, that no your crown. My soul for yours, you go right. So sure as there is a heaven, this way will lead you thither. Go on, confidently and cheerfully, in it. Let me never be happy, if you be You will pardon my holy importunity, which shall be ever seconded with my hearty prayers to the God of Truth, that he will stablish your heart in that eternal truth of his Gospel, which you have received; and both work and crown your happy perseverance. Such shall be the fervent apprecations of

not.

Your much devoted Friend,

JOSEPH EXON.

A

PLAIN AND FAMILIAR EXPLICATION

OF

CHRIST'S PRESENCE

IN THE

SACRAMENT OF HIS BODY AND BLOOD,

OUT OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

FOR THE SATISFYING OF A SCRUPULOUS FRIEND.

Anno 1631.

THAT Christ Jesus our Lord is truly present and received in the Blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood, is so clear and univer sally agreed upon, that he can be no Christian that doubts it.

But, in what manner he is both present and received, is a point, that hath exercised many wits and cost many thousand lives; and such, as some Orthodox Divines are wont to express with a kind of scruple, as not daring to speak out.

For me, as I have learned to lay my hand on my mouth where God and his Church have been silent, and to adore those mysteries which I cannot comprehend; so I think it is possible we may wrong ourselves, in an over-cautious fear of delivering sufficiently-revealed truths. Such, I take this to be, which we have in hand. Wherein, as God hath not been sparing to declare himself in his Word; so the Church of England, our dear Mother, hath freely opened herself in such sort, as if she meant to meet with the future scruples of an over-tender posterity.

Certainly, there can be but two ways, wherein he can be imagined to be Present, and Received; either corporally, or spiritually.

That he should be corporally Present at once, in every part of every Eucharistical Element through the world, is such a monster of opinion, as utterly overthrows the truth of his Human Body, de

stroys the nature of a Sacrament, implies a world of contradictions, baffles right reason, transcends all faith, and, in short, confounds heaven and earth: as we might easily show in all particulars, if it were the drift of my discourse to meddle with those, which profess themselves not ours: who yet do, no less than we, cry down the gross and Capernaitical expression, which their Pope Nicholas prescribed to Berengarius; and cannot but confess, that their own Card. Bellarmin advises this phrase of Christ's corporal presence should be very sparingly and warily taken up, in the hearing of their people. But my intention only is, to satisfy those sons of the Church, who, disclaiming from all opinion of Transubstantiation, do yet willingly embrace a kind of irresolution in this point; as holding it safest, not to enquire into the manner of Christ's presence. What should be guilty of this nice doubtfulness, I cannot conceive; unless it be a misconstruction of those broad speeches, which Antiquity, not suspecting so unlikely commentaries, hath, upon all occasions, been wont to let fall concerning these awful mysteries. For, what those Oracles of the Church have divinely spoken, in reverence to the Sacramental Union of the sign and the thing signified in this sacred business, hath been mistaken, as literally and properly meant to be predicated of the outward element: hence have grown those dangerous errors, and that inexplicable confusion, which hath since infested the Church. When all is said, nothing can be more clear, than that, in respect of bodily presence, the heavens must contain the Glorified Humanity of Christ, until his return to Judgment. As, therefore, the angel could say, to the devout Marys, after Christ's Resurrection seeking for him in his grave, He is risen: he is not here; Mark xvi. 6: so they still say to us, seeking for his glorious body here below, "He is ascended: he is not here." It should absolutely lose the nature of a human body, if it should not be circumscriptible. Glorification doth not bereave it of the truth of being what it is. It is a true human body; and, therefore, can no more, according to the natural being even of a body glorified, be many wheres at once, than, according to his personal being, it can be separated from that Godhead, which is at once every where. Let it be, therefore, firmly settled in our souls as an undoubted truth, That the Human Body of Christ, in respect of corporal presence, is in heaven; whither he visibly ascended, and where he sits on the right-hand of the Father, and whence he shall come again with glory a parcel of our Creed, which the Church learned of the angels in Mount Olivet; who taught the gazing disciples that this same Jesus which was taken up from them into heaven, shall so come in like manner as they saw him go into heaven, which was with wonderful glory and magnificence. Far be it from us then, to think that the Blessed Humanity of the Son of God should so disparage itself, as, where there is neither necessity nor use of a bodily descent, to steal down; and convey himself insensibly from heaven to earth daily; and to hide up his whole Sacred Body in a hundred thousand several pixes, at once. It is a wonder, that Superstition itself is not ashamed of so absurd