Commentary upon the 10th Chapter of the 1st to the Corinth saith As the Bread which we break is the Participation of the body of Christ so also the Bread of Idols is the Participation of Devils Now as the Participation of the Bread of Idols is no Transubstantiation or real change into Devils so also the Participation of the Bread of the Lord is not a real and substantial change of Bread into the Body of the Lord. The same Doctor on the words of the 11th Chap. of the same Epistle where 't is said That the Lord took Bread the night in which he was betrayed relates That Jesus Christ thereby gave to us the commemoration of his Body And on the following words The Lord saith he hath given us an Example to the end that as often as we do this we should think in our minds that Christ died for us It is for this end that 't is said to us the Body of Christ that so thinking of it we should not be ungrateful and unthankful for his Grace As if any one at his Death should leave to his Friend a pledg of his Love could he when he saw it refrain from Tears if he really loved his Friend There must therefore needs be in the Sacrament Bread and Wine to be Pledges of Jesus Christ for he cannot be a pledg of himself That the Fathers of the SEVENTH and EIGHTH CENTURY 's did not believe Transubstantiation ISidore Bishop of Sevil Anno 600. saith That by the command of Jesus Christ himself we do call Body and Blood that which being the Fruits of the Earth is sanctified and made a Sacrament by the invisible Operation of the Holy Ghost In the 1st Book of Ecclesiastical Offices he saith That the Bread is called the Body of Jesus Christ because it strengthens the Body and that the Wine is called his Blood because it increaseth Blood in the Body and that the Bread and Wine are two visible things which being sanctified by the Holy Ghost do go on to be the Sacrament of the Divine Body Now a Sacrament signifies a holy Sign It would therefore be a strange kind of way of Isidore if he had believ'd the Bread and Wine were transubstantiated to say the Bread and Wine are two things visible which being sanctified by the Holy Ghost do become the Sacraments of the Divine Body By this Language it might as well be said That the Fathers believed that the Water of Baptism was transubstantiated after their Consecration The same Bishop saith Melchisedeck that offer'd of the Fruits of the Earth a Sacrifice to God thereby represented the Priesthood or Reign of Jesus Christ which is the true King of Peace of whose Body and Blood that is to say the Oblation of Bread and Wine is offer'd throughout the VVorld And in the Treatise De Vocat Gentium cap. 26. These are not any longer Jewish Sacrifices such as were offer'd by Aaron the Priest which are now offer'd by Believers but they are such Sacrifices as were presented by Melchisedeck King of Salem that is to say it is Bread and Wine the true Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. He saith The Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is Bread and Wine That both the one and the other are such Sacrifices as those offer'd by Melchisedeck there is therefore no question but St. Isidore did not believe that the Bread was destroy'd in the Sacrament because he establishes the Sacrament in the Bread and Wine such as Melchisedeck had offer'd Beda an English Priest saith That Jesus Christ having ended the Ceremony of the Ancient Passover which was celebrated in Commemoration of the Bondage in Egypt out of which the Jews had been deliver'd proceeded to the new Passover which the Church celebrates in remembrance of His Redemption the Figure of his Body to the end that instead of the Flesh and Blood of the Lamb substituting the Sacrament of his Flesh and Blood in the Figure of Bread and Wine he might shew that it was him to whom God had sworn and repented not saying Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedeck Now continues Beda Jesus Christ broke the Bread which he distributed to his Disciples to shew That the breaking of his Body did not come to pass without his good will. It appears from these words substituting the Sacrament of his Flesh and Blood in the Figure of Bread and Wine that the Bread and Wine remain after Consecration to be the Figure of the Body and Blood of Christ. As when the Apostle saith the sign of Circumcision signum Circumcisionis That is to say Circumcision which is a sign and a figure So Beda maketh the Sacrament consist in the Bread and Wine Therefore in the Homily De Sanct is in Epiphania he saith That Jesus Christ the Heavenly Lamb having been offer'd up transfer'd into the Creatures of Bread and Wine the Mystery of his Passion and thereby became a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedeck And elsewhere he saith Melchisedeck Priest of the most High God did long before the time of the legal Priesthood offer up Bread and Wine Therefore our Saviour is called Priest after the Order of Melchisedeck because he abrogated the Sacrifices of the Law and instituted a Sacrifice of the same kind to be under the New Testament the Mystery of his Body and Blood. Certainly As our Mystery is no Mystery till after Consecration and that 't is of the same Nature as was that of Melchisedeck it must be concluded that the Bread and Wine do remain in the Sacrament of the Eucharist Sedulius a Scotchman Author of the Commentaries upon St. Paul and who flourished about the year 735. in his Commentary upon the first to the Corinthians Chap. 11. saith Jesus Christ in the Eucharist hath left us the remembrance of himself as if one going a far journey should leave with his Friend the pledg of his love to remember their ancient Amity There must then needs be something that is not Jesus Christ himself for no one is a pledg of himself Damascen a Fryer who lived about the year 750 saith in his fourth Book of Orthodox Law Chap. 14. The Shew-bread did typifie this Bread and 't is this pure and unbloody Sacrifice which our Saviour foretold by the Prophet should be offered to him from the rising of the Sun to the setting of the same to wit the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ which passeth into the substance of our Body and Soul without being consumed without being corrupted without going into the draft God forbid but passing into our substance for our Preservation Now every Body agrees this cannot be said of the proper Body of Jesus Christ. It must then be concluded Damascen supposed that the Bread remained In the same place he adds That as in Baptism because men are wont to wash with Water and anoint them
This is the Cup in my Blood of the New and Eternal Testament with this addition which is in the Canon of the Mass the Mystery of Faith answers him by a Letter wherein after having spoken of the Cup of the Passover he proceeds to that of the Eucharist and having alledged what is mention'd by St. Luke he adds The Cup is in type of my Body wherein is the Blood that shall run out of my side to accomplish the ancient Law and after it is shed it shall be the New Testament And a little lower he saith The Mystery is Faith as St. Austin saith in his Letter to the Bishop Boniface as the Sacrament of the Body of Jesus Christ is in some manner the Body of Jesus Christ and the Sacrament of his Blood his Blood so the Sacrament of Faith is Faith. So also we may say This is the Cup of my Blood of the New and Eternal Testament As if he should say This is my Blood which is given for you The same Doctor in a Letter which he wrote to one Gontard whom he calls his Son saith That it is our Saviours good pleasure to shed his Blood by the Members and Veins for our Eternal Salvation That 't is a Body of Jesus Christ that may be cast out in spitting after having receiv'd it and of which a part may be flung out of the mouth To all which he adds having so received the Body of the Lord with a good intention I don't pretend to dispute whether he be invisibly lifted up to Heaven or whether he remains in our Body till the day of our Death or whether he evaporates into the Air or whether he issues out of the Body with the Blood or whether he goes out at the pores our Saviour saying All that enters in at the Mouth goes down into the Belly and from thence into the draft c. Now when this great Man saith That the Sacrament is to us in the stead of Jesus Christ that what is offered in the Eucharist is sacrific'd instead of Jesus Christ that the Cup is in Type of the Body that the Blood is in the Body as the Wine is in the Cup that Jesus Christ represents his Body by the Bread and his Blood in the Wine that the Sacrament of the Body is in some sort his Body and that 't is so that the Cup of the Blood is his Blood that the Body is poured forth upon our Members for our Salvation that there is a Body of Jesus Christ that may be cast out by spitting and whereof some part may be flung out of the Mouth That he will not dispute whether this Body evaporates in the Air or whether it departs out of the body with the blood or whether it goes out at the pores or into the Draft all this doth sufficiently shew That this Doctor distinguished the Bread and Wine as a Typical body from the real Body of Jesus Christ and that by consequence he believed the bread and wine remained after Consecration to be called the body and blood of Jesus Christ but improperly Valafridus Strabo Abbas Augiensis stiled a very Learned Man by Herman Contracted in the year 849. Jesus Christ said he gave to his Disciples the Sacrament of his Body and Blood in the substance of Bread and Wine teaching them to celebrate it in remembrance of his most holy Passion because there could nothing be found fitter than these things to signifie the Unity of the Head and Members for as Bread is made of sundry Grains and brought into one Body by means of Water and as the Wine is squeez'd from several Grapes so also the Body of Jesus Christ is made of the Union of a multitude of Saints And a little after he declares That Jesus Christ hath chose for us a very fit Sacrifice for the Mystery of his Body and Blood in that Melchisedeck having offer'd Bread and Wine he gave to his Children the same kinds of Sacraments And afterwards cap. 18. That for that great Number of Legal Ordinances Jesus Christ gave us the Word of his Gospel so also instead of the great diversity of Sacrifices Believers are to rest satisfied with the sole Oblation of Bread and Wine It is evident Strabo makes the Holy Sacrament to consist in the substance of Bread and Wine which according to him is differenced from the Body because it is but the memorial of it That 't is the Figure that it consists in being made of sundry Grains and the Wine of sundry Grapes That the Sacrifice of the New Testament is of the same kind as that of Melchisedeck and that the Eucharist is an Oblation of Bread and Wine All these things intimate that the Bread and Wine remain in the Eucharist after Consecration Herribald was Bishop of Auxerre in the time that Vallafridus Strabo wrote Now he was of the same Opinion with Rabanus Thomas Waldensis assures us so Herribald of Auxerre saith he and Rabanus of Mayence say That the Sacrament of the Eucharist goes into the Draft The Anonimous Author contemporary with Herribald which was published by Father Cellot the Jesuit saith also the same Nevertheless Lupus Abbot of Ferriers Ep. 19. speaking of him calls him a most excellent Prelate excellentissimum Praesulum In the 37th Ep. he stiles him a Man of a lofty and Divine understanding Altissimi Divini ingenii And Hincmarus Archbishop of Reims calls him the Bishop of Venerable Qualities So that the very Chronicle of Auxerre intimates that there was ingrav'd on his Monument this Inscription Here lies the body of St. Herribald Therefore the Author of the 1st Treatise of the Perpetuity of the Eucharist saith in pag. 843 That Herribald and Rhabanus were Adversaries to Paschasius Tho in the 2d Treatise of the Perpetuity in pag 842. he saith speaking of the Minister Claude Who told him that Amalarius and Herribald were in any wise Adversaries to Paschas It appears by the Letter Paschasius wrote to Frudegard that he was not of the same Judgment Paschasius was of seeing he opposes to him St. Austin's 23d Letter to Boniface Sic Widefort contra Wickliff ad Art. 1. Ratramne Priest and Frier of Corby experienc'd in the Scriptures equally esteem'd for his Learning and Manners whom Hincmar Lupus Abbot of Ferriers his Contemporaries Sigebert who liv'd in the xi Century and Father Cellot the Jesuits Anonimus do all make mention of under his true name of Ratramne wrote a Book under the Reign of Charles the Bald as is reported by the same Trythemius which he intitul'd Of the Body and Blood of the Lord From a Monk of Corby he was made Abbot of Ovias The President Mauguin speaking of him saith he was a Learned Doctor of the Church eminent in Probity and in Doctrine an undaunted defender and protector of the Catholick Truth against Innovators He dedicated his Book to the Emperor Charles
of this c. And these words The Teeth white with Milk do signifie the purity and cleanness of the Mystical Food which are the Symbols which Jesus Christ left to his Disciples commanding them to celebrate the Image of his proper Body not requiring any more bloody Sacrifices and commanded to make use of Bread for the Symbol of his Body Seeing then that according to this ancient Doctor the Wine is the Symbol of the Blood of Christ and the Bread the Figure of his Body and both the one and the other an Image of the Body and Blood the Image is not that of which 't is an Image and by consequence in the Eucharist besides the Body of Jesus Christ there is also Bread and Wine which do represent and shew him it being evident by the Text of this Author that he understood the words of Jesus Christ This is my Body in this sense This is the Symbol of my Body Cyril of Jerusalem saith Quemadmodum Panis Eucharisticus post Spiritûs Sancti invocationem non amplius est Panis communis sed est Corpus Christi sic sanctum hoc unguentum non amplius est unguentum illud Macharius a noted Hermite in Egypt who wrote his Homilies about the year 368. saith in the 27th Homily That before the birth of Jesus Christ the wise Men Holy Men Kings and Prophets knew that Jesus Christ was to come to be a redeemer but they knew not that he was to suffer death that he was to be Crucify'd and that he should shed his Blood on the Cross and that they had not attain'd so far as to know there should be a Baptism of Fire and of the Holy Ghost and that in the Church should be offered Bread and Wine Antitypes of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and that those which eat of this visible Bread should spiritually eat the Flesh of the Lord. This Father saying that the Antitype of the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ is Bread and Wine doth suppose the Bread remains as not being the Real Body of Jesus Christ but a Type of it now the Type is not the verity sed umbra veritatis saith St. Ambrose de side l. 3. c. 8. and by consequence there is in the Eucharist something else besides the Body it self of Jesus Christ. And when he saith That those which take the visible Bread do spiritually eat the Flesh of Christ he gives us sufficiently to understand that in this august Sacrament there is besides the Flesh of Jesus Christ a visible Bread and that the visible Bread is eaten corporally and the Flesh of Jesus Christ spiritually St. Basil Bishop of Caesaria in his Epistle to Caesarea saith That at Alexandria and in Aegypt each Lay-person for the most part kept the Eucharist by them and communicated themselves when they pleased and if they receive from the Priest a morsel of the consecrated Bread they may receive the Holy Sacrament daily if they list taking some of it to day and the rest to morrow For saith he the Priest in the Church gives a good Piece or Morsel of the Eucharist and he that takes it doth communicate himself at his pleasure Now saith he as to the validity and vertue of the Sacrament it is one and the same whether one receives one morsel or two of the Priest. In what sense can it be understood that one receives several parts or parcels in the Eucharist It cannot be meant of Jesus Christ whose Body cannot be divided into morsels it must therefore be understood that St. Basil believed that the Bread remained in the Eucharist as a Typical and Symbolical Body of Jesus Christ. Ephrem Deacon of the Church of Edessa contemporary with St. Basil and whose Writings St. Jerom reports in his Catalogue were read in the Church after the Holy Scriptures he saith in the Treatise he wrote That Men should not search too curiously into the Nature of God consider diligently saith this holy Deacon how Jesus Christ taking the Bread into his hands blessed and broke it as a Figure of his immaculate Body and taking the Cup he blessed it as a Type of his blessed Blood and gave it to his Disciples It is evident that Ephrem believed the Bread is the figure of the Body and the Wine the Type of the Blood of Christ figura autem non est veritas sed imitatio verit atis saith S. Gaudentius upon Exodus Tract 2. the Body of Jesus Christ is the verity there must then be in the Sacrament besides the real Body a material and Typical Body which may be the figure of the true Body of Jesus Christ. S. Epiphanius having said That Jesus Christ descended into the Waters to be Baptiz'd not to receive any virtue from the Waters but to confer it upon them he adds That 't is in Jesus Christ the Prophecy of Esay is accomplished who in the third Chap. speaks of the vertue of Bread and Water he gave strength to the Waters illuminans eas roboran◠in Typo earum que in ipso erant perficienda and as for the Bread Cibus quidem panis est sed virtus in eo est ad vivisicationem S. Epiphanius speaks here of the Eucharist as he doth of Baptism he saith That both one and the other receive their virtue from Jesus Christ who communicates to them spiritual strength sufficient to sanctify now as the Water of Baptism is changed only by a change of virtue and quality it is apparent S. Epiphanius did not mean that the Bread of the Eucharist should be destroy'd no more than the Water was in Baptism else he would not have said that the Consecrated Bread was a food for accidents cannot nourish nothing can be fed by that which is not a Body nourishment proceeds from a substance or matter saith Aristotle and Boëtius in Praedic saith that 't is impossible an accident should pass into the nature of a substance ut accidens in substantis naturam transeat fieri nullo modo potest Gregory Nazianzen speaking of the miraculous recovery of his Sister Gorgonia speaks in these terms pouring forth a Flood of tears after the example of her that washed Christ's feet with her tears she said she would not depart thence till she had recover'd her health her tears were the perfume which she spread over all his Body she mingled them with the Antitypes or the Symbols of the mody and Blood of Jesus Christ as much at least as she could hold in her hands and immediately O the Miracle she found her self healed And in his seventeenth Oration this godly Prelate interceding to the Emperor 's Prefect that he would extend his favour and not deliver up the City to be plundred I set before your Eyes the Table where we joyntly receive the Sacrament and the figure of my Salvation which I consecrate with the same Mouth wherewith I make my request
it is said The Lord in the Type of his Blood did not offer Water but Wine These words are indeed Jovinian's but St. Jerom sinds no fault with them For he himself saith the same upon the 31 Chapter of Jeremy Vers. 12. on these Words They run after God's Creatures the Wheat the Wine and the Oyl the Bread and the Wine saith he whereof is made the Bread of the Lord and wherein is accomplished the Type of his Blood. Now saith St. Ambrose The Type is not the Truth but it is the shadow of the Truth There must then be in the Eucharist Bread and Wine distinct from the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ to be the Types and Figures of it The same Father in his Letter to Hedibia Let us hear that the Bread which the Lord broke and gave his Disciples was the Lord's own Body saying Take Eat This is my Body and a little after he saith If the Bread that came down from Heaven is the Body of the Lord and the Wine which he distributed among his Disciples his Blood c. St. Jerom saith That Jesus Christ brake and distributed Bread to his Disciples that he gave them Bread and that the Bread and Wine were his Flesh and Blood. It cannot then be said That what Jesus Christ gave in communicating his Disciples was not Bread and Wine and when he saith both the one and the other was his Body and Blood it cannot be understood but only figuratively for we see above in St. Cyprian that the Jesuites Salmeron and Bellarmine do confess That if Jesus Christ said of the Bread This is my Body it must be meant This Bread is the Figure of my Body the one not being capable of being the other but figuratively And the Reason is given by Vasquez when he saith If the Pronoun This in the words of Consecration be understood of the Bread undoubtedly by virtue of it there can be wrought no Transubstantiation because of necessity the Bread must needs remain Si Pronomen hoc in illis verbis demonstraret panem fatemur fore ut nulla conversio virtute illorum fieri posset quia panis de quo enunciatur manere debeat The same S. Jerom in his Commentary upon the 26 Chapter of St. Matthew saith Jesus Christ having eaten the Paschal Lamb took Bread which strengthens the Heart of Man and proceeded to the accomplishment of the Sacrament of the true Passover that as Melchisedeck had offered Bread and Wine in Figure he also himself would represent the truth of his Body According to this Father the Bread and Wine represent the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and therefore are not properly and truly the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ but are something else besides them and by consequence remain in the Sacrament For to say as the Author of the Second Book of the perpetuity of the Faith of the Eucharist doth against Monsieur Claude that St. Jerom means by representing to make a thing be present we before refuted this Fancy in Tertullian who speaks just as St. Jerom And the terms sufficiently declare that St. Jerom's meaning is That Jesus Christ made use of Bread and Wine to signifie and shew forth his Body and Blood as Melchisedeck had done that is to say as he had represented both the one and the other by the Oblation of Bread and Wine St. Austin in his Sermon to the newly Baptized which it's true is not found in his other Works but was preserv'd and is cited by St. Fulgentius de Baptismo Aethiop Cap. 7. What you see saith he upon the Altar of God you saw also the last Night but you were not yet aware of how great a thing it is a Sacrament That which you see is Bread and a Cup of Wine and it is also what your Eyes declare unto you but what your Faith should instruct you in is That the Bread is the Body of Jesus Christ and the Cup his Blood. If you tell me Jesus Christ is born he was crucified he was buried he rose again and is ascended into Heaven whither he has carry'd his Body and is at present on the right hand of God from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead how then can the Bread be his Body and the Cup his Blood these things my Brethren are called Sacraments because one thing is seen in them and another thing is understood by them what is seen hath a Corporeal Substance what is understood hath a Spiritual Fruit. If then you desire to understand what the Body of Jesus Christ is hearken to the Apostle which saith You are the Body of Christ and his Members If then you are the Body of Jesus Christ and his Members it is the Mystery of what you are which is upon the Holy Table it is the Mystery of the Lord which you receive in saying Amen you answer and subscribe to what you are All you that are united in Charity you make but one Body of Jesus Christ of which you are the Members which is what is signified by the Bread compos'd of several Grains and by the Wine which is made of sundry Grapes For as Bread to be made a visible Species of Bread is made of sundry Grains collected together in one and the Wine c. St. Austin saith That the Bread is the Body of Christ which cannot be but improperly and figuratively as hath been shewed above for by Confession of Roman Catholick Doctors every Proposition that saith of the Bread That it is the Body must needs be typical and figurative He saith what is seen is Bread as our Eyes declare to us now what our Eyes report to us is true Bread as when one says What you see is true Gold and Silver or Marble and 't is what your Eyes testifie that is to say That one sees true Gold and true Marble and that one makes use of their Eyes to confirm it In the same sense he saith That Jesus Christ although in Heaven yet the Bread is the Body and the Wine the Blood because they are the Sacraments of it He saith What one sees hath a bodily species now in this Passage by bodily species he means the very Substance and not the Accidents For he saith afterwards speaking of Bread in general as Bread to be a visible species of Bread must be made of several Grains reduced into one lump now by the species of Bread it is plain St. Austin there means true Bread and a true Substance He saith What you see is Bread and a Cup now by Cup he doth not mean the appearance of a Cup he means a true Cup. He saith this Bread is the Mystery of the Lord. Which is nothing else but that 't is the Figure of the Lord as when he saith This Bread is the Mystery of Believers Mysterium vestrum in Mensa Domini accipitis That is to say That the Bread and Wine are the Figure of
denote the gladness which the Lord left to his Disciples in giving them the Mystical Wine by the words of Institution Take drink ye all of this These words saith he do shew that Jesus Christ doth with mercy look on all those that believe in him because 't is the nature of wine to make every one merry And upon these words his teeth are white as milk milk saith he doth denote to us the whiteness and purity of the mystical nourishment for Jesus Christ gave to his Disciples the Image of his true Body not desiring any of the bloody sacrifices of the Law he would by the white teeth signifie to us the purity of the food wherewith we are nourished for according to holy David Sacrifice and burnt-offerings thou wouldest not but a Body hast thou prepared me When Procopius speaketh of the Mystical Wine that rejoyced the Disciples it being the nature of Wine to make merry this Mystical Wine is not the Blood of Jesus Christ for 't is not the nature of Blood to rejoyce It must therefore be meant that Procopius said by the Wine which Jesus Christ distributed to his Disciples was to be understood true Wine and by the whitness of the Mystical food he meant the whiteness of the Bread which is both food and Image which cannot be understood of the true Body of Jesus Christ which is neither the Image of himself nor bodily food nor of the accidents which cannot nourish the Body because nourishment proceedeth from matter The same Procopius in his Commentary on Esay expounding these words of the Prophet Chap. 3. The Lord of Hosts will take away from Judah and Jerusalem the staff of Bread and Water saith that in the first place these words of the Prophet may be understood of Jesus Christ and of his Flesh and Blood. The Bread being to be understood of him of whom David saith He gave them bread from Heaven and the waters of those of which Jesus Christ said to the Samaritan Whosoever drinketh of this water it shall be a fountain flowing unto everlasting Life Then he adds There is another bread which giveth life to the world which was taken from the Jews and another water which is that of Baptism Now by this other bread which was taken from the Jews he means that of the Eucharist and whereas he distinguishes it from the bread which is the Lord as he distinguisheth the water of Baptism from that which was given to the Samaritan it follows that the Bread of the Eucharist is something that is distinguisht from Jesus Christ himself the Bread of Heaven Gelasius Bishop of Rome in the year 492 wrote a Treatise of the two Natures against Nestorius and Eutyches and he excludes Transubstantiation when he saith that the substance or nature of Bread and VVine doth still remain This work is assuredly of Pope Gelasius As is confessed by Cardinal Du Perron because first Fulgentius cites four passages of this Treatise as being writ by Pope Gelasius And Pope John the Second in Epist. ad Amaenum also cites some passages of this Work as being writ by Gelasius and though he doth not give him the Title of Pope 't is because his name was well enough known at Rome when John the Second lived That the Fathers of the SIXTH CENTURY did not believe Transubstantiation SAint Fulgentius saith The Catholick Church doth continually offer to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost a Sacrifice of Bread and Wine throughtout all the World. For in the fleshly Sacrifices of the Old Testament there is a type of the Flesh of Jesus Christ which he was to offer without spot for our Sins but in this Sacrifice there is a Thanksgiving and commemoration of the same Flesh which he offer'd for us and of the Blood which he shed for us He saith That this Sacrifice consists in offering Bread and Wine there must then be true Bread and Wine in this Sacrifice to be offer'd Ephraem first a Lieutenant of the Eastern part of the Empire then made Bishop of Antioch in the Year 526. wrote Books which he intituled Sacred Laws in the first of which disputing against the Eutychians he saith When our Fathers said That Jesus Christ is compos'd of two Natures they meant two Substances as by two Substances two Natures No body of any sense but may say that the Nature of that which is to be felt and not felt in Jesus Christ is the same Nature Thus it is that the body of Jesus Christ which is received by Believers doth not quit its sensible Nature and remains without being separated from the intelligible Grace The which he confirms by the Example of Water which doth not lose its Nature by Consecration This Argument is of the same kind of that we see of Theodoret and of Gelasius whereby these three others prove that in the Incarnation the presence of the Word did not destroy the human Nature in Jesus Christ as the presence of the Holy Ghost doth not destroy the Substance of Bread and Wine in the Eucharist We may say of this Triple and same Argument Funiculus triplex difficile rumpitur Mons. de Marca saith in reference to this passage and of those we have instanced of Theodoret and St. Chrysostom that these three Authors have owned a real change of the Bread which nevertheless leaves the Species in their natural Substance Facundus Bishop of Hermiana in Africa in the year 552. whose Books which he wrote in Defence of the Three chapters of the Council of Chalcedon are justly praised by Victor of Tunes in his Chronology and by St. Isidore of Sevil and which Father Sirmond the Jesuit got out of the Vatican Library going about to excuse Theodore de Mopsuest who taught that Jesus Christ had taken the Adoption of the Children of God from whence it might have been concluded that he believed that Jesus Christ is only an adoptive Son saith Baptism which is the Sacrament of Adoption may be call'd Adoption as we call the Sacrament of his Body and Blood which is in the consecrated Bread and Wine his Body and Blood not that the Bread is properly his Body and the Cup his Blood but because they contain in them the Mystery of his Body and Blood. Therefore as the faithful Servants of Jesus Christ receiving the Sacrament of his Body and Blood are very rightly said to receive his Body and Blood so also Jesus Christ having received the Sacrament of the Adoption of Children might very well be said to have received the Adoption of Children Certainly if the Sacrament of Bread and Wine is not properly the Body of Jesus Christ as Facundus saith but barely Body and Blood as Baptism is Adoption the Bread and Wine are not Transubstantiated into the Eucharist and are but simple signs and something that is distinguished from the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Primasius Bishop of Adruemetum in Africa in his
with Oyl God has added to the Water and Oyl the Grace of his Holy Spirit and has made it the washing of Regeneration so also they being accustom'd to eat Bread and to drink Wine and Water he has joined them to his Divinity and has made them his Body and Blood. In the same place The Prophet Esay saw a light Coal now the Coal is not of meer Wood but it is joined to Fire so also the Bread of the Eucharist is not common Bread but it is united to the Divinity and the Body which is united to the Divinity is not one and the same Nature but the Nature of the Body is one and that of the Divinity which is united to it is another In the same place How is it that the Bread is made the Body of Jesus Christ and the Wine and Water his Blood He answers The Holy Ghost comes and disposes these things after such a manner as surpasseth our Thoughts and Expressions The Bread and Wine are taken Panis Vinum assumuntur in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word used by St. Athanasius to express the Hypostatical Union Now these kinds of Expressions of Damascen do imply that the Bread and Wine do remain in the Sacrament The Council of Constantinople composed of 338 Bishops held in the viiith Century for regulating the business of Image-worship having condemn'd their use they would by the way explain the Doctrine of the Church touching the Eucharist and to draw a proof against those very Images they call it the true Image of Jesus Christ they say he gave it to his Disciples to be a Type of the evident Commemoration of his Death they say that Jesus Christ chose no other Species under Heaven nor no other Type that should express his Incarnation Behold then say they the Image of his quickned Body which was made after a precious and honourable manner They affirm that as the Word did not take a Person that so the addition of a Person might not be made to the Divinity so also he appointed that an Image should be offered which is a chosen matter to wit the Substance of Bread that has not the Figure of Man to avoid giving occasion of Idolatry As then say they the Body of Jesus Christ which is according to Nature is Holy as having been Deified so also 't is apparent that that Body also that is by Institution is Holy and it's Image is Holy as having been Deified by Grace by a kind of Sanctification They maintain that as the Human Nature was Deified by its Union with the Word so also the Bread of the Sacrament as the true Image of the natural Flesh of Jesus Christ is sanctified by the coming of the Holy Ghost and becomes the Body of Jesus Christ because the Priest transfers the Oblation from the state of a common thing to something that is Holy. To conclude they clearly distinguish the natural Flesh of Jesus Christ which is living and intelligent from his Image which is the Heavenly Bread filled with the Holy Spirit All these continued Expressions are so far from any Idea of Transubstantiation that one must needs see that the destruction of the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament was not believed by the Fathers of the Council nor by the Church in their time Alcuin speaking of the Consecrating of Bread and Wine to be the Body and Blood of Christ saith that the Sanctification of this Mystery doth foreshew to us the effect of our Salvation That by the Water is signified the Christian People by the grains of the Wheat ground into Meal to make Bread is meant the Union of the Universal Church which is made one Body by the Fire of the Holy Ghost which unites the Members to the Head and that by the Wine is shewed the Blood of the Passion of the Lord. Doubtless Alcuin did not believe Transubstantiation seeing he places in the Bread and Wine the signification of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and that he saith by the Wine is shewed the Blood of Jesus Christ for that which is a Figure and that which is figured that which sheweth and that which is shewed are two different things the one of which is not the other Therefore the same Alcuin doth formally distinguish the Eucharist from the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ when he saith after St. Austin Whosoever abideth not in Jesus Christ and he in whom Christ abideth not doubtless doth not spiritually eat his Flesh altho he visibly and carnally eats with his teeth the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Charles the great his Disciple writing to the same Alcuin calls the Eucharist the Figure of the Body and Blood of the Lord. The Lord saith he being at Supper with his Disciples broke Bread and gave likewise the Cup in figure of his Body and Blood and by this means offered us a very profitable Sacrament Now whatever he said of the figure it contain'd or that it contain'd not the truth the figure was never the same as the thing is that 's figured In the Ambrosian Office which was abolish'd in the year 796 there was this Clause which is still to be seen in the fourth Book of St. Ambrose his Sacraments Nobis hanc oblationem adscriptam rationabilem acceptabilem quod est figura Corporis Sanguinis Domini nostri Jesu Christi The Ancient Roman Order doth frequently call the Bread and VVine the Body and Blood of the Lord but it sufficiently shews by these manner of expressions that it doth not mean that the Bread and VVine are the same thing with the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ for in the first place it saith that the Sub Deacons when they see the Chalice wherein is the Blood of the Lord cover'd with a Cloth and when the Priest hath said these words at the end of the Lords Prayer libera nos a malo they should go from the Altar and prepare Chalices and clean Cloths to receive the Body of the Lord fearing lest it should fall to the ground and crumble to dust Now who doth not see that this cannot be spoken but of the Bread figuratively and improperly called the Body of Jesus Christ 2ly It saith That the Bishop breaketh the Oblation on the right side and that he leaveth the part which he brake on the Altar Now who can say that the Body of Jesus Christ can be broke into parts 3dly The Fraction being made the Deacon receives from the Sub-Deacon the Cup and carries it to the Chair that the Bishop might communicate who having communicated puts part of the holy Oblation of which he bit a Morsel into the Arch-Deacons hands Can it be said that one doth bite the true Body of Jesus Christ and that one breaks off part of it 4thly It adds he is to take great heed that no part of the Body and Blood of the Lord doth remain in
body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist as Bellarmin saith de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis in Paschasio Ratberto And Father Sirmond saith he is the first that hath explain'd the sense of the Church touching this Mystery so that saith he he hath opened the way to others In vitae Ratberti praefixa ejus operibus Therefore it is nothing strange that Paschasius had enemies and that he was accused for departing from the common Faith and to have spread abroad Visions of a young Man. For he saith to Frudegard You have saith he at the end of this Work the Authorities of Catholick Fathers succinctly marked by which you may perceive that 't was not through rashness that formerly when I was young I believed these things but by Divine authority He also endeavours to clear himself from this charge in alledging passages as of Saint Austins the which nevertheless are not to be found in him as these words Receive in the Bread what hung on the Cross receive in the Cup what issued out of the side of Jesus Christ. Which is not to be found in St. Austin Rabanus Archbishop of Mayance in the year 847 stiled by Baronius in the year 843. N. 31. the bright Star of Germany Fulgens Germaniae Sidus saith in his institution of Clerks Lib. 1. cap. 31. Our Saviour liked better that believers should receive with their mouth the Sacarments of his Body and Blood and that they should be turned into their nourishment to the end that by the visible work the invisible effect should be shewn For as the material food doth materially nourish the Body and support it so also the Word of God doth nourish the Soul inwardly and doth strengthen it And in the same place The Sacrament is one thing and the virtue of the Sacrament is another The Sacrament is turned into the nourishment of the Body but by the virtue of the Sacrament one acquires everlasting life As the Sacrament therefore is turn'd into our selves when we do eat and drink it so also we are converted into the Body of Jesus Christ when we live with Piety and Obedience The same Doctor on St. Matthew Chap. 26. saith with Venerable Beda that Jesus Christ hath substituted instead of the Flesh and Blood of the Paschal Lamb the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. That the Creator of the World and the Redeemer of Mankind making of the very fruits of the Earth that is to say of Bread and Wine a fit Mystery turn'd it into the Sacrament of his Body and Blood that unleavened Bread and Wine mixt with water must be sanctified to be the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Afterwards he gives the reason wherefore our Saviour chose Bread and Wine to make them Sacraments of his Flesh and Blood and saith that 't is because Melchisedeck offer'd Bread and Wine and that Jesus Christ being a Priest after the Order of Melchisedeck he was to imitate his Oblation And shewing the Reason why the Sacrament takes the name of the Body and Blood of the Lord he saith with Isidore Archbishop of Sevil 'T is because Bread strengthens the Body it is conveniently called the Body of Jesus Christ and because Wine augments Blood in the Flesh and Veins for this reason it is compar'd to the Blood. Now both these things are visible nevertheless being sanctifi'd by the Holy Ghost they pass into the Sacrament of the Divine Body A Sacrament which in the 33. Chap. he calls the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ in opposition to his Natural Body from which he distinguishes it and draws a resemblance from the Mystical Body to the proper Body of Jesus Christ. The holy Vessels saith he are set on the Altar viz. the Cup and Patten which in some sort are the figure of the Grave of Jesus Christ for as at that time the Body of Jesus Christ was laid in the Sepulcher having been embalm'd by godly People so also at present the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ as it were imbalm'd with holy Prayers is kept in the holy Vessels to be administred to Believers by the hands of the Ministers The same Doctor in his Penitential or Letter to Herribald Bishop of Auxerre which Monsieur Baluze got printed at the end of his Regino at Paris in 1671 saith Chap. 33. As to what you demand of me whether the Sacrament after it is eat and consum'd and cast into the draft after the manner of all other meats does return to the former nature it had before 't was consecrated at the Altar to such a needless question may be reply'd The Lord himself said in the Gospel that what enters into the Body goes into the Belly and is cast into the draft As for the Sacrament of the Body and Blood it is made of corporeal and visible things but it produceth an invisible sanctification as well to the Body as to the Soul. What reason is there that that which is digested in the Stomack and is cast out into the draft should return to its former state there being never any that affirmed that such a thing was done For of late some persons not having a right Judgment of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ have said that the same Body and the same Blood of the Lord which was Born of the Virgin Mary and in which the Lord suffered on the Cross and rose again from the Dead is the same which is taken at the Altar against which Error we have as much as was necessary written to the Abbot Egilon explaining what ought truly to be believed of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist Amalarius esteemed a very Learned man in the Manuscripts cited by Dom Luke D'achery a Learned Benedictin in his Preface to the Seventh Tome of his Spicilegium was sent by the Emperor Charles le Debonnair to Pope Gregory to find out Antiphonaries Amalar. in Prolog Antiphon and who by express command of the same Emperor was chosen in a Council held at Aix la Chappel Auno 816. to make Rules for Prebends as is testified by Ademar a Monk of Angoulism in his Chronicle on the year 816 saith in his Treatise of Church-Offices Lib. 3. cap. 25. That the Sacrament is to us instead of Jesus Christ. The Priest saith he bows and recommends to God the Father that which was offered in the room of Jesus Christ. In the 26th chap. he saith The Oblation and the Cup do signifie the Body of the Lord when Jesus Christ said This is the Cup of my Blood he sanctified his Blood which Blood was in the Body as the Wine is in the Chalice In the third Book chap. 25. he calls the Eucharist the Sacrament of Bread and Wine and saith that Jesus Christ hath in this Bread recommended his Body and in the Cup his Blood. The same Amalarius having been consulted by Rangart Bishop of Noyon how he understood those words of Institution of the Eucharist
more drink the Fruit of the Vine until I drink it with you in a new manner whereof you shall bear testimony for you shall see me after my Resurrection But wherefore continues S. Chrysostom did he drink Wine after his Resurrection and not Water it is because he would thereby destroy a pernicious Heresy For because there would be Hereticks that would only make use of water in the Mysteries be would represent the Mysteries he gave Wine and when after the Resurrection he eat his common Repast he drank Wine the Fruit of the Vine now the Vine doth produce Wine and not Water This Passage marketh in the first place That Jesus Christ drinking the Fruit of the Vine after his Resurrection and not Water he accomplish'd what he said in celebrating the Eucharist I will no more drink of this Fruit of the Vine until I drink it new in my Fathers Kingdom This shews that Jesus Christ drank true Wine in the Institution of the Eucharist for what is to be done again must needs be done before Secondly St. Chrysostom doth not only say that Jesus Christ drank Wine but he saith further That he distributed Wine amongst his Disciples and the Fruit of the Vine which doth not produce Water but Wine So that these words of St. Chrysostom import clearly That the Wine remains in the Eucharist The same Father on these words of the First to the Corinthians The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ speaks thus What is the Bread it is the Body of Jesus Christ. What becomes of them which receive it they become the Body of Jesus Christ. Now this Proposition The Bread is the Body of Jesus Christ cannot be in a Literal Sense for saith Vasquez The Bread without a Figure cannot be called the Body of Jesus Christ nor the Body of Jesus Christ be called Bread. The same Father in his Commentary upon the Epistle to the Galatians Chap. 5. explaining these words of the Apostle The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh The Manicheans understood by the Flesh the substance of the Body and by the Spirit they understood the Soul and they said That the Apostle cut Man into two and intimated that Man was compos'd of two contrary Substances one bad which was the Flesh and the other good which was the Spirit which proceeded from the good God and the Body from the bad God S. Chrysostom answers That the Apostle in this place doth not call the Flesh the Body Apostolum non hic carnem appellare Corpus as the Manicheans supposed and saith That the Apostle do's not always mean by the Flesh the nature of the Body Naturam Corporis but that very often by the Flesh he means something else as evil Desires and having proved this by sundry passages of the Apostle and other holy Writers he proves it at last by the example of the Iucharist and of the Church which he saith is called Body in the Holy Scriptures he saith farther That the Scripture is wont to call by the name of Flesh as well the Church as the Mysteries saving It is his Body Rursum Carnis vocabulo Scriptura solet appellare tum Mysteria tum totam Ecclesiam dicens eam Christi Corpus esse It appears by these words of St. Chrysostom's That he did not believe that the Consecrated Bread and Wine were the same with the Body of Christ seeing he proves by the Eucharist that the Consecraeted Bread and Wine are called Flesh and that the Word Flesh in this place is taken for something else besides Body and that he puts the Term Flesh given to the Consecrated Bread and Wine which are the Mysteries in the rank of other Terms of Flesh given to evil Desires and to the Church which are mystical and figurative Terms So St. Chrysostom believed the Bread and Wine remained and are so called the Body of Jesus Christ mystically as the Church is called the Body of Jesus Christ. The same St. Chrysostom wrote a Letter to Caesarius which indeed is not inserted in his Works but is sound in Manuscript in the Library at Florence and it was also found in England in Archbishop Cranmer's Library it is mention'd in the Bibliotheca Patrum Printed at Collen 1618. in this Bibliotheque Tom. 4. there is found the Collections of an ancient nameless Author who wrote against the Severian and Acephalian Hereticks wherein is recited a Passage taken out of this Letter So also Monsieur de Marca Arch-Bishop of Paris acknowledges the truth of this Letter in his Posthume and French Treatise of the Eucharist witness the Abbot Fagget in his Letter to Monsieur de Marca President of the Parliament at Pan who saith also this Letter was found by Monsieur Bigot in a Library at Florence St. Chrysostom in this Letter writeth against Apollinarius and saith Jesus Christ is both God and Man God because of his Impassibility Man by his Passion one Son one Lord both Natures united making but one the same Power the same Dominion although they be two different Natures each conserves its own Nature because they are two and yet without confusion for as the Bread before it is sanctified is called Bread when by the intercession of the Priest Divine Grace has sanctified it it loses the name of Bread and becomes worthy to be called the Body of Jesus Christ although the Nature of Bread abides in it so that they are not two Bodies but one sole Body of the Son so the Divine Nature being united to the Humane Nature of Jesus Christ it did not make two Persons but one only Person and one Son. St. Chrysostom saith plainly That the Nature of Bread abideth after Consecration and this Father's Argument would be of no validity if this nature of the Bread was nothing but in shew for Apollinarius might have made another opposite Argument and say That indeed it might be said there were two Natures in Jesus Christ but that the Humane Nature was only in appearance as the Bread in the Eucharist is but in shew and hath only outward and visible qualities remaining in it whereby it is term'd to be Bread. The Author of the imperfect Work upon St. Matthew written in the time of the Emperour Theodosius did not believe Transubstantiation when he spake in these Terms in Homily Eleventh If it be dangerous to employ the holy Vessels about common uses wherein the true Body of Jesus Christ is not contain'd but the Mysteries of his Body how much rather the Vessels of our Bodies which God has prepared to dwell in That the Fathers of the FIFTH CENTURY did not believe Transubstantiation S. Jerom in his Epistle to Eustochium speaking of Virgins saith That when they were reproved for Drunkenness they excus'd themselves by adding Sacriledge to Drunkenness saying God forbid that I should abstain from the Blood of the Lord. In the Second Book against Jovinian