in several verses after making mention of that Consecrated Element calls it still Bread as often as you eat this Bread Whosoever shall eat this Bread c. In all which St. Paul doth but conform himself to the words of our Saviour which he relateth exactly as set down by St. Luke in the 22th chapter of his Gospel v. 19. And he took Bread and gave thanks and brake it and gave unto them saying This is my Body which is given for you this do in remembrance of me And when our Saviour himself thus declareth his words to be in a figurative sense after an usual and plain manner of speaking it is a disorder to run to a violent explication of them containing wonders surpassing humane understanding without any probable ground in the holy Text as the Papists do to maintain their doctrine with this or the like gloss This is my Body that is the thing contained under those Forms is by conversion and substantial transmutation my Body So as pretending to stick to the letter they only keep the sound of the words and to give them sense for their purpose they unaware produce a trope or something darker a paradox repugnant to all humane reasoning and nothing coherent with the context We agree all in calling the holy Eucharist a Sacrament why should we not then agree in taking the expressions touching it in a Sacramental way A Sacrament in common is a sign of a sacred thing Signum rei sacrae as Divines do ordinarily define it Why may not the Sacrament of Christ's Body be called a sign of his Body Why may not we understand that to be the meaning of Christ's words when taking the Bread he said This is my Body to wit this is the sign of my Body It being usual to call Sacramental signs by the name of the things signified by them As St. Augustine testifyeth Sicut ergo secundum quendam modum Sacramentum Corporis Christi Corpus Christi est Aug. to 2 ep 23. ad Bonifac saying Sacraments are signs which often do take the name of those things which they do signifie and represent And to our purpose addeth that after a certain manner the Sacrament of the Body of Christ is the Body of Christ So the Lamb being a sign of the Passover is called the Passover Mat. 26.17 Exo. 12.11 The Rock being a sign of Christ suffering for us is called Christ Vt Baptismus dicitur Sepulchrum sic hoc est Corpus meum Aug. con Faust li 20. c. 21 and the Rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 and Baptism the sign of Christ's Burial is called Christ's Burial which St. Augustine applyeth to our purpose saying As Baptism is called Christ's Burial so is the Sacrament of the Body of Christ called his Body Besides Bellarmine Non enim Dominus dubitavit dicere hoc est corpus meum cum signum daret corporis sui Aug. to 6. cont Adaman cap. 12. and all other Romish Writers do confess being not able to deny it that the words of our Saviour touching the second part of this Sacrament to wit the Cup are sigurative This Cup is the New Testament of my Bloud Where they acknowledge a Trope in the word Cup or Calice taking it for that which is in the Cup. Why will not they likewise admit the former words relating to the Bread to be figurative Non negamus in verbo calix tropum esse Bellarm. de Euch. l. 1. c. 11. such pressing reasons moving to it and such terrible inconveniences attending their construction as hereto has been and after shall be further declared Now that the most Reverend Fathers of that happier Age taught by Christ and his Apostles were of our Opinion taking the words of our Saviour in a Figurative sense and the Eucharistical Bread a Type or Sign of his sacred Body is clearly seen by their Writings such as could escape the blots of the Roman Expurgatory Vererable Denis Areopagita was ignorant of Transubstantiation and so distinguished between the substantial signs and Christ signified by them saying By those Reverend signs and Symboles Christ is signified Dionis Areopagita Eccles hierar c. 2. I no Dionisiq cap hier 3 Eucharistiam vocat ant typon Belar li. 2. de Eu char c. 15. n. sed hoc and the faithful made partakes of him He calleth the Sacrament a Type even after Consecration as Bellarmin himself confesseth So that according to St. Denis the Elements of Bread and Wine in this Sacrament are Types and Symboles which is to say figures and signs of the Body and Blood of Christ though not bare signs but really exhibiting Christ and his Spiritual grace to the faithful duly disposed which being St. Denis his expression fully agreeth with the belief of the Church of England in this particular St. Chrisostom delivereth clearly the same Doctrine Chrisest epist ad ad Caesar coâ—tr haeres Apollinar saying that before the Pread is sanctified we name it Bread but the Divine Grace sanctifying it by the means of the Priest it is freed from the name of Bread but it is esteemed worthy to be called the Lords Body although the nature of Bread remains in it But St. Austin is most eminent in clearing this point where he bringeth in Christ thus speaking to his disciples Augâ— in Psa 98. you are not to eat this Body which you see or to Drink that Bloud which my crucifiers shall powr forth I have commended to you a Sacrament which being spiritually understood shall quicken you Contra Adamantium cap 12. And again he saith that Christ brought them to a banket in which he commended to his Disciples the figure of his Body and lood For he did not doubt to say This is my Body Contra â—â—austum Manichaeum when he gave the sign of his Body And in another place he saith that which by all men is called a Sacrifice is the sign of the true Sacrafice in which the flesh of Christ after his assumption is celebrated by the Sacrament of remembrance Theodoret is more emphatical upon this subject saying Theodoreus Dialog 2 c. 24. Christ honoured the Symboles and the Signs which are seen with the title of his Body and Blood not changing the nature but to nature adding grace For neither do the mistical signs recede from their nature for they abide in their proper substance figure and form and may be seen and touched c. I will conclude these testimonies with one that haply may carry more weight if not deemed Infallible I mean of Pope Pelagius speaking thus Pelagius Papa de duabus naturis contra Eurichem Nestori um vide Picherel in dissert de missa expositione verborum institutionis caenae Domini Pag. 14. Truly the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ which we receive is a Divine thing for that by it we are made partakers of the Divine nature and yet it ceases not to be the substance or
nature of Bread and Wine And truly an Image and similitude of the Body and Bloud of Christ is celebrated in the Action of the mysteries I am to suppose it will be replyed for some exception must be conceived against evidences so clear and executive that these testimonies of the Fathers are not to be seen thus in their more corrected editions which I have reason to believe having seen the venerable writings of the most ancient and grave Fathers of the Church both Greek and Latine defaced with large blots wheresoever they were found opposite to the present Tenents and practice of the Roman Church according to the direction of the Roman Expurgatory They pretend that Protestants have inserted into the Books of the Fathers those clauses favouring their own Doctrine But who can believe that so many weighty Volumes making up great Libraries should be newly printed to receive those supplies that so many clear sentences concording with the context should be so artificially conveyed into the very heart and marrow of the Homilies of the Fathers The contrary is the more credible to me I having seen very ancient Libraries which never came under the hands of a Protestant expurged of such clauses and sentences according to the Rule of the Roman Expurgatory Besides this Scot. in 4. dis 11. q. 3. Ocham ib. q. 6. Biel lect 40 in Canon Missae Râ—ffens c. 1. o. 1. controv captiv Balil Scotus Ocham Biel Fisher Bishop of Rochester Bassolis Caietan Melchior Canus and others many eminent Schoolmen have affirmed that the doctrine of Transubstantiation is not expressed in the Canon of the Bible And certainly it was no Article of Faith before the Lateran Council declared it for such 1200. years after Christ as Scotus and others do affirm And even after this declaration several of their chief Teachers continued affirming that Article not to be contained in Scripture Bassolis Caiâ—tan apâ—d Suar. to 3 Disp 46. sec 3. Caâ—us loâ— com l. 3. sun 2. especially â—assolis Caietan Melchior Canus and so they coined it of their own heads for they could not declare it to be revealed if it was not in Scripture Their doctrine of Transubstantiation and Corporal Presence of our Saviour in the Sacrament of the Altar being thus ill grounded consider how desperate is their resolution in giving to the consecrated wafer the Worship of Divinity nay greater than ever they give to the true undoubted God as is well known to such as have seen the sumptuous pomp of Spain and other Popish Countries in adoring the Consecrated Host Even standing to their own principles they can never be absolutely certain of Christ's Corporal Presence under those Forms of Bread That depending as themselves teach from the intention of the Priest consecrating and his due Ordination and this later again depending from the intention of the Bishop that ordained him and his legal Ordination and so upward of endless requisites impossible to be known certainly upon any occasion as Bellarmine Vega and all their Writers commonly do confess Bellar. li. 3. de justif c. 8. What blindness therefore is it to give Divine Worship to a thing they know not certainly to be more than a piece of bread Vega lib. 9. de justif c. 17. Some pressed with this Argument did answer that they were free from Idolatry in their practice herein because they believe that host to be God But upon this account the Egyptians worshipping the Sun for God and the Israelites adoring the Golden Calf believing it was the true God that brought them out of Egypt and the grossest Idolaters that ever were may plead for excuse from Idolatry alledging unwilful mistake To this again some of them reply that they do not barely suppose Christ to be really present under the Form of bread but that they know and believe it upon the same ground and motives upon which they believe that Christ is God and consequently to be adored Whereby certainly they give great advantage to the enemies of Christ's Divinity seeing they make the truth of these two things equal that is Bellar. de Christo l. 1. c. 4. the Divinity of Christ and Transubstantiation And of the untruth of this bold Assertion I will take learned Bellarmine for judge who when he proves the Divinity of Christ goes through nine several classes of Arguments of which six are wholly out of Scripture with uncontrollable strength and admirable clearness But being to prove Transubstantiation out of Scripture his only argument is from those words of our Saviour Matth. De Sacr. Euchar. l. 3. c. 19. 26. Take eat this is my body And finding that proof not clear enough appeals to the Authority of Councils and Fathers concluding the chapter thus Though in the words of the Lord there may be some obscurity or ambiguity that is taken away by the Councils and Fathers of the Church and so passes to that kind of proof But whatsoever be of Scripture for Transubstantiation it is intolerable boldness to say there is the same reason for the adoration of the Host as for Christ's Divinity it self whereas for the one we have a plain command in Scripture and for the other nothing like it St. Paul tells that all the Angels are commanded to worship the Son of God Heb. 1.6 and that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow of things in Heaven Phi. 2.10 in Earth and under the Earth And St. John telleth from his Master's mouth that the Heavenly Father commanded that all men should honour the Son even as they do the Father Jo. 5.23 But where is the least intimation given that we are to worship Christ in the Sacramental Bread supposing him present there If you answer the general command extendeth to him where ever he is present I say you may upon that account as well worship him in the Sun and in the Moon and in any other bread for in all he is present as God I will conclude this Point with answering the argument I saw taken for the most weighty against our Doctrine hitherto declared of taking the Sacrament of the Altar for a commemoration of our Saviour and spiritual partaking of his blessed Body and Bloud for the food of our souls to life everlasting without any real transmutation of the substances That if the Jews did take his words in this sense they could not in reason strive among themselves saying John 5.52 How can this man give us his flesh to eat nor his Disciples say This is an hard saying who can hear it And Christ replying did not reprehend their misunderstanding his words but repeated his former doctrine saying Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man ye have no life in you This argument I once over-valued but considering it better I look upon it as a tacit censure of Christ's reply for non pertinent to satisfie the Objection of his Hearers Shall we pretend to understand their meaning better than Christ
and in the same breath they disclaim greater Antiquity and more warrantable Authority of the Church acknowledging that Christ did institute and the Primitive Church did practise the giving of the Sacrament under both kinds to all the people How inconsequent is errour This onely instance may assure us that the Romish Religion as it stands now did not proceed intirely from Christ and his Apostles If we object that the detracting of the Cup is the bereaving the faithful people of their spiritual food to life everlasting by not permitting them to partake of the bloud of Christ he affirming Jo 6.5 3. that except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his bloud ye have no life in you The Council tells us We must firmly believe and no way doubt that the entire body and bloud of our Saviour is contained as well under the Form of bread as under the Form of wine But we have shewed before how little ground we have for a firm belief of their doctrine in this point How great reason to doubt it nay to be assured of the contrary and that Christ is present and taken in the Eucharist onely in a spiritual and Sacramental way that being so in bereaving the Faithful of the Cup they bereave them of the whole Sacrament For their own Divines do agree in affirming that the consecrated Forms of Bread and Wine are essential Constitutes of this Sacrament Suar. in 3 p disp 42 sec 1 conc 3 any they alone are the Sacrament properly as Suarez declares relating a great number of other Divines for the same doctrine Therefore taking no Wine they take no Sacrament taking no Sacrament they have no life in them as our Saviour declared and so bereaving them of the Sacramental wine they bereave them of the life of their souls and is not this to use cruelty to souls Purgatory and Indul. gences As for the sixth Article concerning Purgatory I do not find their Learned men so confident as the Vulgar in fixing a determinate place for it in the bowels of the Earth with those frightful qualities their Legends do specifie Being contented to conclude from some places of Scripture and by conjecture that after this Life there must be some place to expiate or purge souls from Venial fins or satisfie for the Temporal penalty due to Great ones without determining whether that place be over or under or in the Earth or whether the pain be heat or cold or darkness or tempest c. And as the Conclusion is obscure so is the inference of it from the premisses laid The chief place out of the Old Testament is the case of Judas Macchabeus sending money to Jerusalem that sacrifices should be made for his souldiers defunct and the gloss annexed that therefore it is a holy consideration to pray for the dead c. But though the Book relating thiscase were canonical and of certain authority which is not allowed yet the conclusion pretended from it for the doctrine of Purgatory is not of force For Prayers for the dead may be made and were made to different purposes 2 Mach. 12.43 than that of drawing them out of Purgatory First Suar to 1. in 3. P. disp 10. Sec. 4. because many learned Writers of the Romish party do teach that God as a good Paymaster doth oftentimes give before-hand the reward of services to be done in the future and therefore being long-sighted and always present to all the spaces of Eternity may see now and listen to prayers that will be made in any Age after And fore-seeing that godly persons shall pray in the future for the assistance of his Grace to one dying now may yield it accordingly This doctrine I have seen practised in a Letter written to my self by one of the learnedest men in Spain wherein speaking of the death of his Mother he prayed to God that he might have assisted her in the later hour for dying penitent If this go well Prayers may be commendable for the Dead to different purposes from that of drawing them out of Purgatory And if the case related of the Macchabees be true it is more likely the prayers made for the slain should have proceeded in the manner fore-said than for bringing them out of Purgatory Whereas in the same place is related that those men were found to have committed a mortal sin which is not pretended to be pardoned in Purgatory under the coats of every one that was slain 2 Mac. 12 V. 40 they found things consecrated to the Idols of the Jamnites which is forbidden to the Jews by the Law And though Bellarmine pretends the sin of those men should be venial through ignorance it is but a bare conjecture and not agreeable to the context shewing that deed to have drawn upon them God's vengeance then every man saw that this was the cause wherefore they were slain Their death might have been their temporal punishment and final penitence might have freed them from the eternal as Bellarmine confesseth relating for it the Psalm 78. Ps 78.34 Cùm occideret eos quaerebant eum revertebantur when he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God But not to rely upon the fore-mentioned consideration of some particular Writers if we find in some of the Ancients prayers to be made for the dead it was to other ends than to draw them out of this supposed Purgatory First to praise God for giving them a happy end in his holy Faith and rest from their labours as appeareth by those words of the Revelations used by the Ancient Church in the Office of the dead Rev 14 13. Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours Secondly that we should comfort each other in the death of our Friends reflecting upon the hope of meeting them in Heavenly glory according to those comfortable words of St. Paul in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians 1 Thss 4.13 accustomed to be read in the same Office of the dead I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning them which areasleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope c. third ly for our spiritual instruction whether considering the good example of our faithful Brethren preceding whether reflecting upon our mortality at the sight of death All this may be seen by the practice of the primitive Christians as it is declared by the Authour of the Commentaries upon Job inserted among the Works of Origen li. 3 comment in Job by these words We observe the memorials of the Saints and devoutly keep the remembrance of our parents or friends which dye in the Faith as well rejoycing for their refreshing as requesting also for our selves a godly consummation of the Faith Thus therefore do we celebrate the death not the day of the birth because they which dye shall
was turmoiled reflecting upon the prodigious Doctrine of Transubstantiation alone sufficient to fright rational believers from the Romish Communion By it we are required to believe that when the Priest pronounces those few Latin words Hoc est Corpus meum This is my Body minding what he says the substance of all the bread he lays before him is destroyed in a moment and instead of it our Saviour Jesus is placed under that figure of bread personally and corporally A wonder though a dayly one yet far surpassing that other which once happened in the world when God hearkning to the voice of Joshua made the Sun and Moon stand till he compleated his Victory against the Enemy invading Gibeon Josh 10.12 And to support this wonder a great number of others most stupendious are chained to it As First that those accidents of white and round remaining do subsist without any substance to rest upon a thing repugnant to their nature and to all humane understanding Secondly that the same accidents being converted either into vermin by corruption or into flesh and bloud by nutrition in him that eats them should produce a substance which is to give what they have not a thing surpassing all kind of power Thirdly that a proper well proportion'd body as that of our Saviour glorious in Heaven must come down and be fitted to every Wafer and to every the least crumb of them Fourthly that the same Body must lye sit or stand or however be in a hundred thousand places at the same time All these monstrous miracles and more we must swallow to support that mystery in spight of all reason to the contrary without any pertinent Text of Scripture to ground it upon nay many Texts opposing it as we shall hereafter declare and no necessity urging to it either for verifying the words of our Saviour in the institution of this blessed Sacrament or for the effects of it St. 1â— 15 Not for verifying the words seeing our Saviour in the same tenor said I am the true vine without any alteration either in his Person or in the Vine And St. Paul saith of his Corinthians 2 Cor. 12 27. ye are the Body of Christ yet meaning no conversion of substances Nor for the effects of the Sacrament Christ being able to convey with the worthy receiving of Bread and Wine what spiritual graces he pleaseth without any substantial alteration in the Elements as in the Waters of Baptism he affordeth the soveraign grace of Regeneration without any alteration in the substance of the Water The like repugnance I felt in believing their prodigious Doctrine of Indulgences Purgatory Worship of Saints and Images and other Points controverted with them but smother'd my doubts while in Spain partly fearing the severity of that Countrey in proceeding against Opposers of their Doctrine partly amused with the supposition that the Church and Pope of Rome were Infallible in their Decrees touching matters of Faith and so might stand with security to their Declarations And finally perswaded by my Catechists that it was a mortal Sin to admit willingly even a doubt in Matters of Faith A terrible yoke reaching to the thoughts of the heart but conducent to their purpose of keeping in their people by right or wrong With these Generalities I quieted in some sort my mind while I could see none that would seriously oppose those Tenents nor know the Arguments against them but by relation of Romish Writers fashioning them so as they might better receive their stroke For though by occasion of my Employment of teaching controversies in the University of Salamanca some years I had a Licence from the Inquisitor General of Spain to read prohibited Books yet the Prohibition was so severe that I could never come by any Book of their Opposers But Divine Providence leading me to this Countrey I met with persons of excellent wisedom and great integrity who in close and serious Disputes gave me a different light and help to find out the truth The chiefest of all was the Most Reverend Father in God Thomas Lord Archbishop of Cashell who at his coming to that See having notice of me and pittying I should continue in errours sought carefully after me and finding me out with admirable zeal and great dexterity dictated by Christian charity set upon me with solid Arguments of Holy Scripture Councels Fathers and Histories and gave me to view several learned Authors representing the Errours of the Roman Church in all the points controverted to which I listened the more willingly because I saw a vein of Charity and Zeal of Union among Christians run through all his discourses acknowledging the Church of Rome to be a part of the Catholick Church though not the Catholick Church as they speak excluding other Christian Congregations from that honourable Title reverencing what in them was good as the belief of Scripture and Christian Creeds the Practice of Devotion and Piety and onely reproving the Superstructures of Erroneous Practises introduced contrary to the Institution of Christ and Stile of the Primitive Church entertaining a charitable hope of the Salvation of many of them that went on with simplicity of heart and blameless ignorance of the Errours they were bred in All which sympathizing with my own temper and dictates in relation to all Christian Congregations got in my mind a special respect and regard to his reasons I replied to them with sincerity and liberty according to the principles I was instructed in Where a clear Text or pressing reason was deficient I appealed as to a Sanctuary to the Infallibility of the Church that in things surpassing our comprehension we were to captivate our understanding to the obedience of Faith proposed to us by the Church of God To secure this refuge and have it in a readiness I framed to my self and proposed to his Grace this kind of Demonstration That by natural evidences I was convinced there was a God of infinite Goodness wisedom and power That to these attributes it belonged he should provide for Man-kind means for obtaining their end of everlasting bliss That by revealed Oracles common to all Christians I believed he sent down his Son Jesus Christ for this purpose in humane nature and to shew by his Example and Doctrine a sure way to eternal happiness And providing not only for the age he lived in but for all times to come he left upon earth a Church furnished with convenient Laws for the foresaid end And whereas he foretold himself that in future times there should arise Heresies and Controversies as it is the nature of men it became his wisedom and goodness to appoint a visible Judge with infallible assistance of the Holy Ghost to determine all Controversies emergent which Judge was no other than the Pope of Rome Successor of St. Peter to whose definitions therefore we ought to stand and so quiet our minds The former part of this Demonstration had a grateful acceptance with his Grace as
children of Light and Lovers of Truth will not listen to their charms nor yield to their cheats They deceive the simple with saying that Protestants do allow Papists may be saved but Papists do not allow that Protestants may be saved and thence conclude that both parties approving of the Popish Religion for a sure way to salvation it is to be reputed for the most secure but in neither do they say truth for no learned Protestant does allow the Popish Religion in general and absolutely speaking to be a secure way to Salvation For all do agree in affirming that many of their Tenents and practices are inconsistent with Salvation though ignorance may haply excuse many of the simple sort but not such as know or with due care and inquiry may know their errour On the other side all learned men of the Roman Church do teach that all Protestants baptized Laiman l. 2. tr l. c. 13. Vasq q. 1. disp 126. Castropal p. 1. tr 4. disp 1. q. 11. p. 1. diffic 4. aetatis apud ipsos and believing the common principles of Christian Religion not convinced of any errour against the Catholick Faith but conceiving they follow the truth of it are not Hereticks but Members of the Catholick Church and so endeavouring to serve God according to the rules of their Belief may be saved as formerly declared And it is a high point of rashness and want of Christian charity to judge of any particular without special ground that he does not live with that sincerity of mind and belief that he is in the right Such presumptuous censures are injurious to the goodness of God and Disturbers of human quiet For truly if by reason of the diversity of tempers abilities educations and unavoidable prejudices whereby mens understandings are variously formed and fashioned they embrace several opinions whereof some must be erroneous to say that God will damn them for such errours they being lovers of Truth and desirous to serve him is to rob man of his comfort and God of his goodness In which rash proceeding the commonalty of the Romish party are beyond all men presumptuous and malignant and their learned men that do favour and not rebuke their malignity therein may justly fear God's displeasure that Christ will disown them for followers of him as void of charity the chief mark he gives of his Disciples saying by this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples Jo. 13.3 if ye have love one to another Hereunto I may add the great tyranny and cruelty they use to souls in the practice of Confession On the one side they encrease the rigour of it with additions of severity obliging to such minute expressions of the most loathsom circumstances of secret thoughts and deeds as render it the most heavy of Christian Duties And on the other side they put so many stops to the execution of it by reservation of cases not to be absolved but by determinate persons that it occasions lamentable perplexities of souls and proceedings against the dictates of their Conscience Which cruelty is farther encreased in many places by the sordid avarice of their Pastors making poor souls believe they may not confess but to their own Curats and refusing to hear their Confessions without receiving Money for it I will not be so unjust to the Roman Church as to fasten this later abuse upon the whole body of it it being but the fault of some corrupt members I am not so malignant towards her as to throw the dirt of her feet in her face whereas I would if I could wash away all her stains with the bloud of my heart But even her feet are so haughty and ill sufferers of correction that endeavouring to reform this abuse with intimating Decrees of Councils and Popes against it and representing the miscarriage of souls by it I had no other fruit of my labour but spight hatred for pretending to cure this malady which joyned to many other experiences of their distemper to be both incurable and contagious I resolved upon this conclusion Jerem 51.9 We would have healed Babilon but she is not healed for sake her But thou O Father of mercy Lord Omnipotent to whose power all creatures are subject who canst hold in with bit and bridle such as will not approach to thee forsake not that Church nor any other Congregation of men redeemed by the precious bloud of thy Son Jesus Illuminate them all with the glorious beams of thy Heavenly Light Reduce them by the powerful tyes of thy grace to perfect Union in Truth and Charity to serve and praise thee duly in this life and joyn together in thy Glory in Life everlasting Amen FINIS