he spok the words CHAP. II. Concerning the exposition of these words He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath everlasting life My flesh is meat indeed c. MOunsieur de Rodon did promise in his precedent Chapter to prove in this that Christ speaks of a spiritual eating and drinking by faith which he sayes is the mouth of the soul and not of a corporal eating and drinking by the mouth of the body his first argument is this Rodon 1. When a man would satisfie his hunger and quench his thirst he oâ—…th and drinketh that thing which he hungers and thirsts after because eating satisfieth hunger and drinking quencheth thirst But it is by faith that is by beleiving in Iesus Christ that we satisfie the hunger and quench the thirst which Iohn he that cometh to me shall never hunger he that believes in me shal never thirst and he that beleveth in me shall never thirst Therefore it is by faith or by beleving that we eat and drink Iesus Christ and consequently the eating of Christs flesh and drinking of his blood is spiritual and not corporal Answ. To this argument I answer granting the major and distinguishing the Minor thus but it is by faith as by a condition requisite that we satisfie the hunger and quench the thirst which we have after Christ I confess but it is by faith as by the proper and formal cause of satisfying our hunger and quenching our thirst after him or as faith is the spiritual mouth of the soul to convey Christ into her I deny the minor and both the consequences following Therefore I say although not only faith but also hope and charity be requisite conditions wiihout which no body can have the spiritual refreshment this divine food gives unto the soul and which the soul so much hungers and thirsts after yet neither faith hope nor charity jointly or severally are the cheif cause of this refreshment and spiritual satisfaction but the real entity of Christs body which is in the consecrated host being received corporally by us while we are in the state of grace is that which chiefly and principally causeth this spiritual refreshment in us it is that glorified body that satisfies our spiritual hunger and quenches our spiritual thirst and faith is only one of the requisite conditions that Christs body should feed us spiritually just as the application of fire to wood is a condition requisite that fire should burn the wood but none can say that the application the condition requisite is that which burns the wood but the fire is the whole cause of burning Even so we say of Christs body in the Sacrament that it is the chief and whole cause of the spiritual refreshment of the soul and the thing which she chiefly hungers and thirsts after and faith is but a condition requisite when his body is taken corporally by us that it should refresh us spiritually To the passage he alledgeth out of S. Iohn I answer that his words must not be understood that he that cometh to me by faith alone shall never hunger and he that only beleiveth in me shall never thirst for many may believe in Christ and yet be actually in mortal sin and yet certain it is that mortal sin causeth a divorce betwixt Christ and the soul or dare Mr. de Rodon say that if he or any of his party should chance to be drunk to swear or to envy another man that by such an action he forfeiteth his belief if so then he presently becomes an heretick for heresy is nothing else but forfeiture of belief in a Christian. Therefore the said passage must be understood thus he that cometh to me by vertue of this or any other of my Sacraments or by true contrition and believeth in me taking faith as a condition requisite not as the cause of coming unto him such a soul if she leaves him not by falling into sin again through her own fault shall never hunger nor thirst spiritually but be for ever refresht by vertue of his body and bloud with increase of charity and all other vertues Neither is it to be doubted but Christs body when worthily received by the mouth of the body doth work spiritually upon the soul which I prove thus because where Christs glorified body is really present there is his divinity humanity and person also by concomitance and where his person is there the persons of the father and of the holy Ghost are by circumincession as Diviâ—…s â—…all it but where the divinity personally iâ—…abits it replenishes and satiats that soul and body with spiritual food and joy Therefore whosoever takes the body of Christ worthily and puts no obstacle to its spiritual operations he is satiated spiritually with the the same body by reason of the concomitance of the divinity and soul of Christ that alwayes accompany his glorified body as also by reason of the circumincession of all the three persons of the most blessed Trinity inhabiting the soul. But now let us come to his second argument which is this Rodon 2. Iesus Christ saith he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath eternal life And except ye eat the flesh of the son of man drink his bloud ye have no life in you John 6. But it is the spiritual eating and drinking by faith that gives life everlasting and not the corporal eating and drinking by the mouth of the body Because many Reprobates according to the very doctrine of Rome it it self do corporally eat the flesh and drink the bloud of Christ and yet shall not inherit eternal life Answ. To this Argument I answer denying Mr. de Rodon's supposition viz. that the soul eateth spiritually by faith for faith being no mouth of the soul in any sense as I proved before and nothing being able to eat properly or improperly without a proper or improper mouth it follows that the soul cannot eat by the mouth of faith Besides the Angels do eat of this celestiall food not with the mouth of faith for there is no faith in heaven but a clear vision Therefore the thing that seeds the soul spiritually is the real substance of Christs body received by the corporal mouth of him that is in the state of Grace while he receives the Sacrament which real substance of Christs body works spiritually upon the soul by reason of the concomitance of Christs divinity and soul and of the circumincession of the other two divine persons with Christs person there really present with the substance of his body however I confess faith and the other Theological vertues are conditions requisite for one to be sed spiritually and I confess also that a reprobate can take the real body of Christ by his corporal mouth without any spiritual nourishment or satisfaction but the fault is in him not in the Sacrament which alwaies operateth spiritually in such souls as are well disposed by faith and the other Theological vertues to receive it
Therefore what the Mounsieur objects concerning eating Christs body corporally by reprobats is to no purpose for we confess that to eat him corporally only without faith and the rest of the Theological vertues brings rather eternal damnation then eternal life to the soul and yet we still deny that he is eaten spiritually by the mouth of faith alone or that there is any such thing as mouth of faith Rodon 3. His third argument he takes from S. Augustine and Cardinal Caietan who expound he saies the words of Iesus Christ as he doth S. Augustine in Book 3. of Christian doctrine speaketh thus To eat the flesh of Christ is a figure teaching us to partake of Christs Passion and to imprint in our memories with delight and profit that Christ was crucified for us Cardinal Caietan in his commentary on S. John 6. saith To eat the flesh of Christ and drink his bloud is faith in Christs death so that the sense is this if you use not the death of the son of man as meat and drink ye shall not have the life of the spirit in you And having sufficiently proved this exposition he adds To eat and drink the Sacrament is a thing common as well to those that eat unworthily as to those that eat worthily but that which Jesus Christ here speaks of is not common to both for he faith he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath eternal life he faith not he that eateth worthily and drinketh worthily but he that eateth and drinketh whence it clearly appears that according to the letter he speaks not of eating and drinking the Sacrament of the Eucharist but of eating and drinking the death of Iesus Christ. Answ. This exposition of the holy Father we embrace for it makes nothing against us but rather for us for we say also that when we receive the substance of Christs body which is his flesh by our corporal mouth under the species of bread and wine we say we eat the Sacrament which is a figure or sign that makes us partake of Christs Passion and impriâ—…ts with delight and profit Christs Passion in our mindes for we hold with the great divine S. Thomas of Aquin that the figure or Sacrament which we eat is a signum rememorativum a rememorative sign of Christs death And our Saviour himself said when he instituted this Sacrament as often as you do this do it in remembrance of me which we understand thus as often as you eat this Sacrament which is an unbloudy sacrifice and a figure of my bloudy sacrifice upon the Cross remember my bitter Passion for by offering this unbloudy sacrifice unto my father he will be pleased with it and since your prayers fasting almesdeeds and all your other best works as they are precisely yours are not satisfactory to him for your offences against his divine Majesty and are not of themselves able to appease his just wrath against you according to the rigour of the attribute of his divine Justice which he cannot but uphold when he beholds this pure Sacrifice and sees that I am become your mediator and that it is offered him in remembrance of a rigorous satisfaction for your sins by my bloudy sacrificing my self unto him upon the altar of the cross it will incontinently pacify and reconcile him unto you it will encourage you and delight your souls for it will put you in hopes of your salvation whereof you would be otherwise for want of this inter-mediation in a deep dispaire This and many more vertues and graces doth this Sacrament operate in our souls unless we our selves by receiving and offering it in mortal sin do obstruct or hinder them which if we do the fault is ours not the Sacraments which retains alwaies this vertue in it self If any man can with reason and faith attribute such vertue to the bare entities of bread and wine I leave any prudent reader to judge As to the learned Cardinal however his exposition alledged against us upon S. Iohn 6. must be understood no body doubts but his opinion concerning the real presence was the same ours is and that he died in it therefore if he be of any authority with Mr. de Rodon he ought to understand him according to his meaning The words be these but if rightly understood and according to his meaning not at all against us To eat the flesh of Christ and drink his bloud is faith in Christs death so that the sense is this if you use not the death of the son of man as meat and drink ye shall not have the life of the spirit in you the accute Cardinals meaning was to expound the true meaning and sense of these words is saith in Christs death and also to instruct people how to receive this Sacrament with profit to their souls Therefore he sayes that the sense of those words is to use the death of the son of man as meat and drink if we intend to receive profitably and what else is it to use the death of the son of man as meat and drink but to ruminate and meditate upon his death so that the Cardinals meaning was that to receive the Sacrament profitably when we eat and drink the body and bloud of Christ we must do it in remembrance of his Passion which is the self same thing Christ commands us to do and which Catholicks practise dayly And his additionate words viz. to eat and drink the Sacrament is commonly as well c. do clear his meaning for he knowing that to eat Christs body corporally is a thing common as well to the reprobate as to the elect he tells us that to eat it profitably we must beleive it to be a rememorative of Christs death and that by so eating it we eat and ruminate upon his death Therefore although we confess that faith is necessary in him that receives the Sacrament to take it worthily and profitably yet we deny that faith is the mouth wherewith we eat it or that by faith alone we eat the death of Christ for we deny that faith is the mouth of mans soul or body and without a mouth there can be no eating As to the Cardinals last words viz. he saith not he that eateth worthily or drinketh worthily but he that eateth or drinketh I am sure he meant by eating and drinking to eat and drink it worthily for he could not mean to eat and drink it unworthily and betwixt eating and drinking worthily and unworthily there is no medium so that of necessity when he speaks of eating and drinking it spiritually or with profit as he meant here he must be understood by eating and drinking eating and drinking worthily from whence it doth not clearly appear that according to the letter he speaks not of eating and drinking the Sacrament of the Eucharist but of eating and drinking the death of Jesus Christ for these words eating and drinking may better in a litteral sense be alluded to the Sacrament
alive we count to be an inhuman tyranny and most horrid and execrable act We then believing our Mass is alive and will be untill the worlds end cannot but censure and accuse Mounsieur de Rodon of inhuman tiranny unless he demonstrats that he killed the Mass before he made the funeral that he is sure to do by destroying Transubstantiation and therefore ayms at it with his first arrow thus Rodon 1. In every substantial conversion that thing into which another thing is converted is alwaies newly produced for example when seed is converted into an animal that animal is newly produced when Iesus Christ turned the water into wine the wine was newly produced c. But the body and bloud of Iesus Christ cannot be newly produced in the Sacrament of the Eucharist The second proposition viz. that the body and bloud of Christ cannot be newly produced I prove thus that which is newly produced receives a new being because to produce a thing and give it a being is the same thing but the body and bloud of Christ cannot receive a new being which I prove thus A man cannot receive that which he hath while he hath it and therefore cannot receive a being while he hath a being for as it is imposible to take away a being from that which hath no being so is it imposible to give a being to that which hath a being already and as you cannot kill a dead man so you cannot give life to one that is living But the body and bloud of Christ have and will allwaies have a being therefore they cannot receive one and consequently cannot be reproduced in the Eucharist Answ. To this argument I first answer that in every substantial conversion there must be some thing newly produced or adduced and so we say bread and wine are converted substantially into Christs body and bloud by an adductive action because by vertue of the words of consecration Christs body which is in its humane shape in heaven is brought into the Sacramental Species and remains in them in a Sacramental manner without any new production of his body which was produced already Secondly I answer to the said major thus In every substantial conversion that thing c. is alwaies newly produced entitatively or modally I confess entitatively only I deny And to his minor thus but the body and bloud of Christ cannot be newly produced in the Sacrament of the Eucharist entitatively and in his humane shape I confess modally or Sacramentally I deny the minor and the consequence also and all Mr. de Rodon's ensuing proofs militate against an entitative production only which we grant him but not at all against a modal or Sacramental production Therefore we say that Christs body being already produced as to its entity and natural being the same entity is not newly reproduced in the Sacrament in order as to give his body a new essential being because he hath that already in heaven But we say that the entity of his body is newly produced or rather adduced into the Sacrament in order to a sacramental or modal being against which modal being Mr. de Rodon's proofs are of no value or force and so his first arrow has miss't the mark Rodon 2. In every substantial conversion that thing which is converted into another is destroyed for example when the water was turned into wine the wine was destroyed But in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the bread and wine are not destroyed by the consecration which I prove thus In the celebration of the Eucharist there is breaking giving eating drinking after the consecration as appears by the very practise of our adversaries who after consecration break the Host and divide it into three parts give nothing to the communicants but consecrated Hosts and eat and drink nothing but what was consecrated But the Scripture saith that in the celebration of the Eucharist bread is broken and bread and wine are given and that bread is eaten and wine drunk as appears by these following passages S. Paul 1. Cor. 10. saith the bread which we break is it not the communion of Christs body and 1. Cor. 11. S. Math. 26. S. Mark 14. and S. Luke 22. it is said that Jesus Christ took bread brake it and gave it and S. Mark 14. and S. Math. 26. Iesus Christ after he had participated of the Sacrament of the Eucharist saith I will drink no more of this fruit of the vine and 1. Cor. 11. As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Answ. To this argument I answer granting the major and distinguishing the minor thus But in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the accidents of the bread and wine are not destroyed I confess the substance of the bread and wine are not destroyed I deny To what he farther urgeth viz. that there is breaking giving eating and drinking after the consecration as concerning their accidents I grant as concerning their substances I deny for their substances are converted into Christs real body and bloud by vertue of the words of consecration though their accidents remain un destroyed and are sustentated supernaturally by the power of God for we hold of no transaccidentation in the Sacrament but only of Transubstantiation As concerning the passages by him alledged out of Scripture to prove that â—…t is bread that 's broken that it is bread and wine that are given I answer that in every of these passages the words bread and wine must be taken Analogically not litterally because Christ in other places calls them expresly his flesh his bloud and his body and all orthodox Christians from the first institution of this Sacrament for many ages did without controulment hold as we do that after the words of consecration the bread and wine are converted into the real body and bloud of Christ. Therefore although because of the symbolls or accidents of bread and wine which still remain in the Host after consecration they retain the denomination of bread wine yet they are not really but Analogically only bread and wine and really the true body and bloud of Christ and they are analogically called bread and wine because of the Analogy or likeness real bread and wine have with this Sacrament the one nourishing the body the other the soul but now to Mr. de Rodon Rodon 3. When Iesus Christ said to his disciples drink ye all of this Math. 26. that is drink ye all of this cup either he commanded to drink of a cup of wine or of a cup of bloud if he commanded them to drink of a cup of wine then it follows that they drank nothing but wine because it is certain that they obeyed Iesus Christ for it is said Mark 14. that they all drank it or if he commanded them to drink a cup of bloud then it follows that the wine was already changed into his bloud because it
forementioned necessities being wel consider'd it may be very well said with Bellarmine and Peron that the host being eaten serves as an incorruptible seed for a glorious resurrection and though we grant that the faithfull of the old Testament and the little children of the believers under the new which were Baptized will rise again in glory having never received it because it was not 〈◊〉 in the time of the old law for the faithfull of that time and the little ones of the New departed this life before they were capable of diâ—…eerning what it was and consequently unâ—…t to receive it yet we believe that as the Sacraments of the old Law were but types and figures of the Sacraments of the New so they caused Grace and gave spiritual nourishment only in reference to our Sacraments The old Sacraments as all divines do hold were but vasa vacua emply vessells and produced grace only ex opere operantis by vertue of those that received them But Christs Sacraments of the new Law are vasa plena vessells full and replenisht with graces and do produce grace when they have no obstacle ex opere operato by their own operation for if Christs Sacraments were of no more efficacy then those of the old law were for example if circumcision were of as great vertue as Baptism is and the Paschal lamb as good as the Eucharist what needed he institute his Sacraments and make new laws whereas the old ones were quite as good as his are Therefore to save Christs credit from making superfluous Sacraments and laws we must of necessity maintain and say that his Sacraments are far more excellent and efficacious then the Sacraments of the old Law were and consequently we must grant that the old Sacraments had alwais a relation or reference to those of the new and in real truth it is so because all the Sacraments of the new Testament derive their sorce immediatly from Christs Passion and as one may say were dipt in his pretious bloud whereas those of the old Law were but meer symbols or types of his Passion and lookt remotely and as it were afar off upon it however because they had a reference to Christ and to his Passion they served as remedies to those of their time while they were in vigour because those of the new Law were not as yet instituted But after the new ones were instituted and promulged then the old Sacraments were quite cashired and the case is now quite altered with us for no body can now be saved without them or at lest such of them as they are capable of receiving from whence followeth that because the Sacrament of the Eucharist was not instituted in the time of the faithfull of the old Testament those of them that died in the state of Grace will rise again in glory without having ever participated actually of our Eucharist by vertue of the Paschal lamb which they eat in reference to our Sacrament and the little children of the believers of the Law of grace if they be Baptized because they are capable of Baptism will rise so also though they never received actually the B. Sacrament because they were never capable of receiving it But as for all the rest of our believers that are come to the use of understanding they shall never rise again in glory unless they receive the Eucharist actually or at least in desire if they cannot have it otherwise for our Saviour himself says that unless we eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his bloud we shall nâ—…t have life in us Finally as to S. Pauls words alledged against us by Mr. de Rodan Rom. 8. I deny that the Apostle says absolutely that Christs flesh is not the seed of the Resurrection of our bodies for he only says thus If the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you Which words may be very well expounded and understood thus viz. that although it be the spirit of God that shall principally and immediately quicken our mortal bodies yet that Christs flesh may be the seed which mediatly and remotely brings or conveys his spirit into us and certainly we have more reason and better grounds to believe that his sacred flesh united to his soul and divinity can better convey his spirit into us then the bare entities of bread and wine can do and so is this miraculous arrow unluckily split His last arrow is drawn out of clear Scripture but if rightly understood it is so far from hurting our Diana that it makes more for then against her here it is Rodon Lastly the holy scripture is clear in this matter for Jesus Christ is ascended into heaven Acts. 1. and the heavens must contain him until the time of the restitution of all things Acts. 3. And he himself saith I leave the world and go to the father S. John 16. The poor ye have alwaies with you but me you have not alwaies S. Math. 26. To which may be added what Iesus saith S. Math. 24. viz. in the last daies false Prophets will come that shall say Christ is here or there and that he is in the secret chambers or cabinets which cannot be but by the doctrine of the Romish Church which puts Christs body in divers places and shuts it up in several cabinets on their Altars And it is very remarkable that in the Greek it is in the cupbords tameion being properly a cupboard to keep meat in Answ. The Mounsieurs four first scripturistical arrows I break in shivers with one blow for I say that those four Passages must be understood of his going to heaven to remain there in his proper humane shape which hinders not his being with us upon earth in the sacramental species And whereas the Mounsieur alledges that Christ himself said I leave the world and go the father Iohn 16. and the poor you have alwaies with you but me you have not alwaies S. Math. 26. So I alledge also against the Mounsieur that Christ himself said This is my body S. Math. 26. and S. Luke 22. and bebold I am with you even to the consumation of the world S. Math. 28. Therefore to versie all these passageâ—… which seem to contradict and oppose one another to bring them to a concordance and true sense it is necessary that Christ should be really after one manner of way in heaven and really after another manner of way upon earth until the consummation of the world which is the same thing our Romish Doctors do teach viz. that he is in his humane shape in heaven and yet really with us in the Sacrament also which Mounsieur de Rodon and his party do flatly deny To our impeachment of being those false Prophets S. Matthew makes mention of in his 24th Chapt. who in the last days will come and say Christ is here or there and that he is
any body yet spoke more divinely of this grand Mistery of the B. Sacrament then our famous Thomas Aquinas did and so great was his devotion to this Sacrament that he was the first who obtained of the Pope to institute a solenm holy-day throughout the whole Church in its honour he himself composed the whole office which we use in this festivity both in Church and at Masse In his Rithem upon the Masse of corpus Christi day he says thus docti sacris institutis panem vinum in salutis consecramus hostiam we are taught by holy statutes and ordinances that we consecrate bread and wine into an host of health or safeguard here he calls it an host and consequently a sacrifice for an host and a sacrifice are correlatives Again in the same Rythem he says Dogma datur Christianis quod in carnem transit Panis vinum in sanguinem a decree is left to all Christians that the bread is changed into flesh and the wine into bloud And again Caro cibus senguis potus manet tamen Christus totus sub utraque specie The meat is flesh the drink is bloud and yet Christ remains entire under each species In a word there is nothing more clear and palpable then famous S. Thomas of Aquins opinion is in all this holy Rythem concerning the real presence of Christs body in the Eucharist and concerning his unbloudy sacrifice Nay if the Mounsieur were pleased but to be so just as to prosecute the said doctors words in the self saâ—…e place where he cites him he may easily see that this testimony is also quite against him for the holy doctor hath these ensuing words in that very place viz. Quantum igitur ad primum modum poterat dici Christu immoâ—…sri etiam in figuris veteris Testamenti c. sed quantum ad secundum modum proprium est huic sacramento quod in ejus celebratione Christus immoletur As concerning the first acception of a sacrifice Christ may be said to have been sacrificed in the types of the old Law also c. But as concerning the last acception of a sacrifice it is peculiar and proper to this Sacrament that Christ is sacrificed in its celebration where he clearly says that although in the first acception of a sacrifice viz. as the Sacrament is a signe Image or representation of Christs passion it may be called a sacrifice as the word sacrifice is common to the Sacrifices of boâ—…h Laws yet in the later acception of a Sacrifice viz. as by this Sacrament we are made partakers of Christs passion in this later sense the holy Doctor says it is proper and peculiar only to this our Sacrament in its celebration to be called a sacrifice which is the self-saâ—… thing we say for we hold that we are made partakers of Christs passion and of his bloudy sacrifice upon the Cross by receiving this our Sacrament offered unbloudily in its celebration of the Mass for us Therefore M. de Rodon all other arguments failing him if he were not mad would never pitch upon our Thomas Aquinas of all men in the world and he with his whole party subscribe to his Testimony here which is father quite against them for 't is very well known to all the world that our Venerable Lady Diana never had a stouter Champion to deâ—…end her then Thomas Aquinas However while the Masse is sound and saâ—… and will be alive until the worlds end maâ—…gre all the devils of hell as Christ promised it should be We must give leave to malicious and mad hereticks to speak madly and make 〈◊〉 Funerals as this of de Rodons concerning the Mass is the maddest and most malicious that ever was written CHAP. VIII Containing Answers to the Objections of the Romish Doctors ALthoug when conbatants or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fight they commonly before they go to the field choose what arms they are to fight with and foresee lâ—…t there should be any inequality in their weapons veâ—… it was never heard or seen that the advers party should choose his enemies sword before they went to fight weild it for him while they are actually a fighting that he leaves to himself to make use of as he pleaseth and much less ought he to blunt it However prudent Reader I would have you take notice that Mr. de Rodon observes not this common way with us in this controversal conflict which all duelists use but chooses such arguments of ours as he please and puts them in such order or form as he likes best he mentions not our authors that we may know whether the arguments be theirs and set out in their manner or form this is the way to blunt our weapons and to give us directions how we must fight him but so and so make our blow or thrust at him but so and so what else is this but that he weilds our sword for us while we are actually fighting against him and blunts it while he sets out our arguments in his blunt manner or form Sure any body may see that this is a very unjust and inequal manner of fighting with ones adversary Nevertheless being he has no other shift left him now to oppose and annoy Diana he shall be answered and encountred this way also for although he chose the weapons both his and ours yet I am sure we stand upon the firmer and better ground Behold him coming against us thus Rodon 1. In the two first chapters we have answered the two principal objections of the Romish doctors drawn from these words This is my body c. and from these he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath eternal life c. Now we must answer the rest Answ. In the first two chapters of this book these your answers are clearly refuted shattered and quasht therefore answer the rest better then you did these otherwise your labour will prove but ridiculous and vain and I question not but it will prove so at last Objection 1. Romanists 2. The first objection is this when the establishing of articles of faith the Institution of Sacraments and the making Testaments and covenants are in agitation men speak plainly and properly and not obscurely and figuratively But in the celebration of the Eucharist Iesus Christ established an article of faith Instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist and spake of a Testament and a covenant for it is said of the Cup that it is the New Testament and the New Covenant in the bloud of Christ yea he spake then to his disciples to whom he spake in plain and proper terms and not in obscure terms or in figures or parables as he did to the people Answer Rodon â—… To this objection I answer first that it is false that Articles of faith are always exprest in proper terms in holy scripture as when it is said in the Creed that Jesus Christ sitteth on the right hand of God it is evident that this is a figure
deny Mounsieur but that a man may sometimes better and more significantly express his minde with figurative words then with plain and clear words and therefore I say that figures may be used in Testaments and Covenants when there is need of them to express a thing with more energy or when one hath not proper words to serve his turn however figurative words are never as plain and clear as proper words are for a figurative expression although it may be more significative then a natural expression is yet in comparison to the natural and proper one it is essentially obscure because obscurity is essentiall to every figure Trope and therefore where there is no need especially in Testaments and Sacraments as there is no need of any figure or figurative sense in these words this is my body they ought not be used That Christ spoke to his disciples in Parables and figures in the passages mentioned by Mr. de Rodon what 's that to our purpose at the uttering of these Parables was he instituting Sacraments or making of Testaments our objection speaks of the establishing of articles of faith of the institution of Sacraments makâ—…ng of Testaments and covenants and not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ords sermons speeches and Parables to his disciples and to the vulgar people for we deny not but that our Lord spoke very often figuratively and parabolically to the people But we deny that when he instituted any of his Sacraments and especially the Eucharist he spoke figuratively or parabolically the matters and forms of all the Sacraments of the new Law have no figures in them the water of Baptism is no figure of water but natural water and these words I Baptize or wash thee in the name of the father son and holy Ghost amen are no figurative words No more is the oyl of confirmation a figurative but a real oyl and the form or words spoken by a Bishop viz. I signe thee with the signe of the cross and confirm thee with the crisme of salvation in the name of the father c. are no figurative or typical words no more are the man and woman that marry figurative but real persons nor their words of contract figurative but plain and proper words viz. I take thee to my wiâ—…e I take thee to my husband And so forth of all the rest of Christs Sacraments Even so I say of the Sacrament of the Eucharist for the bread and wine whereof 't is made are no figures or signes of bread and wine and the words of consecration which are the formal part of this Sacrament are not figurative but plain words so that although every Sacrament of the new Law doth signifie something that is Mystical yet the essence of the Sacramants doth not only consist in the meer signification of the Mystery it signifies but in its own plain matter and form also which form always consignifies something mystical and consequently the stile used in the Sacraments of the new Law is not figurative but rather proper and plain To what he adds I answer that it is pitty the Mounsieur was not with the Apostles when they askâ—… Jesus Christ the meaning of Parables and other things which they did not understand I say 't is pitty he was not with them to help them out concerning this question for when the Jewes askt him Quomodo potest hic carnem suam dare ad manducandum how can this man give his flesh to he eaten and they received no other Answer but this Amen I say unto you unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his bloud ye shall not have life in you the Apostles who heard this answer replyed no more but humbly submitted and believed Christs words But if Mr. de Rodon had been by this answer belike would not have satisfied him he would argue the case with Jesus Christ more profoundly according to his Principles of Philosophy he would pose him and pose him again even until he sackt him if he could to fetch out how he could Transubstantiate bread and wine into his body and bloud or else he would not believe him So may he also misbelieve that Christ revived Lazarus until he shewes him the manner how he did it for it seems the Mounsieur allowes of no supernatural power in Christ for if he did he would never so often repeat these frivolous questions viz. how a human body can be in a point and in divers places at once how the head of Jesus Christ and his whole body could be in his mouth c. Rodon 7. Lastly since Iesus Christ said drink ye all of this Cup all Priests whether Iesuits Monks or other Romish doctors would of necessity be constrained really properly and without a figure to drink of the Cup whether melted or not and really to swallow it untill they should confess that there are figures in the words of Iesus Christ in the celebration of the Eucharist Answ. No such constraint good Sir for the Romish doctors do allow that there is a figure in the word Cup but they allow not of any figure in the consecrated wine which is in the Cup Neither do they hold that the Cup is the Testament but the consecrated wine which is in the Cup. Therefore I pray give them leave to drink the consecrated wine which is their Testament and has no figure in it and since you are so great a lover of figures drink you the Cup molten or unmoulten if you can Objection 2. Romanists 8. The second objection is this The Sacrament of the Eucharist is more excellent then that of the Passeover because the Sacrament of the Passeover is a type of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the thing typified is always more excellent then the type But if the Sacrament of the Eucharist did not realy contain the body and bloud of Christ but was only the signe of it then it would follow that the Sacrament of the Eucharist would not be more excellent then that of the Passeover nay the Sacrament of the Passeover would be more excellent then that of the Eucharist because a lamb and its bloud is more excellent then Bread and wine and the death of a lamb and the shedding of his bloud doth much better represent the death of Christ and the shedding of his bloud on the Cross then bread broken and wine powred into a cup can do Answer Rodon 9. To this I answer first that the thing typified by the Paschat lamb is Iesus Christ and not the Sacrament of the Eucharist as S. Paul shews clearly 1. Cor. 5. when he calls Iesus Christ our Passeover in these words Christ our Passeover was crucified for us The truth is a whole lamb without spot or blemish killed and burnt towards the Evening and its bloud shed doth very well represent Iesus Christ perfect without sin put to death and his bloud shed toward the end of the world and in the fulness of time but such a lamb
is his sâ—…h he said noâ—… this bread is the barâ—… signe or figure of his flesh but his real flesh for it was his real flesh and not its bare figure that was offered or sacrificed for the lifâ—… of the world therefore this bread is â—…ot a meer signe only of Christs body but his very real substantial body for it was his real body and not its type only that was sacrificed for the life or salvation of the world After our saviour said to the Jews I am the bread of life I am the bread which descended from heaven and the Jewes thereforâ—… murmured and gâ—…umbled among themselves saying is not this the son of Joseph whose father and Mother we know and again how câ—…n this man give us his flesh to eat our saviour to confirm that it was his real body assevered it by oath or intermination saying Amen Amen for that was his usual teste I say unto you unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his bloud you shall not have life in you here he calls it all along his flesh and his bloud and not the signes only of his flesh and bloud and for the farther confirmation thereof he adds for my flesh is meat indeed and my bloud is drink indeed What is but a figure or type of a thing cannot be the thing it self really and indeed Therefore if Christs flesh be truly and really our meat in the Sacrament or Sacramental species the Eucharist must needs be the true and real body and bloud of Christ indeed and not in type or signification only S. Paul 1 Cor. 10. in clear terms shews it The chalice quoth he of benediction which we do bless is it not the communication of the bloud of Christ and the bread which we break is it not the participation of the body of our Lord he sayes not the communication or participation of any signs or types but of his real body and bloud And in his 11th chap. to the said Cor. he mentioneth that our Lord took bread and giving thanks brake said take ye and eat this is my body which shall be delivered unto you These words I am sure cannot be understood of a figurative or typical body for it was not a typical body that was offered or delivered for us as the Maniâ—…hees falsly commented but the real and substantial body of Christ for it is certain the Apostle Rom. 8 when he said proprio filio non pepeâ—…cit c. he hath spared not also his own son but for us all delivered him spoke not of a bâ—…re type or figure but of his â—…eal body as all these clear passages so well cohering do manifestly demonstrate This is also confirmed by these words of the said Apostle 1 Cor. 11. Quiâ—…unque manduâ—…averit panem vel biberit calicem domini indigne reus â—…rit corporis sangâ—…is domini Therefore whosoever shall â—…t this bread or drink the chalice of our Lord unworthily he shall be guilty of the body and bloud of our Lord how can this be if it be but the figure or signe of his body and bloud and not his real body and bloud those that did eat the Manna and the Paschal Lamb were not said to be guilty of his body and bloud for eating them unworthily and yet they were signes of his bloudy sacrifice Therefore for eating or drinking of a meeâ—… signe or for tearing and destroying the meer â—…mage or picture of any man it is a very hard and severe Law to condemn him or make him guilty of his death Therefore it is for eating and drinking of our Lords real body and bloud unworthily and not for eating and drinking the signes only of his body and bloud that the Apostle sayes a man is guilty of the body and bloud of our Lord. Hence any man of judgment may see how clear and express these texts are for the real presence of Christs body in the hoâ—…t and how improperly and wrongfully our adversâ—…ries extort upon the clear Texts to wrest them and draw them to their own sense of a signe or type But seeing scripture is so clear of our side Let us see what the holy fathers the spiritual beacons and true interpreters of Gods word say to it I will begin with ancient Tertullian who saith Tertul de resurr carn n. 7. our flesh eateth the body and bloud of Christ that the soul may be fatted therefore they shall both have one reward at the resurrection Next follows Irenaeus lib. 4. c. 14. whose words be these how do they affirm that our bodies be not capable of life everlasting which are nourished by the bâ—…dy and bloud of our Lord S. Greg. Nyssene also â—…aith in orat cathec magna that lively body entring into our body changeth it and maketh it like and immortal Allexander 1. that venerable Prelate and Martyr saith There can be nothing greater in sacrifices then the body and bloud of Christ To these I add the renowned S. Hylarie there is no doubt left of the verity of the body and bloud of Christ for now both by Christs own confession and by our belief it is truly flesh and truly bloud If God was pleased to be made man quoth Damascene lib. 4. de fide orth c. 14. and take flesh of the most pure bloud of the virgin without seed can he not make bread his body and wine and water his bloud Great S. Augustin lib. sentent Prosper adds his susâ—…rage to these in these words But we under the species of bread and wine do honour invisible things viz. flesh and bloud S. Ambrose lib. de sacram sides also with the rest in these plain and express terms it is ordinary bread at the Altar before the sacramental words But when it is consecrated then of bread it is made Christs flesh To these I add S. Ierome writing to Edibius S Cyril of Alex de consecr di 2. c. necessario S. Greghom Pasch. S. Crysost 3. dial de dignit sacerd c. 4. Theophilact in comment super Ioh. S. Anselme and in a word all the holy fathers and general councils that ever treated of this mistery Therefore all the greatest and most famous lights of Gods Church do hold with us as to this main point And although this Mystery be above humane reason yet because it is not contrary nor destructive to reason our divinos do give plausible congruityes and reasons for it The first whereof may be this it is the nature of goodness to impart or communicate it self to others because as the Philosophers says bonum est communicativum sâ—…i Goodness is communicative of its own self and to say the truth we know not a good or liberal man from a niggard but by imparting of his goodness and liberality to others If then it be the nature of goodness to impart it self to others it must be the nature of the highest and chiefest goodness to impart and communicate it self to others in the
of their livelyhood cast them into Prison or banish them c. against the real presence of Christ in the Sacrament whereas the thing in it self is not impossible to God nor the verity of this oath revealed by him to any of them But that which aggravates the sin the more is that in the thing wherein God most obliged and demonstrated his love to mankind in that very thing they disown and contradict his word Christ sayes by way of intermination or oath Amen Amen I say unto you unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his bloud you shall not have life in you And they swear point blank against him saying it is not his flesh and bloud but bread and wine or at the best nothing else but the signe of his flesh and bloud But how forsooth is it possible for us to eat and drink the flesh and bloud of the son of man in the Sacrament unless his flesh and bloud be in it what perjury is how grevious a sin how distructive to human society how infamous and how it may be committed and what penalties are due to open perjurers I need not set down here the laws of all Nations do sufficiently set it down But to be so ungrateful for a benefit of so high a nature as this is and to disown it flatly by confirmation of an oath against Christs express words and against so many clear testimonies of scripture and all the holy fathers must needs in my opinion astonish any Christian of common reason and sense yet from whom God withdraws his grace and the light of faith he will fall I must confess into these and such like inconveniencies and absurdities and greater too if they can be possibly for heresy is a bottomless gulf of darkness and ignorance that conveys those miserable reprobates that fall into it into the other bottomless pit or gulf of hell out of which there is no redemption and so is the Psalmists words verified in these two gulfs where he sayes that Abyssus Abysum invocat one pit leads or draws a man to another As to all the rest of the Translators raylings against Popery and its tenents against its practises in reference to Protestant Magistrates or civil government that as it is pernicious to their souls by its heretical doctrines and Idolatrous services so it is to their persons and estates and consequently that to introduce it into this kingdom would be an act as unpolitick as Antichristian as hath been demonstrated in that incomparable piece intituled The established Religion in opposition to Popery All this old fustian stuff is but to vent his bitterness whereof he is so full that unless he gave it some passage he must needs burst or crack for until he shewes this established Religion we will never own its demonstration where no two are of the same opinion concerning faith how can there be a Religion established therefore I refer all his scolding-stuff to the oyster-women of Billings-gate to be answered and I say that if our Religion be the only true Religion as we doubt not but she is for she has all the marks of it and there is but one Religion that is good certainly she cannot be pernicious to civil Government for Christs Religion commands us to honour our king and obey our superiour Powers but all the world knows that whe Popery is most in vigour and force and where it is in greatest â—…lourish it never intâ—…enches or encroaches upon their Monarchs temporal power nor upon any of their Magistrates It was never read or heard of yet that the Roman Cathoâ—…icks ever took up arms against their Catholick Princes or any Catholick Prince against another upon the score of Religion only when they are at civill or forreign wars it is never about Religion unless it be against the Turk the common enemy of Christendom But the lâ—…st civill warrs of England all men know was commenced upon the pretext of Religion and upon a pretended score of defending the Gospel a most virtuous king was innocently murdered by his own subjects in this quarrel the Roman Catholicks allthough he was of a different Profession had no hand in his innocent bloud they abhominated and detested so horrid a sacriledge from the bottom of their hearts they stuck to him defended him spent their lives and estates for him as long as they were able and there was any hopes of his safegard he was never betrayed by any of them in any charge they bore under him his welfare and safety was their chief aym and every one of them was ready to sacrifice himself his fortune and estate for his sake After they saw all was lost that he was taken from them and there was no resisting the divine fate as many of them as could followed their Liege soveraigne that now is whom God long preserve but then banished not by his Roman-Catholick subjects and in forraign countries they cleaved to him there they fought for him and many of them quitted their good employments and honourable places they had under forreign Princes whereupon their whole livelyhood and fortunes depended only for to follow and serve him and hazard their lives for his sake in hopes to reiâ—…throne him in his fathers of happy mememory royal throne Afterwards they accompanied and wayted on him home at his Restauration and ever sines served him as Loyally and faithfully all along as any subjects can their Prince and others of them that without evident danger of ruining themselves for ever could not follow and wayt upon him beyond Sea helpt him with their hest Intelligences and some of them under-hand with their means also All these are fresh demonstrations of their Loyalty and things that happened in our own age how can such people then be justly impeached with diâ—…loyalty or how can their practises be pernicious in reference to his sacred Majesty and to his Protestant Magistrates and people whereas they all live in Peace and tranquility with their fellow-subjects and never raised the least commotion or mutiny against the government though never so much provoked thereunto That England was so glorious and happy a kingdom in it self for many ages and was a terrour to its neighbours that invaded it and often conquered them and their kingdomes under Popish kings and their Papist subjects needs no proof for the very chronicles of England made by Protestant Authors themselves do suâ—…ciently shew that as also many memorable worthy things done by them and many of their happy governments we see also that all our neighbouring Popish kings and absolute Princes do live and govern peacably and quietly over their Papist subjects which demonstrats evidently that Popery is not incompatible or inconsistent with kâ—…ngship or civil government and consequently if it be the only true Religion as for matter of government or state it is neither unpolitick or Antichristian â—…o introduce it into any kingdome or country whatsoever But O England England in former times
To this argument I answer confessing the major viz. He that speaks contrary to the usage of all the world c. and denying the minor viz. But if Jesus Christ by these words This is my body had meant the real presence c. he had spoken contrary to the common usage of all the world And to the probation of his minor viz. There was never any author either facred or prophane that made use of such words as these This is my body to signifie c. that I grant and deny the consequence viz. therefore it is contrary to the common stile of all authors as well sacred as prophane and contrary to the common usage of all men to make these words of Jesus Christ this is my body to signifie the substantial conversion of the bread into Christs body and the real presence of his body in the host immediately after the pronouncing of them by the Priest and not before And the reason is this because of the disparity that is betwixt Christs words and the words of all authors sacred and prophane for Christs words as uttered by him have a creative productive and effective vertue and force It was with his word he changed water into wine at the feast of Cana in Galilee It was with his wotd he cured and cleansed the Leprous man in the Gospel It is with his word he wrought all his stupendious wonders and Miracles and if Mr de Rodon believes he is God he ought to believe that it was with his word he created heaven and earth or dare the Monsieur say that when God spoke these words fiat caelum fiat terra be the heavens made be the earth made that heaven and earth were in being before God uttered his creative word or thinks he that Christ had no hand in that creation if he doth then I dare say and can assure him he has no more belief then a meer heathen But as for the words of a meer man whether he be an author sacred or prophane sure it is that they are not of a creative productive or effective vertue and force as Christs are and so it is no wonder if according to the common usage of all mens meaning their authors words do presuppose that the things whereof they treat or speak have their being before and not by vertue of their bare significative words But as it is proper to a meer mans word be he never so good an author sacred or prophane not to give a being to the thing he speaks of so it is proper to Chriâ—…s effective word to effect or cause what it signifies and consequently all authors I mean all Christian authors whether sacred or prophane may very well and ought according to the common usage of all faithfull and Christian people understand these words This is my body as spoken by Christ whose words are of a creative productive and effective force and power in a common usual litteral sense as when I or another man should say this is my horse this is my house meaning a real horse and a real house and not the sign or figure of a horse or of a house But if the Mounsieur will not understand words in the same sense as all other Christians do and ought to do and will give no more vertue and power to Christs creative word then Jews Turks and heathens do I see no reason why he and all those that take his part ought to be eâ—…med as to matters of belief better then any of these But let us suppose with the greatest part of all Christians that ever were and now are that Christ can Transubstantiate bread into his body that it implyes no contradiction and that at the institution of this Sacrament he intended really so to do I ask Mr. de Rodon how Christ could have exprest his real meaning unto us with clearer words and more to the common usage of all Authors and men then by saying This is my body When a man sayes this is my hand this is my cloke doth he speak contrary to the common usage of all authors aâ—…d men or do they understand by his words the figure or signe of his hand and cloke only when he intends they are his reall hand and cloke Even so supposing Christ can Transubstantiate bread into his body really and that when he instituted the Sacrament he meant really so to do would it be contrary to the common usage of all Authors and men to undâ—…rstand his words in a literal sense or how can a conception be more clearly exprest then by the termes and words which were instituted for its proper and immediate signification Dialecticks and Philosophers instead of carrying the things they treate of to School with them do carry only conceptions and words thither and the words serve only to express their conceptions and the properer the word is the better it eâ—…presseth the concept But in this passage This is my body the words are instituted to signifie properly and immediately aâ—…reall corporal thing and not its signe or figure Therefore according to the Rules of Dialectick a reall body cannot be plainlyer exprest then by saying This is my body Doubtless those that said how can this man give us his flesh to eat understood him literally as we do and if our saviour himself had meant it otherwise could he not easily have answered and satisfied them by saying you are mistaken sirs you understand me not right I mean not that it is my reall substantial body but only the representation or Sacrament of it His answer was not so but this Amen I say unto you unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his bloud ye shall not have life in you Here also he calls it his flesh and bloud therefore he understood it litterally as we do not figuratively only as M. R. doth To this I add that a figurative expression is obscurer then a litteral one why then did not Christ to avoid obscurity foreknowing that in future times should be grâ—…at alterations and hot debates in his Church concerning Transubstantiation wherefore I say did he not say this is only the figure and sacrament of my body inâ—…tead of saying absolutely This is my body for by saying so he would take away all ambiguity concerning Transubstantiation and his Church would be in perfect union concerning this grand Mystery As to Mr. de Rodons first Instance concerning these words of God the father This is my beloved son I confess Christ was his son before he spok them words But these words were spoken by God the father to let the world know that Christ was his true natural son he intended not then to create him his son or to transubstantiate any creature into his sons substance But if God the father had taken bread in his hand and said this is my son no sacred or prophane author considering his omnipotency ought to doubt but that that bread was his real son because of
carried or exhibited to the believers upon or by a bare bitt of bread or in a cup of bare wine But how nonsensical this exposition is and how ill grounded in true divinity and Philosoâ—…hy I will presently prove But first I would have the Reader take notice that these words Sacrament or signe have if not a predicamental at least a transendental Relation to the things they signify what is formal in Relation according all Philosophers is not at all operative or exhibitive but only meer resultative in order to the thing it relates unto as for example a father is a Relative word because he relates to his son the formality of this word father consists in his fatherhood and the entity or substract whereupon fatherhood relies is in his human nature for he was a man before he could be a father It is not the fatherhood which is the formal part of the Relative that operates or exhibites a being to the son which is his correlative word but his humane nature or rather his act of Generation and the fatherhood only results from his act of Generation and looks upon the filiation or as one may say sonhood which was operated or exhibited by a foregoing generative act so that although the father and his act of Generation are elder then the son because they are his effective or exhibitive cause yet the fatherhood is not elder then the sonhood because the fatherhood which is but a meer Relation did not effect or exhibit the sonhood but only relates or looks upon it whence followeth clearly that although the father is before his son in his enâ—…itative being yet he is not a father before he has a son or child in his fatherhood or relative being Even so I say of the word Sacrament or signe which are also relative words that what is formal in them is not at all operative or exhibitive but only resultative because they only behold and look upon the things they signify and effect or exhibit them not from whence followeth evidently that signification which is the formality of a signe or Sacrament cannot exhibit the body and bloud of Christ to the believers and therefore if any thing in the Sacrament exhibits them it must be the entity or substract whereupon signification is founded But according to Mr de Rodon the entities whereupon signification in the Sacrament of the Eucharist is founded are but bare bread and wine which entities are not exhibitive of Christs body and bloud to the believers I demonstrate thus If the bare entities of bread and wine could exhibit the body and bloud of Christ to the believers as often as they are received by the mouth of the body it would necessary follow that as often as a man eates or drinks bread and wine they convey Christs body and blood into his soul and so every fellow that drinks his belly full of wine although he drinks himself drunk especially if he eats but a bit of bread with it his soul will be full of Christ. But it is both impious and absurd to say that Christ should be conveyed into a drunkardâ—… soul after this manner Therefore the doctrine that teacheth this is absurd and impious The major I prove thus all the entities of bread and wine do agree if not specifically at least univocally that is to say as a man a horse and a cow are true and real animals and this word animal agrees properly to every of them so the words bread and wine are said truely and properly of all sorts of bread and wine and they all agree in name But according to all divines and Philosophers univocal causes do produce effects alike all men other men all horses other horses and so â—…orth therefore if the entities of bread and wine agree univocally as certainly they do it follows that their effects must be all alike and consequently if the bare entities of Mr. de Rodons communion bread and wine for their signification as I have already proved cannot do it can exhibit convey or carry Christs body and bloud to believers the entities of all other breads and wine can do so also for they agree all univocaly all univocal causes do produce effects a like Therefore the Mounsieur must either contradict all Philosophers and be the only Philosopher himself or else grant that as often as he eats and drinks bread and wine which was perhaps too much and too often in a day he received the Sacrament and consequently if as often as he took bread and wine he did not examine himself and discerne the body of our Lord according to the Apostles saying judicium sibi mandâ—…cavit â—…ibit he did eat it as Iudas did to his own damnation what impious nonsensical and Blasphemous doctrine this is let any rational man consider But according to the doctrine of the Romanists the Eucharist is quite another thing they say that bare bread and wine are not the substract or foundation whereupon signification relyes in the Sacrament but that the Sacramental species are the foundation whereupon signification is grounded which Sacramental species being received worthily by the mouth of the body because they contain the body and bloud of Christ they say that at the same time they feed the soul also because they have a spiritual exhibitive faculty to convey Christ into the soul and work upon her by uniting her to Christ and making her one os his mistical members and thus the soul by feeding upon his body now glorified and impatible if she receives him worthily he changes her affections wholy into himself and as it were incorporates her for all the delight of a devout soul is to be wholy united and absorpt in Christ and yet his body being now impatible and glorified receives no damage or harm thereby more then the sun doth by casting his beames upon a dunghill And although faith be necessary in him that eateth this bread we say that hope and charity must also accompany this morsel unless a man eats it to his damnatian for faith alone is not enough to give it a relish in the soul. The Royal prophet calls it the bread of Angels for it feeds their spirits also which if it were but the meer entity of bread it could not do for they never eat wafer nor bakers bread nor drink of the entity of our corporal wine neither do they eat the Sacrament it self by the mouth of faith as Mr. de Rodon would have our soules to eat it here for if we believe the Apostle there is neither faith nor hope in heaven where the Angells are but only charity And since we are come to the mouth of the soul faith for so the Mounsieur calls it saying by the mouth of the soul viz. by faith I wish he would shew us either by the common usage of speaking or in true Philosophy that faith is the mouth of the soul. If he takes the word mouth litterally the soul being a pure
then to death the one having a positive being and the other consisting in a privation only But let us hear the Mounsier speak Rodon 4. Now that we may clearly understand this doctrine we must consider wherein the life which Iesus Christ gives us doth consist for seeing the flesh of Iesus Christ is meat to us because it gives us life it is evident that if we know what life that is which Iesus Christ gives us we must know likewise hâ—…w Iesus Christ is meat to us and consequently how we eat him But to know what that life is which Iesus Christ gives us we must consider what that death is in which we are involved which is expressed by S. Paul Eph. 2. in these words When we were dead in sins and trespasses God hath quickned us together with Christ by grace ye are saved and consequently the death in which we were involved consists in two things first in the curse of the Law which imports the privation of felicity and the suffering of temporal and eternal punishment for our sins secondly it consists in an habitual corruption whereby sin raigns in us and therefore it is said 1. Tim. 5. The widdow that lives in pleasure is dead while she liveth Also sins are called dead works Heb. 10. So that the life which Iesus Christ hath purchased for us consists in two things first in deliverance from the curse of the Law by the pardon of our sins as S. Paul tells us Colos. 2. God hath quickned you together with Chriâ—… having forgiven you all trespasses blotting out the 〈◊〉 that was against us which obligation â—…receded from the Law because it did oblige all thâ—… transgressors of it to a curse secondly it consists in regeneration or sanctification whereof Iâ—…sus Christ speaking in John 3. saith Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the kingdome of God And S. Paul Heb. 12. without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Therefore seing that the life which Iesus Christ hath purchased for us consists in the pardon of our sins and in our regeneration and sanctification which ends in glorification and that Iesus Christ is called meat in reference to this life we must consider the me nâ—… whereby Iesus Christ hath purchased these things for us and seing it is certain that his death is the means by which he hath purchased Pardon of sins and regeneration we must conclude that Iesus Christ is the food and nourishment of our souls in regard of the merit of his death But that Iesus Christ by his death hath purchased life for us that is Iustification which consists in the pardon of our sins and regeneration which consists in holiness of life appears by these passages of Scripture viz. We are justified by the blood of Christ and reconciled to God by his death Rom. 5. We have redemption by his bloud even the remission of sins c. Therefore seing Iesus Christ hath purchased life for us by death and that his flesh and bloud are our meat and drink because they purchased life everlasting for us on the Cross viz. the remission of our sins and sanctification ending in glorification it follows that the action whereby Iesus Christ is applied to us for righteousness and sanctification is the same by which we eat the flesh of Christ and drink his bloud But this action is nothing else but faith as the Scripture tells us Being justified by faith we have peace with God Rom. 5. God purifiâ—…s our hartâ—… by faith Act. 15 he that beleiveth hath eternal life Iohn 6. from what hath been said I form this Argument That action whereby we obtain remission of sins and sanctification ending in Glorification is the same whereby we have that life which Iesus Christ purchased for us by his death because that life principally consists in the remission of sins and sanctification as we have proved But the spiritual eating and drinking by faith and not the corporal by the mouth is that action where by we obtain remission of sins and sanctification as we have also proved therefore the spiritual eating and drinking by faith is the action whereby we have that life which Iesus Christ purchased us by his death and not the corporal eating and drinking by the mouth And consequently seing in S. John 6. a certain eating and drinking is spoken of whereby we have that life which Iesus Christ hath purchased for us by his death it is evident that a spiritual eating and drinking is there spoken of and not a corporal Answ. Now after clearly understanding Mr. de Rodons long sermon-like doctrine we confess the flesh of Christ is meat to us because it gives us spiritual life we confess also that the life it gives us consists in the forgiveness of our sins and in our sanctification which ends in Glorification Thirdly we confess that the death wherein we were involved consists in the privation of eternal felicity and in the suffering of eternal and temporal punishment for our sins in a word we grant our souls are quickned from the death of sin and all its effects and that she liveth spiritually by the merits of our Saviours death and passion and lastly we grant also that the action whereby Jesus Christ is applyed unto us for righteousness and sanctification ending in Glorification is the sâ—…me by which we eat the flesh of Christ and drink his bloud But that this action is nothing else but faith as Mr. de Rodon inferrs we â—…atly deny and maintain that besides the act of believing there must be also an act of corporal eating Therefore to his proofs out of Scripture we answer that the three forementioned passages speak not of faith alone nor of faith as the cause of our sanctification but of faith as a condition requisite to it as I have formerly proved And being action proceeds from a suppositum as Schoolmen call it or cause and is attributed to it and not to a bare condition as 't is to be evidently seen in the example of fire which is the cause of burning wood not the application which is only a condition requisit where the action of burning is attributed to fire the cause not to application the bare condition Even so is it in this case The Sacrament is the cause of our sanctification and to receive it with faith as a remembrance of Christs death and Passion is only a condition requisit for receiving it spiritually and with profit to our souls By this solution Mr. de Rodon's concluding argument upon the premises above-granted and passages of Scripture clearly expounded vanisheth into smoak his argument is this That action whereby â—…e obtain remission of sins and sanctification ending in glorification is the same wâ—…ereby we have that life which Jesus Christ purchased for us by his death because that life chiefly consists in the remission of sins and sanctification that I confess But quoth he the spiritual eating and drinking by faith and not the corporal by
the mouth is that action whereby we obtain remission of sins and sanctification that I deny as also the supposition viz. that the soul can eat by faith as by her mouth faith beiâ—…g no mouth of the soul whether a mouth be taken litterally or figuratively which Mr. de Rodon never proved or will be able to prove in sound Philosophy Therefore his conclusion is blown and vanished like smoke and consequently seeing in S. Iohn 6. a certain eating and drinking is spoken of whereby we have that life which Jesus Christ hath purchased for us by his death it is certain and evident that a corporal eating and drinking which hath a spiritual operation upon the soul when we receive the Sacrament being in the state of Grace and we believe it is a rememorative of Christs death is there spoken of and not an imaginary spiritual noteating by the notmouth of faith Rodon 5. From what hath been said it appears that when Iesus Christ saith My flesh is meat indeed c. the figure falls upon the word Meat which is taken not for corporal but spiritual meat The reason whereof is that corporall food is that which is appointed for the nourishment of the body as spirituall food is that which is appointed for the nourishment of the soul so that although corporal food be taken by the mouth of the body yet that only doth not make â—…t to be corporal food except it be taken for the nourishment of the body otherwise poison medicine a bullet c. which a man swallows would be corporal food which is absurd to affirm But the flesh of Christ which is pretended to be eaten in the Eucharist by the mouth of the body is not appointed for the nourishment of the body because that food which is appointed for the nourishment of the body is changed into the substance of our bodies therefore the flesh of Christ is not a corporal food but his flesh broken and his bloud shed on the Cross is a spiritual food which nourisheth the souls of those who by a true and lively faith do embrace this flesh broken and this bloud shed that is who do wholly rest amd rely on the merits of his death and Passion for obtaining mercy from God And certainly seeing that the life which Iesus Christ gives us by his death is spiritual that the nourishment is spiritual that the eating his body and drinking his bloud is spiritual as hath been proved it follows that his flesh must be spiritual meat and his bloud spiritual drink And this flesh of Christ is incomparably better and more truely meat indeed in regard of its effects then corporall food can be because it doth better and more perfectly nourish the souls of the believers then corporal food doth their bodies this being corruptible food which gives temporal life only but that spiritual and incorruptible food which gives life everlasting Answ. From what Mr. de Rodon hath been hitherto answered it appears that when Jesus Christ saith My flesh is meat indeed no figure falls upon the word meat but that it must be taken litterally for that flesh is meat indeed according to the common usage of speaking is understood more properly in a litteral then in a figurative sense as are also all other things which are said to be such things indeed And yet this corporal flesh of Christ being taken by the mouth of the body is ordained to feed and nourish the soul and not the body because it hath a supernatural operation by reason of its personal union with Christs divinity and most blessed soul which supernatural and spiritual operation the bare entities of bread and wine have not as also no other corporal food hath but is only appointed for the nourishment of the body by which dispurity between the operation of Christs flesh and the operation of all other corporal â—…oods the silly reason of the Mounsieurs argument is both enervated and precluded and all the consequences he draws from it are of no force or truth I say his reason is but silly because he says that although corporal food be taken by the mouth of the body yet that only doth not make it to be corporal food except it be taken for the nourishment of the body for otherwise Poison medicine and a bullet taken in would be corporal food which to say is absurd Tell me I pray Mr. de Rodon where did you ever see or hear that poison phisick or a bullet were taken for corporal food by any man unless he were of less reason then your self or tell me if you eat bread though not with an intention to nourish you whether it will not nourish you or if you should chance to swallow down a bullet or chaw it if your teeth be so good with an intention it should nourish you would it nourish you because you took it for your nourishment This any body may see is but very silly stuff whence you in ferr But the flesh of Christ which is pretended to be eaten in the Eucharist by the mouth of the body is not appointed for the nourishment of the body because the body of Christ is not changed into the substance of our bodyes I confess it But what then Therefore you say the flesh of Christ is not a corporal food his flesh is not a corporal food that nourishes corporally I confess a corporal food that nourishes spiritually I deny and the rest of your consequences also inasmuch as they militate against eating the corporal real body of Christ though its operation we confess is but spiritual however we agree with you in this that the flesh of Christ is incomparably better and more truly meat indeed in regard of its effects then any other corporal food can be for the reasons you alledge But yet we say that it is sufficient to take his flesh with the mouth of our body being in the state of Grace and believing the Sacrament to be a rememorative of his death to have it work its spiritual effects in our souls Rodon 6. I conclude this Chapter with this consideration when a doctrine is proposed which is pretended to be divine and that passages of holy Scripture are alledged for the proof of it if it opposeth or seems to oppose sense and reason and to include contradictions and that a more suitable and rational sense can be found out for those passages so that all those inconveniencies and contradictions may be avoided there is nothing more just then that we should embrace that probable and rational sense and reject that doctrine which opposeth sense and reason and seems to imply contradictions But the doctrine of the real presence of the manbood of Christ in the host and the Transubstantiation of the bread into his body is repugnant to sense and reason and seems to include divers contradictions viz. that a human body is in a point without any local extension that a body may be in divers places at one and the
is not probable that Iesus Christ said to them drink ye all of this cup of bloud and yet that it was not a cup of bloud but a cup of wine But when Iesus Christ said drink ye all of this he did not speak to them of a cup of bloud for the wine was not then converted into Christs bloud because according to our Adversaries it was not changed until Iesus Christ had made an end of uttering these following words for this is my bloud But he uttered these words drink ye all of this before he uttered those for this is my bloud because a man must utter a proposition before he can give the reason of it Answ. To this I answer that when Christ said drink ye all this he meant of his bloud for although by reason of the sacramental species he gave it the donomination of wine and although it was not his bloud immediatly after he said drink ye all this untill he added these other words for this is my bloud yet by so saying he made it his bloud and consequently he meant that they should drink of his bloud for I suppose and to think otherwise is not at all propable his disciples were not so rude illbred and irreverent to their Lord and Master as to snatch the cup out of his hand and drink it before he made an end of his speech to them the last part whereof viz. for this is my bloud made it his bloud and so is this arrow of Mr. de Rodons blunted in bread and wine and cannot pierce Transubstantiation Therefore he outâ—… with his third arrow Rodon 4. When a thing is converted into another we cannot see the effects and properties of the thing converted but only of that into which it is converted for example when the seed is changed into an animal we can see no more the effects and properties of the seed but of the animal only and when Iesus Christ turned water into wine the effects properties and accidents of the water were no more seen but of the wine only c. But in the Eucharist we cannot after the consecration perceive the effects properties accidents or parts of the body and bloud of Christ but we see there all the effects properties and accidents of bread and wine Therefore in the Eucharist the bread and wine are not converted into the body and bloud of Christ. And the truth is if that which appears to be bread and hath all the effects accidents and properties of bread be no bread but Christs body clothed with the accidents of bread then it may likewise be said that they that appear to be men and have all the effects properties and accidents of men are not men but horses clothed with the accidents of men Answ. I distinguish the major proposition thus When a thing is converted c. we cannot see the effects and properties c. with our corporal eyes I confess with the spiritual eye of our soul viz. with our understanding supported by divine faith I deny the major with its minor also in the same sense which being both shattered the consequence must needs vanish away The reason why the effects and properties of the Sacrament are not seen with our corporal eyes is because they are objects of faith which objects are beyond the sphere and capacity of our corporal eyes and other senses for the object of our corporal sight is coloratum quid some coloured thing and the objects of our other senses are meer corporeal things but objects of divine faith are never seen nor known by their colours nor by smelling touching or tasting from whence a man may see how sharp keen and witty this arrow of Mr. de Rodon's is against Transubstantiation which is a high object and mystery of divine faith As to both his examples of seed into an animal and water turned into wine without any of their effects seen either in the animal or in the wine I confess all that to be true and the reason is because those are but meer simple conversions and no sacraments But Transubstantiation is not only a conversion of one substance into another but it constitutes a Sacrament also and because it is a Sacrament it is necessary that although the entityes of bread and wine are destroyed their accidents should remain to be symbols or signs of our spiritual nourishment and are therefore called Analogically bread and wine though they are not really but meer accidents of bread and wine and the natural entityes of bread and wine wherewith they were formerly sustentated are really changed into the body and bloud of Christ. This then being so the truth is that although the Sacramental species appear to our corporal eyes to be but bread and wine and according to our senses seem to have but the effects accidents and propertyes of bread and wine yet to the eye of our soul viz. to the understanding supported by divine faith they are not really such but the true body and bloud of Christ because he himself said so and his word could make them so And it is also plain truth that if Mr. de Rodon had ever received the Sacrament worthily but alas he never did it would have wrought its spiritual effects and properties upon his poor soul as it doth upon all other devout ones and fils them with interior joy devotion and tranquility of mind and conscience But since he never did or believed in Christs words as his Church understands them but was alwaies led by the track of his senses only to the sight of this supernatural object certain I say it is and the very plain truth that he had no more faith in him then a horse hath that followeth the sent of oats But let us hear him farther Rodon 5. In every substantial conversion there must be a subject to pass from one substance to another for else it would be a creation which is the sole action that doth not presuppose a subject But in the Sacrament of the Eueharist after the consecration there is no subject because according to our adversaries there remains no subject for at they assert the accidents of bread and wine remain without any subject at all Therefore in the Sacrament of the Eucharist there is no substantial conversion Answ. To this argument I answer denying the major for this proposition is verified only in formal substantial conversions that is to say when one substantial form is changed or converted into another as when the form of seed is changed into the form of an animal and the form of water was changed into the form of wine at the feast of Cana in Galilee which are but simple substantial conversions in which the matter or subject passes from one form to another But Transubstantiation is a quite other sort of substantial conversion for not only the forms of bread and wine are changed into the body and bloud of Christ but also their matters or subjects by vertue of the
seeing that his own personal presence was necessary both in heaven and upon earth in heaven to glorify his Church triumphant on earth to assâ—…t his Church militant he ascended into heaven and â—…ays there in his natural glorious shape and yet at the same time he gives us his body under the form or species of bread and wine for our spiritual nourishment Now supposing this saying of Christ Behold I am with you even to the consummation of the world Math. 28. and this other saying of his This is my body Math. 26. and Luke 22. and comparing these two passages with that of the Prov. 8. viz. and my delight 's to be with the Children of men he said not his representation figure or signe but his real self it follows evidently that he is to be also really upon earth until the consâ—…mation of the world And since he cannot be in his natural glorious shape in both places at once it follows that he is in his natural shape in heaven and sacramentally with us here upon earth And whereas he saw our nature abhors to eat and drink raw flesh and bloud he found it necessary to attemperate and accommodate his body and bloud which he instituted for our spiritual food to our nature and therefore exhibiteth himself unto us in the likeness or shape of bread and wine which be our natural and ordinary food But to do this he saw t was necessary the substances of bread and wine should vanish and that the substance of his body should come in and supply their place he saw also 't was necessary that the accidents should remain undestroyed to be symbols or signs of our spiritual nourishment And because Christs body is not in the Sacrament impanated that is in bread as Luther falsely asserts for Christ said not This bread is my body or This is my body and bread or This is my body in bread it was necessary the Accidents of bread and wine should be in the Sacrament without their connatural subjects therefore by vertue of his omnipotent word he gives the Sacramental species a substance-like existence in and by themselves without any subject and he props them miraculously with his own infinite power though still with this difference that the sacramental species retain their aptitudinal inherence which substances do not Moreover it was necessary seeing he is in his humane shape in heaven that he should be sacramentally on earth for to verify his above mentioned saying viz. that he would be with us unto the consummation of the world he then being sacramentally with us it follows that he may be in an equivocal place and consequently in a point as the soul is in the body And whereas this Sacrament was instituted to be our spiritual food and we are commanded to eat it we being in a thousand million of places together it was necessary that the Sacrament may be in so many places together also for us to be fed therewith It is also necessary it should be obvious to the good and wicked for to make the good better and to make the wicked people good and devout the which if it doth not alwaies it is no fault of Christ or of the Sacrament but our own fault As no more is an Apothecarys shop the worse for having all sorts of excellent medicines and druggs in it although some of them may chance to kill here and there some people that take them undisâ—…reetly In like manner although some Iudas-like people receive the B. Sacrament unworthily and to their own spiritual ruine and damnation yet it is necessary that it should be ministred to all sort of people to the wicked as well as to the faithfull being it was instituted for us all as also because the Priest who is the right minister of this Sacrament cannot discern the worthy from the unworthy for if Christ himself who knew Iudas his heart gave him his body to eat though he was sure he would receive it unworthily why may not Christs minister not knowing the unworthi ness of the receiver give it him in hopes it would make him better Christ gave his own body to Iudas though he knew it would work his damnation because though he knew Iudas to be wicked and unworthy yet his sins were not publick and known to the world but only secret sins viz. of avarice or theft even so doth our holy Mother the Church to whom the administration of this Sacrament is left she bars no body for his private sins from receiving it knowing that as Christ was tender of Iudas his fame and reputation though he was a vile sinner concealedly and therefore denied not him his body because he was to communicate publickly with the rest of the Apostles so she ought also to deal in this matter with her children But unto publick sinners or Excommunicated persons she flatly and openly denies this Sacrament before they become wholly reconciled and penitent at lest exteriorly to the sight of the world And although it be not necessary that a devil incarnate or a beast should eat it or that it should be stoln burnt or taken away by the devil yet because it is very necessary in it self for our spiritual nourishment and because we are not Gods but only his unworthy ministers to discern a devil incarnate from a meer man also because we know not what future accidents may chance by reason of fire water thieves or bruit beasts and especially because we believe and are sure no annoyance or harm can come to a glorified body from any of all those forementioned things we hold it necessary and not at all inconvenient to keep the B. Sacrament in decent Tabernacles deputed and consecrated meerly for that use and nothing else for to have it always ready at hand in time of need for the spiritual refreshment and nourishment of the faithfull especially of those who are very sick and like to take their leave of this world And as our Tabernacles are only for this purpose so are our Churches for no other use but prayer and offering this Sacrifice whatever use the Mounsieur and this confederate reformers put their Churches to as also those of ours which they wrongfully wrested out of our hands notwithstanding our quiet and peaceable enjoyment of them for many hundred years successively even since their erection by our Ancestours who built them and planted Christian Religion here in England Nay all this the very Protestant chroniclers themselves assert and cannot deny That the devil ever ventured immediately upon the Sacrament either to touch it or take it away I never read nor heard as yet and therefore believe not Mr. de Rodon as to that point But that Jews witches thieves or such like rabble may have carried it away and abused it and also of stupendious Miracles and exemplary punishments that often happned unto the malefactours in sundry ages and countries I have read in several grave and credible Authors Therefore all the
the Testament c. he has This is the Covenant c. the reason I believe why he puts Covenant instead of Testament is because he denies the Eucharist to be a Testament of the new Law saying that it is only a figure or sign of it and therefore being he could not handsomely translate the text thus this is the sign of the Testament which I will make with them after those days seeing the word Testament was more against him then for him he changed it into Covenant whether this corrupting the text be his own or the translatours of his Bible it matters not so long as the corruption is evidently to be seen In the second place by him falsisied where the true text runs thus and their sins and iniquities I will now remember no more but where there is remission of these now there is not an oblation for sins instead of But where there is a remission of these c. the Mounsieur has Now where remission of these is c. and this changing of But into Now was that he may the easier inferr that now after the once bloudy sacrifice of the Cross there is no more sacrifice offered for he forms his argument thus where there is remission of sins there is no need of an oblation or a propitiatory sacrifice for sin as the Apostle saith But in the Christian Church by vertue of the new Testament or new Covenant confirmed by the bloud of Christ there is remission of sins Heb. 10. 16. 17. therefore in the Christian Church now adays there is no need of an oblation or propitiatory sacrifice and consequently no need of the sacrifice of the Mass. Whatever his or the Translators reason was to change But into Now I will not stickle with them about it Therefore I answer his argument granting the major and distinguishing the minor thus in the Christian Church by vertue of the bloudy sacrifice of Christs body upon the Cross there is remission of sins without any repetition of the same bloudy sacrifice again and without any other oblation or sacrifice essentially different from this bloudy Sacrifice I consess the minor In the Christian Church by vertue of the bloudy sacrifice of Christs body upon the Cross there is remission of sins without any repetition of the same unbloudy sacrifice or of a sacrifice only accidentally different from his bloudy sacrifice upon the cross I deny the minor the reason is this because Christ suffered and sacrificed himself bloudily for all men and for the sins of all the world in general Behold the lamb of God behold him that takes away the sins of the world S. Iohn 1. for if Christ had not suffered for all mankind in general but only for the elect besides that it would sound something of a personal acception which is not at all in God the reprobates may justly alledge that the chief cause of their damnation was because Christ did not suffer nor satisfy for their sins But if Christ suffered for the sinns of all mankind as certainly he did else how could he be called the Redeemer of the world then according to the Mounsieurs argument and Principles by reason of this general satsfaction and bloudy sacrifice all the sins of the world are remitted and so by reason of this bloudy sacrifice once offered in general for all men without exception all will be saved be they Jews Turks heathens believers or unbelievers virtuous or vitious why for there is no need of offering sacrifice or oblation to God any more and the bloudy sacrifice is still in force if we believe the Mounsieur sure this is the shortest openest and easiest way to heaven that ever was heard of and yet Christ himself says Regnum Caelorum vim patitur that the kingdom of heaven doth suffer violence S. Matt. 11. Or can the Mounsieur say that Christs bloudy sacrifice was not fatisfactory in rigour for all the sins of the world if he doth I tell him another man for saying so would be counted an arrant lyar and a most impious blasphemous heretick Therefore we say that although Christs Passion and bloudy sacrifice was in it self of force vertue sufficient to take away all the sins of the world and although he suffered for all mankinde in general without excepting one yet we say that unless his Passion be applyed to every one in particular I mean to all those that fell into relapse of sin after Baptisme it will not avail them at all and his application we say is made by reiterating the same sacrifice unbloudily as Christ himself expresly commanded when he said unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his bloud you shall not have life in you Iohn 6. That Christs body was given him to be sacrificed not only upon the Cross but upon the Altar also S. Aug affirms in his 17th book de civit Dei 20. chap. The table quoth he which the Priest of the new Testament doth exhibit is of his body and bloud for that is the sacrifice which succeeded all the sacrifices that were offered in shadow of that to come for the which also we acknowledge that voice of the same mediatour in the Psalm But a body thou hast fitted to me because in stead of all these sacrifices and oblations his body is offered and is ministred to the partakers and receivers And again lib. 4. de Trinit c. 14. Who so just and holy a Priest as the son of God what might be so conveniently offered for men of men as mans flesh and what so fit for this immolation or offering as mortal flesh who so clean for cleansing the vices of mortal men as the flesh born of the virgins wombe and what can be offered and received so gratefully as the flesh of our sacrifice made by the body of our Priest Could the holy Doctor or any man breathing have spoken more clearly and manifestly in the behalf of Transubstantiation and of the sacrifice of the Mass than this first he calls it the table of the body and bloud of Christ then he says it is offered by men for men the holy Doctor meant not by men the Jews that killed our Saviour but the Priests that sacrifice him unbloudily for men or for the sins of men for all the world knows that the Jews killed our Saviour out of meer hatred and spleen and not with intention to sacrifice or offer him to God the Father to satisfie for the sins of mankinde Lastly he says nothing can be offered and received so gratefully as the flesh of our sacrifice made by the body of our Priest where calling it our sacrifice he says it is a sacrifice and not the bloudy one which was rather for us then ours and by saying made by the body of our Priest he expresly owneth Transubstantiation that is to say he expresly owneth that very thing we understand by the word Transubstantiation or he owneth expresly the self-same thing we hold
highest degree as we see Christ imparted himself to our humane nature in the highest degree by the mystery of his Incarnation suppositating our nature substantially and covering it under his divine Personality But it is a far higher degree of communication to impart himself to the rest of mankinde really and corporally for to make them his mystical members then to impart himself to them figuratively only or typically therefore this real communication in the Sacrament is more agreeable to Christs infinite goodness then a typical or figurative communication is and also his real body is of more vertue and efficacy to incorporate us mystically and make us his members then the type or signe of his body is The second reason is this God the father and God the son are of equal power and verity therefore when God the father and God the son do express themselves in the self-same manner of speaking their words ought to be understood in the same meaning and sense But when God the father in the second of S. Matthew said This is my son every one that heard him understood that Christ was his true and real son and to understand his words otherwise would be open blasphemy Therefore it is open blasphemy to deny when Christ said This is my body that it is not his true real body but the figure or signe of his body only The words were uttered alike the power and verity of the uâ—…terers were alike why then should not their words be understood alike I see no reason for it because I see no disparity in the case Many other reasons and plausible proofâ—… do our Catholick divines and Romish doctors produce for the verity of this conclusion deduced from holy scripture which are theological demonstrations But what need I repeat any of them in this place where the case is so clear out of sundry express texts of holy writ and backt by the unanimous consent of all the holy fathers and General Councils all which to contradict is not only an intolerable impudence but a meer frantick maddness Therefore leaving such giddy-brain'd people to the mercy of God and to be more pittied or prayed for then farther refuted I conclude out of these irrefragable proofs and premises that the Mass whom our adversaries in derision call the great Diana is of the noblest highest and most eminent extraction imaginable This Diana whereof we here treat derives her immediate root and being from heaven her descent and pedegree from Christ and his twelve Apostles her father is the first person of the most blessed Trinity her mother a most pure and immaculate virgin her Majesty and glory none can paralel her face is so resplendant and bright that the very cherubins seraphins are dazled when they behold her In a word her brightness is so eminent that it is inaccessible and the greatest beatitude and felicity of Angel or man consists in contemplating upon her beauty and yet notwithstanding all this she endured many a harder shock from her adversaries then Mr de Rodon or his bitter translatour will ever be able to give her but yet she still comes off with glory and victory All the heathenish Philosophers and their mighty Emperours she vanquished the learned Rabbins could never shake her all the hereticks from Simon Magus to the Quaker she crusht and quasht therefore she need not fear the Mounsieurs translator as for matter of superstition Phanaticism or Idolatry happy are we in her and thrice happy too if we can but serve her as we ought but as she deserves we are not able in this frail life however all our felicity and rest of conscience we own unto her in this life also for without her we should become restless and distracted or desperate Having hinted a little at her extraction or pedegree which no Angel or tongue is able to express or come near for its loftiness and celsitude I must say something of her vertue and worth which because it is infinite and in exhaustible I confess I know not how to begin however this I am sure of that her father who is omnipotent bequeathed unto her all power and dominion over heaven and earth Math. 28. so that there is no creature whatsoever of what rank be it never so high but must acknowledge his being vertue and power to depend wholy on hers It is in her as the Apostle sayes Acts 17. vivimus movemur sumus we live we move we be whatever perfections are dispersedly in every creature are all united in her and all their perfections and vertues are but shaddows and a meer participation of her essential ones Christ by his Incarnation noblisied and raised our humane nature above all the quires of Angels by his bloudy sacrifice of the Cross he purchased our Redemption and by this unbloudy sacrifice of the Mass he unites us unto himself and makes us his Mystical members for he sayes Ioh. 6. qui manducat meam carnem bibit meum sanguinem in me manet ego in eo he that eats my flesh and drinks my bloud he sayes not the signes of his flesh and bloud abides in me and I in him that is to say we shall be knit and united together and sayes again with an oath ibid. Amen amen unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his bloud you shall have no life in you And again he that eateth me the same also shall live by me So that according to the clear expression of those texts our union with Christ consists in the Mass or which is the same thing in eating the sacramental bread which is offered in the Mass and our disunion or separation from Christ consists in our not eating it and by the third text we are taught that in it our life consists for he sayes presently after he that eâ—…teth this bread shall live for ever The Angelical doctor S. Thom. Aquinas to whose arbitration Mr de Rodon profers with his whole party to subscribe concerning the Eucharist in opusc 57. hath these words O pretiosum admirandum convivium salutiferum omni suavitate repletum quid enim hoc convivio pretiosius esse potest in quo non earnes vitulorum hircorum ut olim in lege sed nobis Christus sumendus proponitur verus deus quid hoc sacramento miralibius in ipso namque panis vinum in corpus sanguinem Christi substantialiter convertuntur O pretious wonderful and healthful banquet replenished with all sweetness for what can be more pretious then this banquet in which not calves or goats flesh as in former times but Christ the true God is set before us to be eaten what is more wonderful then this Sacrament for in it bread and wine are substantially changed into the body and bloud of Christ. S. Cyril in Ioan. admonishing the faithful people sayes sciant igitur baptizati homines divinae gratiae participes facti si rarius in Ecclesiam proficiscantur
enough to pearce or annoy our Diana in any thing the leaâ—…t so likewise his Translators rayling and sâ—…olding at her can do her no more harm then a doggs barking can do to the Moon therefore he had better follow the good counsel of grave Gamaliel to the Jewes concerning how they should deal with the Apostles whose words be these And now therefore I say unto you depart from these men and let them alâ—…ne for if this counsel or work be of men it will be dissâ—…lved but if it be of God you are not able to dissâ—…lve them lest perhaps you be found to â—…esist God also Act 5. Even so in my poor judgement had the Translator best do to the Masse for with railing and scolding at it he will never be able to hurt it It hath stood from all ages since Christs time untill now and if it be of God it is not the Translator or I that shall be able to put it down alas both he and I shall be dead and rotten while noble Diana will be as brisk merry and fresh as she was the very first day she came into this world However I cannot but exâ—…use the good Translator because of his great zeal if his bitterness towards us proceeded onely from ignorance and not from malice or interestâ—… for S. Paul himself out of his ardent zeal to the Synagogue wherein he was born and bred was once a severe enemy and violent Persecutor of Gods Church But after he was illuminated by Christ and knew better things who ever after was more zealous for her honour and glory then he and yet he himself doth confess that God shewed him his great mercy quia ignorans feci because I did it quoth he ignorantly so I beg God heartily that this small book of mine by his blessing may illuminate the minds of those that are plunged â—…n the Abyss of heresy and Ignorance through the means of Mr de Rodon and such like Phanatick hereticks who by their false interpretations and applications of holy scripture set out and garnished with their sophistical arguments do deceive and mislead many thousands of poor ignorant souls to their utter ruine and everlasting damnation for leaving their true Mother the Church out of which there is no salvation for any And amongst the rest of the illuminated I wish the Translator were one To conclude this Appendix I exhort all the Catholicks of England and I earnestly beg and beseech them for the love of our sweet saviour Jesus Christ and the tender bowells of his infinite mercy towards them to stick closly and cleave constantly to their pretious Diana and for her sake to be always ready and prepared to undergoe all manner of persecutions tribulations and losses rather then forsake her for whatever damage or ill-entreatment they suffer upon her account they may be sure she will requite them a hundred-fold double for it with full interest Our saviour himself did â—…id us Not fear them that kill the body and after this have no more to do but I will shew you quoth he whom ye shall fear fear him who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell Luke 12. for your momentary sufferings in this life for his sake your crown and reward will be everlasting hereafter More then eye can see ear can hear or understanding can comprehend 1. Cor. 2. verity himself doth promise it and his promise he can and will perform Expect him but a little while with patience and in your patience ye shall possess your souls S. Luke 21. It is far better for you to suffer a little and short famine cold want misery imprisonment nay death it self for her sakes then to live plentifully and abundantly here for a moment and for ever after for denying her to be in everlasting famine imprisonment torment misery and want for unless we be Christs fellow sufferers in this life we shall not be his copartners in glory as the Apostle tells Timothy 2. If we shall sustain we shall also reign together In a word I conclude my book with the â—…ame prayer the Translator ends his preface with viz. I earnestly beseech my Lord and God he would make it prosperous and successfull for the good of souls and if any shall receive benefit by it I desire them to give him all the glory and I shall think my self infinitely recompensed for my pains in composing it yet if there be any thing in it that is not orthodox and sound I humbly submit my poor judgment to the censure of our holy mother the Church Errata PAge 13. line ult for it is not repugnant r. is not repugnant p. 37. for Iohn he that r. is mentioned in S. Iohn 6. he that p. 67. l. 19. for the wine was destroyed r. the water was destroyod p. 85. l. 25. for charity sake r. clarity sake p. 87. l. 21. for neither r. either p. 115. l 5. for place r. places p. 118. l. 8. for would r. could p. 130. l. 14. for between corporal things r. but between corporal things p. 168. l. 27. for that charity r. that clarity p. 171. l. 9. for therein r. their p. 175. l. 11. for consure r. censure p. 192. l. 21. for next under the holy writt r. next unto holy writt p. 204. l. 14. for in this glory r. in his glory In the Appendix p. 3. l. 27. for your r. our p. 24. l. 23. r. metal â—…iery p. 25. l. â—… r. corporis cordis FINIS AN INDEX OF THE CHAPTERS Contained in this Book Chap. I COâ—…cerning the Exposition of these words This is my Body p. 1. Chap. II. Concerning the Exposition of these woâ—…ds He that eateâ—…h my Flesh and drinketh my Blood hath Everlasting Life My Flesh is Meat indeed p. 36. Chap. III. Against Transubstantiation p. 64. Chap. IV. Against the real presence of Christs Body in the Host or Consecrated Wafer p. 96. Chap. V. Against the Adoration or Worshipping of the Host. p. 199. Chap. VI. Against taking away of the Cup. p. 242. Chap. VII Against the Mass. p 293. Chap. VIII Containing Answers to the Objections of the Romish Doctors p. 345. The Preâ—…ace of Monsieur dâ—… Rodons Translator p. 461. An Answer to the Preface and an Appendix to the Book p. 1. An INDEX of the chief things contained in this Book CHrists word is Creative productive and effective pag. 4 Transubstantiation cannot be plainlier exprest than by these woâ—…ds This is my Body p. 6. Christs words are practical Signs and causes of what they signifie other mens words are but speculative signs only of things signiâ—…fied by them p. 12. An Image hath always an Essential relation to its Prototype p. 11. Transubstantiation both a Sacrament and the thing signified p. 13. It is not repugnant that the same thing should signifie its own self p. Ibid. The Bread and Wine were not made the Body and Blood of Christ by a bare Blessing or Thanksgiving p. 14. The words of
Consecration ought to be understood according to their immediate sense p. 17. The B. Sacrament is the New Testament in Christs Blood not only of his Blood p. 22. These words This is my Body signifie a substantial being and not a Sacramental only p. 23. The Protestant Communion exhibits not Christs Body Blood to the Believers p. 27. The Sacramental Species receiveâ—… worthily makes the receiver a Mystical Member of Christ. p. 30. Faith alone insufficient for this Sacrament Ib. Faith is no mouth literally or metaphoâ—…ically p. 31. Christs glorified Body never damnified by the receiver of the B. Sacramenâ—… p. 32. To verifie a proposition it sufficeth the thing be as the proposition says it is p. 35. Iâ—… is the Sacrament that is the chief and whole cause of our spiritual refreshment and the thing which the Soul principally hungers and thirsts after Faith is only a conâ—…ition requisite so is Hope and Charity also for to receive worthily p. 38. Christs Body worthily received works spiritually upon the Soul p. 40. These words of St. Aug. To eat the â—…lesh of Christ is a Figure c. which De Rodon alledges against us expounded p. 43. Cardinal Cajetans Authority alledged against us expounded p. 45. The action whereby we obtain remission of sins anâ—… sanctification ending in gloâ—…ification consists not in the spiritual eating or drinking by Faith only p. 5â—… In these words My Flesh is meaâ—… indeed no Figure falls upon the word Meat p. 55. Christs Flesh is a corporal food that nourishes spiritually only p. 57. Objects of Divine Faith not to he levelled by our reason and sense p. 59. Christ comeâ—… into the Sacrament by an adductive power p. 66. He is not produced there entitatively but modally only p. Ibid. Certain passages of Scripture alledged aâ—…ainst us by De Rodon viz. That there is â—…reaking givinâ—… eaâ—…ing and drinking after Consecraâ—…ion answered p. 68. When Christ said Drink ye all this Mat. 26. he meant his Blood p. 71. Why the eâ—…ects of the Sacramental Species â—…emain after Transubstantiation p. 73. Transubstantiation is a total substantial conversion and not a formal substantial conversion only p. 75. The Sacâ—…amental Species are something Subâ—…ect liâ—…e p. 77. Transubstantiation destroys not the nature of Acciâ—…ents p. 79. Transubstantiation destroys not the Nature oâ—… Sacâ—…aments p. 84. Corporal nourishment in the Sacramental Sâ—…ecies nâ—…t requisite p. 85. The Sacrament of the Eucharist ought to be adored with a Latria p. 88. If our adversaries give not a Latriacal adoration to their Communion Bread it may be lawfully given to Dogs p. 89. If they adore their Communion they are greater Idolaters than we p. 91. Christ gave power to Priests to Consecrate p. 97. Christs Body is in the Sacrament immediately by reason of its substance p. 99. It s quantity is also there though not with its quantitative dimensions p. 100. The definition of a proper place and how many manner of ways both Christian Divines and Philosophers hold a thing may be in a place p. 103. A glorious Body may be in its equivocal place p. 109. The Iacobins and the Jesuits opinion concerning Christs Body to be brought or produced in the Sacrament saved p. 112. Christs Body is in all things subject to his Soul as his Soul is subject to his Divinity p. 117. Why the local extension of Christs Body in the Sacrament is hindred p. 119. De Rodons Argument of to move and not to move at the same time c. answered p. 121. Wherein a formal contradiction consists p. 123 De Rodons ridiculous quibbles and Unphilosophical illations answered p. 129. Distance is only betwixt corporal things whilst they are in their univocal places p. 130 A Sacramental place is properly no place at all p. 133. De Rodons Dropsical Argument of a drop of water that drowned many thousands c. mouldred p. 136. Division is only between corporal things in their proper places p. 138. God and Nature are not obliged to do what they can do p. 140. De Rodon shoots at Christ through Diana's side p. 143. Christ is seen in the Sacrament by the Spiritual Eye of our understanding supported by the light of Faith p. 146. It is not convenient we should see Christ visibly with our Corporal Eyes in the Blessed Sacrament p. 148. Substances possess no place p. 151. Christs Body in the Sacrament whether taken substantially or quantitatively has no posture or scituation in it p. 154. His Body appears not more or less for dividing or sub-dividing the Host p. 156. Christ is as glorious and happy in the Host as he is in Heaven p. 161. What these terms Reduplicatively and specificatively what sensus compositus and divisus mean p. Ibid. As Christ comes into the Host without local 〈◊〉 so he leaves it without local â—…e 〈◊〉 p. 165. De Rodon gives the Apostle the lie p. 167. Christ Diana and the Apostle saved from De Rodons keen Arrow p. 168. De Rodon jumps with the Iews against Christ p. 170. His Thunderbolt or Coelestial Arrow shivered p. 172. According to De Rodons Principles there ought to be no Sacrament of our Lords Supper at all p. 174. Clâ—…ud de Xaintes defended against De Rodon p. Ibid. Exorcismes p. 176. De Rodons miraculous Arrow put by p. 179. Christ really in Heaven and really in the Blessed Sacrament at the same time p. 182. He is not in the Sacrament impanated p. Ibid. He gave himself to Iudas also p. 18â—… Bellormine and Peron defendeâ—… p. 186. The Sacraments of the old Testament had a relation to those of the new p. 187. The Moâ—…sieurs Scripturistical Arrows shatâ—…ered p. 190. The marks of the Roman Church p. 193. The Seven Sacraments expounded p. 195. Why we keep the Eucharist in our Pixes and 〈◊〉 p. 197. Monsieur and his Party the false Prophets the Evangelist spoke of p. Illid God many manner of ways in his Creatures p. 202. External Adoration due to Christ where he is known to be personally present p. 203. Hereticks uncivil both to God and Man p. 206. According to De Rodons Principles we may adore the Devil instead of Christ p. 209. VVhy External adoration is due to Christ in the Sacrament more than in the VVater of Baptism p. 210. Heaven and Hell destroyed by the Monsieurs Principles p. 211. The Monsieurs third Foundation built upon Quick-sands p. 215. De Rodons very considerable Argument pernicious to all mankind p. 218. Destructive to Goâ—…s Providence p. 222. A moral certitude of being Christned sufficient p. 223. Pope Adrian defended against De Rodon p. 226. Apostate Priests and Monks in credit and spiritual jurisdiction with De Rodon and his Party p. 228. The Pâ—…imitive Church adored the Host p. 233. Proved by the Testimonies of sundry Holy Fathers p. Ibid. Our Diana or Mass holds it out from all Ages maugre De Rodon and all Hereticks p. 237. Diana vindicated against Idolatry p. 238. The Church makes no new Articles of
shew us any evident proof to the contrary but his own bare word which we do not at all value it clearly follows that these words This is my body must not be expounded of the Sacrament of his body only and because a Sacrament is not here only ment it followeth that although a Sacrament as the holy Council of Irent saith is a visible signe of an invisible grace that this proposition This is my body must not be expounded this is the Sacrament or this is the signe only of my body although I confess that by vertue of the said words the Sacrament is also consignified with his real presence in the consecrated Host. The Mounsieur confirmes his precedent Argument thus Rod. 4. In these two propositions This is my body This cup is the new Testament in my bloud the word is must be taken in the same sense because they are alike having been pronounced upon the same matter viz. the one upon one part of the Sacrament and the other upon the other part of it and because of like things we must give alike Iudgment But in this proposition This cup is the new Testament the word iâ—… is not taken for a real and transubstantiated being but for a Sacramental and significative being because neither the cup nor that which iâ—… in the cup is changed into a Testament neither is it really and properly a Testament but the Sacrament of the New Testament Therefore in this proposition likewise This is my body the word is is not taken for a real and Transubstantiated being but for a Sacramental and significative being and consequently as this proposition This cup is the new Testament must be expounded thus the wine that is in the cup is the signe and Sacrament of the New Testament so this proposition This is my body must be expounded thus this bread is the signe and Sacrament of my body Whence it follows that in one single proposition of Iesus Christ in the institution of the Sacrament of the Eucharist viz. This cup is the New Testament are two figures one in the word cup being taken for that which is in the cup this is a figure called a Metonimy whereby the thing containing is taken for the thing contained The other figure is that the cup is called the New Testament this is also a figure called a metonimy whereby the signe is called by the name of the thing signified And therefore the Romish Doctors are mistaken when they tell us that all that Iesus Christ said when he instituted the Eucharist must be taken litterally and without a figure But withall we must not imagine that Iesus Christ spake obscurely because he spake figuratively these figures and manners of speech being commonly and familiarly used by all the world Answ. To this Argument I answer granting the major and denying the minor and to its probation I confess that the bare cup is neither a proper testament or transubstantiated But that the consecrated wine in the cup is not the new Testament transubstantiated into Christs bloud I flatly deny because Christ himself in express words said hoc est novum Testamentum in meo sanguine This is the new Testament in my bloud he said not it was the signe or Testament of his bloud but in his bloud that is to say that the Testament did consist in his bloud or which is the same thing that the new Testament is his bloud Thus all the holy Fathers and General Councils ever understood these words of Christ yet the Mounsieur without any farther proof but his own bare word saies that the wine in the cup after consecration is but a sign or Sacrament of the new Testament But of what weight his bare word ought to be against Christs clear expression and the common explication of the whole Church I leave the reader to consider Therefore the Mounsieur muâ—…t give me leave to conclude thus contrary to what he holds and say that in this proposition This is my body the word is ought to be taken for a real and transubstantiated being and not for a Sacramental and significative being only And consequently that this proposition This cup is the new Testament must be expounded thus The consecrated wine that is in the cup is the real bloud of Christ and new Testament of his law And although we confess with Mr. de Rodon that in these words viz. this cup is the new Testament there are two figures or Metonimies to be taken one in the word cup and the other because the Sacramental species do signifie Christs bloody Passion yet we deny but that Transubstantiation is there chiefly by vertue of Christs effective word and the Sacrament consignified only because as I said before we hold the consecrated Host to be both Sacramentum rem 〈◊〉 the Sacrament and the thing it self together And therefore we deny that the Romish doctours are mistaken when they tell us tha what Jesus Christ said when he instituted the Eucharist must be taken litterally and not figuratively only neither have we any reason to imagine that he spake obscurly for his real Presence could not be with plainer words exprest but let us now hear the Mounsieur speak Rodon 5. But when we say that these words This is my body this is my blood must be expounded thus this bread is the sign and Sacrament of my body this wine is the sign and Sacrament of my bloud we do not mean that the bread and wine are barely and simply signes of Christs body and bloud but we believe that the bread and wine in the Eucharist are signes that do exhibite the body and bloud of Christ to believers for when they do by the mouth of the body receive the bread and wine of â—…he Eucharist they do at the same time by the mouth of the soul viz. by faith receive the body of Christ broken and his bloud shed for the remission of their sins as will be proved in the next Chapter Answ. I must confess if we hold to the common usage of words and to their proper signification according to the institution of all authors Mr. de Rodons exposition is unto me both very obscure and repugnant to the expression of all solid divines and Philosophers for first he saies that bread and wine in the Eucharist are not barely and simply signes of Christs body and bloud and he saies presently again that they are signes which do exhibite the body and bloud of Christ to believers here me thinks the Mounsieur doth plainly contradict himself for either the bread and wine do exhibite the body and bloud of Christ to the believeâ—… precisely and reduplicatively by reason of their signification or by reason of their natural entitie if by reason of their signification or as they are signes precisely what are they then else but bare and simple signes If by reason of their entity then according to Mr. de Rodons opinion Christs broken body and his spilt bloud are
omnipotent effective word of the infinite Agent who hath an absolute power over all sorts of entities as well material as formal Therefore the material entities of bread and wine being as subject to Christs effective word in order to a substantial conversion as their formal entities are and Transubstantiation being a total conversion of both the material and formal entities of bread and wine into the body and bloud of Jesus Christ as the words of consecration do plainly import it follows evidently that although in every simple formal substantial conversion there must be a subject to pass from one substantial form to another yet in Transubstantiation which is not a simple conversion of one substantial form into another but a totall conversion as well of the material entityes of bread and wine into the body and bloud of Christ as of their formal entityes I say in this extraordinary supernatural and total substantial conversion there need be no subject to pass from one substance or substantial form to another because here the subject it self is as well changed as its substantial form And yet this miraculous conversion cannot be tearmed a creation because it is not productio rei ex nihilo a thing produced of nothing or a sole action that doth not presuppose a subject as the Mounsieur saies right creation is However though the Sacramental species because they are accidents and no accidents can properly be called subjects be not the proper subjects of this conversion yet they are somewhat subject-like for they pass through the whole conversion and exist supernaturally without any subject to prop or sustentate them God miraculously supplying the place of their connatural subjects as he supplies the natural subsistence or personality due to Christs humane nature which if Mr. de Rodon will not believe because he cannot see it with his corporal eyes nor apprehend it with any of his other senses he will be forced besides the three Persons of the B. Trinity to allow also of a humane person in Christ to personate his humane nature which is plain and manifest heresy Now to the Mounsieur again Rodon 5. That doctrine which asserts that Accidents are not Accidents but substances destroys the nature and essence of Accidents because it is impossible that an accident can be a substance But the doctrine of Transubstantiation asserts that Accidents are not Accidents but that they are substances which I prove thus That doctrine which asserts that Accidents are not inherent but that they subsist by themselves doth assert that Accidents are not Accidents but that they are substances because inherence is the essential difference of a substance But the doctrine of Transubstantiation asserts that Accidents are not inherent but that they subsist which I prove thus That Doctrine which asserts that Accidents may be without a subject doth assert that Accidents are not inherent in a subject but that they subsist by themselves But the doctrine of Transubstantiation asserts that Accidents may be without a subject viz. the Accidents of bread and wine without any substance and without any subject to sustain them For by Transubstantiation the substance of the bread and wine is gone and their Accidents remain Therefore the doctrine of Transubstantiation asserts that Accidents are not inherent but do subsist by themselves and consequently asserts that Accidents are not Accidents but substances and so destroyes the nature and essence of Accidents But here it may be said that actual inherence doth not constitute an Accident but Aptitudinal only Against which I form this Argument Whatsoever doth exist actually either it exists in some thing else actually so that it cannot be without it which Philosophers call actuall inherence as walking or else it exists by it self actually so that it may be alone by it self which Philosophers term actual existence the former of these constitutes an Accident and the later constitutes a substance But the Accidents of the bread and wine after consecration do exist actually therefore they must exist either in something else actually or in themselves actually But they do not exist in and by themselves actually for then they would subsist by themselves and bâ—… real substances which iâ—… impossible therefore they exist in something else actually viz. in the substance of the bread and wine and consequently the substance of the bread and wine remains after the consecration and so there can be no Transubstantiation Answ. As to this fifth arrow of the Mounsieurs we deny that Transubstantiation destroys the nature of Accidents yet we grant it is impossible that an Accident can be a substance we also deny that the doctrine of Transubstantiation asserts that Accidents are not Accidents but substances And to his Probation viz. that doctrine which asserts that Accidents are not inherent are not Accidents I answer and distinguish this proposition thus That doctrine which asserts that Accidents are not inherent actually nor aptitudinally asserts I consess that Accidents are not Accidents that doctrine that asserts because Accidents are not alwaies actually inherent asserts they are not Accidents I deny And consequently I deny that because the accidents of bread and wine in the Eucharist do not inhere actually in their connatural subjects viz. in the entities of bread and wine that therefore they are no accidents And the reason is because it is not actual but Aptitudinal inherence that is essential to accidents which aptitudinal inherence to their natural subjects viz. to the substances of bread and wine we say the Sacramental species have still also after the words of consecration for an aptitudinal inherence consists in a natural sympathy inclination or dependence which the Accident hath to its own natural substance or subject insomuch that iâ—… its subject were reproduced and restored to its former being again the Accident would naturally cleave adhere and result unto his proper subject if God did not supernaturally supply the subjects place as he doth in this misterious converâ—…on just as I said before he supplies Christs humane subsistence or personality in the Mystery of his Incarnation Therefore though the actual inherence of the Sacramental species be hindred and supplied yet they still retain their natural sympathy inclination and propensity to their proper subjects in case they were reproduced in which inclination and propensity the â—…ature of Accidents doth consist and not in their actual inherence And consequently since Transubstantiation destroys not the Aptitudinal inherence of Accidents but only their actual it follows evidently that it leaves them in their essential being which consists in an Aptitudinal inherence only As to his reply concerning aptitudinal inherence viz. that it mâ—…st exist in somthing else actually or else in or by it self I deny that accidents naturally do properly exist but rather coexist with their subjects for existence pertains properly to substances and is called by all Philosophers modus substantialis a substantial mode and takes its seat in the indirect line of the series or Predicament of
signes Answ. To his third I answer and acknowledg the holy Councils definition of a Sacrament but I deny that the body and bloud of our saviour are not visible by the eye of our understanding holpen and supported by the supernatural light of faith although we cannot see them with our corporal eyes as no more can we see the entities or substances of bread and wine with our corporal eyes if they were not destroyed but their accidents only and those accidents we see in the Sacrament also which is sufficient for to constitute a Sacrament being we firmly believe his body and bloud are in the species But the Mounsieurs faith is so nice and delicate that unless he sees and smells the object he will not believe it certainly this divine man saw and smelt the Mysteries of the Blessed Trinity and of Christs Incarnation or if he did not why does he believe them O curious eye O delicate nose Rodon 10. Lastly I say that in every Sacrament the signe relates to the thing signified and Relation is alwaies between two different things because nothing relates to it self and consequently nothing can be both the signe and the thing signified But the body and bloud of Christ are the things signified therfore the body and bloud of Chrst are not the signes And it is to no purpose to say that Iesus Christ in the Mass is the signe and figure of himself on the Cross for Iesus Christ wheresoever he is is one and the same yesterday to day and for ever and therefore Iesus Christ not being different from himself cannot be relative to himself nor the signe of himself Answ. To his last reply I answered sufficiently already where I shewed that it is neither inconvenient nor contradictory that the self same thing may represent and signifie its own self for example that an old man may represent his own self in his youthfull actions or represent upon a Theater what feats of armes he did in the feild where the representer and the represented is the self same man which thing is so clear that every old woman and little child can easily apprehend and understand it what hard matter is 't then to understand that Christ can represent himself in the Sacrament as he was upon the Cross although he be still the same Christ It is a great wonder and admiration to me that such a famous Philosophy-professour as the Mounsieurs Translator takes the Mounsieur to be especially he having so curious an eye and dainty a nose as can reach up to objects of divine faith that he should be so sensless and dull as not to apprehend that which is obvious to all old women and childrens understanding Mr. de Rodons Quiver being quite exhausted his arrows vainly spent Transubstantiation untoucht and consequently the Mass alive as yet Let us now see what great feats he will perform in his next chapter for he vowed our Diana's death resolves here to give her her healing-stroak and to that intent he in his next chapter more then double fills his Quiver for whereas in this chapter he had but six in the next he has thirteen keen arrows Therefore let us for shame accompany our old Mistriss and forsake her not while she has any life in her and we any hope to save her from her Tragical end CHAP. IV. Against the real presence of Christs body in the Host or consecrated wafer LOok now very well to your self Madam Diana for Mr. de Rodon hath bent his bow and aims thus at you Rodon 1. The Romish doctors affirm That immediatly after the Priest in the celebration of the Mass hath pronounced these words this is my body the â—…ody of Christ is really present in the host and that it is whole and entire in every part and point of the host which doctrine I destroy by these following arguments Answ. The Romish Doctors have an excellent ground and reason for saying so because the Priest received power from Christ to do as he did himself when he took bread and changed it into his body saying this is my body for Christ commanded his Apostles whose successors the Priests are to do as he did himself and gave them power to do it by vertue of these words as often as you do this do it in remembrance of me for he commanded them to do this that 's to say the same thing he did himself when he uttered these words this is my body But they could not make it his body unless they had power from him to do it therefore since they did as he commanded them to do 〈◊〉 follows evidently that if he made it his body and bloud they did so also for most certain it is that he commanded them not to â—…o a thing impossible and consequently that 〈◊〉 gave them power to consecrate bread and wine into his body and bloud as he did himself Or dare the Mounsieur say that Christ could not Transubstantiate bread and wine into his own body and bloud and after Christ said in express terms this is my body dare he say it is not his body what thing else I pray is this but to contradict Christs words and give him the lie in his teeth for what else are It is and it is not but contradictories when they are said of the self same thing at the same time and after the same manner so that as any man may clearly see this good Mounsieur opposes here not only the Priests but also Christs power concerning the real presence of his body in the consecrated host and he gives no more vertue to Christs effective and creative word then he gives to the words of other ordinary men But let us hear this Lucifer like Goliah speak that dares oppose Christs plain words aâ—… they are generally understood by his whole Church If he can by true Philosophy I mean by a Philosophical conclusion deduced out of any Philosophical principle generally allowed of by all Christian Philosophers demonstrate against the Romish Doctors that Transubstantiation is a thing impossible and beyond Christs power then I confess he carries away the victory and prize for all men of understanding agree in this that implicancies and contradictions are impossible even to God himself because they quite destroy reason and sense and God is reason it self But if he be not able to perform this task and demonstrate that it is not in Gods power and might to Transubstantiate a thing which he nor any else will be ever able to do then how can he appear to the world and especially to all Christians but as a Lucifer-like heretick for opposing Christs omnipotent power and word I am no Romish doctor but one of their meanest disciples and yet I dare take up the â—…udgells in this just quarrel against great and famous de Rodon next unto holy writ as his Translator esteems him one of the smartest and best of his party that ever wrote yet and is extant against
with all other Elementary and mixt bodies As to the second all Philosophers agree in this that a thing may be in a place two manner of ways viz. circumscriptively and definitively corporal things circumscriptively and spiritual things as an Angel or mans soul definitively that is to say they are not in every place as God is but in some finite or limited place wherein they operate and yet they are not circumscribed by the place wherein they are because they are no bodies nor have any superfice nor also depend of their places in order to their conservation as corporal things do Besides these two manner of ways of being in a place which all Philosophers own the divines hold of a third way viz. to be Sacramentally in a place from whence we have from both divines Philosophers that a thing may be in a place 3 manner of ways viz. circumscriptively definitively sacramentally what is in a place circumscriptively is properly in its place because the superfice of the place touches surrounds the superfice of the body which it contains so the hollow superfice of the vessel touches and surrounds the water which is within the vessel What is in a place definitively or Sacramentally is not properly in any place because the superfice of the place and of the thing contained touch not one another immediatly as all proper places ought to touch immediatly all the things properly contained in them for an Angel and a soul have no superfices wherewith to touch the superfices of the place wherein they are contained for they are pure spirits and only corporal things have superfices however they are said to be in a place improperly because they are contained within some limits of bounds where they operate or else they would be in all places as God is like unto corporal things which are contained strictly within the immediat limits of their proper places yet with this distinction still that spiritual things never touch the superfice of their proper places and consequently are not circumscribed by them as corporal things touch and are circumscribed by their proper places All proper places are called by divines and Philosophers univocal or circumscriptive Places and all improper places they call Equivocal places such as are definitive and sacramental oneâ—… for properly and in rigour they are no places at all because the definition of a proper place agree not with them for want of a superficial manner of containing the things that are said to be within them This received doctrine of all divines and Philosophers presupposed I answer the Mounsieurs major with this distinction the body of Christ cannot come or be brought into the host circumscriptively as into its proper and univocal place I confess the major sacramentally as into its equivocal place I deny the major Therefore I say that Christs body is really in the host but not as in any proper place for to be in an equivocal place is as much in a manner as to say in no place at all and certain it is that an equivocal place is no more a proper place then an equivocal or painted man is a proper and reall man so that the substance of the bread and wine is converted into the body and bloud of Christ without any circumscriptive motion or bringing it circumscriptively from one proper place to another as our circumscriptive bodies move from one place to another but by vertue of the effective words of consecration and omnipotent power of God his substance succeeds the substance of the bread and wine in the consecrated host without any proper local motion for he is there by reason of his substance and substances are incapable of any proper motion and although his quantity be where his substance is by concomitance yet it is not there with its quantitative dimensions for these are hindred in the Sacrament as I sayd before the heat of the Babilonian fire or surnace was hindred supernaturally and being Christs body is in the host as we say by reason of its substance it is in it in one respect like as our souls are in our bodies that is to say totus in toto totus in qualibet parte all Christ in the whole host and all Christ in every point and particle of the host as all Philosophers say the whole soul is in the whole body and the whole soul in every part and point of the body yet the manner of Christs body being in the host differs from the manner of the souls being in the body in this viz. that the soul is in the body but as in one definitive or limited improper place but Christs body is in the Sacrament as in its improper place not definitively or limited to one host as the soul is to one body but Sacramentally that is to say in all places where the words of consecration are uttered upon the bread and wine and this Sacramental existence Christs body hath by reason of its hypostatical union to the divinity which is in all places and yet the Sacramental ubication or existence differs from the the divine general ubication in this that the Sacramental ubication is but where the words of consecration are uttered and the general divine ubication is in all places for without it the creatures would desist to be But here the Mounsieur may object that there is a great difference betwixt Christs body and an Angel or mans soul for an Angel and a soul are pure spirits and therefore be not capable of an univocal place but only of an equivocal one But Christs body is a true real body and therefore it can have but an univocal circumscriptive place To this I answer and confess that Christs body is a true real body no spirit yet I deny but that it may have an equivocal place in the host because it is now a glorified body and as it were spiritualized with spiritual qualities which redound into it from his glorified soul which spiritual qualities the Divines call dotes corporis gloriosi the dowries of a glorified body as are subtility impassibilitie Agility and clarity By reason of the all manner of subjection a glorified body hath to its soul in so far that it neither cloggs nor burthens her as our lumpish bodies do our souls here the body may move in an instant by the instantanean motion of its soul or of her minde and by reason of the Hypostatical union betwixt the divinity and soul of Christ and of his glorified body it may accompany them into ten million of equivocal places at once according to the Apostles saying 1. Cor. 15. It is sown a natural body it shall rise a spiritual body that is to say a real body endowed with spiritual qualities such as those of the soul are not with a spiritual entity or substance because the substance of a spirit and the substance of a body are two different entities essentially differing the one from the other so that if Christs body
consecrated and worshiped and then it is God And Arnobius in Book 6. Dedication and consecration makes them dwell in Images they refuse not to dwell in habitations of earth or rather being forced to go into them by the right of Dedication they are incorporated and joyued to the Images But might not all heathens have replyed to the Christians thus we find it just so in your Eucharist viz. that the signes are of the same matter with our common bread wine but change their destiny by consecration Behold it is kneaded and moulded and yet it is not God Behold it is baked in the Oven and yet it is not God Behold it is consecrated and adored and then it is God for your Christ doth not refuse to enter into these earthy matters or rather being forced to go into them by the right of consecration he is incorporated and joyned to the species of bread and wine Thirdly the heathens had both great and little Images and did believe that the deity which they worshiped was as well in the little as in the great ones Arnobius in Book 6. jears them for this saying that if their Gods had their great and little Images in which they dwelt they must needs be straightned for want of room in the little ones whereas in the great ones they might strech themselves out at their full length But might not the heathens have reproached the Christians of those times in the same manner if they had believed that Iesus Christ had been wholy contained as well in a little host as in a great one and as well in the least part of the host as in the greatest Lastly the heathens were reproached for worshiping wood and stone the work of mens hands things that cannot see hear smell taste breath speak or move things exposed to age rust corruption dust falling breaking burning c. to the injuries of worms mice and other beasts subject to the power of Enemies to be stolen lockt up c. as you may read in Arnobius Lactantius Minutius Felix and other ancient doctors of the Church But if those ancient doctors had believed what the Romanists now do might not the heathens have replyed thus And can you deny that the host which you worship is the work of mans bands that moulded it and gave it such a form as pleased him and then consecraâ—…â—… with certain words to make your Christ come into it whole and entire do not you adore your host which neither sees nor hears nor smells nor breaths nor walks nor speaks non moves Is not your host subject to age dust felling burning to worms to mice and to other beasts Is it not subject to be taken away stolen lockt up c. But if it be said that the accidents of the host are only subject to these inconveniencies and not Iesus Christ that is under them I answer that the heathens had said the same viz. that their Gods were not subject to these inconveniencies but the Images only in which they were for in Arnobius his 6 book they speak thus We believe not the copper gold and silver whereof the Images are made to be Gods and Deityes that of themselves deserve adoration but in these materials we adore those that sacred Dedication introduceth and causeth to dwell in the Images Answ. Certainly what you add Mounsieur viz. that the Primitive Church never adored the host nor believed that the body of Christ and his bloud were really and invisibly in the Sacrament is most false and you may easier prove that all the Romances that ever were made were true histories and the Moon is made of green cheese then either prove or maintain this assertion for besides that Christ himself in most plain and express terms said This is my body the practise of his Church from all ages has been to adore the host and believe the Sacrament as we do All Ecclesiastical histories all General Councils and all the holy fathers of the Primitive Church bare witness against Mr. de Rodon and contradict him in plain terms in this point S. Alexander 1. that glorious Pope and Martyr of Christ who lived in the year of our Saviour 121. is numbred by all the orthodox amongst the holy fathers of the Primitive Church this holy prelate passing his verdict upon the Eucharist says Nihil in sacrificiis majus esse potest quam corpus sanguis Christi In sacrifices there cannot be a greater thing then the body and bloud of Christ which is as much as to say that in the Eucharist are sacrificed the body and bloud of Christ which is the greatest of all sacrifices Cyrillus the most worthy Bishop of Alexandria one also of the holy fathers of the Primitive Church speaking in the name of the whole Council of Ephesus declareth the verity of the Eucharist in these terms Incruentam celebramus in Ecclesiasticis sacrificiis servitutem sanctificamur participes corporis pretiosi sanguinis Christi non ut communem carnem percipientes sed vere vivificatricem ipsius verbi propriam factam We celebrate an incruent service in our Ecclesiastical sacrifices and are sanctified being made partakers of the body and most precious bloud of Christ not receiving it as common flesh but as the true life-giving and proper-made flesh of the word To these S. Hillary not Iess renowned for learning and sanctity and also of the Primitive Church subscribes in his 8. Book de Trinit with these words de veritate carnis sanguinis non relictus est ambigendi locus nunc enim ipsius Domini professione fide nostra verè caro est verè sanguis est Concerning the verity of flesh and bloud there is no doubt left for now both by the consession of our Lord himself and by our own faith it is truely flesh and truly bloud what could be said more plainly S. Damascen also adds his suffrage to these holy fathers above mentioned lib. 4. de fid orthod c. 14. Non est figura quoth he panis vinnm corporis sanguinis Christi absit enim hâ—…c sed est ipsum corpus Domini deificatum ipso domino dicente hoc est meum non figura corporis sed corpus non figura sanguinis sed sanguis Bread and wine are not the figure of the body and bloud of Christ God forbid but they are the very body and bloud of our Lord Deified our Lord himself averring this is my not figure of body but body not figure of Bloud but Bloud Oh what a frind and favorit was Damascen of de Rodon and of his Presbyterian opinion and faction great S. Aug. testimony is also for us lib. sent Pros. Caro saies he ejus est quam forma panis opertam accipimus sanguis ejus quem sub vini specie sapore potamus It is his flesh we take covered under the veyle of Bread and it is his bloud we drink in the shape and taste of wine S.
do them any harm nor his arrows able to transfix them But now I hope he will come better provided with his new ones against Diana Behold he comes Rodon 2. The first argument is drawn from this viz. that in the Institution and first celebration of the Eucharist Iesus Christ did not sacrifice nor offer his body and bloud to his father as appears by what is mentioned in the three Evangelists and the Apostle S. Paul in which there is not the least footstep to be seen of a sacrifice or oblation of Christs body and bloud This Bellarmin confesseth in Book 1. of the Mass chap 27. in these words the oblation which is made after Consecration belongs to the entireness of the Sacrament but is not of its essence which I prove because neither our Iod nor his Apostles did make this oblation at the first as we have demonstrated out of Gregory The Iesuit Salmeron in Tom. 13. of his Commentaries on the Epistles of S. Paul makes a Catalogue of unritten Traditions in which he puts the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy The worshiping of Images the Mass the manner of sacrificing and the Tradition that Iesus Christ did offer a sacrifice in the Bread and wine Card. Baronius in his Annalls on the year 53. freely confesseth that the sacrifice of the Eucharist is an unwritten Trâ—…dition A strange thing that the Mass which is the foundation of the Romish Church for the doctors require nothing of the people but that they should go to Mass cannot be found to have been instituted or commanded by Iesus Christ. And the truth is if Iesus Christ in the celebration of the Eucharist had offored unto God his father a sacrifice of his body and bloud propitiatory for the sins of the living and dead then there had been no need that he should have been sacrificed again on the Cross because having already expiated our sins in the sacrifice of the Eucharist there was no need he should expiate them again on the Cross. To this I add that S. Paul Eph. 4. 11. mentions the offices which Iesus Christ left in his Church when he ascended into heaven in these words he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and teachers but makes no mention at all of the Sacrificers of Christs body and bloud nor in 1. Tim. nor in the Epictle to Titus when he describes the duty of Bishops Presbyters and deacons without making the least mention of this sacrificing of Christs body and bloud Answ. But I pray good Mr. de Rodon wherefore do you not produce some Passage out of the three Evangelists or S. Paul to prove your assertion for according to all Philosophers and I believe you esteem not your self amongst the meanest of them arguments that only consist of negatives do never conclude or prove any thing you say it appears by what is mentioned by the three Evangelists and S. Paul that Christ at the Institution of the Eucharist did not sacrifice or offer his body and bloud to his father you tell us not in which of the Evangelists or wherein S. Paul and we finde no such thing in them But we finde these express words in S. Luke 22. Chap. and taking bread he gave thanks and broke and gave to them saying this is my body which is given for you If these last words viz. which is given for you signifie not to be offered or sacrificed for you I pray tell us what else do they signifie for the Evangelist said before that the bread was given them and immediatly after in the same sentence he adds which was given for you Sure if these last words signifie not which was offered or sacrificed for you they must needs be nonsensical and a vain Battalogical repetition of the same words for the sense would be this and gave to them his body which is given for them Therefore these words which is given for them is as much as to say which is offered or sacrificed for them And yet the Mounsieur is not ashamed to say that there is not the least foot-step of a sacrifice to be seen in what was mentioned by any of the three Evangelists But perhaps S. Luke was not of the three he meant whether he was or no it is certain that in this very Passage he left us a true and plain track of Christs unbloudy sacrifice But I cannot conceive nor understand how Mr. de Rodon or his Translatour too is able to save him from the infamous brand of heresy for obstinately denying what so many general Councils holy fathers do unanimously assert an Heretick as he is distingushed from a Turk Jew or Pagan is thus described viz one that professes to believe in Christ and yet dissents in opinion from the rest of the orthodox obstinately But now let us see how the Mounsieur agrees with the whole Church as to this point first with the great and most eminent doctor S. Aug who in his 20th Book de civit Dei speaking of Christ who saith thus per hoc sacerdos est ipse offerens oblatio cujus rei Sacramentum quotidianum esse voluit Ecclesiae sacrificium cum ipsius corporis ipse caput ipsius capitis ipsa sit corpus tam ipsa per ipsum quam ipse per ipsam suetus offerri By this meaning the Eucharist he himself is both the Priest offering and the oblation the signe or Sacrament whereof he would have the dayly sacrifice of the Church to be for whereas he is the head of his Mystical body and she is the body of her Mystical head she was as well wont to be offered by him as he by her and again lib. 17. de civit c. 20. the table which the Priests of the new-Testament doth exhibit is of his body and bloud for that is the sacrifice which succeeded all those sacrifices that were offered in shadow of that to come for the which also we acknowledg that voice of the same Mediatour in the Psalm But a body thou hast fitted to me because instead of all these sacrifices and oblations his body is offered and is ministred to the partakers or receivers With S. Cyprian more ancient then the former and in learning inferiour to none who in his 2. Epistle to Pope Cornelius hath these words Sacerdotes qui quotidie Sacrificia dei celebramus hostias Deo victimas praeparemus We priests who dayly celebrate the sacrifices of God let us prepare hosts and victimes for him with S. Ambrose in cap. 10. hebreor Quid ergo nos c. What we then do not we offer every day we offer surely but this sacrifice is an exemplar of that for we offer allwaies the selfsame and not now one lamb to morrow another but alwaies the self-same thing therefore it is one Sacrifice otherwise by this reason because it is offered in many places there should be many Christs not so but it is one Christ in every place here whole and there
or sense should join in opinion with Mr. de Rodon against the Mass which has the Tradition and practise of the whole Catholick Church from the Apostles time unto ours of its side and the Mounsieur not a tittle out of Scripture Council or holy father that makes for him but his silly negative no mention no footstep And as the Mounsieur is impudent and obstinate in opposing the universal Church so is he also shamless in believing of her for he says that her doctours require nothing of the people but that they should go to Mass which is an arrant lye for although it be true that our holy Mother the Church commands all her children if they have no lawful impediment viz. of sickness or some other very urgent affayrs of consequence to the contrary to be personally present and assist at the oblation of this divine sacrifice on sundays and holy-days of obligation for to hear Mass on workingdays is only of counsel not of precept or command yet she never taught them that by only hearing Mass they should be saved But she rather teaches them the contrary viz. that if they hear never so many Masses while they are in mortal sin they shall reap no benefit by them in order as to any the least jott of merit or reward unless they believe as the Church believes go to confession and do penance for their sinns and firmly resolve to keep Gods commandments and the commandments of his Church for the future and finally do some satisfactory works for the transgressions of their ill life past And far from truth is it also what de Rodon saith viz. that if Jesus Christ in the celebration of the Eucharist hath offered unto God his father a sacrifice of his body and bloud propitiatory for the sins of the living and dead then there had been no need that he should be again sacrificed on the Cross farr I say is that from truth Because as all the sacrifices of the old Law were but types and derived all their force and vertue from Christs bloody sacrifice upon the Cross so also this incruent or unbloudy sacrifice hath its reference or relation to the said bloudy sacrifice and the difference between the old sacrifices and this our sacrifice of the new Law is this that they were but mediate types and meer shadows of the bloudy sacrifice But our sacrifice is not only an immediate type but also a true Idaea and dayly express real commemoration of it Nay as all the holy fathers do generally accord it is the very self same sacrifice as that of the Cross was though not offered in the same manner for that was bloudy and this is unbloudy and the reason is because Christ as I said before having a desire to be amongst the children of men and promising his Church to be with her alwaise unto the consummation of the world since he is to be in heaven in his humane and glorious shape until the time of the restitution of all things he found out in the infinite abyss of his wisdom this other admirable and ineffable way of being really and personally present with his Church militant in the most blessed Sacrament for to encourage seed strengthen her wirh the manifold graces that flow from his real presence in her into the souls of his elect servants To his farther addition out of S. Paul Eph. 4. 11. 1 Tim. being he inferrs all from negatives he can never conclude However since the Apostle makes mention unto Tymothy of Presbyters that is to say Priests and since betwixt Priest and sacrifice there is a correlation it follows that the Apostle at least virtually made mention of sacrificers Rodon 3. The second argument is drawn from the definition of a sacrifice as it is given us by our adversaries Card. Bellarmine in Book 1. of the Mass. chap. 2. defines it thus sacrifice is an external oblation made to God alone whereby in acknowledgment of humane infirmity and the divine Majesty the lawful Minister consecrates by a mistical ceremony destroys something that is sensible permanent from those last words viz. that the lawful Minister destroys something that is sensible I form 2. arguments which destroy the sacrifice of the Mass. The first is this In every sacrifice the thing sacrificed must fall under our senses for our adversaries say it is a sensible thing but the body and bloud of Christ which are pretended to be sacrificed in the mass under the accidents of the bread and wine do not fall under our senses as we finde by experience therefore the body and bloud of Christ which are pretended to be under the accidents of the bread and wine are not the thing Sacrificed Answ. From these last words viz. that the lawful minister destroys something that is sensible drawn out of Bellarmines definition of a sacrifice Mr. de Rodon forms two arguments like two huge milstones that will crush and destroy the sacrifice of the Mass consequently poor Dianaâ—…s head too To his first crusher which begins thus In every sacrifice the thing sacrificed must fall under our senses I grant its major and its minor which is this But the body and bloud of Christ which are pretended to be sacrificed in the Mass under the accidents of bread and wine do not fall under our senses as we finde by experience I distinguish thus but the body and bloud of Christ c. do not fall under our senses in their connatural and proper shape I confess the minor do not fall under our senses in a sacramental shape or in the form and shape of bread and wine which by experience we know falls under our senses I deny the minor and consequence also for we never say that Christ is in the Sacrament in his proper humane shape but only sacramentally that 's to say in the shape of bread and wine and yet we hold that he is really and personally there because he himself said so in most express terms These sacramental species then being obvious to our senses and Christ being really in them they being destroyed although Christs body according to its natural and human shape be not destroyed for he is not reduplicatively so in the Sacrament but only specificatively his sacramental presence is also destroyed in them and consequently we say that by destroying the sacramental species which are palpably obvious to our senses a true and proper sacrifice though an unbloudy one is offered to God the father in remembrance of Christs once-bloudy sacrifice upon the Cross Rodon 4. Against this answer Mr. de Rodon hath these two replies The first is that Christs body is not visible by the species of bread because as his adversaries say that hides it from us and hinders us from seeing it and he says moreover that although a substance may be said to be visible and cognizible by its accidents yet it is never so by the accidents of another substance and consequently he infers
appear thus Rodon In every true sacrifice the thing sacrificed must be utterly destroyed that is it must be so changed that it must cease to be what it was before as Bellarmine saith in express terms in the place above-cited But in the pretended sacrifice of the Mass Christs body and bloud are not destroyed for Jesus Christ dieth no more Rom. 6. Therefore in the pretended sacrifice of the Mass the body and bloud of Christ are not the thing sacrificed Answ. In every sacrifice the thing sacrificed must be destroyed that is it must be so changed that it must cease to be what it was bofore If by ceasing to be what it was before he intends ceasing to be in the manner as it was before I confess the major If by ceasing to be c. he intends ceasing to be the entitie or same thing it was before I deny the major And Bellarmins words in the place alledged do express no more for these be his words in the same place And destroies something that is sensible and permanent for by the word something a mode or manner may be as well understood as an entitie or nature and so we say it is in the Sacrament we say that the sensible accidents of bread and wine with the substantial sacramental Presence of Christs body and bloud which is the only thing produced by the words of consecration are destroyed But we say not that the entitie of Christs body and bloud which is rather adduced then produced in the Sacrament or that his body and bloud in their proper shape are destroyed in the Sacrament because the words of consecration doth not put them so into it And so both Mr. de Rodons huge Milstones with all their following absurdities are quite shattered and split Now then to his third Principal Argument drawn from the Apostles words Hebr. 9 which is this Rodon Hebr. 9. the Apostle saies Allmost all things are by the law purged with bloud and without shedding of bloud is no remission it was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices then these from which words I form this argument There is no propitiation or remission of sinns without shedding of bloud as the Apostle saith But in the Mass there is no shedding of bloud for it is called an unbloudy sacrifice Therefore in the Mass there is no propitiation or remission of sins and consequently no propitiatory sacrifice This argument may be thus confirmed under the old Testament there was no propitiation or purification without shedding of bloud and the types of heavenly things were so purified as the Apostle saith Heb. 9. Therefore under the new Testament also there can be no propitiation or purification without shedding hf bloud and heavenly things being represented by the legal Types must be purified by a more excellent sacrifice viz. by the shedding of Christs bloud And although the Apostle useth the word sacrifices in the plural number yet we must understand the only sacrifice of Christ on the Cross because when one thing is opposed to many it is often expressed in the plural number as whem Baptism which is but one is called Baptismes Heb. 6. 2. But the only sacrifice of the Cross of Christ in the text above-cited Heb. 9. 23. is opposed to the old sacrifices which were types and figures of the sacrifice of the Cross. Answ. I grant that unless Christ had shed his bloud for us there had been no propitation or remission of sins and consequently that there was no expiation or remission of sinns in any types or sacrifices of the old law but only in relation and reference to Christs bloudy sacrifice upon the Cross which is all the Apostle meant in the forementioned Passage But all this concerns not the unbloudy sacrifice of the Mass at all which is not a bare type or shadow of Christs bloudy sacrifice as all the sacrifices of the old Law were and no more for the sacrifice of the Mass is not only an immediate type of that of the Cross but also a proper Idea memorial nay as the holy fathers say the self-same sacrifice of the Cross reiterated after another manner viz. unbloudily because it is not convenient that Christs body being now glorious and impassible should suffer again and by reason it is a perpetual memorial or repetition of the bloudy sacrifice it hath a reference or relation to it from whence followeth evidently that because it is the self-same sacrifice essentially with that of the Cross and it hath an immediate relation to it and remembrance of it It followeth I say evidently that it is propitiatory for the living and the dead as that of the Cross is for if it be the same body and bloud that is now offered and was offered upon the Cross as Christ himself says t is his body and the fathers of the Church say it is the same sacrifice with that of the Cross it imports not at all as to the essence of the sacrifice whether it be offered bloudily or unbloudily because to be bloudy or unbloudy is not essential to a sacrifice there being some sacrifices offered in the old Law whereof some were bloudy and other strict sacrifices also offered which had no bloud in them Therefore to make the Mass a proper and strict sacrifice it is sufficient that in the Mass there be sensible symbols viz. the accidents of bread and wine containing Christs body and bloud really personally and â—…bstantially present and that at the destruction of these symbols or signes Christs body ceaseth to be substantially and personally present there any more though he ceaseth not because of the destruction of the species to be absolutely and in his humane shape in heaven Finally I say that God the father knows and accepts of the sacrifice of his sons body offered unto him by us for our sinns as our Mediatour whether the said body be offered to him bloudily or uubloudily Rodon The Apostle Heb. 10. 16. saith this is the Covenant which I will make with them after these days saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their harts and in their minds will I write them and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more Now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin whence I form this argument where there is remission of sins there is no need of an oblation or propitiatory sacrifice for sin as the Apostle faith But in the Christian Church by vertue of the new Testament or new Covenant confirmed by the bloud of Christ there is remission of sins Heb. 10. 16. 17. Therefore in the Christian Church now adays there is no need of an obligation or propitiatory sacrifice and consequently no need of the sacrifice of the Mass. Answ. Mr. de Rodon the better to draw his argument out of Scripture salsifies the text in two places for where the text says This is
Transubstantiation to be S. Ambrose seconds S. Augustines tenet concerning this What quoth he we then do not we offer every day we offer surely but this sacrifice is an exemplar of that for we offer always the self-same and not now one lamb and to morrow another but always the self-same thing he calls it a sacrifice he says 't is offered every day therefore he meant not the bloudy sacrifice for that was offered but once and he says We offer always the self-same thing therefore it must be the self-same host or sacrifice and since it was never offered bloudily but once it follows evidently that all the other dayly oblations of the same host meant by the holy doctor are the unbloudy sacrifice of the Mass. Primasius S. Augustins Scholar in the place I cited him before clears this business and gives solid reasons withall What says he shall we say then do not our Priests daily offer sacrifice they offer surely because we sin daily and daily have need to be cleansed and because he cannot die he hath given us the sacrament of his body and bloud that as his Passion was the Redemption and absolution of the world so also this â—…blation may be a Redemption and clensing to all that offer it in truth and verity Do not you see Mounsieur how contradictory these words of this holy father one of great S. Augustins chief disciples are to your conclusion Do not you see what solid reasons he gives for his saying viz. that because we sin daily and have need to be daily cleansed it was necessary the self-same sacrifice should be reiterated not bloudily and he gives a reason why viz. because he cannot die his body being now a glorified body Then concluding solidly his discourse he says he hath given us the Sacrament of his body and bloud that as his Passion c. where he gives solid reasons wherefore besides the bloudy sacrifice it was convenient and necessary this unbloudy sacrifice should be instituted also viz. because although the bloudy and the unbloudy sacrifice be but the self-same yet as to their effect there is some difference for the bloudy sacrifice is for all men in general but the unbloudy for those in particular who offer it Lastly do not you see Mounsieur that by these last words of this cited Passage viz. that as his Passion was the Redemption and absolution of the world So also this oblation may be a Redemption and cleansing to all that offer it in truth and verity do not you see I say how by these words this holy father makes a clear distinction between the bloudy sacrifice of Christs Passion and the unbloudy sacrifice of the Mass which the Priest offers I omit S. Chrisostom Theophilact Oecumenius Haymo Paschasius Remigius and many more of the ancient holy fathers whose authorities as to this point are most clear and manifest because to repeat the same thing over and over again is both irksom and prolix Therefore I will come to his fifth argument which is this Rodon The fifth argument is drawn from the words of the Apostle Heb. 9. Jesus Christ offereth not himself often as the high Priest entreth into the holy place every year with the bloud of others for then must he often have suffered from the foundation of the world but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself And as it is appointed to men once to die but after this the Judgement so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation This is confirmed by the words of the same Apostle Heb. 10. The Law being a shadow of good things to come and not the very Image of the things can never with the sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the commers thereunto perfect for then would they not have ceased to be offered because the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins But in those a remembrance is made again of sins every year for it is not possible that the bloud of Bulls and of Goats should take away sins c. And every high Priest standeth dayly ministring and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins but this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sat down on the right hand of God for by one offering he hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified Which iâ—… conformable to what he had said a little before that We are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all from all which I form these arguments Answ. Before the Mounsieurs arguments rush upon us too faâ—…t for clarities sake I will first expound these passages in our Catholick sense and after will answer his arments in order By these words of the Apostle in his first Passage viz. Iesus Christ offereth not himself often as the high Priestss c. we understand them thus that he did not offer himself often bloudily or that he did not offer a bloudy sacrifice yearly as the high Priests of the old Law used to do and so we understand all the rest of the words of the same Passage in the same sense viz. of a bloudy sacrifice for it is unnecessary and also impossible that Christ should suffer again his body being now glorious and impassible But although this Passage denotates a difference betwixt Christs bloudy sacrifice and the sacrifices of the old Law in as much as Christs bloudy sacrifice was but for once and their bloudy sacrifices were yearly yet his bloudy sacrifice hath no opposition to the sacrifice of the Mass but only accidentally in this viz. that the one is a bloudy sacrifice and the other an unbloudy one Notwithstanding which accidental difference the sacrifice remains essentially one and the self-same and to reiterate the same thing though never so often causeth no opposition in the thing to it self as any body of the meanest understanding may easily see for nothing can be essentially opposite to it self as the very light of nature shews us The first words of the second Passage out of Heb. 10. do more confirm our doctrine then the Mounsieurs for these words The Law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very Image of the thing c. shews the great difference that is between the sacrifice of the Mass and the sacrifice of the old Law for the old sacrifices were but meer speculative shadows of Christs bloudy sacrifice and consequently of themselves were of no value or force to sanctifie people or to remit sins whereas according to our doctrine the sacrifice of the Mass is not a meer shadow but a perfect immediate Idea or Image and dayly actual remembrance of Christs bloudy Passion Nay the self-same in essence with the bloudy sacrifice as all the doctors of the Church
Mounsieur is utterly false as to all its parts and his bare word for it without any proof is no imaginary but real obstinate impudence for he contradicts all the General Councils holy fathers and universal Church of God yet he offers to prove it thus Rodon First because it is said Heb. 9. that without sheding of bloud there is no remission of sins Therefore in the unbloudy sacrifice of the Mass there can be no remission of sins and consequently it cannot be a propitiatory sacrifice for sin Answ. To this silly consequence I answer again and again and say that what the holy fathers unanimously consented unto and practised dayly as concerning an unbloudy Propitiatory sacrifice is ten thousand times of more weight and a better warrant for our opinion then de Rodon and all his Phanatick rabbles bare word is to destroy or weaken it Therefore I confess with the Apostle Heb. the 9. that without sheding of bloud there is no remission of sins Because if there had been no primitive bloudy sacrifice this unbloudy sacrifice had not been instituted for it was instituted as a memorial or remembrance of the bloudy one from whence follows not at all that the same host which was once offered bloudily may not be offered again unbloudily for our sins and consequently that the sacrifice of the Mass cannot be a propitiatory sacrifice for sin Rodon Secondly because Iesus Christ cannot be offered without suffering for the Apostle saith Heb. 6. Jesus Christ offereth not himself often otherwise he should often have suffered But the sacrifice of Iesus Christ with suffering is a bloudy Sacrifice therefore there is no unbloudy Sâ—…crifice Answ. That Christ can be offered without suffering and that a rigorous Sacrifice may be without death bloud or suffering is sufficiently maintained before as also that these words of the apostle must be understood of a bloudy sacrifice which we confess is not to be reiterated but not of an unbloudy one we said before Therefore these consequences drawn out of the Apostle are but frivolous repetitions of his old shattred stuff Rodon Thirdly because the bloudy sacrifice of the Crosse being of an infinite value hath purchased an eternal redemption Heb. 9. and hath taken away all sins past present and to come whence it followeth that there is no other Sacrifice either bloudy or unbloudy that can purchase the pardon of our sins the Sacrifice of the Crosse having sufficiently done it Let the Mounsieur stir the râ—…bbish never so often and turn it over and over and let him turn and search the Apostle to the Hebrews and look narrowly into all his other works never so often I am sure he will never be able to pick one golden or silver consequence nay not one worth a straw to serve his turn against us for we grant that there is no other sacrifice bloudy or unbloudy essentially distinct from the bloudy sacrifice of the Cross that can purchase the pardon of our sins But we deny that the sacrifice of the Mass is essentially distinct from that of the Cross or that the sacrifice of the Mass being the self-same with that of the Cross cannot purchase the pardon of our sins and I pray Mounsieur what force hath your consequence out of the Apostle against this answer no more certainty as any man may see then a broken straw hath Rodon Fourthly Because the justice of God requires that sins shall be expiated by the punishment that is due to them and this is so true that the wrath of God could not be appeased but by the bloudy and ignominious death of the Cross Therefore the Iustice of God must have changed its nature if sins can be expiated in the Mass without pain or suffering Answ. I grant that Gods wrath for our sins was appeased by the bloudy and ignominious death of Christ upon the Cross and that the satisfaction was according to rigorous Justice But I deny that the nature of Gods Justice must have changed if sins can be expiated in the Masse without pain or suffering because the Masse as it is a sacrifice derives all its force vertue and vigour from the Primitive bloudy sacrifice of the Crosse and being both are of one essence and that there is no more need of a bloudy satisfaction for sin it followeth that the repetition or reiteration of the same sacrifice now offered unbloudily for there is no more need of a bloudy sacrifice has the same force and efficacy to expiate sin now as it had when it was offered upon the cross the person offered being the self-same and of the same value and worth And this is true that the Mounsieurs consequence is very false because Christ having satisfied once bloudily and his body being now glorious and impatible as it is not convenient he should suffer again having satisfied sufficiently already for all sins in general so is it convenient his bloudy passion should be rememorated unbloudily and applyed for the sins of the faithful in particular both because Christ left orders with his Church in express terms it should be done so when he said as often as you do this do it in remembrance of me as also for holy Primasius his reasons viz. because we sin dayly Now then to his third Reply Rodon 20. Thirdly to the distinction of Primitive sacrifice which was offered on the Cross and representative commemorative and applicative which is dayly offered in the Mass I reply first that what the Council of Trent saith in sess 22. viz. that in the Eucharist there is a sacrifice representative commemorative and applicative of that of the Mass may bear a good sense viz. that there is in it a representation commemoration and application of the sacrifice of the Cross viz. a representation because the bread broken represents the body broken and the wine powred into the cup represents the bloud of Christ shed for the remission of sins a commemoration because all that is done in it is done in remembrance of Iesus Chaist and his death according to his own command in these words do this in remembrance of me and according to what S. Paul saith 1. Cor. 11. As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come and an application because the merit of the sacrifice of the Cross is applyed to us not only by the word but also by the Sacraments as we shall shew hereafter But our adversaries are not content with this for they will have it that in the celebration of the Eucharist there is offered a crue and proper sacrifice propitiatory for the sins of the living and dead which hath been already refuted at large Answ. That you have done indeed as Luther refuted king Henry the eighth against the sayings of fathers of men of Angels of devils c. But I think any impartial reader may easily see and judge that I have fully and pathetically answ ered all your refutations and shewed
and a Metaphor for God being a spirit hath neither right hand nor left and all interpreters expound this sitting on Gods right hand metaphorically viz. for that Lordship both of heaven and earth which he hath received from God his father as Earthly Princes make their Lieutenants whom they appoint to govern in their name to sit on the right side of them Again when it is said S. Math. 16. upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and I will give thee the keyes of the kingdome of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt binde on earth shall be bound in heaven c. It is manifest thâ—…t these are figures and Metaphors as Bellarmine confesseth in Book 1. of the Bishop of Rome chap. 10. and yet it is chiefly by this Passage that they endeavour to prove the Popes authority Answ. If this be our weapon or objection I pray Mounsieur give us leave to handle and order it our selves and then the standers by or arbiters may judge whether we thrust or push home with it or no for as you handle it it is to blunt too pearce through Therefore instead of saying when the establishing of Articles of faith the Institution of Sacraments c. men speake plainly and properly and not obscurely or figuratively give us leave to say men ought as well as they can and as farr as the subject they treat of bears it to speak plainly and properly and not obscurely or figuratively and then perhaps our weapon may do some execution As for example at the Institution of this Sacrament Christ first took bread in his hand and said plainly without any figure this is my body and left it as a Testament with us so wee take it and believe it to be Afterwards he took wine in a cup saying This is the Chalice of my bloud Certainly if the consectated bread be his real body the consecrated wine must needs be his real bloud because as we suppose the words of consecration were uttered upon both in the same sense and meaning Notwithstanding the words spoken of the bread were spoken plainly and not figuratively but the words spoken of the wine were figurative why because he took not the wine immediatly in his hand as he took the bread but he took it in a cup or chalice and therefore to express the Testament of the bloud it was necessary he should speak figuratively and yet he exprest himself as plainly as could be But in the Testament of his body where there was no need of a Metonynâ—…e or figure he exprest himself plainly and down right from whence follows that Sacraments Testaments and covenants ought to be made as plainly clearly and in as proper terms as their subjects will permit them to be exprest Sometimes also a thing is better exprest when one speaks figuratively then by the proper literal Phrase for example when I say such a man is a Lyon a Tygar or a Nero. Such an expression is as plain and yet better and more energical to shew and express strength cruelty or tyrannie then if one should say such a man is mighty strong very cruel and tyrannical So was oâ—…r Saviours expression of S. Peter Math. 16. where he calls him a rock because the word rock is more significative and energical to shew the stability and firmness of Peter and his successours spiritual power then if he had exprest himself in plain terms thou art the head or chief Ruler of my Church And yet I eonfess that Rock there has but a figurative sense Therefore I say that when we have not a proper word to expresse a thing or when we cannot expresse it so well with its proper term as we can with a figure then it is lawful in Sacraments Testaments and covenants to use figurative expressions instead of plain and litteral ones But in our present question or dispute concerning the Eucharist especially concerning the consecration of the Bread there is no need of any figure either for to signify the thing consecrated or to express it with more energy Therefore being 't is left us for a Testament of the new Law we ought to take the words in their plain and litteral meaning without having recourse to any needless figurative glossation or sense Therefore although as Mr. de Rodon handles this weapon or objection it be false that Articles of faith Testaments and covenants are always exprest in proper terms in holy scripture which word Always he has in his answer though he puts it not in the objection yet as I handle it that is thus when the establishing of Articles of faith the Institution of Sacraments c. Men ought as well as they can and as farr as the subject they treat of â—…ears it and when there is no necessity to the contrary in making Testaments covenaâ—…ts or Articles of faith to speak plainly and properly and not obscurely or figuratively In this sense I deny our major Proposition to be always or ever â—…lse And being the minor is evident clear aâ—…d uncontroâ—… led by Mr. de Rodon with my good leave I let the consequence follow Rodon 4. Secondly I answer that the holy scripture commonly speaks of Sacraments in figurative terms Thus Circumcision is called Gods Covenant Gen. 17. in these words This is my Covenant every male shall be circumcised that is this is the signe of the Covenâ—…nt as appears by the following verse ye â—…hall circumcise the fleâ—… of your fore-skin and it shall be a token of the covenant between me and you So the Paschal lamb is called the Lords Passover Exod. 12. because the bloud of this lamb sprinkled on the door-posts was given as a signe of the Angels favorable passing over the houses of the Israelites â—…s appears by vers 13. of the same chapter So Baptism is called the washing of Regeneration because it is the Sacrament of it In a word the Eucharistical cup is called the New Testament because it is the signe seal and Sacrament of it Answ. Really Mounsieur these wily sophistical excuses or answers will not serve your turn for we grant that Circumcision the Passover and all the rest of the Sacraments of the old Law were but meer speculative signes and tokens of what they signified and that they had no practical or operative vertue in them of themselves to sanctify or give grace to those that received them and God gave grace to the receivers of the old Sacraments only by compact viz. he promised Grace to such as received those Sacraments or signes he then gave them for their distinguishment from the unsaithfull not that those signes or Sacraments contained actually or practically any grace in themselves or that they were immediate instrumental causes of Grace as the Sacraments of the new Law are for the former Sacraments were as divines call them but vasa vacua empty vessels and the new ones are vasa plaena full vessels dipt in his Passion and
represents nothing of that which is seen in the Eucharist Besides the types and Sacraments of the old Testament were instituted that the faithful of those times might come to the knowledge of the things typified and signified for the salvation of their souls But the faithful under the old Testament never came to the knowledge of the Eucharist by the Paschal lamb and though they had come to the knowledge of it yet they had had no benefit thereby In a word seeing the Passeover and the Eacharist are types Images and signes of Iesus Christ 't is very impertinent to say that the Passeover is the type of the Eucharist because a type is not properly the type of another type but only of the thing typified as the Image of Caesar is not the Image of another Image of Caesar but only of Caesar himself Answ. Mr. de Rodon breaks this thrust or objection three manner of ways all which I will answer in order to his first wherein he says that the thing typified by the Paschal lamb is Jesus Christ and not the Sacrament of the Eucharist as S. Paul shews clearly 1. Cor. 5. when he calls Jesus Christ our Passeover in these words Christ our Passeover was crucified for us I answer that this Passage of scripture shews not clearly that the Paschal lamb is not also a type of the Eucharist Nay I say that this text makes rather for us for whereas all the holy fathers and doctors of the Church with all the general Councils do unanimously hold that the Sacrament of the Eucharist offered is nothing else but Christ immolated unbloudily upon the Altar in remembrance of his once bloudy Passion If the same Christ we say then the same thing typified and the only difference is in the immolation or offering viz. that the primary oblation of him was bloudy the secondary incruent or unbloudy all which we grant and for that reason do averr and maintain that the Paschal lamb was a type not only of Christ crucified but also of Christ in the Eucharist And we leave it to any Prudent and impartial Reader to consider and judge whose authority and opinion is surer to be imbraced and followed in this debate Iohn Calvins Mr. de Rodons and a handful of new Phanatick opiniatours or the General Councils of all ages that ever treated of this subject all the holy fathers and the universal Christian Church But replyeth Mr. de Rodon such a lamb represents nothing of that which is seen in the Eucharist I answer that it represents that which is believed to be in it which is a surer and better sight or knowledge then what we see or know with our corporal eyes which may be deceived by the illusions of the devil whereas our understanding supported by the light of saith cannot be because it relyes upon the testimony of Gods word which testimony and word we have expressely in the 6th of S. Iohn of our side But quoth he again besides the types and Sacraments of the old Testament were instituted that the faithful of those times might come to the knowledge of the things typified and signified for the salvation of their souls But the faithful under the old Testament never came to the knowledge of the Eucharist by the Paschal lamb and though they had come to the knowledge of it yet they had not benefit thereby I confess that the types and Sacraments of the old Law were instituted for the reason you alledge and I distinguish your minor thus But they never came to an explicite sormal knowledge of the Eucharist I confess but they never came to an implicite vertual knowledge of the Eucharist I deny and deny also that they had not the vertual benefit of it for the Eucharist and its immolation being the self same thing with Christ and his immolation upon the Cross although this being the primary immolation as is said before and including virtually the secundary which is that of the Altar yet because the very same thing is still offered it followeth that this secondary immolation which is the Eucharist was typified also vertually and implicitly by the Paschal lamb and that those of the old Law reapt benefit by it as they did explicitly by that of the Cross. In a word seeing the Passeover and the Eucharist are not Types alike but the one mediate and the other immediate the one but a bare type and the other both type and the thing typified it is not at all impertinent that the Passeover should be the type of the Eucharist Neither is the Parity of Caesar with his own Image to any purpose for Caesar and his Image are not the same thing as Christ is the self-same thing with the Eucharist There M. de Rodon ought to hold â—…is impertinent tongue or speak better to the purpose But he that is full of impertinencies and hath nothing else in him must of necessity burst out with some of them or otherwise he would become quite dumb Rodon 10. Secondly I answer that the excellency of one Sacrament above another must be drawn from its form and efficacy and not from its matter because it is form that chiefly gives being to things composed of matter and form But the form of Sacraments depends on the words of Institution because being signes of divine Institution their form can only depend upon the will of God who chooseth certain things to signifie other things and this will of God cannot he known but by revelation which is the word so that it is properly said that the word joyned with the element makes the Sacrament therefore although the Sacrament of the Passeover be more excellent then the Eucharist in respect of its matter because the Paschal lamb and its bloud are more excellent then the bread and the wine of the Eucharist and that the lamb and its bloud have a greater Analogy with Iesus Christ his bloud shed on the cros then the bread and wine of the Eucharist have yet the Sacrament of the Eucharist is much more excellent then that of the Passeover in respect of its form which depends on the words of Institution because that at the institution of the Sacrament of the Passeover God spake not the word of the principal end for which he did institute it viz. to be the type of Iesus Christ and his death But at the institution of the Sacrament of the Eucharist Christ declared in expresse terms that he did institute the eating of the bread broken and the drinking of the wine poured into the Cup to be commemorative signes of Christ himself and his death The Sacrament of the Eucharist is yet more excellent then that of the Passeover in respect of its efficacy which depends on two things viz. on the form which being more manifest in the Eucharist doth operate with more efficacy and also because it represents a thing past viz. the death of Christ But the knowledge of things past is more clear and perfect then the
knowledge of things to come and we are more toucht with the memory of things past when some symbol brings them to our thoughts then when we consider things to come through clowds and shaddows To this I add that the bread and wine of the Eucharist have a greater Analogie with Iesus Christ then the Paschal lamb had in one respect viz. in regard of the spiritual nourishment which we receive by Christs death for as Baptism is the Sacrament of our spiritual birth so the Eucharist is the Sacrament of our spiritual nourishment But this nourishment is much better represented by bread and wine which are the ordinary nourishment of our bodies then by a lamb Answ. All that Mr. de Rodon says in this second answer strengthens and confirms our major above but it strikes at our minor viz. But if the Sacrament of the Eucharist did not really contain the body and bloud of Christ but was only the signe of it then it would follow that the Sacrament of the Eucharist would not be more excellent then that of the Passeover nay that of the Passeover would be more excellent then that of the Eucharist c. That the excellence of one Sacrament a bove another must be drawn from its form and efficacy and not from its matter because it is form that chiefly gives being to things composed of matter and form as Sacraments are this doctrine I confess is very good and true and that the form of the Sacrament of the Eucharist dependeth on the Institution of Christs words is also very certain and true But by what words forsooth did Christ institute this Sacrament doubtlesse by no other but these viz. this is my body this is my bloud and immediately after consecrating he said as often as you do this do it in remembrance of me Now if you take away the first and immediate signification of the words of consecration which is that it is his body and bloud I ask Mr. de Rodon how bread and wine can signifie the body and bloud of Christ after the words of consecration more then they did before or if Christs body be not really there how can bread and wine be the signes of his body and bloud because they were consecrated more then if they were not consecrated at all and to use the Mounsieurs one phrase we cannot see or discern with our eyes any greater signs of Christs body and bloud in the consecrated bread and wine more then we do see in the unconsecrated I confess indeed that these words as often as you do this do it in remembrance of me do signifie Christs bloudy Passion But what that this is unlesse it be Christs body for he said immediately before this is my body I cannot understand for if by the word this Christ had meant the remembrance or signe of his body and not his real body then the sense of his words would be this as often as you do the remembrance of my body do it in remembrance of me which as any body may see is a perfect Batalogy or senselesse repetition of the self-same thing But sure it is and according to Mr. de Rodons own concession that the Paschal lamb has a nobler natural entity because of its life then bread and wine have and that his bloud has a greater Analogy with Christ and his bloud shed on the Crosse then they have Therefore not only according to the material entity which is the matter but also according to the representative or significative entity which is the formal part of the Sacrament if Christs body be not there really present the Passeover is a more excellent signe or Sacrament of Christs bloudy Passion then the Eucharist is which is a great absurdity if not rather Blasphemy we say to assert To this I add that whereas according to M. de Rodons own saying it is an impertinency to make a Type of a Type it follows that the Paschal lamb signifies the thing typified viz. Christs bloudy sacrifice better then the Eucharist doth if you take away the body of Christ from the Sacrament or cut off the immediate signification of these words This is my body upon which words the signification of the Eucharist do wholy depend Rodon Lastly I answer that it is far lesâ—… inconvenient to give some prerogative to the Passeover above the Eucharist viz. to give it a more excellent matter and Anology then to assert the corporal Presence of Christ in the host by an unheard of Transubstantiation which destroys the nature of Sacraments gives our Lord a monstrous body includes notorious absurdities and contradictions and gives the lye to sense Reason and holy Scripture as hath been proved Answ. This last answer of de Rodon is not only absurd but also impious and Blasphemous for it makes the Sacraments of the old Law to be better and more perfect then those of the new which is a great derogation to Christs infinite wisdom that he should institute Sacraments for all the Sacraments of the new Law are instituted by him of lesser worth and likenesse then those were which were used before his Incarnation It puts the Law of Grace beneath the Law of Moses It makes Christs words Institutions and Instruments of our Redemption which be his Sacraments imperfect and vain if the Sacraments of the old Law be worthier and more significative then his are and consequently it lessens the price of our redemption which is Symbolized perfectly in his Sacraments finally according to this rate we had better fall to circumcising our selves become Jews and forsake Baptism and consequently our Christianity for if the Passeover may without offence excell the Eucharist in matter and Analogy or signification why may not circumcision also excell Baptism away away then with this blasphemous lyar who vainly and falsly boasts of his non-sensical proofs that Transubstantiation destroys the nature of Sacraments gives our Lord a monstrous new body includs notorious absurdities and contradictions c. for all his silly proofs are already destroied shattered quasht by me in their due places This is Reader that malepart Civilian I told you of a little before who so well deserved his fee and I doubt not but he received it by this time Objection 3. Romanists 11. The third Objection was proposed at Nismes Anno 1657. by the Iesuitâ—… S. Rigaut thus God doth communicate or can communicate to the creature in a finite degree that which he possesseth in an infinite degree for example God hath an infinite power whereby â—…e can do all things at once as appears in a man for he can see hear talk and walk at the same time God hath also an infinite wisedom and knowledge whereby he knows all things at once therefore he communicates or can communicate to the creature a finite knowledge whereby it may know diverse things at once And even so God hath a virtual infinite extent which is called Immensity whereby he sills all things and all places at once
clean one the Prophet spoke of If it be a strict sacrifice a sacrifice with Incense as the Prophet sayes it is it must be destroyed Is the new time you speak of that sacrifice a great deal of that time I confess is past and spent but when was it incenst were the new people the Christians this sacrifice 't is true many of them are dead and gone but were they all thurified an Incenst at their departure out of the world or is the new place the world your new or clean sacrifice that is neither quite destroyed as yet nor in most places Incenst No more are the Lords Prayer the new sacraments viz. Baptism and the Lords supper as they are celebrated by you nor your new preaching if they be your sacrifices I say they are not offered with Incensation or thurification But the Prophet promised that at the new or clean offering or sacrifice of the new Law which sacrifice is to be offered every where or in every country or dominion it shall be offered with Incense and thurification to the honour and glory of Gods name and so I am sure do the Roman Catholicks through the whole world when they celebrate or offer the unbloudy sacrifice of the Mass solemnly to the honour and glory of Gods name they offer it with Incense and thurification And this sacrifice as we believe it is the real body and bloud of Christ is infinitly cleaner then your bare bread and wine and then all the rest of the sacrifices you mentioned are Therefore since the Prophet says there must be a new or clean sacrifice and that this sacrifice must be offered in every place with Incense to the name of God it followeth according to the Prophets words that the sacrifice of the Mass whereat Incense is dayly offered is that new and clean sacrifice since that of the Cross cannot be it it having not been Incenst nor offered in every place and the Mounsieur nor any of his party can shew us any other clean or new sacrifice of theirs where at Incense is used Moreover God not only changed and multiplied his people but also changed and bettered his sacrifice for in place of sacrificing Cattle birds and other weak and poor creatures which were not able to purge sins and were also often polluted by the sins of the offerers God in this place promised a most effectuall pure and excellent dayly sacrifice to continue perpetually in all places of his Church that cannot be polluted which accordingly our blessed Redeemer and Saviour instituted of his own body and bloud in the forms of bread and wine as all ancient fathers prove So Iustinus Martyr teacheth in dialogo cum Trpihone S. Cyprian lib 1. cap. 18. adversus 〈◊〉 5. Damascâ—…n lib. 4. c. 14. de fide orthedoxa S. Ierom. S. Theodoret and S. Cyril in their comentaries upon this place S Augustine lib. 18 c. 15. de civit S. Chrysost. in Ps. 95. oratione conara Iudaeos shewing plainly and urging the Jews and all oppugners of this Catholick belief and doctrine that this Prophecy is not otherwise fulfilled but in the daily sacrifice of the Church for that here is prophâ—…sied another sacrifice distinct and different from the Jewish sacrifices neither were sacrifices offered in all the world neither could be ordinarily offered out of Ierusalem But of this most sacred Mistery and particularly that this is here prophesied there is so much published by ancient and late writers that more need not to be here added And yet Mr. de Rodon with his bare word or exposition thinks to carry away the prize from all these so great is his opinion of himself and of his illuminated spirit a thing common to all hereticks Rodon 19. Thirdly I answer that the oblation which is offered to God under the Gospel is pure and clean the service which performed unto him according to his word is pure thâ—… preaching of the Gospel is pure In a word the Christian Religion is pure though there be many failings in those that profess it And although the faithfull that present their bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God be compassed about with many infermities and that their Religious actions be accompanied with diverse failings yet their persons and words may be said to be pure and clean in Iesus Christ in whose name they are presented to God so that although they cannot of themselves please or satisfy God yet as they are members of Christ they are reputed holy bâ—…fore God for it is these S. Peter speaks of in Ep. 1. chap. 2. Who as living stones are built up a spiritual house a holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. And so our sacrifices are a pure and clean offering but it is through Iesus Christ who covers them with his purity and holyness so that the defects of them are not imputed to us To this I add that besides the perfect purity which we have by the imputation of Christs rigteousness we have also a purity begun by the holy Ghost of which S. Paul speaks Rom. 15. in these words that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable being sanctified by the holy Ghost for that which God hath decreed Iesus Christ hath purchased and the holy Ghost hath begun is reputed by God perfect and compleat And S. Paul shews clearly the truth of what hath been said 1. Tym. 2. 8. in these words I will that men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting And Ephes. 5. Jesus Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinckle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Answ. Your third answer is that the oblation which is offered unto God under the Gospel is pure and clean the service which is performed unto him according to his word is pure the preaching of his Gospel pure In a word the Christian Religion is pure though there be many failings in those that profess it All this I confess is true but what is it to your purpose I think if all the holy fathers above-cited ought to be more believed then you and I know not why they should not I think I say and I am sure on 't too that you rather accuse and condemn your self and your whole party by this answer then save or excuse your selves for by that pure oblation which is offered unto God under the Gospel all the holy fathers did understand the body bloud of Christ as they are daily offered sacrificed upon the Altar in the Mass then which nothing can be offered and sacrificed more clean and pure but they never made any mention of your bare bread and wine By the pure service which is performed unto him according to his word cannot be understood your
service for you contradict his word his plain express word is that Bread and wine after the words of consecration are converted into his real body and bloud for his express words upon the bread and wine he took in his hand be these this is my body this is my bloud And you say no it is not his body but the signe or Sacrament of his body only and you have no more reason to misbelieve this then you have to misbelieve the Mysteries of his Incarnation and of the Blessed Trinity because his word or Testimony for this is as clear if not clearer then for any of the other two grand Mysteries of our Belief and Gods word or Testimony is the only ground and motive of our faith and as you misbelieve his word in this point so you misbelieve his Church in many things more notwithstanding his express word commands you the contrary as in S. Math. 18. he bids you hear the Church And in S. Luke the 10th speaking to his Church representative he sayes he that heareth you heareth me he that despiseth you despiseth me a lesson which every good Christian ought to heed very well It is also one of the Articles of our Creed to believe in the Catholick Church In a word because you believe not him nor obey his Church your preaching the Gospel and your unchristian Religion whereof you so much boast and wherein as in your selves be many failings and absurdities are very far from being pure and clean and consequently the sacrifices you here mention though as they are offered by the orthodox people while they are in the state of grace be pure and acceptable to God yet your schismatical or rather heretical sacrifices are neither pure nor pleasing to him for you like rotten or withered branches are excommunicated and quite cut off from his Church and so will still remain until you be reconciled unto her according to Christs command That your doctrine and preaching and consequently your sacrifice and service to God are not clean and pure but rather putrid and stinking appears manifestly by these your own words which be these And although the faithful that present their bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God be compassed with many infirmities and that their Religious actions be accompanied with divers failings yet their persons and works may be said to be pure and clean in Jesus Christ in whose name they are presented to God so that although they cannot of themselves please or satisfie God yet as they are members of Christ they are reputed holy before God for it is these S. Peter speaks of in Ep. 1. c. 2. who as living stones are built up a spiritual house a holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Iesus Christ. And so you say your sacrifices are a pure and clean offering but it is through Jesus Christ who covers them with his purity and holyness so that the defects of them are not imputed to you This I say is very impure and stinking doctrine for it contradicts Gods word who Proverb 15. sayes the victims of the impious are abominable to our Lord. God is no acceptor of persons if a drunkard a whoremaster a murderer or a thief offer him never so many sacrifices while he is out of the state of Grace although he offers them in Christs name they are not pleasing or acceptable to God but rather odious and abhominable and much less are the sacrifices of disobedient and stubborn heretical spirits pleasing unto him for Obedience is with him better then victims and consequently to be obedient to his Church is more acceptable unto him then any victims or sacrifices we can offer him in whose name soever Therefore until Mr. de Rodon can prove that his is the only universal Church of Ood which he will never be able to accomplish he ought not to brag or boast of his sacrifices for all the sacrifices that are offered to God out of his Church as the Jewes offer him sacrifices too are odious and abhominable unto him Certain then it is Mr. de Rodon that you nor any of your party are those persons the Apostle meant in the fore-alledged passage and certain also it is that Christ never covers or hides your or any bodies else his nasty sins and abominable sacrifices which be always more loathsom to him then any cloose-stool or carrion is to us and much less whatever you presume your selves to be are you his members being now as dead branches lopt of from a tree cut off from his Mistical body the Church for no soul can be a living member of Christ before she be renst and washt by vertue of his pretious bloud which boiles in his Sacraments that are the spiritual salves which must be applied unto her to wash and take away all the filth of her sins Then when she is throughly cleansed and purged from sin Christ enters and inhabits her afterwards he beautifies and adorns her with a bright ray of inherent Justice and finally after well seasoning and sweetning her with the fragrant odour of divine Grace he incorporates her unto himself and makes her his mystical member Therefore Mr. de Rodon you grosly wrong Christ by saying that he covers or hids your filthiness and sins because you are his members for Christ hath no commerce with dirt he is no patron protectour or coverer of iniquity or sin he hates it from his very heart and there is nothing that causes a separation or divorcement between him and his creatures but only sin therefore if he does but only cover the sins of his mystical members and not quite wash them and take them away it follows that the dirt of their sins will stick to them also when they are in heaven for Mr. de Rodon says their sins are but covered by Christ and consequently that their sins will follow them into heaven although holy writt says that no dofiled thing shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven by this discourse the Reader may well see how stinking and impure this doctrine of the Mounsieur is as also that neither he nor his party with their confessed failings are those the Apostle spoke of and much less that they are members of Christ and consequently that their sacrifices are not acceptable to God Therefore the Apostle meant only the orthodox Catholicks that offer sacrifice unto God while they are in the state of Grace and yet the sacrifice the Apostle speaks of here is not a strict and proper sacrifice but an improper one for otherwise something must have been destroyed To what you farther answer viz. that besides the perfect purity which you have by the imputation of Christs rightiousness you have also a purity begun by the holy Ghost of which S. Paul speaks Rom. 15. in these words that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable being sanctified by the holy Ghost I answer that you are far deceived in this your proud fancy
of your selues for as Christ covers not your impurities nor imputes his righteousness unto you but rather esteems you for no better then heathens and publicans because you hear not his Church so the holy Ghost has nothing to do with you for Christs holy spirit never contradicts Christ. True it is what you say that that which God hath decreed Jesus Christ hath purchased and the holy Ghost hath begun that that is reputed by God perfect and compleat But this only concerns orthodox people and not you for them be these the Apostle speaks of 1 Tym. 2. 8. in these words you aledge I will that men pray every where lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting And Ephes. 5. Iesus Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Very farr alass are you from such people for you pray but very little or nothing in comparison of others who pray both day and night and you pray not every where for if you were compared with the rest of the world who profess Christ you are but a handful of people in little corners or Islands and there too but for a very short time in comparison of former ages how holy your hands are set aside your own private conceits of your selves the rest of the world can easily judge how void of wrath especially against us we very well know how undoubting you are in points of Religion no body breathing can tell for no two of you could ever as yet fully agree as to that point and every one of you is always seeking but never finding what can quiet and content his conscience in that matter you run from the luke-warm Protestant to the precise Puritan or Presbyterian who hates and rayles at the Protestant Bishops and Clergy as much as they do at us others of you from being Presbyterians turn Independents and viceversa from Independents and Presbyterians you turn Anabaptists from Anabaptists you become Quakers from Quakers Fanaticks and from Phanaticks at last you become Atheists your union consists only in this that to preserve your worldly Interest you retain the common notion or name of Protestant and band all against the Roman Catholick whereas on the contrary the Roman Catholick or Papist holds still to his old Lady Dinna to his Invocation of saints to his praying for the souls departed to the Indulgences which are as he believes bequeathed by Christ unto his Church to Pur gatory all which they say are included in these two articles of our belief viz. I believe in the holy Catholick Church and in the communion of saints In a word all the Roman Catholicks do unanimously agree in all the tenents and points of their whole Religion and are perfectly satisfied and contented in their consciences as to all matters of faith without running here and there from one sect to another to search and seek after new opinions as the Protestants do How then can you be the Church the Congregation of the faithful whom the Apostle sayes Ephes. 5. Christ loved and gave himself for how can you be a glorious Church a Church without spot or wrinckle or any such thing a holy one and without blemish Objection 6th Roman 20. The sixth objection is drawn from Gen. 14. in these words And Melchisedeck king of salem bringing forth bread and wine for he was a Priest blessed him and from Ps. 110. and from Heb. 7. where it is said thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck from which words they argue thus Iesus Christ is a Priest not after the order of Aaron but after the order of Melchisedeck the difference between Aaron and Melchisedeck consisting in this viz. that Aaron and the other Levitical Priests offered bloudy sacrifices killing and shedding the bloud of beasts which they sacrificed to God as a signe and figure of the bloudy sacrifice of Iesus Christ on the Cross But Melchisedeck offered an unbloudy sacrifice for when he went to meet Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings he offered to God bread and wine And seeing this bread and wine offered to God by Melchisedeck were signs and types of Christs body and bloud Iesus Christ was obliged to offer an unbloudy sacrifice viz. his body and bloud under the species of bread and wine which he did at the Institution and celebration of the Sacrament of the Eucharist that so the reality of the thing typified might answer to the shaddows and types Secondly that although Melchisedeck had brought all his bread and wine for the refreshment of Abraham and his Armyâ—… that returned from the slaughter of the kings yet he first offered it to God and then gave it to them that so they might partake of the sacrifice of bread and wine and the reason of this is because the scripture saith that Abraham returned from the battle with great spoils amongst which there was bread and drink enough for the refreshment of himself and of his people Also it saith expresly that Abrahams people had taken such refreshment as was necessary before Melchisedeck met them and consequently they had no need of the bread and wine which he brought except it had been to partake of the sacrifice of the bread and wine which he offered Thirdly they say this is strongly proved by the following words for he was a Priest of the most high God which show the reason why Melchisedeck brought bread and wine viz. to make an oblation or offering of it to God for if he had brought this bread and wine for the refreshment of Abraham and his people the scripture would have said that he brought this bread and wine because that Abraham and his army being faint and tired had need of meat and drink but it speaks nothing of this on the contrary it saith that he brought bread and wine for he was a Priest fourthly they say that Jesus Christ is a Priest forever after the order of Melchisedek and seeing there can be no Priest without a sacrifice there can be no eternal Priest without an eternal or perpetual sacrifice But the sacrifice of the Cross was offered but once and cannot be reiterated for Jesus Christ dieth no more Rom. 6. Therefore there must be another perpetual sacrifice in the Church which Iesus Christ offereth by the hands of Priests which can be nothing else but the sacrifice of the Masse viz. the sacrifice of Christs body and bloud under the species of bread and wine typified by the sacrifice of broad and wine of Melchisedeck Answer Rodon 21. To this I answer first that the hebrew word doth not signifie bringing but brought drew out caused to be brought c. But our Adversaries falsifie the Text thus to make way for another falsification viz. to put
griped him by the whole body of his funesteous and false treatise and so shook dis-jointed and dismembred his whole body that there is now no more hopes left of his recovery or reviviscence but flat he must lie upon his back in his stinking grave of heresie which he prepared for our excellent and most vertuous Lady Diana when he made her funeral while she remains still alive as fresh brisk and vigorous as ever she was and so will be inaugre de Rodon and all his parties funesteous machinations funerals and wicked contrivements against her unto the worlds end But now I think it high time gentle Reader to let you know who and what she is know then sir that this Diana about whom Mr. de Rodon and I have so long contested is the Mass by his translatour in derision call'd our great Diana and in his opinion his author hath shewed himself so gallant and stout a corypheus against her that with his keen Philosophical arguments and darts he transfixt her heart through and through so that to their thinking she is quite destroyed and slain down-right without any hopes of recovery and with her they say is fallen Popery too whereupon in a triumphing way they intituled their treatise The funeral of the Masse yet I think I have sufficiently vindicated and cleared her from their false calumnies and black aspersions and fully answered Mr de Rodoâ—…s sophistical and funestuous treatise from point to point paying him in his own Philosophical coin and retorting his calumnies upon â—…is own head But as neither they noâ—… I ought to be judges in our own cause so we ought to leave the decision of the matter to our impartial Readers the which for my part I willingly assent unto The motive of my Appendix is this because as I hope I have defended and secured this unparalel'd venerable Lady from the cruel bloudy-minded authors fury and force so by informing my countrey-men for most of them know â—…ot who or what sâ—…e is of her noble extraction vertues and worth I should likewise wipe away the â—…oathsome and nâ—…ufeous spots or bluâ—…s of superstition Phanaticism and Idolatry wherewith his bitter Translator in the false scolding Preface of his translation most injuriously bespatters her for I doubt not if they knew her as well as their pious Ancestors did for many ages since England was converted to the Christian faith until the dismal reign of king Henry the Eighth who was the first that 〈◊〉 schism and subverted Catholick Religion here in England I doubt not I say but they would be enâ—…moured of her and give her her due veneration and respect Know theâ—… again gentle Reader that the Masse as we take it to be â—…s nothing else but the lyturgy which hath beâ—…n used by all Christians since Christ and his Apostles times in the Church as to its essential parts which consists in the words of 〈◊〉 it is the self-same Chrst himself and his Apostles used being commanded by him to do as he did viz. to consecâ—…ate bread and wine into his body and bloud by vertue of which words he made them also Priests and Bishops and gave them power to conseâ—…rate other Bishops and Priests who should sâ—…cceed them as Paul did Tymothy Titus and many others and all the other Apoâ—…tles did the like so that all Priestly power is derived from them As to the ceremonial parts of this Lyturgy they were not all instituted at once but grew by succession of time according as the Church grew to be more and more in splendour and especially since Constantine the Greats time who was the first Christian Monarch that enlarged â—…nd propagated the Christian faith yeâ—… some words and ceremonies that are this day in the Masse were used by the orthodox ministers of this Sacrament before his time also as ancient autâ—…entick and venerable authors do testifie But whatever the ceremonies be the essential parts of the Mass is always the self-same viz. the words of consecration so that the Masse consists essentially only in this viâ—… thâ—…t in it the body and bloud of Christ are offered and sacrificed unbloudily to God the father in remembrance of the once bloudy sacrifice of the Cross which is nothing elâ—…e but the same Christ offered now unbloudily because he can suffer no more again his body being glorified and being t is the same Christ it is still the same sacrifice though not 〈◊〉 after the same maâ—…ner being it is offerâ—…d under the species of bread and wine with command to reiterate it in remembrance of his bloudy sacrifice we firmly believe that it is a sacrifice after the order of Melchisedec who as the holy fathers unanimously assert sacrificed bread and wine unto God That Christs body and bloud is really in the Eucharist and consequently in the Masse is so clearly and plainly exprest in diverse places of the new Testament and especially in S. Iohn 6. that it is wonder any man that bears the name of a Christian should be so bold and impudent as to deny it after Christ himself said in most plain and manifest terms it is so for when Christ said of the bread he took in his hand this is my body either it was his real body or it was not for betwixt it is and it is not when spoken of the same thing in the present tense and demonstrated with the Pronoun this and it relates to the absolute being of the thing whereof â—…t is said and not to its manner of being there can be no medium but a meeâ—… contradiction if it was his real body then it was as we say and it could not be the signe only or representation of his body for the meer signe of any thing is alwaies different from the thing signified at least in representando in its significative being if it was not his real body as our adversaries hold it was not but only its signe how can Christs words be verified since it is and it is not in the sense I just now spoke of be contradictions and all divines and Philosophers do unanimously concurr in this viz. that contradictories cannot be at once true or verified also by the power of God what is it then to say after Christ said this is my body it is but the signe of his body but to contradict Christs word which is as much as to give him the lye in his teeth Suppose then theâ—…e were no other passage in scripture to prove the real presence of Christs body in the host as there can be no clearer this alone would convince any Christian breath ing unless he would wilfully fight against common sense and reason for all those that maintain that two contradictory propositions can be verified at once do manifeâ—…tly oppose and destroy reason Alâ—… when Christ said Panis quem ego dabo 〈◊〉 est pro mundi vita the bread which I will give is my slesh for the life of the world he said expreâ—…ly that this bread
Apostle spoke of for it is a thing not only improbable but incredible also that S. Peter or if not he as our adversaries will have it or any else of the Apostles or all of them together if they had a hand in it should institute a Bishop of Rome which all the world for ever after called the Pope for his distinction from all other Bishops who introduced this Liturgy which is convertible with his name if the Lyturgy were at all dissonâ—…te from that of the Apostles themselves It is also both improbable and incredible but that S. Iohn who was both an Apostle and Evangelist and a most eminent divine withall and who outlived S. Peter and all the rest of the Apostles It is I say a strange thing that he should not take this first Roman Bishop or Pope in hand confute quash and trample down himself and his Lyturgy if it was not the selfsame with his own and the rest of the Apostles But we see not a word or syllable in S. Iohn or in any of the Apostles or Evangelâ—…s who were contemporaneans of of this first Bishop or Pope of Rome with whom the Mass is convertible against the Lyturgy of the Mass. From whence we cannot but conclude that the Mass is the selfsame Lyturgy that was practised and used by the Apostles themselves Therefore let all the opposers of the Masse take good â—…d they are not the people the Apostle Prophecied of to Titus his disciple and consequently let them take good heed that by oppugning the incruent sacrifice of the Masse they turn not their backs to God by rejecting and vilisiing the universal Lyturgy of his Church celebrated and practised by his Apostle Let them I say take good heed they hearken not too much to the unsound doctrines of their new masters their Ministers whose eares do itch after new opinions certes they will and do dayly avert their hearing from God and the truth And yet few of them agree in all points of their new opinions which is an evident signe their doctrine is false Not to apprehend the dreadful hour of death and the terrible and strict Judgment of God that follows it and not to fear the great power of the severe Judge who is able to cast both body and soul headlong into everlasting helfire to band against him and to contemn his Lyturgy his Sacraments and his Church after he told us that unless we hear her he will count us but as heathens and Publicans is thâ—… greatest sâ—…upidity and madness imaginable and yet the opposers and enemies of our ' Diana for swerving from Antiquity from all the General Councils and holy â—…thers whose authorities are so clear and manifest for her cannot but be at least highly suspected to be in the wrong They themselves for the most part say that we can be saved in our way and yet they perseâ—…te us more then they do the Turks Jewes and Pagans who are open enemies to Christ we hold they cannot be saved in their way because we would not have them be deluded for we believe none can be saved out of the Church and there is but only one Church of God why then do not they follow the surest way wherein both we and they agree a man may be saved and renounce that suspected way which we who are the far greater number and not inferiour to them for antiquity and learning do hold to be unsafe or can the way to heaven be too to sure Were it so secure an estate or great parcel of mony no-care and diligence would be wanting great heed would be taken that no slaw scruple or doubt should be â—…found in the Patent or Indenture wherefore is it not so also in this case or state of our souls safety which ought to be the dearest and of greatest conâ—…ernment to us of all things why I say do we not walk in the common and sure Catholick road approved of by both parties oh craftiness and guile of Sathan oh vanity of worldly Pompe oh sensuality of flesh and bloud But in plain and open truth our adversaries are clearly convicted concerning the sacrifice of the Mass and of the real presence of Christs body in it for how forsooth is it possible to convince any Christian maâ—… more then by plain and express texts of scripture backt and seconded by the clear authorities and testimonies of all General Councils by the unanimous consent of all the holy fathers and by sound and irrefragable reasons deduced from clear Philosophical Principles by all these Mediums is the sacrifice of the Masse and the real presence of Christs body in the host proved in this Appendix and for to convince a Christian no other medium or argument can be more forcible or convincing Therefore whosoever yeelds and acquiesces not to these mediums has nothing to plead for himself but meer obstinacy and consequently he wilfully turns his back to God and his Church and runs directly to his own infallible daâ—…nation he misprises our saviours pretious bloud and Passion and vilifies him and all his heavenly treasure and riches with the promises Christ made unto him of them In a word he hath no more belief then a meer Athiest As for Mr. de Rodons sophistical and false treatise I suppose and perhaps I am not deceived that his wily arguments did so work upon his zealous translator and totally convince him with his apparent Philosophical reasons that he took every one of them to be a palpable demonstration and consequently in his own judgment thinking his cause to be very clear out of â—… pure zeal to Religion and taking ours to be but meer Idolatâ—…y that made him fall so bitterly upon our bones But now when he reads this treatise after he hath seen my full answer to his author and how I have followed him through his whole tract from point to point and refuted him manifestly every where paying him also in his one Philosophical coine after I say the translatot hath perused this book and examined the case better with himself pondering well upon the arguments of both sides pro and con I hope he will become milde and have a better opinion and esteem for our Diana and Religion then he had before I hope also that his understanding being clarified and enlightned by my solutions whereby all de Rodons fallacious sophisms are detected and made minifest to all men of any learning or judgment he finding him to be but an Impoâ—…tor and deluder of weak ignorant souls will soon disown both him and his damnable tract finally I hope that no worldly interest as alass it doth thoufands of our adverse party will so blinde and intoxicate him as to make him lose the interest of his soul and refuse to be an incorporate mistical member of Christ which without the help of our Diana as I have sufficiently proved already is impossible for him or any man else to be As de Rodons weak arguments were not of force