their design than to act the Puritan that they might come to the execution of their desires which they have done at last by the Sacrilegious Paricide of their Archbishop and of their King This was Sir the grand work of mans malice and the Devils stratagem which caused the ils which are fallen upon your Crown and Person by the pitiful fate of that succession which ought to have befallen you But the Justice and Wisdome of God in this conjuncture hath other ends Every one knows that this Archbishop â—…ourished in the Schism from the Catholick Church had no other thought noâ—… inclination than to re-unite in one body the People divided into Sects among themselves as well as from the Church and to make himself Chief Head of this Schismatical Body And we see God hath permitted that his own People divided against it self hath caused his Head to be cut off The King otherwise accomplished in all royal and moral virtues did use in the Schism by the Law of his Predecessours the Authority which God had given him in temporal matters for governing of spiritual and called himself the Head It is for that reason that God chastizing in his person the fault of his Predecessours would let us know by the tragical spectacle of an unheard of Death in a King no less innocent than lawful that so strange an effect of his anger hath had no other cause than to instruct all other Princes that are in the Schism with what severity God will revenge his glory for their injuring the Unity and Authority of his Church But if such is the Effect of Divine Justice and Wisdome in the cause of your misfortune Sir his Mercy goes far before it and this is the effect that concerns you For God makes it here plainly appear unto your Majestie that the Reformation which the Authors of the Schism in this latter age have pretended to make hath been under the pretext of so good an outside no otheâ—… thing in effect than the entire ruine as well of the Faith and form of the Church as of the Order it self instituted by God for the governing of men This is the Lesson which God sets before your eyes in the historie of this sad Revolution which hath given you a wound the feeling whereof is to be your instruction You shall see Sir through all the circumstances of these tragical effects which have produced the trouble and changed the form of your Estates and which have ravished from you the Crown That the new Religion which your Predecessours embraced after the Schism is the onely efficient cause by the very maxims and foundations of the design which its Authors have called the Reformation of the Church Their new opinions did very easily sside themselves under this apparent colour through the clefts of the Schism into the spirit of the Bishops who made themselves culpable But neither they themselves that received this novelty nor the Kings that authorized them did think they should charge themselves with Uria's packet which would abolish both the authority of the Bisâ—…ops and the Sovereignty of Kings For men are alwaies blind in the works of Darkness which they do by the instinct of the Devil who goes disguizing himself into an Angel of Light that he may induce them for to commit them And their passions which do blind them do insensibly draw them into precipices of mis-haps whereof neither the extraordinary steepness nor depth is by them discerned Certainly whosoever should have demanded of Peter Martyr himself and Martin Bucer who carried Calvin's Reformation into England if they went to bring in the Brownists opinions who by maxims receiv'd from their hands did a little after think upon a more exact purity by the motions which they suppose the Holy Ghost suggests unto them from whence it is that they esteem themselves more Reformed Puritans Whosoever likewise should have enquired of them if they came to tell them they might be of what Religion they pleas'd and for the extinction of all Ecclesiastical Discipline of all rule and form of a common Faith according to the opinion of the Independents Whosoever should at last have ask'd them whether the Sword of the Word they carried in their mouths was to cut off their King's and Bishop's heads that they might give a Form altogether new as well to the Kingdom as to the Church what would they have answered They would have sworn without doubt with their hands upon the new Gospel they carried about them that their intentions were further distant from these thoughts than the Earth is from Hell And nevertheless this thing is no waies to be doubted of and altogether apparent at present that â—…alvin Martyr Bucer and the Bishops which admitted their Reformation and the Kings which authorized it have brought in by the maxims of their Foundations not onely Protestants but also Brownists and Independents The Bishops that receiv'd this Reformation saw not that of it would be bred the Sect of the Presbyterians Enemies to the Hierarchy of the Church and all the Order of its institutions as well for the Service as for the Government and would ruine their Authority that they might abolish Royalty it self But neither did Calvin Martyr nor Bucer know that from the maxims of their Reformation would spring up the Brownists and Indepâ—…ndents who would ruine their Reformation by introducing an indifference concerning all opinion in Religion This is that Sir which the historie of things hapned in the progress of this Reformation the knowledge whereof your Majestie at this present carries engraven in your heart by too bitter feelings represents unto your eyes to the end all the world may see the nature and Genius by the effects of its maxims I will represent them Sir to the eyes of your Majestie and by a demonstration so lively and evident that no reason can contradict it You shall see that the pain you suffer and under which your Estate groans is the true effect as the very punishment of the sins your Fathers committed and transâ—…itted unto you then when under the pretext of this blind Reformation they abandoned the Faith of the Church and her Communion For it is after thiâ—… mâ—…nner the just vengeance of God punishetâ—… sin by it self and that its own proper work becomes the punishment it deserves This Religion for which the Bishops the Kings and the People have forsook the Church hath destroyed the Bishops and the Kings and reduced the People to live without Bishops without Kings without a Form of Government and without Discipline in Religion under the Tyrannie of a Monster who without being either King or Bishop attributes to himself all Authority both in State and in Religion This which I declare unto your Majestie Sir is to make you understand that this terrible work of the hand of God which afflicts you after this manner is nevertheless a judgement of his mercy for you For you may see he sends you not this trouble
give others leave to â—…tile them the Heads of the Church within their Dominions But no man can be so simple as to conceive that they â—…ntended a spiritual headship to infuse â—…he life and motion of grace into the â—…earts of the faithful such an head is Christ alone No nor yet an Ecclesiaâ—…ical headship We did never believe â—…hat our Kings in their own persons â—…ould exercise any act pertaining either â—…o the power of Order or Juriâ—…ction Nothing can give that to another which it hath not it self They meant oneâ—…y a Civil or Political Head as Saul is called the Head of the Tribes of Israel to see that pubâ—…ick peace be presâ—…rved to see that all Subjects as well Eccâ—…esiastiques as others do their duties in their several places to see that all things be managed for that great and Architectonical end that is the weal and benefit of the whole body politique both for soul and body If you will not trust me Hear our Church it self When we attribute the Sovereign Government of the Church to the King we do not give him any power â—…o administer the Wâ—…rd or Sacraments but onely that Prerogative which God in holâ—… Scripture hath alwaies allowed to Godly Princes to see that all States and Orders of their Subâ—…ects Ecclesiastical and Civil do their duties and to punish those who are delinquent with the civil Sword Here is no power ascribed no punishment inflicted but meerly political and this is approved and justisied by S. Clara both by reason and by the examples of the Parliament of Paris Yet by vertue of this Political power he is the Keeper of both Tables the preserver of true Piety towards God as weâ—…l as right Justice towards men And is obliged to take care of the souls as well as the skins and carkasses of his Subjects This power though not this name the Christian Emperours of old assumed unto themselves to Convocate Synods to preside in Synods to confirm Synods to establish Ecclesiastical Lawes to receive Appeals to nominate Bishops to eject Bishops to suppress Heresies to compose Ecclesiastical differences in Councils out of Councils by themselves by their delegates All which is as clear in the Historie of the Church as if it were written with a beam of the Sun This power though not this name the Antient Kings of Englaâ—…d ever exercised not onely before the Reformation but before the Norman Conquest as appears by the Acts of their great Councils by their Statutes and Articles of the Clergy by so many Lawes of provision against the Bishop of Romes conferring Ecclesiastical dignities and benefices upon Foreiners by so many sharp oppositions against the exactions and usurpations of the Court of Rome by so many Lawes concerning the Patronage of Bishopricks and Investitures of Bishops by so many examples of Church-men punished by the Civil Magistrate Of all which Jewels the Roman Court had undoubtedâ—…y robbed the Crown if the Peers and Prelates of the Kingdome had not come into â—…he rescue By the Antient Lawes of England it is death or at lest a forfeiture of all his goods for any man to publish the Popes Bull without the Kings Licence The Popes Legate without the Kings leave could not enter into the Realm If an Ordinary did refuse to accept a resignation the King might supply his defect If any Ecclesiastical Court did exceed the bounds of its just power either in the nature of the cause or manner of proceeding the Kings Prohibition had place So in effect the Kings of England were alwaies the Political heads of the Church within their own Dominions So the Kings of France are at this day But who told you that ever King Charles did call himself the Head of the Church thereby to merit such an heavy Judgement He did not nor yet King James his Father nor Queen Elizabeth before them both who took Order in her first Parliament to have it lest out â—…f her Title They thought that name did sound ill and that it intrenched too far upon the right of their Saviour Therefore they declined it and were called onely Supreme Governours in all Causes over all persons Ecclesiastical and Civil which is a Title de jure inseparable from the Crown of all Sovereign Princes Where it is wanting de facto if any place be so unhappy to want it the King is but half a King and the Commonwealth a Serpent with two Heads Thus you see you are doubly and both waâ—…es miserably mistaken First King Charles did never stile himself Head of the Church nor could with patience endure to hear that Title Secondly a Political Headship is not injurious to the Unity or Authority of the Church The Kings of Isâ—…ael and Judah the Christian Emperours the Engâ—…ish Kings before the Reformation yea even before the Conquest and other Sovereign Princes of the Roman Communion have owned it signaâ—…ly But it seems you have been toâ—…d or have read this in the virulent writings of Sandâ—…rs or Parsons or have heard of a ludicrous scoffing proposition of a Mâ—…rriage between the two Heads of the two Churches Sixâ—…us Quintus and Queen Elizabeth for the re-uniting forsooth of Christendome All the satisfaction I shâ—…uld enjoyn you is to perswade the Bishop of Râ—…me if Gregory the Great were living you could not fail of speeding to imitate the piety and humility of our Princes that is to content himself with his Patriarchical dignity and primacy of Order Principâ—…m unit at is and to quit that much more presumptuous and if a Popes word may pass for current Antichristian term of the Head of the Catholick Church If the Pope be the Head of the Catholique Church then the Catholique Church is the Popes Body which would be but an harsh expression to Christian ears then the Catholick Church should have no Head when there is no Pope two or three Heads when there are two or three Popes an unsound Head when there is an heretical Pope a broken Head when the Pope is censured or deposed and no Head when the See is vacant If the Church must have one Universal Visible Ecclesiastical Head a general Council may best pretend to that Title Neither are you more successful in your other Reason why the Parliament persecuted the King Because he maintained Episcopacy both out of Conscience and Interest which they sought to abolish For though it be easily admitted that some seditious and heterodox persons had an evil eye both against Monarchy and Episcopacy from the very beginning of these troubles either out of a fiery zeal or vain affectation of Novelty like those who having the green-sickness prefer chalk and meal in a corner before wholsome meat at their Fathers table or out of a greedy and covetous desire of gathering some sticks for themselves upon the fall of those great Okes yet certainly they who were the contrivers and principal actors in this business did more malign
THE VICTORY OF TRUTH FOR The Peace of the CHURCH To the King of GREAT BRITAIN To invite him to embrace the Roman-Catholick Faith By Monsieur De la Militiere Counsellour in Ordinary to the King of France With an Answer thereunto Written by the Right Reverend John Bramhall D. D. and Lord Bishop of London-Derry Printed at the Hague 1653. To the King of Great Britain to invite his Majestie to embrace the Catholick Faith SIR THE Wisedome of Gods Counsels is far above the prudence of men who are altogether void of the knowledge of his grace One sort who know neither God nor his providence look upon all the events of humane life as if they happened by chance They imagine that that which we call good luck or ill luck hath no other cause than hazard and that which every mans prudence or imprudence brings to the conduct of his life Others who acknowledge a Divine providence but onely after the manner that God hath manifested it to the world by the instructions and judgements of his Law think that all the goods which heap prosperities upon them are the effects and testimonies of the favour where with God cherisheth those that are his And that the Ils that oppress mans life with miseries are arguments of the anger and hatred of God upon those he handles after that manner But Christians to whom God hath revealed by the Gospel the counsel of his mercy in Jesus Christ know that in his Cross on which for satisfying the Justice of of the Law he hath bore the pain of our sinnes he hath changed for those he calls to his Communion the use of Afflictions And that he imployes them first to humble them and acknowledge their sin that they may desire deliverance to the end they may come by this way to the Faith of his grace which doth deliver them And when they are entred into Communion with him by faith and that the exercise of the same afflictions accomplisheth in them the work of his grace in giving them by his consolation in their patience the hope of the glorious happiness which he hath promis'd them and which carries over all their affections to the loving of him Those therefore that have this faith and this hope are of a judgement far differing from the opinion of men of the world upon the event of Goods and Evils which accompany mans life Considering Sir the present fortune of your serene Majestie far removed from the Majestick condition of your Birth I humble my self with you in the sight of the powerful hand of God who is the onely Judge and onely Master of Monarchs to ascend by the steps whereto the Gospel addresses us even into the counsel of his infinite mercy And I find there that the disaster of this great calamity which environs you is a work of the wisdome of the King of Kings who will shew in you whom he hath honoured with his Unction and his Image an admirable effect of his grace and of his power I say Sir that under the Cloak of so many sad adventures which try you by revolutions so strange that all the Universe doth tremble the King of Heaven and of the Earth who hath humbled himself for you infinitely more low than you are draweth himself near unto you He comes to take you by the hand not onely to reâ—…stablish you in your Throne but to make you sit in his that you may reign with him eternally after you have imployed the Scepter which he shall put again into your hand to re-establish his Kingdome among your people It is very easy for me Sir to give you a reason of this judgement I make of thaâ—… of God upon your sacred Person and to explicate unto you not onely the causes and effects of the ill which is come upon you but also the way the use and the success of the remedy which the hand of God will give you to accomplish in you this work of his mercy If we seek the Cause for which we behold that the hand of God hath made it self so grievously heavy upon the sacred head of the King your Father and which pursues yet after him your Royal Person with so many sinister accidents which hath caused this great desolation to come upon all your Kingdomes this confusion and this subversion of their peace and former prosperity this change into which they are so blindly precipitated to part with the form of Government that God had established amongst them under which they had lived so happily for so many Ages past to become slaves of the yoke which the armed hand of a Tyrant hath put upon their head under the false name of Liberty it will be very easy for us to find the Cause and to acknowledge it by the Effects You are not ignorant Sir and all the world knows it with you that the subject for which this Paricidal Parliament hath so cruelly persecuted the King your Father hath been the Ecclesiastical Government of which they desired to change the form by abolishing Episcopacy and suppressing the Liturgie and the Ceremonies by which the Protestants of your Kingdome had yet retained some image of the Catholick Church Those which they call Puritans and Presbyterians who would live under the form of the Genevian Discipline could not endure the form of that Antient Order which the Royal Authority had retained as instituted by Divine Authority and for this very thing necessary for its conformity to preserve in Christian Estates the form of a Monarchical Government From thence it is come that the Puritan and Presbyterian Faction hath conceiv'd and alwaies kept in its breast an implacable hatred against Monarchical Government by reason of their aversion from the Episcopal That which the prudence of King James your Majesties Grandfather Sir having judiciously taken notice of did as wisely inform his posterity by an express Book to take heed of it And this King knowing Church as well as State matters foreseeing the inconvenience that might arise expressing from his mouth that which touched him at the heart had this familiar speech No Bishop no King which is become a lamentable Prophesie under his Successour But O good God! what Successour Such an one certainly that had neither cause nor pretext capable to stir up the hatred of Subjects against a King so merciful so just and so loyal so amiable to his People so venerable to his Neighbours that upon this onely prejudication wherein the Puritan Faction had instructed them in making them believe that under that Form of Government and Antient Service the King and the Bishops had an intention to re-establish in the Realm the Catholick Religion This is the poyson which the Puritan Faction hath blown into the hearts of the People to fill them with hatred against a King so love-worthy And this Republican Parliament endeavouring to erect it self in a Sovereign Authority by annihilating that of the King hath not thought any occasion more favourable to
see that thâ—… Ministers called in the presence of youâ—… Majestie either by their avowing of thâ—… truth or refusal to appear shall havâ—… been themselves the Ministers of youâ—… Conversion every one will â—…nter up on the examination of the causes anâ—… reasons of the Truth which shall havâ—… moved you thither which shall have noâ—… less vertue to make the like impression in their souls by the same means For whether the Ministers do sincerely yield to the Truth which they will not know how to contradict or whether they condemn themselves by their refusal of an ingenuous proceeding the event of their Convocation shall be alike and universal in all places where the same way to call back the People to the Church shall be practised There are no Ministers in France will know what to answer when those of Paris shall be made dumb No others will by any manner of means dispute them concerning their sufficiency But if they are wanting to the duty of a good Conscience you may easily meet many more ingenuous who will no waies refuse to acknowledge the Truth By this way the People who seek nothing but their salvation and who have no interest more pretious will be ravished to see themselves at last by a plain solid and sincere instruction upon the true understanding of matters of the Catholick Faith drawn from this Labyrinth of disputes which are given them for matter of Reformation no less Enemies to Piety than Christian Charity For this effect Sir desiring to be assisting to the design of making the People see by the conviction of their Ministers that being separated from the Church under this pretext of Reformation they are left by that means without Faith and without the Church And then when one perswades them that in the Questions controverted iâ—… Faith the Church teaches contrary to what the Antient Church hath believed those that accuse them cannoâ—… do it but by a formal contradicting botâ—… the holy Fathers and themselves which is a necessary argument of lying and errour I here put forth into the light a little Treatise wherein these two Truthâ—… are rendred evident They have formed no Controversy more important according to their own opinion than that of Transubstantiation in the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist They accuse us for having Introduced by the truth of this change the necessity of adoring Jesus Christ in this Sacrament or the Sacrament it self which we maintain to be Jesus Christ himself They impute unto us that in this we have altered the Faith of the Antient Church to whom they say both this change and the adoration of the Sacrament hath been unknown They make this the principal cause forsooth of their sole necessity of separating themselves from us And being not able to deny that the whole Antient Church did solemnly offer the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ to God his Father according to his institution in the holy Eucharist they also cloak their difference in this subject from the Antient Church and from us with this That the Antient Church did not believe as they presume Transubstantiation with us nor by consequence the Sacrifice as we do saying That to this subject as they reject in our belief Transubstantiation so they have for the same reason likewise abolished the Sacrifice which the Church celebrates at this present I have made it evident Sir that the Faith of the Church at this day is conformable to the Antient upon this change in a Book which I have published against the defences brought by Minister Aubertin upon the passages of the holy Fathers in his Book of the Eucharist I have reduced the demonstration of the Truth to this point viz. That all the holy Fathers have believed that by the change which interposes it self in this Sacrament there is rendred the same Flesh and the same Blood of Jesus Christ received by the mouths of Believers whereof Jesus Christ speaks in St. John where he commands us to eat and drink them that we may have eternal life The Minister hath not been able to contradict this truth but in formally contradicting the sense which the Authors of his opinion before him have attributed to the Fathers as conformable to them and in making the sense of the Fathers formally contrary to that of Jesus Christ and that which he attributes to them formally contrary to the true sense which they have and do declare in clear and express words I have convinced him by the proof of an evident demonstration in this little Treatise And if he be called to answer upon this conviction the Truth will be found to be victorious either by his good or his evil Faith And as their Consciences tell them and bite them for having introduced by their Reformation all Opinions equally contrary to the Faith of the Church of all Ages When they see themselves reduced to this extremity they cast themselves into the retrenchment of their Fundamental Maxims which is to admit of no rule of Faith but that of the Scripture interpreted by every mans reason Upon that I have convinced them by a Demonstration without Reply that by the design of their Reformation founded upon the use of this rule they have lost both the Church and Faith Which they must avouch if they be called to answer there or that the Truth shall conserve its advantage by the refusal they shall make I most humbly intreat your Majestie Sir that you will be pleased to let this little work have the glory to appear to the World under your Royal Name for a prop which will be able to serve your Faith as an Instrument of the Truth the Victory whereof ought happily to gain you to the Church And by gaining you to bring with you her Peace and re-union of all the Parties that are divided from her For assuredly this grace of Heaven is not far from us if we our selves do not draw our selves back And I am certain that if it please the prudence of the Bishops which the Holy Ghost hath established for the conduct of the Church as I hope they will be pleased to serve themselves towards the People that have abandoned their Crosier of the way that I propose and present to your Majestie they shall see without much pain and in a little time the strayed Sheep returning to them by the very hand of those which keep them withdrawn from their Sheepfolds For in effect when the evidence of this demonstrated Truth shall once have taken its place by the sweetness of the amiable conferences where she ought to be treated with all sincerity and liberty in the spirit of all our separated Brethren as well Ministers as People they will consent with joy to re-enter into the Catholick Church So much the more willingly that by the reasons of the truth of her Faith acknowledged conformable to the Tradition of all Ages they shall so acknowledge her in all her parts to be the True Seed from
grace the Kingdome of Jesus Christ. To these prayers which all the Angels and Saints which are in the Church in Heaven and in Earth make to God for your Majestie I joyn Sir my vows and supplications with this testimony of my devotion to your most humble service in a Subject which I have esteemed the most important and most worthy to gain me the honour of the good favour of your Majestie and that to stile my self SIR Of your Majestie the most humble most faithfull and most obedient Servant La Militiere AN ANSWER TO Monsieur de la Militiere his Impertinent Dedication of his Imaginary Triumph To the KING of Great Britain to invite him to embrace the Roman Catholick Religion By John Bramhall D. D. and Lord Bishop of Derry HAGUE Printed in the Year 1653. An Answer to Monseiur de la Militiere his Fpistle to the King of Great-Brittain wherein he inviteth His Majesty to forsake the Church of England and to embrace the Roman Chatholick Religion SIR YOU might long have disputed your Question of Transubstantiation with your learned Adversary and proclamed your own Triumph on a silver Trumpet to the World before any Member of the Church of England had interposed in this present exigence of our Affairs I know no necessity that Christians must be like Cocks that when one Crows all the rest must crow for company Monseiur Aubertine will not want a surviving friend to teach you what it is to teach you what it is to sound a Triumph before you have gain'd the Victory He was no fool that desired no other Epitaph on his Tomb than this Here lies the Author of this sentence Prurigo disput andi scabies Ecclesiae the itch of disputing is the scab of the Church Having viewed all your strength with a single eye I find not one of your Arguments that comes home to Transubstantiation but only to a true Real Presence which no genuine Son of the Church of England did ever deny no nor your Adversary himself Christ sayd This is my Body what he sayd we do stedfastly believe he said not after this or that manner neque con neque suh neque trans And therefore we place it among the Opinions of the Schools not among the Articles of our Faith The holy Eucharist which is the Sacrament of Peace and Unity ought not to be made the matter of strife and Contention There wanted not abuses in the Administration of this Sacrament in the most pure and primitive times as Prophaness and Uncharitableness among the Corinthians The Simonians and Menandrians and some other such Imps of Sathan unworthy the name of Christians did wholly forbear the use of the Eucharist but it was not for any difference about the sacrament it self but about the Naturall Body of Christ They held that his Flesh and Blood and Passion were not true and real but imaginary and phant astical things The Maniches did forbear the Cup but it was not for any difference about the sacrament it self They made two Gods a good God whom they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Light and an evill God whom they tearmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Darknes which evill God they sayd did make someCreatures of the Dreg or more feculent parts of the Matter which were evil and impure and among these Evil Creatuâ—…es they esteemed VVine which they called the Gaul of the Dragon For this cause not upon any other scruple they wholly abstained from the Cup or used water in the place of wine which Epiphanius recordeth among the Errors of the Ebionites and Tacians And St Augustine of the Aquarians Still we do not find any clashing either in word or writing directly about this sacrament in the universall Church of Christ much less about the presence of Christ in the sacrament Neque ullus veterum disputat contra hunc errorem primis sexcentis Annis The first that are supposed by Bellarmine to have broached any Error in the Church about the Real presence were the Ichonomachi after 700 years Primi qui veritatem corporis Domini in Eucharistia in quaestionem vocarunt fuerint Ichonomachi post Annum Domini 700. only because they called the Bread and Wine the Image of Christs body This is as great a mistake as the former Their difference was meerly about Images not at all about the Eucharist so much Vasques confesseth that In his judgment they art not to be numbred with those who deny the presence of Christ in the Eucharist We may well find different observations in those daies as one Church consecrating leavened Bread another unleavened One Church making use of pure wine another of wine mixed with water One Church admitting Infants to the Communion another not admitting them but without Controversies or Censures or Animosity one against the other we find no Debates or Disputes concerning the presence of Christs Body in the Sacrament and much less concerning the manner of his presence for the first 800 years Yet all the time we find as different expressions among those Primitive Fathers as among our modern writers at this day some calling the Sacrament the sign of Christs Body the figure of his Body the Symbol of his Body the mystery of his Body the exemplar type and representation of his Body saying that the Elements do not recede from their first Nature Others naming it the true Body and Blood of Christ changed not in shape but in nature yea doubting not to say that in this Sacrament we see Christ we touch Christ we eat Christ that we fasten our teeth in his very Flesh and make our Tongues red in his Blood Yet notwithstanding there were no Questions no Quarrells no Contentions amongst them there needed no Councils to order them no Conferences to reconcile them because they contented themselves to believe what Christ had said this is my Body without presuming on their own heads to determine the manner how it is his Body neither weighing all their own words so exactly before any controversie was raised nor expounding the sayings of other men contrary to the Analogy of Faith The first doubt about the presence of Christs Body in the Sacrament seems to have been mooved not long before the year 900. in the dayes of Bertram and Paschasius but the Controversie was not well formed nor this new Article of Transubstantiation sufficiently concocted in the dayes of Berengarius after the year 1050. as appeareth by the grosse mistaking and mistating of the Question on both sides First Berengarius if we may trust his Adversaries knew no mean between a naked Figure or empty sign of Christs presence and a Corporeal or Local presence and afterwards fell into another extreme of impanation on the other side the Pope and the Councill made no differrence between Consubstantiation and Transubstantiation they understood nothing of the spiritual or indivisible being of the Flesh and Blood of Christ in the