REASON AND AUTHORITY OR THE MOTIVES OF A LATE Protestants Reconciliation TO THE Catholic Church TOGETHER With Remarks upon some late Discourses AGAINST Transubstantiation Publisht with Allowance LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty For his Houshold and Chappel 1687. Reason and Authority OR THE MOTIVES OF A LATE Protestants Reconciliation TO THE Catholic Church THAT I may pay my due Respects to the Church of England to which I am indebted for a considerable part of my Education I think it just to publish those Motives which obliged me to take my leave of Her And if it shall appear that I have not rashly quitted her Communion but have used herein the utmost strength and dictates of my most Impartial Reason I hope She will excuse me if I have followed that light which She her self so pressingly recommends I shall therefore most Reverend Fathers communicate my Motives to you in a short but plain Method and if my Brevity in this shall not sufficiently express the strength of my Arguments censure not from thence the Faith which I profess For having perused many Excellent Authors which have treated more particularly and fully of it I purposely avoided a long Repetition of those things which you may find more largely and better handled in the Originals themselves I have been guided I hope by the grace of God and reason reducing things almost to Demonstration I have no Charm nor Conjuration upon me that I know of but shall be always ready to follow the strongest Evidence of common Reason I will not trouble you with all those circumstances which made me doubt but only tell you in short that by reading and discoursing with Catholic Men and Authors I did really doubt concerning the truth of my Protestant profession One main Reason of my Diffidence was this That I did not find in the Church of England a lawful Authority sufficient to oblige my reason and conscience to submit to her Decrees in matters of Faith necessary to Salvation Pag. 133. For Dr. Stillingfleet tells me All men ought to be left to Judge according to the Pandects of the Divine Laws because each Member of this Society is bound to take care of his Soul and of all things that tend thereto And Dr. Pag. 48 49. Ferne in his Case between the two Churches says further That in matters proposed by my Superiours as Gods Word and of Faith I am not tied to believe it such till they manifest it to me to be so and not that I am obliged to believe it such unless I can manifest it to be contrary because my Faith can rest on no humane Authority but only on Gods Word and Divine Revelation This is your constant Doctrine as to our faith or internal assent as may be proved by many of your best Authors and indeed the Justice of your Reformation cannot consist with stricter Principles for how can you bind our Consciences by a late usurpt Authority I speak as to declaring Articles of faith not of discipline when you would not submit your own to the greatest Authority under which our Ancestors were born and which was incomparably the most lawful the most esteem'd the most certain and most universal that ever appear'd in the Christian Church since the Apostles And accordingly Mr. Chillingworth of the just Authority of Councils and Synods says Any thing besides Scripture and the plain irrefragable indubitable consequences of It well may Protestants hold it as matter of Opinion but as matter of Faith and Religion neither can they with coherence to their own ground believe it themselves nor require the Belief of it of others without high and most Schismatical presumption Now these plain irrefragable and indubitable consequences must need be plain to every man who is not mad or a fool and so need no Authority But in all those which are less plain and such must be the Points controverted between Catholics and your selves I have my liberty for I am fully assured from the same hand that God doth not and that therefore Man ought not to require any more of any Man than this to believe the Scripture to be Gods Word to endeavour to find the true sense of it and to live according to it Having therefore worthy Fathers been taught English and Latin in your Grammar Schools and keeping the Holy Bible with me which contains all things necessary to Salvation and to which according to your Instructions I must at last appeal I resolved to give you no further trouble in this matter especially since as I said you could not teach me infallibly nor impose your Interpretations by vertue of any legal Authority which might ultimately conclude my Reason and secure my Conscience Finding that I was not only at liberty but advised also by your selves to work out my own Salvation and to stand upon my own bottome I thought it reasonable that my Enquiry should Set out from the very beginning and examine whether there was a God and indeed I found some learned men even among the greatest Philosophers speaking very doubtfully concerning this matter if not denying it 'T was not only the Fool had said in his heart there is no God but hear what Cardan Writes of our famous Aristotle L. 3. de Sap. Aristoteles says he tam callidè mundi ortum animae praemia Deos Daemones sustulit ut hae◠omnia apertè quidem diceret argui tamen non posset And the great Pontif Cotta to Velleius upon the same Question concerning a God Credo inquit si in concione quaeratur But in private it seems he was very easie in his Belief I will not mention Epicure and Lucretius their names are grown generally too scandalous but if you examine Anaxagoras Anacharsis Protagoras Euripides Diagoras and many others whose reputations carry no small Authority along with them you will observe such a suspension of mind concerning a Deity that if they were afraid positively to deny so neither would they confidently affirm Next supposing a Deity whether the World was govern'd by God The Epicureans totally deny it nullam omninò habere humanarum rerum procurationem Deos which Ennius also plainly professeth in these words Ego Deûm genus semper esse dixi dicam Coelitum Sed Eos non curare Opinor quid agat humanum genus Which opinion Grotius takes care to confute in his Cap. de poenis l. 2. And no wonder if the Heathens denied a Point full of so many difficulties since the Royal Prophet himself was almost stumbled at it My feet says he were almost gone my steps had well nigh slipt Then the Souls Immortality a very considerable Point seem'd so hard to Reason especially when I found it disputed in some Set philosophical Discourses and it's Mortality proved almost to a physical Demonstration and besides that the Christian Doctrine concerning it had not been determin'd above two hundred years in any Council that truly
Aristides St. Augustin Grotius and many excellent Scholars counted it more Madness insolentissimae Insaniae est to contradict the Judgment of All or the Most or the most Wise and of the most wise All or Most or the most Excellent for says one of them as in matter of Fact we ought to believe the most and most proper and credible Witnesses so in matters of Opinion we are obliged to submit to the most and most Excellent Authors Now sure these praestantissimi Auctores are those who write with best Authority and have Commission from the Highest Powers so to do Yet notwithstanding all this I followed my own private Reason in my particular Points until a stronger Reason I mean the joint and common Reason of Mankind and my Conscience too daily dictating that my Judgment in particular Cases might fail that all had not equal strength that God therefore had not left the World without Government nor given us Laws without lawful Judges and Interpreters that these Judges ought to be obeyed These I say and such like considerations interrupted the quiet of my life until at last my united Reason made its last effort and fully and totally convinc'd me that if any such Authority was to be found upon Earth I ought in reason to submit my particular Reasons to it Truly Fathers when upon deliberate counsel I had determin'd to take this most reasonable course Give me leave to tell you that I began to wonder how your selves tho most learned most reasonable and most pious Men could be satisfied under the conduct of your private Reasons if there may be found any legal Supream Judge which might ultimately and Authoritatively guide and direct you Pardon me I do not presume to measure my Reason against the meanest among yours for I question not but yours would err much less than mine but yet lest your own should err at all methinks it were safest and by consequence most reasonable to seek some Authority if any such there be under which you might be secur'd from all Errour at least as far as humane nature is capable of it For my part my Reason and Conscience forc't me to take that method and I resolved either to find that Authority and submit to it or keep to my own Principles how erroneous soever they might be esteem'd by others My first enquiry after this Authority was in the Church of England for tho you had often told me that it was not there yet I was more inclin'd to suspect your Modesty than condemn your want of Prudence in pretending to subsist securely without it But when I had again examined the holy Scriptures together with the best Records and Histories concerning your legal Title to this Supream Jurisdiction I found indeed you had reason and were very ingenuous in disowning what did not of right belong unto you For if the Church of England enjoys this Power by the same Rule and for the same Reasons Holland Denmark Swedeland France Italy and Spain would have the same Title to it as your selves nay perhaps Turks and Pagans But my Reason told me from the sad effects which we daily see that this must needs be most contrary to the Unity of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church I then recollected how you had often told me that the Catholic Church could never Err but that it would always hold the purity of Faith uncorrupt I remember then to have askt of your Reverences where this Catholic Church was to be found and you told me That it was dispers'd all over the Christian World I was troubled that your answer was so wide however I resolved to search and first I enquired in the Roman Church Indeed they assured me that I should there find what I lookt for 'T is true I found them all of one mind in necessaries but when I examin'd their Doctrines I perceived as you had often declar'd that if yours were true their 's was much corrupt or if they dissembled they must needs be under as great a condemnation Among them therefore there could be no part of the Catholic Church Then I went into the Greek Church but found there also the same objections and difficulties In a word I went through the Asian and African Churches the Denmark Swedeland Lutheran and Socinian Churches yet found nothing but Hypocrisie or the true Faith according to your Standard notoriously corrupt I name not Holland because among them I saw such a Medley of Faiths that it look't to me as Babel might have done when God confounded their Language but certainly if the Catholic Doctrine had been practis'd in those parts where I had been Holland surely of any Nation would best have represented the Universal Church But believe me Fathers it must then have quitted its Titles of Unity and Holiness except Vnity can consist with Division or Holiness with the World the Flesh and the Devil At last I return'd to your selves and acquainted you how unsuccessful my Journey had been you still replied that there was undoubtedly a Catholic Church Militant upon Earth and that this Church did also hold the true Faith of Christ uncorrupt but withal that it was not necessary it should be visible quoting at the same time the complaint of Elijah that he only he was left to whom God answered that he had seven Thousand left in Israel unknown to Elijah who had not bent the knee to Baal And that this was a Type of the Christian Church Truly Fathers may it not displease you I began to think that you had trifled with me all this while and pleas'd your selves to send me of an April Errand for to look for a thing which is invisible is a kind of a foolish Message Perceiving that you had not us'd me kindly I resolved to set out once more upon my own strength especially since I believ'd with you that there was an unerring Catholic Church and more than you that this Church was certainly and easily visible This my Belief was also the more confirm'd when I had well consider'd the Story of Elijah for I found that this defection and falling away from the worship of the true God was in Israel only a rebellious Kingdom separated from the chosen Tribe of Judah God knows how like our Case in England but in Jerusalem God had a public Temple a public High Priest and public true Worshippers and so they continued except some little time they were punisht with Captivity until the coming of Christ I made my first step as I had done before into the Church of Rome and indeed I there found all the marks and signs of a true Catholic Church As 1. Universality and Visibility And it shall come to pass in the last days Isa 2.2 that the Mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the Mountains and shall be exalted above the Hills Micah 4.1 And the people shall flow unto her Mat. 18.17 And if he shall neglect to
Martyr Anno Dom. 203. Now Fathers besides these great Marks of the true Catholic Church I perceived also that according to the Command and Institution of our Saviour his Vicegerent here did send out his Disciples Preaching and Baptizing through all Nations Insomuch that since Gregory the Great before whose time you tell us that this Holy Church began to fall there have been converted to the Christian Faith otherwise call'd the Roman Catholic Faith neer Thirty great Kingdoms or Provinces among which Our Saxon Ancestors help to make up the number besides infinite multitudes in the East and West Indies And so much pains should be taken in obedience to our Saviours commands and promise of his assistance so much blood of holy Martyrs spilt and all this to bring Heathens and Pagans from the worship of their false Gods into another Idolatrous and damnably corrupted Religion may possibly to your Reasons appear consistent with the Mercy and Goodness of Almighty God but pray excuse me if I tell you that to my Reason it seems altogether repugnant but this is matter of Opinion Having got thus far toward that Sovereign Ecclesiastical Authority in Matters of Faith absolutely necessary to Salvation and believing according to the strongest Evidences of Sense and Reason that it must be in the Church of Rome or no where which last Opinion must dissolve that whole Fabrick against which our Saviour promis'd the gates of Hell should not prevail I resolved to make yet one step further and enquire Whether this Ancient Catholic and Apostolic Church could have so far forfeited her great Priviledges and Prerogatives by the practice of damnable Doctrines and pernicious Errors of which your selves and others have most greivously accused her as to render her not only unworthy of the name and Title to which She pretends but also to make her Communion most unsafe and desperately dangerous to all honest and pious Christians I confess Fathers when I consider'd what some of your selves had often told me and what I found in many of your Eminent Authors concerning the late Innovation of those Doctrines controverted between the two Churches I began to have hard thoughts of the present Roman Catholic Communion Much more when enquiring how late these Doctrines were introduced into the Church you generally told me that they were not impos'd upon the Faithful before the Council of Trent which hath not been ended much above an Hundred and twenty three years But when I compar'd the date of your Reformation with that of this Council I plainly perceiv'd that the protesting against these Errors was begun and well nigh perfected before these Errours were as you say then impos'd which tho it seem'd somewhat strange and might have past with others for a reasonable Answer to this Objection of Novelty yet I resolv'd to peruse the Councils themselves and de point en point note the time when these Doctrines were in Council Establisht 1. I began with the Popes Supremacy which I found confirm'd in the Council of Chalcedon Act. 16. one of the first four General Councils own'd by Protestants above Twelve Hundred years since Six Hundred and thirty Fathers present and about the year of our Lord 451. and relation had to the first Council of Nice Can. 6. This Supremacy also allow'd profest and taught by the most Ancient Fathers after the Apostles and confest so to have been by Melancton Luther Bucer Bilson Dr. Cooper Bunny Fulk Middleton Osiander the Centurists and many others too long to mention 2. Those Books which you call Apocrypha were taken into the Canon of the Old Testament in the Third Council of Carthage Signed by St. Augustin Baruch only not named because an Appendix to Jeremiah whose Secretary he was Can. 47. 3. The unbloody Sacrifice of the Mass in the Sixth Council of Constantinople a Thousand years since Can. 32. And also in the Ninth Council of the Apostles Decreed That a Bishop c. shall communicate when Sacrifice is made 4. Veneration and worship of Saints Relicks according to Apostolical Tradition as also of Martyrs and holy Images in the Second Council of Nice Three Hundred and Fifty Fathers present Act. 3. Anno Dom. 780. See more in Act 7. With the general Concurrences of Ancient Fathers 5. Communion under one kind sufficient in the Council of Constance Sess 13. and practis'd in the Church Twelve Hundred years since 6. Purgatory and many more too long to relate in the Council of Florence and believed in the Primitive times 7. And lastly the Doctrine of Transubstantiation confirmed in the great Council of Lateran in which neer Thirteen Hundred Fathers assisted And in Seven or Eight other Councils before that of Trent and all the controverted Points particularly and by name declared by some of your selves to have been brought into England by Augustin the Monk above a Thousand years since Indeed Fathers when I had diligently examin'd this Truth and found it most Evident beyond the possibility of any just or reasonable Contradiction I was much scandaliz'd at the disingenuity of your Writers who whilst they accuse others of Fallacy Imposture and Impudence dare advance so great and demonstrable a Falsehood in Matter of Fact that nothing but Ignorance can excuse them so they expose themselves to the greatest Censure of rashness and indiscretion as uncharitable and unjust to those whom they call their Enemies as also unsafe and abusing the Credulity of their Friends It will not consist with the Brevity here intended to speak fully of every particular Point in dispute between us I shall content my self therefore to affirm as I do that there are but few of them which have not been tolerated and practis'd more or less by some Eminent Members of the Reformed Churches and which have not undeniable Authority and Antiquity to support them I shall fix therefore upon two only and consider how far they may bear and appear reasonable to an Impartial Reader 1. The Authority and Infallibility of the Roman Catholic Church 2. The Doctrine of Transubstanpiation For the two firsts I think them so necessarily involv'd one within the other that in proving one we prove both for if the Supream lawful Ecclesiastical Authority resides in the Church of Rome as representing in its General Councils the Catholic Church assembled then we have the promise of our Saviour that his holy Spirit shall ever assist them and guide them into all Truth This I believe not only with a Popish but with a Protestant Faith for you have always told me and I think you do not now deny it that the Catholic Church cannot err in Fundamentals or hold the Faith corrupt the difficulty only lies in finding the Chatholic Church which to avoid some unlucky consequences that might disturb your quiet you prudently tell us Is not certainly to be found It remains therefore that we find this Supream lawful Authority which represents the visible Catholic Church I have given you my Judgment already And that
External Government and that but in some particulars with which I meddle not If you tell me a story of the Abbot of Bangor I answer the particular ground of it is evidently false and forg'd and at best all circumstances consider'd of little consequence The plain Truth is this The Brittains received the Christian Faith even in the days of the Apostles But being persecuted at home by the Romans Picts and Saxons Religion fled to the Mountains and bordering parts of Wales At the same time the Church of Rome was no less afflicted by the Heathen Emperours and no wonder if in these days and circumstances there was but little Correspondence between Rome and Wales But when the Church brought forth from her subterraneous Refuges and set upon a Hill began to enlarge her self and propagate the Gospel according to the Commands of our Saviour Go ye and Preach unto all Nations Gregory the Great sent Augustin the Monk into England somewhat before the year Six Hundred to see how Matters went here in this long interval of silence and distractions In short the Brittains knew him not and no wonder until he had confirm'd his Commission by Miracles and such as none yet ever denied The great Errors which he found among them were chiefly two Their Asiatic Error concerning the keeping of Easter and dissent from the use of the Roman Church in the administring of Baptism And altho in some other Matters they differ'd from the Church of Rome yet Augustin promised to tolerate those provided they would rectifie these which the Brittish Bishops consented to and confessed That it was the right way of Justice and righteousness which Austin taught Si his tribus mihi obtemperare vultis ut Pascha suo tempore celebretis ut ministerium Baptizandi juxta morem Rom. Apost Ecolesiae compleatis Ut genti Anglorum una nobiscum praedicetis Verbum Domini Caetera quae agitis quamvis Moribus nostris contraria aequanimiter cuncta tolerabimus Cum Brittones confitentur Intellexisse se veram esse viam Justitiae quam praedicaret Augustinus Beda Hist l. 2. c. 2. Hence we may observe That the two great faults which Austin found with the Brittains were about Easter and Baptism that the Brittains at first highly oppos'd this Innovation but that in all other Substantials they agreed That Austin is severely accus'd for bringing into England the Popish Superstition and all other Points by name controverted between us at this day is plain from neer twenty Eminent Protestant Authors both at home and abroad And that the Brittish Bishops did not except against any of these save only Easter and Baptism is confest Now after all this can we believe that the Brittains who earnestly contradicted Austin in these smaller Points and were so tenacious of their own Customs would have silently recieved so many and imcomparably much greater Points of Faith had they in like manner disagreed from him therein Credat Judaeus Apella The consequence which I draw from all this is that the same Doctrines these two Points excepted which Austin taught the Saxons had been deliver'd to the Brittains from the Apostles If you understand otherwise I shall be glad to be better informed Or if you can give us a better Authority than venerable Bede you will do well to produce it In the mean time when we consider the great Learning and Holiness of St. Gregory so esteem'd by all sober men the Piety of Austin himself and of Bede who writes the Story He must be a bold man who without better proof than I have hitherto seen dares accuse these three great Persons and the whole Christian World at that time of Idolatry and all those other damnable Crimes then taught of which you are pleased to say the Church of Rome at present is guilty If you go higher and object a Letter of Pope Eleutherius to King Lucius I demur But I take it for granted that these old Arguments are thredbare and will not hold Water otherwise I would humbly advise you to insist totally upon them for if you can make out your Lawful Supream Independent Authority in determining Matters of Faith without Appeal trouble not your selves nor abuse your Friends with Sophistical Artificial Pamphlets about Judges and Guides in Controversies Reason and Sense against Faith and Obedience and I know not what to that purpose but stick close to your Authority make it out plain and you carry all before you In good earnest Reverend Fathers I see but one way how you 'l evade these Difficulties which press hard upon you and it is this That you have an Infallible Rule Gods Holy Word containing all things necessary to Salvation And Mr. Chillingworth tells us p. 92. The Scripture is a Rule as sufficiently Perfect so sufficiently Intelligible in things necessary to all that have understanding whether learned or unlearned Now if the Scripture be a Guide and a Judge as well as a Rule Then have you been to blame all this while that you have not told us particularly where the Catholic Church was for certainly where the Bible is and where all men that have understanding whether learned or unlearned by reading it hold all things necessary to Salvation there the Catholic Church is whether at Rome or in London and I will not believe so ill of any who in such Case read the Scripture as to imagine that they wilfully oppose a Truth which is clear to them and Mr. Chillingworth tells me p. 367. That Believing all that is clear to me in Scripture I must needs believe all Fundamentals and so I cannot incur Heresie which is opposite to some Fundamental In a word wheresoever there is or was a Bible and a Man of understanding whether learned or unlearned that read it there was a certain number of the true Catholic Church pure and uncorrupt For the same hand again tells us p. 101. The Scripture sufficiently informing me what is Faith must also of necessity teach me what is Heresie that which is straight will plainly teach us what is crooked So here is not only a Member but according to my understanding the Representative of the whole Catholic Church for here is Authority and Infallibility and further than that I seek not But if the holy Bible be a certain Rule but withal that this Person of understanding whether learned or unlearned be not sufficiently qualified to find out certainly all things necessary to Salvation and of necessity to teach what Heresie is and I confess I shrewdly suspect that there may be many in the World who cannot with a wet Finger perform all this then are we to seek again for a Judge and an Authority and are got no further than we were sixteen Hundred years since when the Scripture was first acknowledged to be the Word of God But to do Justice worthy Fathers to you and to my self let us further consider these and many other seeming Absurdities which appear at first sight such
the greatest that ever had been since the Apostles and therein it was determined by near 1300 Fathers that according to the Doctrine of the most Ancient and Holy Fathers Tradition of the Church and former Councils the Conversion of the Substance of Bread and Wine after Consecration into the Substance of the Natural Body and Blood of Jesus Christ the Accidents of Bread and Wine only remaining should thenceforward be call'd Transubstantiation which had been sufficiently before exprest and explain'd by that wonderful Transmutation and Transelementation asserted by the Fathers This our Discourser believes with Scotus to have been the necessary consequence of the Council of Lateran p. 21. and so do I too Tho' in truth this explicative Term was I think more particularly establisht as here exprest in the Council of Trent Now to me the Church seems so far from being worthy of blame for decreeing what appears almost the necessary consequence of the real Presence I mean Transubstantiation that as the Case and Circumstances then stood the Church had been very negligent if she had not so decreed For it being always believ'd which I think is also fully proved That the Elements of Bread and Wine after Consecration were most wonderfully and by the Omnipotence of God converted into the Body and Blood of Christ It is clear then that either the Accidents or the Substance of Bread and Wine must be changed into the Substance of the Body of Christ But the Accidents are not so changed therefore the Substance Besides the Substance of the Body of Christ is in the Blessed Sacrament either with the Substance of Bread or without the Substance of Bread If the first then Catholics and our Discourser are in the wrong If the last then Luther and our Discourser are in the wrong So which way our Discourser should happen to be in the right I cannot comprehend except Zuinglius should have been more than Athanasius and our Discourser the Disciple of Zuinglius greater than St. Andrew the Apostle of our Lord. Now besides that the choice is easie in this Case even from the Authority of one side greater than of the other yet whosoever shall endeavour to reconcile the Real Presence with the Doctrine of Consubstantiation or Impanation will find harder difficulties in these than of that of Transubstantiation so much condemn'd The Authorities therefore which he brings from Durandus Erasmus Tonstal and some others to shew that before this Council of Lateran Men were at liberty concerning the modus or manner of Christ's Real Presence in the Sacrament might have been some kind of Argument for a Lutheran But how our Discourser becomes concerned in it I see not since quite through his Discourse and more particularly in p. 35. he hath with scorn excluded Both. Our Discourser hath yet one Argument relating to the time when he supposeth this Doctrine of Transubstantiation to have come into the World which is very remarkable He tells us That the Iconomachi or opposers of Images were very zealous against the Reverence due to them in the Synod of Constantinople about the year 750 arguing That our Lord having left us no other Image of himself but the Sacrament in which the Substance of the Bread is the Image of his Body we ought to make no other Image of our Lord But in the year 787. in the Second Council of Nice these scrupulous Greeks in thirty seven years time were grown so hardy in their Faith and so extreamly fond of this new Doctrine concerning the Corporal Presence of Christ in the Sacrament that they swallow'd it immediately and from that time were very solicitous and careful to admonish us that the Eucharist is not the Figure or Image of the Body of our Lord but his true Body as appears from the seventh Synod and he brings Bellarmin to vouch for him p. 21 22. Here we see these nice Greeks who were so very exact and curious in smaller Matters were contented to make so great a passage in one Council as from the Figure of Christ in the Sacrament to admit of his Substance nay and were so pleased with it that from thence and that time they took care to admonish us concerning it But the squeamish Latins notwithstanding the Greeks had advanc'd so far in one single Council were little less than three hundred years according to our Discoursers computation licking this mishapen Monster of Transubstantiation such is the Elegancy of his Style into that Form in which it is now setled in the Church of Rome Indeed he hath been over generous to the Latins in allowing them so considerable a time to relish and digest only the Mode of a thing when the easse Greeks at one sitting had dispatcht the thing it self in which according to our Discoursers Opinion the great Barbarousness and Impiety consists For says he The Impiety and Barbarousness of the thing is not in truth extenuated but only the appearance of it by being done under the Species of Bread and Wine for the thing they acknowledge is really done and they believe that they verily eat and drink the Natural Flesh and Blood of Christ In truth the Latins are obliged to him in confessing them to have been so extream cautious about the lesser part but how he will come off with the Greeks for being so rash and inconsiderate about the greater and principal part must be his care if he pleaseth I am perswaded had Bellarmin said this to have proved that the Greeks did then and not till then receive the Doctrine of the Real Presence Our Discourser could he make any advantage of it with good Reason would have cast it out as the most improbable and ridiculous conjecture in the World And yet here because he thinks it may help to favour his false account he produceth it with as much gravity as if he knew Catholics had less sense to see a blot than himself rashness to make one I come now to his fourth pretended Ground of this Doctrine that is The necessity of such a Change in the Sacrament to the Comfort and Benefit of those who receive it p. 30. To this my Answer at present is very short If I be satisfied that our Saviour commanded the thing I am convinc'd there was a good Reason for it without over-curiously examining what or why in this Case more than why he cured not those who touched the Hem of his Garment without that Ceremony or the blind with out clay and spittle And yet the Fathers and many late Authors will furnish those who are more inquisitive with many very good Reasons why this Change in the Sacrament is more advantageous to the worthy Receiver than the Figure would be and I shall say somewhat of it my self hereafter The last pretended Ground of this Doctrine is as he tells us to magnifie the Power of the Priest in being able to work so great a Miracle Indeed if the great Council of Lateran did make this a Ground of
hear them tell it to the Church 2. Uninterrupted continuance and Succession This is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my spirit that is upon thee Isa 59.21 and my word which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed from henceforth and for ever And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists Ephes 4.11 And some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministery for the edifying the body of Christ Till we all come in the unity of faith unto a perfect man c. 3. Unity and Uniformity Now I beseech you brethren that ye all speak the same thing and that there be be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind 1 Cor. 1.10 and in the same Judgment That ye stand fast in one spirit with one mind Phil. 1.27 striving together for the faith of the gospel 4. Holy Fathers and Martyrs General Councils and Synods a High Priest and a Holy Sacrifice Vndoubted Miracles and Divine Sacraments Holy Orders and Religious Colledges Abstinence and Pennance Faith and Obedience Charity and Good Works And in a word fundamental Doctrines Authoritatively impos'd and Vniversally receiv'd throughout the whole Christian World Be not offended Fathers that I speak so largely of their Doctrine for having well examin'd I say again that nere eight parts in ten among Christians agree in those very Articles or most of them which are controverted between your selves and them And these believ'd from the beginning of their Conversions whether in Europe Asia Africa or America Having met with these great inducements to perswade me I had found the true Catholic Church and believing that a visible Body could not subsist without a visible Head I made it my next business to enquire after this Supream Vicegerent or Representative of the whole And indeed methought there was no great difficulty in it I began at the Head I mean Christ Jesus and found 1. That he was a High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec That he instituted a new Law and gave Commissions to his Apostles to promulgate and interpret it and promised the assistance of his holy Spirit to the end of all Ages Next that of these he appointed one to be Chief I mean St. Peter so reputed and unanimously esteemed by the Fathers in the Eldest times of Christianity the Fathers so understood by many among your selves and not to be disputed without manifest injury and violence to their plain Writings and so received by the whole Catholic Church His Succession for many years deliver'd to us by St. Augustin and brought down even to our present Age and Pope These worthy Fathers are pregnant Arguments of a lawful Authority I wisht you could have shewn me such another in your own Church I next lookt into this Ecclesiastical Government as far as it concern'd me and found that all Points of Faith were determin'd in General Councils which represent the Catholic Church assembled and in which our Saviour promis'd his holy Spirit should ever assist That they were always as General as the Circumstances of Times and Places would permit or the weight of the Matters to be debated required and free and indisputable when secur'd from violence and force that their Decrees were then made with deliberation and according to the received Doctrines of the Apostles and their Successors preserv'd in the Writings of Fathers or constant Apostolical Tradition kept inviolable in the Church And when thus made that they were obligatory to bind our Consciences and conclude our private Reasons I examined further whether this Vicegerent and Successor of St. Peter was received as such in these General Councils or Catholic Church and found his Authority own'd and confirm'd by them and that he was many hundred of years in the peaceable possession of it no man upon Earth pretending a Superiority or if any did that he was thereupon condemn'd as an Intruder or Usurper Hence I concluded as the nature and necessary Laws of Government requir'd that the Pope himself or General Council or Both united could not possibly grant this Supream Authority to any other Mortal Man or Men to hold independently of him or them because this must constitute another Supream independent Head of the same Body which is monstrous or a Head without a Body which is ridiculous or else there would be two distinct Heads and two Bodies which is directly contrary to the Vnity and Essence of Christs Church as frustrating or obstructing the main End and design of Christ that is of preventing Heresies or condemning them when they arise for par in parem non habet Imperium Two equal Sovereign Authorities have no Jurisdiction one over the other Besides this Vicegerent is but a Trustee or Fidei commissarius and can have no greater Power than what is given him by his Principal or Fidei Commissor now this is a personal Trust and cannot be alienated or divided because he holds not this Power in his own right as a Property or in pleno Jure Proprietatis he hath only the administration of it in trust for another So neither can he alienate the Patrimonium Ecclesiae or St. Peters Patrimony all Contracts therefore in these Cases would be fraudulent Tanquam facti de re alienâ and the Grantees become malae fidei possessores or unjust Possessors of what they could not lawfully purchase Lastly all Sovereign Power in the same Government is Indivisible and can only be delegagated in the Executive part for the administration of Justice but accountable still to the Head from whence it derives The Equal priviledges therefore or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 granted to the Patriarck of Constantinople prove nothing against this Supremacy of St. Peters Successor For First They were only honorary in consideration that Constantinople was become the Seat of the Empire Secondly Patriarchal or quatenus Patriarcha but not quatenus Caput Ecclesiae or as Head of the Universal Church And lastly it is particularly exprest in the same Canon that these Honours or Priviledges should be held and enjoy'd post Pontificem Romanum after the Bishop of Rome and it appears de facto that during the Third General Council held at Ephesus and allow'd by Protestants Pope Caelestine the First did by his substitute Cyril authoritatively depose and Excommunicate Nestorius then Patriarch of Constantinople And Pope Victor who lived Anno Dom. 198. Excommunicated the Bishops of Asia for their keeping of Easter contrary to the Institutions of St. Peter and St. Paul tho tolerated therein by St. John Nor could Ambition or Avarice in those days of Persecution move the Supream Heads of the Church to exercise such Jurisdiction for they got little by being Eminent and Conspicuous but Martyrdom and so it hapned to this Pope Victor who died a
Point then indeed this Instance would be impertinent But we must not thus leave our admirable Author for from this his well consider'd Doctrine we may observe 1. That according to this Rule there can never be Schism or Heresie in the World until a man can divide from himself or a man condemning himself obstinately stand out against his clear Evidence of Scripture and so sin wilfully and without excuse and in this last Point Bishop Bromhall and Dr. Still unanimously concur with our Author Now believing in Charity that these wonders have seldom or never hapned therefore I ought to conclude that St. Paul mistook when he said 1 Cor. 11.19 There must be Heresies among you and St. John much to blame when he wrote his Gospel many years after the death of our Saviour against the Heresies of Ebion and Cerinthus 2. That all Men of understanding whether learned or unlearned are in the direct road to Heaven and found Members of the true Catholic Church provided they be lovers of God and of Truth and follow their own Sense of Scripture altho they differ in some of the most Fundamental Points of Faith Now besides the extravagancy of this Opinion in general it seems particularly levell'd against the poor Papists because they often submit their own private Interpretations with great reason to the Judgment and Interpretation of the Church But if this be so damnable a fault in Papists pray take care not to exact this resignation from your own Subjects and so farewel to Authority 3. And Lastly That there are some ambiguous Terms which lie indifferent between divers Senses whereof the one is true and the other false This we readily grant for the truth of it is so manifest that there is never a Point in the Câ—â—istian Faith howsoever by you and us esteem'd Fundamental but hath been denied by whole Bodies of Learned Men who as you do made Scripture their Rule But when you tell us further that the true Sense of them is not necessary to Faith or Salvation for if God would have had his meaning in these places certainly known why should he speak obscurely Then methinks Fathers you not only make the Apostles write Impertinently and to no purpose but you have brought all sorts of Sectaries Schismatics and Heretics if any such have been and also the Turks themselves provided they read the Scripture within the Pale of the Christian Church Nay more you have made them in such Case equal with the best true Members in it And indeed if the good wishes and prayers of our Teckelites might prevail as much on one side as the Principles of your Champion have capacitated the Turks on the other side I know no reason they have to despair of seeing the Cathedral of St. Paul Consecrated by the Mufti of Mahomet By this time most Reverend Fathers I should think that you as well as my self should be very weary of this Learned Author Being fixt therefore to my Authority and the more from the Eminent danger of his loose and pernitious Principles I am resolved that nothing shall move me except the absur'd and monstrous Doctrine of Transubstantiation as you are pleas'd to call it may have of it self force enough to ruine and overturn so solid a Foundation REMARKS Upon some late DISCOURSES AGAINST Transubstantiation I Must confess that this great Point seem'd the most difficult to me of any that are Controverted between the two Churches and for these Reasons First because I did not rightly apprehend the Catholic Explication of the Natural Body of Christ in the Sacrament Secondly Because from this misunderstanding of mine I believed that the Body of Christ being in two places at the same time imply'd a contradiction which I suppos'd the Omnipotency of God could not support And lastly because I thought the Fathers had been express against this Doctrine I apply'd my self to the reading of Controversies and discoursing with some Learned Men on both sides and found first from the Catholics That altho they Profess and Believe the Natural Body of Christ to be truly and substantially in the Sacrament yet they tell us That it is not there after a Natural manner as it was upon the Earth or upon the Cross but after a Spiritual Supernatural and Vnbloody manner Secondly That it is indeed a Contradiction to say a Body is here and not here at the same time but to say that the Glorified Body of Christ may be by accident and by the power of God in many places or ubi's at the same time is so far from a Contradiction that it gives it not a more sovereign Existence than what we allow to Angels or to the Soul in a Mans Body which altho it be a Substance is yet really substantially and at the same time totally in the Finger of a Man and totally in his foot and totally in every part and yet totally in the whole Body tota in toto tota in qualibe parte And Lastly for the Fathers I found in them not only most plain demonstrable and Invincible Authorities asserting the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament after a substantial manner but also that those very Citations produc'd by Protestants to destroy this Doctrine of the Real Presence were most of them if not all so fully answer'd or so agreable to the Catholic Faith that if any of them remain'd still obscure there wanted not twenty plain places to Interpret them by But more of these hereafter Here I consider'd the Protestant Arguments against this Doctrine of Transubstantiation and found them generally dissatisfactory and insufficient chiefly upon this account that they brought continually the same Objections which tho they had been answer'd a hundred times over by Catholics both Ancient and Modern yet I found no Reply tothese Answers or at least such as handled those which were most material so that I perceiv'd they danc't always in a Ring without advancing a step towards a substantial and convincing Demonstration At last I was recommended to a late Discourse against Transubstantiation which treating particularly of that Subject and being wrote as I was inform'd by an Eminent Protestant Divine I resolv'd to pitch upon that and from thence take my Measures how far I ought to receive this great Catholic Doctrine I read it over and over with great attention and before I speak particularly of any thing contained in it I think it Just to give this Character of it in general viz. that it seems to be writ without Modesty Charity Sincerity or Good Manners Without Modesty In that a private Person upon presumption of his own Parts and Learning shall dare to ridicule so great a Mystery of the Christian Religion I speak of the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament according to the Doctrine of Catholics and Lutherans excluding at present the Mode as they term it or Manner Transubstantiation and this Doctrine own'd and profest not two Hundred years since generally through the Christian
Nature by means of the Eucharist doth make it all to rise Immortal and glorious The same may be seen in Iraen l. 8. contr Haer c. 34. And many others who understand the encrease of the Flesh to be a raising of the Flesh towards a state of Immortality and disposing it towards a happy Resurrection according to that of S. John c. 6. He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood hath life Everlasting and I will raise him up at the last day But if these Interepretations should not happen to please you I shall then recommend you to a late Catholic Author and leave you to himself or his Excellent Treatise The Defence for the Adoration of the Body and Blood of our Lord p. 14. For further satisfaction his words are these ' This External Sign or Symbol they the Catholics affirm to be all That of the Bread and Wine that is perceived by any Sense And tho' after Consecration the Substance of the Bread and Wine is denied to remain yet is Substance here taken in such a sense as that neither the hardness nor softness nor the frangibility nor the savour nor the odour nor the nutritive vertue of the Bread nor nothing visible nor tangible or otherwise perceptible by any sense are involved in it All which at last we shall endeavour to explain The last Head is That the words of Consecration are not to be taken in a literal Sense To prove this our Discourser brings several killing Testimonies as he calls them but I know not whom they hurt except the Caphernaites for all Catholics own both the Authorities and the Doctrine contained in them as absolutely necessary to the true and Orthodox understanding their Doctrine of the Holy Sacrament That is to say That the Body of Christ in the Eucharist is not there after a Natural and Corporeal manner as it was upon the Cross that is specifically and according to the outward Form and local Existence but spiritually supernaturally and without Circumscription that is external Commensuration of or Co-extension with Place And if Pascasius meant otherwise of the Sacrament than what is here exprest then Rabanus Maurus did well to oppose him with all his might as another Anonymus did if not the same Rabanus in a Tract extant in Codice Gemblacens Cosnobij cum Heregeri Opusculo But that this good Arch-Bishop did so understand him is plain for these two Reasons First because he hath always been acknowledged an Orthodox Bishop among all Catholics and next because his own words have with good reason confirm'd Catholics in this their Opinion of him and they are these Who says he would ever believe that Bread could be turn'd into Flesh or Wine into Blood except our Saviour himself had said it who Created Bread and Wine and made all things out of Nothing but it is easier to make one thing out of another than all things out of Nothing L. 7. de Sacris ordin ad Theatmanum c. 10. Now after all these Authorities from the Fathers and a Hundred more which might be produc't to shew that they believ'd the Real Presence together with the agreable concurrent sense of them all running through their whole Works besides their constant practice of Adoration and Belief of an unbloody Sacrifice and many Learned Protestants confessing that they did so believe After all this I suppose I need not enquire of our Discourser when this Doctrine of the Real Presence came into the World for I am convinc't that it was in the very days of the Apostles themselves or to use the words of Sebastianus Francus and Hospinian two Eminent Protestants jam tum primo illo tempore viventibus adhuc Apostolis c. But because our Discourser hath made use of the name of the good Arch-Bishop of Mentz to countenance and support his false Chronology it is Just that I take off this scandalous imputation from Rabanus Maurus Now altho his own words before recited are more than sufficient to clear this Excellent Person yet at present I shall only make use of our Discourser's own computation to destroy the probability of his unreasonable Supposition which he calls a plain Testimony He tells us P. 21. That in the Second Council of Nice Anno Dom. 787. The Sacrament was declar'd to be properly the Body and Blood of Christ and that thence this Opinion got footing among the Greeks And that in the year 818. Pascasius first broacht this Doctrine in the Latin Church insinuating that until that time this Doctrine was not receiv'd among the Latins and that thereupon Rabanus Maurus in the year 847 wrote against this Pascasius for introducing this new Error Thus far the Story is very well laid but here are these hard difficulties to be digested before we can give it that credit which he expects First it is certain that Peter Arch-Presbyter of the Roman Church and Peter the Monk were present in the said Council in behalf of Pope Adrian That the said Pope wrote Letters to the Emperour Constantius and also to Tarasius Patriarch of Constantinople which were received by the said Council And lastly that the Popes Supremacy was confirmed in this very Council in these words Quod Ecclesia Romana sit Caput omnium Ecclesiarum Act 2. Now from this Council to Rabanus Maurus there was an Interval of 60 years from the Council to Pascasius of one and Thirty years and can we believe that this Doctrine of the Real Presence which was declared in this Council in the presence of the Popes Legats and confirm'd by the Pope himself should be one and Thirty years a getting over from Nice into the Latin Church Or that so Learned a Man as Rabanus and so esteem'd by our Discourser should be ignorant sixty years after this Council was held That this Doctrine had been there declared And so grosly mistake Pascasius for the first broacher of it Truly for my part altho' Rabanus had not explain'd himself concerning his Faith according to those expressions before related yet would I not easily have believ'd that he could have been so ignorant of the Transaction of this Council or would have accus'd Pascasius of introducing so gross an Error into the Latin Church when he knew that he writ no otherwise than as had been Thirty years before determin'd in a General Council It is plain therefore that Rabanus quarrell'd with some Expressions of Pascasius as importing the Erroneous sense before mention'd Our Discourser being confident that he hath found out the date of Transubstantiation falls a little foul upon Mr. Arnauld because he cannot believe that such a Doctrine should have been impos'd upon the Christian World and yet so universally receiv'd except there had been some extraordinary if not an universal Opposition and indeed our Discourser of all mankind ought to have believ'd so too for if every man should have had as ill an Opinion of it as himself its establishment had been impossible But that he
afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury who among other things hath these words This Faith speaking of the Real Presence according to the Doctrine of Transubstantiation the Church which being spread over the whole World is call'd Catholic now holds and hath held from the Primitive Times But you saith be to Berengarius believe that the Bread and Wine of our Lords Table remain unchanged as to their Substance after Consecration c. If this be true which you believe and maintain concerning the Body of Christ then that is false which is believed and taught of it by the Church over the whole World for as many as own the name of Christians and are really such do profess that in the Sacrament they receive the true Flesh of Christ and his true Blood the same which he took of the Virgin Most wonderfully strange that so absurd a Doctrine should have spread so universally in so short a time as our Discourser is pleas'd to allow it Guitmundus Rupertus Algerus and other Learned Men writ against him to the same effect And moreover this his Doctrine was condemn'd as false and himself as an Innovator in no less than Eight Councils and Synods before that of Lateran which miserable Synods as the Answerer proudly calls them may be supposed to have had as much Learning and Honesty and I am sure much more Authority than Twenty two such Sheets as his tho' stampt with an Imprimatur before them Now let us observe This Monstrous Absurd Barbarous and Impious Doctrine of Transubstantiation as our Discourser calls it in somewhat more than two Hundred years was so throughly establisht all over the Christian World that these Learned Authors and the Fathers of these Eight Councils assembled in several Kingdoms were so totally ignorant that their own Doctrine had its date from the Council of Nice or that the Opinion of Berengarius had been ever before publickly profest that they make no scruple of alledging the Antiquity Vniversality and Constant Practice of their own Doctrine as a most convincing and unanswerable Argument against his Interroga Graecos Armenios says Lantfranc seu cujuslibet nationis quoscunque homines uno ore hanc fidem i. e. Transubst se testabuntur habere I profess that if after this my most serious and impartial Enquiry concerning the Belief of the Ancient Fathers and the Catholic Church touching the Real Presence it should possibly be true that they all or generally agreed with our Discourser and his figurative Interpretation excluding the Substance I would lay aside all my Books and conclude once for all That even the Doctrine of Transubstantiation it self is more easie and rational than the true sense of the Fathers concerning it intelligible or attainable And tho I will not say with the Booksellers Wife at Paris That if the Primitive Fathers believ'd Transubstantiation She would no longer believe Christianity yet I may say if they did believe it and were mistaken a Christians Faith any further than it may be productive of good Works is the most indifferent thing in the World Our Discourser tells us of one John Scotus and Ratramnus and I know not who writing I know not what against this Doctrine of the Real Presence at least according to his Interpretation tho I know many Catholics understand some of them in a very Orthodox sense But to me it seems as impertinent to bring two or three private persons advancing their private Opinions against the Concurrent Testimonies of all Authors prior present and others since they wrote posterior to them besides the Definitions and Decrees of General Councils as it would be among us to produce the Authorities of John Milton and Junius Brutus to prove that it was lawful among the Jews for the People by their own Supream Power to murder their Kings and that in all Governments the People have the same Sovereign Authority to judge and punish even by Death their lawful hereditary Kings and Governours if they shall so think fit Now having the History of the Bible as well as they together with the express Command of God and constant Testimony and Practice of Learned Men through all Ages and publick Laws with Acts of Parliament to the contrary these Men may write till their Hands and Hearts ake to use out Discourser's expression before they shall perswade me to renounce the strongest Evidence imaginable in favour of their private Sentiments Whether our Discourser be of my mind or not I cannot tell but if he be I see no greater reason to believe John Scotus than John Milton Come we now to the Church Authority which so much offends him Our indulgent Mother according to her favourable Discipline permitted the Doctrine of Transubstantiation as she had done for many years that of the Consubstantiality to pass upward of Twelve Hundred years without any other judicial determination of the Modus as they call it than such as had been Originally planted in the hearts and minds of the Faithful and cultivated in every Age by Pious and Learned Men in their Sermons Catechisms and other Discourses as occasion hapned But Berengarius a Man fond of his own Notions and valuing himself much upon his own Reason resolved to set up for a new Light of the Church and among other Errors taught the figurative acceptation of the Words of Consecration as hath been before related Upon this he was admonisht by several Pious and Learned Catholics to retract betimes so new and pernicious a Heresie But the Arguments of sense procuring him a party among the Vulgar he prosecuted his design with great vigor until at last he was taken notice of by the Supream Church-Governors and in a Council at Rome An. Dom. 1050. his Doctrine was condemn'd and himself excommunicated At length having several times abjur'd this his Heresie and as often return'd to his Vomit he burnt the Book of Scotus from whence he confest to have suckt part of his Poyson renounc'd for the last time with all Sincerity his former Opinions and spending the residue of his days in Piety and Devotion died in the Unity of the Roman Catholic Church full of sorrow and repentance Jan. 6. An. Dom. 1088. as may be seen in Membranis Taureacens in Chronic. Clarii Floriacens Monach. S. Petri vivi in Will of Malmesbury l. 3. de gestis Reg. Angl. In Baldrico Burgaliensi Abbate and in the Manuscript B. Martini Turonensis Notwithstanding all this the Seeds of Heresie thus sown were not easily rooted out And besides some Catholics themselves taking occasion from this Heresie had writ-concerning this great Mystery according as they best apprenended it But sometimes the obscurity of their Expressions the double sense which they admitted and not clearly shewing what they themselves believed Misfortunes which happen to most men who write concerning such high Mysteries without Authority the Governours of the Church thought fit as the best means to obviate these Inconveniences to call a General Council under Pope Innocent the Third which was