JOHN BARCLAY HIS DEFENCE OF THE MOST Holy Sacrament OF THE EUCHARIST TO THE SECTARIES OF THE TIMES· BOOK II. CHAP. II. Englished by a Person of Quality With Allowance LONDON Printed by Mary Thompson at the Entrance into Old-Spring-Garden near Charring-Cross And Sold by Matthew Turner at the Holy-Lamb in Holbourn And John Lane at the Corner of Wild-street 1688· OF THE MOST Holy Sacrament OF THE EUCHARIST· CHAP. II. LET us now speak a little of the Eucharist if in treating of so great a Subject it may be lawful to say but little Do not thou O Lord leave us to whom thou hast left thy self but restore Sight to the blinded Sectaries that they may courageously acknowledge this thy Gift which is so wonderfully great that they believe it not only above themselves to Receive but also above thee to Give For as nothing more frequently deters the Jews from embracing the Christian Faith than their being oblig'd to believe in it that the living GOD the GOD of Abraham became Man led a mortal Life and died on a Cross So nothing more offends many of our Sectaries than the Excellency of this Sacrament whilst they cannot persuade themselves the Bounty of CHRIST could ever make him stoop so low as to permit that very Body to be held in the Hands of Priests and receiv'd by the Mouths of Sinners which having been once extended on the Cross now sits in Glory at the Right-hand of the Father But there is not O ye Sectaries any greater prejudice against you than the universal Agreement of all Christians in their Belief of the Eucharist at such time as you first began to appear and the exceeding great Disagreement amongst your selves in this your Errour Is it probable that there was then no Church in the World which had a right Belief of this Sacrament Or must we think the Spirit of Truth resides in you who in this so great Affair contest more fiercely with one another than with Us All Christians in the World Latines Greeks Armenians Abissines and Muscovites had at that time one and the same Sense of that Sacred Mystery They all I say except a few Hussites in Bohemia who as they were none of Ours so neither are they Yours there not being any amongst you altogether of this Opinion concerning the Eucharist agreed with Us and still do that under the Species or Appearance of Bread and Wine the Body and Blood of CHRIST are really Conceal'd that there is no Bread no Wine remaining that the Eucharist is therefore to be Ador'd because there is in it no other Substance but CHRIST himself But you O ye Sectaries were nothing mov'd with this general Consent of Christians You departed from them all that is you resolv'd to be Hereticks Nor did you all take one way but having once left the well known Path of the Church You wander'd in your own Inventions So that if any one enquires what your Thoughts are of the Eucharist you are fain to tell him a long Story which in the end wants an Oedipus to unfold it For so numerous are your Dissensions concerning this Point that there are reckon'd amongst you above fourty different Opinions altogether contrary to each other Nay farther you do not sufficiently explain or to speak more truly do not well understand what the several Sects amongst you hold Those of you which follow Luther confess that our Lords Body is really contain'd in this Sacrament though they think withall the Bread still to remain The Hugonots English Protestants and other Calvinists affirm on the contrary that it is nothing but meer Bread because say they CHRIST is sitting at the Right-hand of the Father and therefore cannot be in several places Others think otherwise But these two are the most eminent Opinions amongst you Let us now see how absurd they both are The Lutherans confessing CHRIST's Body to be really present deny nevertheless that 't is to be Ador'd And behold how excellently they Reason For say they CHRIST instituted not this Sacrament that it might be Ador'd but that it might feed our Souls Why do they not also say that Kings and Princes ride a Hunting for Recreation and not to be Reverenc'd by their Subjects And that they are therefore mistaken who when they meet their King as he is Hunting pay him the Respect due to their Soveraign CHRIST was on the Cross That he might save the Souls of many and bear the Reproach which was due to us not that he might be there Ador'd Hadst thou O Lutheran been then present wouldst thou have thought it a Crime to have Prostrated thy self on Earth and Ador'd him hanging on the Cross. What madness is it in thee not to Adore CHRIST wherever he is who wherever he is is GOD the Disposer of thy Life and Judge of thy Soul But this Opinion of the Lutherans which asserts the Bread to remain in the Eucharist is no less contrary to Scripture than to the Doctrine of the Primitive Church For if the Bread and CHRIT's Body were both there CHRIST would not have said This but here is my Body nor yet would he have said The Bread but In the Bread which I will give is my Flesh. And if the Church in the Apostles Time had not believ'd with Us that there is no Substance of Bread remaining in the Eucharist St. Justin Martyr would not have written that this Sacrament after the words of Consecration are pronounc'd Is the Flesh and Blood of that Incarnate Jesus but that after the Consecration that Flesh and that Blood are added to the Eucharistical Bread and Wine Nor yet would St. Cyril of Hierusalem have us'd these words This which We see is not Bread though the taste thinks it to be Bread but 't is the Body of CHRIST But he would rather have taught Us that the Bread which is seen is Bread and the Taste not deceiv'd in it but that with the Bread is joyn'd CHRIT's Body Nor do the Calvinists talk more wisely when they say that CHRIST's Body is not really present in the Sacrament but yet that we are really Partakers of it An Opinion so Foolish and so Destructive to it Self that they themselves understand it not For tell me O Sectary canst thou really receive CHRIST's Body and CHRIST not be really present But thou sayst He is always in Heaven and cannot be in several places at once Thou then being only on Earth and he only in Heaven how can his Body really come to thee And when at the same Instant thou Communicat'st at London another at Geneva by what Art can it be effected that ye should be really Fed with CHRIST's Body if CHRIST cannot be really present in two places at once Wilt thou say that thy Soul by Faith flies up into Heaven and is there really Fed with this Holy Food This is nothing to the purpose For though thou mayst by Faith by Thought by Will mount above the Stars and Converse in the midst of
being term'd a Propitiatory Sacrifice and lastly the Doctrine of Transubstantiation The Mass is to you so hateful a Word that the Hating of it is amongst you a token of Love. And yet were it not that I confine my self to that briefness I began with it might abundantly be shewn that this Holy Word has always been us'd to signify the Celebration of the Eucharist 'T is now about thirteen hundred years since the time of St. Ambrose who in his Epistle to Marcellina says I began to say Mass And soon after I began to Pray unto GOD in the Oblation that he would help c. St. Telesphorus Pope and Martyr who might for his Age have seen St. John the Apostle testifies the Mass to have been in his Time ordaining many things in the Celebration of it Which very thing the Sectaries themselves confess For the Magdeburgians in their second Century cap. 10. blame him for Multiplying Masses encreasing their Ceremonies and tying them to a certain time Behold how whilst they unwarily accuse Telesphorus they acknowledge the Antiquity of the Mass Confessing even the Name to have been us'd in the very beginning of the Primitive Church But whatever becomes of the Name let us consider the thing it self We say that the Celebration of the Mass is a Sacrifice truly and properly Propitiatory You or rather some of you deny it for the more Learned agree at least tacitly with us Isaac Casaubon but few Months before his Death being in the Presence Chamber of the most Serene King of Great Britain I fell in Discourse with him as did also another Gentleman a Courtier but no Catholick whom were it necessary I could easily Name Passing from one thing to another we hap'ned amongst the rest upon the Eucharist which I earnestly defending You need not said Casaubon take all this pains I willingly profess and do assert it to be manifest from the Rites of the Antient Church that the Eucharist is a Sacrifice and not only a Sacrifice of Praise as many amongst us would have it but a Propitiatory Sacrifice Sacrificium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These were his very Words Thus did he in two Languages express what kind of Sacrifice he thought it to be I was not a little glad to hear him whilst the third person who was present at our Discourse wondred at this his Opinion affirming that he was more startled at these words than at an hundred Arguments of the Papists He can testify the Truth of this being still alive and daily attending on the King. And he has been so far from being a Catholick that it cannot be fear'd he would advantage us by speaking contrary to the Truth And the Oblation indeed of the Eucharist is so frequently by the Fathers call'd Sacrifice that the Sectaries no longer dispute with us about the Name but only about what is to be understood by it It cannot says Kemnitius be deny'd that the Antients when they spake of the Celebration of the Lords Supper us'd the words Sacrifice Immolation Oblation Host and Victim as also the Verbs to Offer Sacrifice and Immolate Hear therefore Sectary but St. Augustin alone and thou wilt say that the Church in his Age us'd not these Words as borrowed or Figuratively taken but understood them in their proper true and usual Sense that the Eucharist is a true Sacrifice properly so call'd and Propitiatory not for the Living only but also for the Dead He relates therefore in the ninth Book of his Confessions Ch. 11. that his dying Mother spake thus Lay this Body any where let not the Care of it trouble you in the least This only I desire of you that when you shall be present at our Lords Altar you will there remember me And again Chap. 13. he says of her She thought not of having her Body Sumptuously Bury'd c. She commanded us not this but only requested that she might be remembred at thy Altar where she had without one days Intermission constantly serv'd whence she knew the Holy Victim to be dispens'd by which the Hand-writing that was against us is blotted out He had also before Chap. 12. said more plainly Behold when her Corps was carry'd out we went and return'd without Tears Nor did I so much as weep at those Prayers we pour'd forth to thee when the Sacrifice of our Redemption was offer'd for her her Body now being plac'd near the Grave before it was deposited therein as the Custom there is but I was all the day in secret exceeding sad c. Thou hear'st now O Sectary not only St. Augustin's Mother not only St. Augustin but the very Custom and Sense of the Church in that Age. When the Sacrifice of our Redemption was offer'd for her Here thou hast three things That the Oblation of the Eucharist is a Sacrifice that 't is also Propitiatory For in vain or impiously would the Church offer a Sacrifice to our Lord for the Dead which could not render him Propitious to them Thou hast lastly The Church in that Age wherein you are wont to say she was yet Pure by Publick Consent Praying for the Dead Hence the Matter is so clear and certain that the Blindness of those is to be lamented who refuse so clear a Light. Now what is their Complaint against Transubstantiation Does the Word offend them Or the Thing that is signify'd by this Word They say 't is a Popish Fiction sprung up under Innocent III. in the Lateran Council To wit Because Transubstantiation is there manifestly Decreed Now I ask Sectary if Pope Innocent deliver'd this Faith to us who deliver'd it to the Greeks For certainly they wholly agree with us in this matter Would they who have rejected our Communion who hate the very Name of the Roman Pontifs have all generally admitted and inviolably held such a Doctrine of so great moment so newly as you would have it devis'd by the Latins But they have not the Word Transubstantiation What then They hold and believe th◠Thing For they believe that the Bread and Wine after Consecration cease to be such and that instead of them succeed the true Body and Blood of our Lord. Why then may we not believe that the Roman Church holds still the same Faith which she held before the Word Transubstantiation came into use when the Greeks at this very day use not the Word Transubstantiation and yet have in this matter altogether the same Belief with the Romans Was not the Holy Trinity believ'd to be Homousian or Consubstantial before the Word Homousian was ever taken up What matter is it if some Significative Word lately found out by Divines be received into use as long as the thing signify'd by it was before part of the Christian Faith though express'd in other Words and Phrases Now that the Christians before the time of Innocent the III. had the same Belief of the Eucharist as we now have may be easily shewn from approv'd Authors who preceded Innocent St.
To signify which CHRIST commanded it to be made of Bread and Wine and many of the Fathers by Our daily Supersubstantial Bread which we are taught to Pray for understand this Heavenly Food And also because it is in the Form of Bread but principally because 't was Bread before For we often call a thing that now is by the Name it formerly had And how often have you heard from our Writers the Example of Aaron's Rod which being turn'd into a Serpent was certainly no longer a Rod unless you will say that GOD rather put an Illusion on Pharaoh's Eyes than by a real Miracle admonish'd him of his Majesty and yet even then it was call'd a Rod to wit Because it had from a Rod been chang'd into a Serpent And they all cast down their Rods which were turn'd into Serpents but Aaron 's Rod devour'd their Rods Exod. Chap. vii But not to say much against so weak an Argument The Scriptures call the Eucharist Bread Be it so The Antient Fathers have often done the same And we also do the same Why then may we not be believ'd to think with those with whom we speak Nor is the Arrow of any greater force they shoot against us from these words of our Lord It is the Spirit which quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing For if they will have them simply understood That the Flesh of Christ profiteth nothing I would ask them why they then say that our Lord's Body is receiv'd by them in the Eucharist Nay why CHRIST said Vnless ye shall Eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and Drink his Blood ye shall not have Life in you Do they think that CHRIST contradicted himselfe Or will they deny it to have been always believ'd in the Church that CHRIST's Flesh profiteth the Receiver They must ever be fain to distinguish between the manner how our Lord's Flesh being receiv'd profits and how it profits not They must to wit acknowledge that the Capharnaits hearing CHRIST's Words fancy'd to themselves some gross unworthy and carnal manner in which he would affirm he should be eaten My Flesh so taken as you in your selves imagine profits not I will give my self in a more Noble and Spiritual manner than you believe and being by you taken for Food will quicken your Souls And thus of the manner of taking and not meerly of the taking it self did CHRIST say The Flesh profiteth nothing Let us now see the Force of your Argument CHRIST says His Flesh taken as the Capharnaits fancy'd will profit nothing Therefore say you it will not profit being taken in such manner as the Catholicks believe But thou must first O Sectary prove that we think as the Capharnaits did and that we will not hear the Spirit which quickens Now both these are false The Capharnaits as is manifest from the Scriptures had no higher conceit of our Saviours words than that he promis'd His Body should be eaten as other Meats that it should be divided into parts taste like Flesh and being taken Consume We in a Spiritual quickning Sense believe that CHRIST is indeed truly and really present in the Eucharist but after a Spiritual and Incomprehensible manner that he is receiv'd by us whole inviolate and never consuming Thus will there be a mutual agreement between those words of our Lord by which he asserts that His Flesh is truly given for Meat and those others by which he shews that if you understand this matter Carnally with the Capharnaits The Flesh profiteth nothing Now if you deny that the Flesh of our Lord is any way profitable you will contradict those words Vnless ye shall Eat the Flesh of the Son of Man ye shall not have Life in you But if you say that 't is in some manner but not in that Capharnaitical one both receiv'd and profitable This indeed we shall readily grant but shall withall add that this Holy manner is in our Church and that neither these Texts nor any other have any thing to the contrary You say lastly that the Scriptures often affirm that CHRIST is and shall be in Heaven till he shall come in great Majesty at the end of the World And that therefore he cannot be on Earth in the Eucharist in the Hands of the Priests The Answer is ready CHRIST is and shall be in Heaven in that great and visible Majesty till the end of the World. He is not seen publickly by us in that Brightness nor is he yet so much as Conversant amongst us to receive those Offices which may be indeed profitable to a Body Such as St. Mary Magdalen perform'd when she Anointed him and in respect of which our Saviour said The poor you have always with you but me you have not always He will not therefore come down from Heaven In the Glory of His Majesty till the calling of all Men to Judgment But he is often present at our Affairs in another manner after another Fashion with lesser State he is I say often truly and really present with us here on Earth He appear'd in the way to St. Paul as he was going to Damascus and spake to him in the way So says Ananias to St. Paul Act. ix Our Lord JESUS hath sent me who appear'd to thee in the way as thou camest And Barnabas declar'd to the Apostles How Paul had seen our Lord in the way and that he had spoken to him And Acts xxxiii Now the night following our Lord standing by him said Be constant for as thou hast testify'd of me in Hierusalem so must thou testify at Rome also And lastly Act. xxvi I am JESUS whom thou Persecutest But arise and stand upon thy feet For to this end have I appear'd to thee that I may ordain thee a Minister and Witness of those things which thou hast seen and of those things in which I will appear to thee And say not that 't was an Angel who having taken CHRIST's shape appear'd to St. Paul. For to let pass its being distinguish'd in the Acts of the Apostles when our Saviour or when an Angel appear'd to St. Paul he himself has in his first Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. xv taken away the doubt where after he had to prove CHRIST's Resurrection to them affirm'd him to have been seen after his rising again by his Apostles and Disciples he adds And last of all he was seen of me also as of an Abortive Now 't is certain that this his being seen of St. Paul was not till some years after the day of his Ascension For St. Paul was a long time a Persecutor not an Apostle 'T is certain also that 't was not an Angel but CHRIST himself who thus appear'd to St. Paul Since he affirms him to have been the same that was seen by St. Peter and the other Apostles to assure them of his Resurrection For sure thou wilt not say that 't was an Angel and not our Lord himself that appear'd to the Apostles during the fourty days which
were between the Pasch and his Ascension Childish moreover would St. Paul's Argument be were it thus to be understood that CHRIST was undoubtedly risen because he had seen an Angel in CHRIST's Shape Our Lord was then really present on Earth with St. Paul and has been so with several other Saints He is really also present with us in the Sacrament but cover'd with the Form of a Creature and under Vails that conceal the Creator And do'st thou still say thou doubt'st whether the Body which is in Heaven can be also on Earth Assuredly Sectary it can Our Lord's Body can be at one time in two several places And if in two why not in Infinite For what hinders our Bodies that they cannot be at once in several places Is it not the condition of our Nature But why cannot he who fram'd our Nature change also its Laws This is the humble Learning this is the Christian Phylosophy of the Primitive Church St. Ambrose lib. 11 Hexam cap. 11. has this Expression Since his Word is the beginning of Nature he may by right assume the giving the Law to Nature who gave it its Original And again lib. 3. Hexam cap. 11. The Word of GOD is the efficient Cause of Nature But this perhaps thou can'st not sufficiently comprehend No more indeed canst thou comprehend GOD and yet GOD is is not therefore less GOD. If thou measurest the Works of GOD by the extent of thy Understanding how weak how obscure how depending on thy self thou wilt make him Thy Strength of Understanding depends on him and not his Power on thy Understanding But is there any greater difficulty in granting one Body to be in several Places than two Bodies to be in one or admitting as the Ppilosophers speak A Penetration of Dimensions The difficulty is altogether equal Now CHRIST brought his reviv'd Body through Stone Which was very great at the Door of the Monument that is he shew'd there might be a Penetration of Dimensions whenever he pleas'd For the Stone was not roll'd away by the Angel till St. Mary Magdalen came to Anoint our Lord. Mary Magdalen came and the other Mary to see the Sepulchre And behold there was a great Earthquake For the Angel of our Lord descended from Heaven and coming roll'd back the Stone and sate upon it c. And the Angel Answering said to the Women Fear not you Mat. chap. 28. After Christ came to his Disciples through close and solid Walls And when it was late that day the first of the Sabbaths and the Doors were shut where the Disciples were gathered together for fear of the Jews JESVS came and stood in the midst c. Joh. chap. 20. Again JESVS came the Doors being shut and stood in the midst Here some of you are not asham'd to pretend certain unworthy Trifles that CHRIST perhaps came in at the Window or descended by the Tunnel of the Chimney or open'd the Doors which before were shut An impudent saying proceeding if I am not mistaken from men who seek to gain Repute by inconsiderate Cavilling Is it then to no purpose that we hear these Words so carefully repeated When the Doors were shut The Doors being shut To what end did St. John use these Words but to signify CHRIST's miraculous Entrance at which himself was present Why did he not add that he came in at the Window or the Chimney or by opening the Doors the shutting of which he had so distinctly noted That he entred then O Sectary the Doors being shut is nothing else but that he entred against the Laws of Nature through the said Doors Moreover says St. Hierom in his first Book against Jovinian He so entred the Doors being shut which the Nature of Humane Bodies suffers not Shall we therefore deny that our Lord and St. Peter had true Bodies because contrary to Nature they walk'd on the Waters St. Ambrose on the four and twentieth Chapter of St. Lukes Gospel has these Words But St. Thomas had just cause of Admiration when he saw a Body brought in through Places unpassable to Bodies all things being shut and no place broken And 't was therefore a Miracle how a Corporal Nature should introduce it self through an in penetrable Body by an invisible Passage in a visible appearance easie to be touch'd hard to be understood And in the same place Though St. Peter believ'd the Resurrection yet might he be troubled when he saw our Lord on a suddain with his Body come in upon them into those places which were incompass'd with lock'd Doors and close Walls Nor did CHRIST at his Resurrection only but at his Birth also shew this Penetration of Dimensions coming into the World from the Womb of his most Holy Mother without violating the Enclosers of her Virginity St. Augustin in his two and twentieth Book of the City of GOD chap. 8. relates to this purpose a famous Miracle hapening in his time He says That Patronia a Carthaginian Matron had obtain'd from a Jew a certain Ring which she wore bound to her naked Body with a Girdle for the Cure of her Disease That she going afterwards in Pilgrimage to the Relicks of St. Stephen the Ring which she wore fell from her whole and unhurt the Girdle to which it was ty'd remaining whole also that the Judaical Remedy might by a Christian Miracle be remov'd from this Woman before she was heal'd through the Martyrs Intercession He further adds They believe not this who believe not that our Lord JESVS was brought forth without detriment to his Mothers Virginity and went in to his Disciples the Doors being shut But let them indeed enquire of this and if they find it true believe those She is a Woman of Quality nobly Born nobly Married and dwelling at Carthage The largeness of the City and the Dignity of the Person will not suffer the Truth to be conceal'd from the Enquirers The Martyr himself by whose Intercession she was Curâ—d certainly believ'd in the Son of her who remains a Virgin in Him who went in to his Disciples the Doors being shut These then are the Scripture Histories of our Lords Nativity and Resurrection this the Primitive Churches Sense of those Histories that two Bodies may GOD commanding it be together in the same place or to speak with the Phylosopbers that there may be a Penetration of Dimensions by the Divine Power Now 't is certainly no less repugnant to humane Sense and Nature that two Bodies should be thus together in one place than that one should be at the same time in many The difficulty on both sides is not only alike but the very same The Church has always acknowledg'd both of them above the force of Nature but below the Power of GOD having ever taught her Children that CHRIST both penetrated the Walls and is present in the Blessed Sacrament in several places at once But there are three things which you O Sectaries cannot well digest The Name of Mass the Eucharists