it is Joh. 6.56 that he truly is and abides in us and we in him 6. This is the spiritual and yet no less true and undoubted than if it were corporal eating of Christ's flesh not indeed simply as it is flesh without any other respect for so it is not given neither would it profit us but as it is crucified and given for the redemption of the world Mat. 26.26 neither doth it hinder the truth and substance of the thing that this eating of Christ's body is spiritual and that by it the souls of the Faithful and not their stomachs are fed by the operation of the Holy Ghost For this none can deny but they who being strangers to the Spirit and the divine vertue can favour only carnal things and to whom what is Spiritual and Sacramental is the same as if a meer nothing 7. As to the manner of the presence of the body and bloud of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament we that are Protestant and Reformed according to the ancient Catholick Church do not search into the manner of it with perplexing inquiries but after the example of the primitive and purest Church of Christ we leave it to the power and wisdom of our Lord yielding a full and unfeined assent to his words Had the Romish maintainers of Transubstantiation done the same they would not have determined and decreed and then imposed as an Article of faith absolutely necessary to Salvation a manner of presence newly by them invented under pain of the most direful Curse and there would have been in the Church less wrangling and more peace and unity than now is CHAP. II. 1 2 and 3 c. The unanimous consent of all Protestants with the Church of England in maintaining a real that is true but not a carnal presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament proved by publick Confessions and the best of Authorities 1. SO then none of the Protestant Churches doubt of the real that is true and not imaginary Presence of Christ's body and bloud in the Sacrament and there appears no reason why any man should suspect their common Confession of either fraud or error as though in this particular they had in the least departed from the Catholick faith 2. For it is easie to produce the consent of Reformed Churches and Authors whereby it will clearly appear to them that are not wilfully blind that they all zealously maintain and profess this truth without forsaking in any wise the true Catholick Faith in this matter 3. I begin with the Church of England wherein they that are in holy Orders are bound by a Law and Canon In the Book of Canons publish'd by authority anno 1571. ch of preach Never to teach any thing to the people to be by them believed in matters of Religion but what agrees with the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament and what the Catholick Fathers and Ancient Prelates have gathered and inferred out of it Vnder pain of Excommunication if they transgress troubling the people with contrary Doctrine It teacheth therefore that in the Blessed Sacrament the body of Christ is given taken and eaten so that to the worthy Receivers the consecrated and broken bread is the communication of the body of Christ Artic. of Relig. 1562. and likewise the consecrated Cup the communication of his bloud But that the wicked and they that approach unworthily the Sacrament of so sacred a thing eat and drink their own damnation in that they become guilty of the body and bloud of Christ And the same Church in a solemn Prayer before the consecration prays thus Grant us gracious Lord so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ and to drink his bloud Comm. Service that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body and our souls washed through his most precious bloud and that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us The Priest also blessing or consecrating the Bread and Wine saith thus Hear us O merciful Father we most humbly beseech thee and grant that we receiving these thy Creatures of Bread and Wine according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy institution in remembrance of his Death and Passion may be partakers of his most blessed body and bloud Who in the same night that he was betrayed took bread Ibid. and when he had given thanks he brake it and gave it to his Disciples saying take eat this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me Likewise after Supper he took the Cup and when he had given thinks he gave it to them saying drink ye all of this for this is my bloud of the New Testament which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins Do this as oft as ye shall drink it in remembrance of we The same when he gives the Sacrament to the people kneeling giving the bread saith The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life Likewise when he gives the Cup he saith The bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for thee preserve thy body and soul to everlasting life Afterwards when the Communion is done follows a thanksgiving Almighty and everliving God we most heartily thank thee for that thou dost vouchsafe to feed us who have duly received these holy Mysteries with the spiritual food of the most precious body and bloud of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ With the Hymn Glory be to God on high c. Also in the publick Authorized Catechism of our Church appointed to be learned of all it is answered to the question concerning the inward part of the Sacrament Church Catech. that it is the body and bloud of Christ which are verily and indeed taken and received by the Faithful in the Lords Supper And in the Apology for this Church writ by that worthy and Reverend Prelate Jewel Bishop of Salisbury it is expresly affirmed That to the faithful is truly given in the Sacrament the body and bloud of our Lord the life-giving flesh of the Son of God which quickens our souls the bread that came from heaven the food of immortality grace and truth and life And that it is the Communion of the body and bloud of Christ that we may abide in him and he in us and that we may be ascertained that the flesh and bloud of Christ is the food of our souls as bread and wine is of our bodies 4. A while before the writing of this Apology came forth the Dialectick of the famous Dr. Poinet Bishop of Winchester concerning the truth nature and substance of the body and bloud of Christ in the blessed Sacrament writ on purpose to explain and manifest the Faith and Doctine of the Church of England in that point In the first place it shews that the holy Eucharist is not only the figure but also contains in it self the truth
that the Elements still retain the nature of Sacraments when not used according to divine institution that is given by Christs Ministers and received by his People so that Christ in the consecrated bread ought not cannot be kept and preserved to be carried about because he is present only to the Communicants As for the fourth and last point we do not say that in the Lords Supper we receive only the benefits of Christs Death and Passion but we joyn the ground with its fruits that is Christ with those advantages we receive from him affirming with St. Paul That the bread which we break is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 10.16 the Communion of the body of Christ and the Cup which we bless the Communion of his bloud of that very substance which he took of the blessed Virgin and afterwards carried into heaven differing from those of Rome only in this that they will have our Union with Christ to be corporal and our eating of him likewife and we on the contrary maintain it to be indeed as true but not carnal or natural And as he that receives unworthily that is with the mouth only but not with a faithful heart eats and drinks his own damnation so he that doth it worthily receives his Absolution and Justification that is he that discerns and then receives the Lords Body as torn and his Bloud as shed for the redemption of the world But that Christ as the Papists affirm should give his flesh and bloud to be received with the mouth and ground with the teeth so that not only the most wicked and Infidels but even Rats and Mice should swallow him down this our words and our hearts do utterly deny 6. So then to sum up this Controversie by applying to it all that hath been said It is not questioned whether the Body of Christ be absent from the Sacrament duly administred according to his Institution which we Protestants neither affirm nor believe For it being given and received in the Communion it must needs be that it is present though in some manner veiled under the Sacrament so that of it self it cannot be seen Neither is it doubted or disputed whether the Bread and Wine by the power of God and a supernatural vertue be set apart and fitted for a much nobler use and raised to a higher dignity than their nature bears for we confess the necessity of a supernatural and heavenly change and that the signs cannot become Sacraments but by the infinite power of God whose proper right it is to institute Sacraments in his Church being able alone to endue them with vertue and efficacy Finally we do not say that our blessed Saviour gave only the figure and sign of his body neither do we deny a Sacramental Union of the Body and Bloud of Christ with the sacred Bread and Wine so that both are really and substantially received together But that we may avoid all ambiguity we deny that after the words and prayer of Consecration the bread should remain bread no longer but should be changed into the substance of the Body of Christ nothing of the Bread but only the accidents continuing to be what they were before And so the whole question is concerning the Transubstantiation of the outward Elements whether the substance of the Bread be turned into the substance of Christs Body and the substance of the Wine into the substance of his Bloud or as the Romish Doctors describe their Transubstantiation whether the substance of Bread and Wine doth utterly perish and the substance of Christs Body and Bloud succeed in their place which are both denied by Protestants 7. the Church of Rome sings on Corpus Christi-day This is not bread but God and man my Saviour And the Council of Trent doth thus define it Conc. Trident Sess 13. c. 4. Because Christ our Redeemer said truly that that was his Body which he gave in the appearance of bread therefore it was ever believed by the Church of God and is now declared by this sacred Synod that by the power of Consecration the whole substance of the bread is changed into the substance of Christs Body and the whose substance of the Wine into the substance of his Bloud which change it fitly and properly called Transubstantiation by the holy Catholick Roman Church Ibid. Can. 2. Therefore if any one shall say That the substance of Bread and Wine remains with the Body and Bloud of our Saviour Jesus Christ and shall deny that wonderful and singular conversion of the whole substance of the Bread and Wine into the substance of the Body and Bloud of Christ the only appearance and outward form of the Bread and Wine remaining which conversion the Catholick Roman Church doth fitly call Transubstantiation let him be accursed The Pope confirming this Council Bulla Pii Papae 4. Confir Conc. Trident defines it after the same manner imposeth an Oath and Declaration to the same purpose and so makes it one of the new Articles of the Roman Faith in the form and under the penalty following I. N. do profess and firmly believe all and every the singulars contained in the Confession of Faith allowed by the holy Church of Rome viz. I believe in one God c. I also profess that the Body and Bloud with the Soul and Godhead of our Saviour Jesus Christ are truly really and substantially in the Mass and in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and that there is a conversion of the whole substance of the Bread into the Body and of the whole substance of the Wine into the Bloud of Christ which conversion the Roman Catholick Church calls Transubstantiation I fully embrace all things defined declared and delivered by the holy Council of Trent and withall I do reject condemn and accurse all things by it accurs'd condemned or rejected I do confidently believe that this Faith which I now willingly profess is the true Catholick Faith without the which it is impossible to be saved and I do promise vow and swear that I will constantly keep it whole and undefiled to my very last breath So help me God and these Holy Gospels Afterwards he bravely concludes this Decree with this Commination Let no man therefore dare to attempt the breaking of this our Deed and Injunction or be so desperate as to oppose it And if any one presumes upon such an attempt let him know that he thereby incurs the wrath of Almighty God and of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul Given at Rome in St. Peters Church the Thirteenth of November in the year of our Lord 1564. the fifth of our Pontificat Which is as much as to say That he had received this his Roman Faith from Pope Innocent the Third who first decided and imposed this Doctrine of the Transubstantiation of the Bread and Wine into the Body and Bloud of Christ and made it an Article of Faith adding this new-devised Thirteenth to the ancient Twelve Articles
nature and substance of the body of our blessed Saviour and that those words nature and substance ought not to be rejected because the Fathers used them in speaking of that Mystery Secondly He inquires whether those expressions truth nature and substance were used in this Mystery by the Ancients in their common acceptation or in a sense more particular and proper to the Sacraments Because we must not only observe what words they used but also what they meant to signifie and to teach by them And though with the Fathers he acknowledged a difference betwixt the body of Christ in its natural form of a humane body and that Mystick body present in the Sacrament yet he chose rather to put that difference in the manner of presence and exhibition than in the subject it self that is the real body and bloud of our Saviour being it is most certain that no other body is given to the faithful in the Sacrament than that which was by Christ given to death for their Redemption Lastly he affirms according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers that this matter must be understood in a spiritual sense banishing all grosser and more carnal thoughts 5. To Bishop Poinet succeeded in the same See the right Reverend Doctors T. Bilson and L. Andrews Prelates both of them throughly learned and great defenders of the Primitive Faith who made it most evident by their Printed Writings that the Faith and Doctrine of the Church of England is in all things agreeable to the holy Scriptures and the Divinity of the Ancient Fathers And as to what regards this Mystery the a Bils resp ad Card. Alan l. 4. first treats of it in his Answer to the Apology of Cardinal Alan and the b Andr. resp ad Apol Bel. c. 11. p. 11 last in his Answer to the Apology of Cardinal Bellarmine where you may find things worthy to be read and noted as follows Christ said this is my body in this the object we are agreed with you the manner only is controverted We hold by a firm belief that it is the body of Christ of the manner how it comes to be so there is not a word in the Gospel and because the Scripture is silent in this we justly disown it to be a matter of Faith We may indeed rank it among Tenets of the School but by no means among the Articles of our Christian Belief We like well of what Durandus is reported to have said We hear the Word and feel the motion we know not the manner and yet believe the Presence For we believe a Real Presence no less than you do We dare not be so bold as presumptuously to define any thing concerning the manner of a true Presence or rather we do not so much as trouble our selves with being inquisitive about it no more than in Baptism how the bloud of Christ washeth us or in the Incarnation of our Redeemer how the Divine and Humane Nature were united together We put it in the number of sacred things or Sacrifices the Eucharist it self being a Sacred Mystery whereof the remnants ought to be consumed with fire that is as the Fathers elegantly have it ador'd by faith but not searcht by reason Caus Ep. to Card. Perron 6. To the same sense speaks Is Causabon in the Epistle he wrote by order from King James to Cardinal Perron so doth also Hooker in his Ecclesiastical Polity Ep. Roff. praef ad loct Montac in Antid Art 13. Book 5. § 67. John Bishop of Rochester in his Book of the Power of the Pope R. Mountague Bishop of Norwich against Bullinger James Primate of Armach in his Answer to the Irish Jesuit Francis Bishop of Eli and William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury in their Answer to Fisher c In a Manuscript shortly to be Printed John Overall Bishop of Norwich and many others in the Church of England who never departed from the Faith and Doctrine of the ancient Catholick Fathers which is by Law established and with great care and veneration received and preserved in our Church 7. To these also we may justly add that famous Prelate Antonius de Domino Archbishop of Spalato a man well versed in the Sacred Writings and the Records of Antiquity who having left Italy when he could no longer remain in it either with quiet or safety by the advice of his intimate Friend Paulus Venetus took Sanctuary under the protection of King James of blessed memory in the bosome of the Church of England which he did faithfully follow in all Points and Articles of Religion But being daily vex'd with many affronts and injuries and wearied by the unjust persecutions of some sour and over-rigid men who bitterly declaimed every where against his life and actions he at last resolved to return into Italy with a safe conduct Before he departed he was by order from the King questioned by some Commissionated Bishops what he thought of the Religion and Church of England which for so many years he had owned and obeyed and what he would say of it in the Roman Court to this Query he gave in writing this memorable answer I am resolved even with the danger of my life to profess before the Pope himself that the Church of England is a true and Orthodox Church of Christ This he not only promised but faithfully performed for though soon after his departure there came a Book out of the Low Countries falsly bearing his name by whose title many were deceived even among the English and thereby moved to tax him with Apostacy and of being another Eubolius yet when he came to Rome where he was most kindly entertained in the Palace of Pope Gregory the Fifteenth who formerly had been his Fellow-student he could never be perswaded by the Jesuits and others who daily thronged upon him neither to subscribe the new devised-Tenets of the Council of Trent or to retract those Orthodox Books which he had Printed in England and Germany or to renounce the Communion of the Church of England in whose defence he constantly persisted to the very last But presently after the decease of Pope Gregory he was imprisoned by the Jesuits and Inquisitors in Castle St. Angelo where by being barbarously used and almost starved he soon got a mortal sickness and died in a few days though not without suspicion of being poysoned The day following his Corps was by the sentence of the Inquisition tyed to an infamous stake and there burnt to ashes for no other reason but that he refused to make abjuration of the Religion of the Church of England and subscribe some of the lately-made-Decrees of Trent which were prest upon him as Canons of the Catholick Faith I have taken occasion to insert this narration perhaps not known to many to make it appear that this Reverend Prelate who did great service to the Church of God may justly as I said before be reckoned amongst the Writers of the Church of England Let
us hear therefore what he taught and writ when he was in England in his Books de Repub. Eccl. Lib. 5. Cap. 6. Num. 20. For a thousand years together saith he the holy Catholick church content with a sober knowledge of Divine Mysteries believed soberly and safely did teach that in the Sacrament duly Consecrated the Faithful did own receive and eat the Body and Bloud of Christ which by the Sacred Bread and Wine are given to them but as to the particular manner how that precious Body and Bloud is offered and given by that Mysterious Sacrament the Church did humbly and religiously acknowledge her ignorance The real thing with its effects she joyfully own'd and received but meekly and devoutly abstained from inquiring into the manner Item Numb 73. the true and real Body of Christ is most certainly and undoubtedly given in the holy Sacrament yet not carnally but Spiritually Again Numb 169. I doubt not but all they that believe the Gospel will acknowledge that in the holy Communion we receive the true nature of the flesh of Christ real and substantial We all teach that the body of Christ is present as to its reality and nature but a carnal and corporal manner of presence we reject with St. Bernard and all the Fathers And in Appen ad Ambrosium Numb 7. I know and acknowledge that with the Bread still remaining bread the true and real body of Christ is given yet not corporally I assent in the thing but not in the manner Therefore though there is a change in the Bread when it brings into the Souls of worthy Communicants the true body of Christ which is the substance of the Sacrament Yet it doth not follow that the Bread loseth its own to become the substance of the body of Christ c. These and much more to the same purpose agreeable to the Religion and Church of England and all other Protestant Churches you may find in the same Chapter and in a Treatise annext to the sixth Book against the famous Jesuit Suarez who had writ against King James and the Error as he calls them of the Church of England In the second Chapter our Prelate proves clearly according to its title That those Points which the Papists maintain against the Protestants belong not in any wise to the Catholick Faith as Transubstantiation c. 8. As for the opinion and belief of the German Protestants It will be known chiefly by the Augustan Confession presented to Charles the Fifth by the Princes of the Empire and other great Persons The Augustan Confession of Germ Churches For they teach That not only the Bread and Wine but the Body and Bloud of Christ is truly given to the Receivers or as it is in another Edition That the Body and Bloud of Christ are truly present and distributed to the Communicants in the Lords Supper and refute those that teach otherwise They also declare That we must so use the Sacraments as to believe and embrace by Faith those things promised which the Sacraments offer and convey to us Yet we may observe here that Faith makes not those things present which are promised for Faith as it is well known is more properly said to take and apprehend than to promise or perform But the Word and Promise of God on which our Faith is grounded and not Faith it self make that present which is promised Collat. S. Germ. 1561. as it was agreed at a Conference at St. German betwixt some Protestants and Papists And therefore it is unjustly laid to our charge by some in the Church of Rome as if we should believe that the presence and participation of Christ in the Sacrament is effected meerly by the power of Faith The Saxon Confession 9. The Saxon Confession approved by other Churches seems to be a repetition of the Augustan Therein we are taught That Sacraments are actions divinely instituted and that although the same things or actions in common use have nothing of the nature of Sacraments Art 15. yet when used according to the divine institution Christ is truly and substantially present in the Communion and his Body and Bloud truly given to the Receivers so that he testifies that he is in them Hil. Trin. l. 8. as St. Hillary saith These things taken and received make us to be in Christ and Christ to be in us The Confession of Wittemb 10. The Confession of Wittemberg which in the year 1552 was propounded to the Council of Trent is like unto this For it teacheth That the true Body and Bloud of Christ are given in the holy Communion and refutes those that say In the Preface That the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament are only signs of the absent Body and Bloud of Christ Confess Bobem 11. The Bohemian Confession also that is of them who by contempt and out of ignorance are called by some Picards and Waldenses presented to King Ferdinand by the Barons and Nobles of Bohemia and approved by Luther and Melancthon and the Famous University of Wittemberg teacheth that we ought from the heart to believe and to profess by words Art 13. that the Bread of the Lords Supper is the true Body of Christ which was given for us and the Wine his true Bloud that was shed for us And that it is not lawful for any person to bring or add any thing of his own to the words of Christ or in the least to take any thing from them And when this their Confession was defamed and abused by some of their Adversaries they answered That they would ever be ready to refute the Calumniators and to make it appear by strong Arguments and a stronger Faith that they never were and by Gods grace never would be what their Adversaries represented them Consensus Polonicus 12. In the same manner The Conciliation of the Articles of the Lords Supper and the mutual agreement betwixt the Churches of the greater and lesser Polonia in the Synod of Sendomiris Near the begining We hold together say they the belief of the words of Christ as they have been rightly understood by the Fathers or to speak more plain We believe and confess that the substantial Presence of Christ is not only signified in the Lords Supper but also that the Body and Bloud of our Lord is truly offered and granted to worthy Receivers together with those sacred signs which convey to us the thing signified according to the nature of Sacraments and lest the different ways of speaking should breed any contention we mutually consent to subscribe that Article concerning the Lords Supper which is in the Confession of the Churches of Saxony which they sent to the Council of Trent and we hold and acknowledge it to be sound and pious Then they repeat the whole Article mentioned and set down a little before Confessio Theol. Argent Basil 13. Luther was once of opinion that the Divines of Basil and
consider that on this sacred Table is laid the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world And receiving truly his precious Body and Bloudy let us believe these things to be the Pledges and Emblems of our Resurrection for we do not take much but only a little of the Elements that we may be mindful we do it not for Satiety but for Sanctification Now who is there even among the Maintainers of Transubstantiation that will understand this not much but a little of the Body of Christ Or who can believe that the Nicene Fathers would call his Body and Bloud Symbols in a proper sense When nothing can be an Image or a sign of it self And therefore though we are not to rest in the Elements minding nothing else for we should consider what is chiefest in the Sacrament that we have our hearts lifted up unto the Lord who is given together with the signs yet Elements they are and the earthly part of the Sacrament both the Bread and the Wine which destroys Transubstantiation 13. St. Athanasius famous in the time St. Athan. A. D. 330. and present in the Assembly of the Nicene Council a stout Champion of the Catholick Faith acknowledgeth none other but a spiritual Manducation of the Body of Christ in the Sacrament Our Lord saith he made a difference betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit In illud Evangelii Quicunque dixerit verbuâ—n c. in c. 6. St. Joh. qui manduâ— cat carnem meam c. that we might understand that what he said was not carnal but spiritual For how many men could his body have fed that the whole world should be nourished by it But therefore he mentioned his ascension into heaven that they might not take what he said in a corporal sense but might understand that his Flesh whereof he spake is a spiritual and heavenly food given by himself from on high 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the words that I spake unto you they are spirit and they are life as if he should say My Body which is shewn and given for the world shall be given in food that it may be distributed spiritually to every one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and preserve them all to the Resurrection to eternal life Cardinal Perron having nothing to answer to these words of this holy Father De Euch. L. 2. c. 1. ar 10. in a kind of despair rejects the whole Tractate and denies it to be Athanasius's which no body ever did before him there being no reason for it 14. Cyril St. Cyril of Hicr A D. 350. Bishop of Jerusalem of the same Age with St. Athanasius treating of the Chrisme wherewith they then anointed those that were Baptized speaks thus Take heed thou dost not think that this is a meer Oyntment only Chatech myst 3. For as the Bread of the Eucharist after the Invocation of the Holy Ghost is no longer ordinary Bread but is the Body of Christ so this holy Oyntment is no longer a bare common Oyntment after it is consecrated but is the gift or grace of Christ which by his Divine Nature and the coming of the Holy Ghost is made efficacious so that the Body is anointed with the Oyntment but the soul is sanctified by the holy and vivifying Spirit Can any thing more clear be said Either the Oyntment is transubstantiated by consecration ihto the spirit and grace of Christ or the Bread and Wine are not transubstantiated by Consecration into the Body and Bloud of Christ Therefore as the Oyntment retains still its substance and yet is not called a meer or common ointment but the Charisme or grace of Christ So the Bread and Wine remaining so as to their substance yet are not said to be only Bread and Wine common and ordinary but also the Body and Bloud of Christ Chatech Myst 4. Thy bodily Palate saith he tasteth one thing there and thy faith another Vnder the Type of Bread saith he the Body is given thee and the Bloud under the type of the Wine This Grodecius doth captiously and unfaithfully interpret under the appearances of Bread and Wine for those meer appearances or accidents subsisting without a subject never so much as entred into the mind of any of the Ancients 15. Much to the same purpose we have in the Anaphora or Liturgy attributed to St. Basil St. Basil A. D. 360. We have set before you the Type of the Body and Bloud of Christ which he calls the Bread of the Eucharist after the Consecration Lib. De Spir. Sanc. If it be the Type of the Body then certainly it cannot be the Body and nothing else For as we said before nothing can be the figure of it self no more than a man can be his own Son or Father There be also Prayers in that Liturgy That the Bread may become the Body of Christ for the remission of sins and life eternal to the receivers Now true it is that to the faithful the Element becomes a vivifying Body because they are truly partakers of the heavenly bread the Body of Christ but to others who either receive not or are not believers to them the Bread may be the Antitype but is not neither doth become the Body of Christ for without Faith Christ is never eaten Lib. de Bapt. as is gathered from the same Father 16. St. Gregory Nyssene St. Greg. Nyss A. D. 370. his Brother doth clearly declare what change is wrought in the Bread and Wine by Consecration saying As the Altar naturally is but common stone but being consecrated becomes an holy Table a spotless Altar so the bread of the Eucharist is at first ordinary Orat. de S. Baptis but being mysteriously sacrificed it is and is called the Body of Christ and is efficacious to great purposes and as the Priest yesterday a Lay-man by the Blessing of Ordination becomes a Doctor of Piety and a Steward of Mysteries and though not changed in body or shape yet is transformed and made better as to his soul by an invisible power and grace so also by the same consequence water being nothing but water of it self yet blest by a heavenly grace renews the man working a spiritual regeneration in him Now let the Assertors of Transubstantiation maintain that a Stone is substantiation changed into an Altar a man into a Priest the water in Baptism into an invisible grace or else that the Bread is not so changed into the Body of Christ For according to this Father there is the same consequence in them all 17 Likewise St. Ambrose explaining what manner of alteration is in the bread St Ambr. A D. 380. when in the Eucharist it becomes the Body of Christ saith L de Sacram 4. cap. 4. Thou hadst indeed a being but wert an old creature but being now Baptized or consecrated thou art become a new creature The same change that happens to man in Baptism happens to
them Hereticks who for the future should deny that the Body and Bloud of Christ are truly contained in the Sacrament of the Altar under the outward form of Bread and Wine the Bread being Transubstantiated into the Body and the Wine into the Bloud delivers them all of what office or dignity soever to the Secular Power q Ibid. to receive condign punishment that is to be burnt commands those that are suspected to be tried and examined and declares them infamous disabled from making a Will and incapable of any Office or Inheritance that should favour or entertain them and sets all other Christians against them Then he ordains r Ibid. that the Secular Powers shall be compelled by Ecclesiastick Censures publickly to swear that they will defend This Faith and endeavour utterly to destroy all whom the Church of Rome should note for Hereticks But saith he if the temporal Prince doth neglect this let him be excommunicated And if he slights to give satisfaction within a year let the soveraign Pontif be certified of it that he may absolve his Subjects from their allegiance and expose his Territories to be taken and enjoyed without any contradiction by any Catholicks Romans that destroy the Hereticks c. that is those who do not believe Transubstantiation Thus Innocent the Third by Excommunications and by Arms Rebellions by Tortures and by burning alive was pleased to establish his new Article of Faith Transubstantiation and the Court of Rome rejected by many 22. And truly had he not used such means they themselves who did cleave to the Church of Rome would not have embraced this Doctrine For it did not find such acceptance but that many notwithstanding did now and then oppose it Nay not only Transubstantiation but even the Church or rather the Court Of Rome which if we believe Chancellour Å¿ Gers de Concil gener Gerson was at this time wholly brutish and carnal without almost any sense of the things of God was rejected by many as it is well known For certain it is that Transubstantiation being once established there was a foundation laid to many Superstitions and Errors which could neither be suffered nor approved by those that feared God And among the Subscribers to Transubstantiation there grew a thicket of thorny and monstrous questions wherewith the Schoolmen were so busie that it may with great truth be affirmed that then came to light a Divinity concerning the holy Sacrament and the Adoration of it which was not only very new but very strange also and never heard of among the Fathers There grew also out of the same stock Illusions and false Miracles deceitful Dreams feined Visions and such like unchristian devices about the Corporal Presence of Christ as that some did see a Child in the Host some Flesh some Bloud any thing that could come into the idle fancies of idle and superstitious men t Thom. Walsing in hypod neustr ad An. 1218. One at the point of death durst not receive the Body of Christ because he could keep nothing in but as he drew nigh to adore it his Breast bare and his Arms open the Host leaping out of the Priests hand having made it self a passage entred of its own accord into the place where the dying mans heart lay hid and the hole being made up again without any thing of a scar the man lay down and then expired Another u Discip de Temp. Serm. 80. being ready to die begged that his side being washt and covered with a clean cloath the Body of Christ might be set on it Which being done the cloath by degrees gave place to the Body of Christ and soon after when that divine Body toucht the mans skin it penetrated to his very heart in the sight of all the by standers They also tell the Story or rather the Fable How that the Body of Christ for so they call the Consecrated Bread being set in a Bushel upon some Oats an Horse an Oxe and an Ass bowed their knees and adored their Lord in the Host These and such like Fictions were dayly invented without number by the Patrons of Transubstantiation and the impudence and boldness of coyning such Forgeries hath from them past upon their Successors This was observed by King James in the Writings of x Car Bellarm Apol. q. 132. Bellarmine himself who reports of a certain devout Mare that worshipped the Host kneeling knowing doubtless that by a due Consecration it was Transubstantiated Cesarius the Monk who lived soon after Innocent the Third is full of such Miracles and yet he hath a History which shews that in his time Transubstantiation was utterly unknown to a learned Priest Canon of a great Church At Colen saith he there was a Canon in full Orders called Peter when on a certain day another of the Canons was sick and about to receive the Sacrament in his presence the officiating Priest asked the sick man Dost thou believe that this is the true Body of the Lord which was born of the Virgin He made answer I believe it Peter hearing and observing their words was amazed at them Afterwards he coming alone to Everhardus the Professor of Divinity who had been also present at the Communion he asked him Did the Priest question the sick man aright He answered yes and whoever believes otherwise is an y For so it was decreed by Innocent 3 Heretick Then Peter weeping and smiting his breast cried out Woe is me wretched Priest How have I hitherto said Mass For to this hour I thought that the Bread and Wine after the Consecration were only a Sacrament that is the sign and representation of the Lords Body and Bloud 23. I have already touched it that together with the new Doctrine of Transubstantiation there sprung up new Sects of Friers which indeed in a short time increased beyond belief For now to the Order of Dominicans whom Innocent the Third had made his Inquisitors to kill and burn z Meaning those that deny Transubstantiation Hereticks was added the Order of begging Franciscans and the Augustine Eremits and the Carmelites were set up again From these came the Schoolmen as we now call them whose studies as studies were in that time were all imployed about Commencing Peter Lombard Master of the Sentences 24. These men tired their brains as we said about unheard of questions touching Transubstantiation such as pious ears would abhor to hear Alen. Alens l. 4. q. 53. m. 4. â— 1. For they ask 1. Whether that be the Body of Christ which sometimes appears in the form of Flesh or of a Child on the Altar and answer that they know not because such Apparitions happen often and are caused either by mens juggling or by the operation the Devil 2. Idem q. 45. m. 1. a. 2. Whether the Mice who sometimes feast upon the Hosts when they are not well shut up eat the Body of Christ it self Or if a Dog or