or changed her first belief And if you 〈◊〉 make use of a Book to guide you in your Faith as the Catholick Church also does you must resolve to interpret it if you will be sure not to mistake as she does that is in that sense in which it was understood by your Fathers and not in that sense it shall seem to bear to you if contrary to the sense it seemed to bear to your Ancestors Pardon Sir this long digression I hope it will conduce to your more full satisfaction And take notice that wheresoever Transubstantiation is believed the believers of it profess to have been so taught by their Fore-fathers uninterruptedly from the Apostles wheresoever this mystery is denied the deniers of it do not profess to have been taught to deny it by their Fathers uninterruptedly from the Apostles but only by their Ancestors for about a hundred and fifty years and that their Ancestors about the year fifteen hundred had more light than their Progenitors for about a thousand years who were all in darkness and had left the right Faith taught by the Apostles and for the first fix hundred years of Christianity An evident conviction this that the denial of Transubstantiation is a Novelty and the asserting of it the antient verity For had Transubstantiation been a new Doctrin and never heard of before the seventh or eighth Age the Assertors of it must have been forced to plead for it after the manner its Opposers plead against it by saying their Fore fathers only for so long for example for eight hundred years had believed it but in the year eight hundred their Ancestors had more light than their Fore-fathers and they by reading the Holy Scriptures and Fathers of the first Century came to understand that our Saviours true body was in the Holy Eucharist and that their immediate Progenitors for five or six hundred years had left the first Apostolical doctrin as to this mystery If you remember I supposed from the confession of our Adversaries that the Christian Doctrin remained pure and incorrupt for some Centuries of years after its first planting which I now shall endeavor to prove And indeed whosoever maturely considers the genius and temper of the Christian Doctors and Bishops for the first Centuries after our Saviour will find it impossible for all the power of Hell to impose a Novelty upon them especially such an one as would make them all Idolaters For they were not like the seeming Zelots of our Age pretenders to new lights but their profession was not to correct Antiquity not to deliver to Posterity doctrine of their own devising but carefully to keep what they had received from their Fore-fathers and faithfully to teach their Children what they had been taught by their Fathers And their great Answer to Introducers of new Doctrirs or Practices was Nihil nouandum nisi quod traditum est We must innovate nothing but stick close to what has been delivered to us by our Fore-fathers As for pretenders to discover new Truths by reading of the holy Scriptures it s easily conceivable how such persons may be imposed upon by subtil Sophisters and made to believe erroneous doctrins to wit by bad and new Interpretations of good and antient Scriptures But on the other fide how shall a Teacher of Novelties deceive a Christian Country which is resolved to hold fast whatsoever doctrin was taught them by their immedate Progenitors who received the same doctrin by an uninterrupted delivery from Father to Son from the Apostles Let him pretend Scriptures and bring a thousand places out of the Law Psalms Prophets and Apostles what will the Reply be The Scriptures you alledge we reverence and have ever been taught to reverence them as divine but we have been taught to interpret and understand them in another manner and sense than you alledge them Let him pretend Authority of Doctors as Learned as Origen as Holy as Cyprian nay if he will of a whole Provincial Council as numerous as that in Africa which determin'd Rebaptization of persons Baptized by Hereticks they Reply we must not Innovate we must hold to what was taught us by our Ancestors What means then to make persons thus disposed to leave their anâ—ient Faith and admit of a Novelty You must prove to them that you and they and other Christians in several Countrys have been taught so to believe by your immediate Predecessors and uninterruptedly From Father to Son from the Apostles but then you cease to be a Teacher of Novelties contrary to the supposition Now that such was the disposition of the Primitive Centuries of Christianity hear S. Vincent Lerinensis who lived in the fifth Age who testifies that often asking of very many his Contemporaries famous for their Sanctity and Learning how he might be able to discern the truth of the Catholick Paith from the falsity of Heretical prayity he always received this Answer in a manner from them all That if he desired to remain sound in his Faith he must fortifie it first with the Authority of the divine Law and then with the Tradition of the Catholick Church That is as he explicates himself afterwards he must examin what has always all over the Christian Church and by all Christian Doctors or in a manner by all been believed and hold to that Against all Novelty though defended by private Doctors never so Holy or never so Learned or producing never so many Scriptures for themselves if interpreted after a new manner But saies the same S. Vincent chap 2. Here perhaps some body may ask seeing the Canon of the Scriptures is perfect and is it self sufficient and more than sufficient for all things what need is there to add to it the Authority of the Ecclesiastical or Churches understanding of it Because the Holy Scripture by reason of its depth is not by all taken in one and the same sense For Photinus expounds it one way Sabellius another Donatus another Arrius another And ch 41. He tells us how the third general Council held in his days at Ephesus proceeding according to this rule condemn'd Nestorius For the Fathers of that Christian Synod in number about 200 having consulted the Sentiment of their Predecessors the eminent Doctors of the Oriental and Western Churches S. Peter of Alexandria S. Athanâ—sius S. Theophilus S. Gregory Nazianzen S. Basil S. Gregory Nâ—ssen S. Felix S. Julius S. Cyprian concerning their controversie in debate they resolved to hold their doctrin to follow their Counsel to believe their testimony to obey their Judgment Quae tandem c What were at length saies S. Vincent the Voices and Votes of them all but that what was antiently delivered should be kept what was of late invented should be exploded After which we admired and proclamed the great humility and sanctity of that Council In which so many Priests in a manner as to the greater part were so many Metropolitans and of so great Erudition and Learning as
Doctors to whom we appeal then judged concerning this our cause when no body could say they had favor or ill will for either party They had neither friendship nor enmity with you or us We did not as yet appeal with you to them as Judges and our cause was decided by them Neither you nor we were known to them and we recite their sentence given for us against you We did not yet contest with you and they pronouncing sentences for us we have overcome you Or will my Calvinist have the impudence to accuse as some do thâ—se grave Doctors of blindness A multitude of blind men forsooth avails nothing to find out the Truth and these were the errors and mistakes of those learned Prelates What an Age are we fal'n into Truth must be called error and error truth light darkness and darkness light S. Augustin S. Ambrose S. Crysostom S. Hierom are blind but Calvin and Stillingfleet see These Doctors I have called a Council of were persons of such Learning and Sanctity that if a Synod of Bishops were gathered out of the whole world it would be much if so many and such Doctors could be found to sit in it Neither indeed were these all at one time but God Almighty as pleases him and as he judges to be expedient scatters a few more excellent and faithful dispensers of his mysteries in several Ages and distances of places By such Planters Waterers Builders Pastors nursing Fathers after the Apostles the holy Church has encreased Now what an imprudence and what an impudence must it be for any to presume to accuse of the horrible crime of Idolatry so many holy egregious and memorable Doctors of the Catholick Verity and moreover together with them the whole Church of Christ to which divine Family they faithfully Ministring spiritual Food flourished with great glory in our Lord. Nay further they who dare to oppose the manifest Sentiment not of so many Platonical Aristotelieal or Zenonical Doctors but of so many Saints and illustrious Prelates in the Church of God and these some of them singularly endowed with human litterature and all of them eminently learned in the Sacred Letters have reason not so much to fear them as him who made them profitable Vessels to himself These Judges by how much the more desirable they ought to be unto thee if thou didst hold the Catholick Faith by so much thou hast more reason to fear them because thou opposest the Catholick Faith which they ministred to little and great and manifestly and stoutly defended against its Enemies yea against you then not as yet born For not only when they lived did they by their words but also by their writings which they left to Posterity did they strenuously defend the Catholick Faith that they might break in pieces your Arguments Hitherto S. Augustin l. 1. et 2. Contra Julianum I thought fit to adjoyn this Reflexion of S. Augustin though superabundant to the force of my Argument it being sufficient for my purpose to prove that the doctrin of the Real presence was generally believed in the Primitive Centuries of Christianity and so much evidently follows from the Authorities above cited For though some may be so self-conceited as to confess that S. Ambrose S. Crysostom and the rest of the holy Fathers Greek and Latin believed the doctrin of the Real presence but they with humble submission deemed it to be an Idolatrous and damnable doctrin yet few I think but have so much regard for thâ—se Primitive Doctors as to allow them so much iudgement as to know what was the belief of their several Churches in their daies and so much fidelity as to write the Truth as to this particular which is sufficient for the purport of my discourse Unless you can think that these holy Fathers were of one Faith and their several Flocks who reverenced them as Saints of another An Answer to an Objection But you will say if there be such a miraculous change wrought in the bread and wine in the holy Eucharist why does it not appear to our senses as well as other miraculous works of our Lord Jesus did When he turn'd water into wine it appeared such to the sight and tast of the Guests at the Marriage-Feast He did not barely tell them the water was turn'd into wine and exact their belief of his word contrary to the evidence of all their senses but convinced them that it was so by their very senses Why then in our present case if he turn wine into his blood does it not appear to our fight to be blood But barely to tell us that it is his blood and yet to let it tast and appear as it did how is this credible How is it not contrary to one but to all the Miracles that ever he wrought And this Argument is further strengthned for that it would hence follow we might call in question the whole mystery of Christianity For we therefore believing in our Lord Jesus as one indeed sent from God to teach us nothing but Truth because of his Miracles and we having no assurance of his Miracles but from our senses if our senses may be mistaken how can we tell but those who were eye-witnesses of his wonders were illuded and water for example was not turned by him into wine but only seemed wine to the tast and sight of those which were present and indeed remained water as before For why may not water remain water and yet seem to my tast wine as well as wine be changed into blood and yet seem to my tast and sight to remain wine For Answer to this Objection we must distinguish two sorts of Miracles with the ends for which they are wrought Some Miracles are wrought by Almighty God to draw the world to the Christian Faith and these must necessarily be the object of our senses else it could not reasonably be expected they should work their intended effect in them for whose sakes they are wrought For example If any one will by Miracle prove he is sent from God by raising a dead man to life or by turning water into wine he must make it evident to my senses that the man who was dead is alive and the water now wine and not barely tell me so Else he will be derided as an Impostor and impudent Lyer instead of being admired and received as a Messenger from Heaven and Oracle of Truth There are other Miracles which are wrought by the Almighty not as a motive to induce us to receive the true Faith but to sanctifie us when we have received it or for the necessity of working the salvation of the world Such are the Miracles of the Incarnation of the Son of God and all the spiritual effects wrought in the souls of Christians by any of the Sacraments Now these miraculous effects are not the object of our senses nor is there any reason they should be For the Church of Christ does not urge these to
and blew with ignominious buffets what wonder now when he is become immortal and impassible and can suffer no more defilement from the basest ordures than do the bright Sun beams from the foulest mud when they shine upon it that he should permit himself to be eaten by Mice or Doggs or suffer other viler indignities if Sacrilegious Sinners will permit or cause them Moreover such a presence of our great Lord what an Incitement would it have been to pious Munificence in adorning our Christian Churches with the richest Gold and most precious Stones or what ever else that 's rare and splendid which Nature or Art does afford making them little Heavens for lustre and glory and thereby exciting in the hearts of all that should enter them a due reverence to the Almighty whom we worship If Solomon so adorned his Temple where only a Sheep or a Calf or a little Incense was offered to the Creator of all things what glory could have been thought too rich for our Christian Churches where an Oblation worthy of the great God should every day have been Sacrificed unto him the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world the God-Man Christ Jesus In fine what vertue should not our dear Saviour have given us example of by such a charitable humiliation of himself Obedience to come down from Heaven to Earth at the voice of every Christian Priest though never so simple for his understanding or never so wicked for his life and manners Charity Humility Patience Contempt of the Judgments or sayings of men c. 3. Assertion The bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist are by the Omnipotent power of God actually and in deed changed into the body and blood of our B. Saviour Jesus Christ which I prove thus This was the universal belief of the Christian world in the nineth Century after our B. Saviour as is evident by the testimony of all the writings of that Age and by the universal testimony of the tenth Age who profess in all Christian Countrys to have received this Faith from their immediate Ancestors Nor do our Adversaries deny it and therefore appeal to the first six hundred years in which they say the Christian doctrine remained incorrupt But if the doctrine of the real mutation of bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist into our B. Saviours body and blood was generally believed in the nineth Age it must necessarily be taught in the first Age by the Apostles to their first Converts over all the world and consequently be most certainly true For it cannot be doubted but that the first Converts of the H. Apostles did not only understand what the Apostles taught them concerning this great mystery but also did throughly believe it and highly esteem it as they did all other doctrines and practices taught them by the same their first Maffers as not only of exceeding profit above all the things of this life but also as highly necessary to them and their Children to bring them to eternal bliss Which being so none can doubt but that the same first Disciples both could and would and actually did teach the very same doctrine which they so highly esteemed as to embrace it with the bazard of their lives to their Children and Successors And this they taught them not as an invention of their own but as a doctrine taught them by the Apostles of Jesus Christ who confirmed their Mission from the infallible God by evident miracles In like manner it cannot be doubted but these taught their Children also concerning this mystery what they had been taught by their Fathers and not as the invention of their Fathers but as a doctrine taught their Fathers by the undoubted Messengers of Heaven the Holy Apostles The like may be said of all the intervening Generations for the first six hundred years which our Adversaries do not deny though it be all one to the force of this Argument to grant so much only for the first four hundred years Now if Transubstantiation was not taught for the first six hundred years but the contrary whatsoever age be it the seventh eighth or nineth would begin to teach the doctrine of the real presence of our Lordâ— body in the Sacrament they could not possibly have the impudence to tell their Children the bread and wine in the Eucharist were turned into the true body and blood of our Saviour and thus they had been taught by their Fathers and Grandfathers uninterruptedly from the Apostles This I say it is impossible they could have the Impudence to assert when every one must needs know his Father and Grand-father had believed and taught him otherwise What must they pretend then to impose upon their Children this new and strange mysterious Doctrine They must tell them their Fathers and Grand-fathers and other Ancesters for some hundreds of years had been in an Error and had forsaken the Doctrine taught by the Apostles and their first Converts as to this mystery and confirm their Assertion by the clear words of Holy Scripture Take and Eat this is my Body c. and by other testimonies out of the Writers of the first or second Century But no History makes mention of any such manner of bringing in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation in the seventh eighth or other Century Therefore it was never so brought in but was always believed nor indeed could it ever in any Century be brought in by the Church of Christ whose custom has ever been not only in the seventh and eighth but in every other Century before after alwaies to teach and to pretend to teach her Children not Doctrins devised or found out by herself by reading the Holy Scriptures or other means but what was taught her by her Fore Elders uninterruptedly from the Apostles and still when Hereticks or beginners of any new Doctrin in any age pretended Scriptures for them she opposed we have been taught otherwise by our Ancesters and to understand those Scriptures in another sense than you understand them Which way of Teaching a bringer in of a new Doctrine its evident could not use For if he did not begin to teach his Child otherwise than he was taught by his Father he should teach no new or other Doctrine But if he did begin to teach his Child otherwise than his Father taught him he could not at the same time tell his Child thus he was taught by his Father and so upward from the Apostles when both his own Conscience and all his Neighbours would testifie the contrary Calvin for example could not tell his Child that he was taught by his Father to deny Transubstantiation No more could the first Teacher of Transubstantiation in the seventh or other Century had it been a Novelty tell his Child he was so taught to believe by his Father but must have pretended to have more light than his Father and Ancesters as our Adversaries did when they began to deny it Hence it is evident Transubstantiation
was not begun in the seventh or other Century but was alwaies believed since the Apostles seeing that in the nineth Century Christians universally believed that in the holy Eucharist the bread and wine were changed into the body and blood of our Saviour and as such adored them and embraced this doctrine of the real presence not as a doctrine newly found out by themselves or their immediate Fore-fathers by reading the holy Scriptures or other means but as taught them by their Fore-fathers uninterruptedly from the Apostles and seeing likewise this has ever been the way of the Catholick Church to teach and pretend to teach Posterity not new Doctrines of her own but what she had learnt from her Ancestors Hence S. Vincent Lerinensis twelve hundred years ago in his Golden Treatise against the profane Innovations of Heresies upon those words of S. Paul Siquis c. If any one Evangelize to you besides what you have received let him be Anathema Sed forsitan c. But perhaps those things were commanded the Galatians only Then those things also which follow in the same Epistle were commanded the Galatians only Be not desirous of vain-glory provoking one another envying one another Or perhaps was it then commanded if anyone announce besides what has been announced let him be Anathemaâ—ized but now it is not commanded Therefore and that also which he there saies But I say walk in the Spirit and do not perfect the desires of the Flesh was then only commanded but is not now commanded But if it be impious and pernicious to believe so it necessarily follows that as these things are to be observed by all Ages so those things also which are established concerning not changing the Faith are commanded to all Ages Wherefore it was never lawful it is not now lawful nor ever shall be lawful to Christian Catholicks to announce any thing besides what they have received Let him cry and cry again and to all and alwaies and every where let him cry by his Epistle that Vessel of Election that Master of the Gentils that Trumpet of the Apostles that Preacher of the World Conscious to the secrets of Heaven let him cry if any one preach a new Doctrine let him be Anathematiz'd And on the contrary side let certain Froggs and Cynifes and Flies that are to perish such as are the Pelagians reclame and this to Gatholiks We say they being Authors we being Heads we being Expositors Condemn what ye did hold hold what ye did Condemn reject the ancient Faith the institutions of your Fathers the depositions of your Ancestors and receive but what I have a horror to mention them for they are such proud things c. But may not general Councils at least presume to reach new Doctrines Hear the same S. Vincent chap. 32. Hoc semper neque quicquam praeterea c. The Catholick Church excited by the Novelties of Hereticks by the decrees of her Councils even did this and not thing more than this what she had received by Tradition only this she consigned to Posterity by writing comprehending a great sum of things in a few letters and for the most part for the light of understanding signing the not new sense of Faith with the propriety of a new name Take notice that the Christian Church using this means to preserve the Faith first received its impossible she should ever lose or change it For if Fathers from the beginning had resolved to teach their Children what they had learnt or even thought they had learnt from their Parents as to the point of the Real prefence or other doctrine its impossible they should teach another doctrine For should they teach another doctrine it must happen either because they were ignorant what was taught them by their Parents which is impossible not only to whole Nations but even to the Inhabitants of one small Town or else because though they knew what was taught by their Parents yet they would teach otherwise than they had been taught but then they must forsake their first resolution of teaching their Children what they thought they had learnt from their Fathers contrary to the Supposition But on the other side let us suppose a book fully written as to all points to be believed by Christians by the first teachers of Christianity Let them together with this Book give charge to their 〈◊〉 Converts neither to add to it nor to diminish it and to believe as in their Consciences they shall think that Book shall teach them Though Generation after Generation be never so faithful to such a charge yet they may in after Ages come to lose or change their Faith because the Book may seem to one Generation to bear one sense and to another Generation to bear another Especially if the mysteries to be believed be very sublime and the Book obscure in many places and admit of divers senses when it speaks of those mysterieâ— For example these words This is my Body may seem to one Age to bear this sense This is a sign of my body and â—o another This is really and truly my body But no ten Families who have been taught by their Parents either to believe our Saviours body is in the Euecharist or that it is not there can possibly mistake what their immediate Fathers taught them and frequently inculcated to them as to this point both by themselves and choice persons ordained on purpose for this end to teach what they learnt from their immediate Masters and Fathers Nothing can make a change here but a resolution to go contrary to what they know was taught them by their Parents Wherefore seeing God Almighty is resolved not to teach every Age by immediate infallible Missionants from himself but to send inspired Ambassadors to one particular Generation only and to leave that Generation to teach their Children successively till the day of Judgment what they learnt from the immediate infallible Messengers of Heaven And seeing also a Book with a charge not to change or alter it and with a charge also to follow what should seem to every Generation to be the sense of it and supposing every Generation faithful to such a charge would not have been a sufficient means to keep the first divine Faith from Corruption we may safely conclude the Almighty has not taken that way to teach the world But seeing Oral teaching by inspired Pastors at first with a charge to every Generation to follow what they thought was taught them by their immediate Parents and Teachers provided every Generation were true to this charge would have kept the first Faith inviolate we may also conclude the Almighty has taken this way Especially finding a Congregation of so vast a spread in being who pretends to have made use of this means to preserve her first Faith taught her Ancestors many hundred years ago nor can she be evinced by any History or Tradition or any thing but mere sayings and ungrouâ—â—â—d surmises to have lost
years labour neither eloquence of false Teachers nor force of civil powers has been able so wholly to pervert our Nation as to the belief of that high mystery of the real presence but even still there remain a considerable number retainers of the antient belief And can you think that not in a much greater space of time to wit betwixt the sixth and nineth Century all the Christian world could be perswaded to admit so strange a doctrin to nature and reason and yet no man by vertue of History or Tradition should be able to give any account what Orators prevailed with the world to relinquish the belief of their Ancestors or what power of civil Magistrates forced them to it Especially seeing there have not wanted Ecclesiastical Historigraphers who have made mention of matters of far less note than such a change of Faith must needs have made But what place will there remain for doubting that this high mystery was always believed if not only all writers be silent as to any change but also the seventh and eighth Age yea the most Primitive times do positively attest this very mystery by the pens of the chiefest Champions of the Christian Church who have left us any memorials of their learning and piety in their deservedly admired works I shall faithfully recount their words be your own judge what their sentiment was In the first place then glorious Saint and great Doctor S. Augustin tell us your Faith concerning the Holy Eucharist Is it Bakers bread or the body of our Lord and God I remember saies the holy Doctor in his 28. Ser. de verbis Domini when I treated of the Sacraments I told you that before the words of Christ that which is offered up is called Bread but when the words of Christ shall have been pronounced now it is no longer called bread but the body of Christ. And explicating those words of the Royal Prophet Psal. 98. v. 5. Exalt ye our Lord God and adore his foot-stool for it is holy Now what is this Foot-stool of God why saies this great Doctor The Earth is his Foot-stool But how is the Earth holy and to be adored by us The Saint goes on and tells us how Our Lord took Earth of the Earth because Flesh is of the Earth and he took Flesh of the Flesh of Mary And because he walked here in Flesh and gave to us that very Flesh to be eaten by us to our Salvation but no body eats that Flesh unless he shall first have adored it And indeed what could we expect that S. Austin should teach and believe concerning this divine Sacrament but what he had been taught by his Father and Instructor in Christ the glorious St. Ambrose And what was that Hear his words lib. 4. De Sacramentis Thou wilt perhaps say nnto me my Bread is ordinary Bread but that bread is bread before the Sacramental words but when Consecration has been made of bread it is made the Flesh of Christ. But how can bread be the body of Christ By Consecration Consecration by what and whose words is it perfected By the words of our Lord Jesus For all other things which are said Praise is given to God By prayer supplication is made for the people for Kings for the rest When the time is come that the Venerable Sacrament is to be made now the Priest does not use his own words but the words of Christ therefore the word of Christ makes this Sacrament But what word of Christ That word by which all things were made Our Lord commanded and Heaven was made our Lord commanded and the Earth was made Our Lord commanded and the Seas were made Our Lord commanded and every Creature was produced Doest thou see then how operative the word of Christ is If then there be so great force in the word of our Lord Jesus that it could make things which were not begin to be how much rather is it operative that those things which were should be and be charged into another thing Heaven was not the Sea was not the Earth was not but hear him saying He said the word and they were made he commanded and they were Created That therefore I may Answer thee the body of Christ was not before Consecration bâ— after Consecration I say unto thee that now the Body of Christ is He said it and it was made He commanded and it was Created And in chap. 5. of the same Book Before the words of Christ the Chalice is full of Wine and Water but when the words of Christ have bad their operation then it is made the blood which Redeemed the people See then in how many kinds of things the word of Christ is able to change all things Moreover our Lord Jesus himself testifies unto us that we receive his body and blood ought we then to doubt of his testification Add to S. Austin and S. Ambrose the Learned S. Hierom in his Epistle ad Heliodorum Far be it from me saies the Saint that I should speak amiss of those who succeeding the Apostles do make the body of Christ with their sacred mouth And in his 85. Epistle to Enagrius By whose prayers the body and blood of Christ is made Take notice that these three Holy Fathers lived not four hundred years after our B. Saviours death S. Cyprian yet nearer the Apostles age does no less clearly nor fully attest the same verity in his Serm. de Caena Domini That bread which our Lord gave to his Disciples being changed not in shape but in its nature by the Omnipotency of the Word was made Flesh. And in his Book de Lapsis reprehending such as were angry with the Priests of God who refused to admit them to the holy Communion of the B. Sacrament after they had polluted themselves with the profane Sacrifices of Heathen Idolaters expresses their sin in these words He that has fall'n from his Faith threatens them that have stood firm Sacrilegious wâ—etch he is angry with the Priests of God that he is not prosently admitted with defiled hands to receive the Body of our Lord or to drink his blood with his defiled mouth And this was the very doctrin of his learned Master Tertullian who yet nearer approached the holy Apostles lib. de Resur cur The Flesh is fed with the body and blood of Christ that the soul may be made fat with God And in his Book de Idololatria he complains of the prosaneness of some Christians who made no scruple to day to be working in their Shops making Idolatrous Statues for the Heathens and yet to morrow would presume to come into the Christian Congregations and receive the Sacred mysteries of our Lords body and blood and communicate them to others His words are these To touch the body of our Lord with those hands which give bodies to Devils Nor is this all their Crime would be less did they only receive from the hands of others what they contaminate and pollute