no faithful History doth deny And then I need not prove that Transubstantiation is against the most General or Common Tradition For all these Christians the Greeks Armenians Abassines c. profess to follow the Religion which they have received from their Ancestors as well as the Papists do And if the Papists be to be believed in saying that this is the Religion which they received from their forefathers Why are not the other to be believed in the same case And if the Popish Tradition seem regardable to them Why should not the Tradition of twice or thrice as many Christians be more regardable And if in Councils the Major Vote must carry it Why not in the Judgement and Tradition of the Real body of Christs Church As for their trick of excepting against them as Schismaticks and Hereticks to invalidate their Votes and Judgement we despise it as knowing that so any Usurper that would make himself the sole Judge may say by all the rest of the world But as they judge of others they are justly judged by others themselves CHAP. X. The second part of the Controversie Whether it be Christs very Flesh and Blood into which the Bread and Wine are Transubstantiated R. OUr first Question was Whether there be any Bread and Wine left after Consecration Our second is Whether Christs Real Flesh and Blood be there as that into which the Bread and Wine are changed And herein 1. I do freely grant that the change of Christs Body by Glorification is so great as that it may be called though not a Spirit yet a spiritual body as Paul 1 Cor. 15. saith Ours when Glorified shall be that is A body very like in purity simplicity and activity to a Spirit And the general difference between a spirit and body was not held by many of the Greek Fathers as it is by us And if the second Council of Nice was Infallible no Angel or other Creature is Incorporeal Or as Damasus saith They are Corporeal in respect to God but Incorporeal in respect to gross bodies The perfect knowledge of the difference between Corpus and Spiritus except by the formal Virtues is unknown to mortal men 2. I grant therefore that our senses are no Competent Judges Whether Christs true body be in the Sacrament no more than Whether an Angel be in this room There are bodies which are Invisible 3. I grant that it is unknown to us how far Christs Glorified body may extend Whether the same may be both in Heaven and on earth I am not able nor willing to confute them that say Light is a Body nor them that say It is a spirit nor them that say It is quid medium as a nexus of both I mean Aether or Ignis visible in its Light And it is an incomprehensible wonder if Lumen be a real radiant or Emanant part of the Sun that it should indivisibly fill all the space thence to this earth and how much further little do we know So for the extensions of Christs body let those that understand it dispute for me 4. And I will grant that it is very probable that as in Heaven we shall have both a Soul and Body so the Body is not like to have so near an Intuition and fruition of God as the soul And whether the Glorified Body of Christ will not be there a medium of Gods Communication of Glory to our bodies yea and his glorified soul to our souls as the Sun is now to our eyes I do not well understand only I know that it is his prayer and will that we be with him where he is to behold his Glory and that God and the Lamb will be the Light of the Heavenly Jerusalem 5. And I am fully satisfied that it is not the signs only but the Real Body and Blood of Christ which are given us in the Sacraments both Baptism and the Eucharist But how given us Relatively de jure as a man is Given to a Woman in Marriage or as a house and land are delivered to me to be mine for my use though I touch them not Thus 1. A right to Christ is given us 2. And the fruits or benefits of his Crucified body and shed blood are actually given us that is Pardon and the Spirit merited for us thereby 6. And among the Benefits given us besides the Relative there are some such as we call Real or Physical terminatively and hyperphysical originally ut à Causa which are the spirit of Holiness or the Quickening Illuminating and Sanctifying influence of the spirit of Christ upon our souls And the Sacrament is appointed as a special means of communicating this 7. I have met with some of late who say that Indeed Christs Body and Blood in his humbled state were not really eaten and drunk by the disciples at his last supper For the flesh profiteth not to such a use But that his Glorified Body is spiritual and is extensively communicated and invisibly present under the form of Bread in the Sacrament and that as we have a Body a sensitive life and an Intellectual soul so Christ is the life of all these respectively viz. His Body is made the spiritual nourishment of our Bodies his sensitive soul for which the word Blood is put because it is in the blood in animals is the food or life of our sensitive souls and his Intellectual soul of ours And to these uses they assert the Real presence and oral participation of Christs Glorified body To all which I say 1. Whether or how far an invisible spiritual Body is present sense is no judge nor can we know any further than Gods word telleth us 2. That Christ in his Glorified soul and Body is our Intercessour with God through whom we have all things we must not doubt 3. That Christ in his Humane and Divine Nature now in Heaven is that Teacher who hath left us a certain word and that King who hath left us a perfect Law of Life whom we must obey and a promise which we must trust we must not question 4. That the Holy Ghost who is our spiritual Life is given us by from and for Christ our Mediator we must take for certain truth But though in all these respects Faith apprehendeth and liveth upon Christ yet that moreover his Glorified Body in substance either feedeth or by contact purifieth our Bodies and his sensitive soul our sensitive souls and his Intellectual soul our Intellectual souls as if in themselves and not in their effects only they were thus communicated to us I understand not either by any just conception of the thing it self or any proof of it from the word of God But if any can help me to see it I shall not refuse instruction Nor can I see why the soul of Christ should be said to be given in the Wine only and not in the Bread Nor why by this kind of Communication he may not as truly be said to be given us in
things unseen and above sense And this is their meaning We see not God Christ Heaven Angels c. But faith hath alwaies Intelligible Evidence of Verity and as our Mr. R. Hooker saith can go no further than it hath such Evidence However I appeal to any that have not been disputed out of their wits whether If God would give us as full a sight of Heaven and Hell and Angels and Blessed souls as we have of the Bread and Wine before us and as full a Hearing of all that they say in justification of Holiness or Lamentation of sin and as full sensible acquaintance with the world we go to and our title to it as we have with this world I say whether this would not be more ascertaining and satisfactory to us and banish all doubts more than our present faith doth I love not to hear men lie as for God and talk and boast against their experience as if the interest of faith required it Things revealed to faith Are Certain and Infallible But that is because we have certain evidence 1. That God cannot lie 2. And that God revealed them and so that they are True But if we did see feel taste c. we should be more certain Else why is it said that we now know but enigmatically and as in a glass and as children but hereafter shall see as face to face and know as we are known when faith is done away as being more Imperfect than Intuition We have evidence to prove that the Revelation made to David Isaiah Jeremiah Peter Paul c. were of God and that their words are by us to be believed c. But to see hear taste feel c. would be a more quieting Assurance Therefore when all the sound senses of all men living perceive after consecration that there is Bread and Wine this Certainty is 1. in order antecedent to that of faith and 2. by Evidence more satisfying and assuring than that of meer faith as to a prophets Revelation And therefore to reject it on pretence of faith is a subversion of all natural methods of assurance and is but pretended I think by your selves The sixth Principle That except those Immediate Inspirations which none but the Inspired do Immediately and clearly perceive we have no Revelations from God but by signes which are created beings and have their several Natures and so may be called Physical though signifying Moral things And thus far our natural and supernatural Revelations agree R. Every being is either Vncreated which is God only or Created in a large sense that is Caused What God Revealed to Christ Peter Paul c. we have knowledge of but by signes In Scripture these signes are Words These words signifie partly the mind of God and the speakers or writers and partly the matter spoken or written When it is said that It is impossible for God to lye it can mean nothing to us but that it is impossible that God should make us a deceitful sign of his will The voice of an Angel Prophet Apostle a thousand Miracles c. are but signes of the matter and of Gods will And if God can ordinarily make false natural signes we are left unassured that he cannot make false signes by an Angel or a Prophet or a Miracle And so all faith is left uncertain P. Then you will make God a lyar or deceiver whenever any man is deceived by natural signes R. Not so For men may deceive themselves by taking those for signes of a thing which are none and so by misunderstanding them And the Devil and bad men may promote this deceit But whenever God giveth man so plain a sign of the Matter and his Will as that no errour of an unsound sense an unqualified object a culpable or diseased fantasie or Intellect interveneth then if we are deceived it can be none but God that doth deceive us which cannot be because he cannot lye And as it is an unresistible argument against the Dominican doctrine of Physical Predetermination as absolutely necessary to all acts of natural or free agents that If God physically predetermine every lyar to ivery lye that is mentally conceived or uttered then we have no certainty but he might do so by the Prophets and Apostles so is it as good an argument against Papists that if he ordinarily deceive the senses of all sound men by a false appearance of things seeming sensible he may do so also by the audible or legible words of a prophet The seventh Principle That he that will confute sense and prove that we should not Judge according to its perceptions must prove it by some more certain evidence that contradicteth it R. I suppose you will not question this P. No The word or Revelation of God is a more certain evidence R. How know you that there is any word of God but by your senses P. But yet by sense I may get a certainty which is above that of things sensible As I know by the world that there is a God by a certainty above that of sense R. 1. If that were so yet if things sensible be your media you destroy your Conclusion by denying them and undermine your own foundation 2. But it is not true The knowledge of the Conclusion can be no stronger than that of the principles even of the weaker of them If you are in any uncertainty whether there be Sun Moon Heaven Earth Man Beast Heat Cold or any Created sensible being you must needs be in as much doubt whether there be a God that made them The eighth Principle That Believing or Assenting is Intellection of the Truth of something revealed and therefore must have Intelligible Evidence of Truth in the thing believed R. I know that Assiance or Trust as it is the act of the Will reposing it self quietly on the Believed fidelity of God is not Intellection But the Assenting act is an Intellection or an Act of Knowledge of a Verity not as Science is narrowly confined to principles but as Knowledge is taken in genere for notitia So to believe is no other than to know that this is true because God saith it Joh. 6.69 We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ c. Joh. 3.2 We know that thou art a Teacher come from God for no man could do such works c. Joh. 21.24 We know that his testimony is true See Rom. 7.14 8.28 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if this earthly house c. 1 Tim. 1.8 1 Joh. 3.2 Joh. 8.28 32. 1 Cor. 15.58 We know that our Labour is not in vain c. Therefore your denying the certainty where the evidence is most notorious and telling men of Meriting if they will but believe your Church without any Evidence of certainty is a meer cheat The ninth Principle That Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Saviour of the World and that Christianity is the true Religion and Gods appointed sufficient way to Heaven
body and that the eaten body turned into the substance of his eating body And yet all was but one XI It was a Miracle that Christs Eaten body being not dead but living with a humane soul should be broken and eaten by him and his disciples and yet feel no pain by it XII It was a Miracle that his whole body was on the Cross and yet part of it in the disciples bellies at that time or at least before that eaten by them XIII It was a Miracle or contradiction that Christs eaten body now nourisheth not the flesh of any man and yet did nourish the flesh of the disciples before his death Or if it did not nourish them it was a Miracle that what they eat and drank then did not nourish them or Christ what he eat and drank XIV It was a Miracle that the whole body of Christ should arise and live and ascend to Heaven when the disciples had eaten it XV. It is a Miracle that every Receiver eateth the whole body of Christ and not a part and yet that he hath but one body or that they eat each a part without dividing him XVI It is a Miracle that as soon as the species of Bread and Wine perish or cease in the Eater Christs body and blood ceaseth to be in him and this without his detriment XVII It is a Miracle that there is such a local distance between the consecrated bread and wine all over the world and yet no such distance between the parts of Christs body and yet that bread to be his body XVIII It is a Miracle that bread and wine is Annihilated or cease every Mass and yet that the quantity of corporeal matter in the whole world is no whit diminished or else that those four words can so annihilate and diminish the matter of the world XIX It is a Miracle that Christs body and blood increase not when so many millions of parcells of bread and wine are turned into it XX. It is a Miracle that Christs body and blood is not diminished when by the Corruption of the species of bread and wine it vanisheth away XXI It is a Miracle that Christs body and blood should be so received into the bowels of a wicked man and yet not be any way defiled by his sin nor by his bodily uncleanness XXII It is a Miracle that a Baker dispositively and a Priest effectually can make his own God and eat him when they have done XXIII It is a Miracle that when Worms are bred of that which was bread and wine these worms are really generated of nothing or created or if as some say the bread and wine do substantially return again and breed them that is another a double miracle XXIV And it is a Miracle that the Corporeal matter of the world should by these Worms be daily increased out of nothing or out of meer accidents that have no substance XXV It is a Miracle that men may be poysoned by the Sacramental Elements as ingredients in the mixture and yet that they are no substance XXVI It is a Miracle or Contradiction that when flesh and blood formally such enter not into the Kingdom of God but Glorified bodies are all spiritual bodies though not Spirits and therefore not flesh and blood Yet Christs body in the Sacrament should be truly and properly flesh and blood and yet the same with his glorified body which is not flesh and blood which is the Papists doctrine and the bread turned into such flesh XXVII It is a Miracle that the same Body which in Heaven is brighter in Glory than the Sun and exalted above Angels should yet shew no signs of Glory on the Altar in the Cup in the hand mouth or belly of him that taketh it but all its Glory be so hid XXVIII It is a Miracle or Contradiction that Christs Humiliation should be past and his whole Body Glorified and yet that to be torn with the teeth of a wicked man to be eaten by Mice Rats or Dogs to go into the filthy guts to be trodden in the dirt should be neither painful nor any diminution of the Glory of that same body Indeed his body on the Cross might be broken and his blood spilt and trodden on because he was a sacrifice for sin and it was the time of his Voluntary Humiliation But now for the suffering of death he is crowned with Glory and Honour Heb. 2.9 7. XXIX It is a Miracle that the Living Body of our Glorified Redeemer should give no evidence or sign of life neither stir nor speak nor have breath pulse warmth or other property of life appearing XXX It is a Miracle at least that flesh should have none of the common notes or properties of flesh not to be made of food of blood and chyme not to consist of the fibrae which flesh consisteth of not to have the colour taste odour or other such accidents of flesh And that Blood should have none of these notifying accidents of blood XXXI It is a Miracle or Contradiction that Christs Flesh was Broken before it was broken sacrificed before it was sacrificed I mean really broken and sacrificed at his Supper when yet he was whole and not really sacrificed till he was nailed to the Cross And so that his blood was really and properly shed in his Supper and yet no skin broken nor his blood really shed till his side was pierced on the Cross And that he that was but once offered and sacrificed should yet be offered and sacrificed once on one day and another time on another day Here are one and thirty Miracles or Contradictions Let us hear some of the Aggravations of them as worthy to be considered I. It is a Miracle of these Miracles that there should be as many Miracle workers as Priests in the world How many thousand are they in France alone And so in many other Countreys Whereas in Christs own time they were comparatively but few II. That the Pope or any Prelate can make a Miracle worker when he please yea a thousand as if the Holy Ghost were at his will III. It is a Miracle of these Miracles that a Simonist who buyeth the Priesthood with money doth buy the Holy Ghost to work Miracles for that money which Simon Magus was condemned for thinking possible For the Papists hold that the Consecration of a Simoniacal Priest transubstantiateth IV. It is a Miracle that all this power of Miracles should be given to flagitious wicked men Adulterers Murderers Drunkards c. V. It is a Miracle that all these men can work Miracles at their own will and pleasure at any hour whereas the Apostles had not the Spirit at command and could not do it when they would VI. It is a Miracle that Miracles should be as common as Masses or the Eucharistical worshipping of God not only on every Lords Day in all Church-assemblies but any day or hour else in the Week And so Miracles be as ordinary almost as to