Saviours words can import no less than the verity of Transubstantiation FIRST MOTIVE The Written Law shadowed future Truth and this Truth was Christ So we read Moses sprinkled with Blood the Book and People saying This is the Blood of the Testament which God hath enjoyned unto you The Blood of the Ancient Covenant was the Figure of the Blood of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament This appears from the words of our Saviour in the Institution This is my Blood of the New Testament which is shed for many This Miraculous concord of the Old and New Covenant This repetition of the very same Phrase is an Evidence beyond denyal that the former was a Symbol of the latter And since you cannot understand the latter of Christs Blood spilt on the Cross Because you pretend St. Luke says his Blood was then shed which is shed for many which preceded the Crucifiction It follows necessarily to be understood of the true Blood of Christ in the Sacrament Because a Figure is not without the Reality nor a Shadow without a true Body SECOND MOTIVE As it is true that Jesus took Bread so are we taught that he blessed it And what he brake and what he gave to his Disciples was without doubt what he had blessed or consecrated The Question is what this was None of the Evangelists say that he gave Bread they say Jesus took Bread and Jesus assures what was blessed broken and given was his Body saying This is my Body If it was then Bread as the Evangelists note Jesus took Bread and after the Divine Benediction or Consecration became his Body as Jesus affirms this is my Body Then without extorting or racking of Scripture without adding figurative Glosses and wicked is the Man who superads to Scripture the facile sense of Scripture readily leads to the plain Article of Transubstantiation THIRD MOTIVE The Circumstances of our Saviour urge for the Literal Acceptation of This is my Body For Jesus spoke to his Apostles to his dearest Friends preparing to bid his last Adieu and then if ever Sincerity discloses it self without difficulty and after a facile and intelligible Method He 's Wisdom it self and knew how to Phrase his Thought He 's Omnipotent and so can surmount what Human Frailty might conceive as impossible He 's Goodness it self and cannot deceive us And therefore said what it was and what he said was true FOURTH MOTIVE Is the conformity of Scriptures For if Christ had ever design'd to signifie that the Eucharistical Bread was only the Figure of his Body it would surprize us what inclin'd him to make use of this Speech this is my Body and after such a choice to leave it barely without explanation when he so carefully taught his Disciples the true meaning of many easier Parables 'T would astonish us finding the three Evangelists with St. Paul who testifies he received the same Doctrin from revelation not constrain'd nor combining to joyn in expression yet to repeat all the same words without the Least alteration And we read in Latin Greek Syriac Arabic all Versions and Languages nothing but the same expression and equal confirmation FIFTH MOTIVE The very same Interpretation of other Scriptural Passages wherein are grounded the chief Articles of Christian Belief enforces the sequel of Transubstantiation For I believe adhering to Scripture as the Rule of Faith that this Passage the word was made Flesh imports a Substantial Union I believe the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father included in these words I and my Father are one I believe one Divine Essence of three distinct Persons revealed in These three are one Upon these Testimonies of Holy Writ Substantially understood I quietly repose my belief of the Incarnation of our Saviour the Son's Divinity and of the sole and undivided nature of the Blessed Trinity This Method is further secur'd by the consent of all those who are and pretend to be true Members of Christ's Religion Now if I follow this Determination so authorized and so certain if I follow this motive of my own Conviction in other like Articles extending the same uncontrol'd Interpretation to this is my Body I must necessarily grant this Inference this is my Substantial Body Thus my Faith seeks to be one as Scripture is one and God one Truth As this literal Reflection is sincere and pious the figurative Explanation of our Saviour's Words wants no Fallacy nor Impiety For if I may presume to give this sense to our Saviour's Words this is not my Substantial Body this Presumption ought to be strongly grounded as allowable just and in Equity to be follow'd And if so then I may lawfully give the same exposition to the three alledg'd Articles For the Scripture urges not more out of this Passage The word was made Flesh the substantial connexion of the Second Person with Human Nature or out of these words I and my Father are one the identity of the Son with the Father or out of these Three are one the unity of Nature in three Divine Persons than out of this is my Body the Substantial Body of Christ If therefore I might lawfully understand our Saviour's words in an empty figurative exposition saying this is not my Substantial Body I might rightly deduce following the same interpretation then the word was not substantially made Flesh and so deny the Mystery of the Incarnation I and my Father are not substantially one and so prosess Arianism These three are not substantially one and so dividing the Divine Nature constitute many Gods. Can such a figurative Explanation be thought a sincere part of the True Religion which undermines and utterly destroys the whole Fabrick of Christianity And ought not my own Motive in the most considerable Mysteries of Christianity contained in Scripture be to me the same in the determination of the true Sense of This is my Body SIXTH MOTIVE The true sense of our Saviour's words may be gathered from the Doctrin which the Learned and Ancient Fathers maintain'd against incroaching Heresie What if I should now advance that the Successors of the Apostles upbraided Heretics for denying the Eucharist to be the Flesh of Christ that Flesh which suffered for us upon the Cross would you not look upon it as an invincible undertaking and yet the glorious Martyr St. Ignatius elected Bishop of Antiochia thirty eight years after our Saviour's Passion plainly delivers They certain Heretics whose Names he thought convenient not to mention do not receive Eucharists or Sacrifices because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ which Flesh suffered for our sins and which the Father raised again by his benignity Nor is it enough to say these Heretics could not admit the Eucharist to be a Figure because they deny'd that Christ had true Flesh This perchance is true But it is not here the sense of the Martyr who says expresly that they reject Eucharists because they do
can make God. This is certainly to run headlong into Hell in Heavens Road wheedling the People into Blind Extasies with Hypocritically crying out O Blessed Saviour But all who says O Lord O Lord shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Examine your own Prayer and Reason will find matter enough to discuss and Conscience more to correct What Catholic ever said First That Men should kill one another Secondly That the most barbarous thing in the World is a Mystery of Religion Thirdly That we flatter the Priest who says he can make God These are as true as your Prayer is without Calumny or Hypocrisie They are as true as there were Execrable Murders committed to drive People into this Senseless Doctrin by no Body in no Place But they are not as true as the Doctrin of Transubstantiation was delivered by Christ and his Apostles taught by the Consent of the Fathers Divinely revealed and propagated to Posterity and so free from Stupidity quiet from Cruelty and a Pious Mystery of our Religion Article IV. Of the Danger of Idolatry IF we should be mistaken as you suppose about this Change through the crosness of the Priest which God forbid it should happen not pronouncing the words of Blessing or Consecration we should not at all be guilty of Idolatry For believing only one true God we profess there is infinite Distance between him and all Creatures and therefore we cannot so honour any Creature as we do the true God. Nor is our Intention ever determined by the Will to adore any thing which is not God So that if the Hoast were not through mistake consecrated by the Priest the Peoples Adoration would be terminated in Christ where e're he is because it is directed to God and not to a Creature The Pagans 't is true or Persians cannot be excused from Idolatry in worshiping the Sun because erring from the knowledge of the true God they direct their Adoration to what is not God but a Creature Mr. Thorndyke one of the great Lights of your Church was so convinced in this point that he professes should this Church of England declare that the Change which we call Reformation is grounded upon this Supposition of Idolatry in the Church of Rome I must then acknowledge that we Protestants are the Schismatics CHAP. II. Of the Monstrous Absurdity of this Doctrin TO shew the Absurdity of this Doctrin you are contented to ask these few Questions Question 1. Whether ever any Man have or ever had greater evidence of the truth of any Divine Revelation than every Man hath of the Falsehood of Transubstantiation Answer If we had no surer Evidence of Revealed Truth than every Man hath of the Falsehood of Transubstantiation we should have no true Evidence for Christian Religion And thus by your First Question Christianity would immediatly be dispatched out of the World. Quest 2. Supposing the Doctrin had been delivered in Scripture in the same words which we read in the Council of Trent You ask by what stronger Argument could any Man prove to me that such words were in the Bible than I can prove to him that Bread and 〈…〉 Consecration are Bread and Wine still Answer The Sense of the Council of Trent and that of the Scriptures are one and the same If therefore I can but appeal to 〈◊〉 Eyes to prove such words to be in the Bible as you do appeal to your Senses to prove that Bread and Wine remain after Consecration what the Scripture says is evidently true according to the Testimony of Sense and your Testimony from Sense of the substance of Bread remaining is evidently false I have great assurance of this For St. Paul forbids me to believe an Angel if he should come down from Heaven and teach me contrary to what is writ in Scripture As this is the substance of Bread and not my Body is contradictory to this is my Body And what Prerogative enjoy you beyond that of an Angel And if you draw one way with your Evidence of Sense and Scriptural Evidence from Sense draw another way is it not evident that your evidence is good for nothing Quest 3. Whether it be reasonable to imagin that God should make that a part of Christian Religion which shakes the main external Evidence and Confirmation of the whole You mean the Miracles which were wrought by our Saviour and his Apostles the Assurance whereof did at first depend upon the certainty of Sense Answer With great Reason and Justice you appeal to the Senses of those who say they saw the Miracles which were wrought by our Saviour and his Apostles because their Eyes were the proper Witnesses of Miracles So with the same Reason and Justice I appeal to my Senses to prove that the words which teach the Doctrin of Transubstantiation are in Scripture because Paper Ink Syllables and words are the proper Objects of Seeing feeling and hearing How then does the Catholic Tenet shake the main External Evidence of the Christian Religion when this external proof of Sense evidences from Scripture Transubstantiation Quest Whether our Saviour's Argument were conclusive or not proving to his Disciples after his Resurrection that his Body was risen Luke 24. 29. Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self for a Spirit hath not Flesh and Bones as you see me have And if seeing and handling be an unquestionable Evidence that things are what they appear to our Senses then the Bread in the Sacrament is not chang'd into the Body of Christ Answer Sense in its own Objects is frequently certain and here we may rely on it According to this Principle the Argument which our Saviour used did certainly prove to the Disciples that what they saw and handled was his true Body For affirmation of Flesh and Bones rightly follows from feeling and seeing These Actions belong properly to the experience of Sense Besides we have all this recorded in Scripture And our Saviour made use of all other Arguments imaginable to confirm the Mystery of his Resurrection In some Circumstances the Senses may deceive us and then we ought not to rely on them Thus the Jews designing to precipitate our Saviour from the top of a Mountain Jesus as we read in Scripture passed through the crowd and departed and the whole Multitude trusting to that Information which Sense gave them believ'd he was a Ghost or Apparition In like manner the same true Body of Christ is substantially present in the Sacrament after a Spiritual Existence and therefore it is not the proper Object of Sense and so we cannot here rely on our Senses We must then trust to something else viz. to the Testimony of Scripture which is the Rule of Faith to know surely what Substance or Body lies under the Species or appearance of Bread. Now the Scripture teaches us that the Bread in the Eucharist is the Body of Christ This is my Body and the Bread which I will give is my Flesh
me disputing for Transubstantiation to use in my own defence these words of yours which somewhat favour my undertaking I readily acknowledge the Fathers do and that with great reason very much magnify and frequently speak of a great Sacramental Change made by the Divine Benediction If from hence I should vigorously assert you granted the Fathers were for the Substantial Change because since you admit a wonderful Change made by the Divine Benediction and that the Species remain unaltered the Change must be acknowledged in the Substance of Bread and Wine would you not condemn this weakness and appeal to the other parts of your Treatise to manifest this Impossibility And yet all these Schoolmen actually write in those very Places you mention against the Sectarists or Roman Opposers And almost every one of them produce from Scripture and Fathers more Reasons for than you have done Objections against Transubstantiation I appeal to your own Judgment conscious of this Truth And you know that if you do follow their Writings and imitate the Religion they professed and died in you must declare yoâ—â—self a Member of the Roman Catholic Church CHAP. II. Whether there be any reason to understand our Saviour's words contrary to the sense of Transubstantiation YOU are sure there are a great many Reasons and are not scant of them These may be reduced to five Heads Parables Similitudes the Context of St. Matthew St. Paul to the Corinthians and the Silence of the Apostles at the Institution I follow this order and examin in so many Articles these considerable Reasons against Transubstantiation Article I. Whether Parables exclude the sense of Transubstantiation 'T IS a Maxim among Divines No Efficacious Argument can be drawn from Parables This Calvin acknowledges And St. Austin goes farther admonishing the Donatists n'er to endeavour an establishment of Dogm's from Scriptural Passages which are obscure or ambiguous or figurative which if true the sense of Transubstantiation will not in the least be prejudic'd by your Objections from Parables You first object this Parable of Christ I am the Door I answer the 7th verse explicates I am the Door of the Sheep And he 6th verse This Parable spake Jesus unto them What more pressing a figurative understanding of this passage I am the door But when we read This is my Body we cannot over-see which shall be given for you which maintains the Reality You instance Christ said I am the true Vine I answer the Cyriac interprets I am the Vine of truth Descend to the 5th Verse and Christ says I am the Vine as you are the Branches both a full Attestation of a Parable But where Jesus tells me the Bread which I will give is my Flesh and that Flesh which I will give for the life of the World what more conclusive for the Catholic Interpretation You urge St. Paul says Ye are the Body of Christ I answer the Apostle declares Verse 13. we are spiritually For by one Spirit we are baptized into one Body But where Christ said my Flesh is meat indeed I find added many repetitions which increase a confirmation of the true Substance You finish They drank of the Rock which followed them and that Rock was Christ I answer you are afraid to be just excluding the word Spiritual For we read v. 3. Our Fore-fathers all eat the same spiritual Meat v. 4. and did drink all the same spiritual Drink for they drank of that spiritual Rock and that Rock was Christ What if for a threefold word Spiritual in the precedent I find a triple evidence of the true substance of Christ in the Sacrament which necessarily requires the strictly literal and divine sense of our Blessed Saviour's words St. Luke confirms which is shed for you St. Mark shed for many St. Matthew for the remission of sins Article II. Whether Similitudes exclude the sense of Transubstantiation IF it be well known as you write that in the Hebrew Language things are commonly said to be that which they do signifie It is not less evident that the four Similitudes you heap together are not prejudicial to the Catholic Exposition of our Saviour's words These Similitudes shall be delivered in single Paragraphs Paragraph I. Similitude of Pharao 's Dream YOU object Joseph expounding Pharao's Dream to him says The seven good Kine are seven Years I answer We consider some things as Signs and others as Substances The Sign is reasonably called the Thing and yet it is not what it represents so the Portrait of a King is said to be the King that is only represents his Majesty But if we consider a thing as a Substance we cannot in common Language affirm it to be what it is not So Prudence will not give us leave to say a Pen is Paper because a Pen is not reckon'd among representative Signs Josepth reasonably affirm'd the seven Kine are seven Years and so Pharao understood him that they were seven in Representation because they both knew the discourse was of Signs as the Scripture testifies ver 13. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph in my Dream behold I stood upon the bank of the River and behold there came up out of the River seven Kine Our Saviour's Expression this is my Body is as far distant from this Example as the real institution of the Sacrament from the Narrative of a Dream and therefore ought not to be understood as the like Expression But what connexion between Pharao's Dream and the change of Bread in the Sacrament As much as betwixt the same Dream and our Saviour's being Substantially Man. If I should then argue thus as you do Joseph called the seven Kine seven Years which Language is usual among the Hebrews that is signified seven Years and so would any man of sense understand the like expression Therefore when St. John says the Word was made Flesh that is was a Figure os a Man or Phantasm is such a Deduction that no Language but Hebrew can be able to make it out Paragraph II. Of one who never heard of Transubstantiation THIS Similitude is very pleasant as if we should go to Pagans to know what is our own Religion However you believe that he that never heard of Transubstantiation would never imagine any such thing to be meant by our Saviour's words And I believe a great Number of these who saw our Saviour himself deny'd he was God. You believe the Bread only signifies Christ's Body because you will bilieve so I distinguish what Christ distinguished and because he said this is my Body I believe it was his Body and because he commanded us to do this hereafter for a memorial of his Death and Passion we obey him Is not this to follow Scripture You are sure it would never have entred into any Man's mind to have thought that our Saviour did literally hold himself in his hands and give away himself from himself with his own hand And I am sure what
travelled says he over the World and have found divers Sects but so sottish a Sect or Law I never found as is the Sect of Christians because with their own Teeth they devour God whom they worship It was great stupidity in the People of Israel to say Come let us make us Gods but it was civilly said of them Let us make us Gods that may go before us in comparison of the Church of England who calumniously make the Catholics say let us make a God that we may cat him when we only say God has power to change Bread into his Body But the greatest Stupidity of all is that in all Probability you think those common Jugling Words of Hocus Pocus are nothing else but a corruption of Hoc est Corpus by way of a ridiculous Imitation of the Priest of the Church of Rome I grant this Imitation is very ridiculous And you are the first Juggler with this Divine Mystery and with our Saviour's own Words that ever I read of in my life But with all the Legerdemain and Jugling tricks of Falsehood and Imposture you l never make me believe you sooner than I do the Scripture Nay if Averröes Cicero and a whole Progenie of Heathen Philosophers were as great Jugglers as your self and altogether design'd to put a Trick upon me you should never juggle me by the Grace of God out of my Faith in Christ And Lastly If I should ask counsil of the Philosophers as you do in the concern of the Sacrament to know the true cause of this Universe Heraclitus would tell me Atoms produced it Pythagoras would send me to the Marriage in Numbers The Valentinians would bring me to the four Principles which made the Treatise of Peace between Verity and Silence Light and Profoundness But whilst I let them enquire one of another what gave being to these Atoms who thought these Numbers whence came this Verity what is the Origin of this Silence the Source of this Light the Prop of this Profoundness I rest contented in mind and instructed with this Passage of Moses In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth God is the Cause of all things Cicero may dispute with his false Gods And Averröes may deride Christians A Jugler may laugh at our Saviour's Institution These words this is my Body silences them all and excites me to say with St. Austin Dispute You I will believe Article II. Of the Barbarousness of this Doctrin THE eating Man's Flesh in its proper shape is no doubt very barbarous But I think the eating our Saviour's Flesh under the Species of Bread and Wine appears barbarous neither to Sense nor to Reason Theophilact asks in John 6. Why does it not appear Flesh to us but Bread and Answers lest we should have horror to eat it And what you call horrible St. Chrysistom calls amiable For what more Kind than to give himself But you cannot imagin the Ancient Christians ever own'd any such Doctrin because then we should have heard of it from the Adversaries of our Religion in every Page of their Writings This cannot be expected For very few Pagans concern'd themselves with the Rites of Christianity And of these the most Famous complain Christians conceal'd the Doctrins they professed Hence that Murmur of Cecilius in Minutius Felix Why are the Christians carefull to hide and steal their Worship from Mens eyes since Honesty is never asham'd to face Light And Celsus disgusted upon the same account calls our Religion a Clandestin or hidden Doctrin To which Origen occurs T is true there are some Points among us not communicated to all the World nor is this peculiar to Christians The Philosophers observ'd two sorts of Principles some were public and common to all others were private and the Science of particular Disciples 'T is therefore in vain Celsus undertakes to discover the Secrets of Christians not knowing in what they consist St. Austin and St. Denys the Areopagite teach the same And yet whether the Pagans knew them or knew them not you will have them revile our Mysteries in every Page of ther Writings Nor are you contented with this for you add With what confidence would they have set the Cruelty used by Christians in their Sacrament against their God Saturn's eating his own Children but that no such Argument was then objected by the Heathens to the Christians is to a wise Man instead of a thousand Demonstrations that no such Doctrin was believed Now sure I am nonplust For how can I solve an Objection which stands instead of a thousand Demonstrations What Author will happily fall into my hand or dictate how our Adversaries gathered from Slaves and Captives a rude Relation of this Mystery which was matter enough for them to hit us in the Teeth in requital of Saturn's eating his Children with the killing and feasting on Flesh and Blood This Passage perchance of Tertullian may suffice any sober Understanding that the Pagans did not omit such a return you seek after We are says he called wicked Infanticides Child killers and nourished with raw Flesh Athanagoras comes nearer and reminds us how the Pagans with confidence set the cruelty used by Christians in their Sacrament if not against the God Saturn's at least against Thyestes's another like History eating his own Child We are impeach'd says he by Pagans of Three horrible Crimes of taking away the Gods of Thyestean Banquets eating of a Child and of Incests St. Justin Martyr fits you with Saturn's own Fable 'T is reported says he to the Pagans we practice Saturn's Mystery and killing Man exercise with hands full of goar all the cruel and bloody Rites of your Idolatry Now sure I may conclude with you that because such a thing was then objected by the Heathens to the Christians it is to a wise Man instead of a thousand Demonstrations that the Doctrin of Transubstantiation was believed in Primitive Ages and then modestly vindicated from these foul Aspersions Article III. Of the Bloody Consequences of this Doctrin IF this Doctrin had been the occasion of the most Barbarous and Bloody Tragedies to use your words that ever were acted in the World the Enemies of Christianity would have hit them in the Teeth with these Cruelties of terrour fury and rage and what endless Triumphs would they have made upon this Subject But that no such thing was objected by the Heathens is to a wise Man instead of a thousand Demonstrations And what you want here of Authority you supply and make up in a zealous appearance of Devotion breaking into this Exclamation O Blessed Saviour who can imagine that ever Men should kill one another for not being able to believe contrary to their Senses for being unwilling to think that thou shouldst make one of the most barbarous things that can be imagined a Principle of thy Religion for not flattering the Presumption of the Priest who says he