cannot be imagined unless we will lay a great blemish upon the whole Church especially the supreme Governours thereof with all the Bishops and Pastors Councels and Doctours and holy Fathers of gross Ignorance in using such forms as should contradict the substance of what they unanimously commended to the faithful 4ly It is no less strange that the Doctour should pretend the holy Fathers and Doctours of the Church when not only for almost twelve hundred yeares even by his town confession they all approved the Mass but also defended it against all Contradictors and hereticks and therefore he rejecte their authorities and pretends to stand to the judgment only of the primitive times to wit within five hundred years after Christ In this Treatise I have gone with him to those times and have produced their testimonies from Age to Age and dare say that in those times he can produce no one holy Father or Doctour that hath taught any Doctrine in any opposition or contradiction to any thing of the Roman Mased where as I have produced most of them in opposition to whatsoever the Doctour has pretended against it whereunto I have added the Councils both general and Provincial the practise of the whole Church in those times with the consent of all Christian Nations 5ly Whereas the Doctour pretends some Texts of the holy Scriptures for his cause we may consider that he follows therein his own fancy or private spirit without any Expositour or Interpreter of those times imitating the Hereticks of all Ages who grounded all their errours on the Scriptures misconstrued and by a counterfeit sense of them did delude the Ignorant Christians Of this we have manifest experience in these our times for the innumerable Sectaries now extant do ground themselves on the Texts of Scripture which they pretend for their multiplyed sects Each one affirming their sence and meaning of the holy Text with condemnation of other judgments and so wrest the Scriptures to their several senses making their fancies the Rule of the sacred Text whereas Catholicks take the Scripture for the Rule of their Faith follow the judgment and sence of the one holy Catholick Church as on this present subject I have followed the common Doctrine of the holy Church even in those five hundred years after Christ which the Doctour allows Finally the Doctours mainest argument is from humane Reason or sense which I have proved no way capable to comprehend the mysteries of our Faith which transcends above all Reason or sense otherwise there would be no necessity of such a supernatural gift without which there is no salvation It is true that reason is necessary for the reception of Faith for if we were not reasonable or rational creatures we should not be capable to receive Faith but that reason should guide us in supernatural things is preposterous we know nothing but by our senses which can have no sensation or act of senses in spiritual or supernatural objects such as all Faiths objects are for the receiving thereof only the sense of hearing may concurr from whence the understanding frames intellectual species representing the things which are revealed and declared unto us by the holy Church which teaches in all times according to the holy word of God In confirmation of this S. Paul Hebr. 11. defines Faith The substance of things to be hoped the argument of things not appearing to our senses or humane reason but of it self is an Blench Demonstration or convincing Reason for by Faith alone we are convinced to believe those things which are revealed for faith only shews and demonstrates them as clearly as if we did see them in mid-day faith so works in us that we as more doubt of future or most obscure mysteries revealed then if they were comprehended by the sight of our eyes and are more certain in them then by any sense reason or Demonstration which may deceive or be deceived but in matters known by faith we cannot be deceived for God cannot deceive us It behoves as therefore as S. Paul 2. Cor. 10. says to bring into captivity all understanding much more senses unto the Obedience of Christ If we be true Christians by faith we must captivate and humbly submit our will understanding all our reason and all our senses to the word of God revealed S. Basil in psal 113. said All the Articles of our faith are principles grounded only on God revealing and therefore we need no Inquisition or disputation by any weak reason but firmly believe them as principles of our Faith without any examination or Question it suffices to all true believers that Dominus ipse dixit The Objects of our faith are supernatural and the subject which we treat of is of the Reall and substantiall Body and Bloud of Christ Jesus being in the Eucharist which only the understanding by Faith comprehends I will therefore submit all I have said to the judgment of all understanding persons and earnestly desire them to ponder what has been pleaded fouthe equitie of my cause which is grounded on the positive Texts of holy Scripture attested and expounded by the holy Fathers and Doctours of those primitive times and seconded by the General Practise of Gods Church aswell in those times as in all succeeding Ages without any notable question untill our later times God out of his infinite mercy open the Eies of those who go astray and grant them the Light of Faith such is the continuall prayers of him who earnestly wisheth them all health and salvation in Christ Jesus FINIS
vivificated be seen to be in the Chalice when wine is wanting to the Chalice wherby Christs bloud is declared which is openly published by the sacrament and testimony of all the scriptures which the Saint proves there at large Again in the same place he says If Jesus Christ our lord and God he the high priest of God the Father first offered Sacrifice to God the Father and commanded this to be done in his commemoration verily the priest executes in the stead of Christ who imitates that which Christ did do and offers a true and full sacrifice in the Church to God the Father if he goes about to offer according to that which he has seen Christ himself to have offered Lastly in Ser. de coena Domini which is commonly attributed to him sith our lord has said Do ye this in my commemoration this is my flesh and this is my bloud as often as it is done with these words and this faith that substantiall bread and chalice consecrated by solemn benediction is profitable to the life and Salvation of the whole man being also a medicine and holocaust to heal our infirmities and purge our iniquities 203. Tertullian l. 5. advers Marcionem after having declared what Christ did in his last supper he concludes fieri semper quod postea Jussit he commanded the same to be done always afterward 180. S. Irenaeus lib. 4. cap. 32. He took bread and gave thinks saying this is my body and in like manner the chalice which he declares to be his bloud and taught the new oblation of the New testament Which the Church receiving from the Apostles Offers to God in the whole world and cap. 34. The oblation of the Church which our Lord has taught to be offered in the world is reputed before God a pure sacrifice and a little after The kind of Oblation is not reproved for Oblations were there and Oblations here Sacrifices in the people sacrifices also in the Church and beneath he makes an argument against the Hereticks of his time How is it manifest to them that bread in which thanks are given to be the body of our Lord and the Chalice his bloud if they say not him to be the Son of the maker of the world that is his World 130. S. Justin Martyr Apol. 2. ad Antonium The Apostles in their Commentaries which are called Gospells have so declared that Christ commanded them taking bread and giving thanks he said do this in memory of me This is my Body and also taking the Cup and giving thanks he said this is my Bloud and gave to them only S. Martial Epist ad Burdigal He that is Christ having a body both immaculate and without sin for he was conceived by the holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary permitted himself to be immolated on the Altar of the Cross but what the Jews through envy did immolate hoping to abolish his name from the Earth we for our Salvations sake do set upon the sanctified Altar knowing that by this only remedy life is to be given us and death avoided for he our Lord commanded us to do this in his commemoration 100. S. Dionise Eccless Hist cap. 3. wherfore the venerable Bishop reverently and according to his pontifical office by holy praises of the divine works excuses himself that he sacrifices the salutarie host which is above him first in a decent manner exclaming to him Thou hast said do this in my commemoration next he asks that he may be made worthy of so great a Ministery ordained in the imitation of God and to become according to his forces like to Christ and that he may devoutly consecrate the Sacraments and purely distribute them 99. S. Clement l. 5. Apostol constit cap. 18. Our Lord being risen from death make ye your sacrifice which by us he has Constituted saying do this in my commemoration and l. 6. cap. 23. for one sacerdotal tribe he hath commanded to choose some of the best of every Nation to the Priesthood not regarding the defects of body but their religion and life for cruental sacrifice a rational and incruental and that mystical sacrifice of the body and bloud of our Lord which is celebrated in symbole of his death for worship determined by circumscription of place he hath commanded to celebrate the same with praises from the East to the West in every place of his Dominion These might suffice to shew the Authority of the Catholick Church in celebrating the holy sacrifice of the Mass and therfore I omit several other places of the holy Scripture and I will therfore make it more clear by the continual Tradition of the Church in those first 500. years CHAP. II. The sacrifice of the Mass proved by Tradition and practise of the Church within the five hundred years after Christ SAint Augustine Epist 118. ad Januarium cap. 5. affirms that whatsoever the Church in all the world uses carries with it full authority insomuch that to dispute whether it might be done is most insolent madness and lib. 1. contra Cresconium c. 33. to do that which the whole Church approves cannot be questioned for as the holy Scripture cannot deceive us so he who fears to be deceived by the obscurity of any question let him consult of it the Church which without any ambiguity the Scripture demonstrates or makes manifest Let us therfore now see what hath been the Doctrine of the Church within these 500. years after Christ wherto as I said before the Doctour appeals This cannot be made more manifest then by the Tradition and practise of the Church in her Liturgies or Masses for what the Grecians call liturgies that the Latin calls Missa and we in English Mass Now these Liturgies do come from S. Peter S. James S. Basil S. Chrysostome S. Ambrose and others of those times and within the times from five hundred years we hardly find any forms of Masses but what are deduced from them I will not say but that there have been some difference in their rites or ceremonies some diminutions and some additions yet none of them differ in the substance or nature of a sacrifice all agree in their forms in as much as concerns the due celebration of the Mass Now because the Doctour alledges the Liturgies of S. James S. Basil and S. Chrysostome I shall take a brief view of these in particular §. 1. of S. James Liturgie SAint Proclus Bishop of Constantinople l. de Traditione divina Liturgiae about the year 430. assures us that amongst the Apostles S. James did set forth a form of liturgie or Mass which Baronius ad an 63. confirms out of S. Cyril Bishop of Hierusalem Catechist 6. an 365. who Catch 5. explicates the most part of S. James Liturgie as of the pax or kisse of peace the sursum corda and Preface the cherubical hymn sanctus sanctus sanctus prayers before the consecration In which says he we pray our most benign God that he would send
in the manner or forme of Mass or in their opinions but in the substance of a Sacrifice according to the Evangelical law they all agree deriving their form rites and ceremonies from the primitive times that is from the Patriarchal Churches founded by the Apostles and their immediate successours In sine all the patriarchal Sees of Rome Antioch Alexandria and Hierusalem together with that that of Constantinople have used maintained and approved the sacrifice of the Mass It would be little less then Blasphemy to make them all Mistresses and fomenters of Idolatry and consequently that the Church which Christ and his Apostles had erected founded and established was Idolatrous and the true Christian Church never appeared in any Nation of the Vniverse But what do I insist in this manner when I speak to learned and understanding men who well know the truth of what I say and to whose judgments I humbly remit what I write trusting they will not condemn my boldness but attribute it to the Zeal I have of the honour of that reverend Vniversity which I so much reverence and esteem and for whose true glory and happy progress I offer up my continual prayers remaining alwaies Your hearty well-wisher and Beads-man R.F. Missale Romanum Vindicatum CHAP. 1. Mass proved out of the Sacred Scripture THe ancient and most learned Interpreter of the sacred text S. Hierom teaches us that the Gospel is not in the word but in the sence not in the bark but in the sapp not in the leaves of the words but in the root of the meaning whence the 6. Councel of Constantinople can 19. tells us If any Controversy pertaining to the Scripture be raised let not the preachers otherwise interpret it then as the lights and Doctors of the Church in their writings have expounded it Conformable to this is that Decree of the Meldelsen Councel In the expounding or preaching of holy Scriptures let every one follow the sence of the holy Catholick and most approved Fathers in whom as S. Hierom says verity of faith never fails or wavers I shall not therfore follow humane sence judgment or opinion neither will I for the present make use of Schoolmen nor of the Doctors or learned men for almost twelve hundred years which without doubt may counterpoise whatsoever exposition our pretended Reformers can any way claim in a 150. years at the most let us now wave all these and search out the truth from the first five hundred years It was a bold saying of this Doctor in his 12. Chapter that Roman Priests nor Roman sacrifice have not so much as any probable ground in Scripture this he has in the text of his Chapter but in the body of the proof is most weak for he confesses that Catholicks do alledge Scripture for both the question then is which side does best understand the true sence of the sacred text I might alledge innumerable places which the holy Fathers of that time did understand or apply to the sacrifice of the Mass in particular that of Dan. 12. of the continual sacrifice which S. Irenaeus S. Hierom and Theodoretus affirm to be no other then the sacrifice of the Mass which shall cease to be publickly celebrated as also S. Hippolitus teaches in the time of Antichrist but I shall only insist on those places which the Doctor impugns to wit on the figures of it as that of Melchisedech of the prophesy of Malachy and of the Institution of it made by Christ himself which I shall divide into three Paragraphs §. 1. Mass proved to be a Sacrifice according to the Order of Melchisedech THe holy Council of Trent Sess 22. c. 1. first grounds it self on the figure of Melchisedech Gen. 14. God by the mouth of the Prophet David Psal 109. did declare that Christ was a priest for ever according to the Order of Melchisedech which also S. Paul alleages Heb. 7. and thence proves a translation of the Law from the translation of the Priesthood let us now hear what the holy Fathers of those primitive times do understand by this I might well produce Cassiodorus Remigius and Euthemius in Psal 109. who were not long after the fifth century and expound it of the sacrifice of the Mass but let us make a step higher within that time and begin with Theodoret 430. on the same Psalm who affirms that Christ began his priesthood according to the order of Melchisedech in his last supper when the consecrated bread and wine 420. S. Augustin Epist 95. ad samos Melchisedech did prefigurate the Sacrament of our Lord's supper with bread and wine that is the sacrifice of Melchisedech being brought forth did know to prefigurate his eternal priesthood and lib. 16. de civit Dei cap. 22. alledging Melchisedech out of S. Paul to the Hebrews he says There the sacrifice which the whole Church offers now unto God did first appear and that prefigured which was long after fulfilled in Christ of whom the prophet said before he came to the flesh Thou art a priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech lib. 17. c. 17. he repeats the same giving the reason because Aarons Priesthood and Sacrifice are abolished and now in all the world under Christ the Priest we offer that which Melchisedech brought forth when he blessed Abraham and cap. 20. God has prepared the table with bread and wine that is the Sacrifice of Melchisedech a little lower The participation of that table is the beginning of life for in Ecclesiastes where he saith It is good for man to eat and drink we cannot understand it better than of the participation of that table which our Melchisedechian Prlest instituted for us in the New testament the text in lattin is quam Sacerdos ipse mediator novi testamenti exhibit secundum ordinem Melchisedech de corpore sanguine suo for that Sacrifice succeeded all the old testament Sacrifices which were but shadows of the future for his body is offered and sacrificed now instead of all other offering and Sacrifice and in Psal 32. he says Christ of his body and bloud instituted a Sacrifice according to the order of Melchisedech the same he has in Psal 32. in psal 100. and in Psal 109. and in many other places 390. S. Hierom. Epist 17. ad Marcell Have recourse to Genesis and thou shalt find Melchisedech King of Salem and prince of that City who even then in the type of Christ offered bread and wine and dedicated the Christian Mysterie in the bloud and body of our Saviour The same Father Epist 126. ad Evagrium so Melchisedech for that he was not a Cananite nor of the race of the Jews did goe before us as a Type of the Priest the Son of God of whom it is said psal 109. Thou art a priest c. and a little after he tells us what sacrifice he dedicated to wit the Sacrament of Christ in bread and wine in a sincere and pure Sacrifice Again in Gen. 14. Our mysterie
of our senses From what hath been said we plainly gather that in matters of faith we stand not to humane reason much lesse to our senses we may adde No sense or humane reason could tell us that Christ on earth was God The wise men who came from the East according to their senses imagination yea or humane understanding could conceive nothing but a little Child yet inspired by the holy Ghost in Faith only they adored the little Childe not as such but as being God and man which no sense or humane reason could dictate to them The Disciples Mat. 24. did not adore Christ by the rule of their senses or humane reason but when by faith they believed him to be the Son of God even after the Resurrection they did see Christ some believed others did not many who lived conversed and were in his company both simple and wise could never be convinced by their sense or reason that he was the Son of God and those who were of the simple sort sooner believed and were we not assured by divine revelation and testimony we could not believe either this or any other mystery of our Faith Where even according to reason it follows that we have a more sure ground to believe Gods word then our senses who perceive not the substance of the bread which is not perceptible by any of our senses whose objects are only accidents or sensible qualities which they have as well in the consecrated host or unconsecrated without any reflexion on the substance as being out of the sphere of their objects so that they discern not any thing of the substance or whether they be without any substance it is only the understanding which gathers by such or such accidents such or such a substance or subject and by natures ordinary course judgeth it to be bread but enlightned by faith and believing that nothing is impossible to God and that God in most express terms declared his body and bloud to be in the Eucharist the words are so clear that without wresting the terms none so simple but they may understand them as clearly as Peter is a man and those who contradict it on the ground of their senses are as the Apostle says 1 Cor. 2. sensual men not perceiving those things of the spirit of God it is foolishness to them and they cannot or rather will not understand for they are sensual measuring these heavenly mysteries by natural reason humane prudence and external senses which destroy Faith I know some object that of S. John 1. Epist cap. 1. where he attributes much to hearing seeing and touching matters of faith but they do not consider that the Apostles did hear and see many things which we believe from their testimonies but if we had only what they saw by their senses or humane wisdome our faith had been vain and of no importance for no visible thing or sensible as such can be the object of our faith what therefore they saw heard or touched was not believed as by faith but by experience see Scotus in 3. quaest 23. the Prophets and Apostles had a science which was not faith Faith taught them that the word was incarnate and that Christ who died rose again and ascended into heaven was the true Son of God now to us who have not seen them they are objects of faith as being only revealed unto us whereof we have testimony from Scripture and Tradition S. Thomas indeed believed because he had seen Christ after his resurrection Joan. 20. but as S. Augustine says tract 121. in Joan. He did see and touch man and confessed God whom he did not see nor touch but by this which he did see and touch that he believed now all doubt being removed and therefore he cryed out My Lord and my God and Jesus said unto him because thou hast seen me by sight and touch and certain knowledg that I am risen and believed that I am true God but blessed are those that have not touched me and have beleived Moreover S. John in this place opposes two diverse heresies to wit those who denied Christs divinity and those who denied his humanity and therefore begins his Epistle That which was from the beginning which he had declared in the beginning of his Gospel and for the other which we have heard by a voice from heaven which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled we testifie unto you weereby he manifestly testifies that Christ in humane nature had true flesh and bloud God and man now because he was inspired by the holy Ghost one of Christs Apostles according to the testimony of the Scriptures we believe what he saw and heard to be true and receive it as a matter of faith CHAP. XII An addition to the former Chapter of the same Subject out of S. Augustine OUr adversaries who stand so much in matters of faith on their senses and private judgments should do well to consider that they imitate the heathens and Infidells who had no stronger arguments against the true Catholick doctrine then their senses and humane reason as we finde in all the holy Fathers who have laboured to convince them and in particular this is to be seen in blessed S. Augustine especially in his books de civitate Dei from whence I shall make choice of two articles of our Faith which are holy repugnant to humane sense and reason to wit the everlasting torments of Hell fire and the Resurrection of the flesh Of the first he treats in the first 8. Chapters of his 21. Book and thus he begins the second Chapter What then shall I say unto the unbeleevers to prove that a body Carnal and living may endure undissolved both against death and the force of eternal fire they will not allow us to ascribe this unto the power of God but urge us to prove it to them by some example saying There is no body that can suffer eternally but he must perish at length no flesh can suffer always and never die The Saint replys Cap. 3. What is this but to ground an assertion upon meer sense and apparence which he esteems absurd in matters of Faith for saith he These men know no flesh but mortal and what they have not known and seen they hold impossible A little after Through our flesh as now be such that it can not suffer all pain without dying yet then shall it become of another nature Whence in Cap. 4. he says That God who endowed nature with so many several and admirable qualities shall as then give the flesh a quality whereby it shall endure pains and burning for ever Cap. 5. But the infidells hearing of Miracles and such things as we cannot make apparent to their senses do ask the reason of them which because it surpasses our humane powers to give they deride them as false and ridiculous but let them give us reason for all the wondrous things that