manner in the Soul as the virtue of Wheat remains in the corrupted grain to raise it again at Spring feeding it with Grace and at set times affording it new infusions of Actual Grace Divine Lights and Heavenly Affection and in the Resurrection raises again the Body and unites it to the Soul. Reformers Object that the same Body of Christ cannot be multiplied so often over We answer out of Gen. 2.21 Our Lord God cast a dead sleep upon Adam and when he was fast asleep he took one of his Ribs and filled up flesh for it and our Lord God built the Rib which he took of Adam into a Woman I ask how many times over must this Rib be multiplied before a whole Woman of a comely proper Stature could be made of it After the same manner God can of one ordinary Brick make a Pillar of many Foot high by Multiplying that one Brick in the like manner our Saviour Multiplied those five Barley Loves with which he fed above five Thousand Men. Jo. 6. For if he made new Loves he did not feed them with those five but with those many hundred new Loves which he made and yet the Scipture saith v. 12.13 After they were filled they gathered the Remnants and filled Twelve Baskets with the fragments of the five Barley Loves and not of any new Loves created by Christ So that the Bread which was eaten remained still to be eaten and it is worth our noting that our Saviour did this Miracle immediately before he did first declare this strange Doctrine of giving his flesh to be eaten like bread by every one that so when he should have no reason to disbelieve the possibility thereof For his Disciples seeing that he had done that Prodigious Miracle So very lately ought not presently to have said This is hard and who can hear it Neither ought they so soon to have walked a-part from him as there St. John saith They did but rather they ought to have said with St. Peter We believe and know thou art the Son of God able to make thy words good as thou wert able so to multiply so few Loaves Concerning the Exposition of these words THIS IS MY BODY WE say these words This is my Body prove clearly the Real Presence of Christ's Body in the Host Because they ought to be taken in their proper sense in which they would prove it clearly by the grant of our adversaries who therefore say they are to be taken Figuratively Now that they ought to be taken here in their proper sense I prove 〈◊〉 positively Positive Proofs WHen in a Speech a word is indifferent of it sellf to be taken in the literal or figurative sense you must look to the words that follow in the same Speech if they express the property of a figure the word is to be taken figuratively if the property of the real thing then the word is to be taken in the literal sense For Example when one tells me I have seen the King I know not yet what he means whether his person or picture but when he adds set in a frame of Gold I know he means his Picture because 't is the property of a Picture to be set in a Frame If he adds speaking with the Chancellour I know he means the King's Person because 't is the property of a person to speak with another Just so when Christ says Luke 22. v. 19 This is my Body I know not yet what he means whether his Real Body or only a figure of it But when he adds which is given for you I know he means of his true Body because 't is the property of a true body to be sacrificed for us 2. I prove again that these words of Christ This is my Body are to be taken in the literal sense by the Protestant Principle which is this When two passages relate to or speak of the same matter in Scripture the obscurer passage is to be explained by the clearer But these two passages relating to our Lord's Supper This is my Body and Do this in remembrance of me This latter is the obsecurer and that former the clearer then this latter ought to be explained by that former that is to say to the sense of that former viz. Christ having changed a piece of bread into his Body by his Almighty word says there to his Disciples Do ye for the food of other Souls what ye have seen me do for the food of yours Change ye likewise by pronouncing the words I have ordained for that end bread into my Body but do it with such circumstances that people standing by may be mindful of my death and passion But the clear Proposition ought not to be explained by the obscure one thus This is my Body that is to say this is a figure only or a remembrance of my body because he said after do this in remembrance of me for the thing was now done and he told them what it was in clear words afore he said Do this in remembrance of me He did not say this is a remembrance of me no but Do this in remembrance of me He did not speak of the substance of the thing but only of the manner of doing it By these words then in remembrance of me he only intimated that they should make at that same time a sensible expression of his passion to the people as is seen done in the Sacrifice of the Mass If by This he understood a figure or remembrance then he had said do or make aremembrance of me in remembrance of me or remember me to remember me which is ridiculous Now let any indifferent and judicious man be judge if these words do this in remembrance of me be as clear to prove that in the Euchrarist or the Lord's Supper is only a Figure of Christ's Body as these words This is my Body are clear to prove that the Eucharist is his true Body If you instance that as Christ said This is my Body so he said also I am a Vine and consequently as the latter Proposition must be taken figuratively so must also the former I answer it doth not follow there being a great disparity For we all Protestants as well as Catholicks avow that Propositions in the Holy Scripture cannot be taken in the literal sense if so taken they imply or intimate something contrary to Faith as this Proposition I am a Vine literally taken would do Por Protestants as well as Catholicks believe that the Divine Word hath assumed no nature but that of Man then he hath not assumed that of a Vine and consequently 't is against Faith to say in the literal sense Christ is a Vine But these words This is my Body taken in the literal sense imply nothing against Faith no more than he who shewing you a knife says This is a Knife for the term This and the term Knife suppose for the same thing and not for different natures so in Christ's Proposition
Interpreted by Luther Calvin Willet and several others that it 's impossible to any man assisted with what Grace soever to keep the Commandments None has ever yet says our great Calvin and God has decreed none shall ever keep the Commandments Again u Harm Evang. in Luc. c. 10. verse 26. the Law and Commandments were given us to no other end but that we should be damn'd by them t Lib. 2. Instit c. 7.5 inasmuch that it is impossible for Us to do what they Command The same Doctrine is taught by Luther in several places of his Works by Willet x In Synop. Papismi pag. 564. and by our Brethren the Gomarists of Holland and many of our French Synods Believe which you please both Doctrines are of the Reformation It is also the Doctrine of Luther and Calvin that God does not cast Men into Hell because their sins deserve it nor save Men because they merit it but meerly because he will have it so He crowns those who have not deserved it says Luther y Lib. de Servo Arbit cont Erasm 2. Lib. 3. Inst c. 21. sect 5. 7. c. 22. sect 11. cap. 13.1 and he punishes those who have not deserved it 't is Gods Wrath and Severity to damn the one 't is Gods Grace and Mercy to save the other Calvin also z Men are damn'd for no other cause but because God will have it so he is the cause and Author of their Damnation their Damnation is decreed by God when they are in their Mothers Womb because he will have it so this is also the belief of our Gomarists in Holland of many French Churches and of several learned Calvinists though the Church of England denies this Doctrine none will dare say it is not the Doctrine of the Reformation because it is Scripture as Interpreted by such eminent men of our Church The Church of England understands by Scripture that God is not the Author nor cause of sin that does not force us to sin who doubts but that this is therefore the Doctrine of the Reformation But Calvin Brentius Beza and several others understand by Scripture that God is the cause and Author which forces our Will to Sin That Man and the Devil are but Gods Instruments to commit it That Murthers Incests Blasphemies c. are the Works of God that he makes us commit them And who doubts but this also is the Doctrine of the Reformation being Scripture as Interpreted by such eminent and sound judgement God says Calvin a Lib. 2. Inst c. 4. sect 3. lib. 1. c. 18. sect 2. lib. c. 23. sect 4. Lo. 1. de deprovid c. 6. in Synops pag. 563. In manifest stratag Papist directs moves inclines and forces the Will of man to sin insomuch that the power and efficacy of Working is wholly in him Man nay and Satan when he impells us being only Gods Instruments which he uses to make us sin Zuinglius Willet Beza teach the same The Church of England has Scripture for her Rule of Faith and gives us the liberty to Interpret Understand and Believe some Text of it as each one thinks best and so permits Presbyterians to deny Episcopacy Lutherans to deny Figurative Presence c. and confesses they are all her Brethren of the Reformation but she will give no liberty at all to Interpret other Texts but all must understand them as she does or all must be Hereticks and damn'd Men No that Text My Father and I are one must be Interpreted to signifie the Unity and Nature of the Father and Son as the Church of England believes none must interpret it otherwise So that the difference betwixt the Popish Church and that of England is the first gives us no Liberty at all the second gives us some Liberty the first robs us of all the second but of one half The Rule of Faith in Popery is Scripture as Interpreted by the Pope and Councils the Rule of Faith in the Church of England as to some Articles is Scripture as Interpreted by the Church of England and as to other Articles Scripture as each person of sound judgement understands it and thus Protestants are but half Papists and half Reformed Let any unbyass'd and impartial man judge if the Church of England proceeds justly in this For if our Rule of Faith be Scripture as each person of sound judgement understands it and if as the whole Reformation believes we are not to be constrained to believe any Church Council or mans sense of Scripture if we do not judge by the Word of God it 's true by what Authority Rule or Reason can the Church of England give me Liberty to understand and believe some Texts as I please and deny me Liberty to understand and believe others as I judge by Scripture they ought to be understood I pray observe well this Discourse here are Luther Calvin Beza Zuinglius and our other first Reformers they Interpret some Texts against the Doctrine of the Church of England They are praised for the first and esteemed Apostolical Reformers because without any regard of what the Church of Rome said they freely taught and believed what they judged by Scripture to be true why must not they be praised and esteemed true Reformers also for not regarding what the Church of England or any other says but teach the impossibility of Gods Commandments the sufficiency of Faith alone and all those other Tenets which you much mislike since they judge by Scripture such to be true Doctrine Are they bound to submit their judgements to the Church of England more than to that of Rome The Veneration and use of the Sign of the Cross is flat Popery in the judgement of all our Congregations yet any Reformed Child may laudably and piously use it inasmuch as our Common Prayer in the Administration of Baptism Commands the Minister to use it saying We sign him with the sign of the Cross in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Chrst Crucified and manfully to fight under his Banner against Sin the World and the Devil And in our Kalender printed since his Majesties Restauration it is called the Holy Cross Our Congregations generally believe it is Popery to keep Holy-days except the Sabbath-day and Saints-day to Fast Lent Vigils commanded Ember-days and Fridays and yet all this is recommended to us in our Common-Prayer-Book and the Minister is commanded in the Administration of the Lords Supper to publish the Holy-days of the Week and exhort us to Fast and surely he is not commanded to teach or exhort us to any thing but the Doctrine of the Reformation It is true the Students of our Colledges of Oxford and Cambridge are much troubled with scruples in this point these Pauperes de Lugduno are compelled to fast all Fridays throughout the year and it is not hunger that makes them complain but tenderness of Conscience because they fear
This is my Body This and Body suppose for the same thing not This for Bread but for The Body of Christ as well as the word Body supposes for it though in a different way of signifying This obscurely and Body clearly and distinctly Here I humbly intreat the Protestant Reader to reflect that in the mysteries of Religion we must captivate our understanding 2 Cor. 10.5 that is to say suspend it from asserting what it might judge had he nothing to rely upon but the sole relation of our senses to obey Christ God will have as an homage due to him and his veracity this proud faculty of man which is earnest to judge of all submit to his word The assent of my understanding by which I judge a thing to be because I see it with my eyes is an assent of science which is a knowledge quite different from the assent of Faith. In the mean time we Christians as Christians are called not Philosophers the Reasoners but the Faithful Fides est as we say credere quod non vides Faith is to believe that which thou dost not see This is the praise of Faith saith St. Aug. tract 29. in lo. If that which is believed be not seen Blessed are they said Christ Jo. 20. v. 29. who have not seen and have believed Faith is an argument or persuasion saith St. Paul of things not appearing If they appear and I assent that they are because I see them my Faith ceases Science coming in with Faith's Destruction If you say I belive that the Son of God became Man because God hath revealed it and my senses do not controul it your Faith is lame and not able to stand alone and consequently is an unworthy Sacrifice of your understanding to the word of God. What would the King say to that Noble man who should distrust his relation made in presence of all his Courtiers of a thing done by his Majesty upon his Royal word who should I say distrust it because he heard it controuled by a Foot-boy or some such mean person of as little credit As humane Faith requires I rely upon the sole testimony of a man so does divine Faith require I rely upon the sole Testimony of God shall I trust the word of a man sometimes contrary to sensible appearance as when I trust upon the word of a Doctor or a Chirurgion that that which I feel hurts me will do me good and shall not I trust the Word of God because my Senses seem to controul it But be not mistaken neither sense nor reason controuls the Real Presence of Christ's Body in the Eucharist For sense after the Consecration finds its whole Object Colour Taste c. Just as before the Consecration unchanged and meddles not to judge whether the Body of Christ or the substance of Bread be under the Accidents as a thing belonging to the understanding and not within the compass of its Object And Reason tells us that although all the accidents of a substance be present nevertheless their substance is not there if the Author of nature has not revealed that he hinders its presence to them and therefore does not controul our saying that the substance of Bread is hot in the Eucharist after the Consecration because the Author of Nature hath revealed the contrary No more then it controuls Protestants saying that those three who appeared to Ahraham Genes 18. with all the accidents of Men were not Men but Angels because God has revealed it was so 3. Christ by his Almighty Power could change Bread into his flesh and he tells us Matth. 26. in these words This is my Body that he hath done it why shall not I believe it O but it seems strange to our apprehension must God then in that thing in which he will make to all men a memorial of his wonders Psal 110. v. 4. do nothing but what is within the reach of meaner wits and falls under their senses this claim is too proud therefore in humility Here I may say with S. Aug. Lib. 22. de Civit. Dei. Cap. 11. Ecce qualibus argumentis omnipotentiae Dei humana contradicit infirmitas quam possidet vanitas Behold with what arguments human Infirmity possessed with vanity opposes the almighty power of God. FINIS
Corrupted Daniel 7. Being indeed the Pillar and ground of Truth as the Apostle affirms 1 Tim. 3. If I say the Doctrine of Protestant Teachers about the Erring of the Church of Christ being so contrary to the Word of God as it is be true I demand of Prudent and Understanding Protestants how it can be defended that God is truly Good hath a fatherly care of Men doth truly love them and tender their Spiritual good and hath a true desire of their Eternal Salvation Seeing that whereas he doth freely permit the Devil to fill the World with false and wicked Religions with Abominable and Detestable Worships to bring Men assuredly to ever lasting Dammation He himself though he could most easily do it doth not continue maintain and uphold in the World in all Ages so much as one True Religion so much as one Holy and Divine Worship to bring them to Salvation No not after that his Blessed Son made Man by Infinite Humility by Innumerable Labours undergone for his sake by shedding his most precious Blood had endeavour'd to appease his Indignation to mitigate his Wrath and to gain and purchase Love and Mercy for them What Christian Breast can believe so monstrous a thing as this Or who can Harbour so base a Thought of the Wisdom Goodness Sweetness and Mercy of God Or how come Discreet and Understanding Protestants to swallow so gross an Absurdity as this If the Tenet of the Protestant Teachers touching the Erring of the Church be true how is that true which Christ says John. 3.16 That God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that every one that believeth in him perish not but may have Life everlasting For God sent not his Son to judge that is to damn the World but that the World may be Sav'd by him Or that which St. Paul says 1 Tim. 2.4 God will have all men Sav'd and come to the knowledge of the Truth How I say are these Divine Assertions true if to bring Men to Salvation God doth not ever preserve a True Religion in the World Doth not ever uphold the Truth of his Gospel For by false Religions no man can be Saved in regard that the Devil and not God is the Author and Suggestor of False Religions by which he intends the Damnation of Men and not their Salvation as is manifest Yea he neither can nor will induce men to invent a Religion able and fit to save men in Mark this well and also Note that our Saviour in the Sentence alleadg'd by the word World doth not mean that only Age in which He and his Apostles liv'd nor those men only which then liv'd But all following Ages and all that were to live even till the day of Doom All which God would have to come to the knowledge of the Truth namely of his Divine Gospel and to save them all he sent his blessed Son into the World. And therefore we must of necessity grant that he provideth the People of all Ages of a True and Visible Church by which they may be Sav'd And that he ever preserves in all Ages the Truth of his Gospel of which the Apostle speaks in the Sentence alleadg'd that so men may come to the knowledge thereof For if the true Gospel of Christ be not extant in all Ages how hath God a true Will and Desire that the People of all Ages should come to the knowledge thereof Neither is it sufficient that it be extant in the BIBLE for all to come to the knowledge thereof For all cannot read the Bible neither can those which are skill'd in Reading thence pick out the true Gospel without the help of a True Interpreter But it must be ever extant in the Sums of Christian Doctrine left in the Church with the Ordinary Doctors and Pastors of the Church whom others are bound to Hear and Obey Luke 10. Heb. 13. And of whom they are to learn Divine Faith which is gotten by Hearing Rom. 10. which is clear out of Matth. 24. where Christ expresly foretells that his True Gospel viz. the same that he Taught should be Preached to all Nations even till the end of the World And therefore the True Gospel must not be reserved only in the Bible but be ever extant in the Preaching of the Church Out of that which hath been spoken in thsi Dicourse who doth not see that the Prime and Fundamental Article of the Protestant Religion doth not only extreamly Disgrace the Wisdom Goodness and Mercy of God and extenuate the Merits of Christ but doth also tend to the Denial of all Christianity to the utter neglect of God Yea and to plain Atheism it self For who will think that the Son of God really Dy'd for Mankind if he gain'd so little for them Or that there is a God that doth truly love Men and tender their good if he be so unmindful of them and of their Eternal Happiness and Salvation The tending then of the Protestant Religion so much to the Disgrace of Christ and of God doth clearly shew who was the first Founder of it Wherefore as certain as it is that there is a God who is Infinitely Wise Good and Merciful and who doth truly love Mankind and tender their Eternal Good And as certain as it is that Christ the Son of God Died for us took a most provident course for our Salvation and that his Merits are of inestimable worth So certain is it that God hath ever preserv'd in the World a True and visible Church in which Men may be Sav'd if they will. For Christ did rot Light up a Candle to put in under a Bushel Mat. 5. And so certain it is that the Protestant Religion which is Erected upon so bad a Foundation as the Erring of the Church is is neither good nor sufficient to Salvation Testimonies of the SCRIPTURE evidently convincing that there can be no hope of Salvation for such as are separated from the Church which is the Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church by Heresie or Schism I Beseech you St. Paul Rom. 16.17 18. Brethren observe those who make Schisms and Scandals contrary to the Doctrine which you have been taught and avoid them For such men serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own Belly and by kind Speeches and Benedictions seduce the hearts of the simple Now to manifest how much such Heretioks are to be Detested he writes thus to Titus Tit. 3.10 11. A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition avoid knowing that he is such an one is subverted and Sinneth being condemned by his own judgement To Prevent the making a Schism in this Body the Church he says 1 Cor. 1.10 I beseech you Brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all say one thing and that there be no Schisms among you but that you be perfect in one sense and in one knowledge Again Eph. 4.1 I beseech you that you walk worthy of