other It is true the moderne Greeks explane thēselves other wayes and appeare not for the most part very favourable to communion under one species but it is in this the force of truth appeares the greater since that in despite of them their own customes their own Liturgies their own Traditions pronounce sentence against them But is it not true will some say that they put some drops of the pretious Blood in forme of a Crosse upon the parcells of the sacred Body which they reserve for the following dayes and for the Office of Presanctified It is true they do it for the most part but it is true at the same time that this custome is new amongst them and that in the substance to examin it entirely it concludes nothing against us It concludes nothing against us because besides that two or three drops of consecrated wine cannot be preserved any long time the Greekes take care immediately after they have dropped them upon the consecrated bread to dry it upon a chafendish and to reduce it to powder for it is in that manner they keep it as well for the sick as for the Office of the Presanctified A certain signe that the authors of this Tradition had not in prospect by this mixture the Communion under both species which they would have given in another manner if they had beleeved them necessary but indeed the expression of some mystery such as might be the Resurrection of our Lord which all Liturgyes both Greeke and Latin figured by the mixture of the Body and the Blood in the Chalice because the death of our Lord arriving by the effusion of his Blood this mixture of his Body and his Blood is very proper to represent how this man-God tooke life again I should be ashamed to mention here all the vaine subtilityes of the modern Greeks and the false arguments they make about the wine and about its more grosse and more substantiall parts which remain after the sollid bodyes with which wine may be mixed bacome dryed from whence they conclude that a like effect is produced in the species of consecrated wine and therefore that the Blood of our Lord may remain in the sacred Bread even after it has been upon the chafendish and is entirely drye By these wise reasonings the Lees and the Tartar orsalt would still be wine and a lawfull matter for the Eucharist Must wee thus argued concerning the mysteryes of JESUS-CHRIST It was wine as properly called so that is a liquid and flowing wine which JESUS-CHRIST instituted for the matter of his Sacrament It is a liquor which he has given us to represent to our eyes his Blood which was shedd and the simplicity of the Gospell will not suffer these subtilityes of the modern Grecians It must also be acknowledged they arrived to this but of very late and moreover that the custome of putting these drops of consecrated Wine upon the Bread of the Eucharist was not established amongst them but since their schisme The Patriarch Michael Cerularius who may be called the true author of this schisme writes notwithstanding in a booke which he composed in defence of the Office of the Presanctified That the sacred Breads Synodic seu Pand. Guill Bevereg Oxon. 1672. Not. in Can. 52. Conc. which are beleeved to be and which are in effect the quickning Body of our Lord must be kept for this sacrifice Trull T. II. p. 156. Leo All. Ep. ad Nihus without sprincling one drop of the pretious Blood upon them And wee finde notes upon the Councils by a famous Canonist who was one of the Clergy belonging to the Church of Constantinople in which he expressely takes notice that according to the doctrine of Blessed John Patriarch of Constantinople The pretious Blood must not be sprincled upon the Presanctified which they would reserve Harmenop Ep. Can. sect 2. Tit. 6. and this said he is the practise of our Church So that let the modern Grecians say what they please their tradition is expressly against this mixture and according to their own authors and their own proper tradition there remains not so much as a pretense to defend the necessity of the two species in the Presanctified mysteries For can any one so much as conceive what Patriarch Michael in the worke by us newly cited sayes That the wine in which they mix the Body reserved is changed into the pretious Blood by this mixing without so much as prononcing upon the wine as appeares by the Euchologes and by Michaels own confession any one of the mystick and sanctifying prayers that is to say without prononcing the words of consecration bee they what they will for it is not to our purpose to dispute here of them A prodigious and unheard of opinion that a Sacrament can be made without words contrary to the authority of the Scripture and the constant tradition of all Churches which neither the Grecians nor any body else ever called in question By how much therefore wee ought to reverence the antient traditions of the Grecians which descend to them from their fathers and from those times whilst they were united to us by so much ought wee to dispise those errours into which they are falne in the following ages weakned and blinded by schisme I need not here relate them because the Protestants themselves do nor deny but that they are great and I should recede too far from my subject But I will only say to do justice to the modern Grecians that they do not all hold this grosse opinion of Michaels and that it is not an universall opinion amongst them that the wine is changed into the Blood by this mixture of the Body notwithstanding that Scripture and Tradition assigne a particular benediction by words as well to it as to the Body Wee are much lesse to beleeve that the Latins who exposed to us but even now the Office of Good Fryday could be fallen into this errour since they explicate themselves quite contrary in expresse words and to the end wee may omit nothing wee must again in few words propose their sentiments It is true then that wee finde in the Ordo Romanus and in this Office of Good Fryday that the unconsecrated wine is sanctifyed by the sanctifyed bread which is mixed with it The same is found in the bookes of Alcuinus and Amalarius upon the Divine Office Alc. de Div. Off. Amal. lib. r. de Div. Off. Bib. PP de Div. Off. But upon the least reflection made of the doctrine they teach in these same bookes it will be granted that this sanctification of the unconsecrated Wine by the mixture of the Body of our Lord cannot be that true consecration by which the wine is changed into the Blood but a sanctification of another nature and of a much inferiour order such as that is of which Saint Bernard speakes when he sayes that the Wine mixed with the consecrated Hoste Bern. Ep. 69. p. 92.
he can upon this impossibility so often repeted at last concludes that the party mentioned to whom the Bread alone is given p. 264. to speake properly dos not take with the mouth the Sacrament of JESUS-CHRIST because this Sacrament is composed of two parts and he receives but one Exam. de l'Euch Tr. 6. sect 7. this he likewise confirmes in the last booke he set forth This is what the Pretended Reformers durst nost that I know of hetherto affirme Verily a Communion which is not a Sacrament is a strange mystery and the Pretended Reformers who are at last obliged to acknowledge it would do as well to grant the consequence wee draw from their discipline seing they can finde no other way to unty this knott but by a prodigy never heard of in the Church But the doctrine of this Author appeares yet more strange when considered with all its circumstances Préservatif p. 266. 267. According to him the Church presents in this case the true Sacrament but neverthelesse what is received is not the true Sacrament or raither it is not a true Sacrament as to the signe but it is a true Sacrament as to the thing signifyed because the faithfull receive JESUS-CHRIST signifyed by the Sacrament and receive as many Graces as those who communicate under the Sacrament it selfe because the Sacrament is presented to him whole and entire because he receives it with heart and affection and because the sole insuperable impossibility hinders him to communicate under the signe What do these subtilityes availe him He might conclude from his arguments that the faithfull who cannot according to his principles receive the true Sacrament of JESUS-CHRIST seeing he cannot receive an essentiall part is excused by his inability from the obligation to receive at all and that the desire he has to receive the Sacrament supplyes the effect But that upon this account wee should be obliged to seperate that which is inseperable by its institution and to give a man a Sacrament which he cannot receive or rather to give him solemnly that which being not the true Sacrament of JESUS-CHRIST can be nothing else but meere bread is to invent a new mystery in Christian Religion and to deceive in the face of the Church à Christian who beleeves he receives that which in reality he do's not Behold neverthelesse the last refuge of our Reformers behold what he has writ who writ against me the last of any whose booke is so much spread by the Protestants through France Holland and other parts in divers languages with a magnificent Preface as the most efficacious antidote the new Reforme could invent against this Exposition so often attaqued He has found out by his way of improving and refining of others this new absurdity that what is received amongst them with so much solemnity when they cannot drinke wine is not the Sacrament of our Lord and that it is by consequence a meere invention of humain wi lt which a Church who sayes she is founded upon the pure word of God is not afraid to establish without so much as finding one syllable of it in that word To conclude JESUS-CHRIST has not made a particular law for those wee here speake of Man could not dispense with them in an expresse precept of our Lord nor allow them any thing he did not institute Wherefore either nothing must be given them or if one species be given them it must be beleeved that by the institution of our Lord this single species containes the whole essence of the Sacrament and that the receiving of the other can add nothing but what is accidentall to it §. IV. The third Principle The law ought to be explained by constant and perpetuall Practise An exposition of this Principle by the example of the civill law BUT to come to our third Principle which alone carryes along with it the decision of this question This is it To know what appertaines or do's not appertaine to the substance of the Sacraments wee must consult the practise and sentiment of the Church Let us speake more generally In all practicall matters wee must alwayes regard what has been understood and practised by the Church and as herein consists the true spirit of the law I write this for an intelligent and clearsighted Judge who is sensible that to understand an Ordonance and to discerne the meaning of it aright hee must know after what manner it was alwayes understood and practised otherwise since every man argues after his owne fashon the law would become arbitrary The rule then is to examin how it has been understood and how practised in following which a man shall not be deceived God to honour his Church and to oblige particuler persons to her holy decisions would that this rule should have place in his law as it has in humain lawes and the true manner to understand this holy law is to consider in what manner it has alwayes been understood and observed in the Church The reason of this is that there appeares in this interpretation and perpetuall practise a Tradition which cannot come but from God himselfe according to this doctrine of the Fathers that what is seene alwayes and in all places of the Church cannot come but from the Apostles who learned it from JESUS-CHRIST and from that Spirit of truth which he has given for a teacher And for feare any one should be deceived by the different significations of the word Tradition I declare that the Tradition I alledge here as a necessary interpreter of the law of God is an unwritten doctrine procedeng from God himselfe and conserved in the judgement and practise of the universall Church I have no neede here to prove this Tradition and what followes will make it appeare that our Reformers are forced to acknowledge it at least in this matter But it will not be amisse to remove in few words the false ideas which they ordinarily apply to this word of Tradition They tell us that the authority which wee give to Tradition subjects the Scripture to the thoughts of men and declares it imperfect They are palpably deceived Scripture and Tradition make togeather but one and the same body of doctrine revealed by God and so far is it that the obligation of interpreting Scripture by Tradition subjects the Scripture to the thoughts of men that there is nothing can give it more preeminence above them When particular persons are permitted as it is amongst our Pretended Reformers to interpret Scripture every one according to his own fancy there is liberty necessarily given to arbitrary interpretations and in effect scripture is subjected to the thoughts of men who interpret it each one according to his own mode but when every one in particular is obliged to receive it in the sense the Church doth receive and alwayes hath received it there is nothing elevates the authority of Scripture more nor renders it more independent of all particular opinions A man is never
containe particularly the one or the other in vertue of the institution are taken seperately their substance can be no more seperated then their vertue and their grace in so much that infants in drinking only the Blood do not only receive the essentiall fruit of the Eucharist but also the whole substance of this Sacrament and in a word an actuall and perfect Communion All these things shew sufficiently the reason wee have to believe that Communion under one or both species containes togeather with the substance of this Sacrament the whole effect essentiall to it The practise of all ages which have explained it in this manner has its reason grounded both in the foundation of the mystery and in the words themselves of JESUS-CHRIST and never was any custome established upon more sollid foundations nor upon a more constant practise § X. Some objections solved by the precedent Doctrine I Do not wonder that our Reformers who acknowlege nothing but bare signes in the bread and wine of their Supper endeavour by all meanes to have them both but I am astonished that they will not understand that in placing as wee do JESUS-CHRIST entirely under each of these sacred Symboles wee can content our selves with one of the two M. Exam. Tr. VI. Sect. 6. p. 480. 481. Jurieux objects against us that the reall presence being supposed the Body and the Blood would in reality be received under the Bread alone but that yet this would not suffise because t is true this would be to receive the Blood but not the Sacrament of the Blood this would be to receive JESUS-CHRIST wholy entirely really but not sacramentally as they call it Is it possible that a man should believe it is not enough for a Christian to receive entire JESUS-CHRIST Is it not a Sacrament where JESUS-CHRIST is pleased to be in person thereby to bring with himselfe all his graces to place the vertue of this Sacrament in the signes with which he is vailed rather then in his proper person which he gives us wholy and entirely Is not this I say contrary to what he himselfe has said with his own mouth John 6.57.58 he who eates of this Bread shall have eternall life and he who eates me shall live for me and by me as I my selfe live for my Father and by my Father But if M. Jurieux maintaine in despite of these words that it dos not suffise to have JESUS-CHRIST if wee have not in the Sacrament of his Body and his Blood the perfect image of his death as he do's nothing in that but repete an objection alread cleared so I send him to the answers I have given to this argument and to the undeniable examples I have set down to shew that by the avouched confession of his Churches when the substance of the Sacrament is received the ultimate perfection of its signification is no more necessary But if this principle be true even in those very Sacraments were JESUS-CHRIST is not really and substantially contained as in that of Baptisme how much the rather is it certain in the Eucharist where JESUS-CHRIST is present in his person and what is it he can desire more who possesses him entirely But in fine will some say there must not be such arguing upon expresse words Seing it is your sentiment that the VI. chapter of Saint John ought to be understood of the Eucharist you cannot dispence with your selves in the practise of it as to the letter and to give the Blood to drinke as well as the Body to eat seing JESUS-CHRIST has equally prononced both of the one and of the other If you eat not my Body and drinke not my Blood you shall have no life in you Let us once stop the mouths of these obstinate and contentious spirits who will not understand these words of JESUS-CHRIST by their whole connexion I demande of them whence it comes they do not by these words believe Communion absolutely necessary for the salvation of all men yea even of little infants newly baptised If nothing must be explicated let us give to them the Communion as well as to others and if it must be explicated let us explicate all by the same rule I say by the same rule because the same principle and the same authoritè from which wee learne that Communion in generall is not necessary to the salvation of those who have received Baptisme teach us that the particular Communion of the Blood is not necessary to those who have been already partakers of the Body The principle which shews us that the Communion is not necessary to the salvation of little infants baptized is that they have already received the remission of sins and a new life in Baptisme because they have beene thereby regenerated and sanctifyed in so much that if they should perish for want of being communicated they would perish in the state of innocence and grace The same principle shews also that he who has received the Bread of life has no neede of receiving the sacred Blood seing as wee have frequently demonstrated he has received togeather with the Bread of life the whole substance of the Sacrament and togeather with that fubstance the whole essentiall vertue of the Eucharist The substance of the Eucharist is JESUS-CHRIST himselfe The vertue of the Eucharist is to nourish the soule to conserve therein that new life it has received in Baptisme to confirme the union with JESUS-CHRIST and to replenish even our bodyes with sanctity and life I aske whether in the very moment the Body of our Lord is received all these effect be not likewise received and whether the Blood can add thereunto any thing essentiall Behold what regards the principle let us come now to what regards the authority The authority which persuades us that Communion is not so necessary to the salvation of little infants as Baptisme is the authority of the Church It is in effect this authority which carryes with it in the Tradition of all ages the true meaning of the Scripture and as this authority has taught us that he who is baptised wants not any thing necessary to salvation so dos it also teach us that he who receives one sole species wants none of those effects which the Eucharist ought to produce in us From hence in the very primitive times they communicated either under one or under both species without believing they hazarded any thing of that grace which they ought to receive in the Sacrament Wherefore though it be writt If you do not eate my Body and drinke my Blood John 6.54 you shall have no life in you it is also writt after the same manner John 3.8 If a man be not regenerated of water and the Holy Ghost he shall not enter into the Kingdome of God The Church hath not understoud an equall necessity in these two Sentences on the contrary she alwayes understood that Baptisme which gives life is more necessary then the Eucharist
which conserves it But as nourishment followes birth if the Church had not known her selfe taught by God she durst not any longtime refuse to Christians regenerated by Baptisme that nourishment which JESUS-CHRIST has prepared for them in the Eucharist For neither JESUS-CHRIST nor the Apostles have ordained any thing left by writing concerning it The Church then has learnt by another way but alwayes equally certain what she can give or take away without doing any injury to her children and they have nothing to do but to rely upon her faith Let not our adversaryes thinke they can avoid the force of this argument under pretence that they do not understand these two passages of the Gospel as wee do I know very well they do neither understand of Baptisme with water this passage where it is said If you be not regenerated or borne again of water and the Holy Spirit nor of the eating and drinking of the Eucharist this other where it is writt If you eat not and drinke not so that they finde themselves no more obliged by these passages to give the Eucharist then Baptisme to little infants But without pressing too close upon these passages let us make them only this demande This precept Eat you this and drinke you all of it which you think is so universall dos it comprehend little children that are baptized If it comprehend all Christians what words of Scripture exclude little children Are they not Christians Woust wee give the victory to the Anabaptists who say they are not and condemne all antiquity which has acknowledged them as such But why do you except them from so generall a precept without any authority of Scripture In a word upon what foundation has your Discipline made this precise law Discip ch 12. art 2. Children under twelve yeares old shall not be admitted to the Supper but for those above that age it shall be left to the discretion of the Ministers 1. Cor. 11.28 c. Your children are they not Christians before that age Do you reject them till that age because Saint Paul has said Let a man prove himselfe and so let him eate But wee have already seene that it is no lesse precisely written Math. 21. Marke 16. Act. 2.38 Teach and baptize he that shall believe and be baptized do pennance and receive Baptisme And if your Catechisme interpret that it ought to be only in regard of such as are capable Dim 50. why shall wee not say as much of the proofe recommended by the Apostle Be it as it will the Apostle dos not decide which is the age proper for this probation One is at the age of reason before he is twelve yeares old one may before this age both sin and practise vertue why do you dispence with your children in a divine precept wherof they are capable If you say that JESUS-CHRIST has remitted that to the Church show me that permission in Scripture or believe with us that all that which is necessary to the understanding and practise the Gospel is not written and that wee must rely upon the authority of the Church § XI A reflection upon the manner how the Pretended Reformers make use of Scripture SAINT Basile advertises us that those who dispise unwritten Traditions do at the same time dispise the Scriptures themselves which they boast to follow in all things Basil de Sp. S. c. 27. This misfortune has arrived to the Gentlemen of the Pretended Reformed Religion They speake to us of nothing but of Scripture and boast they have established all the practises of their Church upon this rule Notwithstanding they easily dispence with many important practises which wee read in expresse tearmes in Scripture They have taken away the Extreame-Unction soe expressely ordained in the Epistle of Saint James James 5 1â—.15 tho this Apostle has annexed to it so cleare a promis of the remission of sins They neglect the imposition of hands practised by the Apostles towards all the faithfull in giving the Holy Ghost and as if this divine Spirit ought not to descende otherwise then visibly they dispise the ceremony by which he was given because he is now no more given after this visible manner They have no greater esteeme for the imposition of hands Discip ch 1. art s. Observ by which the Ministers were ordained For although they do ordinarily practise it they declare in their Discipline they do not believe it essentiall and that one might dispense with a practise so clearly set downe in Scripture Poit 1560. Par. 1565. Two nationall Synods have decided there was no necessity of making use of it and neverthelesse one of these Synods adds they ought to make it their businesse to conforme to one another in this ceremony because it is expedient for edification conformable to the custome of the Apostles and to the practise of the antient Church So that the custome of the Apostles manifestly written and in so many places in the words of God is no more a law to them then the practise of the antient Church to beleive ones selfe obliged to this custome is a superstition reprehended in their discipline Ch. 1. art 8. such false ideas do they frame to themselves of Religion and christian liberty But why do wee speake here of particular articles The whole state of their Church is visibly contrary to the word of God I do here with them tearme the state of the Church the society of Pastors and people which wee see there established Conf. de Foy art 31. this is that which is called the state of the Church in their confession of Faith and they there declare that this state is founded upon the extraordinary vocation of their first Reformers In vertue of this article of their Confession of Faith one of their nationall Synods has decided that when the question shall be concerning the vocation of their Pastors who have reformed the Church or concerning the establishment of the authority they had to reforme and to teach it must be referred according to the XXXI article of the Confession of Faith to an extraordinary vocation by which God interiourly pushed them on to their ministery yet in the mean time they neither prove by any miracle that God did push them interiourly to their ministry neither do they prove which is yet more essentiall by any text of Scripture that such a vocation should ever have place in the Church from whence it followes that their Pastors have no authority to preach according to these words of Saint Paul Rom. 10.15 How shall they preach unlesse they be sent and that the whole state of their Church is without foundation They flatter themselves with this vain thought that JESUS-CHRIST has left a power to the Church to give her selfe a forme and to establish Pastors when the succession is interrupted this is what M. Jurieux and M. Claude endeavour to prove without finding any thing that
has no vocation at all is wholy nul Discip c. XI art 1. observ and the observations drawn from the Synods declare that to the validity of this Sacrament it suffises that these Ministers have an outwardly seeming vocation such as is that of Curates Priests and Religious men in the Roman Church who are permitted to preach Where do they finde in Scripture that this outwardly seeming vocation can conferre a power which JESUS-CHRIST has given only to those whom he himselfe did effectively call JESUS-CHRIST said Baptize that is immerge or dipp as wee have often remarked Wee have also related that he was baptized according to this forme that the Apostles followed it and that it was continued in the Church till the XII and XIII ages and notwithstanding Baptisme by infusion or sprincling is admitted without difficulty by the sole authority of the Church JESUS-CHRIST said Math. 28.19 Mark 16.15.16 Teach and baptize and again He that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved The Church has interpreted by the sole authority of Tradition and practise that the instruction and faith which JESUS-CHRIST had united to Baptisme might be seperated in order to little infants These words Discip c. XI art VI. Observ p. 166. Teach and baptize did a long time perplexe our Reformers and occasioned them to say till the yeare 1614. that it was not lawfull to baptize with out a precedent or an immediately subsequent sermon This is what was decided in the Synod of Tonneins conformably to all the precedent Synods But in the Synod of Castres in 1626. they begun to relaxe as to this point and it was resolved not to press the observance of the regulation of Tonneins Lastly in the Synod of Charinton in 1631. in which they admitted the Lutherans to the Supper it was declared that preaching before or after Baptisme appertaines not to the essence of it but to discipline of which the Church has pover to dispose So that what they had beleeved and practised so long as prescribed by JESUS-CHRIST himselfe was changed and without any testimony of Scripture they declared that it was a thing concerning which the Church might ordaine as she pleased As for little infants the Pretended Reformers say verry well that their Baptisme is founded upon Scripture but they cite no expresse passage and they argue from farfetched not to say doubtfull yea and even false consequences It is certain that all the proofes they can draw from Scripture upon this subject have no force and that they themselves destroy those that might have any That which might have force to establish the Baptisme of little infants 1. Tim. 4.10 is that on the one side it is written JESUS-CHRIST is the Saviour of all Math. 19.14 and that he himselfe has said Suffer little children to come unto mee and on the other that he has prononced none can come unto him nor have any part in him if he do not receive Baptisme conformable to these words John 3.3.5 If you be not borne again of water and the Holy Spirit you shall not enter into the Kingdome of God But these passages have no force according to the doctrine of our Reformers since they beleeve it as of faith that Baptisme is not necessary to the salvation of infants Nothing affords them more difficulty in their Discipline Discip c. XI art VI. Observ then to see every day that anxiety of Parents of their communion to have their little children baptized when they are sick or in danger of death This piety of the parents is called in their Synods an infirmity It is a weaknesse to feare least the children of the faithfull should dye without receiving Baptisme One Synode went so far as to permit them to baptize their children extraordinarily in evident danger of death Ibid. But the following Synod reprehended this weaknesse and these strong in faith effaced that clause where they testifyed some regarde to that danger because it gives some ouverture to the opinion of the necessity of Baptisme Thus the proofs drawn from the necessity of Baptisme to oblige the giving of it to little infants are destroyed by our Reformers Let us see those they substitute in their place such as are inserted in their Catechisme in their Confession of faith Cat. Dim 50. Conf. de Foy art 35. Forme d'administrer le Bapt. and in their prayers That is that the children of the Faithfull are borne in alliance conformable to this promis I shall be thy God and the God of thy seede to a thousand generations From whence they conclude that the vertue and substance of Baptisme appertaining to little children they should do them an injury to deny them the signe which is inferiour By the like reason they will finde themselves obliged to give them the Supper togeather with Baptisme for those who are in the alliance are incorporated to JESUS-CHRIST the little children of the Faithfull are in the alliance they are therefore incorporated to JESUS-CHRIST and having by this meanes according to them the vertue and substance of the Supper it ought to be said as of Baptisme that the signe cannot be refused them without injury The Anabaptists maintaine that these words let a man trye himselve and so let him eat have no greater force to exact yeares of discretion to receive the Supper then these hee that shall beleeve and shall be baptised have to exact them in Baptisme The consequence drawn amongst the new Reformers from the alliance of the antient people and from Circumcision mooves them not The alliance of the antient people say they was contracted by birth because it was carnall and upon this account the seale was printed in the flesh by Circumcision immediately after birth But in the new alliance it dos not suffise to be borne wee must be newborne to enter into it and as the two alliances have nothing of resemblance there is nothing say they to be concluded from one sign to another so that the comparaison which they make of Circumcision with Baptisme is voide and of no effect Experience has shown that all the attempts of our Reformers whereby to confound the Anabaptist from Scripture has beene weake and feeble So that at the last they are obliged to plead practise Wee finde in their Discipline at the end of the XI chapter the forme of receiving persons of a more advanced age in t their Communion where they make the Anabaptist who is converted acknowledge that the Baptisme of little infants has its foundation in Scripture and in the perpetuall practise of the Church When the Pretended Reformers beleeve they have the expresse word of God it is not their custome to ground themselves upon the perpetuall practise of the Church But here where the Scripture furnisheth them with nothing whereby to stop the mouths of Anabaptists they were necessitated to support themselves else where and at the same time to acknowledge that in these matters the
about this matter But it may be they would say that in these practises I have related those who communicated sometimes under one species communicated also sometimes under the other which suffices in the whole to accomplish the precept of our Lord as if our Lord would at the same time inspire us with a firme faith that wee loose nothing by takind one species only and yet oblige us under paine of damnation to receive them both a cavill so manifest that it dos not merit to be refuted Wee must therefore at length examin once again what is essentiall to the Eucharist and prescribe our selves a rule to understand it aright This is what these Gentlemen will never do if they come not back to our principles and to the authority of Tradition M. Exam. T. VI. sect s. p. 465. Jurieux goes too far when he proposes for a rule according to the principles of his Religion to doe universally all that JESUS-CHRIST did in such sort that wee should regard all circumstances he observed at being of absolute necessity These are his own words He alleges to this purpose the antient Passeover of the Jewes where after having cut the throat of a lambe in the morning Ibid. Sect. 6.474.475 another was to have his throat cutt in the evening to be roasted to be eaten with bitter hearbs to be consumed the same night and nothing of it to be reserved till the following day He represents the necessity of all these ceremonyes and not only the substance but all the circumstances This word of JESUS-CHRIST Do this makes him conclude the same of the Eucharist So that wee should be restrained according to his principles to all that JESUS-CHRIST did and not only to bread and wine but moreover to the hour and to the whole manner of receiving it Sup. 2. p. art VI. p. 296. and the rather because as wee have seene every one had its reason and mistery as well as that which Moyses ordained concerning the antient Passeover Neverthelesse how many things have wee remarked which neither these Ministers nor wee observe Ibid. But beholde one which I omitted and which may in this place give great light Amongst other things which our Lord observed in the last Supper one of those which the Calvinists believe as most necessary is the breaking of the bread The Lutherans are of a contrary opinion and make use of round breads which they breake not This is a matter of great contest betwixt these Gentlemen The Calvinists lay much stresse upon this that the Evangelists and Saint Paul do of one common accord write that the same night JESUS CHRIST was delivered to the Jewes 1. Cor. 11.24 he tooke bread blessed it brooke it and gave it They insiste much upon this breaking of the bread which according to them represents that the Boby of our Lord was broken for us upon the Crosse and remarke with great care that Saint Paul after having said that JESUS broke bread 1. Cor. 11.24 makes him say according to the Greeke text This is my Body broken for you to shew as they pretend the reference this Bread broken has to the Body immolated So that this breaking appeares to them necessary to the mystery and this is it which makes those of Heidelberg say in their Catechisme much esteemed by those of their party Catech. Heid qu. 75. that as truly as they see the bread of the Supper broken to be given to them so truly has JESUS-CHRIST been offered and broken for us There was a proposall made for an accord or union with the Lutherans Colloq Cassel an 1661. and a conference was held for this about twenty yeares since that is in the yeare 1661. The Calvinists of Marpourg hereupon found quickly a distinction and in the declaration which they gave to the Lutherans of Rintell they said that the breaking appertained not to the essense but only to the integrity of the Sacrament as beeing necessary because of the example and command of JESUS-CHRIST so that the Lutherans ceased not to have without this breaking of the Bread the substance of the Supper and thus they might mutually tolerate one another The Calvinists have not beene that I know of reprehended by any of theirs and the union which was made had on their side its entire effect in so much that they cannot hereafter insist upon the words of the institution seing one may by their own acknowledgement haye the substance of the Supper without entirely subjecting himselfe to the institution example and expresse command of our Lord. What would they say if we should make use of such an answer But as all is permitted to the Lutherans so all is insupportable amongst Catholicks The other objections carry no greater weight and are as easily solved The concomitancy upon which the Roman Church grounds Communion under one species is not say you found in antiquity First what I have drawn from the antient Church to establish this Communion is matter of fact and if Communion under one species suppose concomitancy togeather with the reality it followes from thence that both the one and the other were believed in antiquity where Communion under one kind was so frequent Secondly Gentlemen open your own bookes open Aubertin the most learnest defendor of your doctrine Aub. lib. III. p. 431. 485. 505. 539. 570. c. you will finde there in almost every page passages taken from Saint Ambrose Amb. lib. I. in Luc. Cyr. Hieros Cat. 5. myst Greg. Nyss orat Cathec Cyr. Alex. lib IV. in Joan. c. 3. 4. Chrys hom 51.83 in Mat. lib. 3. de Sacerd 4. c. from Saint Chrysostome from the two Cyrilles and from many others where you may read that in receiving the sacred Body of our Lord they received his person it selfe seing they received say they the King in their hands they received JESUS-CHRIST and the Word of God they received his Flesh as living not as the flesh of a meere man but as the Flesh of a God Is not this to receive the Divinity togeather with the Humanity of the Son of God and in a word his entire person After this what would you call concomitancy As for those precautions used least the Eucharist should be let fall upon the ground there needes only a little fincerity to acknowledge they are as antient as the Church her selfe Aubertin will shew you them in Origines Orig. in Exod. hom 13. Cyr. Hier. Cat 5. myst Aug. 50. homil 26. Aub. lib. II. p. 431. 432. c. in S. Cyrill of Jerusalem and in Saint Augustin not to mention others You will see in these holy Doctors expressions strange to the ear of Reformere viz that to let full the least particles of the Eucharist is as if one should let fall gold and pretious stones is as if one should prejudice even his owne limbes is as if one should let slip the word of God which is annonced to us and