that are called Brethren which are assembled on purpose to Pray earnestly to God both for themselves and for him that hath been illuminated or Baptised and for all others in all places to the end that we may be worthy to be found Disciples to the Truth and Observers of those things that are commanded and to converse in all good Works for the obtaining of eternal Salvation When Prayers are ended we mutually Salute each other by a Kiss After that they present to him of the Brethren which doth preside Bread and a Cup of Wine mingled with Water he takes it and pronounces over it praises to the Father of all things in the Name of the Son and by the Holy Spirit Afterwards he inlarges much in Praises for that it hath pleased him to give us these things And when he hath finished his Prayers and Praises the people that are present concur by their acclamations saying Amen Now Amen in the Hebrew Language signifies so be it When the President hath finished his Praises and Thanksgivings and the people have said Amen those which amongst our selves we call Deacons distribute to every one that are present of this Bread that hath been blest and of this Wine and Water and they carry thereof to the absent And this Aliment is called among us the Eucharist It is not permitted to any one to eat thereof unless he receive our Doctrine as true and hath been partaker in the washing of Regeneration for the remission of sins and lives according to the appointment and Laws of Christ Jesus To conclude we do not receive this Bread as common Bread nor this Drink as common Drink But as by the word of God Jesus Christ our Saviour was made Flesh and took Flesh and Blood for our Salvation So we have been taught that this Aliment upon which have been pronounced Praises and Thanksgivings are the Flesh and Blood of that Jesus that was made Flesh Behold what was the Worship of the Ancients and the Ceremonies with which they Celebrated their Mysteries 1. They caused him that was to be Baptised to confess and own the Name of Jesus Christ and his Doctrine 2. They obliged him to Fast and Pray and they Fasted and Prayed with him 3. After that they carried him into a place in which there was Water appointed for Baptism 4. The place was separate because then Baptism was performed by immersion and that they might not expose the Nakedness of Men and Women to the view of other Believers 5. He that was Baptised was plunged in the Water and they pronounced over him the Invocation of the Father Son and Holy Ghost i.e. they Baptised him in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost 6. Afterwards they brought him back to the full Assembly and there he was gathered and received into the number of the Faithful 7. All the Assembly continued their Prayers in which they Prayed for the Church for the person Baptised for the Powers in general and in particular 8. When Prayers were ended they prepared themselves for the Communion by a Kiss of Charity which they mutually gave each other 9. They presented to the President and to him that had Prayed common Bread made after the ordinary manner and a Cup in which there was Wine mingled with Water 10. The President uttered or pronounced some Prayers to the Glory of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost 11. He adds some Prayers and Thanksgivings to God that he hath been pleased to give to us the pretious Gift of the Flesh and Blood of his Son at the Holy Table 12. When he finished his Prayers all the people said Amen 13. In consequence whereunto the Deacons distributed to the People the Bread and Wine that had been Consecrated by Prayer 14. They carried it to the absent they Collected the Alms of the People they dismissed the Assembly and finished the business and exercise Observe first that which seems added to the Practice of the Apostles 1. They mingled Water with their Wine We do not observe that it was either Practised by the Apostolick Church or that any such thing was appointed by them 2. They carried the Consecrated Bread to the absent It doth not appear that this was Practised in the first Age. These are indeed small changes but nevertheless they ought to be observed for the better knowledge of those that followed But on the other side observe that we see not here 1. Either Oblation or Sacrifice 2. He speaks nothing of any Altar 3. That there was no Elevation made 4. That no signs of the Cross were seen there 5. That no Prayers were made but to God and no Intercessions made use of but those of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit 6. That he speaks nothing of Adoration 7. That it doth not appear that they Communicated upon their Knees 8. That they gave to the People the Communion under both Kinds 9. That the Service was performed in a Language understood by the People for they answered Amen to the Thanksgivings 10. That all that were present did partake in the Mysteries and not the Priest only We Conjure you my Brethren to give attention to all this and so if there be any thing therein that hath the least tast or savour of Sacrifice What a prodigious change must have happened since that time to compose and frame such a Worship as they call the Mass where a Priest covered with extravagant Garments which they say are Mysterious heaps one upon another in a Language that the People do not understand a multitude of Prayers some good and some bad all without order and without reason make Oblations signs of the Cross Elevations where the people Adore and Prostrate themselves before the Sacrament when it is lifted up where the Priest eats alone after he hath made a hundred Ceremonies on the Bread and Wine Ceremonies that signifie nothing but render the Celebration of the Mystery ridiculous Do not insist pertinaciously on what remains viz. That Justin Martyr calls the Bread and Wine of the Sacrament the Flesh and Blood of Christ Jesus So we call them our selves and so have the Writers of all Ages called them So our Lord Jesus and S. Paul calls them And it signifies no more in Justin Martyr than those words of our Saviour This bread is my body this cup is my blood Theophilus of Antioch who lived in the same Age with Justin Martyr acknowledges that 't is a Denomination not a Transmutation When Jesus Christ saith he said This is my body he called his Body Bread which is made of many Grains 'T is not common Bread saith Justin Martyr 't is the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ But 't is such Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ as nourisheth our Flesh and Blood according to him That is to say which is changed into our bodily Nourishment and passes through our Veins Now no Man ever believed or can believe that the true Flesh of Christ passes into the Nourishment of our Members The same Justin which calls the Eucharist Flesh and Blood calls it Bread and Wine after the Consecration and
many passages to prove Transubstantiation says that (d) Mistagog 4. under the Figure of Bread is given to us the Body and under the Figure of Wine is given to us the Blood. And St. Gregory Nazianzen saith (e) Orat. 42. that we are made partakers of the Passover but always figuratively altho' our Passover be much more clear than that of the ancients for the legal Passover I dare say was a dark Figure of another Figure i.e. of the Eucharist St. Jerome saith (f) In Jerem. cap. 3. lib. 2. advers Jovin that the Figure of the Blood of Jesus Christ is made with Wine and elsewhere that Jesus Christ hath offered not Water but Wine for the Figure of his Blood. Theodoret saith (g) Dialog 3. 1. that the Eucharist is the Figure of the Passion and that the Sacred Nourishment is the Figure of his Body and his Blood. In these Passages the Ancients make use of the word Type which exactly signifies Figure They have also expressed the Nature of the Sacrament by the word Antitype which signifies an opposite Figure or a Figure that has respect unto the thing signified as one Pillar answers to another which is placed just over against it So the Author of the Constitutions attributed to the Apostles saith (a) Lib. 5. cap. 13. that our Lord gave to his Disciples the Mysteries which are the Figures answering to his precious Body and Blood and that we celebrate the Figures answering to the Body and Blood of our Lord. In the Liturgy ascribed to St. Basil 't is said (b) Lib. 6 29. we beseech thee by offering the Figures of the Body and Blood of thy Christ St. Cyril of Jerusalem saith (c) Mystag 5. that we taste the Figures answering to the Body and Blood of our Lord. Theodoret saith (d) Dialog 2. that the Divine Mysteries are the Figures answering to the true Body Can any thing be more express than all this unless it be what we see with our eyes In proper terms they tell us that the Sacrament in nothing but an Image Eusebius Bishops of Cesarea saith (e) Demonst lib. 8. That Jesus Christ commanded his Disciples to make the Image of his own Body Procopius upon Genesis saith (f) Cap. 49. that Jesus Christ gave to his Disciples the Image of his Body And Pope Gelasius or some Author of the same Age saith (g) Gelas de duabus nat certainly the Image or the Similitude of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is celebrated in the Mystery This therefore shews us plain enough what we ought to believe concerning Jesus Christ our Lord even that which we profess that which we celebrate and that which we receive in his Image I do not think that Zuinglius and Calvin have spoken more plainly and significantly To conclude they call the Bread and the Wine Symbols a word which every one knows signifies as much as the word Figure Eusebius saith * Demonst lib. 1. cap. 10. We have learnt to make a Memorial of this Sacrifice upon the Table with the Symbols of his Body and Bloud And St. Chrysostom ‖ Hom. 83. in Matth. If Jesus Christ be not dead of what are the consecrated things the Symbols And Theodoret * 1 Cor. c. 11. When we shall have the presence of our Lord we shall have no more need of the Symbols of his Body Nothing is so common in the Fathers as these Expressions To partake in the Symbols of our Lord to take the Symbols to burn the Symbols c. These same Fathers do give us the same Reasons of the Names Body and Bloud which are give to the Bread and Wine that we our selves give of them 'T is because they are the effectual Representations of the Flesh and Bloud of Jesus Christ If the Sacraments saith St. Austin †Epist 23. ad Bonifac. had no resemblance of those things whereof they are Sacraments they would be no Sacraments and 't is because of this Resemblance that they take the name of the things themselves as in the Sacrament of the Body of Jesus Christ the Sacrament of his Body and of his Bloud are in some sort his Body and Bloud It seems to me that a person must be prodigiously blind to believe that he which speaks thus does not think as we do The same St. Austin saith elsewhere * Serm. ad Infantes apud Bertram How is the Bread his Body and that which is in the Cup his Bloud My Brethren these things are called Sacraments because 't is one thing that is there seen and another thing which is understood that which is seen is a corporeal Species and that which is understood is a spiritual Benefit and Advantage To what end does he take this compass of discourse and why does he not answer without scruple 'T is because the Body of Christ Jesus is really there after the words of Consecration An Article of Controversie An Answer to the Prejudices which some persons have raised against our Separation from the Actions the Conduct and the Personal Qualities of the Authors thereof WE have finished our Answer to the Sophisms which they propose unto you on the subject of our Separation by making it evident to you that it does not hazard your salvation that it was necessary and that it was just But before we pass to other Questions which respect the Church we must say something concerning those who made this Separation for 't is the most fruitful Source and Fountain of Illusions and a Subject of perpetual Harangues and Declamations And this we owe especially to a Woman of Quality among those which are called new Converts who places the little Edification that our Reformers have given to the World or rather the Scandal which they have given to it by their Conduct and Divisions as one of the Reasons which hath most affected her and prevailed on her to embrace the Roman Religion 'T is a subject on which an infinite number of Books have been made to which I might send you were it not that Books are taken from you for the most part besides my designe being to spare you the labour of reading great Books I am to abridge and reduce what our Authors have said thereon to the compass and extent of a Letter Behold then the Accusations which they form against the Authors of the Separation which I have justified in my preceding Letters 1. That these pretended Reformers did no Miracles to support their extraordinary Mission and their new Gospel 2. That they led a scandalous life and such as had no conformity with the Spirit of a Reformed Gospel which they boasted to bring into the World. 3. That there appears in their Expressions a dark Malignity and an implacable Hatred against the Roman Church and that their Books are full of cruel Injuries both against the Roman Religion and against its Doctors a thing absolutely contrary to the Spirit of Charity 4.
Grief and Humiliation because so many men making themselves unworthy of his Clemency it was his will to leave them deprived of those good things which they would not have It was not therefore just that he should appear after a manner so manifestly Divine and absolutely capable of convincing all men but neither was it just that he should come after so secret a manner that he could not be known by those that sincerely search after him He communicates light enough for those that desire to see and obscurity enough for those that have a contrary disposition brightness enough to enlighten the Elect and darkness enough to humble them obscurity enough to blind Reprobates and light enough to condemn and make them inexcusable This is the true Key of Providence Light and Darkness throughout is exactly the Character of the Word of God of his Mysteries and of his Conduct 'T is not the Will of God that Babylon should fall all at a time * Revel 16. The great City must be divided into three parts Before it drink the last Cup of the Wrath of God †Revel 14. it must be reaped before it come to the Vintage The Latine Church before the full or entire Reformation was to be divided into Papists Lutherans and Reformed God to accomplish this design came to Reform the Church the first time by mixing darkness with light There is light enough to save humble minds and there is darkness enough to offend and scandalize the proud The Evidence of the Testimonies of the Word of God which the Authors of our Separation did discover the Ughliness of the Corruption of Popery which they did observe the Zeal with which they began this Work the admirable Success with which they carried it on the unanimous Accord in which they were to retain Christianity and reject Popery all this say I forms the light in this great Event but their Divisions private Quarrels humane Passions and the sad Schism found among them make that Obscurity that God hath permitted because his Design was not to throw Popery down to the ground all at once It is of necessity therefore that those who have any care of their Salvation give attention to the light to maintain and support themselves and that they serve themselves with the obscurities for their Humiliation and Abasement 'T is necessary that they admire the Finger of God in this great Work and that they admire it so much the more because he hath accomplished it by Instruments so weak and feeble If you give attention to all this I may assure you that you will find wherewith to satisfie yourselves in all those Scruples they put into your minds on the subject of the Authors of our Separation If you have at this time no matters of Fact 't is not because we have not those that are sufficiently considerable to communicate unto you but 't is because the Apologies for our Reformers could not well be divided into two Letters You may please to know only at this time That the Cruelties and Violences do continue but they dispense them after a manner that we little understand or can account for In some places there is some Abatement and Relaxation that which may be understood concerning it is that the Convertors are in some distress what course to take to carry on their great Work. The desertion and forsaking the Kingdom which is greater than at first makes them well see that as yet they have advanced nothing and that they will keep no more of the Reformed in it than those which they shut up in Prisons and send to the Gallies July 1 1687. The Twenty Second PASTORAL LETTER Testimonies of the Fathers of the fourth and fifth Ages about the Sacrament of the Eucharist Concerning the Communion under both Kinds An Article of Controversie Concerning the Visibility of the Church three false Consequences drawn from thence Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ WE began in our last Letter to hear the Depositions of the Fathers of the fourth and fifth Ages about the Eucharist and against Transubstantiation at this time we shall hear them farther even as far as is needful to convince the Papists of being Innovators We have heard St. Chrysostome St. Austine Theodoret and Gelasius i. e. the chief Lights of the Greek and Latine Church who tell us more boldly and clearly than ever did Calvin and Zuinglius That the holy Symbols are Figures Images and Types of the Body and Bloud of the Lord Jesus Christ Nevertheless they did not deny that any change did happen in the Signs of Bread and Wine nor do we deny it neither But hear how they spake of this change 'T is true when they spake thereof before the Catechumens or before the People to whom they desired to give the greatest and most venerable Idea's of Sacraments there is nothing great and bold in the Figures of Rhetorick and Similitudes which they did not borrow to express this Change. From thence come those great and magnificent Expressions of St. Chrysostome which are abused that an Opinion might be ascribed unto him of which he never thought This St. Chrysostome oftentimes speaks as if the Bread and Wine had been really and actually changed into Flesh and Bloud and as if our Lips and Mouths were died and stained thereby But by one single passage of this Father learn what he understood and how he ought to be understood when it was intended to speak without Mystery and without Rhetorick of the Change which happens by Consecration this Author and others of the same Age speak of it as plainly as we ourselves can do St. Chrysostome says in his Epistle to Caesarius The Bread of the Eucharist is called Bread before it be sanctified but the Divine Grace having sanctified it by the Ministry of the Priest it bears no more the name of Bread but is thought worthy to be called the Body of our Lord although the nature of Bread remains And Theodoret a Dialog 1. Jesus Christ hath honoured the visible Symbols by the name of his Body and Blood not by changing their nature but by adding Grace to Nature And elsewhere b Dialog 2. The mistical Symbols after their Sanctification do not lose their proper nature for they continue in their first substance in their first Figure and in their first form and are visible and palpable as they were before The contemporary Author whom we have quoted under the name of Gelasius faith d De Duab. Natur. Certainly the Sacraments of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ which we receive are a thing Divine from whence also it comes to pass that by them we are made partakers of the Divine Nature and nevertheless they do not cease to be a substance of Bread and Wine Ephraim the Patriarch of Antioch in the fixth Age says also the same thing (b) Apud Photiun m. l. 229.
credulous even to blindness to believe it Therefore if I can prove that the Scripture says nothing at all for the establishment of Popery I have gained my Cause at least for the first Age in which I now am and have proved sufficiently that Popery was then unknown Let us proceed to some of its Articles The Sacrifice of the Mass makes a great figure in the Roman Religion and holds a principal place there It is the Idol for which they have the greatest jealousie We cannot better understand what hath been the Opinion and Sentiment of the Church in all Ages concerning it than from the Ceremonies Actions and Words which have been practised in the Celebration of the Eucharist To search the Sacrifice of the Mass in the Old Testament as the Papists do is an extravagance that hath no example for the Old Testament speaks only of the Worship and Ceremonies of the ancient Religion To search it in other Texts of the New Testament than those which teach us the manner of its Celebration is to search it where naturally it ought not to be found It is therefore precisely in the Institution of that Sacrifice that we must find the Nature of it Now the Evangelists and St. Paul tell us with one consent that what Christ Jesus did in that memorable Action is there The night in which he was betrayed he took Bread he blessed it brake it and gave it to his Disciples saying take eat this is my Body Afterwards he took the Cup blessed it also and said this Cup is the New Testament in my Blood which is shed for you drink ye all of it take and divide it among your selves do this in remembrance of me In fine they sung a Hymn that certain Psalms according to the Custom of the Jews They arose and so the Ceremony was ended On that I beseech you my Brethren call to witness the Consciences of your Persecutors and Converters and enquire a little of them what there is in it that can have any resemblance with the Mass Where is the Gradual the Introit the Canon the Ite Missa est But you will say these are but indifferent Ceremonies which may be added It is a great question whether they might be added yea or no. Nevertheless let us let that Point alone at present Let them shew you at least what is essential therein Where is the Oblation Where is the Elevation Where is the Adoration Where is the Genuflection Where is the Sacrifice and presentation of the Victim Jesus Christ took Bread and gave it to his Disciples saying this is my Body In the Roman Church these words are not said to the Communicant they are said at the Consecration a long time before the Communion Jesus Christ gave Bread to his Disciples to be eaten without Cremony or Mystery They were sitting or rather lying upon Beds at a Table as the manner of the Ancients was It was a prodigious stupidity in the Disciples not to cast themselves on the ground and Adore the great Miracle of Transubstantiation and the Real Presence of Jesus Christ lying hid under the Species of Bread and Wine whilst they bore him in their own proper Hands These ignorant persons so prone to admiration who Adored Christ Jesus when he appeased a storm at Sea which was an action assuredly that a Spirit of a Nature infinitely inferior to God could do would they not have Adored him when he did a Work so great as the Creation of the World. But if the Disciples were so stupid as not to Adore this Mistery would Jesus Christ be so negligent as to suffer them in this state of impiety and indevotion It was that which the Disciples did or rather did not do Hath it any thing in Commune with the Service of the Roman Church with that Action by which the Host is lifted up that it may be Adored with that Worship that all the World give to it by kissing the ground at the sight thereof with the Custom of carrying it in Pomp about the Streets that it may be Adored Press your Converters and enquire of them did the Apostles Adore it If they say yea ask them why they continued sitting and why they never said one word of it If they confess that they did not Adore ask them why they will constrain you to do it Why do you desire that we should do more than the Apostles And as to the Oblation and Sacrifice where are they The Oblation of the Victim cannot be made till after the Transubstantiation after that the Body of Christ is made present by Consecration after these words This is my Body Now after these words Jesus Christ presented nothing to God he presented to his Disciples yea he did not pronounce those words This is my Body but as he was giving the Bread to his Disciples The Oblation therefore is not necessary the Sacrifice is not essential for Christ Jesus did not practise it Stay not there Press these Doctors to tell you whether Christ Sacrificed himself in the first Institution of the Sacrament of the Eucharist You will see them perplexed if they say that he Sacrificed himself Ask them why he Sacrificed himself upon the Cross the next day The first Sacrifice of his Body which he made by breaking the Bread was it not Propitiatory for the sins of the Living and the Dead Behold then the sins of Men expiated before his Death and therefore there was no need of his Death to make that expiation The Sacrifice of the Mass is at this day says Monsieur de Meaux a Sacrifice of Commemoration Now the Sacrifice which Jesus Christ offered in the first Eucharist was no Sacrifice of Commemoration for we do not Commemorate a future event and a thing which is not yet come to pass so that the Sacrifice which is at this day made is not the same thing with that which was made by Jesus Christ in the first Eucharist The Sacrifice of the Mass is the Sacrifice of the Flesh of our Lord bruised and his Blood poured out but in the first Eucharist the Flesh of Christ was not broken nor his blood spilt So that Christ Sacrificed that which yet was not and presented an Oblation under a relation under which he did not yet subsist There be certainly a thousand absurdities in saying that Jesus Christ Sacrificed himself in the first Eucharist many Papists have acknowledged it If your Converters have as much sincerity as many of their Doctors have had to confess that Jesus Christ did not Sacrifice in the first Eucharist demand of them by what right they Sacrifice at this day For they ought not to do any more than Christ did And he has not commanded them in saying do this to do any thing but what he himself did So that if he did not Sacrifice he hath not commanded them to Sacrifice afterward Therefore it ought to remain certain that in the first Age the Sacrifice of the Mass as well as
Elevate nor Adore we should have nothing to do but to produce a hundred places where it is clear that they gave the Communion under both Kinds without ever speaking of Elevation or Adoration This Communicating of Infants which is not disputed and by consequence we have no need to prove it is a thing worthy of observation for it is an addition of the third Age which makes it appear 1. That the Church is not Infallible by the confession of our Adversaries For the Church of the third Age and those that followed it hath erred according to them in judging that the Eucharist was necessary to little Children as well as Baptism therefore she is not Infallible in the interpretation of the Holy Scripture for the hath misinterpreted those Words If any one eat not my flesh and drink not my blood he cannot have everlasting life Since she hath believed that Children could not be Saved without Communicating 2. That Custom makes it appear that the Church is capable of introducing considerable Innovations and those Universal and of long duration Your Converters grant that it was no Apostolick Tradition that at the beginning it was not so nevertheless it was an important Innovation as it is clear for according to us It is no less than to prophane a Sacrament which requires self examination by giving it to persons that cannot prepare themselves and according to the Roman Doctors it is to expose the true Body of Jesus Christ to horrible indignities by putting it in the mouth of an Infant of some few days or months old And that which cannot fail to happen is that the Body of Jesus Christ was oftentimes spit out upon the floor For Children do not fail to reject whatsoever does not please their Palat. Moreover this important Innovation was so Universal that the whole Church embraced and entertained it and of so long duration that we find examples thereof many Ages after the fourth 3. Learn from this Custom that in those Ages they were not obliged to Adore the Sacrament before they cat it for Children could not perform any act of Adoration Therefore press your Converters vigorously with this Example and ask them if the Church cannot Innovate in other Articles of importance since it hath plainly Innovated in this and if we may not Correct Ancient and Universal Customs since the Church of Rome hath rescinded practices where were introduced but one Age after the Apostles Behold thus much for Worship and Practice As to Opinion do not suffer your selves to be persuaded that any change in Doctrine touching the Sacrament of the Eucharist did happen during the third Age. The proofs that your Converters bring thereof unto you are very pittiful For they are passages where the Fathers of that Age called the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist The Body the Flesh and the Blood of the Lord. Behold verifying proofs What is to be said concerning them since it is the language of Jesus Christ himself and of his Apostles The question is not what they said but that we are to know is in what sence and after what manner the Fathers of the third Age understood that the Bread of the Eucharist was the Flesh of Jesus Christ Now I do maintain that your Converters must be either Fools or Knaves beyond all imagination that dare to say that according to the Fathers of the third Age that the Bread of the Eucharist was the Body of Jesus Christ by way of Reality and Transubstantiation for the Fathers of that Age spoke as plainly and clearly concerning it as we do Hear then Tertullian who lived in the beginning of that Age among other Hereticks with a sort of impious Villains who said that our Lord Jesus Christ had no true Body Thus he reasons against them Our Lord having taken Bread and distributed to his Disciples made it his Body saying this is my Body that is to say the figure of my Body Now this had not been a Figure if he had not had a true Body That is to say if the Figure had no relation to the true Body For an empty thing as is a Phantasm is not capable of having a Figure Another Author of the same Age whose Work is ascribed to Origen Disputing against the same Hereticks called Marcionites says If as these pretend our Lord were destitute of Flesh and Blood of what Body of what Flesh of what Blood has he given us the Signs and the Images viz. The Bread and the Cup by which he has commanded his Disciples to preserve and renew his memory These Men had lost their Reason to speak in this manner if they believed the Real Presence above all in disputing against those which denyed that Jesus Christ had a true Body They say Jesus Christ was no Phantasm he had a true Body for he gave us in the Eucharist the figure and Image thereof Now Phantasms have no Images they themselves being Images and no more These Men say I had lost their wits for they should have said Jesus Christ was no Phantasm he had a true Body for he gives this true Body to us to eat every day Since at this day he has a Body and we eat thereof with great reason it may be affirmed he had one when he was upon Earth The first Reason taken from the Image and Figure is of some weight I do acknowledge But this taken from the Reality in the Eucharist had been a hundred time better and according to the Opinion of the Church of Rome is an argument altogether invincible So that we must suppose these Authors did betray and abandoned the Cause of the Church by making use of feeble Arguments against the Marcionites when she had furnished them with one that was utterly impregnable For after all it is not wholly true that Phantasms can have no Figures or Images It is a reflection that you ought to make to discover the vanity of the Sophistry wherewith your Converters serve themselves to answer to those passages and an hundred others without Hyperbole where the Fathers of the seven first Ages called the Eucharist the Figure the Type the Image the Symbols the Signs the Antitypes of the Body and Blood of the Lord it is say they because there are two things in the Eucharist There is Figure and Reality Figure because of the Accidents of Bread and Wine which are the Figures of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ Truth and Reality because of the Real Presence of the Flesh inwardly contained under the Species Now the Fathers sometimes respected the Sacrament on its external part that is to say by the Species in this respect they have called it Figure It it be so at least the Ancients ought not to consider the Sacraments on the side of the Figure when it was necessary for the Cause which they defended to consider it on the side of the Reality as it was in the disputes against the Marcionites Hear yet the same Tertullian to the end
that ye may not think that this slipt from him through inadvertency Disputing against the same Heretick Marcion and upon the same Point he sites to him certain Words of Jeremy where according to the ancient Translation it is thus let us cast the Wood upon his Bread or let us cast the Bread upon the Wood He would prove that this Bread signifies the Body of Jesus Christ and that the Prophet had respect to his Passion in which they put the Body of Jesus Christ upon the Wood of his Cross and he adds speaking to Marcion So hath God revealed it in our Gospel calling the Bread his Body to the end that thou mayst understand that at this day he hath given in the Bread the Figure of his Body which the Prophet before had figured by Bread. The same Author says further That Jesus Christ did not reject the water of the Creator by which he washed those that were his own the Oil wherewith he did anoint them the Hony and the Milk which he causes them as Infants to take from the Bread by which he represents his Body Mark these words by which he represents his Body I know not whether a Disciple of Calvin could speak otherwise Hear Clemens of Alexandria an Author of the same Age. Expounding the words of Christ John 6. he saith That by the Flesh and Blood which Jesus Christ commands us to eat we must Allegorically understand Faith and the Promise It is the fame Author that says and maintains that that which Jesus Christ said Take drink this is my blood ought to be understood by way of Allegory and that it was true Wine Ye know well says he that he drunk Wine forasmuch as he was a Man and he blessed Wine saying Take drink this is my Blood the Blood of the Vine And the word signifies by Allegory the sacred blood of joy which was shed for many c. But that what he blessed was Wine he caused his Disciples to understand when he said to them I will drink no more of this fruit of the Vine until I drink it new with you in the Kingdom of my Father This good Doctor was openly a Disciple of Zuinglius and Calvin for he serves himself exactly with their Arguments St. Cyprian says That the Lord called his Body Bread kneeded and made up of many Kernels and his Blood Wine drawn from many Grapes He says not that he made but that he called He says that by the Wine is shewn or signified the Blood as by the Water which is mixed with the Wine is signified the People To conclude Origen in the same Age Writing on those words Matth. 15. That which enters into the mouth defileth not the Man. He makes a difficulty on this that it seems the Eucharist that enters into the Mouth doth not sanctifie the Man if so it be that what enters into the Mouth do neither sanctifie nor defile him To this he answers that the Bread which is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer doth not of its own nature sanctifie him which makes use thereof for if it were so says he it would sanctifie him which eateth thereof unworthily He adds that there is advantage in eating the Bread of the Lord when we participate thereof with a clear Mind and a pure Conscience c. And at last concludes with these words If all that which enters into the Mouth goes into the Belly and be cast out into the draught this Bread which is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer according to what it hath that is material goes into the Belly and from thence to the place of Excrements but in relation to the Prayers that have been made thereon it is profitable in proportion to a Mans faith which does illuminate the mind and make it attentive to those things which are profitable And it is not the matter of Bread but the Word which is pronounced over it which profits him that does not eat unworthy of the Lord. Behold thus much concerning the Typical and Symbolical Body Many things also may be said concerning the Word it self which was made flesh and which is become true food whereof whosoever shall eat shall live for ever No wicked man can eat thereof For if it were possible that he that perseveres in evil could eat the Word which was made flesh that is as it is the Word and the living Bread it would not have been wasted He which shall eat of this Bread shall live for over I know not whether Calvin could have written more clearly 1. That the Bread as to the matter thereof remains 2. That this matter suffers all that which other Aliments do suffer even to its descent into the draught 3. That it's Faith which makes us partakers of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament and that we eat in proportion to the Faith and Attention that we bring thither 4. That it is a symbolical Body of the Symbol of the Body of Jesus Christ 5. That no wicked Man or Unbeliever can eat Jesus Christ because he is not eaten but by Faith. I do profess unto you that I know not how these Mens Minds and Souls are made to maintain after these passages that they believed the Doctrine of the Real Presence and Transubstantiation in the third Age. It is some kind of pleasure to see how our Adversaries bestir themselves and sweat both Water and Blood over these passages Give attention my Brethren I do adjure you and call to mind also that notable matter of Fact practised in the third Age which we have proved unto you in the preceding Letter It was that the Father of the Family though no Priest Consecrated the Eucharist at the end of his Meal This continued in the Church of Africa till the time of St. Augustin Judge you whether ever private person had the power of doing this great Miracle that is to say of changing the substance of Bread into that of our Lord Jesus Christ and whether they would have permitted such a Profanation of the Son of God. Consider therefore 1. That in the third Age they spoke as clearly against the Real Presence as we do 2. That this ought to be the Rule of all the following Ages For when afterwards they produce unto me an hundred hard improper expressions on the subject of the Sacrament I am assured that they ought to be interpreted according to the Faith of the third Age for what reason Because none of the Ancients hath accused either Tertullian or Clemens of Alexandria or St. Cyprian nor Origen of Heterodoxy although they condemned without scruple many of their Opinions I have been longer upon the Eucharist of the third Age because it is important to understand well the Faith thereof for it being the last Age of the Purity of the Church it ought to serve as a Rule to Judge of those that follow I will finish this Letter by continuing the History of our Martyrs whereof we have made 3
more plainly that the Eucharist is nothing but a Sacrifice of Commemoration And if it be a simple Commemoration where is the Real Presence where is the Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead They are the same Authors which say That Jesus Christ by his Servants f In Epist ad Heb. cap. 8. vers 4. hath accomplished among men that which respects Sacrifice representing by Bread and Wine the Misteries of his Body and of his Saving Blood. The Author of the imperfect Work upon St. Matthew under the name of Chrysostome sâ—â—â—h That the Christian g Homil. 19. ib. offers the Sacrifice of Bread and Wine And St. Jerome h Jer. lib. 2. Advers Jovin That Melchizedeck did not offer the Victims of Flesh and Blood but that he did dedicate the Sacrament of Jesus Christ with Bread and Wine which is a simple and pure Sacrifice And St. Austine i Lib. 16. de Civit. Dei. c. 22. lib. 17. c. 5. 17. That to eat Bread under the New Testament is the Sacrifice of Christians and that men offer every-where under the High-Priest Jesus Christ that which Melchizedeck brought when he blessed Abraham That is to say Bread and Wine And Isidore of Pelusium k Lib. 1. Ep. 401. That the Oblation of Christians is an Oblation of Bread. And St. Fulgentius l Ad Petrum de Fide cap. 19. That the Catholick Church does not cease to offer throughout all the Earth an Oblation of Bread and Wine And Eucherius Bishop of Lions m In Genes lib. 2. cap. 18. That Jesus Christ hath commanded Christians to offer in Sacrifice not Victims of Beasts as did Aaron but the Sacrifice of Bread and Wine I would willingly know how an Oblation of Bread and Wine can be a true Sacrifice of Humane Flesh propitiatory for the sins of Men They have not spoken otherwise even until the establishment of the Opinion of the Real Presence for venerable Bede in the eighth Age saith n In Psal 133. That the Lord hath changed the Sacrifices of the Law into the Sacrifices of Bread and Wine And Isidore of Seville in the seventh Age o Lib. de Alleg. That the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ i. e. the Oblation of Bread and Wine is offered through all the World. The same Fathers have also said with one consent That the Christian hath no other true Sacrifice but that of the Cross Origen in the third Age did say p Homil. 17. in Numb That when the perfect Oblation and Lamb without spot came to take away the Sins of the World the Sacrifices which were offered to God one after another did seem superfluous seeing that by one only Sacrifice all the Worship of Demons was destroyed It had been natural to say that the Worship of the Sacrifice of the Mass was put in the place of the Worship of Devils And St. Chrysostome a Homil. 17. in Johan That Jesus Christ hath offered one only Sacrifice for Sins and that he always cleanseth us by this Sacrifice alone And elsewhere b Hom. 13. in Heb. There is no other Sacrifice one Sacrifice alone hath purified and cleansed us To speak thus is indeed to forget ones self seeing we have a daily and continual Sacrifice which is that of the Mass It would be to no purpose to quote more Authors for they all speak after the same manner An Article of Controversie A Conclusion of the Matter of Schism the extream Corruption of Popery hath forced us to a Separation IN the preceding Letter we began to make for you a Picture of Popery to convince you of the Justice and Necessity of our Reformation This Corruption of Popery may be either considered in its Guides its Head and principal Members or in its Doctrine We did consider this Corruption in its Head i. e. the Pope in its Guides i. e. the Cardinals Primates Archbishops and Bishops in its principal Members such are the Priests the Monks and the Nuns and in all this we have seen the Characters of the Conductors of Babel and the Emissaries of Antichrist These are the Mouths of Popery but what can proceed out of such Mouths 'T is easie to judge They appoint for you at this day Preachers which speak good things There have been for some time past a number of persons raised up to obtain the use of the Word of God and the Holy Scripture for the people But this is neither ancient nor general you must know the Popish Ministery by what it was not long since and by what it is in all places where 't is regnant hear those which tell you the Holy Scripture is a dangerous Book an obscure Book all full of Traps Snares and Precipieces that an infinite number of men have ruined themselves thereby that 't is from thence that Hereticks have drawn their Heresies that 't is imperfect that it contains not half the Christian Religion that to understand the true sence of this half there needs another which is called the Unwritten Word Tradition the infallible Voice of the Church And a man knows not where to find this Voice However it be they do assure you that the Scripture has no Authority without Tradition that without the Testimony of the Church we were no more obliged to believe the Gospel than Titus Livius or the Fables of Homer Moreover at this day the Jansenists great Defenders of the Holy Scriptures tell you plainly and without scruple or hesitation That by the Holy Scripture we cannot prove the Divinity of Jesus Christ and that it were a Folly more clear than the day to go about to prove the Divinity of the Holy Scriptures by the Scripture itself There is nothing that Popery doth not do to decry this sacred Book Not only 't is insufficient obscure it has no authority by itself but it is maimed imperfect many Books thereof are lost those which remain are corrupt either by the Jews or by the negligence of Transcribers we cannot know with any certainty what is intire or what is not the Translations thereof are spoiled there are none of them conformable to the Original Good God what a Prodigy is this And how great must the patience of God be to tollerate a Religion which makes it its business to annihilate to vilifie and abase those Oracles which ought to be so venerable among all Christians What Christianity is this but that in which for the space of more than a thousand years the Scripture was an unknown Book almost to all Christians and is so yet at this day in all those places where Popery domineers without contradiction Observe also the profound Ignorance in which those people live that are subject to the Popish Inquisition To find among them the Figures of Aretine or some other infamous Work is no fault but to find there a Bible in the Vulgar Language is a crime not to be forgiven for which reason
of the Church did not change in the Point of the Real Presence and Transubstantiation This Article being long we shall divide it into two And we shall see at this time that the Fathers did believe as we do that the Sacrament of the Eucharist was nothing but an efficacious Figure of the Body and Blood of the Lord. As they persevered in the custom of calling the Sacrament of the Eucharist a Sacrifice and Oblation they continued also in a custom much more ancient since it descended from Jesus Christ and his Apostles that is to call the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist the Body the Flesh the true Flesh and the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said then that we eat the Flesh of our Lord Jesus that we really receive him that Jesus Christ hath given his Flesh to eat and his Blood to drink that it is truly his Flesh and truly his Blood that we may not doubt that Jesus Christ doth not give what he promised viz. his Flesh and his Blood nor that the Bread is not the Body of Christ that Jesus Christ who changed Water into Wine could easily change the Bread into his Body and the Wine into his Blood that we must communicate with a full certainty as in the Body of Jesus Christ that Jesus Christ who is the invisible Priest changes the visible Creatures into the substance of his Body and of his Blood. After all that which they quote unto you of most strength concerning the Article of the Eucharist for Transubstantiation and the Real Presence in the fourth and fifth Ages amounts to this But I pray you what doth all this signifie Is there any thing therein of more strength than that which Jesus Christ and his Apostles have said The Lord said My Flesh is Meat indeed and my Blood is Drink indeed this or this Bread is my Body St. Paul said The Bread which you break is our Communion in the Body of Jesus Christ That which is under debate is to know how they understood this and if we prove that Jesus Christ and his Apostles did understand that the Bread continueth Bread being nevertheless changed into the Body of Jesus Christ if we prove that they meant the Bread is the Body of Jesus Christ because it is the Sign the Sacrament and the Means by which the efficacy of his Death is applied unto our Souls it is certain that we have ruined all the advantages that can be drawn from these high Expressions In like manner if we can prove that the Fathers of the fourth and fifth Ages did understand that the Bread and Wine became the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and are changed into his Flesh and Blood because they are the Sacraments the Signs the Figures the Images and the Means by which God doth communicate the vertue of his Flesh and the efficacy of his Death without any change happening in the substance thereof if say I the Fathers of these Ages declare this plainly it is obvious that they cannot draw any advantage from all these Expressions how high soever they appear now I take it for granted that they could not declare themselves more plainly thereon than they have done as we shall hear hereafter And to the end that their Declarations may appear to us more express and significant it is necessary that you be acquainted with one thing of which your Converters are at an agreement with us and by consequence I need not prove unto you and 't is this in these Ages it was the custom to hide the Mysteries not only from Unbelievers but also from the Catechumens which had not as yet communicated This conduct had two Reasons or Foundations the first was the design to increase the respect which they desired Christians should retain for these Mysteries the second was an earnest passion to diminish the contempt which the Pagans had for a Mystery wherein nothing was seen but Bread and Wine These two Considerations obliged them never to speak of the Sacrament but in obscure and dark words They desired never to name the Bread and Wine as much as they could they served themselves of Periphrases saying sometimes that which you well understand sometimes that which the Priest takes sometimes the nourishment made of many Grains and the drink drawn from many Grapes or something of like sort This was in my opinion the meanest subtilty in the World. For in despight to all their Precautions every body knew that they took nothing but Bread and Wine in the Eucharist and they themselves said it oftentimes contrary to the design which they had of saying nothing concerning it But at last the design of hiding the matter of the Sacrament engaged them to speak nothing of it but in dark terms and always to serve themselves of the mystical terms of the Body the Flesh and the Blood of Jesus Christ and always to use these expressions and always to avoid those that were plain and without figure as much as they were able So that when it happens that they call the Signs by their name and to speak to things as they are indeed one only passage is more worth than a hundred where they speak figuratively and mystically For this mystical Language was among them a Language of necessity and duty which they had imposed upon themselves whereas when they spake of things plainly and nakedly 't was the Language of truth 't was the Language of the Heart and Soul which rescu'd it self from politick slavery and bondage It will not be therefore amazing if we find few passages in Antiquity where the truth of the opinion of the Fathers was plainly expressed Nevertheless we find so many of them and so plain that 't is not conceivable how prejudice hinders our adversaries from seeing the truth in this case First of all altho' we had no other passages of the Fathers but those where they call the Sacrament the Figure the Sign the Image the Symbols of the Body and Blood of the Lord these were enough Now of these there is almost an infinite number what other things do we say thereof than that the Sacrament is the Figure the Sign and the Symbol of the Body of Jesus Christ why did they say the same thing with us if they had not the same thoughts and conceptions with us St. Austin said (a) Cont. Ademas cap. 12. Our Lord made no scruple to say this is my Body The Author of the Book of Sacrament under the Name of St. Ambrose saith (b) Lib. 4. cap. 5. That the Oblation of the Eucharist is the Figure of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ St. Ephraim saith (c) Lib. De Nat. Dei non frut That our Lord taking Bread in his hands brake it and blessed it that it might be the Figure of his immaculate Body and that he blessed the Chalice and gave it to his Disciples to signifie his Blood. St. Cyril of Jerusalem from whom they bring you
That the Body of Christ which Believers receive doth not loose its sensible substance and remain inseperable from the intelligible Grace as Baptism being made intirely spiritual preserves the property of its sensible substance i. e. of Water This man had lost all sense to speak thus if he had believed Transubstantiation or unavoidably he believed that a Transubstantiation was made in Baptism In the same sixth Age Facundus Bishop of Hermiane doth very neatly express wherein this change consists (c) Lib. 9. We call says he The Sacrament of the Body and Bloud which is consecrated in the Bread and the Cup the Body and Bloud of Jesus Christ not that the Bread is properly his Body and the Cup his Bloud but because they contain the Mystery of his Body and Bloud and thence it comes to pass that the Lord himself did call the Bread and the Cup which he blessed and gave to him Disciples his Body and Bloud In what kind of frame of mind must a man be to say after this That Facundus believed Transubstantiation and the real Presence It must be confessed that we owe something to the Heresie of Eutyches who confounded the two Natures in Jesus Christ For 't is in refuting this Error and for the confutation of it that Theodoret Gelasius and Facundus made use of the example of the Eucharist and have explained the change which is made there with such clearness that our own Divines never did it more plainly 'T is in disputing against these Hereticks that Theodoret says this That a man would believe it had been transcribed from the Books of a Calvinist (d) Dialog 1. Our Saviour saith he did make a change of Names he gave to his Body the name of the Symbol and as he named himself a Vine so he also called the Symbol his Blood c. Tell us in good earnest whereof think you that the holy Element is a Sign and Figure Is it of the Divinity of Jesus Christ or of his Blood 'T is evident that 't is of those things whereof they take their names For the Lord having taken the Sign says not this is my Divinity but this is my Body and this is my Blood. My Brethren as a matter of Fact tell your Converters that those passages which we produce unto you are not the tenth part of what we are able to produce to the same sence and importance To conclude when the Ancients please to express plainly and without circumlocution the manner how we feed on Christ Jesus they say exactly the same things that we do 'T is a strange thing that being of such contrary sentiments as they are supposed they should have expressions so very much alike Behold a Calvinistical Paraphrase upon the sixth Chapter of St. John taken from Eusebius Caesariensis he makes Jesus Christ to speak thus * Theod. Ecclesiast contra Marcel lib. 3. cap. 12. Do not think I speak of the Flesh wherewithal I am enclosed as if it were necessary that you should eat it nor do not think that I appoint you to drink sensible Blood but know that the words which I speak to you are Spirit and Life For they are my Words and my Discourses which are this Flesh and this Blood in which whosoever does always partake shall be a Partaker of Eternal Life as being nourished with Bread from Heaven 'T is pitty that St. Athanasius so great a Defender to the Truth against the Arrians should have also been a Calvinistical Heretick After he had quoted these words of our Lord Doth this offend you c. He adds ‖ Our Lord ‖ Hom. On That whosoever shall speak a word against the Son c. speak of the one and of the other i. e. of his Flesh and of his Spirit And he distinguished his Spirit from his Flesh to the end that not beleiving only that which was visible in him but also that which was invisible in him they might learn that the things which he spake were not carnal but spiritual For to how many persons must his Body serve as Meat to become the Nourishment of all the World 'T is for that reason that he makes mention of the Ascention of the Son of Man into Heaven that he might withdraw them from all corporeal thoughts and learn them that the Flesh whereof he had spoken to them was a heavenly Meat and a spiritual Nourishment which He must give them from on High. 'T is a thing very surprizing that the Arrians who watched the steps of Athanasius so very warily and made faults of every thing did not accuse him for being estranged from the Faith of the Church As to St. Austine he is upon thâ— matter more a Calvinist than Calvin himself And if the Jesuites have degraded him because he is a Jansenist in the matter of Grace I know not why they should treat him with more civility in this Case 'T is he that saith ‖ Lib. 3. de Doct. Christiana cap. 16. That Jesus Christ seems to command a Crime when he says If ye do not eat my Flesh and drink my Blood you have no life in you but 't is a Figure which commands that we communicate in the Passion of our Lord and that we do gratefully and profitably remember that his Flesh was wounded and crucified for us 'T is he which saith also * Seâ—â— 33. de Verhis Domin Do not prepare the Throat but the Heart Why do you prepare your Teeth and you Belly Believe and you will eat him You Converters my Brethren are not ignorant that we could easily make a Book of like passages of this Father for he speaks often of the Eating of the Flesh of Jesus Christ and never speaks otherwise thereof He says that this eating is by Faith and that the Wicked the Unbelieving and Unworthy Communicants have no part therein I conjure you my Brethren to consider whether any thing solid can be opposed to Testimonies so plain and express What can the Harshnesses of St. Ambrose the Rhetorications of St. Chrysostome and the perplext Ratiocinations of St. Hillary do against this Can it hinder that the Testimonies which we have heard do not make a clear and convincing Deposition against the Real Presence I enquire of you Whether if we must explain one by the other it be just to explain those which speak simply clearly and without ambiguity by those who speak like Orators or in a mystick Stile that they may not be understood by Infidels and Catechumens Besides is it not just to explain an Author by himself Are not five or six passages of St. Chrysostome where he speaks in plain terms and discourses of things as they are in themselves more than sufficient to give the Reader a true understanding of the sence and spirit of this Author Where are the Christian Orators with whom a man may not find Heresies if he will thus take them at advantage And in the Books of Protestant Meditations may not a man
the beginning of this Letter i.e. that you ought not to procure to your selves consolation by hearing the Word of God in Popish Churches where you will find it seasoned and tempered in a way mortal to your Souls It is necessary that you search it after the manner that our Brethren of which I have been speaking have done I know well that your Flesh hath many things to say to me concerning it Some will say they are a great People in that Country and we are here but a handful of Men. The more easily mâ—y you communicate together the fewer you are in number the less are your motions perceived Others will say these People are favoured by the situation of their Country we are in Cities where they watch us night and day Hath the situation of their Country hindered them from the danger of being discovered hanged and sent to the Gallies Have they been discouraged by having been discovered once yea twenty times I do declare to you on the behalf of God if you don't renounce this Spirit of Fear and put on the Spirit of Martyrs God will forsake vou you will not find a Man that will be able to comfort you yea you will not receive Letters to support you You are afraid of the shadow of danger God will be very much beholden to you you will love him and you will enquire after him when there shall be no danger therein But 't is at present that you ought to make it appear whether you yet love God in exposing your selves to all dangers and often as you search consolation for your Souls and edification for your Faith. I pray God to have pity on your state and that he will give you such sentiments as you ought to have The Grace of our Lord be given to you again Amen Octob. 15. 1686. The FIFTH PASTORAL LETTER THE Christian Purity of the Apostolick Church opposed to that of Popery Letters of some Confessors My well beloved Brethren in our Lord Jesus Christ Grace and Peace be given to you from our God. IN our third Letter we promised to give you a brief History of the changes that have happened in Christianity in the first five hundred years of the Church that from thence you may understand the-unfaithfulness of Monsieur de Meaux and your Converters which tell you with so much impudence that Christianity is come down from the Apostles to them without alteration We have been obliged to delay the performance of that promise that we might make some reflections upon an information that hath been given us concerning the Conduct of the new Converts This was the subject matter of our fourth Letter We will return again at this time to the matter which we have discontinued and give a short pourtraiture and description of the Christianity of the first Age that you may see the changes that have happened in the Ages following The first Age of the Church WE cannot know the opinions and practices of an Age with any certainty but by the Authors of that Age. We have no Authors of the first Age of the Church but the Apostles and Evangelists And though others should be found that may be referred to that first Age we shall leave them to the second to which also they do belong because it is certain that those i. e. the Apostles and Evangelists do suffice to teach us what was the Religion of the Apostolick Church It is above all things just that we see what was the Religion of that first Age and by consequence we must consult the Writers of it This is the more certain because they were Divinely inspired and are the only infallible Doctors that we have In so much that if the Romish Religion be founded in these infallible Writers we are content that you abandon and give up your selves to your Converters But on the contrary if nothing thereof be found there it is just that you believe that all that we reject hath been added to the Christian Religion It is a prodigy that surpasses all belief that Popery should be the Christian Religion and that the Founders thereof should not speak one word concerning it It is true the Evangelists and Apostles learn us to believe one God in three Persons and one Son of God made Man who dyed for the sins of Mankind Rose again Ascended into Heaven and will come again to judge the quick and the dead and to send one part of them into everlasting Torments and to give the other Rewards infinite for extent and duration But this is not Popery this is Christianity Popery is a Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of our Lord every day offered to God for the sins of the living and the dead It is a new Jesus made of Bread descending at all hours between the Hands of the Priest which they adore as the great God. It is the Worship and Invocation of a second sort of Mediator and Intercessor to whom they build Temples erect Images and Altars to whose honor they Sacrifice Jesus Christ by whose name they swear to whom they make Vows and in one word to whom they give all those divine Honors that are given to God himself It is an intermediate state betwixt Heaven and Hell called Purgatory in which for a time Souls endure the pains of fire and the torments of the damned Purgatory which is the foundation of a thousand other Worships Penances Prayers for the dead Masses indulgences Stations Jubilees Mortifications and human satisfactions To conclude for I will nor say all Popery is an institution of a new Head and Spouse for the Church into whole hands the Lord Jesus hath committed all his Authority and Rights to pluck up and to plant to build and to destroy to bind and to loose to make and unmake Kings and to keep the Keys of Heaven and Hell. Behold what Popery is and once more I will say it is a prodigy that God should give us Scripture to instruct us in his Religion and that he should not say one word of the greatest and most considerable parts of it there In the Name of God my Brethren be not taken in this unhappy snare into which I perceive that some of you are fallen The Scripture could not say all say they it hath left Commission to the Church to say the rest Now is it possible that persons can permit themselves to be taken by so gross an illusion If the thing under debate were small peradventure it might be conceded but it is about Adoration of the Sacrament that is to say a piece of Bread and giving religious Worship to Creatures and Images The thing debated is about Celebration of a Sacrifice the most important thing in the World in Religion yea about the Sacrificing of Christ himself the greatest Sacrifice that can be imagined And can it be believed that God will send us to Tradition concerning it It is to have renounced all honesty to advance such a proposition and to be
it was known by themselves that he never ceased to praise God and to bless him that he died in and for the Defence of his Truth and Gospel his Soul was always raised towards Heaven his Discourses were full of Piety Disingagement from the World and of ardent Desires for the Kingdom of Heaven I have told you already that I do not believe that we ought to refuse the Glory of Martyrdom to those who through weakness made their Subscriptions Nevertheless without partaking in any Idolatrous Worship did afterwards recover and die between the fear of being sent to the Gallies if they returned to health and the horror of being dragged all naked upon a Hurdle after their Death This Fear and the Horror are true Punishments so that I reckon those Women which surmount the horror of nakedness to which their dead Bodies were to be exposed after death as dying in the midst of Torments for the Faith. Nothing makes a more violent impression on the Spirit of a modest Woman And all the World knows the History of the Christian Damosels which were cured of a certain melancholick Distemper which put them upon hanging themselves Nothing could give check to this rage In conclusion they thought it adviseable to draw some of them stark naked through the Streets in the view of the People The fear of being thus prostituted to the Eyes of Men staid others and hindered them from being their own Executioners Of this sort of Martyrs we have an infinite number For of all the new Converts which are dead in great numbers within a year past particularly in Poytou where by a just Judgment of God Death hath made such Spoils that great Parishes are intirely depopulated of all these new Converts I say there are not it may be one of an hundred which have given way to their Threatnings and permitted themselves to communicate after the Roman Manner Thus 't is also in Languedoc there have been Women which they have affrighted with this punishment But they answered courageously that what they threatened as an evil they desired as an advantage and that they would offer this shame which they prepared for them to their Saviour as an Expiation of their Crime This great Resignator has not at all mollified the rage of their Persecutors At Montpellier hath been seen the Body of a venerable Woman named Mademoiselle Cauquet Wife of M. Samuel Cauquet a Physician exposed all naked through the Streets besmearing the Pavement with her Blood and Entrails poured out thereon And when she was left at the Dunghil there came two Dragoons which caused their Horses to pass and repass over this poor body an hundred times But that which is most edifying is to know that during her Sickness the Answers that this holy Woman made to her Judges and which are mentioned in her process bear the marks of a profound humility and of an extraordinary goodness It may be they may be found one day in the Registers if the malice of the Devil does not cause those precious Monuments to be suppressed as they have almost intirely blotted out the Procedures against the ancient Waldenses to the end that the proofs of their Innocency might be all made void We have seen the Carcase of one named Peter Crousel the Son of a Merchant of Clermont of Lodeve dying a Confessor in the City of Montpellier dragged at a Horses Tail and a Prisoner taken from the same Prison where the Martyr died leading the Horse and a Hangman striking the Body of the living person more frequently than the Horse which dragged the dead The number of this kind of Martyrs being so great we cannot make a Catalogue of them without the assistance of those which are scattered in divers places in France and have been eye-witnesses thereof I will only report here two which are more particularly come to my knowledge and which have something peculiar in them because of the Quality of the Persons The first is M. Robert d' Ully Vicount d' Nouion of the Church of Couci in Picardy an old Gentleman of about eighty years of age who had been Master of Camp to a Regiment of Infantry and Governor of a place called La Motte au Bois all covered with Wounds and Scars that he had received in the Service of the King during forty years space and having yet a Bullet in his Knee which could not be taken thence This old Man was so weak as to make his Subscription as many others did but he had also the courage to retract it not only by word of mouth but also by a Writing signed with his own hand They caused a Hangman with a Hurdle to come before his door and told him he must be dragged M. de Novion told them that they should not tarry for him for he was ready to go to the place of Execution He arose from his Bed altho he had not been able to walk for many years the Provost being astonished at this constancy paid the Hangman and others for their Journey and sent them back This Gentleman a few days after was dragged from his House and put into a Convent of the Order of the Premonstrants where the Monks discharged themselves so well of the Commission that they killed him by harassing him without ceasing They made him lose his Voice many days before he lost his Life by speaking eagerly to him and he repelling them with vehemence He died continually thrusting them from him with his hand and lifting up his Hands and Eyes to Heaven when he was no longer able to lift his Voice thither As soon as he was dead the Monks caused his Body to be cast into a Dog's Kennel and gave notice thereof to the chief Magistrate of Couci he came and caused his Body without so much as a Shirt to be laid upon a Cart to carry it to that City A frightful Spectacle was there seen the Head of this poor Man hung out of the Cart all bloody All the Wounds that he had formerly received reopened all at once and became so many mouths which vomited Blood and demanded Vengeance that after so long Services they were so rewarded When the Body was arrived at Couci they cast it in this condition into the Sink of the Prison they caused his Bowels to be torn out by a Chirurgeon they threw them to Dogs upon the Walls of the City This Body lying in the dirt continued some weeks expecting that his Process would be made At the end of fifteen days Sentence was pronounced and executed the Carcase was drawn through all the Streets of the City and in conclusion thrown into the Ditch whither the Rabble went and pelted it with Stones till they left not one whole Bone and for fear lest any one should take him by night and bury him they set a Sentinel upon the Wall of the City for many nights together near the place where they had cast him And they added a Prohibition upon pain of death
who make a very great noise in Italy They reproach the Pastors excessively and under an appearance of Zeal there is nothing which they do not say to make odious and contemptible both the publick Ministry and those that exercise it in the one and other Religion This may be seen in the Writings of their Foundrâ—ss Anthoniette de Bourignon They perform no private Exercises of Devotion in their houses at least which are visible for Mr. P. himself hath made known to the Publick that Madam Meiselle de Bourignon had no Prayers in her Family unless it were at Table and yet he observes that that also was done with a low Voice not that they do not permit the use of Prayers to such as will as they permit them to go to Sermons or to Mass indifferently but those which are perfect among them do not concern themselves about it And one of the Principles of Mr. P. is That Desires Prayers Elevations of Heart towards God and Meditation are perfectly contrary to the Spirit of perfect Christianity and hinder the descent of the holy Spirit and the coming of his Grace According to him the only estate proper to draw down the holy Spirit is that which he calls a state of Inaction by which in a privation of Prayers Desires and Motions a man lets himself fall into nothing And this annihilation of all the Faculties is that acceptable Sacrifice to God which causes a descent of the Holy Spirit They have perpetually those Words in their mouth Let all Creatures keep silence and let God speak by which they signifie not only that we ought to impose silence on our Passions that we may hear God which is very true but also that we ought to shut the doors to all external Objects and to lay all our internal Faculties asleep to procure a kind of Extasie which whilst it continues God speaks to the Heart immediately and by himself Behold one of the Dreams of this Sect whereof you will see some footsteps scattered here and there throughout the whole Letter for this is the meaning of those Humiliations Annihilations and internal acts of Adherence to God which you are there exhorted to make Behold another Dream of these diseased Minds which is read also in this Writing in the fourth Page thereof and the second Column Moreover says he it must be remembred that 't is said in the Gospel That all things are possible to him that believes That Faith can remove Mountains and that Jesus Christ always said to Men Be it unto you according to your Faith. So that if those which officiate and assist at the Celebration of the Eucharist do believe that Jesus Christ is present there this Faith is ratified by God and it engages him beyond his Word and his Promises to make himself present as it is believed and this is a Conception so clear that I do not doubt but you will comprehend the force thereof Must not he have a besotted mind to call this a clear Conception I will explain it to you One of the Opinions of this mysterious Cabala is that originally God created Man master of all things in the literal signification of the Words so that he was able to stop the Sun in his course to remove the Globe of the Earth to remove Mountains c. and the Instrument by which he doth this or could do it is his Faith for all things are possible to him that believes without any Figure or Exceptions The state of Perfection to which Christ calls us is that of Faith which makes all things possible to us so that at this day to overturn the order of the World you have no more to do but to believe that you can do it and it shall be done for 't is precisely in the literal sense that they would have us understand the words of Christ If you had Faith but as a grain of Mustard-seed you should say to this Mountain be thou removed and cast into the Sea and it would be done And that it was not a Priviledge of the Apostles but for all Believers Behold that admirable Conception which he tells you is so clear that it is impossible you should not understand the force thereof If you don't understand its strength at least you will understand the convenience of it for when it shall please you to believe that Christ is corporeally present in your Andiron and in the Mantle-tree of your Chimney it will be so and by that means without going out of your Chimney-corner you will go to Mass and every one of you by his Faith will consecrate and transubstantiate all the Utensils of his House In the same Writing you will find another Dream which to me seems yet more ridiculous 'T is in the sixth Page and the second Column on the Subject of Purgatory Then when it happens that a Soul departs this Life in the love of God having nevertheless some impurities and evil habits in it self the Blood of Jesus Christ or the purifying Grace of Jesus Christ which comes after death into this Soul to purifie it or to finish its purification from all sin finding there as yet more or less of the remainders of Evil and of evil Habits and Inclinations fights with them that he may expell them this Combat of the purifying Grace of Jesus Christ against the evil which is in a Soul very sensible which he would cleanse from all the remainders of Sin is not done nor can be without great and sensible sorrows Is not this very singular That when a Soul is separated from his Body the blood of Jesus Christ should thrust it self in there like Sand to scour to cleanse this Soul which is an occasion of quick and pungent Sorrows Surely Mr P. could not have done better to excite the curiosity of the Publick than to give us this little spark of his Mysteries This also will be worth something to his Printer for I am assured that the Curious of France would at any rate whatsoever see a compleat Systeme of this admirable Theology However it be it is not without a particular Providence that it happens that in a Writing otherwise apt enough to flatter the minds of our Nicodemites the Author hath sufficiently discovered himself and made known what he is After this my Brethren judge what credit you ought to give a man who gives you an Idea of Piety according to which the Israelites might worship the Golden Calf without fault because they believed it to be God according to which a Man may be a Turk and adore even Cabages provided he makes use of them as a means of uniting him to God and to excite his Love. These Gentlemen desire of us to leave them in peace let them leave us so then and let them not intermeddle to give Advice to our Congregations being not called thereto With all my heart I am willing to leave them at rest for I take no pleasure to trouble any body
and confusion and well perceiving that if they suffered me to return to my self they would gain nothing therefore they repeated their Assaults with the greater force and reduced me to the most pittiable condition in the world I do not hide my anguish from any one and I speak with greater courage than ever by the grace of my God I am prepared to suffer all the evil which can betide me in the world The good God will be my defence and my support I entreat you to pray to God for me and don 't think that I am fastned to this World I am more estranged from the love of it than ever It seems to me that my House is a Tomb I will never more see any person every thing that I see reproaches me my own Soul smites me so sharply that 't is deplorable Suffer with me in my grief I pray you I am worthy of pity and oh that the great God would pardon and deliver us quickly from the Torments which we feel From 15 Jan. 1687. THis Letter which hath made known what Conscience can do in the matter of Subscriptions obliges me to bring to your minds a matter of fact which happened lately In the month past forty persons embarked themselves on the Borders of Normandy in a Veslel of seven Tuns that is to speak properly in a Challop and this without any Provisions for the support of Life They abandoned themselves to death and it may be said to a death apparently inevitable For in such a Vessel if the Wind and Sea had been contrary to them they might have continued there long enough to have died of Famine But as it pleased God they were not above four days e're they gained the Coast of England and they passed them without eating Behold what the force of Conscience can do and 't is a good proof that those who are newly reunited to the Roman Church are in great distress and perplexity Amongst these persons there was Monsieur the Count of Marancay aged about seventy years of the Province of Normandy and Madam his Wife Sister to Monsieur the Marquess of Rochegifar This new Story brings to my mind another of an elder date which makes it farther appear what horrible Violence these forced Subscriptions do to the Consciences of men 'T is the examples of a Woman named Jane Baille Wife of a Chirurgeon named Isaiah Viridit of a little Village in the County of Charollois named Parayle Moyneau This poor woman being pressed to the uttermost by her Persecutions took Pen from the hands of a Jesuit named Father Langeroon but at the same instant she fell down as one dead without any other sign of life than a convulsive motion in her right arm The Jesuit returned again another time accompanied with the Major the Delegate of the Intendant and many other Papists This poor woman for fear of losing her Children took the Pen a second time in her hand to make her Subscription but in the very moment that she made the letter J which is the first letter of her name she fell into the same condition and continued in it more than six hours Every body was affected with it the Major protested that he would have given a great deal of Money not to have been there on that occasion and it was more than five days e're he did recover from the disorder that this Accident did occasion to him The Delegate himself was also moved at it and promised to endeavour to get her a Pasport There was no body but the Jesuit which was not moved at it who said Let her burst she is but an Hypocrite The Delegate instead of a Pasport for this poor woman received Order to carry her to a Convent to execute his Order he caused her to be seized on by four Serjeants in whose arms she fell into the same state in which she was in the two preceding times But nevertheless they laid her on a Horse like a Pack without motion and without life and carried her to the Convent of the Religious of St. Mary On occasion of these Events thus happening which discover the cruel Oppressions and Troubles of Mind in which those are which have signed their Abjurations I cannot forbear to speak to those that have been so unhappy and have yet no sense of it nor sorrow for it And here I will speak not only to those who are yet in that unhappy state but also to those who have found opportunity of getting out of the Kingdom and are risen from their falls We have seen some that have been touched and affected with it but in truth the insensibility of the most part makes me fear And I tremble for some persons whose Piety was very eminent who nevertheless count as nothing the fault which they have committed in withdrawing themselves through cowardize from the honour whereto God called them by suffering for his Name I will make but one Reflection thereupon to make you perceive how much their heart deceives them Let us suppose that all the Reformed of France had imitated them and that all preserving the Truth in their hearts had abandoned themselves to this unhappy complaisance for their Persecutors and signed their Abjuration I say if all had done so there had not been at this day in France one Confessor one Martyr one man that had spoken for God and maintained his Truth in Prisons and in the midst of Torments Now this would have been the most dreadful of all God's Judgments the greatest mark of Reprobation for the Church and the most frightful Curse of Heaven For this would have been a Castigation of God singular in its kind for since there was a Church and Persecutors there was never any such thing seen there have been always Martyrs always Confessors always Believers that have persevered in Prisons and in the midst of Punishments 'T is the Honour of the Church 't is her Triumph 't is the Glory of God and the Crown of Men Yea in humane Affairs in Interests purely secular in causes where men suffer only for Truth and humane Right there are no Examples where all forsook it and no body remained stedfast thereto So that if the Reformed Church of France had remained without Confessors and Martyrs she would have been charged with an eternal Reproach which the Bloud of all mankind would never have washt off Now 't is not owing to these weak persons who have subscribed to save their Lives and secure their Ease and Repose that the Church of France is not branded with this horrible Reproach For if all had imitated them that had been exactly our case I easily forgive this weakness to those whose Zeal and Piety was not eminent but I do acknowledge that without difficulty I cannot forgive those who after they had obtained the Reputation of very Pious and Devout persons have denied and refused to Jesus Christ the Sacrifice of their Sufferings Good God what discouragement is this to those who
find a hundred passages which Posterity may abuse after the same manner that they abuse those of St. Chrysostome to establish the Perpetuity of the Faith of the Eucharist in the sence of the Roman Church I will stop here and take it for granted that the Faith was not changed in this Article neither in the fourth nor fifth Ages nor in the three that followed them There happened neither any change in the Administration of the Sacrament under both Kinds And we boldly defie all your Converters to give us any proof or any example of any Communion celebrated in those Ages under the Species of Bread alone Monsieur de Meaux who writ last on this subject hath found no other example but that of St. Ambrose concerning whom the Author of his Life says That he died as soon as he had swallowed the Body of Jesus Christ A fine proof that they did not also give him the Blood As if it were not known that the whole Sacrament were not often expressed by the Flesh or the Body of Jesus Christ And as if there were any Figure more common than that of signifying the whole by a part I will not stay on this Article to prove that no Change happened therein in the fourth and fifth Ages for 't is a thing notorious and not disputed by our Adversaries themselves All that they say is That it was also permitted to communicate der one Kind although the Custom then was to communicate under both But that they can-never prove Monsieur de Meaux could not have made a Book which would have done him less Honour than that which he hath made on this subject It will never be believed that a man speaks sincerely when he charges himself with Falseness in a thing so publickly known as this is 'T is that for the space of four hundred or five hundred Years the Custom of Communicating under one Kind was wholly unknown An Article of Controversie An Answer to the fallacious Arguments drawn from the Visibility of the Church I Thought that I had finished telling you what was necessary you should know to dis-intangle your selves from the Sophisms which are drawn from the Unity of the Church and from that Schism which breaks this Unity We have employed Eleven Articles on that Subject in the Eleven Letters which are from the 9th to the 21th We shall at this time open a second Fountain of the Illusions of your Converters on the Subject of the Church 't is that of her Visibility 'T is a long time since that one of our most illustrious Confessors desired of me some Elucidations thereon not so much for himself as for many plain persons which they had ruffled and perplext But it was not possible for us to come at it sooner for if we had sooner left off our Discourse about its Unity and Schism we should have omitted something essential Behold after what manner they form the Sophism drawn from the visibility of the Church 'T is necessary they tell you that the Church be always visible for she is a City set upon a Hill and cannot be hid How could it be that the Pagans in all Ages should be able to come over to the Church if she had been hidden The Gate of Conversion had been shut upon them Your hidden Believers are Chimera's Besides 't is necessary that the Ministry of the Church be always visible For you will never perswade us that the Ministry hath intirely failed so that it was needful as your Confession of Faith says that God should extraordinarily raise up Men to re-establish it Besides 't is of the essence of the Church to be visible your Church cannot be the true Church for it was not visible 200 years ago it was not visible say I since it was not at all Concerning this in the first place Don't you engage yourselves to maintain that the true Church is Invisible as if this point were necessary to defend your Cause and our Church that was hidden before the Reformation Your Converters quote many places of Scripture as Monsieur de Meaux has done in his Instructions to Mademoiselle de Duras to prove to you that the Church is a visible Society Tell them that is to no purpose for we are at an Agreement therein with them They may quote unto you many of our Doctors who have maintained that the true Church was Invisible But know my Brethren that this is nothing but a Dispute about Words and that we are at an accord with them in the sence of the thing Our Divines mean that the true Members of the Church are Invisible and not that the Society in which the true Members of the Church are is Invisible This is true the true Members of the Church are Invisible for there are none but true Believers that are true Members of the Church If you hear my voice then are you my Disciples indeed Now true predestinated Believers are visible as Men but they are not visible as Believers for no body sees true Faith 't is in the heart and the actions which appear without may be equivocal But the Society where these true Members are is visible for 't is a Society of Men that serve God according to his Word and Laws this is visible Understand this by the example of a Man he hath a body and a soul but the body in which this soul is is visible True Believers are the soul of the Church that is invisible the body of the Church is the external Society and that is visible Therefore as you may say of a Man that he is visible and invisible invisible with respect to his soul visible with respect to his body so it may be said concerning the Church that she is visible and invisible invisible with respect to her soul which is true Faith and true Believers visible with respect to the Society in which this soul i.e. these true Believers are enclosed This is so clear and evident that your Converters cannot dis-allow it Behold already one point of Sophistry made void The Church is visible be it so as a Man is visible After this if they inquire of you Is this visible Church the Body of Jesus Christ Distinguish and tell them She is the Body of Jesus Christ forasmuch as she contains in herself truly righteous persons and true Believers but not because she encloses wicked hypocritical and vitious persons For 't is impossible that these persons should be the Body of Jesus Christ otherwise Jesus Christ would have rotten and stinking Members otherwise Dogs Swine c. would be in the Communion of Jesus Christ Now this is absurd for if any one have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his and there can be no communion between light and darkness Christ and Belial So that a Christian which hath nothing but a simple Profession and neither Vertue nor Charity a Lover of the Word in the Christian Society is no true Member of Jesus Christ or his
15 1687. The Twenty Third PASTORAL LETTER An Article of Antiquity The Church of the fourth and fifth Ages did not Adore the Sacrament of the Eucharist And Article of Controversie An Answer to the Consequences which are drawn from the perpetual Visibility of the Church Notable Matters of Fact. Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to your from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. IN the two preceding Letters you have seen what the Ancients of the fourth and fifth Ages did think on the subject of the Eucharist You have seen that they acknowledge nothing there but Signs and Images of the Body and Bloud of our Lord and that they apprehended no other change there but a change of Grace which made no alteration in the nature of the species of Bread and Wine So the Faith of the Church was not changed therein there remains the Adoration concerning which it is also certain that there hapned no change in the Ages where we are They did not Adore the Sacrament in the three first Ages nor did they Adore it in these Suffer not your selves to be surprised my Brethren by five or six words which they quote to you from St. Ambrose or St. Austine who say That 't is necessary that we Adore the Flesh of Jesus Christ in the Mysteries and that we must not eat the Flesh of Jesus Christ when we have not Adored it We must not search the practice of an Age in rambling and extravagant Expressions as these are 'T is in History and in matters of Fact. There is not a person among us that does not acknowledge that we must Adore Jesus Christ in the participation of the Mysteries that is not the thing whereof we dispute It must be known whether they bowed the Knew before the Sacrament whether they lifted it up before the Communion that it might be Adored now we do maintain that this was not done And I do not know whether your Converters have the boldness to say the contrary at least they have not Ability enough to prove it They dazle your Eyes with a passage of Theodoret who says speaking of the Symbols of Bread and Wine (a) Dialog 2. That we conceive by the understanding that they are what they were made that we believe them and Adore them as being that which we believe them But observe 't is the same place where this Author tells us that which we have mentioned unto you before That the Mystical Symbols do not loose their proper Nature after their Consecration but that they remain in their first Substance their first Figure and their first Form they are visible and palpable as they were before He adds then immediately after the words which are abused to prove the Adoration of the Sacrament 'T is the same Author which hath told us after a very express manner that God in the Sacrament doth not change Nature but add Grace to Nature After this 't is unavoidable that he must have lost his Wits to say that we must Adore Bread and Wine which remain such and which have received no change in their Substance Who doth not see then that the word Adore is here taken for Venerate and in the same sense that we call the Mysteries of Religion Adorable and that we say we must Adore the Conduct of Providence In the sense that St. Isidore of Damietta calls the Gospels (b) Lib. 1. ep 136. Adorable That the Emperors were called (c) Conc. Calced part 1. Adorable by the Councils themselves And that the Table was called the Adorable Altar by the same Councils To conclude Theodoret must be understood as he desires to be understood for 't is he that says in the following Dialogue If the Body of Jesus Christ seems to you vile and of little value Why do you esteem its Figure whereof is Adorable and worthy of Honour can it self be abject and contemptible Behold again the Eucharist which is nothing but a Figure and a Figure opposite to the Body and which by consequence is not the Body But 't is nevertheless an Adorable Figure Judge whether Theodoret were so pitiful a Christian to believe we must Adore a Figure If we would find the practice of the Church in passages like these it were better to search it in passages of St. Austin where this Father says for example (d) Serm. 2. de diversis That that which he Adores is not a thing towards which he could stretch out his Finger and say Behold the God which I Adore Or rather in the place where he says (e) Serm. 74. de diversie Whilst we are in the Body we are absent from the Lord and if any one doubt or deny it and say to us Where is your God we cannot shew him Jesus Christ is always with his Father as to the presence of his Glory and Divinity as to his Corporeal Presence he is now above the Heavens at the right Hand of the Father but he is in all Christians by a presence of Faith. It must be professed that St. Austin is an inconvenient Author for these Transubstantiators we can't make him open his mouth but Thunders proceed from it against the now reigning Heresie and Idolatry It appears here that he neither adored the Sacrament nor lookt upon it as his God for he could not have found any difficulty in answering that question Where is your God It appear also that he had comprehended this admirable corporeal presence of Christ in the Sacrament for he reserves all the corporeal presence of Christ to the Heavens and leaves nothing to Earth but a presence of Faith. This poor man understood his Religion very ill We ought also to give attention to what St. Austin says speaking of sacred Signs that there are some of them subsist after the action as the Brasen Serpent * Lib. 3. de Trinit cap. 10. But others which cease after they have served the use to which they were designed as the Bread which we make expresly to be a sacred sign and is spent in the receiving the Sacrament But because these things being made by men are known to men they may well receive honour and give occasion for admiration as things miraculous What a poor man was this St. Austin and how many oversights in four lines 1. He would not have us worship the Bread we ought only to give it some respect as to a religious thing 2. He would not have us admire the Eucharist as a thing miraculous Of what did he think thus to speak of the greatest Miracle that ever was since the creation of the World Is it not a thing miraculous that the Body of Jesus Christ with all his substance should subsist in a point should be stript of all its Accidents and be in an infinite number of places at once I cannot tell then any more what will be called a thing miraculous 3. He supposes that 't is man that makes this Transubstantiation these things
being made by men Behold an admirable Divine which believes that a man can make a God and do a Miracle if I may so say that exhausts all the Divine Power To conclude to these three or four words of St. Austin That none eats the flesh of Jesus Christ before he hath adored it we ought to oppose what he says in the third Book concerning the Christian Doctrine †De Doctr. Christ lib. 3. cap. 9. That every one knows the Sacrament of Baptism and the celebration of the Body and Bloud of our Lord that 't is well known whereunto they have respect and that they are reverenced not by a servitude i.e. after a carnal manner but by a spiritual liberty Here St. Austin desires that we give to Baptism the same honour as to the Sacrament of the Eucharist We must confess if St. Austin did adore the Sacrament we ought to make no scruple therein we owe him this complaisance for that he hath spoken as absolutely concerning it as our selves For during the space of two hundred years past there hath not been either Zuinglian or Calvinist which hath spoken more boldly or more clearly against the Real Presence and Transubstantiation If this suffice not to know what kind of Worship was given to the Eucharist we must learn it from the History of matters of fact We learn from Mr. de Valois in his Notes upon Eusebius ‖ Euseb lib. 7. cap. 9. Hist Eccles That the Believers which were to communicate approached the Altar and there received the Body of Jesus Christ from the hand of the Priest standing upright and not on their knees as at this day The Author has passed for a good Roman Catholick he is learned and he is a Modern Writer so that he wants nothing to give him an authority in the hearts of the New Converts who refer themselves much more concerning Religion to what their new Authors speak of it then to what is said thereof by those that are more ancient And indeed how could they communicate otherwise than standing since they prayed standing on the Lords day and the fifty days which are from Easter to Whitsontide in memory of the Resurrection When they were ready to consecrate they put out the Catechumens i.e. well nigh half the Christians is it probable that they would deprive them of the comfort of adoring their Saviour if it had been then the custom of adoring him in the Sacrament In those Ages they did communicate Infants and how could they exact Adoration before the Manducation since Infants are not capable of performing an Act of Adoration I may also reckon amongst those Articles concerning which there was no change in the fourth and fifth Ages that of Purgatory For the opinion of a separate place where Souls were to be kept till the day of Judgment without seeing the face of God but without suffering any thing there was the Opinion of the greatest men of those Ages of St. Ambrose St. Chrysostom St. Hillary St. Jerome and under names so great it may not be doubted but it was the prevailing Opinion 'T was the third place of the Christians that then were but as yet there were but few footsteps of a fourth place seen 'T is true that in these Ages a man may shew you some passages of Gregory Nyssen and even some of St. Jerome which speak of a Purgation of Sins which ought to be made after death by the means of a Penal Fire But this is not the Purgatory of Popery 't is that of Origen according to whom we have seen that all intelligent Creatures without excepting Devils and wicked men who die impenitently ought to be recovered and re-established Originism did not die with Origen and many famous Fathers of the fourth Age were infatuated with it Those which know the History of the Quarrels between St. Chrysostom and Epiphanius are not ignorant thereof I think indeed that few men did then dare to maintain the Opinion of Origen crude as he left it touching the future salvation of the Devils and the damned But many endeavoured to soften and smooth it and said at least Christians who died in the profession of the Faith but without Holiness and Repentance would one day be recovered 'T is without doubt that this Opinion mitigated and softned was one step which made the Church fall into the Error of Purgatory For after they had restrained those that were to be purged by a Penal Fire to such as died without Holiness and Repentance by little and little they restrained them to such who dying without Repentance had not satisfied the Canonical Penances of the Church St. Austin was not of the opinion of those who believed that ill Christians dying without repentance were to be purged by fire nevertheless he thought it probable * Enchir. cap. 67 that those who had too much affection for temporal good things during the space of this Life after death would be afflicted with grief for the loss of them and that this would serve them for a Castigation Nevertheless he proposes this but as a doubtful conjecture It is not incredible says he †Enchir. cap. 69. but that something of like nature happens after death and it may be disputed whether it be so that some Believers shall be saved sooner or later by a purging fire according as they have more or less loved these perishing good things By this Purgative Fire or Purgatory he understands nothing but the grief of being deprived of these perishing things And this is that which he means in the same Book ‖ Enchir. cap. 109. That during the whole space of time between a mans death and the last Resurrection Souls are in hidden Receptacles according as they are worthy of repose or misery with respect to what they have been during this life A man cannot deny but this is Purgatory in its birth but it was not as yet believed and received of all the Church nor hath it been received nor perfected any where but in the Latin Church Behold that which I have to tell you concerning the changes happening in Doctrines and Worship I will not pass on to the following Ages because 't is not my design to give you a compleat History of all the changes which have happened in the Church for 1700 years I only desire to confound the boldness of Monsieur de Meaux and such-like which dare to affirm that Christianity in their hands is in the same estate in which it was when it passed from the Apostles to their immediate Successors and that time hath changed nothing that is essential in the Doctrine and Worship of the Church that insensible changes whereof some men speak to you are but Dreams Behold say I enough to ruine these rash affirmations of your Converters for from this short History which I have given you of the Doctrine and Worship of the Church for the space of 500 years it appears 1. That during these five Ages
whom they caused to serve in all those painful works in which they employed Turkish Slaves The Archbishop of Eberard eighty years old full of fire and rage in that age which naturally is of Ice took the pains to beat with blows by a Mallet those which had been brought into the fortress of that place and he had bruised and broken their limbs in such sort that the most part of them were not able to move themselves Others were employed in cruel labours under which he took pleasure to see them sweat even to Bloud But nothing is like to that which thirty nine Pastors suffered seventeen of the Confession of Ausburgh and twenty two of the Confession of Swiss which were conducted to Leopolstadt There were three which abandoned the Truth being overcome by the length and cruelty of their punishments The rest were given up to the rage of the Jesuit Nicholas Kellion the most cruel of all the Monsters of Lybia These poor men protesting their innocency before him one day he said to them I do indeed believe that the most part of you are not guilty of Rebellion against the King but you deserve all sorts of Punishments for your Rebellion against the Church This wicked Wretch takes them not from their dark Dungeons but to make them labour at those Employments which had killed the strongest men to carry horrible burthens to remove Earth and to make Fortifications about the Cittadel And because those Martyrs to whom they did not give of coarse black Bread a quarter so much as was necessary to nourish them and almost no Water could not lift up their hands nor set one foot before another he caused them to be beaten by blows with rods with staves with the butt-end of Muskets and with cords moistned and full of knots After these horrible pains he cast them into a dark Dungeon where lying among Rats Serpents and Toads they were not able to rest one moment So that 't is unconceivable how Bodies so wasted could be able to endure such long Torments If any one toucht with compassion did endeavour to give any refreshment to these Confessors they punisht them severely A certain Person attempting to give some Onyons to one of them the Jesuit caused both him that gave them and him that received them to be torn with the blows of a Whip by the hand of a Hangman And because a certain Woman had given them a little Bread and some other Provisions she was dragged through the City put in the Pillory and treated as they do publick Whores They gave them neither Shoes nor Cloaths insomuch that they went barefoot and scarce had they rags enough upon their Bodies to cover their more shameful parts Upon the least and smallest pretence they saw a Hangman come into their Dungeon who beat them with Rods till the Blood came We cannot express the horrible Violences that were done unto them to oblige them to adore the Host they dragg'd them because they would not go On Feast-days and on the Sabbaths the Jesuit Kellio came with a Troop of Soldiers who with kicks of his foot blows with the Musket and wooden Bars pusht forward these miserable Creatures to their Churches insomuch that they made them at one blow to leap a great heighth into the Air they fell back upon the Pavement bruised and broken and when they could not go they dragg'd them on the ground which they stained and tinctured with their Blood. The Jesuits one day beat two of these venerable old Men to that excess that they dyed a little after This Monster perceiving well that his Cruelties would do him injury even amongst those of his own Party towards the end of his Commission thought it advisable to treat them a little more kindly and afterwards by violence threatnings and evil treatments he drew from them a Testimonial by which they acknowledged that Father Kellio had permitted the Mony which was sent them by their Friends to be given to them That he had suffered them to eat the Provisions also which were sent them yea that he had granted liberty to their Friends and Neighbours to discourse with them And this vile Villain having formed this Confession and Testimony after his own pleasure immediately made it publick that he might dissipate the Reports which had been spread abroad concerning his Cruelty Nevertheless this was not the end of the Troubles and Afflictions of these Confessors They were condemn'd to be sent to the Gallies in Spain and on the 18th of March 1675. they were delivered to some Companies of Soldiers that had been raised in Austria and to the 36 which had been taken from Leopoldstadt they joyned five others who had been brought from Brenchstin We cannot express the Barbarities exercised against these forty Confessors They were to travel those long distances which are from Hungary to the Adriatick Sea on foot there Feet being laden with heavy Irons cross the Sands the Rocks Mountains and the Stones beaten with Cudgels and Bulls-pisles their Feet did crack and were wounded and you might follow them every-where by the tract of their own Blood which fell from all parts of their Bodies When they came to Tergeste they were in such condition that they could go no further with their Irons therefore there was a necessity that they must be broken off from their feet and this was not done without covering their feet with bloudy wounds and taking away some pieces of their Flesh They gave them not above twelve Ounces of coarse Bread by the day to live on Judge you if that could support these miserable Creatures in so tedious a travel At night they lodged them in Stables like Dogs where they could find no rest If there was any one not able to go whom they were forced to set on Horseback when the Beast did not go they beat him that sat thereon with great blows of Cudgels and Whips At Theate there remained six four whereof died of these horrible Journeys the two other were transported to Naples When they were arrived there they would have constrained them to be listed in the Spanish Troops which they refused they sold them to Masters of the Gallies of Naples at the price of 50 Rix Dollers a piece These poor miserable Pastors treated as they had been were in no condition to do any Service in the Gallies for which reason those which had bought them made no hast to pay for them whereupon the German Captains resolved to kill all these Gally-slaves but the Vice-Roy of Naples hindered them They were nine Months in these Gallies where they suffered all the Evils Reproaches and Outrages that can be imagined At last God sent them as by a Miracle Mr. Ruyter the Holland Admiral who rescued them from these horrible Miseries These are the Adventures of those Pastors that had been Imprisoned at Leopoldstadt There were yet twenty in the Prisons of Sarwar Capuwar Tergeste and Buccari in Dalmatia who were treated as those of
whom we have spoken They caused them to go down into Caves full of Dirt Toads Serpents Excrements that had been long heaped together At length after they had passed through a succession of Cruelties whereof Phalaris himself was never guilty on the first of July 1675 they were ordered as others to be sent to the Gallies in hopes that some-body would buy them for the Vice-Roy and the Venetians absolutely refused to buy those miserable Creatures who on the one side were innocent and on the other were incapable of doing any Service by reason of the Afflictions that they made them suffer The Bishop of Newstadt that famous Persecutor put them under the conduct of one of his Hangmen and caused them to be conveyed to Tergeste a City scituated on the Borders of the Adriatick Sea There they shut them up in a Stable and because one of them escaped they cruelly scourged all the rest The Fugitive being pursued and taken they forced all the rest to whip their Companion twice a day Not content to satisfie their Rage on these unhappy persons they would satisfie their Avarice also they treated with them for their Ransome at a great sum of Money which they received and then delivered but two men In the month of October in the same year they carried them from Tergeste to Buccari to put them on the Gallies of Malta While they expected the coming of the Gallies they put them in a Vault which belonged to the Prison where Ordure Filth Urine and the Waters of the Prison ran there they cast unto them by a hole some morsels of Bread which they went on hands and feet to gather up in the midst of Man's Dung. They fastned them with Chains which came under their Throats and held the Chin raised up that they could not incline it downward They put Irons on their feet and they were bound cross their bodies with Irons besides They were thirty nine days in this posture and sometimes they carried them out into the Street to make them a Spectacle to the People Those who had endured a great many horrible Punishments fell under these Ten of them signed the Writing which had been required of them at first and that Subscription having done nothing towards their deliverance they abjured their Religion some time after being forced thereto by the length of their Torments Two of those which persevered died on the seventh of December and their Companions buried them in the Sand on the Sea-shore having scraped with their hands to make Graves for them There remained but six of those which were cast into this horrible Prison The one of these six being in an Agony on the Sand of the Sea after so many sufferings and being in no condition himself to return to Prison was drag'd by the Serjeants with so much violence upon the Stones and Stairs of the Vault that in all places where his Body passed there was left of the Bloud and pieces of the Flesh of this poor Sufferer who died within a few hours after and remained without burial in the stinking Sink They told the other five that they were appointed to die in the same place of Dung Misery and Corruption if they did not abjure their Religion God fortified them in these their last Combats in which they continued till the month of May 1676. at which time God sent them for a Deliverer the Embassadour of the Vnited Provinces who demanded them and they were granted to him When they drew them from their Cave they had no humane shape their Throats were putrified their Teeth were fallen out and they could not endure any Meat in their Mouths without feeling very sharp and pungent pains They put them in good Beds two famous Popish Physicians undertook their recovery one of the five died at Venice the 24th of May the four others escaped by Miracle and came into Switzerland where Mr. Heydekker says that he saw with horror upon their Bodies the glorious Marks of their long Confession so that 't is from themselves that he learnt the History of their Martyrdom I am very much perswaded that there are no honest Men in the Church of Rome itself which do not tremble at such a Report and I am unwilling to charge these Roman Catholicks with the infamy of such Cruelties which are not guilty of it nor capable of committing it But this does not hinder but that we may see therein the Spirit of Popery Behold what the Priests and Monks are capable of in whom this Spirit does properly reside 'T is the Spirit of Murder and Falshood and therefore 't is the Spirit of the Prince of Darkness If this be not a powerful Prejudice against Popery I think there can be none Let a Man look on Popery with its Cords Whips Gibbets its Racks its Wheels its Fires and Flames snarling and threatning like the Devil to tear Bodies shed Bloud torture Souls extend Sufferers upon Crosses tying them to Posts and casting them into Flames Let a Man behold it I say in this frightful Dress and horrible Employment and let him tell me if he finds any thing like it in the Character of the Christian Religion How can a Man fail to find therein the Babylon of the Revelations which makes herself drunk with the Blood of the Martyrs of our Lord Jesus These Two Histories are taken out of Mr. Jeurieu 's Prejudices against Popery Chapter the 27th and 28th of the Second Part. FINIS
at the time of the Distribution They give says he to all those that are present Bread and Wine over which Praises and Thanksgivings have been made Because he hath said that 't is not common Bread we must not conclude that 't is not Bread at all if it be not thought fit that we say a great Man is no Man because it hath been said that he is no ordinary or common Man. I must also give you notice in this place my Brethren that you beware of a snare that they compose or make of several Passages of the Fathers of this Age where they make you read the words Altar Oblation and Sacrifice on the Subject of the Eucharist and by these Words and Terms they endeavour to perswade you that the Sacrifice of the Mass was then known The word Altar is not found in the Authors of the second Age whose Writings are indisputable 'T is found in the Canons attributed to the Apostles and in the Epistles of S. Ignatius But 't is known that their Writings are not owned by all the World. Nevertheless I am inclined to believe that from that time they called the Table of the Eucharist Altar For why should they make any scruple of using the word Altar seeing they made use of the words Oblation and Sacrifice when they spake of this Sacrament But you must know 1. That 't was an Innovation in the Terms and that in the Writings of the Apostles you never find the words Altar Oblation or Sacrifice on that Subject Read the History of the Institution of the Eucharist the Acts of the Apostles where the breaking of bread is often spoken of that is the Celebration of the Sacrament of the Supper Read the tenth and eleventh Chapters of the first Epistle to the Corinthians where much is said of this Sacrament you do not see these Terms there 2. You must know that these terms Altar Oblation and Sacrifice took their originals from the custom that Christians had in those times of bringing their Offerings of Bread and Wine and other things necessary for the Service of the Church and the maintenance of its Pastors and setting them as an Offering to God on the Communion Table Yea they offered them to God by certain Prayers the Forms whereof are still found in the ancient Liturgies 3 To conclude you ought to hold for certain that these Oblations these Sacrifices c. of the second Age had no relation to the consecrated Signs or Elements For no Oblation was made to God of the Signs or Elements of Bread or Wine after their Consecration Observe that in the passage of Justin Martyr immediately after the Consecration of Bread and Wine the distribution was made and no Oblation between them And for an undoubted proof thereof observe that they are the Believers that make these Oblations and not the Priests alone Hear S. Clement Romanus the Disciple and Companion of S. Paul Those says he who make their Oblations at appointed times are acceptable and happy for in following the Commandments of God they commit no sin By this we do not intend to affirm that afterwards the Priest don't bless these Oblations and present them to God. But learn from S. Ireneus what 's understood by these Oblations and what they were Jesus Christ says he hath given advice to his Disciples to offer to God the first Fruits of his Creatures not that he hath any need of them with respect to himself but to the end they might not appear with respect to themselves ungrateful and unfruitful he took Bread which is a Creature and gave thanks thereon saying This is my body c. And he hath taught us a new Oblation of the New Testament which the Church receiving from the Apostles offer as the first Fruits of his Gifts to God which gives us food and nourishment You very well see that the Church offers not Jesus Christ the Creator to God but Bread which is the first Fruits of his Creation You see well that this Oblation is presented to God as a Thanksgiving because he has given us the Nourishments of Bread and Wine and not transubstantiated Bread for a propitiatory Sacrifice Hear how he speaks yet of these Oblations They are not Sacrifices that sanctifie the Man but it is the Conscience of him that offers sanctifies the Sacrifice c. seeing then that the Church offers with simplicity 't is but Justice that its Oblation pass for a pure Sacrifice before God. Behold an undoubted Blasphemy according to the Principles of Popery The Eucharist is a Sacrifice but the Sacrifice of the Body of Jesus Christ doth not sanctifie the Man on the contrary 't is the Conscience of him that offers who sanctifies the Sacrifice of the Body of our Lord in the Mass There is say I a Blasphemy in all shapes and forms Acknowledge therefore that nothing is debated there but the Offerings that Believers set upon the holy Table And that ye may have a perfect knowledge of what was then done in the Celebration of the holy Supper add from S. Clement and S. Ireneus that which was wanting in S. Justin 1. 'T is the Believers brought Bread Wine Wax Oil and other things necessary in the Church And as for Fruits and Animals Apples and Pulse necessary for the maintenance of life they carried them to the Bishops House 2. These things set upon the Table were consecrated to God by Prayer 3. Of the Bread and Wine which had been thus offered they took one part for the Celebration of the Eucharist and the rest was spent by the Ministers of the Church and divided among them for their support and maintenance Behold the only Oblation that was then made and 't is nothing nevertheless from thence is come an Innovation in the Terms and from thence insensibly is come the Sacrifice of the Mass Behold the meaning of the third the fourth and the fifth Canons attributed to the Apostles The third forbids that they present upon the Altar Hony Milk Birds Beasts and Pulse The second permits to offer Ears of Corn Raisins Oil for the Lights and Incense And the fifth ordains that they carry their Fruits to the Bishops and Presbyters to be distributed among them and their Deacons In the Margin of these Canons the Roman Doctors set these Words The Sacrifice of the Mass appointed by our Lord. What shameless Foreheads have they Do Men sacrifice Oil and Incense in the Sacrifice of the Mass In the second Age where we now are nothing is found of that which is called Confirmation which is one of the Popish Sacraments But it doth not appear that the Primitive Christians even to the end of the second Age did employ any Unction for the giving the Holy Spirit and for the Confirmation of those that had been baptised 'T is true they imposed Hands on