AN EPISTLE OF A CATHOLIQUE To his Friend A PROTESTANT Touching the Doctrine of Reall Presence OR The Answer to a Question propounded in these Tearms What should move you contrary to the plain Testimony of your Senses to believe that after Consecration the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament is become REALLY Christs very Body and Blood Matth. 22.29 Ye doe erre not KNOWING the Scriptures nor the POWER of God It is a manifest signe of an VNBELIEVING Heart in the Works of God to ask HOW This or That can be St. Basil lib. 5. contr Eunom Printed in the Year 1659. An Epistle of a Catholique to his Friend a Protestant touching the Doctrine of Real Presence SIR YOu having desired me to give you some probable Reasons which did or do perswade me to believe that after the words of Consecration the Bread contrary to the Senses of Seeing and Feeling and Tasting is Christs very Body and the Wine his Blood in answer to your demand I shall according to my weak Capacity tell you truly by what Reasons I am chiefly so perswaded First the Holy Scriptures unanimously in expresse tearms say That it is his Body and that it is his Blood the places in the Evangelists are so manifest and well known that it may seem needless to name them however for the importance of the matter I quote them to you Mat. 26.26 28. Mark 14.22 24. Luke 22.19 20. Secondly the Ancient Fathers did never understand those places otherwise then in their literal and proper sense as appeareth by their Works left in writing which are too numerous here to insert and is acknowledged by many of the most eminent Protestants themselves as namely Philip Melancthon the Centurists Bucer Peter Martyr Calvin and others as you may see in the Book called The Progeny of Catholiques and Protestants lib. 2. cap. 8. pag. 35 36 37. lib. 5. cap. 3. pag. 13. Thirdly it was the unanimous Doctrine of the Councels not one of them ever determining the contrary though at some times moved so to have done by some few private persons that Heretically opposed the Doctrine and many of the said Councels having expresly determined for it Fourthly it was ever the constant Belief and Practice of the universall Church throughout the world and whensoever any did oppose it they were presently judged condemned and cast out by the Church of that Age as Heretiques and in all after ages so likewise esteemed namely Heretiques and their memory held abominable stinking like to those Carcases Esay 66.24 which it is not improbable the Prophet in Spirit might principally mean when he said that the Carcases of the men that had transgressed being cast out shall be an abhorring to all flesh For so indeed most commonly are the memories of all Heretiques they are an abhorring not onely to the Catholique Church but to all flesh for the latter Heretiques do in one kinde or other usually condemn the former as much as Catholiques do Fifthly the Divisions and Differences which are among those whose opinions in this matter be contrary to the Church are so many and manifold that it is not easie to reckon them and do clearly convince that there can be no certainty of Truth in any of their said different opinions Luther in his time observed Eight several Expositions of those words Hoc est corpus meum This is my Body all contrary one to another and coming as he saith not from the Spirit of God but from the mouth of Devils and not long after him Claudius de Sainctes a learned Bishop of the Catholique Church in his Book of the Eucharist reckoned no less then fourscore different Expositions of the said words of Institution This is my Body c. and this is my Blood c. all earnestly maintained by learned Protestants with rejection of the contrary sense So that we see once out of the way of true expounding of Scripture and there 's no end of erring Luther speaking of Carolstadius Zuinglius and Oecolampadius all three Sacramentarians as he calls them saith Cursed be their Charity and Concord for ever and ever signifying that he would have nothing to do with them in the matter of this Sacrament He said moreover that they expounded the words This is my Body as absurdly as if one should expound that Text in the Book of Genesis In the beginning God made heaven and earth thus The Cuckow did eat up the Tittling or Hedge-Sparrow bones and all and as for that Passage of Saint John Chap 1. v. 14. of his Gospel The word was made flesh their Exposition saith Luther is as good as to say A crooked staff is made a Kite Thus did Luther not without cause set out and deride the Sacramentarians expounding of Scripture as you may see more at large noted pag. 22. of the Answer to Mr. Charks Preface called The Triall of Spirits Sixthly if the words This is my Body be to be expounded thus This is a figure or This is a sign of my Body then is there no hard mystery no hard saying at all in those words nor in those other which our Saviour spake John 6.53 Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood ye have no life in you which were utterly contrary not onely to the speeches language and confessions of all Writers and of all Records of Antiquity which acknowledge a great difficulty and hardness in this Mystery and a great irreconcileable repugnancy to carnal sense and Reason that the Eucharist or Sacrament should be verily and truly Christs Body and Blood but contrary to the whole purport of our Lords Answer to the Capernaites whose great stumbling question was how Christ could give them his flesh to eat This both They and also some of his Disciples called an hard saying they could not understand how it should be done nor yet by the Answer which our Saviour gave them did they or indeed could they in reason understand it as the Sacramentarians now do to wit that the Bread in a Spiritual sense is onely a figure of his Body and not his very Body indeed For what hardness had there been then to conceive and comprehend the full nature of the Mystery especially how could his Saying have been thought so hard that it should move many of Christs own Disciples to leave him and to walk no longer with him And surely a sad parting it was seeing our Lord presently upon it said as it were mournfully to the Twelve and will ye also go away And yet notwithstanding though it were for their satisfaction and to keep them from going away with the rest our Saviour even he who is so great a lover of souls thought fit to make them no other answer but this Doth this offend you what if you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before John 6.62 as much as if he had said though I do ascend and leave you yet of necessity my flesh must be eaten
and my blood be drunken for otherwise life cannot be had if therefore this saying You must eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood offend you now and seem an hard saying to you now while he is present with you what will it do then when you shall see him leave you and ascend up in his Body into heaven where he was before how will you then think it possible to eat his flesh This I say was the effect of our Lords answer to them concerning their wondering how they should be able to eat Christs flesh and their being scandalized at it as a thing altogether impossible as you may see John 6.53 54. Whence surely it appeareth that if either our Saviour had expounded himself to mean or they had understood it that he did mean that his flesh should be eaten and his blood drunk in a sign or figure onely that speech of his what if you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before could have had no sufficient reason For doubtless the sign or figure of his Body whatsoever it were might easily enough be eaten by them after that his Body should be ascended To take Bread and to break it in token that Christs Body was broken for us upon the Cross is no such hard thing but that it may be done as well in Christs absence as in his presence yea something more properly in his absence then in his presence at least then in his visible natural and ordinary presence but now it is clear our Saviour in that place mentions his Ascension to his Disciples as a thing that should make the mystery of eating his flesh to seem more difficult to them and not less therefore he meant they should eat it more then in a bare sign or figure onely for that I say they might as easily do when he were in heaven as while he was on earth Moreover our Lord knowing that the Capernaites looked upon him as a meer man and also that while he spake of giving them his flesh to eat they understood him in a gross and carnal manner as that he should give them his flesh cut in pieces to eat or the like to extinguish and take away that gross conceit out of their mindes he telleth them that Flesh to wit according to their gross manner of understanding profitteth nothing But now first his Flesh was not meer humane flesh as they apprehended it but it was the flesh of the Son of God yea of the true God 1 John 5.20 it was flesh united to the Deity and therefore in respect of other common flesh whether of Beasts or Men Christs Body was to be accounted rather a Spiritual and Divine Body rather Spiritual and Divine Flesh then natural and common It was the Lords Body who came down from heaven and is eternally from everlasting to everlasting alwayes in heaven it was a Body full of grace and excellent vertue and also a Body full of divine and incomprehensible Mystery It was a Body Incarnate by the Holy Ghost without man and born of a Virgin without forcing or violating the Womb a Body that passed through a multitude and was not discerned Luke 4.30 compared with John 8.59 A Body that went out of the Sepulchre not forcing away the stone Matth. 28.2 5 6. That came into the room where the Disciples were gathered together the doors being shut John 20.19 it came in I say and stood in the midst of them before they ever perceived it just as if it had been a Spirit and insomuch as the Disciples Luke 24.36 37. took it verily to have been a spirit And therefore of such a Body as this and of such a Person as Christ was God even the true God blâ—ssed for ever to say how can this man give us his flesh to eat or how can the Sacrament rightly consecrated be his Body is a foolish and an infidel question For he can do it well enough he can give us his flesh to eat and his bloud to drink though our sense perceive it not and though as he saith we must eat his Body yet his Body remaineth alwayes whole it is not to be cut or torn in pieces as the Capernaites imagined for he doth not say he would give us a piece of his flesh or a part of his flâ—sh but his flesh entirely that is to say his whole Body the entire Humanity which he received of the Blessed Virgin this he would give to every one of us He can do all things to him nothing is impossible He was with two of his Disciples at Emmaus talking with them and conversing with them and immediately vanished out of their sight and was present with other Disciples at Jerusalem as may be gathered from Luke 24.29 31. compared with John 20.19 And though he be alwayes at the right hand of God in Heaven as appears Acts 3.22 yet is he also sometimes when he pleases upon earth to convert sinners as for example Saul Acts 9.17.27 and to comfort the faithful in their prisons as Acts 23.11 He can do all things I say he can as God do whatsoever he pleaseth in Heaven and Earth What are we then silly creatures to question how he can give us his flesh to eat seeing he hath said that we must eat it or perish But still you object and say that this Doctrine viz. that Bread should become Christs real Body in truth and substance is so strangly absurd that you cannot believe it I answer no more could the Jews nor some of his Disciples of whom therefore as taxing and noting their incredulity thereby our Lord saith John 6.64 65. That no man can come unto him and believe his words except it were given him from above and if there had been nothing that is no greater mystery in these words of Christ This is my Body c. but onely this viz. a figure or sign of my Body what needed all that contest so long so difficult about the words as was betwixt Christ and the Jews Yea then have the universal Church Councels Fathers Martyrs and all been deceived for never any of them all took the Sacrament to be onely a Figure of Christs Body But you say you cannot believe it Tell me Is it not as easie for our humane Reason to conceive that the Bread which our Lord said was his Body should be so indeed as it is to conceive that the little Babe sucking at his Virgin-Mothers breast was the Creatour of the whole Universe both of the Heavens and Earth of the Sea and of all things therein contained Is it not as easie for a Christian to believe this Doctrine as to believe that the little Babe in the Manger whom the three Sages adored was the Almighty God Faith may and must believe these things though sense and reason cannot Therefore St. Paul speaks 2 Cor. 10.5 of captivating our understanding and every thought and imagination to the obedience of Christ and Rom.
bare Bread But now Malachy prophesieth that under the new Law should that more excellent Sacrifice be He prophesieth that God would reject and cast away the Priesthood and Sacrifices of the Jews and instead of them would have anther more pure and more excellent Sacrifice and that not offered in Jerusalem onely or in any one place or city of the world but all the world over from the rising of the Sun to the going down thereof Mal. 1.11 Neither can this be any other but the Body of our Lord offered upon the Altar which upon the rejection of Moses daily Sacrifice was to come in place and to be accepted of God according to that of the Psalmist speaking in the person of Christ Burnt-offering and sacrifice for sin thou wouldest not have but a Body thou hast fitted me Psal 40.6 according to the Translation of the Septuagint which St. Paul likewise followeth leaving the Hebrew Hebr. 10.5 Doubtless by vertue of the word of God in the Priests mouth this Body is fitted both for a Sacrament and also a Sacrifice after the order of Melchisedech who being the first-born of a great and honorable family in Salem was according to the custom of that age both Prince and Priest there as Jethro was in Midian Exod. 18.1 And so likewise our Lord being the first-born among many Brethren Rom. 8.29 and the first-born of every creature as he is called Colos 1.15 is therefore by God the Father and that by an oath ordained a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech whose sacrifice as the learned affirm was Bread and Wine first offered in sacrifice to God and afterwards eaten by such as participated of the sacrifices as appears Gen. 14. where it is not improbably thought that with part of the Bread and Wine which Melchisedech brought forth as a Priest of the most high God he refreshed Abraham returning from the slaughter of the four Kings So that as the Aaronical or Mosaical sacrifices of Beasts were types and figures of our Lords Bloudy sacrifice of himself upon the Cross for the sins of the world so in like manner was Melchisedechs sacrifice in Bread and Wine a figure of our Lords unbloudy sacrificing of himself upon the Altar for the Church Which unbloudy Sacrifice our Lord did institute and ordain at his last Supper when he said to his Apostles Do this Luke 22.19 and which Action of our Saviour was by the Apostles who were eye-witnesses thereof celebrated in like manner throughout the world to wit in all parts and in all places where they preached the Gospel and hath been ever since continued in the universal Church to this day The word which our Translation reads ministring Acts 13.2 as the learned affirm signifies in the Greek properly sacrificing and so 't is translated by Erasmus As they were sacrificing to the Lord and fasting the Holy Ghost said Separate unto me Saul and Barnabas The Sacrifice of the Cross was a bloudy and general Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world but this of the Altar is unbloudy and more particular for the Church but most especially for those members of the Church for whom in particular it is offered The Jews had their Meat-offerings and Drink-offerings and Bloudy Sacrifices to which Christ answereth Upon the Cross he was that Bloudy Sacrifice which fulfilleth that which was typified by those bloudy Sacrifices of the Beasts that were killed upon the Altar he is the unbloudy Sacrifice and fulfilleth the Types of those Sacrifices wherein there was no shedding of bloud such as were the Meat-offerings and Drink-offerings and the like The Paschal Lamb was in a diverse respect both a bloudy Sacrifice and also an unbloudy and therefore our Saviour answers the Type of it in both respects As it was a Lamb taken out of the flock and killed and the bloud sprinkled upon the door-posts so it was a bloudy Sacrifice and so our Saviour fulfils the Type of it by the offering of himself up to death upon the Cross but as it was to be rosted afterward with fire and the flesh eaten within the house Exod. 12.7 8. it is unbloudy and a Type of the Sacrifice of the Altar which is eaten within the House that is to say within the Church by the Members of the Church onely Jews and Gentiles with all Excommunicated persons Heretiques Schismatiques and the like being excluded and not permitted to partake thereof Also to the great comfort of all Catholique Christians the general Sacrifice of the Cross is applied particularly in the Sacrifice of the Altar to the Church and to the true members thereof for whom in special it is offered This I say is a great and unspeakable comfort and benefit here doth our Lord meet with us God commanding the Jews to offer the Sacrifices of Beasts at the door of the Tabernacle said that he would there meet with them Exod. 29.43 Certainly this was a great comfort to the Jew but hath not the Christian as great yes certainly and far greater If he come as he ought well prepared to the Altar of God if his hands be cleansed in innocency and his heart purified from the conscience of sin through faith and true repentance he comes as the Apostle Paul saith Heb 4.16 and that with boldness or great confidence unto the throne of grace and findeth help in time of need There doth our Lord vouchsafe to meet with us Catholâ—que Christians not by vertue of the bloud of Bulls and of Beasts in which the Father said he had no pleasure but by vertue of his own bloud in which Sacrifice the Father testifieth that he was well pleased Burnt offerings and Sacrifices saith the Psalmist thou hadst no pleasure in but then saith the Son Lo I come to do thy will O God as it followeth in the Psalm last cited O thou Christian come thou then to this Altar in faith come in innocency come in charity come prepared come reverently serve the Lord with trembling and rejoyce with fear for our God is a consuming fire We have an Altar saith the Apostle Heb. 13.10 of which they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle meaning the Jew among whom though the Priests might eat of some offerings yet they might not eat of the Sin-offering that was to be burnt without the gate Lev. 4.12 6.30 But the Christian Law offereth more Grace Our Lord who was made an offering for sin Esay 53. saith to all both Priests and People that except they eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his bloud they cannot have life yet he was an offering for sin and also suffered without the gate of Jerusalem as the Sin-offering was commanded to be burnt without the gate of which the Priests of Moses might not eat but the Christian may eat of the Sin-offering of Christs Body yea he must eat of it if he will have life and benefit by it Therefore it is that the Apostle saith of