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it hath plainly Innovated in this and if we may not Correct Ancient and Universal Customs since the Church of Rome hath rescinded practices where were introduced but one Age after the Apostles Behold thus much for Worship and Practice As to Opinion do not suffer your selves to be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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
of the Hospital where they said Mass every day they would have obliged our Martyr to have assisted at the Mass by this entry but they could never effect it All these evil treatments not being able to vanquish this illustrious Confessor Rapine comes to his last Remedies he caused Monsieur Menurett to descend into the Court where there was a Mulberry-tree and fastned his arms on high thereto his feet scarce touching the ground he rent off his Cloaths to his very Shirt and caused him to receive an infinite number of blows with a Bull 's pisle this treatment was continued for the space of fifteen days with so much violence that our Martyr voided blood by his Urine and by all the parts of his body In the midst of these horrible Torments without ceasing he beg'd mercy and grace from God for himself and for his Persecutors and implored the compassion of his Hangmen in so moving a manner that two Capuchines who heard his cries exhorted Rapine to cease his cruel punishment he did so and was content to employ our Martyr to carry stones for a building which they were making at the Hospital The first day of April last the Bishop of Valence went to visit him in this stinking Sink but gained no more upon him at this time than at others In conclusion Rapine inraged with his long opposition entred like a Devil into the Prison of this holy man accompanied with two Lacques or Serjeants and gave him so many blows with a Bull 's pisle and for so long a time that the cries of the Martyr did even rend the Air all round about This Monster about two hours after after he had been wearied with the pains that he had taken to martarize this Saint return'd with his Searjeants to repeat the punishment but he found our Martyr expired in the midst of these cruel torments He was put into the hands of Rapine in the month of June 1686 and died in the beginning of April 1687. I cannot tell whether after this they will have the impudence to maintain that all these Cruelties which have been exercised have not been authorized by the Ministers of his Majesty and the Judges nor by the commandment of the Dragoons but that they are the Violences of the Souldiery which have been condemned and punished when they have been known Rapine is neither Souldier nor Dragoon he has no Commission to exercise these Cruelties but such as he receives every day He is Guardian of the Hospital of Valence The Parliament of Greenoble have sent him twenty five or twenty six persons at a time as I said but just now to be converted by these cruel Methods The Bishop and the Jesuites put into his hands all those upon whom they cannot prevail But to the end that they may not say any more that Authority does not interpose in these Cruelties they ought to be informed of a memorable story happening at Uzes and which I think has been attested by twenty Letters of different persons all which agree in the thing There is at Uzes a House of Propagation governed by four Creatures called the Daughters of the Propagation in this House are many Gentlewomen of the Reformed Religion imprisoned who have resisted preceeding Violences and Temptations One of these four Daughters of the Propagation went to complain to the Intendant of the rough answers which these poor persecuted Gentlewomen gave and of the small disposition they had to be converted The Intendant Monsieur d' Bauille whose name for his conduct in Languedock deserves to live to all future Ages this Intendant I say immediately appointed Scourging against ten of the most intractable In the execution of this command four Souldiers were set at the Gate with Musquets charged and lighted Matches ready to give fire Two Priests went in with the Major of Viuon and the Judge Larnac Sub-delegate to the Intendant in their presence these Creatures of the Propagation stript these Gentlewomen from the Girdle upward and doing the Office of Hangman scourged them after the most cruel manner with straps made of Coards at the end of which hung Bullets of Lead afterwards they were thrown into a dark Prison During the time of this punishment they uttered cries which were heard into the street but they encouraged each other to suffer these Tryals for the Name of Jesus Christ. I will at this time tell you no more sad News but on the contrary I will comfort you by giving you to understand that in this general Misfortune wherein the Reformed Church of France sees so many persons in some sort fall under the Temptation we have the joy to know that scarce one falls in love with this wicked Religion We have taken care to enquire concerning it of those which came from all parts and we have caused enquiries to be made upon the places as much as is possible for us but we can assure you my Brethren as a thing certain that the hatred of the Roman Religion increases every day insomuch that the Persecutors are farther every day from accomplishing their designs than ever We may say without fear of lying or hyperbole of expression that this Persecution has not gained to the Church of Rome two hundred hearty Converts and although I know a vast number of persons have been prevailed withal to make their Subscriptions yet the number of those which have with a satisfied Judgment embraced their Religion is so small that it does not deserve to be computed But on the contrary by a surprizing marvel of Divine Providence this Persecution has opened the eyes of a great number of ancient Catholicks as they are called That which we tell you is no Conjecture or Fiction 't is that which we know upon good Testimony So that it is certain that the Church of GOD has gained more Souls than it has lost These Seeds will bring forth in their time Every day we see persons arrive here who Abjure the Roman Religion and amongst them there are such as are eminent by their Merit by their Birth by their Parts and by their Learning When we know that they will not take it ill if we name them we will do it for 't is necessary that all the World know it that the depths of Divine Providence and His Judgments may be admired thereby June 15. 1687. The Twenty first PASTORAL LETTER An Article of Antiquity The Fathers of the Fourth and Fifth Ages said that the Sacrament of the Eucharist is the Figure and Image of the Body of Jesus Christ. An Article of Controversie An Answer to the Prejudices that have been drawn against our Separation from the Authors of it Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ WE have already seen one essential thing in which the Fourth and Fifth Ages had introduced no alteration 't is the Opinion concerning the Nature of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist We shall now see that the Faith
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
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