accommodating it self to mans Infirmity he ordained from time to time common signs for notes and marks of assurance of the thing signified wherein Gods power is the more renowned and exalted in really giving us what by the sacred sign is represented by the virtue of Faith and of the Holy Ghost as if the Sign it self had been really transubstantiated by some ocular Miracle For the Sacraments comprehend in them more spiritual than carnal sense For this reason God by his Prophets ever blamed his People Israel for understanding the Sacraments too carnally But tell me ye Papists when Jesus Christ made it 〈…〉 how he was the true Bread of Life descended from Heaven to conferre Life Eternal and how these sacramental words of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood were to be understood wherewith the Capernaites your Predecessors were offended did he teach us in this Interpretation that to eat his Flesh should be meant by a little round transubstantiated Host That the round Host of Flower and the Wine is no more Bread or Wine but Accidents without Substance Is this your abominable Magick the Doctrine of Jesus Christ Nothing less But Jesus Christ like a true and heavenly Law-giver who can only sincerely interpret his own Law made answer to the Capernaite Doctors how they were gross and carnal minded minding only the Flesh as you Papists doe though the Flesh alone profits nothing alleadging how his sacramental words were spiritual The Flesh saith he profits not but the Spirit quickens As also O Papists how can you religiously accord your Transubstantiation with the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which promiseth and assureth Eternal Life to those that shall eat his Flesh and drink his Blood if you conceive these words carnally For you cannot be ignorant but that your own Bodies when they have devoured these round transubstantiated Hosts into Flesh and Bones drunk and taken down the transubstantiated Wine into Blood notwitstanding live and are mortal through the necessity of the Law Wherefore Eternal Life promised by this Communion cannot be understood by a mortal Body or Flesh And therefore of necessity you must needs acknowledge for the most sacred Interpretation that to eat the Body and drink the Blood of Jesus Christ must have reference to a spiritual and heavenly Life and that the flesh profits nothing but the spiritual words and the Communion of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ by Faith and Spirit give Eternal Life This Interpretation is many times recited by the holy Apostle St. John when Jesus Christ himself useth these words He that comes to me shall never hunger he that believes in me shall never thirst but haave Eternal Life are not these terms intelligible enough to express this holy Sacrament of the Communion of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ without running to your Magick of Transubstantiation Another Interpretation of the holy Doctor and Author of the Sacramental Law is described when Jesus Christ was interrogated by Nchodemus of the Means how a man might be Regenerated and born anew Is it possible saith Nichodemus that a man can return again into his Mothers Womb Did Jesus Christ answer this demand by affirming that in the holy Sacrament of Baptisin the water was converted into the body into Flesh and Blood and transubstantiated in a carnal womb to be there again ingendered and regenerate Was there not also as great reason according to your Magick to have returned this answer as well as in the holy Sacrament of the Supper For the one of these Sacraments signifies Regeneration the other Nourishment Now Regeneration is as admirable to humane Wisdom as Nourishment for conformable to humane and carnal Judgment it may seem impossible that we can be twice engendered and begotten But our good God useth the like Interpretation of Regeneration as of the Communion of his Flesh and Blood which is that these Sacramental terms must be spiritually conceived and not carnally for the Flesh profits not but the Spirit quickens What is of the Flesh is carnal what is of the Spirit spiritual The holy Apostle relating to the Corinthians what he had received at Gods hands admonished them of the coming of Jesus Christ during the expectation whereof he commands them to communicate of the body and blood of Jesus Christ by the fraction of bread and the Cup of Benediction called the New Testament and New Covenant contracted by the blood of Jesus Christ Wherefore seeing we are assured of the second coming of Jesus Christ being ascended up into Heaven and set at the right hand of God the Father till the day predestinated that he shall return to judge the quick and the dead How O ye Papists will ye reconcile this passage when by the Magick you utter you make him descend and return the body of Jesus Christ in flesh and bone before the time preordained for his second coming This Magick was by you restored since the first Author of your Missal Sacrifice Numa Pompilius who by his Magick divulged that he made his Nymph and Goddess Egeria come down from Heaven as also his Jupiter Elicius by whose means there were celestial secrets and Mysteries revealed to him If by your Magick the round consecrated Host was transubstantiated into the true and real body of Jesus Christ the bread being no more bread but the true body how came ye to be so presumptuous to break and tear in pieces the body of Jesus Christ according to the invention of Sergius the 2d of that Name your Predecessor Roman Pontise Are not you far more execrable Executioners than your Predecessors Lieutenants of the Roman Church which crucified Jesus Christ and yet they never tare nor rent his body in pieces as he Prophesied And notwithstanding you are not contented to have broken it into three pieces but in your Missal Sacrifices you presume to drown and steep one portion in Wine transubstantiated into blood to be swallowed and drunk To confirm your Magick of Transubstantiation why took you no order to preserve from corruption your little round printed Hosts which you keep and lay up so curiously in reliquaries and boxes after they are transubstaniated into flesh and bone and into the real body of Jesus Christ Is it not an abominable heresie to believe that the body of Christ is capable of corruption Nay and often times is eaten by Worms Weasels Rats and Mice Can you interpret this to be an accident without substance When your Hosts become many times stinking and corrupted Cibaries many times also devoured by bruit beasts of the Earth which you cause to be burned and their Ashes laid up in Reliquaries When Victor the 3d of that Name Pope of Rome received Poyson by your transubstantiated Wine into blood was this an accident without substance or when the Emperor Henry the 7th of that Name was poysoned by eating of a little round consecrated and transubstantiated Host was it without substance when it procured death There was much more appearance
for the celestiall Manna given to the People of Israel the which though it corrupted when it was kept yet that which was reserved in secret within the Ark of the Lords covenant was preserved without corruption but yet for all this was it transubstantiated into Flesh and bones to be called celestial bread descending from Heaven the bread of Life or the bread of Angels Now it remains for us to contest with the subtil Reasons of the Priests who to make a foundation for their magick insist carnally upon the word Est saying that these words were expresly written This is my Body This is my Blood when Jesus Christ instituted the holy Sacrament of his body and his blood under the Symbols of Bread and Wine But I desire all those that are zealous for the honour of God exactly to weigh the sacred Institution of this Sacrament by which God meant to symbolize and signifie the communion of his body by the Bread and drinking of his blood by the Wine and Cup. All will confess that the true and principal nourishment of mans body is comprehended under the kinds of Bread and Wine so that the term of Bread is often taken in the Holy Scriptures for the nourishment and life of man Let us enter into an Examination of the passages of the Bible Was not the first Man created after Gods similitude for the penalty of his offence told that he should eat his bread with the sweat and labour of his body Can any man be so ignorant as not to confess that this was understood by the living and life of man When Jacob prayed unto God to give him bread and raiment did not he understand by Bread whatsoever was requisite for his whole nourishment when we hear recited that God rained bread upon the People of Israel being in the Desert and that the Israelites were replenished with this celestial bread this term of bread was it not conceived by the Celestial Manna sent by God to sustain the People of Israel Is this Manna called the bread of Heaven and the bread of Angels given to the People without labour or travel When Melchizedeck meant to furnish good Father Abraham's Army did he not present him with Bread and Wine When Abraham was to gratifye and refresh three Angels that appeared unto him did he not expose unto them bread baked upon the Embers Did not he give Agar Bread for her nourishment Isaacs mother to favour her best beloved son gave him bread Joseph in Egypt offered Bread to his Brethren for their nourishment When we go about to describe a Famine and scarsity of Victual do we not say there wants bread when God promised any mercy or favour to his people that did keep his Commandments did he not give them an assurance of Bread in sufficiency when he recommends unto us the poor as his members commands he us not to give them bread It s bread therefore which nourisheth and satisfieth the heart and life of man When Satan enterprised to tempt Jesus Christ to testifie that he was true Man did not he make choice of Bread when he invited him to make the stones bread When Jesus Christ celebrated his Banquets to give bodily nourishment once to 5000 men and then again to 4000 persons did he not shew his power under the Symbol of bread when he taught us to address our prayers to God did he not expresly ordain in the Lords Prayer that we should request of God to give us our daily Bread and Bread is not only mentioned in the Holy Scriptures for vulgar and corporal nourishment but also in Sacrifices celebrated by the Hebrew Priests and the prescript Law of Sacred Bread ordained by God that was Azimal bread without Leaven other Bread was termed the Bread of proposition which the Priests every week renewed and eat which David used presented to him by Achimilech the high Priest Contrariwise the term of bread Hos 7. is appropriated to the Bread of iniquity of Lies of Sorrow to polluted bread of Idolaters to bread of Coinquination offered upon the Altar to bread of Mourning and to bread of Trembling The Ephramites also called Ashy and unturned Loaves that is to say half-baked half circumcised and Idolaters And therefore O ye Popish Capernaites you must not be so obdurate and inveterate in your Carnalities as not to observe the Phrases of the Holy Scripture in which bread is oftentimes taken for Terrestrial and Corporeal bread as when it was said that Man did not live by bread alone but also by whatsoever proceeded out of the Mouth of God Sometimes also bread is taken for the Word of God Doctrin when Jesus Christ commanded his Apostles from eating Leavened bread with the Pharisees these terms of bread and leaven are they not expressed by the Doctrin of the Heretical Pharisees when the Canaanitish Woman demanded Grace Mercy for her Daughters health detained in a long Malady of sickness did not Jesus Christ answer her how it was not lawful to take the Childrens bread and to cast it to Dogs Was not the bread in this answer taken for Life and Health and not only for Corporal nourishment Wherefore if bread is taken for the Life of Man which depends principally upon bread and wine and that Gods goodness accommodating it self to our infirmities made choice of these two Signs and Symbols or notable marks to signifie his Body or his Blood that is to say the bread and the wine these two Provisions being common to all Nations was this any reason to build upon it a Carnal Transubstantiation as if God without it were not mighty enough really to figure and represent unto us Sacramentally that Life was given us Yea Life Eternal by the Communion of consecrated bread and wine of benediction these being Figures and Symbols of his Body and of his Blood Jesus Christ produced these words that the bread is his Body and the wine is his Blood he also said that himself was the bread of Life the living bread and that he was the living bread come down from Heaven Further he says that he who eats of that bread shall live eternally Doth this infer by the word Est that Jesus Christ is converted and transubstantiated into bread and that he is no more Christ but an accident without substance O abominable Heresies have you any more reason Oh you Obdurate Popish Priests to interpret these words carnally This is my Body to transubstantiate the bread into the Body than when he testifies that himself was the bread to transubstantiate him into bread considering that it is written how the Communion of this bread gives Eternal Life Jesus Christ said Hoc est corpus meum he also says of himself Hic est panis qui de calo descendit in both these places is not this word est used and yet must we needs hereupon infer that transubstantiation instead of Orthodoxly interpreting the same by Metonymy a familiar comparison of bread to Jesus Christ
that we might apprehend how Eternal Life was given us by him and likewise by him our spiritual Food is Ministred even as by bread a nourishment corporal Howsoever we must allwayes have recourse to the true expression of Jesus Christ the absolute Law-giver and Author of this holy Sacrament who expounding his own institution saith in the first place that he is the bread of life then afterwards he sayes that his bread is his flesh and his body which must be offered for the salvation of the world he said his flesh is true meat and his blood true drink he sayes that whosoever eats of his flesh and drinks of his blood he will remain in him How doth he himself expound this manducation Jesus Christ his own words expresseth himself Whosoever comes to me shall never hunger and he that believes in me shall never thirst Joh. 6. Is not this a true eating and a true drinking never again to be hungry nor never to thirst must not we in this have faith which consists in Spirit To address our selves to Jesus Christ our celestial bread our spiritual drink wherewith to be satisfied for ever to quench our thirst of sin perpetually must we run to the Magick of Transubstantiation and forge an accident without a substance Wherefore O Popish Priests do ye presume to invent any other interpretation than that of Jesus Christ who witnesseth that the flesh profiteth nothing but the Spirit quickens and that his words are not carnal but spiritual giving spirit and life by faith and confidence that he is our Saviour incarnate dead and crucified to purchase for us eternal life and then raised up again he did ascend into Heaven sits at the right hand of God his Father remaining an eternall Priest Propitiator Mediator and Redeemer To return to this term Est that does so molest the Priests Brains that they dream out of it a Transubstantion If Jesus Christ uttered how he was the true Vine that God his Father was the Keeper and that we are the Branches can we hereupon conclude by this word Est a magick of the Transubstantiation of God into the Keeper of a Vine of Jesus Christ into a Vine and of our selves into branches If Jesus Christ was said to be the immaculate Lamb that takes away the sins of the world John 16. can we hereupon induce a Transubstantiation If Jesus Christ said that he was the door of the Sheepfold by whom we must enter to be saved and that he is the good Pastor and we his Sheep must we needs so strain and wrest these places of the Holy Scripture as to think it necessary because the word Est is mentined to believe a transubstantiation When Jesus Christ admonished his Apostles saying that they were the Salt of the Earth did he therefore transubstantiate or convert them into Statues or Pillars of Salt as he did Lots wife If the Holy Apostle 1 Cor. 10. wrote that Jesus Christ is the Rock out of whom came living water to wash and purge us from our sins must we wrest out of this a transmutation of Jesus Christ into a Rock or a material Stone If the Holy Apostle testifieth that we are the body of Christ may we by this infer that we are translated and now no more men but transubstantiated into an accident without a substance I readily foresee O ye Obdurate Priests that ye will object all these prealledged Places wherein this word Est is and make no mention of the Sacrament which must the more exactly be observed in that these be sacred Mysteries ordained of God which is most true And this word Est is not found only in the Holy Scriptures formerly cited but when we speak of Holy Sacraments first instituted by God for his People Israel it is written that circumcision is Gods alliance and covenant In the Sacrament of the Communion of the Paschal Lamb was it said that the Lamb was the Passover which is to say the passage but shall we induce hereupon a magick of Transubstantiation will not you confess O obdurate Transubstantiators that in these passages of the Holy Scriptures speaking of Holy Sacraments that this word Est cannot be otherwise interpreted than to signifie some real performance and that Circumcision was a sign and a mark of the Covenant and alliance contracted by God with Abraham the Paschal Lamb was also a Sacred Sign of the Passage for a remembrance of their delivery out of Egypt The Ark of alliance for another Sacrament of which it is written That it is the Truth and Power of the Lord must we understand by this that it was transubstantiated into the real Majesty of God We must we must I say interpret the holy Scriptures with discretion and in humility and sincerity without sophistication and without Magick soundly to apprehend the conception of words and not stick so close to the Letter which kills but receive the word of God in lively spirit If then the sacred Ark is called the Lord and Nominated God because in it he exercised his omnipotent power and declared his Oracles and Mysteries by exterior signs to draw the Israelitish people to be mindfull of God and to fear and obey him If Jesus Christ said also that he is Bread that came down from Heaven the bread of Life and the Wine was his Blood that the Cup is the New Testament by the External signs of Bread and Wine to give us to understand that our life and saving Nutriment depended only on Jesus Christ and that by his Death and Bloodshed we have assurance of eternal Life even as Bread and Wine serve for corporal nourishment and that he meant and ordained these sacred signs to be to us for Sacraments to approve and confirm our Faith did he determine we should hereby Capernize and Nicodemize to enquire or make doubt of God's power how it is possible to eat the Body or drink the Blood of Jesus Christ How we can possibly be born anew seeing the promise was made unto us by the word wherefore O ye blind Priests of the popish Idolatry have ye conceived a carnal transubstantiation distrusting in the incomprehensible power of God May it not suffice you simply to believe that the body and blood of Jesus Christ was really and Sacramentally offered to communicate thereof for our spiritual nourishment the Bread being truly his body and the Wine his blood to the faith of the worthy receiver which we must worthily receive by faith and purity of conscience as sacred signs and marks of the Divine character without searching too subtilly after the means other than the plain interpretation of Jesus Christ that the flesh profits not but the Spirit quickens that his words are Spirit and life Should we doubt whether God hath power by the Symbols of Bread and Wine consecrated to make us communicate of the body and blood of Jesus Christ though the bread remain bread and the Wine wine if it were otherwise this could be no Sacrament