is my body this I say which ye take for the bread is not a figure or example of Christs body but is converted into the same body of Christ for our Lord said The bread which I will give is my flesh he said not is the sign of my flesh but is my flesh And again Vnless ye eat the flesh of the son of man And doest thou say flesh is not seen O man that is done for our infirmity because Bread and wine are of those things with which we are accustomed we do not abhor them but we should not bear but abhor seeing flesh and bloud set before us Wherefore our merciful God condescending to our infirmities conserves the species and forms of bread and wine but transelementates them into the vertue of flesh and bloud from whence I conclude that as it is possible to God to conserve the accident or species without any substantial subject for to him nothing is impossible to the constant belief of the holy Catholick Church in all times has been that those species are conserved as necessarily following that great Mystery The 3. Miracle to be baited at by the Doctor is that the body of Christ should be contained in so little a place or room as the Host nay in every parcel or part thereof Although this be miraculous yet it follows from the very being of our Saviour in the Eucharist for Christs body is not there with his natural dimension or Circumscription of place for so we could not eat him nor receive him in our Mouths nor the bread cover him unless we should say that of Mat. 19. a Camel might pass though the eye of a needle which nevertheless is possible according to what our Saviour there sayes with men this is impossible but with God al things are possible besides God is not tyed to natures laws as may be seen 4. Reg. 6. Iron did forget its natural weight and swom on the water Exod. 14. water lost its fluxibility and stood up as a wall In like manner the flowing of Jordan Josue 3. did stand and become like a mountain 3. Reg. 17. the pot of meal failed not and the vessel of Oyl diminished not Dan. 3. the fire lost its natural activity Luc. 23. the Sun lost its light It was not according to nature that a body should walk on the sea as our Saviour did Mat. 14. of which S. Justin Martyr in Respons ad quaest a gentibus As our Lord did walk on the Sea without a change of his body into a spirit but by divine power he made the Sea which cannot be passed over walking to be passable not only to his own body but also to that of Peter so by his divine power be also came out of the monument when a great Stone was put on it and entred in to his disciples the doors being shut All these things are above the law of nature and shall we deny the possibility of such like to the God of nature But to come nearer to our present purpose Christs body is now glorious and is in the Eucharist in a sacramental and spiritual manner not different from the being of a soul which is as well in every part and parcel of the body as in the whole body and shall we deny that to Gods power which he wrought in our souls which are indivisibly and without any commensuration of place This is confirmed by S. Epiphanius Haeres 64. Even as our Lord did rise from the dead not taking another body but the same that was and no other from that which was but changing that which was into a spiritual subtillity and making the whole spiritual he entred in by the doors shut that which could not be done here in our bodies for grossness and for that as yet they are not joyned in a spiritual subtillity S. Cyril speaking of the same miracle of entring the doors being shut on that place gives the reason for sith he is true God he is not subject to the law of nature S. Ambrose in c. 24. luc Not by corporeal nature but by a quality of a corporeal resurrection that it was not by natures law but by a subtillity of a glorified body which has no commensuration of place but is as the Angells in great or little place No wonder then that the body of our Saviour according to his Nature and for our benefit and commodity should be as well in the whole host as in every part thereof But some will cavill on what is said that Christs Body is indivisibly as the soul is in the whole Body and in every part thereof how little soever but we see by experience that if any part be separated from the whole the soul remains no more in it admitting therefore that the Body of Christ is in the whole Host yet if any part be separated from the whole Christs body also shall not be in that part so separated I answer there is no proportion between the works of nature so constituted by God and the works of God in his omnipotent power whence to argue against Gods works by the ordinary course of Nature is to limitate Gods power to what he has actually done whereas no act ad extra can be equal to his power no effect can fully correspond to his power God made the world and yet can make millions of worlds God ordained such and such effects in nature and can as well ordain many other yea different and contrary or exceeding in the same kinde It is meer folly to think that God can do nothing but what we can conceive or under and as if the infinite wisdom and power of God did not exceed our finite weak and in comparison no faculty at all Gods power is immense and without Limit Ipse dixit fact a sunt whatsoever he sayes is done and can do more things then any creature can conceive or Imagine Secondly There is no comparison in these two subjects for the part so separated from the whole is now no more capable to retain the vital form either vegetive or sensitive and consequently according to Natures law is uncapable of any rational form to wit the soul which gives no longer life to it being limited by the Authour of nature In our Case there is still the same disposition and capacity in every part as in the whole and consequently there arises no mutation but only a numerical difference which nothing alters the nature of the accidents which joynt or separate retain the species of bread or wine which are sensible signs required in this Sacrament as long therefore as this sensible signe or species remains so long the thing signed or signified remains The body of Christ has no union with the Accidents nor any reference to them but in as much as they are sacramental signs of his body and bloud so made by divine Institution in this their is no regard to the greatness or littleness of the species or accidents but to
the Institution of Christ Jesus who made those species to be the sacramental signes of his body and bloud wheresoever we find these species after due consecration either little or great according to our Faith we believe the true body and bloud of Christ Jesus to be We may exemplifie this in a looking-Glass where the same face is represented in the whole Glass and in every proportionable part thereof because the same effect of representation is as well in every part as in the whole So as is said before the species of bread and wine either in whole or in part in great or in little have annexed to them the nature of a sign and no other then what Christ himself has instituted and consequently do represent that whereof they are a signe that is the body and bloud of Christ Now whereas the Doctour makes difficulty concerning Christs Body being in several places he may know that to be in a place or in many places or in no place makes no difference of the essence or nature of any thing The highest heavens have there essence although they have no place and the being in a place is a meer accidental and extrinsecal thing to the substance which of it self occupies no place at all but by quantitative dimension is correspondent to place otherwise it is indifferent to this or that place to one and to many he therefore that limited and determined created things to such or such a place can he not alter or make it illimitated or indetermined to place or places even by nature one thing may have different extensions to place as is to be seen in rarefaction and condensation and cannot God make the same thing to have extension to several places of this we have many experiences out of the Scripture for we read that our Saviour appeared to S. Paul Act. 9. he that appeared to them in the way which also S. Paul relates Act. 22. and according to the text Act. 26. Christ himself sayes that he appeared to him Act. 23. S. Luke affirms that our Lord was standing by S. Paul if we will believe S. Paul himself 1 Cor. 9. He had seen Christ Jesus our Lord which also he affirms 1 Cor. 15. Christ was seen of more then five hundred brethren together he was seen of James and then of all the Apostles he was seen also by me so that we cannot doubt but Christ appeared unto him and yet according to our Faith he sits still at the right hand of the Father in heaven as it is declared Act. 3. whence it is manifest that he was in two places and why not in heaven and in the Eucharist and why not as well in many places and why not by participation of a divine being may the effects of the divine power to be in many places One voice fills many places and one sound fills many parts without any division of it self Besides this difficulty is lesse in regard that Christs body is not here in any quantitative Dimension or commensuration to place but in a mysterial and Sacramental manner still united to the Divinity which is in all places with Power to limitate the body to as many places as it pleases as God may limit his universal presence in such manner as his presence may be in some particular places or things by shewing his power more in one place then in another even as he has done in the Eucharist making his Body substantialy present in all places of the world wherein he has manifested his Immense power and will according as the holy Catholick Church has always believed and taught from its beginning as it is sufficiently declared in the precedent testimonies of the holy Fathers The 4th Miracle is that the body of Christ being but one is communicated to many yea thousands yea Millions This follows the institution of this holy Sacrament for it was not instituted for one alone but for many without any limitation of time place or persons it is a Sacrament that is common to all in all ages during this life and therefore if the true body and bloud of Christ be contained therein as the holy Church has alwais believed and that as a Sacrament it is communicable to all and all are commanded to take and eat this necessarily follows Christs Institution The holy Fathers who lived within five hundred years after Christ believed and taught the very same which the present Church believes Eusebius Emissenus hom 5. de Pasch The holy receiving of the Eucharist consists not in the quantity but in the vertue that body which the Priest distributes is as great in a little host as in a great which when the Church of the faithful takes as it is compleat in all so it is manifest to be entire in every one for as he says a little after when they take of this bread every one has nothing lesse then all one perceives the whole two have the whole and many the whole without any diminution for the benediction of this sacrament may be distributed but not consumed by distribution S. Augustin ser de verbis Evangelii Christ is eaten and eaten lives because being slain he rose again neither when he is eaten do we make parts of God as truly in the Sacrament it is done as the faithful know for even as every one who eats Christs flesh takes his part for hence it is called parts he is eaten by parts and remains entire and whole in heaven he also remaines entire and whole in thy heart S. Hierome ser in Dom. 5. post Epiph. Each one receives Christ our Lord whole and in every one particular he is whole neither is he diminished by many singulars but gives himself entire to every one S. Chrysostome hom 17. in Epist ad Hebraeos This host is one and not many how one and not many because it was once offered it was offered in the holy of holies but this sacrifice is the exemplar of that we always offer the self same and therefore this sacrifice is one for otherwise because it is offered in many places there are many Christs by no means but in every place there is one Christ here being perfect and there parfect one body for even as he is in every place offered he is one body and not many bodies so also one sacrifice S. Gregory of Nice in Orat. Catech. c. 37. We may consider how this is done that when this one body is continually imparted through the whole world to thousands of the faithful the whole doth passe by parts to every one and in it self remains whole S. Andrew's words cited by the Achaian Priest Whose flesh after all the believing people have eaten and drunk his bloud the lamb which is sacrificed remains whole and alive What has been said here may satisfy his four other miracles which make no distinct Difficulties for the same reasons serve for the species of wine as for the species of bread or for the body and bloud
as partly will be more manifest in the next Chapter CHAP. XIII Transubstantiation proved in all the ages of the Church THis terrible word Transubstantiation is much baited at by this learned Doctor even as the word homousion declared and determined by two General Councils was impugned by the Arians because it was new and not found in the Scripture even so this word approved by two general Councils was rayled at by hereticks when they could not disprove what was specified thereby I will not contend for the word but for what is signified thereby the Councils of Trent indeed approves the word sess 13. cap. 4. and explicates it to be the Conversion of the whole substance of the bread and wine into the substance of the body and bloud of Christ so also defines it can 2. In this sence I shall produce Fathers and Doctors of all ages and times since Christ and so confirm what the Doctor jeeringly yet most ignorantly affirms when he says that the Masse began with Transubstantiation as indeed it did for the Mass was never without it when the conversion of bread and wine is the essential part of the Masse as it has been fully declared I let passe his plain contradiction when forgetful of what he had said before admitting the Masse to have been in the Roman Church for near 1200. years past he now says that it began with Transubstantiation which he will have to have been begun from the Lateran Council held in the year 1215. where this matter was declared to be of Faith not as if it was then newly invented but as the common Faith of the Church wherein the whole Christian world agreed for there were present besides the Pope Innocent the 3d 412 Bishops the two Patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem the Legates of Antioch and Alexandria Archbishops Primates and Metropolitans 75. Abbots and Priors 800. Legats and Procurators of Bishops and others without number The Embassadours of both the Emperours Roman and Grecian of the King of France England Hungary Jerusalem Cyprus Aragon and many other Princes who all consented to this declaration in opposition to some heresies of those times Now that such was the doctrine of the Roman Church before that Council is manifest by the opposition that was made against Berengarius who for the contrary opinion was condemned in three several provincial Councils several learned men of those times did write against him as Lanfransus Archbishop of Canterbury I. de sacram Eucharist The Church spread in the whole world acknowledges bread and wine set on the Altar to be consecrated and in the consecration to be changed incomprehensibly and ineffably into the substance of the flesh and bloud of Christ In like manner Algerus Guitmans and Petrus Cluniacen who lib. 1. Epist 2. Let them see what foolish incredulity what blinde doubting it is either not to see or doubt that bread is changed into the flesh of Christ and wine into his bloud by divine power when by the same many things are changed into another even in the nature of things which he proves by many examples and concludes It is far more as the holy Fathers of the Church say to create things that have no being than to form other and other things of those things which have a being all these above a 100. years before that Council But nothing more clearly convinces it then the Recantation which Berengarius made in a Roman synod held anno 1079. above a 130. years before the same Council in this form I Berengarius do from my heart believe and by mouth professe the bread and wine placed on the Altar by the Mystery of prayers and words of our Redeemer to be substantially converted into the true and proper and life-giving flesh and bloud of Jesus Christ our Lord and to be the true Body which was born of the Virgin which offered for the worlds salvation did hang on the Crosse which sits at the right hand of the Father and Christs true bloud which did flow from his side not only by signe and vertue of the sacrament but in propriety of Nature and verity of substance In this faith and belief he died A little before this time lived Theophilact Archbishop of Bulgary a Grecian in Joan. 6. Bread by the sacred words and Mystical benediction with the comming of the holy Ghost is transformed into our Lords flesh He has the same in Marc. 14. adding Our merciful God condescending to our infirmity did keep the species of bread and wine but trans-elementated it into the vertue of flesh and bloud And in cap. 26. Mat. He said not This is a figure but This is my body for it is by an ineffable operation transformed as bread in appearance but in very deed flesh Of the Latins about the year 730. Venerable Bede in 6. Joan. Christ dayly washes us from our sins in his bloud when the memory of his Passion is represented on the Altar when the Creatures of bread and wine are by the sanctification of the ineffable spirit transformed into the sacred Meat of his flesh and bloud and about the same time the famous Grecian Father S. John Damascene l. 4. de fide Orthod c. 24. As the holy Ghost working all things whatsoever were made so what then shall hinder but that of bread he may make his body and of wine and water his bloud and even as whatsoever God did make that he did by the work of the holy Ghost in the same manner now also the operation of the holy Ghost does that which exceeds nature and which tannot be taken or understood unless it be by faith only And a little after Verily the body is truly united to the divinity that body which came from the holy Virgin not that the body assumed descends from heaven but because the bread and wine it self is changed into Christs body and bloud If thou ask how is this done it is enough for thee to hear that it is done by the holy Ghost even as from the holy Mother of God our Lord by the holy Ghost did make to himself and in himself flesh there is nothing more manifest or perceptible to us then that the word of God is truly efficacious and omnipotent for the manner of it is such that it cannot be searched or found out by any reason A little after Bread and wine are not figures of Christs body far be it but the very body of our Lord joyned to the Divinity for sith our Lord himself said this is not a signe of body but body nor the sign of bloud but bloud And again If some have called the bread and wine the figure of our Lords body and bloud they did not say it after the Consecration but usurped this word before the oblation was consecrated to be brief In that place the Saint uses these phrases Christ made his body of bread and wine he made these things his body and bloud the bread and wine are changed into
to offer to thee that rational and unbloudy sacrifice for our sins and ignorance of the People The Consecration is some what different but by the action and words of our Saviour after which the Bishop prayes in secret Therefore O most holy Lord we also sinners and they unworthy servants who are ordained to minister at thy Altat not for our righteousnesse for we have not done any thing good on earth but for thy mercies and miserations which thou hast abundantly poured on us we confiding draw near to thy holy Altar propounding the things consigurating the holy body and bloud of thy Christ we beseech thee and ask thee O holy of holies that by thy wel-plensing benignitie thy holy spirit may comt upon us and on these guifts which are set before us to bless and sanctifie them and declare this bread to be the honour able body of our Lord God and Suvicur jesu Christ and that which is in the Chalice the very bloud of our Lord God and our Saviout Jesu Christ which is shed for the life of the world Again Make us all partaking of one bread and Chalice to be united together in the Communion of one holy Spirit and receive the holy body and bloud of thy Christ c. Before Communion the Bishop said O Lord Jesu Christ our God behold from thy holy tabernacle and come to sanctifie us who sittest above with the Father and here invisibly art joyned to us vouchsafe with thy pawerful hand to give us thy holy and undesiled body and precious bloud and by us sinners to thy people Prayer for the dead Be mindful of all who sleep in the hope of Resurrection to eternal life and as for Altars Vestments Incense some prayers in secret Kyrie eleison very frequently In like manner Pax vobis the Epistle and Gospel signing the bread and wine and the people with the signe of the Cross turning to the people washing of hands elevation of the bread to shew it to the people dismission of the people with many other things which we now use in the Roman Mass the like I may say of S. Chrysostomes Mass of which in the next Paragraph §. 3. Of S. Chrysostom's Liturgie or Mass NOt long after S. Basil S. John Chrysostome on the same reasons did abbreviate the form of Mass which the Grecians do observe to this day and besides the practise many Expositors as Proclus Bishop of Constantinople within 30. years after S. German Bishop of the same place in his Theorie of holy things wherein he explicates all the ceremonies and substance of the Mass Nicolas Cabasilus Archbishop of Thessalonia in his explication of the liturgie The holy Martyr Maximus in his book de Ecclesiastica Mystagogia of the Ecclesiastical Mysteries and ceremonies Bessarion Bishop of Nice and afterward Cardinal and others all agreeing in the same Mysteries and others all agreeing in the same Mysteries with S. Chrysostome in his Liturgie Add to this that we may find the self same dispersed in his several works as Clandius de sanctis has pithily collected in the end of his book de Liturgils Let us briesly set down what S. Chrysostome has in his We find all the Ceremonies now used in the Lattin Church as all along are noted in the second part of the liturgical Discourse particularly of Altars Vestments signing the bread and wine the book of the Gospel Incense and Peoples Inclinations adorations some prayers in silence prayer for the Pope partition of the host whereof one piece is put into the Chalice Elevation of the holy Sacrament Pax benediction at the end of offering at the Altar Mention is made of the Ineruental host and the Priest prayes We give thee thanks O Lord God of vertues who hast thought us worthy to assist now at thy holy Altar and to prostrate to thy mercies for our sins and ignorance of the people O Lord God receive our supplication and make us worthy in offering prayer and the Incruental host to thee for all thy people And again in another prayer Make me annointed with the grace of Priesthood to assist at this holy table and consecrate thy holy body and precious bloud A little after Grant that these Sacraments may be offered by me a sinner and thy unworthy servant for thou art he that offers and is offered the receiver and distributer Christ our Lord The words of consecration are a little different from those of the former Liturgies After the Priest sayes We offer to thee this rational and Incruental dutie and we pray and supplicate and ask that thou wouldst send thy holy Spirit upon us and on these thy gifts and make this bread indeed the precious body of thy Christ and what is in the Chalice the Preci-bloud of thy Christ The Deacon saying Amen the Priest adds Changing by thy holy spirit And after Look down O Lord Jesu Christ our God from thy holy Tabernacle and from the seat of Glory of thy kingdom and come to sanctify us thou who sittest above with the Father and assists us invisibly here beneath vouchsafe to give us by thy powerful hand thy Immaculate body and precious bloud and by us to all the People Besides in this Liturgie the priest frequently calls upon our Blessed Lady craving her Intercessiion as also of the Angels and Saints and for the living and Dead In sine there is nothing in the now Roman Mass but Order and Decorum that was not in the former Mass in the primitive times so that we may say if the Mass was good in those times the Roman Mass is now good and if this the now Roman Mass be Idolatrous and sacrilegious the Liturgies Mass or publick prayer of the Church of those times were so also so that there never was a true Christian Church CHAP. III. The Sacrifice of the Mass proved out of the testimonie of Popes and Councels in the first 500. years NExt to this of the practise of the Church the authority of the holy Popes who have been within those 500. years ought to have a great weight and credit wherefore I shall begin with S. Leo 440. under whom was celebrated that famous Councel of Chalcedon admitted by the now English Church and for his great acts was surnamed the Great he I say Epist 81. to Dioscorus Ordained that for the necessity of the people a priest might say more then one Mass in solemn feasts and Epist 88. to the Bishops of Germany and France he gives a command that Coriepiscopes or Priests should not reconcile any penitent publickly in Mass 367. Pope Damascus Epist 4. made the same Decree and in his Pontifical speaking of Alexander Pope and Martyr he sayes that he did mingle our Lords Passion in the priests prayers when Masses were celebrated and that Sixtus Pope and Martyr ordained that the priest beginning the action of Mass the people should sing the hymn holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth 297. S. Marcelline Pope and Martyr Epist 1. The
the Christians for that they did eat their God But it is as foolish sport that he goes about to vilify the sacrifice of the Mass out of the Roman Missall which as he ignorantly conceives wholly destroys the essence and nature of this sacrifice for it shews that there may be many defects and abuses committed in the use of the Holy Eucharist Imagining that Christ may fall on the earth be torn in pieces eaten by catts and doggs devoured by beasts corrupted and burnt and that he lies there as a dead man or as one on a dunghill with innumerable such like frequently reiterated It is true the Roman Missal mentions some such abuser but by way of prevention and to give the Doctor more scope we will admit that some such abuses have happened either through casuality or negligence of those whom it might concern or by the perversity of men or instigation of the divell I must also tell the Doctor that he needs not talk so much of Christs being in so base and vile places for I can tell him that there is no place more vile and base nor more abhominable and odious none more loathsom and stinking then the mouth or stomack of a sinner yet such is the immense goodnes of Christ Jesus that he left this holy Sacrament to us and permitted it to be taken by sinners otherwise the Apostle S. Paul would never have said 1. Cor. 11. He that eateth this bread or drinketh the Chalice of our Lord unworthily eateth and drinketh judgment to himself S. Crysostome on that place sayes such an one is guilty of our Lords death as if he had killed our Lord on shed his bloud and in cap. 10. by this sin the body of our Lord is troden under foot S. Cyprian ser de coena Dom. Violence is offered to our Lords body and by their mouth and hand our Lord is offended The Doctor need not talk of Jakes or sinks for one shall hardly find a more loathsome place then the stomack or belly of man S. Crysostome in Opere imperfect in Mat. said well If thou comparest an ill man to beasts thou shalt sind him worse yea a wicked man is worse then the devil With all this or whatsoever can be said of this kinde none can be so foolish as to think that Christs body or bloud suffers at all in any such abuses or defects for all such happens only in the species for Christs body and bloud in the Eucharist is as a spirit by an indivisible and secret manner and so no more defiled then the soul of man is hurt defiled or sullied by whatsoever filth ordure or excrement the body is insected Christs body being now glorified is impassible immutable and unalterable suffers no more proportionably then the Deity replenishing all places of what nature soever or how loathsom soever whence one said not amiss God who according to nature is no less in the sink then in the heavens cannot be hurt nor defiled The body of Christ in heaven is impassible notwithstanding that he remains there with all his natural dimensions but in the Eucharist it is in a sacramentall and spirituall manner without any quantitative or corporal dimension or situation or sensitive motion I believe the Doctor never understood these circumstances or if he did he makes himself a pratler and contrary to his knowledge wilfully seeks to gull the people who for the most part are ignorant of such mysteries Moreover if such scurrile arguments may have place in divine things may not the Infidel and Jews use the same against Christ himself nay some have done it already saying Can any Imagine Josephs Son to be a God was he not subject to all mankind Miseries he lay nine months as a prisoner in his Mothers womb in all uncleanness was born in a loathsome stable and as a childe might have been devoured by the wilde beasts as he might have been torn out of his mothers womb some sow or Swine might have eaten him some ravenous Wolf or other cruel beast might have torn him to peeces He might have fallen into the saw-pit ditch or pond and so be made food for toads frogs or snakes or other venemous beasts if drowned at Sea meat for fishes they made difficulty also in that he was subject to the devil who earried him too and fro at his pleasure with a thousand such like If God then did permit his only son in person to be thus subject to so many casualties abuses and defects what shall we wonder that such may or have followed him in the Eucharist Christ's body then was possible and capable yea susceptible of all imaginable abuses pains and cruelties of humane malice or diabolical inventions what wonder is it that God should leave Christs body to such accidental and extrinsecal abuses by which it receives no damage at all To conclude the Doctor in alledging the Rubrick of the Roman Missal does little consider that he gives no light argument against himself for in all times since Christ there have been such rules meerly to prevent such abuses and defects as manifestly appears in the ancient penitential Canons also in the several Decrees of Popes and Councils besides the great care that no Infidels Jews or Hereticks should be present at the Mass the continual care that the Church has always had that the holy bloud should not fall on the Altar or ground according to the constitution which Pope Pius the 1. an 158. set down in the Roman Missal de defectibus according to which S. Chrysostome hom 21. Operis impers in Mat. tells us that it is not to be given to beasts or Infidels and S. Augustine l. 50. Hom. 26. We observe with great care when the Body of Christ is administred to us that nothing of it do fall out of our hands to the ground Origen hom 13. in Exod. Ye that are accustomed to be present at the divine Mystery do know how when ye receive our Lords body ye observe with great carefulness and veneration lest any thing of the consecrated gift should fall down for ye believe and that rightly that ye are guilty if any thing do fall through your negligence Surely all this care and folicitude could not be but on some motives more then natural for if there were only pure bread and wine they would have no more care of it then the Protestants have in the Communion of bread and wine but because as I have proved before the Church always believed that the true body and bloud of Christ Jesus was in the Eucharist they laboured by all convenient means to avoid such abuses CHAP. IX The Doctors Raillery concerning Miracles wrought in the Sacrifice of the Mass THe Doctor very frequently scoffs and jears at the many Miracles which are wrought in the sacrifice of the Mass thinking thereby to diminish the credit and belief of it whereas if they be Miracles the multitude makes them not less to be Miracles nay if we will
contemplate the works of God and confider every particular in one Miracle we may finde many Miracles which exceed all created power For the satisfaction of the Reader I shall illustrate it by examples Exodus the 4. God converted Moses his rod into a serpent which without all doubt was a great Miracle which also carries with it many Miracles included therein 1. the Rod was reduced to nothing and 2. To the serpent then created God gave motion proportion figure and other qualities of a serpent and in like manner turning this new created serpent into a rod the serpent was reduced to nothing and the serpent was converted into a rod which received a new being not by any created power but by God himself who also gave it colour proportion figure and dimension with other properties agreeable to the nature of a rod so that there was a double transubstantiation or conversion from one substance to another substance and transmutations or conversions of accidents to other accidents independently of any natural cause or action and here we may note that our wonderful God afterward gave to Moses power to do the same not by his humane vertue or power but by the power and gift of God whereby alone Moses as Gods Ministers and instrument did the same In like manner God did miraculously give to the Children of Israel Manna Exod. 16. and in it are contained many Miracles 1. That it was in such plenty that every day it was sufficient for three Millions 2. That every one how much or how little they gathered had as much and no more then theother 3. Every one received nourishment thereby equally to their condition savour and appetite The holy text sayes according to that which they were able to eat 4. The Manna putrified the next day excepting only the sabbaoth day when it did not putrify 5. On the sixth day the Manna was doubled and was not to be found on the sabaoth day 6. Solomon sap 16. tells us that God gave bread from heaven without labour having in it all delectation and the sweetness of all tasts serving every mans will and was turned to what every one would 7. God continued this Manna for 40. years and no more 8. God preserved this Manna in the Tabernacle for many ages If this Manna which as our Saviour himself John 6. teaches was but a figure or sign of the bread which he was to give to wit his body and bloud has so many maricles accompanyed it why should any reasonable man wonder that so many Miracles should accompany the celestial and divine Manna especially if they be necessarily annexed to the nature of so great and so miraculous a Sacrament wherein the body and bloud of our Saviour Christ is contained The royal Peophet Psal 110. cries out God hath made a memory of his miraculous works a merciful and pittiful Lord he hath given meat to them that fear him which according to all Catholick Interpreters is as much as to say God hath left one most special and most beneficial memory of all other benefits to wit his body and bloud in a miraculous manner as a memory of his Passion and our Redemption as the spiritual food and substance of all souls who rightly fear him The greatest Miracle is the Transubstantiation or conversion of the bread and wine into the body and bloud of Christ of which I shall speak in place convenient which with it carries necessarily many other Miracles as in the next Chapter I shall fully declare There remain two difficulties which manifest the Doctors Ignorance or malice the first is that the Doctor attributes all these Miracles to the Priests as if it all were done by their power according to our belief wherein he grievously errs as hereafter I shall declare for with S. Augustine l. 10. de civit Dei cap. 12. All Catholicks believe all Miracles done by Angels or men truly to be done by Gods power working in them If then there be any Miracles as no Christian can deny in the Eucharist it is God alone who works them by the Ministery of the Priests even as I said before he did work miracles by his servant Moses so S. Peter Act. 3. cured the lame man at the doors of the temple but advises the people that they should not think that he did it by his own power or holiness but in the name or power of Jesus so the priests do not any of those miraculous things in the sacrifice of the Mass by any humane power but by his ministerial power received in his Ordination Christ himself doth effect them so that the Doctors babling so often of Miracles wrought by the Romish priests is but meer raillery or most base ignorance The other as ignorant folly is his canting with reiteration touching the Roman priest bringing down Christs body from heaven at his pleasure as though Christ in coming to the Eucharist did leave the right hand of his Father in heaven which is a grosse errour for Christ is no less in heaven after the Consecration then he was before the Consecration he is sitting still at the right hand of his Father according to the Article of our Creed yet nevertheless he is in the Sacrament this indeed is a Miracle wrought only by Gods omnipotent power this made S. Chrysostome l. 3. de sacerdot to exclame O Miracle O benignity of God he who sitts above with the Father in the same article of time is often handled in the hands of all and he delivers himself to those who are desirous to receive and embrace him hom 3. ad Ephesios and hom 61. ad populum Antioch Also he says As many of us who communicate of the body of Christ and taste his bloud let us consider that we taste the body and taste the bloud of him who sits in the celestials and is adored by the Angels Their great Master Calvin lib. 4. Instit cap. 17. says In his supper he commands me to take eat and drink under the symbols of bread and wine his body and bloud for although it may seem incredible that in so great a distance of places as heaven and earth the flesh of Christ should penetrate to us that it may be meat for us we must yet remember how much above our senses the secret power of the holy Ghost can shew it self that which our minde comprehendeth not our faith conceives the spirit truly joyns together things locally separated sect 24. Nothing mooe incredible that things so far distant and remote within the whole space of heaven and earth in the whole distances of places are not only conjoyned but also united CHAP. X. Concerning the Miracles which follow in the hody Sacrament of the Eucharist THe Doctor much troubles himself about the Miracles which occur in the Eucharist whereas any one who believes the real presence of Christs body and bloud in the Sacrament must needs know that those Miracles do necessarily follow thereto If he could disprove
that one the rest will fall but if he cannot all the rest he says makes nothing for we only believe those miracles because we believe the real presence true it is we should believe nay know that they are possible to God and so more easily believe them to be so because God has said the word This is my body and This is my bloud I am confident that if the Doctor did believe this he would make no difficulty of the others wherefore before I speak of those miracles it seems to me expedient to shew what was the belief of the Church for those first five hundred years 440. I shall begin with S. Leo l. de Jejunio 7. mens ser 6. You ought so to communicate at the holy table as to doubt nothing at all of the verity of the body and bloud of Christ for that is received by the mouth which is believed in the heart 420. S. Augustine in psal 98. Christ took earth from earth for flesh is from the earth and he took flesh from the flesh of Mary and did walk in flesh it self and gave that flesh to be eaten by us for our salvation lib. 12. cont Faust cap. 10. he saith That the faithful do receive with their mouth the bloud wherewith they were redeemed and drink that now which came from the side of Christ And. lib. 2. contra advers leg Prophet cap. 9. We receive with a faithful heart and mouth the Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus giving to us his flesh to be eaten and bloud to be drunken 398. S. Crysostome hom 83. in Mat. Because our Lord said This is my body let us not be entangled with any doubtfulness but let us believe and see it with the eyes of our understanding 394. S. Ambrose l. 4. de sacram c. 5. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself gives testimony unto us that we take his body and bloud can we any way doubt of his fidelity and testimony and lib. 5. cap 4. Before the consecration that which is offered may be called bread when the words are pronounced now it is not called bread but the body whereas before l. 4. c. 4. he said This bread is bread before the sacramental words yet when the consecration shall be adjoyned of bread it is made the flesh of Christ 390. S. Hierome in Comment Matt. c. 26. After that the Typical pasch was fulfilled and he had eaten the flesh of the Lamb with his Apostles he took bread which strengthens mans heart and so proceeded unto the true sacrament of the Pasch that even as in his prefiguration Melchisedech the priest of the high God had done offering bread and wine he also might represent the truth of his body and flesh And Epist ad Hedib quaest 2. The bread which our Lord brake and gave to his Disciples was the body of our Lord and saviour And beneath Neither did Moses give us the true bread but our Lord Jesus he is the true guest Master and the banquet he eats and is eaten Gaudentius about the same time Tract de Exod. The Creatour himself and Lord of all creatures and natures who produces bread from the earth because he both can and has promised it doth from the bread again make his own body and he that made wine of water has also made his bloud of wine And a little after Believe that which has been taught us that which thou receivest is the body of that heavenly bread and the bloud of that sacred Vine for when he delivered the consecrated bread and wine to his Disciples he said This is my body this is my bloud let us believe him whom we have believed truth cannot lye 380. S. Gregory Nissen Orat. Catechist cap. 36. A little leaven makes a whole lump of dough like unto it self so also that body which is made immortal by God entring into our body transposes and changes it wholly into it self And a little after It is conjoyned with the bodies of the faithful that by this conjunction with that which is immortal man also may be made partaker of Immortality 370. S. Gregory Nazian orat 2. de Pasch Without anxiety and doubt eat the body and drinkche bloud of Christ if indeed thou be desirous of life neither do thou doubt of the truth of these speaches which are uttered concerning the flesh neither be thou offended at the Rassion be constant and firm and stable not doubting of anything whatsoever the advarsaries say good councel against Doctour Brevent About the same time or not long before S. Ephrem lib. de natura Dei minine scrutanda c. 15. gives us as good counsel saying Why doest thou search things unscrutable if thou examine those things curiously thou shalt not then be accounted a man faithful and innocent be partaker of the immaculate body of thy Lord with fulness of faith assuring thy self that thou catest the whole Lamb himself The Misteries of Christ are an immortal fire do not thou rashly search them out least thou be consumed in the search thereof And beneath he says This indeed exceeds all admiration all understanding and all speeches which Christ the only begotten son our Saviour hath done for us he has given us fire and spirit to be eaten and drunk that is as he himself explicates his body and bloud 365. S. Cyril of Hierusalem Catechist 4. Forasmuch as Christ himself thus affirms and speaks concerning the bread This is my body who dares hereafter doubt of it forasmuch also as himself confirms it and sayes This is my bloud who I say can doubt of it and say it is not his bloud And again so shall we be Christopheri that is bearers of Christ when we have received his body and bloud into our members and we shall be made as S. Peter says partakers of the divine nature Thou must not consider it as bare bread and wine for it is the body and bloud of Christ according to our Lords own words And again With all assurance let us receive the body and bloud of Christ for under the form of bread his body is given thee and under the form of wine his bloud is given to thee 355. S. Hilary l. 8. de Tria Whatsoever we say of the natural verity of Christ in us we speak foolishly and impiously unless we learn of him for he says my flesh is true food and my bloud is truly drink he who eats my flesh and drinks my bloud abides in me and I in him there is no place of doubting left of the verity of flesh and bloud for now both by the Profession of our Lord himself and our faith it is truly flesh and truly bloud and these being taken and drunk do work that we are in Christ and Christ in us is not this the truth It seems not to be true to them that deny Christ to be true God 226. Origen hom 5. in diversa loca Evangel When thou receivest the holy food and incorruptible
banquet when thou doest enjoy the bread and cup of life thou doest eat and drink the body and bloud of our Lord then our Lord enters under thy roof thou therefore then humbling thy self imitate the Centurion say Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof 203. Tertullian lib. 4. contra Marcionem The bread which he took in his hand he made his body saying This is my body And lib. de Resurrectione carnis The flesh feeds on the body and bloud of Christ that the soul may be replenished and filled with God 186. S. Jrenaus lib. 4. cap. 35. How shall it be manifest to them that the bread on which thanks are given is the body of the Lord and the Chalice of his bloud if they say be is not the son of the Creatour of the wrrld the saint makes an argument of Christ being the Son of God from the holy Mysteries of the Mass and Eucharist 150. S. Justin Martyr in Apolog. ad Antomin We do not take it as common bread nor this as common drink but as by the word of God our Saviour Jesus Christ was incarnate and took both flesh and bloud for our Salvation so also by the prayers of the word of God we are taught that the Eucharist being made our food by him whereby our bloud and flesh may be nourished by mutation is the flesh and bloud of the same Jesus incarnate 71. S. Ignatius Martyr as Theodoretus Dial. 3. in his epist ad Sawnon They do n t admit Eucharists and Oblations because they do not confesse the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour which suffered for our sins which the Father through his bounty raised again S. Dionise about the same time I. de Eccl. Hierarch par 3. c. 3. O most divine and holy sacrament vouchsafe to open the coverings of those significant signs which overshadow thee and appear plain to us and fill our spiritual eyes with the singular and clear shining of thy Light By these authorities of the holy Fathers the faith of the Church in those first five hundred years is made manifest so that none with reason can doubt of the real presence of Christs body and bloud in the Eucharist unless he will altogether dissent from Christs Church in those primitive times and say that Christ never had a true Church upon earth in which number Doctor Brevent is not to be reckoned for he ingeniously admits a true Church for five hundred years after Christ which admitted the real presence whereto the miracles which he scoffingly rehearses do necessarily follow as I said before to the being of Christ Jesus in the Sacrament To begin therefore with his first miracle which is that the bread is distroyed in a moment pray cannot he who gives it a being take it away when he pleases did not the same God turning Lot's wife into a pillar of salt take away or destroy or bring to nothing her humane form and nature in a moment was not the form of Moses â—â—d nature and substance destroyed in a moment was not the water when Christ turned it into wine wholly destroyed moreover this destruction follows the nature of all conversions either partial or total no new form is introduced but as the former is destroyed no total substance is produced but when the total substance precedent is also destroyed If then the body of Christ be by the power of the omnipotent God introduced or produced in the place of bread as the holy Catholick Church always taught us according to the testimonies now alledged and this shall be more manifested in the Chapter of transubstantiation it necessarily follows that the precedent substance be destroyed or brought to nothing so that this decision or not being of bread and wine proceeds ex necessitate miraculi from the real presence of Christs body and bloud in the Blessed Sacrament and so is no new miracle but the same with the former The second miracle which he jeers at is the being of the accidents of bread and wine without a subject which is not only possible but also is actually in the Eucharist as is sufficiently declared in the Liturgical discourse part 2. sect 3. cap. 9. whereto I may add the Authority of great S. Basil hom 6. Hexam S. Gregory orat in Diem Dominic and Theodoret when they affirm that the quality of light in its Creation was without a subject until the Sun was created and certain it is that accidents by the power of God may be preserved without a subject for he that gives a being in such or such manner can give them another as actually he has done in the Eucharist where quantity alone is preserved without a subject in which all other accidents as qualities c. are immediatly although by the same omnipotent power they also may be conserved without quantity and that it is so in the Eucharist has always been believed in the Catholick Church as in the precedent testimonies plainly appears when the holy Fathers affirm that the body and bloud of Christ is contained in the species of bread and wine whence the Councel of Constance sess 8. condemned that proposition of Wickliff who held that the Accidents of the Bread did not remain without a subject as heretical Moreover this miracle necessarily follows the Mystery of the real presence inasmuch as it is a sacrament for it would not be a sacrament if there were not in a visible form the essence of a sacrament consisting in a visible sign of some invisible thing The Eucharist therefore being a sacrament and containing the invisible body of Christ necessarily requires a visible signe S. Chrysostome hom 60. ad Populum Antioch and Hom. 83. in Mat. says If thou wert incorporeal God would have given thee plain and incorporeal gifts themselves but because the soul is joyned to the body he has given thee intelligible things in sensible things and a little before sith the word said This is my body we do assent and believe and with our intellectual eyes behold him for Christ has given 〈◊〉 nothing sensible but all intelligible things inâ—â—â—â— in sensible things It was therefore most congruous to the divine providence most agreeable to the nature of this mystical sacrament and most proper to our humane nature that Christ instituted this sacrament under the form of bread for as Christ is the true bread of life so he gave us his body and bloud under the form of bread and wine whence S. Cyprean Ser. de Coena Domin The bread which he gave to his Disciples changed not in Essigies or resemblance but in nature is made flesh by the Omnipotency of the word as in the person of Christ the humane nature was seen and the Divinity lay hid so in the visible sacrament the divine essence diffused it self Give me leave good Reader to set down the words of Theophilact Archbishop of Bulgary and no mean interpreter of the sacred Text who in Mark cap. 14. This
of our senses From what hath been said we plainly gather that in matters of faith we stand not to humane reason much lesse to our senses we may adde No sense or humane reason could tell us that Christ on earth was God The wise men who came from the East according to their senses imagination yea or humane understanding could conceive nothing but a little Child yet inspired by the holy Ghost in Faith only they adored the little Childe not as such but as being God and man which no sense or humane reason could dictate to them The Disciples Mat. 24. did not adore Christ by the rule of their senses or humane reason but when by faith they believed him to be the Son of God even after the Resurrection they did see Christ some believed others did not many who lived conversed and were in his company both simple and wise could never be convinced by their sense or reason that he was the Son of God and those who were of the simple sort sooner believed and were we not assured by divine revelation and testimony we could not believe either this or any other mystery of our Faith Where even according to reason it follows that we have a more sure ground to believe Gods word then our senses who perceive not the substance of the bread which is not perceptible by any of our senses whose objects are only accidents or sensible qualities which they have as well in the consecrated host or unconsecrated without any reflexion on the substance as being out of the sphere of their objects so that they discern not any thing of the substance or whether they be without any substance it is only the understanding which gathers by such or such accidents such or such a substance or subject and by natures ordinary course judgeth it to be bread but enlightned by faith and believing that nothing is impossible to God and that God in most express terms declared his body and bloud to be in the Eucharist the words are so clear that without wresting the terms none so simple but they may understand them as clearly as Peter is a man and those who contradict it on the ground of their senses are as the Apostle says 1 Cor. 2. sensual men not perceiving those things of the spirit of God it is foolishness to them and they cannot or rather will not understand for they are sensual measuring these heavenly mysteries by natural reason humane prudence and external senses which destroy Faith I know some object that of S. John 1. Epist cap. 1. where he attributes much to hearing seeing and touching matters of faith but they do not consider that the Apostles did hear and see many things which we believe from their testimonies but if we had only what they saw by their senses or humane wisdome our faith had been vain and of no importance for no visible thing or sensible as such can be the object of our faith what therefore they saw heard or touched was not believed as by faith but by experience see Scotus in 3. quaest 23. the Prophets and Apostles had a science which was not faith Faith taught them that the word was incarnate and that Christ who died rose again and ascended into heaven was the true Son of God now to us who have not seen them they are objects of faith as being only revealed unto us whereof we have testimony from Scripture and Tradition S. Thomas indeed believed because he had seen Christ after his resurrection Joan. 20. but as S. Augustine says tract 121. in Joan. He did see and touch man and confessed God whom he did not see nor touch but by this which he did see and touch that he believed now all doubt being removed and therefore he cryed out My Lord and my God and Jesus said unto him because thou hast seen me by sight and touch and certain knowledg that I am risen and believed that I am true God but blessed are those that have not touched me and have beleived Moreover S. John in this place opposes two diverse heresies to wit those who denied Christs divinity and those who denied his humanity and therefore begins his Epistle That which was from the beginning which he had declared in the beginning of his Gospel and for the other which we have heard by a voice from heaven which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled we testifie unto you weereby he manifestly testifies that Christ in humane nature had true flesh and bloud God and man now because he was inspired by the holy Ghost one of Christs Apostles according to the testimony of the Scriptures we believe what he saw and heard to be true and receive it as a matter of faith CHAP. XII An addition to the former Chapter of the same Subject out of S. Augustine OUr adversaries who stand so much in matters of faith on their senses and private judgments should do well to consider that they imitate the heathens and Infidells who had no stronger arguments against the true Catholick doctrine then their senses and humane reason as we finde in all the holy Fathers who have laboured to convince them and in particular this is to be seen in blessed S. Augustine especially in his books de civitate Dei from whence I shall make choice of two articles of our Faith which are holy repugnant to humane sense and reason to wit the everlasting torments of Hell fire and the Resurrection of the flesh Of the first he treats in the first 8. Chapters of his 21. Book and thus he begins the second Chapter What then shall I say unto the unbeleevers to prove that a body Carnal and living may endure undissolved both against death and the force of eternal fire they will not allow us to ascribe this unto the power of God but urge us to prove it to them by some example saying There is no body that can suffer eternally but he must perish at length no flesh can suffer always and never die The Saint replys Cap. 3. What is this but to ground an assertion upon meer sense and apparence which he esteems absurd in matters of Faith for saith he These men know no flesh but mortal and what they have not known and seen they hold impossible A little after Through our flesh as now be such that it can not suffer all pain without dying yet then shall it become of another nature Whence in Cap. 4. he says That God who endowed nature with so many several and admirable qualities shall as then give the flesh a quality whereby it shall endure pains and burning for ever Cap. 5. But the infidells hearing of Miracles and such things as we cannot make apparent to their senses do ask the reason of them which because it surpasses our humane powers to give they deride them as false and ridiculous but let them give us reason for all the wondrous things that
same S. Augustine l. 22. de civitate Dei cap. 11. Disputing with the Infidels who according to the laws of Nature did argue that there could not be any Resurrection of the body because it is earthly and so could not be contained in heaven every Element having his particular poise and tending naturally to its proper place his answer besides perswasive reason is Cannot God almighty give the body of Man such a form likewise that it may ascend and support it self in heaven Cannot then the Almighty maker of the whole world take away the Ponderosity of earth and give the quickned body and hability to dwell in the same place that the quickned spirit shall elect why then may we not believe that the nature of a corruptible body may be made incorruptible and fit for heaven so that arguments drawn from the scituation and qualities of the clements can no way diminish the power that God Almighty hath to make mans body of a quality fit and able to inhabit the heavens Cap. 25. If they would shew me a thing which God cannot do I will tell them he cannot lye let us therefore believe only what he can do and not believe what he cannot I If they do not thus believe that he can lye let them beleeve that he will do what he promised and let them believe as the world beleeves which he promisea should beleeve and whose belief he both produced and praised Cap. 26. Why do they now cry out that this is impossible which God hath promised which the world hath believed and which was promised it should beleeve seeing that Plato himself is of our minde and saith that God can work Impossibilities that is such things which we conceive to be impossible If any one would ponder and seriously examine the arguments and reasons which our pretended Reformers do oppose against the Reall Presence of Christs Body in the Eucharist he shall easily perceive that they ground themselves on such humane Inventions proceeding more on their senses in opposition to Gods Omnipotency for the Hereticks of our times with their vain weak and weightless arguments do contradict the Catholick Church in the wonderfull effects which God hath wrought in the Eucharist principally because we cannot make them apparent to their senses nor give them a natural reason for them which we freely confess we cannot yet we know that God doth do nothing without reason in putting moral men by them past reason we know not his will in many things yet we know that what he will is no way impossible and we believe what he hath declared to be his will in this subject far be it from us to deny or question it which were no less then to impute falshood or imperfection unto him God can and will do according to his promise no apparent difficulty whatsoever no law of nature can any way impede it Plato as S. Augustine notes lib. 13. de civit Dei said well Gods will is beyond all other assurance God is not bound or limited to any condition in alotting of any particular being to any thing as though he could not make an absolute alteration thereof into an unknown quality of Essence God then as he can create what he will so can he change or alter the nature he hath created at his good pleasure for his wonderful power exceeds all wonders his wisdome permits and effects all and every particular or marvelous things and can make the most wonderful use of all the parts of the world which he only created Cannot the power of God exceed them in working such things as are incredible to Infidells or hereticks but easy to his Omnipotency God being the Author of Nature why do they ask a stronger reason of us when in proving what they hold to be impossible we affirm that it is thus by the will of Almighty God who is therefore called Almighty because he can do whatsoever he will Our Adversaries will not give credence to the Church affirming teaching and believing in all times the verity of such miracles with a proud supposition as if God Almighty could do nothing that exceeds their capacities to conceive we know no better or stronger Reason can be given for any thing then to say God Almighty can or will do this which he hath promised in the sacred Text wherein he hath declared as strange things as these which also he has performed surely he will do these because he has said he will as he hath made the incredulous Heathens to believe things which they held to be impossible Let not the faithful hoodwink themselves in the knowledge of Nature as though Gods power could not alter the nature of any thing from what it was before unto mans knowledge let them not think these things to be contrary to nature since they are effected by the will of God the Lord and maker of Nature they are not in themselves against Nature but at most against the common Order of Nature These words of S. Augustin in regard of other such wonderful things may be applyed as properly to our present subject for Catholicks do confess that they cannot give any humane or naturally known reason for the Mysteries which follow the Eucharist the most that we can ever pretend to is to shew that there is nothing in them against the essence of natures being our whole belief in these Mysteries depends on Gods word wherein he has manifested his will which carries with it an omnipotent power whereto all created things are in obedientiall subjection aswell in their essential as accidental being all mutable and alterable according to the will of God especially in all accidental qualities or dispositions which also he may add to natures being yea and also give another nature So he made Iron swim Fire not burn water to mount and become passible solid things to walk upon it Humane bodies to ascend to be also not consumed by perpetual fire Things of no weight at all as Angells called spirits to descend even within the bowels of the earth God by his will so disposing yea to be burnt with fire I might alledg many more examples of this kinde but these may suffice to manifest that Gods power is not to be limited to mans humane reason much less to his senses yea not to any created Intelligence what he can do is known only and solely to himself what he has done according to the ordinary course of Nature is latent to all humane understanding for there are many things whose natures and qualities the wisest men are ignorant of what he has done beyond the ordinary course of nature we know by his revelation which moves us to believe not know we trust in Gods word no way doubting of his omnipotency and therefore we little esteem of what the wit of man can think imagine or conceive to the contrary The Church grounded on Gods word and Tradition attested by the holy Fathers and Doctors has always so taught us
the body and bloud of God Bread and wine and water are turned into the body and bloud of Christ I cannot omit the holy Abbot Paschasius who lib. de corp sang Dom. cap. 2. says Although the figure or form of bread and wine be here yet no other thing at all then the flesh of Christ and the bloud of Christ are to be believed after the consecration And lib de Instit Sacra Christ did not say that in this mystery there is a certain vertue or sign of my body but plainly says This is my body and therefore this is what he says and not what any one fancies This Authour lived about the year 850. well nigh four hundred years before the Lateran Council Isichius in the year 601. in Levit. cap. 9. The Dispensation of Mystery principally subsists in our Lords word transferring these things which appear into some other thing greater and intelligible 445. Let us now see what the holy Fathers in the first five hundred years did teach of this subject Prosper in lib. sentent In the species of bread and wine which we see we honour invisible things that is flesh and bloud we do not consider these two species as we did before the Consecration sith we faithfully acknowledg that before consecration the bread and wine to be what nature has framed but after the consecration to be the flesh and bloud of Christ which benediction has consecrated 430. S. Cyrill of Alexandria Epist ad Coelest God condescending to our frailty breaths the force of life in the things which are offered concerning them into the verity of his own flesh Eusebius Emissenus about the same time Hom. 5. de Pasch The invisible Priest by his word and sacred Power converts the visible creatures into the substance of his body and bloud 420. S. Augustine ser 28. de verb. Dom. I say unto you that before the words of Christ that which is offered is called bread when the words of Christ are pronounced it is not called bread but corpus a body 398. S. Chrysostome hom 83. in Mat. 11. hom 60. ad populum Antioch Those works which he did in the supper are not from humane power he now also works he performs it we hold the order of Ministers but he sanctifies and transmutates these things S. Ambrose lib. 4. de Sacram. cap. 4. This bread is bread before the Sacramental words when the consecration comes of bread is made the flesh of Christ After The word of Christ makes the Sacrament what word of Christ to wit that in which all things were created c. and infers I answer thee the body of Christ was not before consecration but after the consecration I say to thee that now it is the body of Christ take therefore as the word of Christ is wont to change all creatures and changes the state of nature when he will which he proves by many examples as that Christ was born of a Virgin and the standing of the waters when the Israelites passed the sea water coming out of a rock and such like lib. 4. de fid cap. 5. As often as we take the Sacrament which by the Mystery of holy prayer is transfigured into flesh and bloud we declare the death of our Lord and lib. de iis qui initiantur cap. 9. How many examples do we use that we may prove this not to be what nature hath framed but what benediction has consecrated and the force of benediction to be greater then that of nature for by benediction nature it self is changed 369. S. Cyril of Hierusalem Catech. 1. The bread and wine of the Eucharist before the Invocation of the adorable Trinity was meer bread and wine but the Invocation being done the bread indeed is made the body of Christ and wine the bloud of Christ Catech. 3. The Eucharistical bread after the Invocation of the holy Ghost is no more humane bread but the body of Christ And Catech. 4. He sometimes changed water into wine and shall not he be worthy to be believed that transmutates or changes wine into bloud 250. S. Cyp. Ser. de coena Dom. This bread which our Lord gave to his Disciples changed not in form but nature by the Omnipotency of the word is made flesh 203. Tertullian lib. 4. adversus Marci Christ made the bread receive his body saying This is my body 226. Origen lib. 8. contra Celsum We eat the offered bread now made by prayer a holy and sanctifying body 183. S. Irenaeus lib. 5. cap. 2. When the mixt chalice and the broken bread receive the word of God the Eucharist of the bloud and body of Christ is made And cap. 34. The bread which of earth taking the invocation of God is now not common bread but the Eucharist of Christs body and bloud 150. S. Justine Martyr Apol. 2. ad Antonium We take not common or usual bread and usuall drink but even as by Gods word Jesus Christ our conserver made man had flesh and bloud for our Salvation so for food which by power of the word which we have received he is consecrated wherewith our bloud and flesh by communion are nourished and we taken to be the flesh and bloud of Jesus Christ of him who made man Sure S. Dionise was of that minde when he calls the Eucharist the sacred and most majesticall Mysteries In a book dedicated to the renowned Prince Henry Prince of Wales under the Title of Catholick Tradition made by a french Hugonot I have these Testimonies following The Ethiopian Liturgy hath this prayer We pray thee O Lord that thou wouldest shew thy face on this bread on this Altar bless sanctifie cleanse and transport this bread into thy spottless flesh and this wine into thy pretious bloud and it may be made an ardent and acceptable sacrifice and health of our soul and body And again The Priest prays That God would change the bread and wine of the Sacrament as he changed water into wine in Cana. In another place the same Author says that the Abyssens in their Liturgy which probably is the same with the former frequently make mention of Transmutation and it is to be noted that these Nations do pretend to have the form of Liturgy or Mass from the Apostles I cannot omit the words of the Constaminopolitan Patriark Jeremias in answer to the German Protestants quoted by the same Author Touching those things we that is the Grecian Church see that you in no way agree with us The Catholick Church holds that the bread after the sanctification is changed into the body of Christ and the wine into into bloud by the holy Ghost A little after The bread is converted and changed into the body of our Lord and the wine into his bloud and again he affirms that there are not two things in the Sacrament to wit Bread and Christs Body but one sole to wit Christs body CHAP. XIV Who are the Ministers of this Sacrifice of the Mass IT may
we have seen or may casily see hereafter where we may note that S. Augustine in those chapters brings instances of many several things in nature far surpassing our humane reason which if they cannot do then let them not say that there is not nor can be any thing without a reason why it should be Beneath O rare Disputers you that can give reason for all miraculous things give me the reason of those strange effects of nature before-named of those few only which if you know not to be now visible and not future but present to the view of those that will make tryal you would be more incredulous in them then in this which we say shall come to passe hereafter A little after If we had said these things shall be in the world to come and the Infidels had bidden us give the reason why we could freely confesse we could not the power of God in his works surpassing the weakness of human reason and yet we know that God did not without reason in putting mortal men by these past his reason we know not his reason in many things yet we know that what he wills is no way impossible who has told us to whom we must never impute falsness nor imperfection The lattin words are Nos non posse confiteremur eo quod istis similibus Dei miris operibas infirma mortalium ratiocinatio vinceretur fixam apud nos esse rationem non sine ratione Omnipotentem facere unde animus humanus infirmus rationem non possit reddere in mult is quidem rebus incertum nobis esse quid velit illud tamen esse certissimum nihil corum illi esse impossibile quaecunque voluerit eique nos credere praedicenti quem neque impotentem neque mentientem possumus credere Hi tamen fidei reprehensores exactoresque rationis quid ad ista respondent de quibus ratio reddi ab homine non potest ipsi rationi naturae videtur esse contraria Quae si futura esse diceremus similiter ae nobis sicut eorum quae futura esse dicimus ab infidelibus ratio posceretur ac hoc cum in talibus operibus Dei deficiat ratio Cordis sermonis humani sicut ista non ideo sunt non ideo enim illa non erunt quoniam ratio de utrisque ab homine non potest reddi We confess that we cannot to wit give a reason for it for that in those and the like wonderful works of God the infirm raticionation of Mortals would be overcome but we firmly believe that the omnipotent does nothing without reason whereof the infirm minde of man cannot give a reason and in many things indeed it is uncertain to us what he will but that is most certain nothing of them which he will are imposible to him and we believe him foretelling whom we cannot believe either impotent or lying yet the Reprehenders of faith and exactours of reason what will they answer in those things which no reason can be given by man and yet are although they seem contrary to reason of nature which if we did say from our selves that they were to come as we say of those things which are to come reason should be required by infidells and by this sith in such works of God reason of humane heart and speech fails even as therefore such things are not so therefore also they shall not be because no reason can be given by men for both of them the Translatour adds because beyond humane capacity and apprehension In the sixth Chapter having proposed many wonderful things as also in the precedent he concludes If all these be possible to those how much more God is powerful to do those things which are incredible to Infidells but easily to his power since he has created that vertue in stones and other things and wits of men which the use in wonderful 〈◊〉 Angelical natures more powerful and invincible power both of working and commanding and wisdome of permiting and using all things as wonderfully as he created them Our English Translatour although he omits some words both in this place and the precedent yet he sufficiently expresses them in order to our purpose In the 7. Chapter we finde the Infidels to satisfy for all the wonderfull effects of nature and give this only reason It is the force of Nature the nature of such things is such It is the proper efficacy of their natures Beneath the Saint When God is the authour of all natures why will they force us to give a stronger reason when they will not beleeve that seems impossible and to them who ask a reason to be given we answer this to be the will of the Omnipotent God who truly for no other thing is called Omnipotent but that he can or is able to do what he will And in the end he adds They will not give credence to us when we say that God Almighty will do any thing that exceeds their capacity to conceive The words in Latin are quod corum experientiam sensumque transgreditur what goes beyond their experience and sense What better or stronger reason can be given for any thing then to say God Almighty will do this which he hath promised in those books to wit the Scripture wherein he promises as strange things as these which he hath performed he will do it because he has said he will even he who has made the incredulous heathens believe things which they held meer Impossibilities Cap. 8. They believe not the Scriptures if they did we should not need to stand long with them on this Theâ—m so that we must make demonstration how it is possible that there may be a full alteration of nature in any one object from the kind of being that it had before and yet the law of nature be kept inviolated for how can that be against nature which is effected by the will of God the Lord and maker of all nature a portent or miraculous thing therefore is not against nature but against the most common order of Nature Let not the faithless therefore blinde themselves in the knowledge of Nature as though Gods power could not alter the nature of any thing from what it was before unto mans knowledge And beneath I think it may suffice to Convince that God is not to be bound to any Conditions in the allotting of a particular being to any thing as though he could not make an absolute alteration hereof into an unknown quality of essence his Latin Text Non se inde Deo debere praeseribere quasieam rem non possit in longe aliud quam cis cognita est vertere mutare we ought not to prescribe or limit God as if he could not turn and change it into some far other thing then as it is known to us so that as God can create what he will so can he change the nature of what he hath created at his good pleasure The