evidently impossible that Mr. Claud could not extricate himself otherwise as we have shewn than by an Engine or Machine of Reâ—renchment whereby he would have â—s believe against all truth that the â—oint controverted in this matter is not â—he belief of the whole World but onâ—y that of the Occident and of the Provinces submitted to the Obedience of â—he Pope SECT 5 The Second Member of the Prooâ— of the impossibility of an insensiblâ— change from the end of the Ninth Age to the beginning of the Eleventh THe fourth Circumstance viz. That this Innovation ought to have been made in a manner so imperceptible as that no tract thereof remained to posterity is treated in the ninth Chapter of the same Book which has for Title Examination of the Engines or Means of Execution in which is shewn the impossibility of an insensible change I would wish one should read it entirely for they would have greater satisfaction But not to be too prolix I shall transcribe here the most necessary The inutility of the preceeding means made use of by Mr. Claud gives us no ground to expect great matter from those he pretends were made use of to bring to pass this insensible change So it may be seen in the Description thereof made on his own proper words that he knows not what to lay hold on and employs contradictory means Sometimes he makes the Real Presence establisht by the noise of Disputes pag. 300. Sometimes he avows there were no Disputes in the Tenth Age in which he pretends this change was made pag. 651. So here we have right to ask of him in the first place that he would take his option and that in chusing one of these chimerical moyens he should confess he advanced the other falsly and timerariously Yet it must be granted that if the contradiction be evident it is in some manner necessary and he was forced to it by the consequence of his false it was impossible the Belief of the Reaâ— Presence should be introduced into the Church in case it had not always been in it without a great number of Disputes and Contestations and therefore at first he lays hold on this moyen as absolutely necessary for his purpose These Meanings or Senses says he were assaulted by the noise of Disputes pag. 30. But when he saw that these Disputes did necessarily draw after them Writings on either hand and that he could produce none he repents himself of the step he had advanced and retires back in contradicting himself by a pretty Antithese as we have seen I conclude indeed says he pag. 400. that since there were no Writings on the matter there were no Disputes about it The consequence in my opinion is reasonable but I do not conclude that there having been no Disputes therefore the Doctrine of the Church was not assaulted The consequence is not good was established without being defended ......... I conclude indeed that if there had been Disputes on the point Ignorance had not subsisted But I conclude likewise that Ignorance has subsisted because there were no Disputes If we require proofs from Mr. Claud. that the Real Absence which he calls the Doctrine of the Church was assaulted by false Philosophy by the Intrigues of Monks and hy the Authority of the Court of Rome which was never more fierce nor more powerful He would be no less straitned than he is to produce Writings and Disputes for there is as little likelihood in the one as the other Never was there any thing more remote from Philosophy true or false than all what remains of the Writings of the Tenth Age And if there was any ignorance greater in this than in other Ages it was onely of Aristotles Philosophy and Humane Literature For the Ecclesiasticks of that time applied themselves onely to the reading of the holy Scripture and the Fathers That Authority of the Court of Rome which Mr. Claud says was never so fierce nor so powerful and by which he will have the true Doctrine to have been attacked is also a fiction not only timeratious and groundless but notoriously false and contrary to the truth of History For not onely the Court of Rome was neither fierce nor powerful in the Tenth Age but was extreamly depressed for the Emperours taking upon them to make depose the Popes and elect others it may be said that during all this Age the Roman Church was under the dependence of the Temporal Power and consequently was never less in condition to make a new Doctrine be recevied by the whole Church as it was never farther from enterprizing it These Intrigues of Monks are meer fables without likelihood and without ground The Monks of these times were either disorderly and thought little on changing the Faith of the Church or reformed as these of the Congregation of Cluny the Camaldulenses establisht by St. Romuald in Italy the Monks of Germany reformed by the Bishops There were also several other Reforms made in France and Germany of which mention is made in the Book of the Perpetuity But all these Reforms aimed at the withdrawing of the Monks from the Intrigues of the World and not to intangle them therein We have yet extant the Life of St. Mayeul written by St. Odilon that of St. Odo written by an Author contemporary those of St. Odilon and St. Romuald written by Petrus Damianus As all these persons were perswaded of the Real Presence St. Odo speaks honourably of Paschasius in his Conferences St Odo saw Berengarius Petrus Damianus survived the condemnation of his Heresie and condemns it every where throughout all his Books so they would have made no difficulty to avow that they whose Lives they wrote had laboured to establish the Belief of the Real Presence They would have thought Intrigues for such a subject honourable and taking from them the name of Intrigues they would have made them pass for works of their Zeal for the Truth And yet we find not that it 's observed of any of these holy religious Men that they contributed any manner oâ— way to root out the Opinion contrary to the Real Presence nor to spread that Doctrine abroad I knew not if Mr. Claud has been at the pains to reflect on this Observation and if he sees the consequence that springs from it So that to help him to draw them I entreat him to consider that if it was true that the Doctrine of the Real Presence had been establisht in the Tenth Age and pagated into all the Provinces of Christendom It must be absolutely necessary that all those who were reputed for Piety and Learning in these times had their part in its establishment and laboured for the same And as there can hardly be imagined a greater work than to perswade this Belief to all the Ecclesiasticks and to all the People to overcome all the oppositions of their Reason and their Senses fortified by the multitude and by being accustomed to other more easie and more humane
THE FAITH OF THE CATHOLICK CHVRCH Concerning the EUCHARIST Invincibly proved by the Argument used against the Protestants in the Books of the Faith of the Perpetuity written by Mr. Arnaud A Translation from the French. Printed at Holy-Rood House 1687. Errours to be Corrected Page 40. line 18. I know not p. 50. l. last r. 〈◊〉 more easily p. 89. l. 1. r. came p. 214. l. 6. r. put out a p. 225. l. 23. r. for those P. 262. l. 3. after day r. l. 〈◊〉 after procedurer also l. 9. after not r. also l. 18. in steaâ—â— of that it was not r. was it not ADVERTISEMENT TO THE PROTESTANTS THe sole Title of this little Book is capable to make you sufficiently understand that the attentive reading of it may be of great importance to you It treats of a Mystery on the account of which you have been made conceive the greatest aversion from the Catholick Church And which you have been made to look upon as the greatest obstacle of your Reconcilement to it There is no Person of good sence among you who will not avow That if your Religion be false in this point you ought to forsake it and that you ought to give no credit to your Ministers if it be found that in the matter of the Sacrament they have made you mistake Errour for Truth You have no assurance that you are not thus misled for they dare not say that their Church is Infallible Do not then neglect so easie means to examine whether it be so or not and refuse not a few hours application to the most important Affair you can have in the World which is that of your Salvation Your Ministers ought not to hinder you from this application For if you find nothing solid in what is here proposed to you you will be inclined to adhere more closely to them And if on the conttary the Truth appear to you with such evidence as obliges you to embrace it What other thing should hinder it from having the same effect on them but a selfish stubbornness which should not be a motive to you to follow them but rather to forsake them Perhaps they will tell you there is nothing here proposed to you of new nothing but the same Argument which Mr. Claud has answered and consequently that it 's not worth your taking notice of it But the contrary is true For if here were offered to you a new Proof of any Article of our Faith which you had not heard discoursed of before you would not miss to say That you ought to expect what your Ministers could answer to it But this you cannot say here for never was there a Debate so agitate on either part as this whereof you have here the result That little Book of the Perpetuity where it was supposed that the Eastern Societies believes what we believe concerning the Eucharist while it was yet a Manuscript was impugned by a Manuscript-Answer of Mr. Claud wherein he maintained that the said Supposition was false and that excepting the Roman Church Transubstantiation and the Adoration of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist were two things unknown to the whole World and that neither the Greeks nor the Armenians nor the Russians nor the Jacobites nor the Ethiopians nor generally any Christian save only those who are subject to the Pope believes any thing of these two Articles After this the little Perpetuity was printed with a Refutation of the Answer made by Mr. Claud In which Refutation were brought most clear Testimonies of what he had so boldly denied concerning the Faith of the Christians of the East But as it was judged the contrary could not be maintained so that point was not insisted on at length Mr. Claud sets out a great Volume against that little Book And not yielding to the Proofs that were brought against his Assertion he employ'd all what he had of Wit and Dexterity to support what he had asserted viz. That Transubstantion and the Adoration of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist were believed in no place of the World except in the Roman Church To this Book of Mr. Claud's was opposed the first of the three great Volumes of the Perpetuity wherein the truth of the matter of fact impugned by him was confirmed with such force with Proofs so convincing with Testimonies so irrefragable and so numerous that no Man in the World would believe that one could yet pertinaciously maintain a thing so manifestly false But we were mistaken in this Mr. Claud did not yet give over but employed all kinds of artifices and subtilties to put out the eyes of those of his Party that they might not see the Faith of the Roman Church concerning the Eucharist in the most formal and express Testimonies of all the Oriental Societies But this Opiniatorness served only to make the truth shine forth more brightly for it was the cause of procuring a great many more new Testimonies and whole Books published by the Greeks in certain circumstances that 't is impossible but the most unreasonable must succumb if so be they be oblig'd to reflect seriously on them This was made appear in the general Answer to that Book of Mr. Clauds and in the last Book of the Third Volume of the Perpetuity And Father Paris Canon-Regular of the Congregation of St. Genevieve a most learned Divine has made two Books on the same subject which joyned with those I have mentioned have made this matter of fact evident in the highest degree This is the fruit of that long Dispute which has verified that Saying of St. Augustin De Civit. Dei lib. 16. cap. 12 That God permits several points of the Catholick Doctrine to be impugned by Hereticks with many artifices to the end that the Catholicks being obliged to defend them they may be examined more exactly illustrated more clearly and maintained more vigorously Mr. Claud has written nothing since that time on this matter his last Answer is in the year 1670. And there are five Volumes which he has left unanswered The last of these five Volumes is in the year 1675. The two last Volumes of the Perpetuity the general Answer which is in 1671 and the two Books of Father Paris And yet Gentlemen it is very strange that notwithstanding of this silence of Mr. Claud so publickly notorious it is given out amongst you that he has written last and that his Books are not answered For I know this has been said by several persons and particularly by Madamoiselle de Suze to a Priest a Friend of min. I have set down to you the progress of this famous Debate to let you see you have no reason to say in this occasion we are expecting till our Ministers shall have taught us what is to be answered to this Argument They have done all you could expect from them on this subject they are exhausted They have spoken they have answered they have replied they have if I can use the word duplied So
that it is no more a process to be instructed it 's all instructed already and they can do no more for their part to put it in a condition to be discerned on But who shall be the Judge of it It shall be every one of you according to the Principles of your own Religion For according to the Principles of ours there would be no question at all because on one hand our Church has all the marks by which it has been judged since St. Augustin's time that we ought to acknowledge it the true Church of Jesus Christ And on the other we believe that Jesus Christ has given to his Church an infallible Authority to which every particular person is bound to submit But your Church is grounded on another Maxim directly contrary and you are made to believe that every one of you have right to examine and judge after all your Ministers assembled in a General Synod could say unto you Make use then of the liberty which is given you even to the end you may be sure if they had reason or not to give it you Read and Judge but read with such attention and care as you would bring to comprehend an Affair upon which depended the Life of one of your best Friends and judge with that Conscience and sincerity of Heart with which you would desire to be judged if your Life or Death depended on the Judgment they were to make of you And indeed there is no less at the stake in this occasion only with this difference that these Men who should Judge you could not preserve your Life but for a little time nor condemn you but to a Death which sooner or later you could not eschew Whereas it is of far greater importance to you to discern in this process after the instruction that is given you of the same for in judging it aright and having nothing but God before your eyes you may eschew a Death which never ends a Death which all those will incur who have been made to look upon as a Damnable Errour the Ancient and perpetual Faith of the most sublime Mystery of our Religion and may put your selves in a condition to enjoy one day a Life eternally happy after having received the pledge thereof by the real and true partaking of the Worlds Saviour wherewith the Catholick Church nourishes her Children THE FAITH OF THE CATHOLICK CHVRCH Concerning the EUCHARIST Invincibly proved by the Argument used against the Protestants in the Books of Mr Arnaud entituled The Perpetuity of the Faith c. THere is no Christian can deny that a Doctrine regarding one of the principal Mysteries of Religion such as is the Eucharist * The Controversie of the Eucharist is one of the most important of those which makes the separation betwixt the Roman Church and the Protestants says Mr. Claud p. 1. of the Preface of his Answer to Mr. Arnaud The Article of the Eucharist in my Judgment is one of the most essential says M. de Larroque Minister at Rouen in his Preface to the History of the Eucharist which had been always believed in the Universal Church is a Doctrine taught by the Apostles to the first Believers We shall then have proved the Doctrine of the Real Presence such as the Roman Church now believes it to be the Apostles Doctrine when we shall have proved it to be that which has always been believed in all the Churches of the World. Now it 's impossible but it must have been always believed in all Churches If being certain it was universally believed in some Ages we can demonstrate that it could not proceed from an innovation or change of its ancient Faith that the Church of these Ages began to believe it The business will be compleatly done then if we can make out this And thus we make it out SECT 1. ARGUMENT All the Churches both of the East and West were found to be united in the Belief of the Real Presence towards the beginning of the eleventh Century and they are found to be yet united in the same Belief excepting onely some new Sects of the last Age. But it is impossible this Belief should have been established of new or by an innovation of their ancient Faith in all these Churches and yet no trace nor memorial of that Innovation appeared And it is certain there has appeared none at all neither from Paschasius his time to that of Berengarius nor from Berengarius his time even to this day Therefore it is certain that the Doctrine of the Real Presence is the perpetual Doctrine of the Church and consequently none can maintain the contrary without being an Heretick THe first Proposition which is called the major has two parts one that the Churches of the East were united in the same Faith concerning the Eucharist with the Roman Church in Berengarius his time The other that they are united with the same at this time The second Proposition which is called the minor has likewise two parts One that supposing the truth of the major as to Berengarius's time it 's impossible that the innovation pretended by the Calvinists to have been made in all Churches from Paschasius to Berengarius could be made in that time The other that if it was not made in that time in all the Eastern Churches it would be impossible it could have been made from Berengarius's time to this day SECT 2. The general Proof of the major in respect of Berengarius his time A Matter of fact unanimously asserted by contemporary Authors who cannot be suspected to have been deceived or intending to deceive and which has not been contradicted by those who were most concerned to contradict it ought to be held for most certain and undoubted But we have shewn from the very beginning of the first Treatise of the Perpetuity and in the first Tome 2 Book 7 Chap. and 9 Book 1 Chap. That all those who wrote against Berengarius Adelmanus who had studied under S. Fulbert Hugo Bishop of Langres Deodurnus Bishop of Leige Lanfrancus Archbishop of Canterbury Durandus Abbot of Troarn Guitmondus Archbishop of Aversa in Italy did all of them reproach to him That he had separated himself from the unity of the Holy Church that he scandalized the whole Church that none before him had dreamed of his Follies that his Heresie was so notorious that there needed not a Council assembled to condemn it that he impugned what the Church taught througbout the World That the Berengarians had not for themselves one sole Town nor so much as one Village And in a word that there needed no more but to ask the Latins the Greeks the Armenians and generally all the Christians of whatsover Nation and all would answer That they believed the change of the terrestical substance of the Bread and Wine by the infallible incomprehensible and miraculous operation of the Omnipotence of God into the essence or substance of the Lords Body We did likewise
shew it was not credible that all these Authors were mistaken or knew not if there were any Churches holding Berengarius his Opinion or not Lanfrancus a Native of Italy who had been a Monk at Bec afterwards Abbot of Caen and at last Archbishop of Canterbury could bear witness of the Sentiments of a great part of Europe Deoduinus and Adelmanus could serve as witnesses for Germany and Guitmondus for Italy where the Greeks were mixt with the Latins and Hugo for France Nor can it be said they intended to deceive the World because there is not any probability that so considerable Men would have been so imprudent as to advance against their Conscience so important a matter of fact concerning which it had been easie to have covered them with shame had it not been true Finally it is there made out farther that neither Berengarius nor his Sectators did object to these Authors that their Reproaches of the novelty of their Opinion was false or that it was not contrary to all the Churches of the World That we find not they cited any Author either of the Eleventh or Tenth Age as favourable to their Opipion but were forced to go seek it in some passages of St. Augustin interpreted according to their fancy and in the Book of John Scot Aeâ—rgene And that they found themselves so straitned by that Argument of the uniform Belief of all Churches as they had nothing to say but that after the Gospel was preached to all Nations and the World had believed it and the Church was formed augmented and fructified it fell afterwards into Errour by the ignorance of those who understood not the Mysteries and that it was perished and remained extant onely in their Party It ought then to be held for certain and undoubted that all Christian Churches were found united in the Belief of the Real Presence in the time of Berengarius about the beginning of the Eleventh Age. And this is what Aubertin lib. 9. p 943. a most Learned Protestant acknowledges at least as to the Latins For he pretends that the Innovation was made in the darkness of the Tenth Age That those of the Eleventh had suckt in with their Milk the Belief of the Real Presence Hac Opinione una cum Lecte imbuli SECT 3. The particular Proof of the same Major in regard of the Greeks in the time of Berengarius AMong many Proofs which may be seen in the First Tome of the Perpetuity lib. 2. c. 5 6 7 8. c. I shall content my self with one onely During the Eleventh Century when the Heresie * The Heresie of Berengarius consisted in denying the Real Presence of the Body of Jesus Christ in the Holy Sacrament of Berengarius made so much noise in the Latin Church when it was condemned by nine Councils whereof some were held in France and some in Italy the Greeks had several Churches and Monasteries in Italy and the Latins had also Churches at Constantinople Whence it was not possible that being so mixed together either of them could be ignorant of the Sentiments of one another especially in respect of a Mystery concerning which there was risen up a Heresie in the Judgment at least of the Latins Wherefore it is inconceivable that if the Greeks had been Berengarians at that time as Mr. Claud would have it believed they should have without the least bustle or noise suffered the Latin Church to condemn as an Heresie their Sentiment in the matter of the Eucharist And that the Latins on their side should have said nothing to the Greeks seeing them maintain that same Heresie which they had so recently condemned in the person of Berengarius Now it is certain that these two Churches did not at that time nor afterwards upbraid one another on this matter although they were never more inclined nor had greater provocations to have done it if there had been any ground for it For it was at that time there arose the hottest debate that could be imagined betwixt Michael Cerularius Patriarch of Constantinople and Leo Archbishop of Acride Metropolitan of Bulgaria on one side and Pope Leo and the whole Latin Church on the other Nothing could parallel the bitterness and animosity of the Greeks Michael and Leo of Acride did write in the year 1053 which is the very same year wherein Berengarius was condemned in two Councils both held in Italy one at Rome and the other at Vercelli to John Bishop of Trani in Apulia This Letter was most bitter They upbraided the Latins in several things That celebrating the Eucharist in Azimis they communicated with the Jews That they eated strangled meats That they did not sing Alleluia in Lent But not so much as one word of the Faith of the Eucharist And this Letter having been communicated to Pope Leo the IX He wrote thereupon a Letter to that Patriarch and Archbishop wherein after having defended the Latin Church on the point of Azimis he complains of the violence of the Patriarch Michael who had caused shut up all the Churches of the Latins that were at Constantinople And he extols the modesty of the Roman Church in that there being several Churches of the Greeks both within and without the City of Rome yet they were not hindred to observe the Traditions of their Ancestors Because says he the Roman Church knows well that the diversity of Customs according to Times and Places is no ways prejudicial to the Salvation of Believers when they have the Same Faith. Whence it appears that although there were then a great number of Greeks in Italy whose Sentiments in matter of the Eucharist Pope Leo could not be ignorant of he was perswaded there was no more but a diversity of Customs in point of the Eucharist by reason of the Azimis betwixt the Greek and Latin Church and that both these Churches had but one and the same Faith of that Mystery And consequently he was no leâ—â— perswaded that the Greek Church believed the Real Presence and Transubstantiation as well as the Latin For aâ— to the Latin Church the Calvinists doeâ— not deny that she believed both those points at that time This is farther confirmed by another Letter which Michael Cerularius wrote the year following when he could be no more ignorant of the condemnation of Berengarius to the Patriarch of Antiochia which as the forementioned is full of Accusations against the Roman Church to perswade him to forsake the Popes Communion amongst which Accusations there were some altogether calumnious as that the Latins did not Honour St. Basil and Sr. Chrysostom and yet not so much as a word of their Belief of the Eucharist which had been a far more considerable ground of separation if the Greeks had not had the same Faith on that matter than the â—ifles which they objected to the Laâ—ins That their Priests raised their Beards That their Monks eated fat That their Bishops carried the Effigies of a Lamb. And by what passed
at Constantinople betwixt Cardinal Humbertus one of the most zealous Adversaries of Berengarius whom Leo the IX sent thither to compose matters in Controversie and the Greeks whom Michael had exasperated against the Latins This Cardinal having there on several occasions spoken so clearly of the Eucharist according to the Belief of the Roman Church that it is impossible the Greeks did not understand him or that they would have sufferd him if they had not had the same Faith. And lastly by the Council held at Placentia in Italy in the year 1095 under Victor the II. where the Berengarian Heresie was again condemned and the Catholich Faith declared in these terms That the Bread and Wine being consecrated on the Altar are changed not onely in figure but absolutely and essentially into the Body and Bloud of the Lord. Which cannot be said to have been unknown to the Greeks the Ambassadors of the Emperour Alexius Comnenus having been present at this Council So that if the Greeks had not been of the same Faith with the Latins in that point it 's impossible but so surprizing a decision would have strangely startled them and in this astonishment made them advertise the Emperour and all Greece of the same SECT 4. Proof of the Minor as to the first time that is the Proof of the impossibility of an Innovation whereof no memory remained which the Calvinists must say was made in all the Churches of the World from the end of the Ninth Age to the beginning of the Eleventh First member of this Proof THe Major being proved in regard of the first time that is to say it being to be held for certain that in the time of Berengarius all the Churches of the East especially the Greek Church had the same Faith of the Eucharist which the Roman Church had which the Calvinists does not deny to have at that time believed the Real Presence and Transubstantiation If it was not the ancient Faith of the Church these Churches must have changed their Belief of this Mystery by an Innovation whereof themselves were not sensible nor did perceive and of which no trace nor memory has remained perceivable to us And this is what is said to be impossible in the First Part of the Minor of the famous Argument of the Perpetuity The Calvinists on the contrary pretend that this not only was not impossible but that it had de facto come to pass by a Book of Paschasius a Monk of Corbie made in the beginning of the Ninth Age. They accuse him to have been an Innovator or Broacher of a new Doctrine and to have been the first Author of Transubstantiation they set up incontinently Adversaries against him But they suppose that this Book of Paschasius and his Schollars who defended it did insensibly corrupt the minds of a great many Men and that this made such a progress during the ignorance and darkness of the tenth Age that those of the Eleventh tho' become more â—lear-sighted having suckt in this opinion with their Milk made it pass for truth Hinc contigit says Aubertin pag. 443. â—ut in sequenti saeculo quamvis literatiâ—res facti hac tamen opinione cum lacte â—mbuti illam tanquà m veram confidenter obtruserint This is what the Salvation of Calvinists is grounded upon If this Romance be not true there is no Salvation for them because there is none for those who overturns or destroys in so important a matter the ancient Faith of all the Christians of the World and who have taken the same Faith for the greatest pretext of their schismatical separation from the Church Now we have shewn in several places of the Books of the Perpetuity that never was there a Fable worse contrived though Mr. Claud thinks it the most exact and best invented that could be For what is there says he more reasonable than to say that Paschasius his Opinion adorned with the Colours of Antiquity although in reality it was but a Novelty supported with a little Philosophy extoll'd by these big words which ignorants admire and proposed in Ages like the Ninth and Tenth did find at the beginning some Sectators who induced others to follow them until at last it became the strongest and was established by the assistance of violence and Authority But it s his pleasure to the end he may render this Innovation less absurd never to represent it with those circumstances with which it must of necessity have been accompanied if it had fallen out The first is that about the end of the Ninth Age and the beginning of the Tenth all the Bishops Priests Monks and Laicks having been instructed in the Belief of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist which ought to have been according to the Calvinists the common Belief of the Ninth Age they abandoned without resistance and without debate the Faith of their Forefathers to follow a new Opinion introduced by a Monk of France The second is that this comes to pass without noise or tumult The third is that this change is made at the same time and after the same manner in all the Churches of the World it being as we have already demonstrated that they are all found to have been of the same Faith of the Real Presence in the beginning of the Eleventh Age. The fourth is that no trace of this change remains and the memory of it so abolisht that in the Eleventh Age immediately following that wherein they say that Innovation was made no person had heard tell of it as appears sufficiently in that there being in the year 1003 a Council held at Orleans Spicileg Tom. 11. p. 675. wherein were condemned as Hereticks two Priests for having denied amongst other things that the Bread is changed into the Body of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist But because of these four circumstances the two last are they which shews more palpably the impossibility of this change and are least exposed to be eluded by any wrangling I shall content my self to set down here how these two circumstances are pressed in the Ninth Book of the First Tome of the Perpetuity The first is treated of in the third Chapter which has for Title Examination of Engines of Retrenchment or Means by which Mr. Claud exempts himself from making the Doctrine of the Real Presence preached to the greatest part of Christians And here is what is said of it How happy should Mr. Claud be if the Effects followed his Words as his Words follows his Desires and if to make things true it were enough that he assured them to be so as it is enough for him to desire them for assuring them Then we should easily see come to pass that wonderful change he unundertakes to make in the Tenth Age But the ill is that the things which are without him and those by past Events have an inflexible and unvaâ—iable certainty which suits not at all with his Desires And so it falls out that he reckons
the Armenian Archbishops of Constantinople of Amasea and Adrinople Attestation of the Patriarch of Cis at number 10. Attestation of the Armenians of Cairo Attestation of the Armenians of Ispahan in Persia at number 16. For the Church of the Syrians Attestation of the Patriarch of the Syrians concerning the Faith of their Churches in matter of the Eucharist 12. Condemnation of the Calvinists by the Church of the Syrians at Damascus Extract of an Arabick Manuscript of the Kings Bibliotheck shewing the Belief of the Jacobites concerning the Eucharist in the Tenth Age. For the Nestorians Attestation of the Patriarch of the Nestorians of the Town of Diabeker Extract out of the Missals and Prayer-Books of the Nestorians For the Church of Cophtes Attestation of the Patriarch of the Cophtes Another Attestation of the same concetning the Eucharist In particular These Attestations are to be found at the end of the Third Tome of the Perpetuity of the Faith either at length or by citation of other places of these Books I know not if Mr. Sphanhemius Professor at Leyden will yet be so bold as to say as he did in his Strictures against the Bishop of Condom's Book that no regard is to be had to all these Attestations as being given by the miserable Greeks who can be made to say any thing one pleases for Money A quibus nihil non pretio extorqueas And so we have ground to think that they continued still in the Opinion of the Calvinists concerning the Eucharist even when they seem to condemn it with the greatest zeal But I perswade my self there is no honest man but will conceive indignation at an Answer so unreasonable which leaves us no moyen to be assured of the Religion of any People The least that those deserves who makes use of it is to doubt whether they be Christians Jews or Mahometans there being left them no way to hinder us from believing that they are in their heart any thing we please to suspect them of But to deprive them of all means of being able by their most unjust and extravagant Calumnies to brangle those who shall read this little Treatise I shall chuse one only of all these Testimonies which is the Book of the Orthodox Confession whereof the History is set down in the General Answer Book 1. Chap. 9. in these terms If one should set himself on purpose to contrive the Idea of an Act proper to decide the matter in question betwixt us he could not in my Judgment require other conditions and other circumstances than those I am going to speak of 1. That it be signed and authorized by the four Patriarchs and by the principal Bishops and Ecclesiasticks of the Eastern Church 2. That it appear that those who made and approved it had not any intelligence with the Latins and that they continue in all the particular Sentiments of the Greek Church 3. That it was made for the particular necessities of the Greek Church without that the Latins had any hand in it 4. That the terms thereof be peremptory and contain so clearly the Doctrine of the Real Presence and Transubstantiation that Mr. Claud cannot elude them by his ordinary subtilties Now all these circumstances are exactly found in the Act which I shall here set down whereof a Patriarch of Jerusalem named Nectarius has taken the pains to make the History in a Letter at the beginning of it and here it is Peter Mogilas who had been ordained Archbishop of Russia by Theophanes Patriarch of Jerusalem having assembled three of the most Learned Bishops his suffragants and the most pious Theologues of his Archipiscopal City to banish away the Errours and Superstitions of his People resolved with them by unanimous consent to draw up a Confession of Faith on the Articles of the Christian Doctrine and to cause it be received and approved by the Church of Constantinople and by the Synod which was there assembled To bring this to pass they composed a Book on the Articles of Faith which they entituled The Confession of Faith of the Russians And then they entreated the Church of Constantinople to appoint those they should depute into Moldavia in quality of Exarcks to examine it together with those whom they should send on their side The matter was executed as it was thus projected The Synod of Constantinople did depute into Moldavia Porphyrius Metropolitan of Nice and Meletius Syrigus Theologue of the Great Church to whose Piety and Learning the Patriarch of Jerusalem gives very ample commendation And the Deputies of the Russians being met there that Confession of Faith was examined with all exactness possible But yet they did not content themselves with this examination and to render this piece more Authentick they thought fit to send it to all the four Patriarchs of the Eastern Church and to submit it anew to their Judgment These Patriarchs then having received and examined it found it so conform to the Belief of their Church that not onely they approved it and signed it with their own hands with many other Bishops but they appointed moreover that instead of the Title it had before of Confession of Faith of the Russians it should be thenceforth called Confession of Faith of the Eastern Orthodox Church After the Letter of this Patriarch of Jerusalem containing the History above-mentioned we find at the very beginning of that Confession the Approbation and Subscription of four Patriarchs of nine Bishops and of all the principal Officers of the Church of Constantinople The Approbation of the four Patriarchs is dated in the year 1643 in the Month of March and that of the Letter of the Patriarch of Jerusalem which was prefixed only to the Print is only in 1662. This Confession no having been printed in Greek till long time after it was made and not being distributed before but in writâ— because the Turks permits no Printing in their Empire As to all the other Conditions we have pointed at they are likewise found in that Confession The Latins medled not in it any manner of way it was allenerly made for the utility of the Greek Church It was composed by the Greeks examined by all the Heads of the Estern Church These who composed it had no aim to gratifie any person It is now more than fourty years since it was made and more than twenty since it was printed Yea it appears the Hollanders were employed for the printing of it for certainly the Types are of Holland All the Doctrines controverted betwixt the Greeks and Latins are therein openly asserted and the Authors of this Confession can be no ways suspected to have had any sway or inclination for the Roman Church So that it 's hard to imagine or deny a Book less suspect more authorized more authentick and of which greater assurance can be had that it contains the true Sentiments of the Eastern Church There remains no more but to see what it contains And in this manner it begins to
explain what regards the Eucharist QUESTION 106. Which is the third Sacrament IT is the holy Eucharist that is the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the appearances of Bread and Wine Jesus Christ being therein truly properly and really present Here is enough for any other than Mr. Claud. But that he may not toil his mind to seek here some evasion I beseech him to hear what is read in the following Interogation it concerns the Conditions necessary for the celebration of this Mystery and it has these express terms In the fourth place the Priest must be perswaded that at the time when he consecrates the holy Gifts the substance of the Bread and the substance Wine is changed into the substance of the True Body and of the True Blood of Jesus Christ by the operation of the Holy Ghost who is invocated at that moment Here is already these mysterious words without which Mr. Claud thinks the Real Presence cannot be expressed nor Transubstantiation and with which he must then avow that it is most formally expressed For himself grants that the word Transubstantiation is not necessary when the matter is thus explained But yet if he will require farther that we let him see the Greek Church using and authorizing it he may be satisfied therein by the following words After the words of Inovocation at the same instant Transubstantiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is made and the Bread is changed into the True Body of Jesus Christ and the Wine into his True Blood the appearances of the Bread and Wine remaining by a divine Oeconomy First that we may not see the Body of Jesus Christ with our Eyes but by Faith in leaning on those words This is my Body this is my Blood and by so doing that we may prefer his Words and his Power to our own Senses which acquires the beatitude of Faith according to what is said Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed Secondly That because Humane Nature has horrour to eat raw flesh 〈◊〉 that seeing we ought to be united to Jesus Christ by the participation of his Body and Blood that Man might 〈◊〉 have aversion from it God has provided for this Inconvenient in giving to Believers his proper Flesh and and Blood under the vails of Bread and Wine There remains no more to condemn the Calvinists but to determine that this Sacrament ought to be adored with the same Honour that Jesus Christ is worshipped that is to say Latria and that it is a true Sacrifice and these are seen in that Confession in the folding terms The Honour you ought to render to these dreadful Mysteries ought to be the same which you render to Jesus Christ himself So that as St. Peter speaking for all the Apostles said to Jesus Christ Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God so every one of us worshipping with Latria Soveraign Worship these Mysteries ought to say I believe Lord and confess that you are the Christ the Son of the Living God who came to the World to save Sinners of whom I am the chief Moreover this Mystery is offered in Sacrifice for the Orthodox Christians both Living and Dead in hope of the Resurrection to Life eternal And a little after This Mystery is propitiatory before God both for the Living and the Dead The clearness of these Words suppresses all reflections which could do no more but obscure it Hitherto is what was said in the year 1671. But whereas it was thought then by the Characters that this Book had been printed in Holland it was afterwards known to be certain and we have learned the History of it from M◠Nointel Ambassadour of France at the Port who writ to Paris in these terms the year 1672 as is to be seen in the Third Tome of the Perpetuity Book 8. Chap 14. The 15th of February one of my Friends has told me that having dined with M. the Resident of Holland and the Discourse falling upon the Religion of the Greeks mention was made of the Book entituled The Orthodox Confession of the Catholick and Apostolick Church of the East as justifying her Belief of the Real Presence and of Transubstantiation M. the Resident Discoursed of the origine of the printing of this Book for he told him that M Panajotti having sent the Copy into Holland to be printed there on his expences the States would not let his Money be taken but to gain his favour had caused most carefully to print it on their own Charges and had entrusted several Boxes of the Impression to their Resident to be made a present to M. Panajotti The fourth of March I ordered Fontain to go to M. the Resident of Holland to thank him for what he had sent me by his Secretaty before his Voyage to Smyrna and to offer him his Services at the Port whither I was dispatching him He entreated him that he would do me the favour to give me one of these Books entituled The Orthodox Confession of the Catholick and Apostolick Church of the East And to let me know how it was printed and by what means some of the Copies thereof had come to his hands The Resident having testified how sensibly he was obliged by my civility assured Fontain that he and all that was in his House was at my service and he gave him two of the Books which I desired telling him they were the only two that remained and that as to their printing Desbrosses who was here Secretary in the year ....... there being then no Resident was desired by Mr Panajotti to cause print in Holland a form of Catechism which he gave him in a Manuscript declaring that he would make the expences that this Secretary having informed the States they caused print it on their Charges that it cost them four thousand pounds to fill the Boxes in which were many Copies M. the Resident added That being at that time named to come and reside for the States at Constantinople he was appointed by them to take the charge of these Boxes and to make a Present of them to M. Panajotti And that there were a dozen and half of Copies Bound after the Holland manner whereof he presented him twelve and as to the other six there were no more undisposed of save onely these two which he had given me Finally That which should compleat the Conviction of the most incredulous if any could be after what is said is what is set down concerning the same Book of the Orthodox Confession in the said Tome of the Perpetuity Book 8. Chap. 15. In the mean time that these Acts and Attestations of the Greek Church were at the Press the Secretary of the Ambassadour arrived at Paris from Constantinople to bring to his Majesty the Ratification of the Treaty concluded with the Port and brought with him the Originals of several Authentick Attestations which the Patriarchs of the East had entreated the Ambassador to cause present to the
King for justification of their Faith against the Calumnies of the Calvinist Ministers There was amongst these Attestations a Manuscript very sumptuously Bound which Mr. Panajotti made a Present of to his Majesty to be conserved in his Library and to serve for ever as a Testimony of the Faith of the Orâ—ental Church This Manuscript is one of the Originals of the Orthodox Confession it 's Subscribed by the Patriarch of Constantinople by many Bishops and by several Officers of the Church of Constantinople But whereas the Printed Copies are onely in Greek this Manuscript is in Greek and Latin the Latin being no less Original than the Greek There is prefixed to it a new Approbation of Dionysius bearing that M. Panajotti has caused â—et out a new Edition of it at the request of the Patriarch and that this Gentleman has distributed gratis Copies throughout the whole East Here follows that Attestation Dionysius by the mercy of God Arch-Bishop of Constantinople the New Rome and Oecumenical Patriarch THose who make the holy Books their daily study and applies themselves continually to them do certainly reap thence very great fruit for Salvation for it is as a way in which they cannot go astray which leads in a supernaural manner those who aim streight at eternal Glory and which procures them a happy end it being according to the Scripture that he is blessed who meditates day and night in the Law of the Lord. Wherefore considering that the reading of this Orrhodox Doctrine may be very profitable which having been Composed some years ago by the Orthodox Doctors approved received and confirmed by the Venerable Patriarchs our Predecessors and printed some time after by the care pains and expences of the most Wise and Orthodox Signior Panajotti first Interpreter of the Emperours of the East and West our Dearest Spiritual Son full of Piety and Divine Zeal with an extraordinary prudence has gratis distributed Copies thereof round about to Christians for the publick good And all the Copies that were Prinred being employed in this Distribution which was made of them several persons who earnestly demands so profitable a piece cannot have it we Judged it our duty to provide for this and to sollicite the same Signior by his accustomed bounry to supply this want and put remedy to it by a second Edition holding out to him that he would thereby aquite to himself Reputation not only equal to that he has already throughout the World and whereof no person is ignorant but a better and far surpassing it to wit that by which noble Actions becomes immortal And as he has a fervent zeal and passionate desire of the publick good so he has not neglected our Counsel but on the contrary has incontinently by Gods help putten it in execution and by a second Impression has given of new a great number of Books to the Faithful by so doing rendering a piece of important service to the Author of them in not suffering his Work to be buried in obscurity for M. Meletius Syrigus Doctor of the Great Church has by order of the Patriarch and Synod laboured most carefully to review and set the Book in order Therefore ye Orthodox Christians receiving favourably this Book of the Orthodox Doctrine as pious and profitable to Souls give thanks for it to the common Benefactor and keep it well without ever neglecting the reading of it for Life eternal is found in the Meditation of the holy Scriptures which I wish all of us may attain to in Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be Glory for ever So be it The year 1672. in the Month of July Indiction 5. Seal of the Patriarch Dionysius of Constantinople But this Original being in Greek and Latin I though that if it was needless to set down the Greek Text which being a strange Language would be understood by few it would be fit to insert here in the Latin Tongue what is there said of the Eucharist and which has already been cited in French in the General Answer QUESTIO 106. Quodnam sit tertium Mysterium EEt Eucharista sive Corpus Sanguinis Christi Domini sub specibus panis vini realis presentia Hoc Sacramentum excillit allâ—is magis conducit saluti animae nostrae in hoc enim Sacramento omnis gratiae bonis Christi fidelibus manifestatur praesentatur In the following Question ANimadvertendum est ut Sacerdos habeat talem intentionem quod ipsa vera substantia panis substantia vini Transubstantientur in verum Corpus Sanguinam Christi per operationem Spiritus Sancti cujus invocationem facit tum temporis ut perficiat Mysterium hoc orando dicendo Mitte Spiritum Sanctum in nos in haec proposita dona fac hunc panem pretiosum Corpus Christi tui quod autem est in hac calice pretiosum Sanguinem Christi tui transmutans per Spiritum Sanctum Statim enim ad haec verba fit Transubstantiatio Transubstantiantur panis in verum Corpus Christi vinum in verum Sanguinem Christi remanentibus solum speciebus visibilibus hoc fit secundum divinam dispositionem propter duo Primo ne videamus Corpus Christi sed credamus illud esse propter verba prolata à Christo Domino Hoc est Corpus meum hic est Sanguis meus plusquam sensibus nostris Siquidem pro hoc promisit nobis beatudinem dicens Beati qui non vident credunt Secundo quia natura humana abhorret usum vivae carnis quoniam debet homo uniri Christo Domino per communicationem carnis Christi Domini Sanguinis Christi Domini ne igitur abhorreret constituit Dominus dare carnem suam Sanguinem suum in esum potum sub specibus panis vini De quo diui Damascenus Gregorius Nyssenus fusius disputant De Exibendo Honore qui debetur kuic Mysterio tanquam ipsi Christo Quemadmodem sanctus Petrus de de ore omnium Apostolorum dixit Tu es Christus Filius Dei viventis ita nos dicimus cultu Latriae Credo Domini confiteor quod tu'es Christus Filius Dei vivi Est etiam id Mysterium Sacrificium pro vivis defunctis iis qui in spe resurrectionis mortui sunt quod Sacrificium ad extremum judicium non cessabit There is at the end of the Manuscript an Act of Legalization of the Ambassador who gives Testimony of the Truth of what I have related whereof the tenor follows WE CHARLES R FRANCIS OLIER of Nointel Counsellor of the King in his Councils in his Court of Parliament of Paris and Ambassador for his most Christian Majesty at the Ottoman Port do certifie and attest That the present Latin and Greek Manuscript entituled The Orthodox Confession of the Church of the East was consigned into our hands by the Signior Panajotti first Interpreter of the Port who having assured us that it would serve
efficaciously to establish the verity of the Book bearing the same Title printed by his care seeing it is one of the Originals of it and has the Original Signatures of the Patriarchs at it He did out of Zeal to vindicate his Church from the Affronts put upon it entreat us to deal with his Majesty that he would be so good as to accept of it for the Confusion of those that would call it in question And as he lookt upon it as a matter of Conscience and Honour in imitation of the Patriarchs Prelates of his Church to put the matter of fact contested in the greatest evidence possible he sent us the last year an Approbation of the same Book by Dionysius the Patriarch then holding the See of Constantinople which we set before that Manuscript All these Verities being certain to the end none may doubt of them we make no difficulty to confirm them by our Subscription and the Seal of our Arms and the Counter-Seal of our first Secretary Given at our Palace on the Channel of the Black Sea the Eleventh of September 1673. Olier de Nointel Ambassadour to his Majesty at the Ottoman Port. By my said Lord his Command Le PICARD What can one say against this proof Is not this piece as decisive as if it had been made in the Sorbonne or at Louvain Is it not beyond all suspicion of having been extorted by the Roman Catholicks Can any imagine that it could have been altered in the printing coming onely from the hands of a Greek a Person of Quality most zealous for his Religion to those of a Protestant who sent it to Amsterdam where it was printed at the Charges of the States Can any thing be imagined more Authentick in the Greek Church seeing we find that having been at the very first approved by the four Patriarchs and several Bishops it has still continued to be in so great esteem that the new Patriarch of Constantinople desired to have it reprinted that it might be the more easily spread over all and every where There remains then no more but to prove the second part of the Minor to the end it may be said that we have invincibly shewn the Faith of Catholicks concerning the Eucharist to be the ancient Faith of the Church SECT 7. Proof of the second part of the Minor which is that it is impossible there should be made an insensible change in the Bel ef of the Eucharist in all the Eastern Churches during the time that has interveened betwixt Berengarius and us THere would be no need to be at the pains to prove this if Mr. Claud and the Ministers who have putten in his hands the Defence of their Cause were not altogether unreasonable for having proved most clearly in the second Section that these Churches were found united in the Belief of the Eucharist in Berengarius his time and in the preceeding Section that they are presently united in the same Faith to imagine that it was by an insensible innovation happened in that interval they come to the condition they are in at this day it must be feigned that the Eastern Churches having embraced the Opinion of the Real Presence in the Eleventh Age they should resume some time after that of the Real Absence and then again by an insensible change they should have fallen back again into the same condition wherein they certainly were in the Eleventh Age in believing as they do certainly at this day the Real Presence Transubstantiation and the Adoration of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist It 's ealsiy percieved how ridiculous this fiction would be But because Mr. Claud would not acknowledge this argreement of the Eastern Churchs with the Roman in Berengarius his time for no other reason but because it pleases him to pretend all is false which seems disadvantageous to his Cause we have thought fit to follow him in his wandrings and to let him see that setting aside all what proves that agreement in Berengarius his time there is nothing more contrary to common sense than that which he would perswade as most possible viz. That the Greeks having believed as he supposes the Real Absence until the end of the Eleventh Age did since that time by an insensible Innovation whereof no memory remains come to believe the quite contrary that is the Real Presence Transubstantiation and Adoration which is the state they are found in at this day And it must be carefully observed that what we have demonstratively proved reaches not only to shew that some particular persons of the Greek Church or even some or several of their Churches entirely believes what I say but that it is the manifest Belief of the whole Body of these Churches as it is that of the Roman Catholick Church This then ought to have been the effect of that pretended insensible Innovation in whatsoever time it is placed during the six Centuries of years that have intervened betwixt Berengarius and us And this is what we have shewn in the third Tome of the Perpetuity Book 8. Chap. 21. to be the most incredible of all Chimaeras so I need no more to prove the second part of the Minor but to set down here what is written there The least spark of common sence perceives instantly that it was impossible that the Latins being mixed throughout the whole East since the Eleventh Age with those Societies separated from the Roman Church being strongly perswaded of the Real Presence having it most present in their minds more than any other Article punishing in the West with all sorts of rigour those who doubted of it and examining carefully all the points of Belief of these Societies which did not agree with their own that these Latins I say should not have perceived during the whole space of six hundred years that these Societies had another Faith than they concerning this Article or that perceiving they should have thought fit to dissemble it and that in like manner those Oriental Societies could continue six hundred years either without perceiving in the Latins that difference of Belief in so important an â—rticle or without upbraiding it to them in so many Writings they made against them Of these two parts which are equally ridiculous Mr. Claud betakes himself to the second in his third Answer by maintaining that this came to pass by the policy of the Latins upon one hand and by the timerousness of the Oriental People on the other and this we have refuted in the General Answer by representing only the absurdity of this supposition according as we shall set it down here Mr. Claud supposes in the Greeks and in all the other Societies of the East that is in an infinite number of Men a timerousness of six hundred years hindring them all to rise up against the Latins and to treat them as Idolaters on the Doctrine of the Real Presence He stops the Latins mouth on the same point by a piece of policy of six hundred
together as like And there needs no more to overturn all what is considerable in Aubertins Book consequently the noble Victory which Mr. Claud sayes * Answ to the 2. Treatise ch 1. p. 50. that Book has obtained over the Roman School is no more but a meer illusion of this Minister Mr. Claud in his third Answer Book 5. Chap. 10. allows of this manner of discerning expressions and even things themselves by the impression and sentiment which they form no less than by an exact observation of the differences which distinguishes them But he would have us to let him see that in the first six Ages the expressions of the Fathers were taken in a Sence of reality and the others which the Ministers propose as like in a Metaphorical Sence and not to seek that difference of impression in the following Ages supposing that the Doctrine was changed in them He ought then to be content seeing we have satisfied his demaund how unreasonable soever it be for we have proved to him in the second Tome of the Perpetuity to which he could not answer that difference of expression of the Fathers as like to those which we produce and we have confirmed this Proof in the third Tome and in the general Answer in such a manner as he is beaten down under it in letting him see that all he could say to perswade the change he supposes in the Doctrine of the Eucharist is the most manifest Proof of his want of sincerity To this comes all he has written to maintain as he has done with an inflexible opiniatorness that fable on which he has employed all his Eloquence and his big Words There needs no more for his silence shews sufficiently that he is convinced SECT X. The figurative Explication which the Calvinists give to these words This is my Body renders them altogether incapable to prove their Belief concerning the Eucharist to those who deny it THere is no Errour which the Calvinists have taken more pains to vindicate themselves of than that of admitting no more but simple Signs and without efficacy For as the suspicion people had that they taught this Heresie confirmed by the reproach made them ordinarily by the Lutherians and even by some Catholicks rendered them very odious they used all their endeavours to take it away and shew it was a Calumny All their Writings all their Declarations all their Confessions of Faith are full of formal Condemnations and Anathema 's against that Errour that the Eucharist conrains no more but simple Figures * Apud Hospini hist Sacrament 2. part fol. 124 128 135 147. Afrer these express Condemnations they cannot refuse to avow that if this Errour they so earnestly condemn and which they charge upon the Socinians and Anabaptists be a necessary consequence of the Figurative Sence they give to the Words of Jesus Christ and if this Sence puts them into an absolute inability to prove their Belief concerning the Supper it follows necessarly according to their Principle that this sence is false and that their explication is erroneous Now there is nothing more easie to prove than this their inability to justify themselves of this Errour which they condemn and to prove their Belief to the Socinians and Anabaptists and all who will deny it for there needs no more but to propose what they teach in their Confession of Faith in their Catechisms and the Books of those who are Authors of them and then to require the Proof thereof from the Scripture which according to them is alone sufficient to ground their Faith. They say in their Catechism Sonday 51 where they speak of the Supper that Jesus Christ represents to them by the Bread his Body and by the Wine his Blood. And in the 37 Article of their Confession of Faith That in the Supper God gives them really and in effect that which he figurates therein In their 53 Sonday That Jesus Christ with whom their Souls are inwardly nowrished is in this Sacrament and that they are made participant of his proper Substance or as they speak in their own Confession of Faith That they are therein nourished and quickned by the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ. It 's according to this Perswasion and Belief that Calvin who is the Author of this Catechism says in the 4 Book of his Institutions Chap. 17 n. 11. That in the Supper Jesus Christ is really given us under the Signs of Bread and Wine yea his Body and his Blood by which he has purchased Salvation to us and thereby we are made participant of his Substance And his is conform to what Beza says in the conference of Poissy as he relates him self in his Ecclesiastical History Tom. 1. p. 496. That the thing signified in this Sacrament is offered and given us of the Lord as truly as the Signs of it that the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ which are truly communicated to us are truly present in the use of the Supper although they are neither under nor beside nor in the Bread and Wine nor in any other place but in Heaven And in the pag 515 that we are made participant only of the fruit of Christs death This is the Calvinists Doctrine concerning their Cene or Supper and for which we maintain they cannot give Proofs from the Scripture alone unless they renounce the figurative sence they give to the Words of Jesus Christ The question is nor here of the manner according to which they say they receive all these things whether it be by Faith or otherwise but of what they receive nor is the question here of Mr. Clauds analogical and metaphysical Arguments but of clear and precise Proofs from Scripture seeing they are solemnly bound to shew there all their points of Faith. If they alledge these words Take eat this is my Body a Socinian will answer them that they should not pretend to receive any other thing than what Jesus Christ has commanded to be taken but according to them he intended only to say Take eat this is the Figure of my Body therefore they receive only the Figure and not the Body If they reply that these Words contain a Promise and that Jesus Christ promised to give them his Body in giving them a Figure of it The Socinian will answer he sees not that Promise in the Words of Jesus Christ and he will oppose to them what Zuinglius says Tom. 2. f. 371. That these words of Jesus Christ contain no promiss at all Nihil in his nobis promissum est and on the margent Christi verba hoc est Corpus meum promissionem nullam continent And what Calvin says in his manner of reforming the Church pag. 122. second of his Opusc that he who seeks in the Sacrament more than the promises contain the Devil has bewitched him And he will conclude from the Principles of these two Reformers that one ought to seek no more in this Sacrament but a Figure unless he be