word of the Father see him cap. 32. above cited 220. S. Hyppolitus Bishop and Martyr Orat de cansummatione Mundi brings in Christ speaking thus Come ye Bishops and Priests who have dayly offered my precious body and bloud and speaking of the time of antichrist he sayes The holy houses of the Churches shall be like Cottages and the precious body and bloud of Christ shall not be extant in those dayes the liturgie or Mass shall be abolished the singing of psalms shall not be heard that is publickly With him agrees S. Chrisostome hom 49. operis imperfecti according to that of Dan. cap. 9. 12. 203. Tertulliam lib. de Oratione cap. 14. speaking of the stations very many do think that they are not to be present at the prayers of the sacrifices because the station is to end by taking the body of our Lord therefore the Eucharist doth finish the devout service to God were not thy station more solemn if thou did also stand at Gods Altar the Body of our Lord being taken and reserved both are safe both participation of the sacrifice and execution of Offices And l. ad scapulum We sacrifice for the health of the Emperour but to our God and his but by pure prayer as God has commanded S. Martialis Epist ad Burdegal cap. 3. Sacrifice is offered to God the Creatour on the Altar not to men nor to Angels not only on a sanctified Altar but every where a clean ablation is offered to God as he has testified whose body and bloud we offer unto life everlasting saying Joan. 4. God is a spirit and they that adore him must adore in veritie for he having been both immaculate aend without sin because he was conceived of the holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary permitted himself to be immolated on the Altar of the Cross but what the Jews through malice did immolate thinking themselves to abolish his name from the earth we propound in a sanctified Altar for the cause of our salvation knowing by this only remedy life to be given us and death avoided for our Lord himself hath commanded us to do it in Commemoration of him 171. S. Ignatius Martyr Epist ad Smirnenses It is not lawfull to baptize nor offer nor immolate sacrifice or celebrate Masses without the Bishop And Epist ad Ephesios he condemns those who separate themselves and come not to the the Congregation of sacrifices Thus we see that the Roman Masse used for almost twelve hundred years did not there take its beginning but was alwaies observed in Christs Church even from the beginning from Christ himself and his Apostles CHAP. V. Sacrifice necessary to the being of a Church THere can be no visible Church without visible Religion nor no visible Religion without a visible Sacrifice for as the Church is nothing but a visible congregation of all the faithful so it is necessary that in this Assembly or Congregation there be something that may manifest the ir murual desire and concord to worship God Now it is certain that there never could be any agreement to any internal action neither could there be any publick act of Communion in the worship of God unless they assembled did agree or follow some external sign voice or action such as Sacraments and sacrifices are S. Chrysostome well notes hom 60. ad Pop. Antioch If we had been incorporeal God would have given us plain and incorporeal gifts but because the soul is conjoyned to the body he has given us intelligible things in sensible and this conformable to humane nature which depends of the senses in her operations even in the worship of God whereto the vertue of Religion conduces us Now Religion includes four Acts The first is a consideration of Gods infinite Majesty on whom all things depend 2. A reflexion on our nothing for of our selves we are nothing have nothing and can do nothing but whatsoever we have or can do comes all from God These two acts are not elicited by the vertue of Religion but as supposed grounds or motives to the worship of God the other two proper acts of Religion are interiour or exteriour the first as pure is proper only to the Angells and Blessed souls now separated from their bodies or elevated by some supernatural grace but as it is found in Men of this world has dependence on the senses but may be purified in its operation and is a profound submission of heart or internal Inclination of the mind to serve and worship God The external act of Religion is an external profession of that interiour will made by voice gesture or external sign such are publick prayer adorations and such like but none like to the sacrifice which carries with it that true worship which S. Augustin l 10. de civitate Dci cap. 1 calls Latria or honour due to God A little after Religion signifies nothing so distinctly as the worship of God by which cap. 4. we owe sacrifioe to God and thence inferrs There is none dare say a sacrifice is due but to God alone and who ever sacrificed but to him whom he knew or imagined or feigned to be God whence I infer That since from the first creation of Man God had a Church wherein there was true Religion it necessarily follows that according to our humane constitution in the same Church there was and is an external sacrifice wherein God was and is worshipped with Latria which is the perfect act of Religion and worship of God Moreover sacrifices seem to follow the instinct of Nature for as Plutark adversus Colos sayes A man may find Cities without walls houses Kings Laws Coynes schools and Theatres but a Town without Temples and Gods to whom sacrifices are offered you shall never finde Plato before him de leg Dial. We can never finde any Nation so barbarous any people at all so rude and savage who with vows victins and outward sacrifices have not acknowledged the Soveraeignty of some God or other All Hysteries do testify that from the beginning of the world sacrifices were in use amongst all Nations and Religion whence S. Augustine Epist 49. ad Deograt 9.34 That it is not to be blamed in the rites of Pagans that they builded Temples ordained Priests offered sacrifices for he supposed these to be according to the law of nature but that these were exhibited to Idols and devills that was to be condemned for that they gave which was only due to God to false Gods But what makes more to our purpose is the continual practise of Gods Church even from the beginning of using sacrifices which S. Augustine lib. 10. de civit Dei cap. 4. How ancient apart of Gods worship a sacrifice is Cain and Abel do shew full proof and all along in the law of Nature the Examples of Noe Abraham Melchisedech and Jacob now the written Law had sacrifices ordained by God himself which continued to our Saviour to say then that the law of Grace should have no
exprimendam sunt accommodata dum per Apostolum Tit. 1. mandavit Christus ut crearentur Ministri mandavit implicite ut inter ordinandum verba adhiberentur Idonea quae dati tam ordinis potestatem complecterentur istius modi autem verba quatenus Datam potestatem denotant sunt illius ordinis forma essentialis If there be no form expressing or determining the power the most essential part is wanting and consequently no true Ordination Doctour Bramhal well considered this defect in all the following words of their form in Ordination and therefore he attributes the giving of this power to the words Accipite spiritum sanctum receive ye the holy Ghost In which is contained the power to consecrate but first these words receive ye the holy Ghost are as indeterminate as the imposition of hands And Act. 8. in order to Confirmation and no wayes to Ordination v. 17. It is said they imposed their hands upon them and they received the holy Ghost Secondly the Apostles were made priests in the last supper without these words and when our Saviour did use these words he specifies and determines the power which was given thereby whose sins ye forgive shall be forgiven c. But Doctour Bramhal will still insist that in saying Receive ye the holy Ghost is understood Receive the grace of the holy Ghost to exercise the office of Priesthood to which thou hast been now presented If this had been expressed the difficulty would soon cease but this is a meer invention of this learned Doctour who tells rather what it ought to be then what it is for during well nigh a hundred years the English Bishops never made such expression Some perhaps will say the Bishops always by those words did intend and so understand those words It is very probable that Bishop of Bramhal did so understand it but neither the meaning nor Intention of the Ordainer can add any force or vertue to the sacrament or be sufficient to produce sacramental effects without words determining and specifying the Ordination which is the most essential part or form of the sacrament No wonder then that we make difficulty in their Form of Ordination when in the late Act of Vniformity The Clergy of the Kingdom as supposing the precedent form of Ordination insufficient and not satisfactory have determined that the true form of Ordaining Priests is Receive the holy Ghost in the office of a Priest which in a manner is the same with what the Grecian Church useth which is The divine grace which always cures the infirm and supplys what is wanting promote N. this venerable Deacon to be a Priest whose office even according to the whole Grecian Church is to offer sacrifice which also in the following prayers they expresly mention Symon Bishop of Thessalonia in Tract de Ordinat affirms that the Priests and Deacons are ordained before the Altar where the Chalice is present whence in the Latin Church their Ordination is admitted because although they use not the same words yet they have words which in a general way express the determination of the material fignifying also the quality and nature and office of the order of Priesthood and distinction from other Orders Now admitting this Form after so long time made choice of not to condemn it for a not-sufficient form or reproving it but only that it is different from the use of the Western Church which always had other words in their Ordination of Priests from whence those who were under the Patriark of the West ought not to differ according to the Decree of the second Milevitan Councel cap. 12. that no ordination should be used but what was approved by the Councel but omitting this I have two things to say the first that from the first Ordination made in the time of King Edward 6. there was no true ordination of Priesthood untill this late Ordinance in the Act of Vniformity by reason that their was no essential form used and by consequence there was not true Priesthood from whence also it follows there were no true Bishops For as Mr Mason well infers in his Preface Cum Episcopum esse nequeatqui non fuerit Presbyter si nos presbiteros non esse probatum dederint De Ministerio Anglico actum est The second thing is that the now Church of England doth plainly reject and renounce the Function or Office of Priesthood insomuch that they have rejected the very name of Priest even in the holy Scripture translating Elder for Presbyter a name signifying antiquity of years and appropriated as well to secular as Ecclesiastical persons in their several callings never used by the Church in the Dignity of Priesthood others retain the name but not the Office whence Mr Mason l. 5. cap. 1. sticks not to say If by the name of Priest you had meant nothing else but a Minister of the Gospel to whom is committed the dispensing of the Word and Sacraments we would profess our selves Priests whence they more commonly are called Ministers Catholicks deny not the name Ministers in regard of the exercise of those functions for Bishops Priests Deacons and other inferiour Orders may be called Ministers so S. Paul Act. 4. calls the office of Apparitor which were sent to visit the Prisons Ministers and Rom. 15. Christ himself is called Minister of Circumcision And again v. 16. S. Paul stiles himself Minister of Christ Jesus in the Gentiles which rather signifies a particular office and vocation for the conversion of the Gentiles whence he is called Doctor Gentium then Priesthood which by office is indifferent to Jew or Gentile 1 Cor. 3. S. Paul calls himself and Apollo Ministers that is instruments of Christ Jesus and therefore in the next Chapter he sayes so let a man esteem us as the Ministers of Christ and the Dispensers of the Mysteries of God that is in the exercise or use of our function or office which we have received by our vocation or ordination whereby we receive power and authority to exercise our Ministery and dispensation in which principally consists the nature and reason of Ordination by which as the same Apostle says they are made meer Ministers of the New Testament so that all Priests are Ministers but all Ministers are not Priests and the word Priest plainly signifies him that hath power to ministrate and may be called Minister in the time of his Ministration The Prophet Jeremy cap. 32. v. 21. calls Gods Priests and Levites his Ministers Phil. 2.25 S. Paul calls Epaphroditus his brother and coadjutor and fellow-soldier and the Apostle and Minister of his necessities M. Mason must give me leave to ask of him a question whether he believes that Priests have no other power then what he specifies to wit a Minister of the Gospel to whom is committed the dispensing of the word and Sacraments if he does not his words are vain if he does how will this stand with what he saith in other places as lib. 5.
MISSALE ROMANVM VINDICATVM OR The MASS Vindicated from D. Daniel Brevents calumnious and Scandalous Tract S. Augustine lib. 2. contra Julianum Pelagium cap. 10. The Catholick Fathers and Doctors have held what they found in the Church have taught what they learned and delivered to their Sons what they received from their Fathers as yet we did not deal with you before these Judges and our cause is judged by them neither we nor you were known to them yet we recite their sentences or Judgments made against you Printed in the Year 1674 TO THE Right Worshipful Grave and Reverend Doctours of the Famous University of OXFORD Health and Salvation THe whole Vniverse worthily admires the Oxonian Academie for its Antiquity and Learning for the great multitude of famous Doctors which have flourished in its bosome Structures in its Colledges rare Library compleatly stored with books of all sorts but principally Manuscripts which if not diminished by the destiny of Funus Scoti et Scotistarum would have far exceeded most of Christendome and now may contend for equality except only the Vatican It s present glory is in no mean way augmented by that magnificent Theater which the late Archbishop of Canterbury to his eternal Glory has erected wherein all may depredicate his Munificence and other Universities envy Oxfords Glory This indeed is Sheldons Trophy and Triumph Vpon reflection of this unparaleld Theater I cannot but deplore that such an excellent and so magnificent a structure should be abused and defiled by such an unseemly Imp as the late Doctour Daniel Brevent has hatched under its roof I mean his Missale Romanum Printed in that Theatre without any license or approbation wherein there is very little appears which may beseem a Doctour of Oxford He begins indeed very briskly acknowledging the Roman Church to have been a true Church in the first five hundred years after Christ but afterwards to have decayed principally for that from that time the Church allowed and approved the holy sacrifice of the Masse which he chiefly labours to reject by Railleries scoffs and jeerings amongst others he grounds himself on two manifestly false impositions the first is that Roman Priests do sacrifice their God imitating the primitive Infidels who imputed it to the Christians that they did eat their God whereas our faith teaches us that Christs body and bloud is sacrificed to God The second is that the Priests at the Altar do work all the Miracles which are wrought in the Eucharist which Miracles by Catholicks are attributed to Christ himself who instituted the holy Sacrament To make his raillery more compleat he spares not to call all Roman Catholicks Adulterers Adorers of vile creatures Idol-worshipers invaders of sacred offices sacrilegiously reproaching them of untruths impieties fearfull and barbarous cruelty Priesthood a most sacrilegious function which in plain terms he admits for almost twelve hundred years the whole Christian world were no better then Idolaters nay as he says worse then all Pagans and Infidels So that the whole Church all Christian Emperours Kings and Princes all Christian Empires Kingdoms Nations and Provinces were enslaved to Idolatry all Popes Primats Archbishops Bishops and Clergy-men were liable to his censures No Church either universal or particular truly Christian no Conversion of any Nation in particular England to the true faith of Christ for those who were converted in those times were most unhappy for they were alwayes taught believed and exercised the sacrifice of the Masse All the Modern Churches as besides the Latin the Grecian Oriental Affrican and Indians in all places of the world except only some of our pretended Reformers in a little Corner thereof have the same and the schoolmen whom he so frequently cites were all Idolaters for they all held maintained and defended the sacrifice of the Masse against all Infidels and hereticks and for the most part were sacrificing Priests Moreover the Glory of your famous Vniversitie is much impeached by this his Calumnie for your Doctors and Professors your Churches Chappels and Schools your Colledges and Chairs were all infected with this pretended Idolatry for within their walls no other doctrine was taught heard or used until these last times the several Comments made on the Master of the sentences on S. Thomas Scotus and other Schoolmen testifies the same nothing can excuse them but grosse ignorance but what shall we say of those famous Doctours who have so learnedly written against Wickliff even on the same score and what of those Reverend and learned Bishops who in Oxford condemned him as an heretick and who were so careful as is manifest in Provinciali veteri reprinted at Oxford in the year 1669. of the Celebration of Mass The Doctor bespatters them all with Idolatry sacriledge and blindness ignorance and blasphemy But he might have considered if malice or Ignorance had not blinded him that under the name of the Roman Church for so many hundred of years he impugns Christs Church within the five hundred years after Christ even as it was established by Christ and his Apostels for the Catholick Church was never without Mass in that time and what Masses or Liturgies were used in succeeding times were delivered from those times as the Roman or Latin Church challenges that of S. Peter as it was declared by S. Clement those of Hierusalem and some other parts that of S. James those of Affirica that of S. Mark or S. Philip The Grecians that of S. Basil who as S. Proclus testifies did not add to any other precedent but contract and abreviate what was formerly used S. Chrysostome did the same to that of S. Basil yet both these liturgies or Masses are in use to this day in all the Grecian Churches if then the Mass be Idolatry and so fond a thing as this Doctor pretends Christ never had a true Church upon earth far as I shall shew in this short Tract the Catholick Church was never without the sacrifice of the Mass if we may believe Tradition practise and custome of all Christian Churches Ecclesiastical or civil histories Councils both General and of several Provinces in the whole world and the unanimous consent of all the holy Fathers and Doctors I dare challenge Doctour Brevent or any of his associates to produce any one Nation that ever roceived the Christian Faith without this sacrifice or publick Divine Service but that which we call Mass or liturgy under the notion of a sacrifice The Grecians as I said before and all those who belong to that Church as Iberians Sclavonians Russians Muscovits and in many parts of Asia and Affrick agree in the sacrifice of the Mass with some difference of Ceremonies The Meridional parts which contain the Nubians the Abissins and greatest parts in Aegypt Arabia and Chaldea under the Patriarkate of Alexandria The Nestorians dispersed in Tartary Persia and the Oriental parts and kingdoms of India the Armenians and Scithians I do not say that all these agree with the Latins
sacrifice which is used by Christians on the holy Altars is not only offered to God the Father but also with common devotion to the Son 239. S. Fabian Pope and Martyr declared that the sacrifice is not to be admitted from the hands of a Priest who cannot perform the prayers or actions or other observances of the Mass according to the rites of the Church 175. S. Soter Pope and martyr determined that when the Priests consecrated the holy Mysteries in the time of the Masses if it happened by any accident of sicknesse that the Mystery began could not be accomplished it should be supplyed by some other Priest Again he ordained that none should presume to celebrate Mass after meat or drink how little soever it were as also that none of the Priests should presume to celebrate the solemnity of Masses without two being present to answer him 273. Foelix Pope and Martyr Epist 2. ad Episcop Galliae declared that in a synod he had commanded them and all Churches that Masses should be celebrated on the memory of Martyrs 145. S. Higgine Pope and Martyr ordained that all Churches should always be consecrated with Mass Evaristus also Pope and Martyr witnesse Ivo and Burchard had ordained the same 142. S. Telesphore Pope and Martyr in his Epistle to all Bishops Cap. 2. ordained three Masses to be said on Chrismass day one at midnight 121. Alexander Pope and Martyr Epist 1. ad omnes orthod sayes Veritie it self has instructed us to offer the Chalice and bread in the Sacrament when he said Jesus took bread and blessed and gave to his Disciples saying take ye and eat for this is my body which is delivered for you In like manner the Chalice c. for by these sacrifices offered to our Lord crimes and sinns are blotted out and therefore his Passion is to be remembred whereby we are redeemed and often recited and these offered to our Lord our Lord is delighted and pleased with such hosts and great sins are demitted for can there be in sacrifices a greater thing then the body and bloud of Christ Neither can there be any Oblation better then this for this excells all which is to be offered to our Lord with a pure conscience and to be taken with a pure minde and to be honoured by all and as it is better then all other so it ought rather to be honoured and worshiped The same Saint sayes In the Oblation of the Sacraments which are offered within the solemnity of Masses the Passion of our Lord is to be added that the Passion of him whose body and bloud is made may be celebrated so that setting aside all superstitious opinions Bread only and wine mixed with water are to be offered in the sacrifice for as we have received from our Fathers and reason it self teaches wine alone or water alone is not to be offered in the Chalice of our Lord but both mixt because we reade that both did flow from his side in his Passion To omit others I shall conclude with S. Clement Pope and Martyr l. 6. constit Apostat 23. for a bloudy sacrifice Christ gave a rational and Incruental and that Mystical sacrifice of the body and bloud of our Lord which is celebrated as a symbole of his death I know some of our adversaries will call in question some of these Decrees but setting aside all other disputes the practise of the Church from thence even to our times and the use of most of them in the liturgies before mentioned will sufficiently convince the truth of them let us now see whether the holy Councells of those times will manifest the same Councels 505. I Shall begin with the Agathen Councel within the fifth hundred year which can 14. ordains that the Altars are to be consecrated not only with the unction of Chrism but also by the sacerdotal benediction Can. 21. allows Masses in private Oratories but commands that in principal feasts all should hear Mass in the Parochial Churches and can 47. commands all seculars to hear Mass on Sundays 482. The first Councel at Tours Can. 2. forbids married or luxurious priests to offer sacrifice to God or to minister to the people 420. The last Councel of Carthage cap. 3. declares that it is not lawful for a priest to reconcile any one in the publick Mass 416. The second Melevitan Councel cap. 12. ordains that none should celebrate prayers or Orisons or Masses or Praefations or commendations or Imposition of hands which were not approved in Councels 398. The fourth Councel of Carthage in the first 6. Canons plainly shews the holy Orders to have reference to the due celebration of Mass Can. 33. Bishops or Priests if on cause of visiting the Church they come to the Church of another Bishop they are to be received according to their degree and invited to preach the Word and consecrate the oblation that is the Mass Can. 79. Penitents who have diligently performed the laws of Penance if accidentally they die in their journey or on the Sea where they could not be assisted let the memory of them be commended both in prayers and oblations Can. 89. it is ordained that the Bishop should prohibite none whether Gentile or Heretick or Jew to enter into the Church or to hear the Word during the Mass of the Catechumens All such were not to stay in the Mass of the faithful 397. The third Councel of Carthage Can. 23. When one is at the Altar the prayer is alwaies to be directed to the Father and Can. 24. Nothing more is to be offered in the Sacraments of the body and bloud but what our Lord himself has delivered that is bread and wine mixt with water nor nothing more offered in the sacrifices than of grapes and wheat 393. The Councel held at Hippon has the same Decrees and ordains that the Sacraments of the Altar should be celebrated by those who are fasting 352. In a Roman Councel Athanasius was accused for having consecrated a Church built by the Emperour without his knowledge and was so bold as to celebrate the synaxis therein S. Athanasius denies the first but grants the second wherein he prayed for the Emperour and was drawn to do it by the Multitude 324. The Gangrane Councel cap. 24. declares Anathema to those who through pride esteeming themselves perfect did condemn the Assemblies made in the places and Churches of the Saints or believed the oblations which are there celebrated to be despised and the memory of the Saints to be contemned 320. The ancient Councel of Laodicen cap. 58. Bishops are not to make the oblations in private houses without Priests But what makes more to our purpose the same is gathered out of three of the first General Councels which the present Church of England admits now in their Articles In the 4. General Councel of Calcedon Act. 3. Blessed Ischirion Martyr accused Dioscorus Bishop of Constantinople 251. that amongst other things he had taken away the wheat that
Memento of the Mass in which the Priest prays for all who are present saying for whom we offer to thee or who do offer to thee this sacrifice CHAP. VII Of the Doctours deceitful proceeding in his citations THe Doctour to shew his great Reading in every page almost cites schoolmen Fathers Liturgies and Councils not remembring that all those schoolmen were members and professours of the Roman Church all of them taught the Roman Mass I cannot concieve any reason why he should alledge Bellarmine and other Schoolmen for his foolish conceits unless he had dreamt that no man would take the pains to read their works for if they did they should easily see his legerdemain nay I can scarcely believe that the Doctor himself ever read them in the Authours themselves but perhaps trusted to some others notes verily a man need not go any further to answer all his impertinencies then to read the places he cites for either they were of his opinion or no if they were not as it is certain they were not who can excuse his most perverse malice who with neglect of their grounds for the sacrifice of the Mass and answers to all his objections If they were not strange madness possessed them that they all of them should so amply and so copiously write preach and teach this catholick Doctrine Alcuinus Ordo Romanus Durandus Walfridus Honorius Gabriel Ceremonialt and Pontificale Romanum Vega c. whom the Doctour cites have written whole books believing and proving not only the substance of the Roman Mass but also every particular circumstance manner and rite and ceremony thereof all these Schoolmen were Priests or Bishops ordained in the Roman Church yea many were Cardinals But it is strange that the Doctour should quote such men when he confesses that the Roman Church had almost twelve hundred years been possessed of the Mass and professed as she now doth the most that we may expect from his innumerable citations is that he has scraped and culled some half sentences some slips of words wherein I will not excuse all neither are we bound to defend or believe all they say we much honour them as true Children of the Church and as faithful Expositours of the Mysteries of our faith with submission to their lawful Prelates But I freely accuse the fraudulent dealing of taking words and sentences contrary to their own judgment and minde yea their own words and absolutely contrary to their manifest and known doctrine meerly to deceive the Christian Readers I dare say that if the Doctour himself or any other would stand to their judgments the Doctor would loose his cause for they were constant Champions and defenders of the Roman faith even in this sacrifice of the Mass Now because it is not my task here to defend or reprove what has been said or taught in the Church from the first five hundred years I will let the Doctor alone in his career and enquire what others will say of his great impertinencies But because he has the boldness to quote the Liturgies or Masses of S. James S. Basil and S. Chrysostome which were within those five hundred years I must say that it is an unwonted way to take testimony of Masses against the Mass especially when all he has said in every respect is as much against the Mass of S. James of S. Basil and S. Chrysostome as against the Roman Mass for in substance of a sacrifice of the new law they are all one as I have formerly declared Yet I cannot but note that the Doctor pag 20. produces a prayer used in the Liturgies That according to our Saviours merciful institution God would be pleased to send down on these Sacraments the Holy Ghost and so sanctify them that they may be the pretious body and the pretious bloud of his Son to them who should receive worthily c. In the Liturgy of S. Chrysostome I find these words in Latin Adone offerrimus tibi rationabile ac incruentum hoc obsequium precamur supplicamus deposcimus ut mittas spiritum sanctum tuum super nos super hoc apposita munera the rubrick is Et origeâ—s se torrio consignans sancta munera dicit Et fac panem istum quidem pretiosum Corpus Christi tui quod est in calice isto pretiosum sanguinem Christi tui permutans sancto spiritu tuo These words I have put in English before cap. 2. § 3. of S. Chrysostomes liturgy and here in latin that all may see how little conscience this Doctor shews in citing those Liturgies which are so contrary to his drift in this his book and how little care he has of his words for if we should stand to the words as he sets them down we may gather that the bread and wine are sanctifyed by the Holy Ghost and made the body and bloud of Christ his addition which none of the Liturgies have To them who should receive worthily is only a necessary condition required on our paâ—â—â— but makes nothing to the being of our Saviours body and bloud in the Sacrament and are not found there As for the holy Fathers he frequently quotes them but seldom their words at least any way contradicting the Catholick doctrine of the Mass how much they are for it is manifest from what has been said before the greatest advantage that I conceive he makes of them is that they somtimes call the Eucharist even after the consecration Bread which cannot be denyed for the Roman Church in the Mass does the same imitating our Saviour who affirmed that he was the bread of life the bread which I will give is my flesh and things are named according to the outward form and lest any one should be mistaken the holy Fathers must commonly and an explication thereto so S. Cyprian l. 2. Epist 3. sayes Christ offered the 〈◊〉 which Melchisedech offered to wit bread and wine that is his body and bloud S. Hierome in cap. 1. Malac. We pollute the bread that is Christs body when we come unworthily to the Altar and in cap. 5. ad Hebreos Our mystery is signified in offering bread and wine that is the body and bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ is offered so in the Roman Mass it is bread of life everlasting CHAP. VIII Of two gross Mistakes committed by the Doctor THe Doctor either out of Ignorance or perverse malice in his third chap. as also so in other places attributes to the Roman Church the sacrificing of their God which if he believes he shews his ignorance in a high degree if not what may excuse him for he cannot but know that the sacrifice of the Mass is no other than that of the body bloud of Christ Jesus and that it is offered as well to God the Son as to God the Father and to God the Holy Ghost and by his raillery all alone he seems to understand it but in this he imitated the ancient heathens who upbraided
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
in the divine operation of Christs bedy and bloud And c. 8. putting a distinction between Priest and Deacon he says The one consecrates and the other disposes or distributes the one sanctifies the things offered the other distributes the things sanctified S. Cyprian Epist 54. ad Cornel. says Priests do daily celebrate sacrifices to God And Epist 66. ad Furnesses Each one honoured with divine Priest-hood and constituted in Clerical Ministery ought only to serve the Altar and sacrifices and attend to prayers S. Hierome Dialogo cum Lucifer c. 8. Hilarius a Deacon only could not make the Eucharist not having Bishops nor Preists for it is not a Church which has no Priests This is more manifest in the Priests ordination as it is expresly declared in the Florentine Councel the form whereof is Receive the Power of offering sacrifice to God for the living and dead whence we may note this is no new constitution but a declaration to the Armenians of the Roman use and manner of Ordination for which the Roman Pontifical is alledged which was long before this Councel and was in use in all the Western parts and Ordo Romanus made by Pope Gelasius in the year 496. which as Alcuinus notes in 2. par de divinis officiis has the same form which also S. Ambrose insinuates in 1 Epist ad Tim. c. 4. where he speaks of himself saying when I was ordained Priest whereby I was designed for the work and received Authority that I durst in our Lords stead to offer sacrifice to God S. Clement lib. constit Apost cap. 24. Look down upon thy servant elected and fill him with the holy Ghost that he may perform the immaculate sacrifice for thy people but what is more our Saviour himself in his last Supper ordained his Disciples in the same form Do this in my remembrance whereby our Saviour gave power to his Disciples to do that is to make or offer the same sacrifice as he had done as I have declared in the first chapter § 3. Our Reformers have mainly endeavoured to take away the true and proper sacrifice of the Masse and consequently to take away the Evangelicall Priesthood which by continuall succession even from the Apostles times yea from Christ himself hath always continued in the Catholick Church and to this end the Parliament of England in the nonage of King Edward the 6. invented a new form or ordination and commanded that none should give any Orders but in the form prescribed which was repealed by Queen Mary and again renewed by Queen Elizabeth in the 8. yeare of her Reign To speak only of Priesthood which principally makes to our present purpose our Catholick Doctors and Controvertists did oppose against their Ordination of Priesthood by several reasons and first that they had no lawful Ministers of their order that is no proper and true Bishops and consequently no true ordination which is clearly proved by Erastus senior in his Scholasticall Demonstration printed in the year 1662. which I wave and go to the second Reason Which is that the form of Ordination newly invented is no true form nor ever used in the Church nor no essentiall part necessarily required in the act of giving or ministring holy orders to make this more clear we may note that in the Sacrament of Orders there is required a sensible sign which Divines call the materiall part and the application of this sensible sign to the signification of what is signed which is the formal part To our purpose the Imposition of hands by the Bishop may well be said to be the materiall part of the Sacrament for of it self it is indifferent to Episcopacy Priesthood or Deacon-ship nay to other spiritual effects as of Confirmation yea of remission and absolution and is necessarily determined and appropriated to this or that effect by certain words expressing the power and nature of this or that Order In this all Catholicks do agree and some of your Learned Protestants acknowledge M. Mason one who hath written purposely of this Subject lib. 2. cap. 16. Impositionem manuum ut signum ordinis sensibile amplectimur forma sensibilis sita est in verbis quae preferuntur dum signum sensibile exhibetur We embrace Imposition of hands as the sensible signe of order The essential form consists in words which are spoken whilst the sensible signe is used in which also those who reformed the Roman Ordination did agree when retaining the imposition of hands they invented a new form never used before in Gods Church nor yet coming home to the purpose for no words can be said to be the true form of any Sacrament which does not determine the sensible signe to its proper effect or office In the Ordination of Priesthood it must signifie the grace and power which is given to him that receives the Order of Priesthood so the foresaid Mr Mason Istius modo verba quatenus de notant datam potestatem sunt illius forma essentialis The learned Bishop of Derry in Ireland in his book of the Consecration and succession of Protestant Bishops page 226. comes more home saying The form or words whereby men are made Priests must express power to consecrate or make present Christs body and bloud c. for we have no difference with the Romanists in this particular They who are ordained priests ought to have power to consecrate the Sacraments of Christs body and bloud that is to make it present Doctour Sparrow is of the same opinion as is noted in the said Liturgicall Discourse part 1. cap. 26. and Doctour Thorndike in his book of Just weights and measures cap. 21. All Ordination tends to the celebration and communion of the Eucharist as well that of Bishops to the end that they may ordain the other Orders and that of Deacons that they may wait upon the celebration of it As that of Priests that receiving the power of the keyes to warrant the effect of it they may therefore have power to celebrate it Surely the present English Church must be of the same judgment when only those who are ordained Priests have authority to consecrate the Eucharist which is their peculiar proper and principall office belonging to none other the Power and authority to them in this cannot be from any humane authority but divine which comes unto us by the work of the Holy Ghost in the Sacrament Now in the Form of Ordination invented by order of Parliament in the time of King Edward the 6. and used since in Queen Elizabeths time no such power is expressed for all the words savour more of jurisdiction or execution of what follows the nature of the order of Priesthood without which the rest is of no Force for without the power ex vi ordinis no actions ex vi officii are authentical or valuable for as Mr Mason well says l. 2. c. 16. Non verba quaelibet huic instituto inserviunt sed quae ad ordinis conferendi potestatem
the words This is my Body by the word Body which they believe in another sense do not consecrate Matrimony with the same words and matter If by the word Wife they both or either of them understand Concubine is no Matrimony When then the Bishop intends not to ordain as a sacrificing priest but intends the the contrary his act is ineffectual for according to the Doctrine of Christs Church the power of consecrating and offering the true Body and Bloud of Christ and the remitting and retaining of sins is so annexed to the order of Priesthood that Priesthood cannot be without it and therefore he that intends to give Priesthood without gives nothing at all To conclude the Church of England has excluded Ordination out of the number of Sacraments and withall rejected the Papall power one may question then what power or authority they have to give Orders but principally from whence they have any authority or power to give them power to execute any offices belonging to Priesthood It cannot be said to be from the words which are not Sacramental and consequently being no Sacrament have no Institution from Christ for that end Moreover it cannot be said to be from the Church for the Church can give no such authority but by the Sacraments and the Reformed Ministers have no authority from the visible Catholick Church or Pope or Metropolitan which they professedly reject and disclaim for Ordination is a spiritual power which tends to spiritual effects Doctor Heylin Eccles Restit in his Preface Queen Elizabeth looked upon her self as the sole sountain of both Jurisdictions and the Act. 1. Eliz. 1. declares the Kings supremacy to use and exercise all such Jurisdictions spiritual and ecclesinstical as by any spiritual and ecclesiastical power or authority hath heretofore been or may lawfully be used over the Ecclesiastical state of this Realm yet as Doctor Bramhall well says pag. 63. The power of the Keys was evidently given by Christ in Scripture to his Apostles and their Successors not to Soveraign Princes Many of our Protestant Divines and learned Doctours did well consider this Difficulty and therefore most of them do admit that Ordination is a Sacrament and consequently they ground their Ordination on the authority of the former Catholick Bishops who in a Sacramental power did ordain them who according to Dr Brevent were all Idolaters and unlawful Ministers of the Sacraments except only Baptism in extreme necessity so that they have no right to any Ordination but by vertue of the Sacrament which cannot take effect unless it be dnely administred by lawful power and in due form From which I inferr that our Reformers in taking away and rejecting the sacrifice of the Mass have also rejected the Priesthood whose principal office is to offer sacrifice and consequently they have no true Ordination In fine no Sacrifice no Priest no Priest no Sacrifice wherefore call the Ministers Priests or what you will if they have not the office and power to consecrate and offer sacrifice they are no Priests properly taking the word priest or according to the common sense and use of the Catholick Church in all ages and times yea among Heathens and Infidels whence it follows that as our Reformers have framed a new Religion so they have invented a new priesthood never heard of before giving no other power then to preach and dispense the Sacraments which may be committed or done by Deacons or Lay-men as all Ecclesiasticall histories do testifie on this ground and other defects in their Ordination the present Catholick Church makes no scriple notwithstanding their pretanded Ordination to ordain or give Orders to those who being converted and reconciled to the said Catholick Church shall humbly defire it I know some will say that this cannot be done without Sacriledge for even in the Doctrine of the Universal Church Re-ordinations as also Re-baptizations are esteemed sacrilegious whence frequently those who were baptized or ordained by heretical priests or Bishops were not rebaptized nor re-ordained In consideration hereof the now Church of England does not re-baptize nor re-ordain priests coming to their communion but permits them to remain in the Order received and approves of them in all their function and power as if they had been ordained by Protestant Bishops This Subject would require a longer Discourse then my brevity will permit I will therefore briefly conclude this Chapter The Catholick Church hath always detested both Rebaptization and Reordination but never made difficulty to Baptize or Ordain some who falsly pretended to have been Baptized or Ordained when really they were not We have a plain Declaration of this in the Councel of Nice Can. 19. where those who were baptized by the Paulianists were absolutely to be Baptized because they were not Baptized in the right Form of Baptism to wit by the Invocation of the holy Trinity The Decree of the Apostles Can. 68. declares that baptized or ordained by Hereticks were neither Baptized nor ordained which as Caranzen notes is to be understood of such Hereticks who did not observe the right Form in ministring the Sacraments The Church whensoever it was manifest that the Ordainers had not lawful power or did corrupt or alter the form of Ordination judged that what they had done was Null and of no force and did simply and plainly ordain them But if upon due examination it were found that the heretical Bishops were formerly ordained by Catholick Bishops who observed the true form of the sacrament those who received orders from them and were otherwise fitting for it were received without any new Ordination only new power was given unto them for the execution of such and such Orers for as the learned Doctour Morinus de sacris Ordinat par 3. Eccercit 5. 6. well notes It may be admitted that such do receive a Character even those who are ordained against the Canons but so that the vertue of the Character is dulled or blunted not capable or not fit for action the Ancients did esteem Ordination Canonically given could never be blotted out but that its force or vertue by deposition might be repressed or dulled that it could not produce any other Ordination which may be confirmed by the common Doctrine of the Church which teaches that a Priest notwithstanding his Character received in some causes cannot give either lawfully or validly absolution As for that which is added concerning the use of the now English Church whch re-ordains not priests coming to it all men know that according to their Opinion it would be very Sacrilegious for no true Protestant will deny but that Catholick Ordination is valid and of Real force giving all power and vertue belonging to a Priest which to deny would be destructive to their pretended Hierarchy which has no other Foundation for its succession then that their Priests and Biships were so ordained The true state of the Case is the Catholick Church in such case Ordains those who were never truly
circumstance or apparitions of Majesty and glory which were but external signs of some peculiar presence of God in the temple but him who was thereby presented and this without any shew of Idolatry and in like manner if we adore Christ as present in the Sacramental signs presented unto us we cannot be said to be Idolaters when the object of our Adoration is not the sign or any created thing but only Christ Jesus God and man whence learned Erasmus lib. 9. Epist ad Pelicanum well said Hitherto with all Christians I have adored Christ in the Eucharist neither do I yet see any cause why I ought to depart from that opinion I can by no humane reason be withdrawn from the agreeable judgement of the whole world which is also in the Liturgical discourse par 2. Sect. 3. cap. 12. and cap. 13. in the general consent of the primitive times as is manifest in all the holy Liturgies of Gods Church in those times and proved out of S. Augustine there also cited concludes That not only we do not sin in adoring but we should sin in not adoring S. Ambrose will have us to adore Christ on the Altar in the Mysteries that is in the Mass S. Prosper lib. sent We do truly honour in the forms of Bread and wine which we see things invisible that is to say Flesh and bloud S. Augustine Epist 120. ad Honoratum c. 27. says The Rich come to our Lords table and receive of his Body and Bloud but they adore only and are not filled as the poor are yet notwithstanding they have adored Theodoret Dial. 2. The Mystical Symbols are adored as being the same things which they are believed to be S. Cyril Catech. 2. shewing the manner how we ought to communicate concludes that bowing down in manner of Adoration and Veneration saying Amen Admirable was the devotion and reverence of S. Gregory Nazianzen his Sister to the Blessed Sacrament as that great Saint and Doctor relates orat 1. and how miraculously she was cured thereby from a disease humanely incurable The Jews and Infidels give sufficient testimony of the Christian practise of adoring Christ Jesus in the Eucharist as is to be seen in all Ecclesiasticall Histories Averroes acknowledges it in his time when he said I have traveled over the world and have found divers Sects but none so foolish as the sects of Christians for they devour with their teeth their God whom they adore S. Augustine lib. 22. contr Faust c. 13. says that the Heathens did esteem Christians to worship Ceres and Liber for the Bread and Chalice and answering says we are far different from Ceres and Bacchus the Pagan Gods although in our Rite we honour the Sacrament of the Bread and Chalice Maximus manducensis a heathen writer in his Epistle to S. Augustine which is extant in 43. Epist of S. Augustine demands of him who is that God which Christians do challenge as proper to them and fain to see him in secret places In the Liturgical Discourse in the place above-cited this is more fully declared It might suffice that such has been the continual practise of Gods Church as is manifest in all the Liturgies or Masses which have been since Christs time so that I may infer that of all the calumnies that our Adversaries have imposed on Catholicks none more impertinent and more vain then this of Idolatry in regard of the Adoration to the Body and Bloud of Christ Jesus in the Eucharist unless they could prove Christ Jesus to be an Idol or not to be adored for as is fully declared we in the Eucharist adore nothing but Christ Jesus Conclusion IN suits of Law when men come to a finall tryall before the Kings Judges the lawyers or Barresters on both sides plead their Causes with long and learned speeches delectable to their hearers and principally to move the Judges to be favourable on their sides The Judge having with attentive ear listened to their long harangues rises up and declares his mind that the whole difficultie depends on the lawful wittnesses on either side which being heard he would according to law give his sentence Innumerable Authors on both sides have written on this subject concerning the Masse but as yet little an agreement is made wherefore omitting long discourses in this short Treatise I seek to come to the Test and stand to the testimony of authenticall and approved witnesses according to which I am content to have my cause stand or fall Doctour Brevent has produced his witnesses against the Masse 2.1 many of the learned Schoolmen 2. many Expositers of the Masse 3. the Liturgies or Masses themselves 4. the Holy Fathers of the primitive times that is within five hundred years after Christ 5. the mainest point wherein he chiefly grounds himself is reason and Sense 6ly he pretends some Text of Scripture I have no exception against any of these witnesses alledged only I must say that it savours of great Ignorance or no less Impudence to take any of them as witnesses against the Masse For first there never was schoolman yet that wrote against it or ever contradicted it but such as have fallen from the Church There books even from the Master of the sentences are extant in every Library and are all expressly and positively against this Doctour as every School boy knows It is strange that he should make any use of them for his purpose when he knows that all of them were members of the Roman Church were taught educated and did teach write and expound the Masse according to the Doctrine of the same Church most of them were Priests or Bishops or Cardinalls in the same and dayly celebrated the sacrifice of the Masse in the same belief and Faith with the Roman Church which by the Confession of this Doctour was in full possession of the Masse for almost twelve hundred years 2. No man of Judgment would alledge Expositors of the Masse against the whole scope and intent of those who have written whole Volumes thereon for to declare the true sense and meaning of every point Article and cirenmstance of the Masse as it is practised in the Roman Church knowing well that if they had taught any other Doctrine contrary to the said Church they should be liable to the censures thereof and be noted by all the faithful Christians besides their works were approved and licensed by their lawfull Superiours and embraced and sollowed by all Roman Catholicks and followed by all schollars in the same Church 3. There cannot be greater insolency then to produce Liturgies against Liturgies or Masses against Masses for the controversy is wholly concerning Liturgie or Masse as they are and have been practised by the Christian Church in all times of Christianity without any variation in Substance in such manner as the Roman Church how at this present uses If then in any of those Liturgies there may be found any thing contrary to the Mass it will condemn themselves which
cannot be imagined unless we will lay a great blemish upon the whole Church especially the supreme Governours thereof with all the Bishops and Pastors Councels and Doctours and holy Fathers of gross Ignorance in using such forms as should contradict the substance of what they unanimously commended to the faithful 4ly It is no less strange that the Doctour should pretend the holy Fathers and Doctours of the Church when not only for almost twelve hundred yeares even by his town confession they all approved the Mass but also defended it against all Contradictors and hereticks and therefore he rejecte their authorities and pretends to stand to the judgment only of the primitive times to wit within five hundred years after Christ In this Treatise I have gone with him to those times and have produced their testimonies from Age to Age and dare say that in those times he can produce no one holy Father or Doctour that hath taught any Doctrine in any opposition or contradiction to any thing of the Roman Mased where as I have produced most of them in opposition to whatsoever the Doctour has pretended against it whereunto I have added the Councils both general and Provincial the practise of the whole Church in those times with the consent of all Christian Nations 5ly Whereas the Doctour pretends some Texts of the holy Scriptures for his cause we may consider that he follows therein his own fancy or private spirit without any Expositour or Interpreter of those times imitating the Hereticks of all Ages who grounded all their errours on the Scriptures misconstrued and by a counterfeit sense of them did delude the Ignorant Christians Of this we have manifest experience in these our times for the innumerable Sectaries now extant do ground themselves on the Texts of Scripture which they pretend for their multiplyed sects Each one affirming their sence and meaning of the holy Text with condemnation of other judgments and so wrest the Scriptures to their several senses making their fancies the Rule of the sacred Text whereas Catholicks take the Scripture for the Rule of their Faith follow the judgment and sence of the one holy Catholick Church as on this present subject I have followed the common Doctrine of the holy Church even in those five hundred years after Christ which the Doctour allows Finally the Doctours mainest argument is from humane Reason or sense which I have proved no way capable to comprehend the mysteries of our Faith which transcends above all Reason or sense otherwise there would be no necessity of such a supernatural gift without which there is no salvation It is true that reason is necessary for the reception of Faith for if we were not reasonable or rational creatures we should not be capable to receive Faith but that reason should guide us in supernatural things is preposterous we know nothing but by our senses which can have no sensation or act of senses in spiritual or supernatural objects such as all Faiths objects are for the receiving thereof only the sense of hearing may concurr from whence the understanding frames intellectual species representing the things which are revealed and declared unto us by the holy Church which teaches in all times according to the holy word of God In confirmation of this S. Paul Hebr. 11. defines Faith The substance of things to be hoped the argument of things not appearing to our senses or humane reason but of it self is an Blench Demonstration or convincing Reason for by Faith alone we are convinced to believe those things which are revealed for faith only shews and demonstrates them as clearly as if we did see them in mid-day faith so works in us that we as more doubt of future or most obscure mysteries revealed then if they were comprehended by the sight of our eyes and are more certain in them then by any sense reason or Demonstration which may deceive or be deceived but in matters known by faith we cannot be deceived for God cannot deceive us It behoves as therefore as S. Paul 2. Cor. 10. says to bring into captivity all understanding much more senses unto the Obedience of Christ If we be true Christians by faith we must captivate and humbly submit our will understanding all our reason and all our senses to the word of God revealed S. Basil in psal 113. said All the Articles of our faith are principles grounded only on God revealing and therefore we need no Inquisition or disputation by any weak reason but firmly believe them as principles of our Faith without any examination or Question it suffices to all true believers that Dominus ipse dixit The Objects of our faith are supernatural and the subject which we treat of is of the Reall and substantiall Body and Bloud of Christ Jesus being in the Eucharist which only the understanding by Faith comprehends I will therefore submit all I have said to the judgment of all understanding persons and earnestly desire them to ponder what has been pleaded fouthe equitie of my cause which is grounded on the positive Texts of holy Scripture attested and expounded by the holy Fathers and Doctours of those primitive times and seconded by the General Practise of Gods Church aswell in those times as in all succeeding Ages without any notable question untill our later times God out of his infinite mercy open the Eies of those who go astray and grant them the Light of Faith such is the continuall prayers of him who earnestly wisheth them all health and salvation in Christ Jesus FINIS
was sent by the Emperour to the Church of Libia for to make the Eucharist that by that occasion the Incruent al sacrifice of the Mass was not for long time offered he adds moreover that those goods which Perisopia a most noble woman had bequeathed by Testament to Monasteries and to the poor to the end that the sacrifice might be offered for the health of her soul he had given to prophane persons sure these actions were then esteemed great Crimes or else he durst not to have presumed to propound them in the face of so great a Councel 431. In the great Councel of Ephesus the Epist of Cyrill Patriarck of Alexandria and synod of that place to Nestorius was read cap. 3. and highly approved and commended as agreeable to the Councel of Nice or containing nothing ambiguous nothing dissentaneous but agreeing to our setled faith without any noveltie Now this Epistle was a profession of the Catholick faith and to our purpose in these terms Announcing the death of the only born Son of God that of Jesus Christ according to the flesh and his Resurrection and in like manner confessing his ascension into the heavens we celebrate in the Churches the incruental verity of sacrifice so also we come to the Mystical Benedictions and are sanctified and made partakers of the holy body and precious bloud of Christ redeemer of all of us not receiving as common flesh farr be it nor as of a sanctified man and as of one joined to the word according to the unity of dignity or of one possessing the divine habitation but as truely life-giving and made proper to the word it self being life naturally as God for he is united to proper flesh and has declared that to be life-giving and therefore as he said to us Amen Amen I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his bloud yet we ought not to think that to be as a man one of us for how can the flesh of man according to his nature be life-giving but truly made proper to him who for us both is and is called the son of man I cannot conceive but that this was then the common belief of the whole Church when from this Mystery of the Mass they proved the Godhead of Christ 325. I shall conclude with the 18. Canon of the first General Councel held at Nice where it is said That there was brought to the holy great Council that in some places and Citties the Deacons did give the Grace of holy Communion to Priests which neither Rule nor custome hath delivered that those who offer Christs body should receive from them who have no power to offer also it was declared that some Deacons did touch the holy thing offered that is the Eucharist before the bishops These might suffice to any rational man for a clear attestation of the holy sacrifice of the Mass even in those primitive times nevertheless I shall by way of addition produce the testimony and judgment of the holy Fathers and Doctours of those times CHAP. IV. The testimony and judgment of the holy Fathers and Doctours for the Sacrifice of the Mass and that within five hundred years after Christ 430. I Shall begin with the foresaid S. Cyril even in the first Councel of Ephesus in his Declaration of the 11. Anathematicisme We celebrate in the Church the life-giving and incruental sacrifice beleiving that which is set before us to be the body and in like manner precious bloud not of some man-like and common but rather we receive it as the proper body and bloud of the life-giving Word for common flesh cannot vivificate and our Saviour testified this saying the flesh profiteth nothing it is the spirit that quickeneth but because it is made proper to the word therefore it is understood as is life-giving as our Saviour said As the living father sent me and I live by the Father and he who eats me the same also shall live by me 430. Theodoret about the same time cap. 20. of the History of the holy Fathers In the life of holy Maris says When divine Maris had a long time desired to sea the spirituall and mystical sacrifice to be offered he asked that the oblation of the divine gift might be made I willingly yielded to him and commanded the holy vessells to be brought when the village was not far distant and for an Altar used the Deacons hands and offered the mystical divine and salutarie sacrifice 420. S. Augustine Epist 23. ad Benifacium Was not Christ once immolated in himself and yet in the sacrifice not only through all the Paschall solemnities but every day for the people l. 20. oont Faustum c. 21. Who of the Bishops assisting at the Altar in the place of the holy bodies at any time said I offer to thee Peter or Paul or Cyprian but what is offered is offered to God who crowned the Martyrs Afterward We most frequently sacrifice to God in the Memory of Martyrs only with that Rite with which in the manifestation of the New testament he hath commanded to be sacrificed to him which pertains to that worship which is called Latria and is due only to God And a little after The flesh and bloud of this sacrifice before the comming of Christ was promised by victims of similitudes In the Passion was given by truth it self and after Christs Ascension is celebrated by a Sacrament of memory Ser. 91. de temp he makes mention of some lessons which were read in the Masse Ser. 32. cap. 1. It is not to be doubted but that the dead receive help by the prayers of the Church and by the Salutarie Sacrifice and almes which are given for their souls that God may deal more mercifully with them then their sins have deserved for this is delivered to us by our Fathers The whole Church observes when she prayes for those who are dead in the communion of Christs body and bloud when in their place they are remembred at the Sacrifice Ser. 251. On Sonday let none absent themselves from the celebration of Masses where he also complains that some do force the Priest to abreviate their Masses lib. 10. di civitate Dei cap. 20. The man Christ Jesus was made Mediatour between God and man when in form of God he takes sacrifice with the Father with whom also he is true God yet in form of a servant he had rather be then take Sacrifice by this he is both a Priest himself the Offerer and he himself the Oblation the Sacrament of which he would have to be the dayly sacrifice of the Church which being the body of that head learns to offer her self by him The ancient sacrifices of the Saints were manifold and various signs of this true sacrifice when this one was figured by many and to this high and true sacrifice all counterfeit Sacrifices did give place and lib. 22. cap. 8. A house being haunted by evill spirits the man of the