that of Christ himself is very apt to take off the minds and confidence of men from that one Sacrifice performed so long ago which they have not seen and to fix them on that which their eyes daily look upon as the praesens numen that they can immediately apply themselves unto Thus they fear that insensibly all faith of the true Propitiation wrought by Christ is obliterated and that which they think an Idol set up in the room of it 10. And which further troubles them they are jealous that by this your fiction you quite overthrow the Testament of Christ which certainly no man ought to endeavour the disannulling of For whereas in this Sacrament believers come to receive from him the great Legacy of his body and blood with all the fruits of his death and Passion you direct them to be offering and Sacrificing of them unto God which quite alters the Will of our great Testator And very many other things there are wherein your Countreymen affirm that your Sacrifice is contrary to the faith wherein from Scripture they have been instructed and that in things of the greatest importance to their Consolation here and Salvation hereafter II. Neither is this all your request also lies cross to your Reason no less then to your Faith For your Sacrifice cannot be performed without a Supposition of a change of the substance of the bread and wine into the substance of the body and blood of Christ and the substance of that body and blood in every consecrated Host under the species of Bread and Wine Christ himself alive being in every Host and every particle of it Hence many things they say ensue which no man can possibly admit of without offering violence unto the main Principles of that Reason whereby we are distinguished from the beasts that perish Some few of them may be instanced in 1. Accidents subsisting without a Subject follows hence necessarily in the first place so that there should be whiteness and nothing white length and nothing long bredth and nothing broad weight and nothing heavy For all these accidents of Bread remain when you would have them say that the bread is gone so that there is left a white sweet long broad heavy nothing This your Countreymen cannot understand 2. Besides they say you hereby teach them that one and the same body of Christ which is in heaven is also on the Altar not by an impletion of the whole space between heaven and earth that some part of it should be in heaven and some on earth but that the one body which is in heaven and whilest it is there is also on the Altar in the Accidents of Bread which upon the matter is that one and the same body is two yea an hundred or a thousand according as in the Mass you are pleased to multiply it Now that one and the same body should be locally divided or separated from its self that whilest that one body is on the Altar that other one body which is the same should be in heaven your Countreymen think to imply a Contradiction 3. And so also they do that a body should be in any place and yet not as a body but as a Spirit For whereas you say that whole Christ is contained under each Species of Bread and Wine and under every the most minute part of either Species as your Council speaks you make the body of Christ to be whole in the whole and whole in every part when the very nature of a body requires that it have partes extra partes its parts distinct from one another and those occupying their distinct particular places But you make the body of Christ neither to be compassed in nor to fill the place wherein it is that is to be in a place and not to be in a place For if it be a body and be under the Species of bread and wine upon the Altar it is in a place and if it be not comprehended in that space where it is and doth fill it it is not in a place and therefore is there and is not there at the same time 4. And moreover we all know that the Consecrated wafer bears no proportion to the true natural body of Christ and yet this is said to be contained under that So that the body contained is much greater and farther extended then the body that contains it or the space wherein it is for it is so under the Host as not to be elsewhere unless in another Host. 5. Nâ—y it is in every minute part of the Host which multiplies contradictions in your Assertion 6. Of the same nature is it that you are forced to feign the same body in 10000. distant places at the same time and that with all contradictory adjuncts and affections Now your Countreymen think that these and innumerable other consequences of your Transubstantiation which you presuppose to your Sacrâ—fice or rather make it a principal part thereof are such as overthrow the whole order of nature and being of things and leave nothing certain among the Sons of men III. Their sense is equally engaged against you with their Reason Your Host is visible tangible gustible when they see it they see bread when they feel it they feel bread when they taste it they taste bread and yet you tell them it is not bread whom shall they believe if things be not as they see them feel them taste them it may be they are not men nor do go on their feet but are deceived in all these things and suppose they see perceive and understand what they do not You tell them indeed that the bread is changed into the body of Christ that body that was born of the blessed Virgin and was crucified at Jerusalem that all taste length breadth weight is taken away from it and that the taste and weight of the bread is continued which are the things they see feel and taste but they likewise tell you that your perswasion is an inveterate prejudice which you have blindly captivated your minds unto and that if you would but give your selves the liberty of exercising any reflex thoughts upon your own acts you would find that upon the suppositions you proceed on you have not any just grounds to conclude your selves to be living men For you teach men to deny and question all that from Reason or Sense you can insist upon to prove that so you are Ou these and the like accounts the Encomiums you give of your Sacrifice will scarce prevail with your Countreymen to relinquish all the worship of God wherein they find daily comfort and advantage to their souls for the embracement of it CHAP. 20. Of the Blessed Virgin UNto the sixteenth Chapter of the Animadversions directed to your Paragraph of the Blessed Virgin you can find it seems nothing to say and therefore betake your self to clamorous revilings All that you say in your Fiat on this head is but an heap of false accusations
what and you seem both in your Fiat and in your Epistola to obscure it as much as you are able 1. You call it an incruent Sacrifice which 1. Shews only what it is not and that in one only instance which is a very lame description of any thing and this also may be affirmed of any Metaphorical Sacrifice what ever as offering unto God the calves of our lips it is an incruent Sacrifice 2. Your Expression implyes a contradiction Every proper Propitiatory Sacrifice was bloody and an incruent proper Sacrifice such as you would have this to be is a proper improper Propitiatory Sacrifice 2. You say it was instituted by our Lord to figure out his Passion 1. This is a weighty proof of what you have in hand being the only thing to be proved 2. I suppose in the examination of it it will appear that you Sacrifice that very body and blood of Christ in your own conceits which himself offered unto God and how you can make any thing to be a figure of it self as yet I do not perfectly understand 3. That the Lord Christ appointed the Sacrament of his body and blood and our Eucharistical Sacrifice therein to be a Commemoration of his death and Passion is the Doctrine of Protestants where with your Sacrifice hath a perfect inconsistency as we shall find in the Consideration of it This is the substance of what you are pleased to acquaint us with about this great business of our Religion But because you shall perceive that it was not without good grounds and reasons that I affirmed the Scripture to be utterly silent of this that you make the great work of Christianity I shall a little further enquire after the nature of it that I mean which by you it is fancied to be for it is a mere creature of your own imagination 1. You alwayes contend that it is a proper Sacrifice which you intend The first Canon of your Council accurseth them who deny it to be verum proprium Sacrificium a True and proper Sacrifice wherein as they say before Christus inimolatur Christ is Sacrificed Many things in the New Testament in respect of their Analogy unto the Institutions of the old are called Sacrifices even almost all spiritual actions that are acceptable unto God in Christ. The preaching of the Gospel unto the conversion of sinners is termed Sacrificing Rom. 15. 16. So is Faith it self Phil. 2. 17. So Prayers and Thanksgiving are an oblation Heb. 5. 7. chap. 13. 15. and good works are called Sacrifices Heb. 13. 16. Phil. 4. 18. And our whole Christian Obedience is intimated by Peter so to be In the Sacrament of the Eucharist it is that you seek for your Sacrifice And if you would be contented to call it and esteem it so upon the account of its comprizing some of the things before mentioned or meerly as a spiritual action appointed by God and acceptable unto him there would be an end of this contest But you must have it a proper Sacrifice like those of Aaron of old not a remembrance of the Sacrifice of Christ but a Sacrifice of Christ himself wherein Christus immolatur Christ is sacrificed as the Council speaks 2. The Secrifices of old were of two sorts 1. Eucharistical or Oblations of the fruits of the earth or other things whereby the Sacrificers acknowledged God as the Lord and Author of all good things and mercies with thanksgiving 2. Propitiatory for the atoning of God the reconciling him unto sinners for the turning away of his wrath and the impetration of the pardon of sin This was done typically and Sacramentally by virtue of their respect unto the oblation of Christ by the old bloody Sacrifices of the Law really and effectually by that bloody Sacrifice which the Lord Jesus Christ once offered for all Now because in the Sacrament of the Eucharist it is our Duty to offer up unto God our thankeful prayers for his unspeakable love in sending his only Son to dye for us we do not contend with any who on that accont and with respect unto that peculiar act of our duty in it shall call it an Eucharistical Sacrifice yea affirm it so to be But you will have it a propitiatory Sacrifice a Sacrifice of Atonement like that made by Christ himself a Sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead making reconciliation with God obtaining Pardon of sin and eternal life things peculiar to the one Sacrifice of Christ in his death and passion 3. Though you usually exclude the communion from it wherein you do wisely that it may have no affinity with the Institution of Christ yet you do not precisely determine your Sacrifice unto any one act or action in your Mass but make it comprize the whole with the manner of its celebration from the first setting forth of the Elements of bread and wine mixed with water unto the end of the Offertory after their Transubstantiation and religious adoration thereupon and their offering up unto God the body and blood of Christ under the accidents of bread and wine The presentation of the bread and wine you would prove to belong unto your Sacrifice from the example of Melchisedeck Your Transubstantiation is also of the essence of it for it is required in a Sacrifice sayes your Bellarmine that the sensible thing to be offered unto God be changed and plainly destroyed de Miss Lib. 1. cap. 2. which you esteem the substance of your bread and wine to be in your Transubstantiation Your religious adoration of the consecrated â—â—st belongs also unto it for that in the Canon of the Mass immediately ensues your Transubstantiating Consecration before the oblation it self and so must necessarily be a part of your Sacrifice Your offering up unto God of Jesus Christ praying him to accept of him at the Priests hands supra quae propitio sereno vultu respicere digneris accepta habere belongs also unto it So doth your direction of it to the propitiating of God and the expiation of the sins of the Quick and the Dead The Ceremonies also wherewith your Masse is celebrated as I suppose most of them belong to your Sacrifice and those who believe them not to be duties of Piety are accursed by your Council of Trent The Priests eating of the Host belongs to the Sacrifice yea saith Bellarmine it is pars essentialis Sacrificii though not tota essentia an essential part of the Sacrifice though the whole Essence of it doth not consist therein I know you are at a great loss and variance among your selves to find out what it is that is properly your Sacrifice or wherein the essence of it doth consist Some of your discrepant opinions are given us by your Azorius Lib. 10. Chap. 19. Sunt saith he qui putant rationem sacrificii totam constitui in verbis precibus ceremoniis ritibus qui in consâ—oratione adhibentur eo quod Sacrificii ratio inquiunt nequit in
Image of God in the world and upon the matter the only troublers of humane Society But the moderation which the Gospel requireth ariseth and proceedeth from the Principles of Vnion with Christ before mentioned which is that that proves us Disciples of Christ indeed and will confirm the mind in suitable actings against all the provocations to the Contrary which from the infirmities and miscarriages of men we are sure to meet withall Neither doth this at all hinder but that we may contend earnestly for the Truth delivered unto us and labour by the wayes of Christ's appointment to reclaim others from such opinions wayes and practises in and about the things of Religion and worship of God as are injurious unto his Glory and may be destructive and pernicious to their own souls Neither doth it in the least put any discouragement upon endeavours to oppose the impiety and Prophaneness of men in their corruption in life and Conversation which certainly and unquestionably are inconsistent with and destructive of the Profession of the Gospel let them on whom they are found be of what party Church or way of Religion they please And if those in whose hearts are the wayes of God however diversifyed among themselves by various apprehensions of some Doctrines and Practises would sincerely according to their Duty set themselves to oppose that prophaneness wickedness of Life or open vitiousness of Conversation which is breaking in like a flood upon the world and which as it hath already almost drowned the whole glory of Christian Religion so it will undoubtedly if not prevented end in the woful calamity and finall ruine of Christendome they would have less mind and leasure to wrangle fiercely among themselves and breathe out destruction against one another for their mistakes and differences about things which by their own experience they find not to take off from their Love to Christ nor weaken the obedience he requires at their hands But whilest the whole power of Christianity is despised Conversion to God and separation from the wayes of the perishing World are set at nought and men think they have nothing to do in Religion but to be zealously addicted to this or that party amongst them that profess it it is no wonder if they think their chiefest Duty to consist in destroying one another But for men that profess to be leaders and guides of others in Christian Religion openly to persue carnall and worldly interests greatness wealth outward Splendour and Pomp to live in Luxury and pride to labour to strengthen and support themselves by the adherence of Persons of prophane and wicked lives that so they may destroy all that in any opinion differ from themselves is vigorously to endeavour to drive out of the world that Religion which they profess and in the mean time to render it so unomely and undesirable that others must needs be discouraged from its embracement But these things cannot spring from the Principles of Protestants which as I have manifested lead them unto other manner of actings And it is to no purpose to ask why then they are not all affected accordingly For they that are not so do live in an open contradiction to their own avowed Principles which that it is no news in the world the vicious lives of many in all places professing Christianity will not suffer us to doubt For though that Religion which they profess reacheth them to deny all ungodliness and wordly lusts to live soberly and righteously and godlily in this present world if they intend the least benefit by it yet they will hold the profession of it in a contrary practise And for this self-deceiving attended with eternall ruine many men are beholding unto such notions as yours about your Church securing Salvation within the pale of its externall Communion laying little weight on the things which at the last day will only stand them in stead But for Protestants setting aside their occasionall exasperations when they begin to bethink themselves they cannot satisfie their own Consciences in a resolution not to love them because of some differences whom they believe that God loves or may love notwithstanding those Differrences from them or to renounce all Vnion with them who they are perswaded are united unto Christ or not to be moderate towards them in this world with whom they expect to live for ever in another I speak only of them on all sides who have received into their hearts and do express in their lives the Spirituall Power and energy of the Gospel who are begotten unto Christ by the Word of Truth and have received of his Spirit promised in the Covenant of Grace unto all them that believe on him For not to dissemble with you I believe all others as to their present state to be in the same condition before God be they of what Church or way they will though they are not all in the same condition in respect of the means for their Spirituall advantage which they enjoy or may do so they being much more excellent in some Societies of Christians than others This then to return is the Principle of Protestants derived down unto them from Christ and his Apostles and hereby are they eminently furnished for the exercise of that moderation which you so much and so deservedly commend And more fully to tell you my private judgement which whether it be my own only I do not much concern my self to enquire but this it is Any man in the world who receiveth the Scripture of the Old and New Testament as the Word of God and on that account assents in generall to the whole Truth revealed in them worshipping God in Christ and yeelding obedience unto him answerable unto his light and Conviction not contradicting his profession by any practise inconsistent with true piety nor the owning of any opinion or perswasion destructive to the known fundamentals of Christianity though he should have the unhappiness to dissent in some things from all the Churches that are at this day in the world may yet have an internall supernaturall saving Principle of his faith and obedience and be undoubtedly saved And I am sure it is my Duty to exercise Moderation towards every man concerning whom I have or ought to have that Perswasion 2. Some Protestants are of that judgement that externall force ought to have no place at all in matters of faith however Laws may be constituted with Penalties for the preservation of publick outward order in a Nation most of them that Hareticidium or putting men to death for their misapprehensions in the things of God is absolutely unlawfull and all of them that Faith is the Gift of God for the communication whereof unto men he hath appointed certain means whereof externall force is none Unto which Two last Positions not only the greatest Protestant but the greatest Potentate in Europe hath lately in his own words expressive of an heavenly benignity towards mankind in their infirmities declared his