acknowledge that the Vniverse was as a visible Word that bespake and manifestly prov'd a God and in comparison of which our Eloquence was silent at least so imperfect and contradictory to it self that what it endeavour'd to bring to Light it made more obscure I observ'd that every thing tended to it's natural End punctually did it's Duty unless Man for he from the very beginning took part with the Devils themselves the Enemies of God Almighty and thus ingratefully sinn'd against him from whom he had received such infinite Favours who had made him in as great Perfection as could be though not a God yet after his own Image But as the first Product of his Mind was Vanity and Pride so that of his Body was Cain the Murderer of his Brother and as all his Children inherit his Rebellion and Rashness so consequently his Punishment and Condemnation In the general Observation I have made of 'em I have found some of the Nature of Devils others of Beasts many of both together being guilty of Rapine and Extortion their Hands stain'd with Blood and in a Word the whole Course of their Lives pass'd either in private Conspiracies or open Rebellion and Thefts 'T was then a secret Horror seiz'd me and a Sadness even as the Shadow of Death disturb'd the serenest days of my Life 'T was little Satisfaction to me that God had made me Man or that I was of the number of those who bore the Name of Christians since I saw what Disorders happen'd amongst 'em and that Malice and Ignorance were as predominant here as with Barbarians and Infidels Nothing was so averse to me as those whom I look'd on as my Fellow-members and yet I found 't was necessary either to comply with 'em and so make my self an accomplice with 'em in their Exorbitances or else to render my self perpetually detestable to 'em yet I consider'd that like Accidents did equally surprize both Old and Young and I could not perswade my self that any reasonable Souls could find any real Satisfaction or Contentment under such great Uncertainties that must needs follow My Reason it self and all its thoughtful Results did but yet serve to torment me more till I had carefully consulted the Divine Oracles the best of Books and was assured by them that God in his Providence did reserve and mark out to himself some for whom even the Angels have respect and who shall not be destroyed in the day of Vengeance That this World is but a place of tryal to distinguish the Good from the Bad a way that leads from Darkness to Light from Misery to eternal Happiness These words I had heard with more Fear and Wavering than Assurance perceiving how very few either could or would understand 'em had I not from themselves learn't that even Shepherds and Fishermen have more Knowledge in 'em than the greatest Casuits or learned'st Philosophers and that justly to comprehend their Meaning we stand not in so much need of Logick or Rhetorick as true Faith and Piety That they teach a Knowledge which puffeth not up but does humble and abase men and yet not so far but though mean and low in the World have Courage enough to declare the Truth before the proudest Tyrant and daily to run the hazard of their Lives that by their Endeavours they may save others from Death These divine Revelations attended with a Spirit of Comfort calmed my disturbed mind I found my self so suddenly transformed from what I was that that Sadness which had possessed me though not quite gone yet had changed its Nature for now 't was occasioned only by my Sins and Infirmities If I have any remaining Fears they do but strengthen me and provoke me to strive with more Violence and Ardency to attain that end which Hope and Faith propose I was fill'd with a just sense of Joy arising not from a transitory unsatisfying Pleasure but from a permanent satisfying Good which though communicative encreases and of which though one may liberally dispose will not at all be diminish'd 'T is this which invites me to freely offer what I have received to joyn my Voice with those of the faithful whom God in his Providence has mixed with others that the Truth may be loudly declared so that those will be inexcusable who have heard it and would not believe or those who betraying themselves to their private worldly Interest feared to listen to it lest they should be obliged to follow it's Dictates The Time may come when they will perhaps accuse us of having been too remiss of not having sufficiently informed 'em and then will they be ready to impute their voluntary Ignorance and Obstinacy to our Neglect or Weakness And yet when we endeavour to instruct 'em some pity us others laugh at or despise us and indeed the most favourable Opinion they can have of us is that we are poor simple extravagant Creatures Others are in Passion and angry with us ready to tear us in pieces affront and injure us look on us as Hereticks and Criminals though our Crime is of that Nature that we desire nothing more than to expose it even to the Censure of our very Judges But to whom shall we discourse we cannot be understood by Idolaters The Prophets have pronounc'd such a Curse against 'em that makes 'em void of Knowledge makes 'em like even what they worship and adore We cannot be understood by men of weak or no Judgments they comprehend nothing and do but rather raise Doubts in themselves than find Satisfaction If they are of wicked debauch'd Lives they are disturb'd to hear the Voice that condemns ' em But they are the most dangerous who have the most Learning these use Tricks and Evasions and wrest the clearest Sense and Words to their own meaning the easiest and most natural Propositions when they please become difficult and ambiguous they equally prove and deny every thing and at length as a just Punishment upon 'em they so far neglect the Knowledge of the Truth as to be unhappy enough not to know themselves they have employ'd their Time and Studies so much in superfluous things that they have utterly lost all manner of Care of such that are necessary they have made their humane Learning so much a Judge of the Divine that it has render'd 'em infinitely worse than if they had been altogether ignorant Moreover since 't is hard to perswade any one to what is disagreeable to him I cannot but fancy I hear the Wise men of the Age and our Courtiers saying Prethee talk to us of what is pleasing and grateful to us and don 't you pretend to be wiser than the Church They ought not they believe be better than their Fathers were or follow other Customs than those of their own Country or Towns The Estates they have will not allow 'em to make any Profession which may be in the least in jurious to 'em and at whatever Rate it is God and Religion must suit
may urge to these Doctors to be eaten by the most abject Creatures of the Earth But let us pass by in silence these many Inconveniences which they themselves infer from this so ill-grounded Doctrine and to palliate 'em are oblig'd to have Recourse to Rules and Canons which were they not Superstitious we would call Ridiculous Let us only add that if the Body of Jesus Christ be inclos'd in the Sacrament we may eat it without believing in him Thus Infidels obtain more than they require They eat of Celestial Food they have not asked for nay their very Contempt of it does not hinder 'em from it since they cannot receive the Sacrament without eating it but they are so far from eating it that Believers themselves do it not as 't is understood by the Church of Rome They receive not with the Sacrament the Divine Essence but the Virtue and Essicacy of the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ and since the Wicked cannot partake of his Graces it follows that those Graces are not joyn'd to it by Consecration 'T is not the Words pronounc'd but believed that make Jesus Christ communicated in the Sacrament 'T would be strange if he must be unworthily eaten by his very Enemies and that he who is Holiness it self should every day enter into their defiled bodies only to render 'em more guilty and that he might have more Reason to condemn and punish ' em On the contrary 't is the Devil that would enter into 'em as he did Judas when our Lord gave him the Sop. How is it possible these two Guests so irreconcileable can agree together It is not credible that being fill'd with the most sovereign Good we should only have a sense of Evil from it we receive our Saviour that we may be saved the Wicked take only the consecrated Signs and because such they commit Sacriledge and render themselves guilty of Treason against the Divine Majesty because they have no regard to the Institution of Our Lord contemn his Offers in it and deny it's Vertue They publickly take his Enemies part they again spit in his Face they crown him with Thorns they strike and crucifie him 'T is thus they eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup unworthily 't is thus they eat their own Condemnation not discerning the Body of Jesus Christ For the Symboles Seals and Pledges of his Love are accounted himself by those who believe in him it being Faith alone which makes the Signs inseparable from the thing signified 'T is heavenly Food given to no one for his Condemnation but only for his Justification for Life and not for Death not being under the Accidents of Bread or in the Bread it self but in the Heart of those who receive it Thus the Bread ceases not to be Bread but to be common Bread it loses not it's Substance but acquires Sanctification which changes not it's Nature but adds Grace to Nature for the sake of those that believe The Mystery of the Incarnation unites us to the Body of our Saviour Faith with which he inspires us by his Word unites us to his Spirit which double Union is confirm'd to us by the Communion of Sacraments But as our Union with Jesus Christ cannot be perfect in this World by reason of our Sins and Death which is a Consequence of 'em so though we take the Symboles he gives us corporally yet 't is neither possible or necessary for us to take what they signifie but spiritually For if we take his Body as the Church of Rome imagines it does our Infirmities could not bear his Glory the stronger would overcome the weaker we shou'd doubtless perish or his Vertue would even then blot out all our sins we should in an instant be transform'd and become incorruptible and glorious we should be assured never to see Death But we partake not of one of all these but by the comfort the Spirit gives us but by Faith by which we rely on his Promises and but by that Hope we have of a Life to come Thus to eat the Body of Jesus Christ is to hear his Word is to believe in him to behold him on the Cross loaded with our Sins to be truly sensible of his Wounds and Sorrows and to confess that by the Satisfaction of the Son whose Merit is infinite we satisfie the Father whom we have infinitely offended 'T is to be inflam'd with the love of him who has so very much loved us and to assure him as we do all those we love that he is alwayes in our Thoughts that he fully possesses our Hearts that he is the Soul of our Souls and to use his own terms that He dwells in us and we in him In fine To eat the Body of Jesus Christ is to have a fresh and lively sense of those Favours he has bestow'd on us and to think that we are not only his Servants and Friends but his Brethren his own blood bone of his bones flesh of his flesh and that we are part of that Church whom he has honour'd so far as to make his Eternal Spouse Behold what is the Meat and the Drink which are not given to all sorts of Persons which satisfie and quench the Thirst of those only who hunger and thirst after Righteousness But the Men of this World have not truly relish'd the Simplicity of this Institution they would heighten the Lustre of this double Sacrament and do all things according to the Example or rather in Emulation of the Superstitions of the World The Name of Religion of a Church and even of God himself who serv'd 'em but as a pretence to make themselves more honourable to procure with more Ease earthly Advantages and Preferments Besides this I have often thought what lawful and necessary use they could make of this Transubstantiation 't is what they themselves could scarce tell if so be they would consider the common cause of Salvation as well that of the Jews as of the Gentiles These prodigious Errors are the true Causes of all that Mischief which happens in the World and Mankind will be so long infested with Judgments as Superstition continues to corrupt Religion But the Divine Oracles give us Reason to hope that the days of Sorrow will be shorten'd and that God will confound the Wicked by the Breath of his Mouth The Time will come that Children shall abhor and detest the Belief of their Fathers and will say Is it possible that our Predecessors have been so silly and stupid or so extreamly harden'd by Custom or so very careless in search of the Truth to have believ'd things altogether incredible What Spirit of Pride what high Presumption has possess'd these Councils who have imagin'd they could appoint better Orders for Divine Service than the Providence of God himself had done by the Mouth of his own Son I will then conclude with the Wise Man or at least with his Translator who makes him speak after this manner Ecclesiastes chap. 3.
Divine Graces that infinitely surpasses the Discourse of Men that obliges us to glorifie him who has bestowed it on us with Sighs and Groans that cannot be uttered A TREATISE Concerning the EVCHARIST IF Religion was only grounded upon the Opinion of men if they might serve God according to their own Imaginations and not his Commands every Religion would be a good one and our Intentions alone would be sufficient to recommend each different Invention to us The World which for the most part is affected with things present would be pleas'd with such variety of Worship one part of it would not be accus'd of Heresie or any other look'd on as guilty of Superstition But 't is not enough to own a God or pay any sort of Homage to him the great bus'ness of Religion is to save men from that Eternal Death which they have merited but their Minds are so clouded with darkness and so involv'd in Sin that they cannot find either a Remedy against it or the way to Salvation or the Paths that lead to Supreme Happiness What likelihood is there that the Children of Rebellion who are under the Curse and Anger of God should have yet strength enough to recover their Fall or sufficient Light to direct 'em out of that profound and dark Abyss into which they cast themselves If they cannot comprehend Divine Truth and that this Faith must be derived from some other Spirit than their own why should they pretend to the making of Laws and so absolutely to determine of Universal Religion They ought to receive Instructions from an Understanding much more perfect than their own for indeed they are so incapable to prescribe or command on this occasion that they are utterly disabled even to obey I cannot imagine how men can be so presumptuous and yet so weak and impotent They are sure become insensible of their Infirmities they are ignorant of their want of Knowledge and flatter themselves that their Light is so very clear that their Blindness cannot be discover'd The same Insolence that at first destroy'd 'em does continue to do so even to the end they have violated the most holy things and if we may so say have laid their hands on the Ark against the strictest Prohibitions Is there any thing more Sacred in Religion than the Sacrament of the Eucharist And ought not that to be for ever preserv'd inviolable since instituted by him who was Wisdom it self Yet what part of it is not alter'd corrupted or brought to nothing at all by the Roman Church What remains then in the celebration of what is now called the Mass of that which was heretofore called the Supper of the Lord 'T is a memorial our Saviour was pleas'd to leave of himself to excite men not only by Words but by visible Signs to a remembrance of that which they never ought to forget What Signs were so eligible To what Elements could he have better compared himself than to those which are most necessary to the preservation of our Lives He who is that Bread which came from Heaven for our Spiritual food and that we might eternally live with him What was more proper for him to do than to take Bread break it and give it us since his Body was to be broke for our Sins and He to be deliver'd up to Death that he might procure Life for us What could He more significantly say than Take and Eat since we cannot live unless joyn'd with him as the Substance of the Bread which we eat every day is incorporated with our bodies so that it becomes the same with us and of two Substances but one The same considerations that invite us to Eat will to Drink also unless one could do the Office of the other as 't is done in the Church of Rome But the Cup being a sign of the separation of the Blood from the Body is inseparable from the Sacrament even because the Blood was separated from the Body for in the double Action the breaking of the Body and the effusion of the Blood ought to be equally represented It is not enough then at this Feast to eat we must drink also as 't is customary at all others in the World for he who invites us to it does command us to do so being pleased to suit himself to our Methods of living and who would have us bear a part in his Sorrows only that we may partake of his Joyes He being the Beginning and the End of all things the true Source of those living Waters whose Streams so refresh the Trees of Paradise that by those they grow flourish and become eternally fruitful I have not here undertaken to examine each particular part of the Mass or to compare it with this first Institution or to search after any conformity to it where in truth there is none The Institutions of men are here so intermix'd with those of God or indeed have rather so quite alter'd 'em that we can discover nothing but the pomp and stateliness of the mystery of Iniquity I will venture only to urge some things on the very words of our Saviour which are the innocent Original of those Controversies Seditions Massacres and Differences that happen amongst Christians and which make the reason of our Communion become that of our Dissention 'T is extremely difficult to add any thing to the thoughts of so many admirable Persons who have said all that can be on this Subject and who seem to have forgot nothing but Brevity but I having no other End than the endeavouring to make my self understood by the stupid and wilfully deaf 't would be to no purpose to serve my self of others Reasons if so be I can make my own perswasive 'T is a manner of speaking usual amongst all Nations the style of all Languages to give to a thousand things the name of what they only put us in mind of and to which they bear some resemblance This also extends even to Persons as we say This is the King when there is only his Seal or Picture and not absurdly we often name God when there is only his shadow or Image This is a Figure so very common that 't is frequently made use of even by those that understand not one Figure in Rhetorick This manner of Speech seems to be particularly made use of in Sacraments not only as a great Propriety but that 't is inevitably necessary Yet the Superstitious or rather those whose Interest it is have made it their business to take it literally and 't is insufferable to hear 'em impertinently repeating He hath said it He hath said it 'T is true that He hath said This is my Body but the Apostle adds to it which is broken for you and shews the necessary relation between the breaking of the one and the other For he took Bread not to eat it himself alone but to give it those who were with him He gave it not as a Sign of his Glorious Body but
as that of his Body which was to be broken for us From hence 't is apparent that the Breaking and the Communion are so firmly joyned to this Action that without them 't is not indeed a Sacrament Let those who so frequently urge that He hath said it teach us after what manner He gave his Body to his Disciples during his Weakness before his Resurrection and Glory as also before his Passion and Death Is it not in breaking Bread for 'em himself who was in some sort broken before he suffer'd and that by his own hands and not by those of his Enemies since the Sacrament preceded the Sacrifice Is it not according to the custom of all Sacraments that he spake of it in giving it a Name expressive of the Effect and in saying that 't is not only what he represents but that which he offers to those who desire to receive it Who perceives not that our Corporal eating does assist at the same time and is a means to excite our â—ouls to a â—piritual one which is absolutely dependent on Faith 'T is certain that many have been afraid after the Blessing to give the Bread the name of Bread lest it should be taken for ordinary Bread But St. Paul calls it Bread four times at least for fear that as by the Capernaites or Romans it should be taken for Flesh he said also the Cup is the Communion of the Blood of Christ for fear it should be believ'd the Blood it self We cannot doubtless approach these Sacred Signs with too great Reverence since by their means the things they signifie are convey'd to us or at least so offer'd that 't is but desiring 'em and we may receive ' em Faith serves as a Mouth to us and our Souls in some sort eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ as our Bodies eat and drink the Bread and Wine which represent ' em Thus the Fathers to stir up a Peoples Devotion and engage 'em to the profound Respect of Holy Things used certain ways of speaking which were not to have been believed had they not been figurative Their mighty Zeal which perswaded 'em they could never say too much left 'em no room to imagine that their Metaphors Metonymies and Hyperboles would one day pass for Articles of Faith They could never have thought that from the Flowers of their Rhetorick would have grown such a monstrous Doctrine or that from the Weakness or Malice of men their serious and devout Meditations would have been turn'd into Chimerical Notions But having endeavour'd to improve each others Expressions they have unhappily contributed without thinking of it to a Mystery they as yet knew not and have by their Arguments helped to strengthen it's Abuse Their Evidence is every day cited to this purpose the Transports of their Thoughts and their extraordinary heights of Speech are urged as undoubted Testimonies of the simple Truth Though the same Writings of these Fathers are so expounded that we may say of them as of the Holy Scriptures That those things which are clear and manifest remove the Scruples raised by such which are difficult and obscure yet the great Doctors of the Age whatever Reasons have been shewn 'em to the contrary forbear not to impose on the Credulity of the People who as the highest Peice of Devotion daily worship a bit of Bread and in this are so far prevail'd with by Custom that they are even ready to massacre those who will not believe it Add to the Errors of Speech the long Conversation the Primitive Christians held with the Heathens of whom they have not only borrowed Temples Altars and Images but also Habits Gestures Numbers and Mysteries you 'll find that after their Example they have omitted nothing that may render their Religion pompous and suitable to the Grandeur of the World that they could not stoop to the simplicity of the Gospel preferring rather the Appearance of things than the real Truth Those who have read but a very little must confess that they scarce see any thing in their Churches which they have not borrowed from the superstitious Gentiles And not to speak of any thing but what relates to our Subject of Discourse they worshipp'd no Images but what must be consecrated being perswaded the Deities they represented were fixed to 'em by the power of their magical Operations Those Christians who have not been satisfy'd with the Terms of Blessing and giving of Thanks have been so pleas'd with that of Consecration that in time they believed a Virtue and Efficacy in it hence proceeded the Observation of many mysterious Ceremonies an Affectation of certain Words often repeated besides a Presumption of adding others to those of Jesus Christ's that they might not be wanting either in their Numbers or Virtue Hence arose the Name of Transubstantiation so ill understood and so ill made use of that without the Explication they give of it 't would not be in the least significative of what they design it This is a Doctrine which as much as 't is possible destroys the Humanity of Jesus Christ and which frames to it self a God in which no reasonable Creature can believe This is the Source from whence flow such Streams of Contradictions and unallowable Consequences that they both scandalize and discourage the greatest part of Men they obstruct the Conversion of the Infidel and confirm the Atheist in his Unbelief 'T is indeed a horrible Abuse of those Sacramental Words This is my Body to place a Power in 'em in these lattertimes of changing the Bread of the Eucharist into the incorruptible Body of Jesus Christ to be receiv'd in by our corruptible ones without any Need or our finding any extraordinary Effect or Advantage by it The Text is much more express that says The Word was made Flesh yet no one believes that by Transubstantiation the Divine Nature was changed into the Humane So from the Sacramental way of speaking that says This is my Body no one ought to infer that the Substance of the Bread is converted into the Substance of the Body of Jesus Christ What Virtue what efficacious Use has not been allowed to Baptism both by the Scripture and the Fathers By it we put on Jesus Christ and partake not only of his Death and Burial but his Resurrection also By it we are in an Instant made new Creatures we pass from Sin to Justification and ascend from Earth to Heaven However Holy and Celestial the Eucharist is what more abundant Graces can it bestow on us than the Confirmation of these same Priviledges the Operations of the same Spirit the first Fruits of the same Transfiguration and Glory Yet for this only the Learned of the Times have sought out many Inventions that exceed the Capacity of Men and subvert all Orders and the very Principles of the True Doctrine From their hollow brain is produced an idle vain thing that is void of all Substance a real Apparition which presents it self