Christians that they have such an Altar viz. an Altar of a sin-offering as the Jewish servitours of the Tabernacle were not allowed to partake of And by this we may see that all mysteries whatsoever covered in the Law under Types and Shadows whether Burnt-offerings Meat-offerings Free-will-offerings Heave-offerings yea the very Sin-offering it self with the Altars both within the Vaile and without have all relation to Christs Sufferings Passion and Death commemorated at the Christian Altar And not onely these but the Mercy-seat also the Ark which even under the Law to pry into was present death do all contain some mystery of Christ and which alwayes required them not to be look't into by the eye of sense but the eye of faith There the Cherubims stand over the Mercy-seat their faces looking down upon it but their wings spread out Exod. 25.18 19 20. signifying that under a Type which the Apostle St. Peter plainly expresseth 1 Pet. 1.12 namely that the very Angels themselves desire to look into and to be made acquainted with the great mysteries of God revealed in Christ the mysteries I say which were hid in God from the beginning and by his Apostles and Prophets made known unto his Church and by the Church unto the Angels themselves even to the highest Principalities and Powers in heavenly places Ephes 3.9 10. For they are all of them by office ministring Spirits sent out to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation that is for the service and Protection of the Church Heb. 1.14 In the Church saith the Apostle Ephes 3.21 Glory shall be given to God throughout all ages whence it appears that there is not one age or ever shall be wherein the Church of God is not in being in this Church are the mysteries of Christianity celebrated but more especially as the Fathers commonly teach in the adorable Sacrifice of the Altar great mysteries indeed and for the right understanding of which faith and not sense hath its exercise here we must believe not reason and dispute from principles of Sense Nature and Philosophy That is a thing which the Apostle forbids and forewarns us of Colos 2.8 We must believe I say that the Bread duly consecrated is no longer Bread but that very Body of Christ which God the Father Almighty hath fitted and ordained to be a daily Sacrifice offered up to God after the order of Melchisedech according as it is written of Christ Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech Psal 110.4 And when this Sacrifice totally and unversally ceaseth then the world shall end as it is written in Dan. 9.27 compared with Matth. 24.15 But before this can be saith our Lord the Gospel must be preached for a Testimony in all Nations and then shall the end come Therefore saith Christ when you see the Prophesie of Daniel come to pass then let him that readeth understand for the end is near Hitherto comes that saying of the Jewish Rabbins noted by Ainsworth on Leviticus Chap. 5. v. 15. Our wise men have said say the Rabbins that for the service of the Sacrifice the world doth continue whence it may be collected that if the daily Sacrifice of Christs Body of which the Jewish Sacrifices were but Types and Shadows if that comes once to be totally and universally abolished the world will quickly be at an end Moreover the same Rabbins affirm that the mysteries contained in their Sacrifices are so great that the meaning of them cannot be fully attained in this world and therefore saith Mr. Ainsworth they advise people not to be over curious to pry into them presumptuously lest God break out upon them as he threatneth to do Exod. 19.12 24. Thou shalt saith God to Moses set bounds that the people go not up into the mount and it was of such consequence that the people might not presume to prie that God said the second and third time to Moses Go down and charge the people that they break not thorow to gaze and I break out upon them and many perish ver 21. The Bethshemites but onely for looking into the Ark or Chest wherein the Book of the Law was kept God smote of the people no less then fifty thousand and seventy men 1 Sam. 6.19 Surely a terrible warning this must be to us if we duly consider it By all which we may see as the same Aynsworth also notes that inquisitive curiosity to have humane Reason and Sense fully satisfied touching the mysteries of Religion is a thing forbidden by God Men must walk by faith in the things of God and not by sight 2 Cor. 5.7 which considered I leave it to you and to all rational and indifferent men whatsoever whether it be not safer in this great mystery of Christs Body on the Altar whether it be not safer I say with the whole Christian world of all ages to Believe and Adore though contrary to sense rather then to pry and examine by sense or the dictates of carnal reason For in Believing and Adoring I follow the pure word of God both of the Old and New Testament I follow the Doctrine of the Ancient Fathers the Decrees of Councels and constant practice of the universal Church and that from the one end of heaven to the other Is it not safer think you to follow all these sure and infallible Guids rather then contrary to all these to follow the conjectures of my own brain or at best of some other particular Sect-master or Sect-masters one of these three of necessity I must follow either the Catholique Church with the Ancient Fathers and lawful Pastours of it or else some particular Sect-master or Sect-masters divided from the Church and teaching contrary to the Churches sense or lastly my own brain my own private reason spirit or what else you will call it for a fourth I cannot finde And as such a Sect-master is followed in this world so let his followers make their account that they shall stand with him before the judgement-seat of Christ they shall not be separated for ever whom they loved to follow here in this world contrary to duty and contrary to the ordinance of Christ who commands us to hear his Church and not particular Sect-masters either departed or cut off from the Church they shall be made to follow and keep company with against their wills in the next life in eternal flames and miseries I wish all would consider this who so easily put themselves under the tuition of every private and presumptuous Sect-master that they would consider it I say and return in time to the obedience and communion of the Catholique Church which onely hath lawful Authority to teach them and also a faithful promise from Christ to teach them Truth Matth. 28.20 John 14.16 17. And beside all this is it not even miraculous to consider that the universal Church all Ancient Fathers both in and out of Councels and that in all ages since Christ should believe
and my blood be drunken for otherwise life cannot be had if therefore this saying You must eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood offend you now and seem an hard saying to you now while he is present with you what will it do then when you shall see him leave you and ascend up in his Body into heaven where he was before how will you then think it possible to eat his flesh This I say was the effect of our Lords answer to them concerning their wondering how they should be able to eat Christs flesh and their being scandalized at it as a thing altogether impossible as you may see John 6.53 54. Whence surely it appeareth that if either our Saviour had expounded himself to mean or they had understood it that he did mean that his flesh should be eaten and his blood drunk in a sign or figure onely that speech of his what if you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before could have had no sufficient reason For doubtless the sign or figure of his Body whatsoever it were might easily enough be eaten by them after that his Body should be ascended To take Bread and to break it in token that Christs Body was broken for us upon the Cross is no such hard thing but that it may be done as well in Christs absence as in his presence yea something more properly in his absence then in his presence at least then in his visible natural and ordinary presence but now it is clear our Saviour in that place mentions his Ascension to his Disciples as a thing that should make the mystery of eating his flesh to seem more difficult to them and not less therefore he meant they should eat it more then in a bare sign or figure onely for that I say they might as easily do when he were in heaven as while he was on earth Moreover our Lord knowing that the Capernaites looked upon him as a meer man and also that while he spake of giving them his flesh to eat they understood him in a gross and carnal manner as that he should give them his flesh cut in pieces to eat or the like to extinguish and take away that gross conceit out of their mindes he telleth them that Flesh to wit according to their gross manner of understanding profitteth nothing But now first his Flesh was not meer humane flesh as they apprehended it but it was the flesh of the Son of God yea of the true God 1 John 5.20 it was flesh united to the Deity and therefore in respect of other common flesh whether of Beasts or Men Christs Body was to be accounted rather a Spiritual and Divine Body rather Spiritual and Divine Flesh then natural and common It was the Lords Body who came down from heaven and is eternally from everlasting to everlasting alwayes in heaven it was a Body full of grace and excellent vertue and also a Body full of divine and incomprehensible Mystery It was a Body Incarnate by the Holy Ghost without man and born of a Virgin without forcing or violating the Womb a Body that passed through a multitude and was not discerned Luke 4.30 compared with John 8.59 A Body that went out of the Sepulchre not forcing away the stone Matth. 28.2 5 6. That came into the room where the Disciples were gathered together the doors being shut John 20.19 it came in I say and stood in the midst of them before they ever perceived it just as if it had been a Spirit and insomuch as the Disciples Luke 24.36 37. took it verily to have been a spirit And therefore of such a Body as this and of such a Person as Christ was God even the true God blâ—ssed for ever to say how can this man give us his flesh to eat or how can the Sacrament rightly consecrated be his Body is a foolish and an infidel question For he can do it well enough he can give us his flesh to eat and his bloud to drink though our sense perceive it not and though as he saith we must eat his Body yet his Body remaineth alwayes whole it is not to be cut or torn in pieces as the Capernaites imagined for he doth not say he would give us a piece of his flesh or a part of his flâ—sh but his flesh entirely that is to say his whole Body the entire Humanity which he received of the Blessed Virgin this he would give to every one of us He can do all things to him nothing is impossible He was with two of his Disciples at Emmaus talking with them and conversing with them and immediately vanished out of their sight and was present with other Disciples at Jerusalem as may be gathered from Luke 24.29 31. compared with John 20.19 And though he be alwayes at the right hand of God in Heaven as appears Acts 3.22 yet is he also sometimes when he pleases upon earth to convert sinners as for example Saul Acts 9.17.27 and to comfort the faithful in their prisons as Acts 23.11 He can do all things I say he can as God do whatsoever he pleaseth in Heaven and Earth What are we then silly creatures to question how he can give us his flesh to eat seeing he hath said that we must eat it or perish But still you object and say that this Doctrine viz. that Bread should become Christs real Body in truth and substance is so strangly absurd that you cannot believe it I answer no more could the Jews nor some of his Disciples of whom therefore as taxing and noting their incredulity thereby our Lord saith John 6.64 65. That no man can come unto him and believe his words except it were given him from above and if there had been nothing that is no greater mystery in these words of Christ This is my Body c. but onely this viz. a figure or sign of my Body what needed all that contest so long so difficult about the words as was betwixt Christ and the Jews Yea then have the universal Church Councels Fathers Martyrs and all been deceived for never any of them all took the Sacrament to be onely a Figure of Christs Body But you say you cannot believe it Tell me Is it not as easie for our humane Reason to conceive that the Bread which our Lord said was his Body should be so indeed as it is to conceive that the little Babe sucking at his Virgin-Mothers breast was the Creatour of the whole Universe both of the Heavens and Earth of the Sea and of all things therein contained Is it not as easie for a Christian to believe this Doctrine as to believe that the little Babe in the Manger whom the three Sages adored was the Almighty God Faith may and must believe these things though sense and reason cannot Therefore St. Paul speaks 2 Cor. 10.5 of captivating our understanding and every thought and imagination to the obedience of Christ and Rom.
and hold a thing so repugnant and absurd to sense and all humane reason as Sectaries make the Faith of Catholicks in this point seem to be and that the generation of Catholiques should do and believe this from age to age to almost seventeen hundred years and this without any self or by-ends of profit pleasure honour or other interest whatsoever but purely for conscience sake and out of obedience to Gods word and to the Catholique Doctrine of Christianity This certainly may seem no less then a miracle in our eyes we must confess the finger of God and his special Providence to be in it unless we be very partial especially if on the other side we do but consider how every other Sect that hath risen and upon pretence of reforming abuses and errors hath ever persecuted the Mother-Church really for her not complying with them in their greater Errours as for example the Arians in that of the Trinity the Calvinists in that of the Eucharist c. endeavouring still to make the Church forsake her first Faith and comply with them in their following of sense and humane reason contrary unto Faith I say if we do but consider how short-liv'd and how little or nothing prevailing both these and all other Sects have been how they have been able to do nothing but onely to procure disturbance and persecution to good Christians in some particular parts of the Church we must needs more clearly see and acknowledge the hand of God in it and that as it was their intent indeed and endeavour to disturb and destroy so Gods intent and purpose was to purifie his Church thereby and to purge it of Hypocrites and Time-servers and such like dross St. Austin expresseth the evil practices of these men by the similitude of barking Dogs They bark saith he in his Book de Vtilit cred cap. 17. speaking of Heretiques and Sectaries They bark perpetually against the Apostolique Chair but all in vain Thâ—y effect nothing by their barking Yea he confesseth that even himself was a Barker too all the time that he was a Manichean that is he was one that exercised the patience of true Christians by detraction and other injurious treating of them St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 11.19 There must be Heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest and for that reason God permitteth some Heresies and Sects as it were to reign and carry all before them for a time By false Teachers saith Moses Deut. 13.1 2 3 4. God proveth you whether ye will cleave unto the Lord your God with all your hearts and with all your souls Nevertheless they also in time declining the infallible rule of Faith which is the Authority and Tradition of the Catholique Church and refusing to be obedient and to captivate their understanding to the high mysteries of Faith but following humane reason and their own private sense have vanished and come to nothing All their wit and worldly glory and power and interest and learning could not preserve them from the contempt and violence of some contrary Sect. Witness the late Protestant Church of England How was it it established and secured as to all humane judgement from all danger and from all fear of being so suddenly rooted up How was the Government thereof settled by Bishops confirmed by Law and countenanced by the State Their form of Ordination Articles Sacraments Liturgy and their whole order of Worship so regulated and so ratified both by the Prince and State that nothing could seem to be desired more Yet because it was all of private judgement all differing or contrary to the Tradition of the Catholique Church and done either out of hatred or contempt or contradiction to the Apostolique Sea whose Authority is the root and fountain of all true Christian Ecclesiastical Unity how suddenly is her day come what a strange unexpected unfeared judgement hath taken her away in the height of her worldly glory For non-compliance she persecuted the children of her Mother-Church even to bloud imprisoning multitudes of them unto death but as for her Priests hanging and drawing and quartering them as Traitors and the most infamous of all sorts of Malefactors whatsoever and setting their flesh upon poles to be meat for the fowls of the ayr and permitting none to bury them and taking Two of Three parts of the Lands and goods of the Common people that professed themselves Catholiques But O ye stand now amazed and behold how she is judged She that was thus bottomed strengthned and established in her way of Religion and Church-government she that sate as Queen and said in her heart I shall see no widdow-hood what is become of her where is she to be found in the whole earth in less space then one hundred of years she is both risen and fallen and come to nothing and though her sin in the punishment thereof be even written upon her forehead yet she repents not but like the strange woman in the Proverbs she wipes her mouth and saith I have not sinned I have done no ill I am not either Heretique or Scismatique Our original Ordination was good our compliance with Princes for our safety is warranted by the examples of some other Nations though we have dissented from our Mother-Church and from all the world beside in doctrine in ordination of Priesthood in a Leiturgy and worshipping of God in the Sacraments and Church-government yet all this is nothing so long as our selves being judges we are one in Fundamentals we are neither Schismatiques nor Heretiques how much soever we be outwardly cast down Thus they seem to plead But O miserable Apology how unable is it to justifie or palliate Schisme especially the Schisme of them who for so many years together have laboured the extirpation of that Church which first brought them off from Paganisme to Christianity Consider this I pray ye that are now upon the stage that ye act not against Gods Church Destroy it you cannot persecute it trouble and afflict it you may for a time so long as it pleases God to permit you but you shall sooner destroy your selves then it Remember what befel Pharaoh who thought by oppression to keep Israel low and weak but his wisdom proved folly What became of Jeroboams wisdom 1 Kings 12. though he was made a King of the ten Tribes yet he ought not to have altered Gods worship 'T is true in doing so his policy aimed onely at his own safety but yet that proved his ruine And for you my friends the Catholiques of this Nation who have solemnly in your Baptisme promised and professed to believe the Articles of Christian Religion and the Catholique Church as also to forsake all that appertains to the lust of the flesh to the lust of the eyes and pride of life which are not of the Father but of the Devil 1 John 2.16 in this Covenant be ye faithful to the death The time we have to labour for Eternity is